...and while we were away...
Posted by: genixia
...and while we were away... - 14/08/2004 00:46
NBC are showing the opening ceremony of the Olympic games, and during the parade of nations, every time they come back from a commercial break they list the handful of countries that were missed because of the break.
WTF? This is a taped recording. It's not as if it is a repeat of an earlier live show that included commercial breaks to begin with - they didn't show it live, preferring to reserve it for prime time. Why couldn't they just err..., stop the tape, during those breaks?
This doesn't bode well for the rest of their Olympic coverage. I can easily imagine commercial breaks obliterating key moments in events, regardless of whether the event is live or taped.
While I'm having a rant, their talking heads are doing a wonderful job. Blokey started talking about terrorism and muslims just as the first predominantly muslim country (Algeria) parades. Girly makes prejudicial comment along the lines of, "Looks like they decided to leave the furs at home", as the Mongolians walk past. Twats, the both of them.
Aargh, I'm in NBC hell.
Posted by: canuckInOR
Re: ...and while we were away... - 14/08/2004 01:21
First time watching the Olympics from the USA, is it? As one who grew up watching CBC coverage, you have my deepest and most sincere commiseration.
Posted by: DzlDubber
Re: ...and while we were away... - 14/08/2004 01:53
LOL, I watched on CBC earlier today and again on NBC just now and was thinking the same thing about the commercial breaks.
Posted by: tonyc
Re: ...and while we were away... - 14/08/2004 03:22
Quote:
Aargh, I'm in NBC hell.
The phenomenon you're describing is what NBC calls "plausibly live." Whatever genius came up with this idea should be dropped from the top of the Olympic stadium in Greece and have shotputs and javelins thrown at him as he's falling through the air. They leave things out to give you the impression that it's live... So apparently, they think that Americans are much better at Olympic events than they are at, oh, looking at a clock, or looking outside and seeing night when it's daytime on TV.
Anyway, it is a ridiculous concept. The good news is that a good portion of the Olympics will be broadcast live on CNBC, MSNBC, USA, Bravo, and even Telemundo (GOOOOAAAALLLLL!) So if you want live events, you should be able to catch them.
As for the commercials themselves, I don't plan on them bothering me much, as my ReplayTV units happily skip over them. Which is good, because I'm an absolute junkie when it comes to the Olympics, so I'll probably be spending a lot of time watching stuff recorded from the cable networks in the wee hours of the morning.
And, yes, Bob Costas and Katie Couric are dreadful. Not only in *what* they say, but also in their wooden delivery of canned one-liners, and their complete lack of conversational chemistry when they're ostensibly ad-libbing. I found myself looking for the "Mute" button that would just mute the two of them out, but apparently TV technology isn't quite there yet.
All that aside, the opening ceremonies were spectacular, the best I've ever seen by far. The Greeks really went the extra 26 miles on this one, and I hope they're rewarded by an enjoyable, memorable, and most of all peaceful Olympiad in the next 16 days.
Oh, yeah... almost forgot... USA!!! USA!!! USA!!! 
Posted by: ninti
Re: ...and while we were away... - 14/08/2004 09:25
Quote:
Why couldn't they just err..., stop the tape, during those breaks?
Well, someone pointed out one reason (link may be NSFW)
http://www.juiceenewsdaily.com/0804/olympics/olympicsweird.html
Posted by: gbeer
Re: ...and while we were away... - 15/08/2004 15:37
I was struck by that same sense of weird, but my reaction was a little different. Why couldn't they have time compressed the parade of nations?
The other item that struck me was that they did a great disservice to the pagent. By providing only "safe" views, the continuity was pretty much trashed.
Posted by: SE_Sport_Driver
Re: ...and while we were away... - 15/08/2004 16:10
Yeah, lol, I was pretty surprised when I saw those pics come up on the Reuters News pics at yahoo.com! Anyone else notice that the Reuters have an ass fetish?
Ass 1
Ass 2
Ass 3
Ass 4
Boobs 1
Boobs 2
Bonus
Granted, I wouldn't have seen any of these if they didn't pop up on the "Most Emailed" and "Most Viewed" lists, but I was cracking up when I saw there were 3 or 4 "butt shots" in about two days, all composed the same way.
Posted by: wfaulk
Re: ...and while we were away... - 15/08/2004 21:35
Quote:
Members of the 2004 Olympics Beach Volleyball dance team
WTF?!?
Has the Olympics turned into Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball?
Posted by: SE_Sport_Driver
Re: ...and while we were away... - 15/08/2004 23:46
Yeah, I re-read that a few times.... dance team ? ?
Posted by: mtempsch
Re: ...and while we were away... - 16/08/2004 02:29
From a glimpse last nigh, it looks like they're cheerleading at the sidelines...
Posted by: DWallach
Re: ...and while we were away... - 16/08/2004 18:16
Quote:
Aargh, I'm in NBC hell.
I'm in a different sort of NBC hell right now. Now that I've got my shiny HD-TiVo installed and working, I figured I'd just program it to grab the over-the-air HD signal and I'd have my HD Olympics. Oh, how naive I was.
Turns out, my local NBC OTA feed is an upconverted version of their SD signal. After an hour of reading through the complaints on AVS Forum, I learned that NBC has rented channel 84 on DirecTV to play their HD feed in a continuous loop, but that not everybody was being allowed to receive it due to weird rules that the local NBC affiliate needs to give permission to effectively give up their monopoly on the local market. Thankfully, it works for me.
So now I've got my HD-TiVo programmed to grab the satellite HD feed from 3am-11am to get yesterday's Olympic highlights, such that I can browse them at high speed tonight. Or something like that. Thankfully, I'll be able to fast-forward through the Greek scenery flybys and lame Sony WEGA commercials.
Posted by: matthew_k
Re: ...and while we were away... - 16/08/2004 18:31
Quote:
lame Sony WEGA commercials.
Comercials? There's more than one? I was setting up a friend's HDTV yesterday and probably saw the "and salsa" comercial fifteen times. Sometimes more than once per comercial break.
Matthew
Posted by: Dignan
Re: ...and while we were away... - 16/08/2004 18:35
That commercial is hauting my nightmares.
I guess we're lucky here that we've been getting HD on OTA channel 4.1
Of course, that was just on Sunday. I don't know what they'll do for the other nights.
Posted by: andym
Re: ...and while we were away... - 16/08/2004 18:37
Quote:
Quote:
Members of the 2004 Olympics Beach Volleyball dance team
WTF?!?
Has the Olympics turned into Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball?
I saw some of this today, playing 'ooomph there it is' is not appropriate for the olympics.
Posted by: genixia
Re: ...and while we were away... - 16/08/2004 19:07
Hmm...my favorite Beeb employee.
Any hints for getting the Beeb's broadband coverage over here? The http proxies that I've tried just aren't cutting the mustard.
Posted by: tanstaafl.
Re: ...and while we were away... - 17/08/2004 00:19
I figured I'd just program it to grab the over-the-air HD signal
I'm probably in a minority here, but the Olympics really don't interest me that much. I'll watch the cycling events, the triathlon, maybe some of the rowing events (notice a pattern here? Any sort of mechanized transport interests me) but that's about it.
On a whim, I asked my TiVo to just list all of the Olympics coverage that the local NBC affiliate was showing over the next two weeks. I think it came up with something like 43 programs or segments -- and 32 of them featured volleyball in one form or another.
WTF?
tanstaafl.
Posted by: canuckInOR
Re: ...and while we were away... - 17/08/2004 01:33
Quote:
I'm probably in a minority here, but the Olympics really don't interest me that much.
I'd be more interested in the Olympics if I knew I was missing good coverage. But I now live in the US, and realize that the coverage here is ass, so I can't get excited about it.
Posted by: tonyc
Re: ...and while we were away... - 17/08/2004 02:17
Quote:
I'm probably in a minority here, but the Olympics really don't interest me that much.
These days, I'm not so sure you're in the minority. The Olympics, at least among the people I've been talking to, aren't grabbing nearly as much interest as they used to, and I think that's sad. I absolutely love international competition at the highest level, except in the most bogus of Olympic "sports" (synchronized diving, air rifle, etc.) Sometimes, for sports I don't really follow or appreciate very much (weightlifting, judo, etc.) it takes a good "underdog story" or something like that to really grab my attention, and if there's an American athlete/team involved, that can certainly raise my interest. But even in the absence of those elements, I think the Olympics are worth watching, because they're everything that being human is all about -- trying to be the best you can be at something.
Now, we can go into a big long discussion about why the Olympics seem to have fallen off... Some here are choosing to blame crappy TV coverage, and I've heard others cite the allegations of drug use and other types of cheating as the reason they've lost interest. But I think both of these factors, while relevant, are overstated. A vast majority of the athletes do not break the rules, and the TV coverage is just a bunch of talking heads telling you what to look at in case you don't know already, along with a bunch of vignettes with dramatic music in the background, aimed at raising interest and appeal to the marginal sports fan. If you truly appreciate athletic competition, you should be able to enjoy the Olympics on a 3" black and white TV with no sound.
Or maybe what's really happening is that the masses are getting tired of the same old events each four years. After all, who would want to watch stories of man vs. man or nation vs. nation when you can watch six attractive 20-somethings eat sheep intestines for a chance at $20,000?
On second thought, I guess I'm way off here, the Olympics suck. Give us back our Fear Factor!
Posted by: Daria
Re: ...and while we were away... - 17/08/2004 02:24
Well, the TV coverage may just be talking heads, but they have to actually show you the stuff, or it's hard to watch, and NBC seems to believe showing it to you a day late isn't also a dollar short...
Posted by: tonyc
Re: ...and while we were away... - 17/08/2004 02:39
Quote:
and NBC seems to believe showing it to you a day late isn't also a dollar short...
I understand what you're saying, and I did my share of NBC-bashing earlier in this thread. But for me, the tape delay stuff doesn't matter, because even if they were showing it live, I'd be recording it on my ReplayTV so I can watch commercial-free. Fact is, most people have regular 9-5 jobs and wouldn't be able to watch the stuff live. Now, their decision to not show the really "big" events live is a terrible one, but providing you can avoid watching, reading, or hearing spoilers, even that terrible decision doesn't ruin the experience... For me, at least.
Posted by: andym
Re: ...and while we were away... - 17/08/2004 08:16
Quote:
Hmm...my favorite Beeb employee.
Only for another couple of weeks, then I'm employed by Seimens Business Services, what joy!
On the subject of proxies and the like the BBC already have streaming servers in the states so you guys didn't have to go all the way over the Atlantic. Or at least they should, and their operation should be reasonably transparent. I remember a pop-up asking wether I was in the UK once.
Posted by: genixia
Re: ...and while we were away... - 17/08/2004 13:37
Yeah, but when NBC paid their $700m or so, they made sure that their crappy coverage wouldn't be ignored by ensuring that the likes of the Beeb weren't allowed to stream into the US market.
A stateside visitor to the Beeb's live coverage gets a "Sorry, content only available in the UK" message. Some UK-based anonymous http proxies 'work', except for the fact that I can't find one with the bandwidth/availability to watch more than 10 seconds of a stream.
Posted by: andym
Re: ...and while we were away... - 17/08/2004 14:34
Sorry, stick, wrong end of..... I thought you were after a performance increase over a standard service, I didn't realise they were cutting access off completely.
A couple of years ago I would probably have rung my mole in IT and asked if there was a 'back door' that would give you access. But sadly times have changed, and since he's left, even asking the question to anyone else would probably get me bollocked.
Posted by: genixia
Re: ...and while we were away... - 17/08/2004 15:12
Quote:
A couple of years ago I would probably have rung my mole in IT and asked if there was a 'back door' that would give you access. But sadly times have changed, and since he's left, even asking the question to anyone else would probably get me bollocked.
Shucks. That was the approach I was hoping for. Oh well.
Posted by: davec
Re: ...and while we were away... - 17/08/2004 17:11
Quote:
On a whim, I asked my TiVo to just list all of the Olympics coverage that the local NBC affiliate was showing over the next two weeks. I think it came up with something like 43 programs or segments -- and 32 of them featured volleyball in one form or another
I did a wish list for whatever the official title of the Olympics shows are, 140 somehting shows I think it was. I didn't bother to look at what was on them all, just as long as there is something on in the middle of the night...
Posted by: matthew_k
Re: ...and while we were away... - 17/08/2004 17:33
I sat down yesterday to really watch some of the olympics, and found that this year it was MUCH better than any olympic coverage I'd ever seen. Why? Because my ReplayTV had spent about 20 hours of the last two days reccording from various chanels anything with "equestrian" in the description. I then proceded to fast forward at 20x normal speed untill I saw an event that interested me, watch it, and start fast forwarding again. Two or three hours later I'd seen everything, without comercials. Sure the commentators could have been much better, but at least they had one previous olympian who knew what he was talking about.
Frankly, I couldn't watch the olympics any other way after yesterday's experience. Of course, NBC/Bravo/CNBC could break the guide information up by sport so I didn't have to reccord six hours for one hour of programming, but seeing as they conveinently hold the olympics in the middle of August, I'm only missing reruns of Buffy and Family Guy.
Matthew
Posted by: genixia
Re: ...and while we were away... - 17/08/2004 17:49
Quote:
Of course, NBC/Bravo/CNBC could break the guide information up by sport so I didn't have to reccord six hours for one hour of programming,
Oh, but they do, at least on Comcrap Digital.
I spent an hour this morning watching the Badminton quarter-finals that I've been waiting for since Saturday. I never knew that badminton took place in water using boats and oars. I guess that since Hans and Bach got knocked out in the previous round that Badminton wasn't worth showing any more. 
Posted by: Waterman981
Re: ...and while we were away... - 19/08/2004 05:50
Crap! I missed the Time Trials today. I think it's probably the best Olympic cycling event and I missed it! Oh well.. I'm happy with the results. Two Americans, and Ekimov who rides for Team Postal. All good riders. Now I have my cycling wishlist set up. Should have done is sooner.
Posted by: frog51
Re: ...and while we were away... - 23/08/2004 11:03
I am just glad that this Olympics I have been able to watch almost all the sailing I wanted thanks to BBC Interactive. Yay! And it looks like I will be able to watch my wife's ex boyfriend win in the cycling team sprint (they are favourites) - aside from that, the womens marathon was quite gripping, and I was amused by the archery.
At least they have nothing like
this crazy 'sport' which we saw at a County Show 2 weekends ago! SOooooooo bad it could have been scripted by Monty Python.
p.s. Andy - are you guys still keeping your existing roles when SBS take over that side of things?