Tim
Creative Writer
this is scifi channel USA?
we have a scifi channel in the UK, different programming, but the same parent company. it went downhill so much i stopped subscribing to it with our local cable provider and have never got it back since all i hear is poor about it's films made inhouse.
i'm going to mention something now that a few people have noticed once i pointed it out about cable channel providers in the UK.
we have stations around our country that beam the programming to certain areas, if a station goes down, that area has no tv, but the rest of the country is fine. even in our small country, the logistics of the lines mean we have this setup. satellite providers (well, the one, SkyTV) broadcasts from one satellite to the whole country and their programming packages are a bit cheaper, but don't traditionally offer telephone packages to go with it
the cable companies are squirting programming down the lines to their stations ahead of broadcasting, using very powerful lines, then playing them off their computers. the cable companies were suffering huge losses, losing customers, then had to arrange a partial buyout and selling off some of their subsiduaries
we have noticed the quality of the actual feeds was going down and pulled the cable company up about it in our area. i had a friend, a senior technician for the area, that just smiled at me and said there was nothing wrong with the feed, but i knew there was something wrong.
some of us believe that in order to save money they were playing with the programs compression in the same way you can convert an Mpeg2 dvd into a Divx/Xvid movie 1/11th of it's size. you see bleached/moving patches in dark areas, fast character movement or camera panning can cause blurring. this can only suggest the cable companies are reducing the quality of the programming, to save money, work within their budget. they refute this, will not get into discussions with customers even when you have their technicians in the room and switch channels and ask them when they see it with their own eyes, why certain channels are lower quality than others. it started with the scifi channel and has moved onto other channels.
here you talk about creating multiple channels, but in the UK this wouldn't work, the cable companies haven't got the "bandwidth" to do something like this in my opinion with international programming. either the cost is going to go onto the consumer, or they might not physically have the lines in place anymore without massive expansion. the feed for my city comes from a large city 25 miles away, we don't have our own station. they aren't going to upgrade the line between us to cope with more channels, especially for a genre that is still considered gimmicky over here. plus nobody is going to subscribe to a scifi channel package, it will never be seperated from the multi channel packages that are offered here. they usually stick Sky One in one package and Scifi channel in another, then unfortunately you get the modern tv series like ST/SG1/BSG on sky one and the films and interesting scifi programming on scifi channel
but at least i don't live in Denmark like a friend of mine does. when her son got older and found the P2P networks, he showed his mother how to reach out on the net and obtain the programming we take for granted. she is now able to get hold of the scifi series we cant do without, she is working her way from the first episodes of each series she has missed out on! where 20 years ago Roleplayers were considered wierd people who "met in dark basements to do wierd stuff", the scifi scene over in her country is non-existent. 99% of the country does not believe in little green men and considers scifi fans in the same category as the UK public treated roleplayers 20 years ago!
in the UK we have to carefully watch the US and Canadian programming schedules to see whats out there, then cross our fingers and seemingly wait forever to see if those shows surface over here. at the end of the day you haven't got it that bad but i can understand your points. when have the networks ever listened to the fan base though? they make mistifying decisions then fob off groups that pull them up on it !!!
we have a scifi channel in the UK, different programming, but the same parent company. it went downhill so much i stopped subscribing to it with our local cable provider and have never got it back since all i hear is poor about it's films made inhouse.
i'm going to mention something now that a few people have noticed once i pointed it out about cable channel providers in the UK.
we have stations around our country that beam the programming to certain areas, if a station goes down, that area has no tv, but the rest of the country is fine. even in our small country, the logistics of the lines mean we have this setup. satellite providers (well, the one, SkyTV) broadcasts from one satellite to the whole country and their programming packages are a bit cheaper, but don't traditionally offer telephone packages to go with it
the cable companies are squirting programming down the lines to their stations ahead of broadcasting, using very powerful lines, then playing them off their computers. the cable companies were suffering huge losses, losing customers, then had to arrange a partial buyout and selling off some of their subsiduaries
we have noticed the quality of the actual feeds was going down and pulled the cable company up about it in our area. i had a friend, a senior technician for the area, that just smiled at me and said there was nothing wrong with the feed, but i knew there was something wrong.
some of us believe that in order to save money they were playing with the programs compression in the same way you can convert an Mpeg2 dvd into a Divx/Xvid movie 1/11th of it's size. you see bleached/moving patches in dark areas, fast character movement or camera panning can cause blurring. this can only suggest the cable companies are reducing the quality of the programming, to save money, work within their budget. they refute this, will not get into discussions with customers even when you have their technicians in the room and switch channels and ask them when they see it with their own eyes, why certain channels are lower quality than others. it started with the scifi channel and has moved onto other channels.
here you talk about creating multiple channels, but in the UK this wouldn't work, the cable companies haven't got the "bandwidth" to do something like this in my opinion with international programming. either the cost is going to go onto the consumer, or they might not physically have the lines in place anymore without massive expansion. the feed for my city comes from a large city 25 miles away, we don't have our own station. they aren't going to upgrade the line between us to cope with more channels, especially for a genre that is still considered gimmicky over here. plus nobody is going to subscribe to a scifi channel package, it will never be seperated from the multi channel packages that are offered here. they usually stick Sky One in one package and Scifi channel in another, then unfortunately you get the modern tv series like ST/SG1/BSG on sky one and the films and interesting scifi programming on scifi channel
but at least i don't live in Denmark like a friend of mine does. when her son got older and found the P2P networks, he showed his mother how to reach out on the net and obtain the programming we take for granted. she is now able to get hold of the scifi series we cant do without, she is working her way from the first episodes of each series she has missed out on! where 20 years ago Roleplayers were considered wierd people who "met in dark basements to do wierd stuff", the scifi scene over in her country is non-existent. 99% of the country does not believe in little green men and considers scifi fans in the same category as the UK public treated roleplayers 20 years ago!
in the UK we have to carefully watch the US and Canadian programming schedules to see whats out there, then cross our fingers and seemingly wait forever to see if those shows surface over here. at the end of the day you haven't got it that bad but i can understand your points. when have the networks ever listened to the fan base though? they make mistifying decisions then fob off groups that pull them up on it !!!
Tom
An Old Friend
I understand, have you ever seen this
Super Internet TV - Watch live online TV channels broadcasting on the Internet
Super Internet TV - Watch live online TV channels broadcasting on the Internet