An interesting forum. Too bad there's no DeCSS for TV logos :)

http://forum.logofreetv.org/

As a cameraman, I hate anything that is placed in "my" picture that I did not include myself, but...

if you look at it from a pragmatic point of view, it actually makes sense given the growing number of channels that are available to a viewer today.

I may be dating myself but, when I was growing up in NYC, we had Channels 2,4,5,7,9, and 11; oh yes, and let us not forget Channel 13 in the UHF range! Chances were that you could figure out what you were watching without going through too much fuss.

In today's market, it is almost necessary to have the station or channel "bug" in a corner to help identify where the hell you are in never ending "land of the channels".

What truly gets my goat is the "shrinking screen" syndrome that has taken over TV since the 9-11 attacks. The bug, the ticker, the banners, the current temperatures, the stock report, the "everything" they could think of to put in your poor, defensless TV screen.

I, for one, DO NOT NEED, all of this info, at-a-glance!

I say, keep the bugs...lose all of the other crap that is encroaching on our pictures!!!

Whew, I feel better already!

RB

i vote show everything in widescreen and put the bugs and ticker in the black bars and keep our pictures clean

It's going to get worse before it gets better. I'm with you on the television bugs, but..

What is truly worse...the television commercials at the beginning of movies! I hate it, I hate it! It's the worst thing to sit there watching commercials after forking out $9.00...unreal.

I boo and yell at them and say, "Don't buy their products because we just paid to get away from commercials and here they are playing them!"

Everyone check this out:

http://www.nomovieads.com/

What I really hate about bugs is the screen-burn potential. A friend of mine (okay, okay--me--before I knew better!) used to keep his 40-inch 16x9 Toshiba rear projection TV on MSNBC for background noise while working on projects.

Guess what? There's a nice little MSNBC bug burned right into the phosphors now. Nice.

Hmmm... Liability-wise, I wonder if they will buy me a new TV, since they were negligent in using due care to prevent damage while watching their channel? *grin*

-Phil

For the ultimate "shrinking screen" it's Bloomberg TV, with all the charts, tickers, and other graphic noise, the talking head is reduced to "picture in picture" status. Yeah, I know it's a "business" channel, but DANG!

Chris,
You hit the nail on the head. Not only boycot the product, but write to the company and tell them you are fed up with their advertising and/or commercial and won't be purchasing it. If enough people will do that then there is a chance for improvement. Without it, it will and is getting worse!

Actually Rick, Channel 13 is still in the VHF range, but in NYC (or North Jersey actually) that's the PBS outlet, so the programming was quite different from the network affiliates and other commercial channels. UHF is channels 14-83. Not to be semantic or anything. :-)

Hey, I made a post to another forum on here regarding a great idea for stopping movie commercials. Check it out:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19670&highlight=mystery

I wouldn't mind the ID bugs -- IF -- they would quit animating them and using them to do show promos -- AND -- they would leave them on during commercials, when we really need them!

For unanimated logos, isn't plasma screen burn-in an issue?
I've bypassed this issue by buying a CRT with a fantastic picture (Sony Wega40 XBR). heh heh

Yes, plasma screens are susceptible to burn-in, which makes watching 4:3 content on a 16:9 plasma set an experience akin to watching TV in a funhouse mirror.

LCD screens don't suffer from burn-in.

Hmmm, do DLP projectors suffer from burn-in? Or is that a moot point cuz you turn them off to save bulb life?

No burn-in on DMDs.

I have a HDTV Rear Projection - has burn in problem if I leave the thing on.

I've got to say that it's a real pain in the arse dealing with it. You can't leave the room for 10 minutes...stressful.

Murph