What annoys you about television?

[rakeshagrawal]

I was thinking about some of the things that annoy me about television the other day. For example, it annoys the heck out of me that episodic shows don't have a simple way of identifying the sequence of episodes. When I sit down to watch something that's a piece of a whole (say an episode of Lost), why can't you make it clear to me which piece of the whole I'm watching? And what's worse, it seems sometimes they go out of their way to hide the fact that something is a re-run. For example, the Daily Show with Jon Stewart... when they do a re-run, they hide the fact that it was broadcast on another date (which itself is signal that an airing is a re-run) and instead just go straight into the broadcast without answering the question. Why can't re-runs and new episodes be clearly labeled within the broadcast so a viewer knows what he's getting?

What annoys you about television?

[Voxelflinger]

The episode numbers are deep in the credits at the end of the shows and at the leader end for broadcasters.

There are specific rules for the credits but since most stations reduce the size of them at the end (ex. TBS) you don't get to see much of them.

I am not sure about cable only stations but broadcast stations used to have display the fact a topical or call in broadcast was aired or pre-recorded but not reruns. Since syndication is a big money maker I guess they don't care about letting you know it's a rerun.

What annoys me is recording a show with BTV and then the network runs it again the next two nights or when they don't have anything better to fill an empty slot.

I can only watch so much of Grey's Anatomy in one week or any other show. An almost full week of According to Jim? It's a funny show but don't burn me out!

Remember the days where you could only watch a show once a week. Then you had to wait for the reruns in summer to catch up if you missed the regular season.

[ClamsTheCat]

It annoys me that I have to watch HBO to get decent comedy. Everything on the major networks is intended for 12 year old audiences it seems. If a joke is witty, it is over the nation's head apparently. Stop dumbing down programming!

[Zogg]

I rely on BeyondTV to tell me if a show is a re-run or not. Fortunately, since I don't watch many shows like "The Daily Show" I don't run into the daily rerun problem, and the BTV guide is usually correct. I got bit though on the repeat of the new Battlestar Galactica that started 30 mins. before the guide this week, but hey, it happens.

What really annoys me about television is the audio level of commercials. They are SO much louder than the shows that it is insane. I remember a couple of years ago reading in the paper, that Barbra Streisand was watching one of her movies playing on I think ABC, and called in and complained about the commercials being so loud.

The response was something like "the commercials aren't really louder, they just use more of the audio spectrum". That means, I believe, that the commercials typically have more 'stuff' going on (lots of voices, music, etc.) than a lot of shows. But I think when they mix the audio on commercials, they do tricks like multiplying the voices to make them fuller (and hence louder). They do this on albums to make some singers' thin voices sound fuller.

The commercials are intentionally mixed to be as loud as possible, I mean, "fill that audio spectrum" as much as possible. Jerks.

Z

[bits]

To me the MOST annoying thing hands down about TV, in the USA that is, are the commercials. Fastforwarding through them does not help all that much because you still see them and there is still a break in the story line. Also, a lot of documentaries, Digging For The Truth, become so repetative throughout the show because they have to re-explain after coming back from a commercial break.

The second most annoying thing, which is related to first, are the logos!

[cfaslave]

I hate it that HD is not the standard yet. I also wish the cable providers (and the networks) broadcast everything in HD now.

I'll second the loud commercials. Very annoying - thank goodness I have smartskip

Lastly, the networks messing up serial shows from the way they were intended. The perfect example was firefly where they played the episodes out of order. This happened again recently with the Dresden Files. Another beef is how they start you on a serial and just cancel it with no ending - can you say Invasion.....

Still, I love tv more now than ever before now that I can control what I watch and when I watch it using my PVR.

[ClamsTheCat]

Originally Posted by cfaslave

I hate it that HD is not the standard yet. I also wish the cable providers (and the networks) broadcast everything in HD now.

I agree with the HD standard thing for sure. SD is for the Amish

[pvrguy]

Originally Posted by ClamsTheCat

I agree with the HD standard thing for sure. SD is for the Amish

But HD is a can of worms...

New TV, new sound processor, HD boxes from cable co, HD PVR boxes from cable co since BTV does not do HD over cable...yet.

Even will this I still want to get to HD but it's not in the cards yet.

[thundermax]

1 - commercials. Fix: BTV 30 second skip!

2 - commercial volume. Fix: Mute > 30 sec. skip

3 - laugh tracks, stop telling me when something is funny. If it's funny, I'll laugh on my own, thank you. No BTV fix for this, yet.

4 - offset scheduling. Having a program run until 8:05 so I won't switch to another channel at 8:00. If you want me to stay on your channel, offer better shows. Don't try to trap me. I hated this with a VCR, but with a dual tuner on my PC I will not worry about this anymore.

[rugby]

I hate the crap that passes for programming. I also hate that show seasons are getting shorter but the content isn't getting much better.

[Rich A]

I hate the scrolling and animated blurbs usually shown at the bottom of the screen when you return from a commercial. That and the logos too.

Of less aggravation, and probably not a common complaint is when the show is over and they squeeze the credits so they only take up a quarter of the screen. I sometimes WANT to check credits for actors, directors etc.

As far as commercials go, 99 percent of my TV viewing is with BTV and only pre-recorded shows. The BTV commercial skip works well enough that I very seldom see commercials.

I also agree with the comment about the "Digging for the Truth" example. The problem is that if you cut out all the "intros" the show would probably only end up being a half hour long.

Or maybe the producers feel our attention span is too short to remember what happened prior to the commercial.

Commercial loudness isn't a problem for me. Because of BTV's smart skip thing, I haven't seen very many for a few years now.

So what are they selling these days anyway?

[cncb]

What bugs me just recently which I have only noticed on NBC is at the end of show they say "stay tuned for more 30 Rock", for example. I skip ahead only to find out it is only previews for the next week or sometimes nothing more than the credits (either of which I have no interest in watching). Just tell me "stay tuned for scenes for next week". For some shows there is actually a little more show left when they say this but there is no way to tell other than skipping forward (and back) to try to catch what really is left.

I agree commercial volume is way too high. "Using the full audio spectrum" - now that's funny .

[rugby]

Ooh, I have another few.

1) I hate the CW which displays their logo where the SD bottom right corner would be, so it's literally in the middle of the screen

2) I hate the ticker that runs along the bottom for school closings (we have had a lot of those this year in Indy) that forces an HD feed to run in SD.

[GeorgeH]

The most annoying issue is that BeyondTV stopped recognizing the tuner my VCR is on.

(The setup guy gets it right, but ...)

[ClamsTheCat]

Originally Posted by GeorgeH

The most annoying issue is that BeyondTV stopped recognizing the tuner my VCR is on.

I think the question is what is the most annoying thing about TV, not Beyond TV. If there is ever a thread like "The most annoying things about BTV" you will be the first person to know. We would limit you to two pages on your response though