What should I do? and Social Faux Pas

[Serenity]

I have a bit of a dilemma tonight. I have accepted to go to an early Halloween party; one of my spouse's coworkers. The costume theme is Rock Stars. My spouse found out Friday that they have moved furniture around to accommodate all guests and no TV is available. Well the Red Sox-Indians playoff game is on tonight!

Do we blow off the party?
Show up late after the end of the game (midnight or later)?
Not watch the game but show up in baseball attire instead of rock stars.
Show up early and leave early (which may prove difficult to do), at the height of the party, so we can watch the end of the game at the nearest pub.

Any other suggestions?

[jamiebk]

Do both...Tivo or record the game and watch it when you come home or the next day

[dai bread]

Rush out and buy a recorder. DVD preferably, but tape will do. Or both.

[Serenity]

Watching a game afterward is not the same as watching it live. We went to the party and set up a TV in one of the bedrooms and we went to check on the game occasionally without leaving. It helped that the Red Sox won by a large margin; people were happier.

Thanks for the tips on short notice!

[barfle]

Watching a game afterward is not the same as watching it live.

While this is true, I usually record sporting events because my schedule and theirs don't coincide very well. Once I'm done working on a project or back from whatever I had planned to do, I settle in, open a beer, and play my DVR's recording.

The suspense is just as high, and I can rewind things that I want to see more carefully.

But there's nothing like being there. Even my basement is inferior to that.

[treebeau]

Who CARES about all that junk...tell us about all the rock stars that were present.

Regards,
Tim B.

[Serenity]

Who CARES about all that junk...tell us about all the rock stars that were present.

Regards,
Tim B.

Well.....it was a small party but I saw Bono, Ozzie, Ray Orbison, Pink, Dido (Crack that whip!), 2 versions of Kiss, Bob Marley, Joan Jett, Pat Benatar, Paris Hilton (I'm hot!), Korn and Twisted Sister (We're not gonna take it!).

The one thing I like about TiVo or DVR is that you can fast forward through the commercials . One of these days we'll be able to view our recording while the recorder automaticaly eliminates al commercials. What will the marketers come up to bypass that feature?

[OperaTenor]

A little late to the party, but here's my suggestion for next time. Get an iPhone so you can watch the game while you're at the party.

[BigJon@Work]

Tivo already has the technology to elimnate ads from the recording. They won't install it for fear of lawsuits from the advertisers.

[Serenity]

An iPhone is $400 plus a 2 year commitment at $60 per month. One game would wipe out half of your monthly minutes with the cheapest plan. I'll wait 'til they start selling it at Walmart for under $100 bucks......by then who knows what fancy space age technology they will have invented to top that....something to make you change formats again (convert the 8 tracks, the cassettes, the videocassettes, the floppies, the CDs, the DVDs, the Laser Discs, the desktops, the laptops, the tablets......Oh, allright already....they get the idea!

[Serenity]

Tivo already has the technology to elimnate ads from the recording. They won't install it for fear of lawsuits from the advertisers.

"If you build it, they will come" (remembering Wayne's World)

[OperaTenor]

An iPhone is $400 plus a 2 year commitment at $60 per month. One game would wipe out half of your monthly minutes with the cheapest plan. I'll wait 'til they start selling it at Walmart for under $100 bucks......by then who knows what fancy space age technology they will have invented to top that....something to make you change formats again (convert the 8 tracks, the cassettes, the videocassettes, the floppies, the CDs, the DVDs, the Laser Discs, the desktops, the laptops, the tablets......Oh, allright already....they get the idea!

Jeez, no guts, no glory!

[dai bread]

I edit out the ad breaks anyway. It takes about half an hour to edit a 2-hour movie, and the difference it makes has to be experienced to be believed. You don't realise how intrusive ad breaks are until you watch an uninterrupted movie.

[barfle]

One of these days we'll be able to view our recording while the recorder automaticaly eliminates al commercials. What will the marketers come up to bypass that feature?

There are several patent applications (and a few patents) to prevent you from zipping past commercials. I believe I put some links to some of them, but I don't recall when or where.

[Shapley]

The commercials pay for the broadcast. If you want the broadcast without the commercials, you have to buy the stream direct via satellite (not all franchises will sell it that way). Even then, football games schedule breaks in the action to allow time to sell commercials, so you just get to watch nothing happening for a few minutes.

Movies are the same way, you can buy them on pay-per-view or DVD to avoid the commercials, but if you get them on a 'free' broadcast, you have to live with commercials. If you're going to go to all the trouble of paying for a device to eliminate the commercials, why not just pay for the commercial-free stream?

The broadcast networks need the commercials. The advertisers aren't going to pay for air-time if they know that the commercials are just being zipped over and not viewed. If they allow the release of a device to remove commercials, they'll kill free broadcasts, and you'll have to buy every broadcast on a pay-per-view basis. I can see why that technology is not popular with either broadcasters or advertisers.

V/R
Shapley

[barfle]

There are some patents that describe a method of providing multimedia presentations (legalese for a TV show) that will show it to you with commercials for free, or without commercials for a fee. I can't say I have seen any of this implemented, but the technology exists.

[Shapley]

I seem to remember some stink a while back concerning advertisers wanting to block production of the 'smart sound TVs'. Those are the televisions that automatically adjust the sound so that the audio output is at fairly consistent levels. It seems some advertisers pay good money to have their commercials broadcast at louder levels than the television shows they sponsor, and the 'smart TV's' would negate that spending.

I actually like the idea behind the 'smart sound TV', and wish they had 'smart sound stereos'. Since the advent of digital music, the listening range runs from 'barely audible' to 'blow your speakers out' in the course of a single work. Sound engineers producing LP's adjusted recording levels to prevent this, since the LP's reproduced sound best within a narrow decibel range. I've no doubt that digital music gives you a more true-to-life sound experience, but I kind of liked the old 'adjusted to fit the human ear' sound experience...

[barfle]

I actually like the idea behind the 'smart sound TV', and wish they had 'smart sound stereos'.

There are devices called "dynamic range compressors" that lower the high volumes and raise the low volumes for those whose environments have either a high noise floor or a low-tolerance neighbor. They are usually used by broadcasters, so they won't exactly be cheap.

I experienced a desire for such a distortion machine in my car a few months ago. The Durufle Requiem has very soft parts and very loud parts, and they always crop up at the wrong time when you're driving.

[Shapley]

I experienced a desire for such a distortion machine in my car a few months ago. The Durufle Requiem has very soft parts and very loud parts, and they always crop up at the wrong time when you're driving.

That's why I don't listen to 'serious' music when driving. My vehicle has too high of a background noise level to make it possible to listen to the quiet parts without blowing out speakers on the louder passages. I have some sountrack music, a couple of 'crossover classical' CD's, and some Cuban Music to listen to while driving.

[analog]

There's a limit on how much they can raise volume during commercials. One way they get around it is by choosing announcers whose voice falls in the most annoying part of the audio spectrum, like that guy who screams about oxysomething soap. The decibel level doesn't change but my perception of it sure does!

Some hobbyist could get rich selling plans for a DIY commercial blocker . Surely the information necessary to trigger one is in the picture retrace intervals. I've looked but haven't found one yet. When do will post in Projects thread.