Posts with tag DirecTV
Posted Oct 10th 2008 5:06PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Commercials, Reality-Free
Let's talk (again) about commercials we hate.
Or maybe I should say commercials
I hate, though I think you'll agree with me on some of these. They run the gamut from silly to ineffective, from dumb to just plain jaw-dropping. Let's start with jaw-dropping.
1. DirecTV's Poltergeist ad. This is...creepy and tasteless. Do the makers of this ad really not know that young
Poltergeist star
Heather O'Rourke died at a really young age? Even if they didn't (I'm kidding, of course they did), the star of the ad, Craig T. Nelson, is aware of it. So why use footage of her in the ad? It's just bizarre to me. Then again I'm not a DirecTV exec. They must know that what they're doing by using footage of a deceased child star (and a stand-in) to sell satellite TV service.
Continue reading Brought To You By ... - VIDEOS
Posted Oct 2nd 2008 11:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Friday Night Lights, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S03E01) If you're fortunate enough to be a DirecTV subscriber, tonight you had the opportunity to see the premiere of
Friday Night Lights. The Dillon Panther football team was back, as were all the characters who deal with real world life issues that have nothing to do with the grid iron. The best thing about
Friday Night Lights, in fact, is that the show is only set in a sports environment. The drama is much more than who wins or loses a game, and that's what stays with you. There are no easy answers for Eric and Tami, Tyra and Landry, Tim and Lyla. Even Buddy has ambiguities.
That said, NBC will be back with these same
Friday Night Light episodes -- season three -- at mid-season. Therefore, for people like me with the DirecTV dish, we're getting the shows in advance. TV Squad has decided to review the season premiere -- including spoilers -- so please, if you want to wait and be surprised, be forewarned. On the other hand, if you want to know what's happened since the end of last season, follow me after the jump.
Continue reading Friday Night Lights: I Knew You When (season premiere)
Posted Sep 25th 2008 10:00AM by Kelly Woo
Filed under: Video, Friday Night Lights, Reality-Free
Is anyone else out there as excited about Season 3 of
Friday Night Lights, which premieres Oct. 1, as I am? Apparently, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning might be, since he's a
big fan of the show. (And if you're a
true Colts fan, you'd better watch too -- especially if you're a Nielsen viewer. Or else, um, you might jinx him and cause the team to lose the Super Bowl.)
As you may have heard,
FNL will air exclusively on DirecTV this fall (and repeat on NBC in early 2009. Yeah, it's a pain if you don't get DirecTV (like me), but subscribers will be happy to learn they'll be able to
watch commercial-free.Continue reading Let's get ready for some football ... on Friday Night Lights - VIDEO
Posted Jul 20th 2008 7:33PM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Industry, Friday Night Lights, TCA Press Tour, Reality-Free
NBC and its various cable stations are making their presentations today and tomorrow. Since it
is Sunday, the critics got a little bit of a break and didn't have to start until noon, when a lunch session was held for
Friday Night Lights. This session had a little bit of added juice, due to the unique deal NBC struck to have DirecTV shoulder the cost of producing the series in exchange for the rights to air new episodes on the satellite service first, before they air on NBC. Thirteen episodes will be produced and will air in October on DirecTV's 101 Network, and they'll air in February on the Peacock network.
Not surprisingly, there were as many questions about the new arrangement as there were about the creative aspects of the show. Show-runner Jason Katims and DirecTV entertainment head Eric Shanks fielded most of those questions, and the cast of the show fielded the rest.
Continue reading Friday Night Lights panel: the DirecTV deal, two departures, and a new school year - TCA Report
Posted Jun 22nd 2008 10:33AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Sports, Reality-Free
If you're a pro football fan and you don't get the NFL Network, chances are you know about the stalemate between the NFL Network and cable operators, like Time Warner. Because of their inability to strike a compromise,
eight NFL games last season which The NFL Network broadcast, were unavailable to many cable customers, causing much hue and cry.
Well, it looks like there may be a light at the end of the tunnel.
ESPN is talking with The NFL Network about a broadcasting partnership, that according to The Associated Press. If a deal is done, NFL Network games in 2008 could be seen by just about everyone, not just those of us who are satellite subscribers.
Continue reading Is ESPN teaming up with The NFL Network?
Posted Jun 7th 2008 4:23PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Video, Celebrities, Documentary, Reality-Free
The National Geographic Channel is using humor to sell it's ambitious new special
Stonehenge Decoded.
Christopher Guest has resurrected his Spinal Tap alter ego for National Geographic Channel, lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel, to expound on his theories about how Stonehenge came to be. Naturally, even as he's promoting the special and National Geographic, his tongue is firmly planted in cheek as he disses the findings of the scientists and purports to be an expert on the subject.
Guest as Tufnel is interviewed by straight man -- comic actor -- Jim Piddock, leading to riotous takes by Nigel about dinosaurs, the secret language of potatoes, the pyramids and other weighty affairs. Here's one of the videos (after the jump), so you can see what I mean:
Continue reading Christopher Guest dissects Stonehenge for National Geographic - VIDEO
Posted May 27th 2008 9:28AM by Brad Linder
Filed under: PVR Wire, TiVo
Almost a year after announcing plans to release a software update for DirecTV TiVo customers, TiVo is finally rolling out an update that provides:
-
A recently deleted folder
-
Overlap protection that makes it easier to record two concurrent shows on separate channels
-
Remote booking (online scheduling)
All of these features have been available to TiVo Series2 customers for years. But since DirecTV no longer offers TiVo service to new customers, any updates at all are kind of impressive.
[via Gizmo Lovers]
Posted Apr 28th 2008 5:21PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Sports, OpEd, Reality-Free
Let me start this rant by saying that I like sports. No, I love sports. I'm a fan. I get the DirecTV NBA package and the major league baseball games. I can talk to you for hours about stats and players and great games. That said, I hate the way Sunday sports programming drifts over into primetime. This happens primarily on CBS and Fox with the NFL games in the fall and winter, but the other networks have been guilty of staying with the game and then still insisting on showing the primetime schedule after the game is over -- even if that means that an 8 o'clock show begins at 8:45 and your DVR gets all screwed up and you wind up with only 15 minutes of a show you wanted to see!
Continue reading Things I Hate About TV: Sunday sports running over into primetime
Posted Apr 9th 2008 9:01AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Daytime, Video, Cable/Satellite, Celebrities, Talk Show, Reality-Free
I'm not a regular
Oprah watcher, but on Monday I happened to see actress
Jamie Lee Curtis' appearance. I've been really curious about Jamie lately, especially since seeing her on those Activia yogurt commercials. Damn, she's just two years younger than I am and she looks great! What is in that yogurt anyway?
But Jamie Lee was on
Oprah to vent. Turns out that the cover shot she did for
AARP magazine, which the editors chose to proclaim as a nude shot, was a sham. The picture was not a naked photo shoot. She was wearing a strapless top and was photographed in a swimming pool. The illusion of nudity was created by the way they cropped the picture. Jamie Lee said she was shocked. She held up a copy of the magazine and said to Oprah and the world, "Isn't it fascinating that this constitutes being naked. What the f*ck are we talking about? In my world, this is called strapless. I didn't go around saying I was topless."
Continue reading Ticked off Jamie Lee Curtis vents on Oprah - VIDEO
Posted Apr 1st 2008 10:20AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Industry, Daytime, Cancellations
Usually when you talk about death on soap operas, you have to know that like science fiction, death doesn't mean the end of the story. After all, many characters have come back from the dead thanks to mistaken identity, bizarre abductions, switched coffins, et. al. But when I tell you now that the NBC soap opera
Passions is dead, I really mean it. Really.
There is no chance that Passions is coming back to NBC. The soap was yanked from the daytime lineup last year, but in a deal with DirecTV,
Passions has remained in production. The satellite provider has been showing episodes of the bizarrely-plotted show for months. However, in a recent development, DirecTV has decided to pull the plug. Universal Media Studios, which produces the one-hours, has been trying to find a new place on the dial for
Passions without any luck.
Continue reading Passions is dead...for real this time
Posted Mar 6th 2008 10:19AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Cable/Satellite, Pickups and Renewals, Friday Night Lights
Fans of the perpetually unwatched but much-loved NBC show
Friday Night Lights have a reason to rejoice this morning:
the show has been renewed for a third season, according to Nikki Finke.
NBC executives
had been looking for a way to renew their low-rated show, mostly through cost-sharing deals with other networks. They finally found a partner: DirecTV. No details of the deal were given; all we know right now is that the satellite company and the Peacock folks will share the costs of producing the show and will both air the show across multiple platforms.
Continue reading NBC renews Friday Night Lights with the help of DirecTV
Posted Jan 18th 2008 6:57PM by Brad Linder
Filed under: PVR Wire, Cable/Satellite, Web, Hardware
DirecTV has joined the ranks of companies that lets you
schedule your personal video recorder using a cellphone. All you need to do is visit a
mobile-optimized web site using your internet-enabled phone, enter your username and password and you can view TV listings and select programs to record.
There's a long list of officially supported phones, but since this is a web interface, it's safe to say that if you've got a mobile version of Internet Explorer, Opera or any other fairly modern web browser you'll be able to use the service.
Right now the service is available for customers with HR20-700 series set top boxes. DirecTV will roll out support for other models in February.
[via
Engadget]
Posted Jan 13th 2008 11:27AM by Brad Linder
Filed under: HDTV, PVR Wire, Hardware
You may already know that it's possible to tune into crystal-clear high definition by using the 21st century version of bunny ears. While most people get their HDTV from cable or satellite providers, local television stations around the country are broadcasting HD signals out over the airwaves. And if you've got an HDTV or one of those newfangled adapter for an old fashioned TV you can get excellent picture quality for free, assuming you can live with just a handful of TV stations.
But if you want to use a PVR to record these free HDTV signals your options are limited. You could build your own PVR, but that will cost you at least a few hundred dollars, as would a TiVo HD or Series3. Now it looks like another option is on the horizon.
EchoStar is planning to release the TR-50, a standalone unit similar to the company's ViP 722 PVR, except that it includes ATSC and NTSC tuners for recording over the air TV, not satellite television.
The TR-50 will come with a 7-day electronic program guide, although it's not clear whether there will be a monthly subscription fee. For that matter, there's no word on how much the box will cost or when it will be available.
The TR-50 includes component, composite, and HDMI outputs, and an Ethernet port for accessing internet video and for scheduling their recorders over the internet.
Posted Jan 12th 2008 9:06AM by Brad Linder
Filed under: HDTV, PVR Wire, Cable/Satellite, Hardware
Sure the DirecTV HR21 digital video recorder is pretty and all. And it can record up to 100 hours of MPEG-4 HD video, which is nice. But the HR21 lacks one thing its predecessor the HR20 had: the ability to record over the air HDTV. That's because the HR21
does not include an ATSC tuner.
It looks like DirecTV is remedying that situation by releasing the
AM21, an optional box that sits above or below your HR21 and provides not one, but two ATSC tuners for just $59. Considering the fact that you'd be hard pressed to find a good PCI card with 1 ATSC tuner for that price, I'm not really sure how much business sense this move makes. I guess DirecTV was able to keep the costs down on already expensive HR21 by omitting a feature that not every user will need. So even if DirecTV is selling the AM21 at or just below cost, the fact that many users will not buy one could make some sense. But I don't see why they wouldn't charge a few bucks more. Not that I'm complaining, mind you.
[via
EngadgetHD]
Posted Jan 8th 2008 11:55AM by Brad Linder
Filed under: PVR Wire, Cable/Satellite, Software
One of the biggest problems with building a PC-based personal video recorder is that it's kind of a hassle to record TV programs if you have a satellite dish. With analog cable, over the air HDTV, or even with unencrypted digital cable channels, all you have to do is plug a cord into your PC's TV tuner card and you're ready to start recording live TV. But with a satellite dish or most digital cable boxes, you need to set your computer close to your set top box and run an IR blaster cable to act as a virtual remote control, flipping channels on your box every time your PVR wants to record a new program.
If you've got cable, you can get around this by using the incredibly overpriced new CableCARD tuners that will let Windows Vista Media Center users turn their $1000 computers into $3000 HD PVRs. But there's still no way to record satellite TV directly to your PC. But it looks like that's about to change.
Earl Bonovich at the DBS Talk forums has managed to snag a couple of
high resolution screenshots of an upcoming DirecTV PC tuner. DirecTV's been
working with Microsoft to create a Windows Media Center capable tuner for a while now, but this is the first time I've seen any pictures. No word on pricing or availability.
I know the images above are kind of hard to read, so we've printed the text after the jump.
Continue reading DirecTV PC tuner details
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