If you've ever tried to enjoy a sporting event on NBC, you've probably noticed that when the action really starts getting good, your picture quality goes south, and fast. This phenomenon has been thanks to 90 of the NBC affiliates around the country deciding to steal bandwidth away from the primary HD feed and dedicate the bits to a 24-hour weather channel called
Weather Plus. Well after four years of trying, NBC Universal decided that if you can't beat 'em join 'em, and instead
bought a stake in The Weather Channel, which thankfully ended up meaning no more Weather Plus. The bad news is that the
macroblock loving fools are already starting to think about what other crappy SD programming can go in its place.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Rob @ Oct 8th 2008 2:36PM
Did you mean "phenomenon" instead of "phenominom"?
By the way, that channel is still on in my area.
Aaron @ Oct 10th 2008 8:55PM
It's still on here in Dallas...
Sad Now @ Oct 8th 2008 2:46PM
Sorry to hear that. They had the hottest female weather forecasters.
RockinOscar @ Oct 8th 2008 3:09PM
you should see Jackie Guerrido. she's on Univision around 5:30 pm ET doing the weather.
Brent @ Oct 8th 2008 2:46PM
As my retired father-in-law always says. You just can't have enough weather channels out there. I mean just one of these can get boring so it's nice to check to see if the other weather channel is giving the same forecast. And if it's in HD well it's just that much more accurate...
I've always wondered why they waste the bandwidth on these channels. I barely need one - and in Kansas City I have three separate weather channels!
JPN @ Oct 8th 2008 2:48PM
Out of the 1,440 minutes in a day that could be in that picture, I find the time up there very funny.
Big Sam @ Oct 8th 2008 5:09PM
Indeed :)
Wayne Dunham @ Oct 8th 2008 7:21PM
OK, is it an inside joke or something? What is so funny about 4:20pm?
RockinOscar @ Oct 8th 2008 7:57PM
@Wayne
haha.
Snaps @ Oct 8th 2008 8:31PM
HAHA, I was about to say the same thing. Its the best time of the day.
How will I know if its raining now? The hell I'm walking outside.
KraziJoe @ Oct 8th 2008 2:51PM
Until they replace it with a Weather Channel subchannel.
Ken P @ Oct 8th 2008 2:54PM
Good point. They might just simulcast the Weather Channel on where "Weather Plus" used to be. Why else would they buy a stake in the Weather Channel?
Ken P @ Oct 8th 2008 2:52PM
Hopefully they give that bandwidth back to the main channel as soon as Weather goes bye-bye.
anseK @ Oct 8th 2008 3:27PM
Ending this sub-channel is one of the greatest things to happen since NBC started broadcasting HD.
Miggity @ Oct 8th 2008 4:39PM
Give it up. Give the bandwidth back.
Elliott @ Oct 8th 2008 5:20PM
I liked this channel. I guess I'll have my PS3 as a backup weather / time reporter, but for those of us living with free OTA, this channel wasn't all bad. As the financial crisis worsens I wonder how many people will realize that OTA HD looks just as good (if not better) than anything satellite and cable provide.
Martin @ Oct 8th 2008 5:55PM
Weather+ sucked so bad. Ill take WeatherScan anyday
Joe Siegler @ Oct 8th 2008 6:00PM
This is mildly disappointing, as I have used the channel 5.2 in the Dallas area when I wanted some weather and it wasn't time for one of the local broadcasts.
Hopefully it's replaced with a Weather Channel substation as was suggested above.
bfos7215 @ Oct 8th 2008 6:09PM
Does the signal degredation only apply to over-the-air signals?
keith @ Oct 8th 2008 11:34PM
Most cable and satellite companies pick up the signals over-the-air and re-transmit it.
Chris @ Oct 8th 2008 7:30PM
I think i am seeing the down side of these sub channels first hand. NBC's audio sounds like my moms old 13 inch black and white tube from back in the day, but is beautiful on any and every other channel. It will be interesting to see if the loss of this waste does anything from stopping me screaming at the TV during Heroes
squiggleslash @ Oct 8th 2008 7:49PM
I think the bandwidth used by these channels is a little overstated, if you're having problems with sports games going all macroblocking with the channel, I suspect you'll still see some macroblocking even without it. If 20Mbps was enough to transmit perfect 1080i60/720p60 HD in MPEG2, then, well, we'd have HD using existing DVDs just by spinning the disks twice as fast and allowing 1080i60 as a supportable resolution.
ATSC really should have supported H.264 from the beginning. MPEG2 isn't just less efficient, it doesn't degrade as well as H.264. I guess the timings weren't right, but it's still a crying shame.
Matt W. @ Oct 8th 2008 10:24PM
I bet they replace it not with the Weather Channel, but with a local news channel. There was a NY Times story about how the local affiliate WNBC is launching a 24 hour local news. It reportedly is an experiment that if popular will be launched elsewhere in the other big media markets where the affiliate can afford it.
Charles @ Oct 8th 2008 11:45PM
Thank God that Weather Plus is getting the axe. My local NBC HD channel looks like shit. They've been broadcasting the news in HD since last October and I can't fully enjoy it.
Randall Lind @ Oct 9th 2008 9:12AM
How many damn weather channels do we need I think I have 5 or 6 of them. ABC,Fox, BayNews 9, weather channel, NBC guess not any more. but, I am sure my local NBC willl replace it with their own.
why not the LS2LS7? @ Oct 9th 2008 10:05AM
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
It was stupid it was there in the first place, but getting rid of it now is better late than never.
Image quality DOES matter. I'm glad NBC sees this.