[MScottC]

That's all fine for you and me, but not for the vast majority of the population, IMHO. ...

This is so true. Hell, a lot of senior citizens have problems with cell phones, even the simple cell phones. What is second nature for a kid or a young adult, and what becomes an acceptable task in figuring out for an middle aged adults, is totally impossible for older adults. Not because they're stupid, but because the technology just isn't ingrained in their minds. We senior citizens long for the days of just picking up the phone hanging on the wall and dialing a few digits, turning on the TV and tuning in one of 13 channels. No, not really, I'd never want to go back to the old days, and I'm sure most of my peers agree. But all of that's second nature to us. All that stuff, at least what we choose to remember of it, was very user friendly. Before you get a chance to retort, yea, I know, fine turning the TV, turning the antenna, replacing tubes, the list goes on, it really wasn't always as convenient, but when it was working, it was simple. OTOH, most kids today wouldn't know how to deal with a dial on a phone, or use a manual transmission and choke in a car.

TiVo was unique, because it did take the most modern technology and devise a very easy to use interface that even my mother could grasp when she visited my home on occasion, or when we bought her one of her own. The next generation of television delivery systems, whether it be ATSC 3.0 or all these streaming channels, need to find a good common simple interface that works, no matter what "channel" or source you are viewing, so that one doesn't have to fumble phoook through a dozen or more interfaces, let alone difficult technical setups.

 

[MScottC]

60 Minutes really got on a roll when COVID started, and they've continued to do some really interesting stories. SNL though, sort of went downhill, since their main material got voted out of the White House.

Thank you. I can assure you it was a herculean effort, considering that within a 4 day period in March we did our last show in studio with a smaller than normal crew (people kept out due to possible Covid exposure), and the next Wednesday afternoon we received an email stating that we would NOT be allowed back in our production facility at all. We "crashed" (TV slang for last minute work) most of our pieces that spring with all of the story editing, graphics compositing, and show production being done from kitchen tables, kid's and guest bedrooms, basement rec rooms, and the like. Studio leads did come on green screen from an outside facility but were also composited by our graphic artist at home. We never missed a broadcast, never once compromising on content. To professionals, those first few months of shows must have looked horrendous, there were a ton of technical compromises. Most specifically editors color correcting and mixing their own pieces.

We continued with this till this past September. We now go into the studio solely to record the studio leads. All of the rest of our editing work is still being done at home.

 

[MScottC]

I should add, my effort was strictly the with the effort of putting the final broadcast together, including figuring out the studio portions, editing the tease, ender piece and credits, as well as working with the senior story editor and the dozen or so story editors. And then the real effort that I had very little to do with, all the correspondents, producers and their camera crews figuring out how to shoot interviews and other material under the most trying conditions of not being able to travel, social distancing, doing remote interviews by zoom with camera crews in both locations so you the viewer wouldn't realize it was a zoom interview.

 

[MScottC]

That is the concern though. Regardless of how good the codec is, they're still going to be the incentive for them to cram as many channels in as they can before they get enough complaints. The number of home shopping channels being broadcast to my area is truly depressing. For better or worse, the vast majority of people just don't seem to care. I've never researched it, but I remember many years ago. The service providers got the definition and/or the requirements of HD changed so they could over-compress. The over the air stuff I'm looking at being 1080 or 720 is a pure technicality. It is not HD.


Yeah, that's what I had read, most reviews of AV1 weren't that it looked any better or was more efficient but it's royalty free.

There are numerous studies and anecdotal evidence that most people don't care about picture quality, as long as the sound is decent. As long as you can understand the audio and it's without distortion, image quality be damned.

All the zoom interviews on TV over the last 2 years bares that out.