Weather Channel: Locals on the 8's

[paulman182]

Actually it goes by neither...The local on the 8's receive by viewers corresponds to the NWS Zone that covers your location.
Hers a link to show expamles of the various Forecast Zones in a given region.
National Weather Service Text Product Display..
You'll see as you scroll down the zones usually cover two or three counties. In areas where terrain is mountainous, weather conditions can vary greatly from lower to higher elevations. Those Forecast areas are smaller

That's not true for what I am getting. I am in Kentucky, with a NOAA station and radar 30 miles from me--that should be my weather station. However, the radar I saw was centered on WV.

In addition, the cities listed on the conditions segment are all in WV.

I'm sure this is because I am in the Charleston-Huntington DMA and get my locals from WV.

 

[mrsdrgn]

WHAT A WASTE OF TIME! IF I WANT TO CHECK MY LOCACAL WEATHER I USE MY COMPUTER.
PLEASE DON'T WASTE OUR TIME WITH THIS NONSENSE.
ADD SOME MORE NATIONAL HD. TRAVEL CHANNEL HD, FOX NEWS HD.

 

[paulman182]

WHAT A WASTE OF TIME! IF I WANT TO CHECK MY LOCACAL WEATHER I USE MY COMPUTER.
PLEASE DON'T WASTE OUR TIME WITH THIS NONSENSE.
ADD SOME MORE NATIONAL HD. TRAVEL CHANNEL HD, FOX NEWS HD.

That's fine for people with broadband internet. Maybe they are thinking about the rest of us.

 

[rad]

One of the things a number of people b*tch about when going to satellite is missing the local weather info on TWC. So D* (and E*) make an effort to provide some of that local content for the locals on the 8's and what do they get, folks like mrsdrgn yelling that it's a waste of time.

Will it ever be the same as cable, probably not but it's a start since they use hardware that costs a bunch more then HD DVR's and has only one purpose, to provide the local weather inserts. This is the 1st try at this and hopefully things might get better.

 

[egnlsn]

The locals segment is also an excellent addition for MDUs that have D* as the service provider for their SMATV.

 

[ziggy29]

Now that the HD content and the SD content are no longer the same on the Weather Channel, shouldn't they renumber the HD version to 362-1 to be consistent with previous practice?

I don't think many people want to see the HD and SD versions of each channel when the content is identical, but now there's a good reason for people to want to see both SD and HD versions of this channel AND be able to enter either one into the remote. Hence 362 (SD) and 362-1 (HD).

 

[talos4]

One of the things a number of people b*tch about when going to satellite is missing the local weather info on TWC. So D* (and E*) make an effort to provide some of that local content for the locals on the 8's and what do they get, folks like mrsdrgn yelling that it's a waste of time.

Will it ever be the same as cable, probably not but it's a start since they use hardware that costs a bunch more then HD DVR's and has only one purpose, to provide the local weather inserts. This is the 1st try at this and hopefully things might get better.

Totally agree!

This feature has barely been on for 8 hours for cryin out loud.

Tweaks, upgrades and enhancements are bound to be completed in the near future. It's one thing to get it working in the studio or lab, it's another to get working across the nation.

Waste of bandwidth, hardly. Especially for the majority of subs. Those of us who frequent this and other forums are certainly not a providers "average" viewer.

 

[ziggy29]

Totally agree!

This feature has barely been on for 8 hours for cryin out loud.

Tweaks, upgrades and enhancements are bound to be completed in the near future. It's one thing to get it working in the studio or lab, it's another to get working across the nation.

Waste of bandwidth, hardly. Especially for the majority of subs. Those of us who frequent this and other forums are certainly not a providers "average" viewer.

I agree. It's a good start, anyway.

Personally I won't need this, since I get my locals OTA which include a subchannel with local forecasts and radar (24-2 in Austin). Good start for people who don't get OTA locals or who don't have local OTA weather subchannels, though.

 

[jokeworm]

i like it - other than a short "summary" in text of the conditions ... and a 4-5 frame moving radar .. its not all that different from the cable version ... its instant .. it kicks in at the right time .. it covers the basics .. and its a heck of a lot better than what we had yesterday - nice start Directv ... now improve ... add and perfect

 

[dishcomm]

Bottom line....if you want weather on the 8's ..get cable..that's that...So that means I wount be seeing weather on the 8's....so what..haven't had it in years so I don't miss it...who cares.

 

[sundude90]

Please lets try to make Suggestions to make this better, so we can help Directv and TWC make this better. Both of them will take into account our Suggestions.

Please post some suggestions to improve this on this thread also!

 

[mrsdrgn]

One of the things a number of people b*tch about when going to satellite is missing the local weather info on TWC. So D* (and E*) make an effort to provide some of that local content for the locals on the 8's and what do they get, folks like mrsdrgn yelling that it's a waste of time.

Will it ever be the same as cable, probably not but it's a start since they use hardware that costs a bunch more then HD DVR's and has only one purpose, to provide the local weather inserts. This is the 1st try at this and hopefully things might get better.

First of all if I want to watch the local weather I will watch my local station. Local stations are free to air. I don't want to pay to watch the weather. Second, who can stare at the weather channel all day? Third, with todays technology anyone can get their local weather. Internet, cell phone, etc.
SO STOP WASTING OUR TIME WITH THE WEATHER!

 

[GutenTag]

Please lets try to make Suggestions to make this better, so we can help Directv and TWC make this better. Both of them will take into account our Suggestions.

Please post some suggestions to improve this on this thread also!

I would love to see the actual text forecast for my area just like they have on cable. Local on the 8's on cable contains a text zone forecast along with the short term forecast. I have never been a fan of just a weather icon with a high temperature.

 

[levibluewa]

I'm impressed !!!

Much better than DISH's attempt. You guys have covered most of the points already. I'd like to see the radar loop as well, however, the current setup drops out at the end and picks up the radar loop from the national-generic feed, so you do get the loop. I'd also say that the graphics appear very close to HD quality. There is a noticable difference in clarity in the graphics in comparison to the national radar loop at the end. Not sure why they didn't put this on both HD/SD feeds, but I doubt it will take them long...probably just want to fine tune it.

One thing I've noticed, and it doesn't bother me...the interactive feature auto-stretches the picture (on both receivers)...just like MSNBC (356) was doing during the Olympics coverage. You change to 362sd and as soon as the program/channel banner disappears the picture auto-stretches. With this app it looks ok. Again the graphics appear to be near, if not at HD quality, and I think would look odd if it was presented in 4:3.

All in all...NICE JOB DIRECTV! WAY TO GO! Also, appreciate the Hurricane channel addition recently. Nice bonuses over DISH and cable.

Equipment: 2 H20-100 receivers; 0x4102 software.

 

[rad]

First of all if I want to watch the local weather I will watch my local station. Local stations are free to air. I don't want to pay to watch the weather. Second, who can stare at the weather channel all day? Third, with todays technology anyone can get their local weather. Internet, cell phone, etc.
SO STOP WASTING OUR TIME WITH THE WEATHER!

How is this wasting our time?

OK, if you have a local station that has 24x7 weather info that's great. But I'd be willing to bet that a number of places don't have that and if they do it's a subchannel on a digital station, that means the person needs an ATSC tuner with OTA antenna to watch it. Else you have to be able to catch the local news shows weather segment.

Who said that they're staring at the weather channel all day?

Last, I'd be willing to bet that many people don't have their computers on all day long to be able to just go look at a weather site. As for cell phones, wife and I both have one and don't have any data/internet plans on it.

Guess I got to ask, why do you have such a bug up your a** about this? Has this change hurt you in any way? Many people want this feature so if it's not hurting you then why be so against it?

 

[ChrisK114]

Bottom line....if you want weather on the 8's ..get cable..that's that...So that means I wount be seeing weather on the 8's....so what..haven't had it in years so I don't miss it...who cares.

Bottom line... if you don't want weather on the 8"s...... don't watch it!!!!

 

[commodore_dude]

This is definitely a step in the right direction, although until they can get it to do everything that cable can that will remain a point in cable's favor. I realize they've had 20+ years to get that to where it is, but it took DirecTV over 10 to get this far and it's not 10 years worth of impressive . Next step should be better radar, AFAIK each cable headend doesn't have their own centering of the radar, so there should be a common metro area radar loop to use. After that, it'd be nice if they improved the graphics and got some motion in there to look more like what Comcast offers in Atlanta. All in all, I think they integrated it well!

 

[garn9173]

Great news! I cann't wait to see how it looks tonight when I get home from work.

 

[darrencp22]

First of all if I want to watch the local weather I will watch my local station. Local stations are free to air. I don't want to pay to watch the weather. Second, who can stare at the weather channel all day? Third, with todays technology anyone can get their local weather. Internet, cell phone, etc.
SO STOP WASTING OUR TIME WITH THE WEATHER!

You're wasting your own time. Dont read this thread and dont waste our time by having us read your posts.

 

[dhageremtp]

Anyone have screen shots?