What will you be doing with your CRT televisions?
On February 17, 2009, all wireless television signals will switch from analog to digital, freeing up broadcast space so some folks can make up a lot of money auctioning it off. Granted, any American that uses cable or satellite will still be able to use the old televisions, however those who still use an antenna will have to purchase a digital tuner. Full details can be found on the FCC site.
My first question is: who out there still even needs a converter box? Most everybody I know has cable or satellite television. You can even get a discount on the device.
In my home, I have four televisions (I’m such a television enthusiast, I should write about it. Oh wait. I am). They are an LCD TV, a plasma, a large-screen CRT from the dark ages of 1991 (when they were first released. It was a hand-me-down) and a 27 inch CRT from about 10 years ago.
I’ve been trying to sell the 27-inch in order to upgrade and get another flat-panel, but nobody has been answering my ads on Craigslist. I started at $100, then lowered to $75, then lowered to $50. After weeks of no bites (except for the occasional “is it HDTV?” question), I gave up.
My second question is, for those of you who own one, what will you be doing with your old standard-definition CRT televisions? Will you be giving them to charity? Will you try to sell them? Keep them and get a converter box if you’re using strictly antenna? Please respond either via the following poll or the comments.
Should viewers be told about product integration in shows?
Interesting piece over at Nikki Finke’s site. While everyone is concentrating on a possible actors strike (the deadline is Monday for SAG to make an agreement), there’s another little controversy going on. The Writers Guild of America West has asked the FCC to look into the ever-increasing habit of product integration in network shows. Not only does the WGA want to see the use of products on television eased up, which the FCC is already looking into, they also want to go one step further and make viewers fully aware that they are seeing an ad.
And how would the networks do that?
The WGA wants “real-time” disclosure, which basically means they want to see a crawl at the bottom of the screen when product placement is happening in a scene, similar to crawls for sports scores, weather, other news, and ads for other shows. They want to see this during the show because they don’t feel a disclosure at the start or end of a show would be as noticeable or as effective.
Part of me fully understands why viewers should know it’s a paid ad they’re seeing (though I would hope viewers would know that already), however, a crawl in the middle of a TV show seems like a weird idea.
What do you think of this idea? Do you already assume that it’s an ad when you see someone talking about Snapple or a cool car on a TV show? What should the networks do to tell viewers, if anything?
Big Brother 9: Live feeds report - March 30
Since the Bible is the only reading material in the Big Brother 9 house, I’ve been trying to think what the Commandants would be for the hamsters. Hmm … thou shalt not backstab unless you can do it first. Thou shall steal, lie, and do whatever it takes to win. Thou shall bear false witness. Thou will covet thy neighbor’s wife and anything else that moves. Thou shall not murder … that’s taking things too far and is probably an FCC violation.
If you read on past the jump, you’ll see spoilers for both tonight’s show and the Tuesday episode. But if you read on, you can also tell me some BB Bible Commandants in comments!
Last night in the House o’ Hamsters was what I like to call Pimp My Prank night. It all started with Big Brother itself pranking the houseguests. Apparently gathering footage for the April Fool’s Day episode (a first for the house), there were weird happenings. Joshuah saw masked faces in the mirror windows which line the rooms. One supposedly looked like Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.” Then, after an outdoor lockdown, they returned to find a fake rat in the icebox. There have been quacking noises, cricket noises, and odd voices.
The guinea pigs — my favorite houseguests — appeared on the plasma screen and we got blocked. After the feeds came back, the hamsters were saying that all the pranks were done by the guinea pigs. Sure, blame another member of the rodent family!
But the pranking didn’t stop there. The boys (they really aren’t men) keep targeting Sheila for their pranks. She got mad yesterday when doused with flour. So what do they do? They change the mattress in her bed to Adam’s broken one and toilet paper her room quite thoroughly! Actually, I thought it was funny. It wasn’t as funny as Joshuah screaming and panicking over the faces and rat, but it made for good feeds watching. Sheila wasn’t too thrilled, though. She was less thrilled when James and Joshuah woke her up banging pots and pans.
In house crumbs:
- Sheila said, repeatedly in her Sheila style, that Evel Dick did the pots and pans first and he’s hotter, too.
- Natalie suggested that since Sheila doesn’t like shoes on the kitchen counter (I’m with her on that one), they should put them there. So the boys did it.
- Ryan told Sheila he thought maybe Joshuah was organizing his shoes.
- Ryan told Adam they need to keep Joshuah this week. Adam agreed that he’s more fun.
- They went to Sheila and she told them she’d vote to keep Sharon.
- Sheila told Natalie that she consoled Sharon when she cried to get information out of her.
- Natalie told Joshuah and Ryan that if it’s a tie vote, she’ll vote to keep him.
- Natalie told the Girls Alliance (herself, Sheila, Sharon) that if it’s a tie vote, she’ll vote to keep Sharon.
- Oh, my. What a tangled web we weave …
- Joshuah fussed about his decision to bring Sharon back in the game instead of Jacob when Neil had to leave. He blames her for the possibility (probability?) that he might go home this week.
- Ryan and Natalie are worried about deals Adam might have that they don’t know about. Of course, they have deals with James and Joshuah that Adam knows nothing about.
- Sheila is still moaning about not understanding what was expected of her in the POV comp held Friday.
- Ryan thinks Sheila controls Adam’s voting. I agree with him.
- Ryan told James he really wants to keep Joshuah but doesn’t think Adam will vote to keep him.
- Both Ryan and James said they won’t milk their fifteen minutes of fame. Yeah, right.
And that’s where we stand. The power of veto ceremony hasn’t been held but is expected later today. I don’t think we’ll see any surprises there. As veto winner, James will remove himself from the block and Natalie should be putting Sharon up for eviction in his place. I’ll update this entry after the meeting, so check back!
UPDATE: The veto ceremony was held. It’s now Joshuah and Sharon on the block.
30 Rock is heading to MILF Island
Remember that 30 Rock episode where Jack mentioned to Liz that he was working on a new reality show titled MILF Island (”25 super hot moms, 50 sweaty eighth grade boys, and no rules!”)? You probably thought that it was just a one episode throwaway joke, but that’s actually the name of a new show that’s going to be the subject of the April 10 episode of the NBC series.
This is probably going to have the FCC and parents groups tearing their hair out, because they’ll probably want to fine the show for saying bad things but won’t be able to, because nothing bad will actually be said. It will all be about the show assuming viewers already knowing what “MILF” stands for. And if you know what MILF stands for, well, you’re already going to hell.
This is similar to the famous Seinfeld episode “The Contest,” where the entire episode was about masturbation but they never actually uttered the word. I do find it odd that, in The Washington Post, you can’t even put the letter that the bad word begins with. So they had to actually print “MIL [letter that’s been deemed too naughty by The Washington Post when followed by M, I, and L”). That’s really bizarre to me.