quick hi-tech vent

[northernlights]

:grrr: :grrr::grrr:

After no tv since everything went Digital, I finally broke down, sprang $168 for a new dtv. I concluded I *need* access at least to a weather station.

Just spent an hour trying to set it up. At one point I managed to get a station -- couldn't even remember what the call numbers (mpbm) stood for.

Finally found a mention in the manuel of where I could find what stations I can get here.

2. TWO stations. MPBM (PBS -- Maine Public Broadcasting) and FOX :puke: :cry: :cry: :cry: No WONDER people around these parts are freakin' nuts.

I couldn't find the FOX station. Not that I want to watch FOX, but PBS DOESN'T HAVE THE WEATHER.

:grrrr: :grrrr: :grrrr:

(rant over)

[I Have A Dream]

1. northernlights, is it Fox News or just Fox?

I hope that it's just Fox, which isn't, in my opinion, nearly as bad as Fox News.

:hug:

[northernlights]

2. no idea!

:shrug: I never actually did find the Fox station and I never found the PBS station again, either. I did find the 800 help line # and called. He walked me through a restart menu and this time I ended up on a CBS station out of Bangor :rofl: Actually, what happened was that I ended up this time at a CBS station but with a message that my signal was low and he told me that I needed a signal booster. But after I hung up, I tried moving my antenna (an old broken rabbit ears that came with me when I moved up here 7 years ago :D) and acccidentally knocked it on its side. The station immediately came in *perfectly* so now I get one station with news/weather (yay!) but with the rabbit ears laying on its side on a window sill :rofl:

This is so wierd. He told me I have to go through that restart menu every time I turn it on. How the heck do you find a specific station on these things? Just move the tv around the house until you find something?

And how did the helpline guy know that my signal was low? Are they tracking us now?!? This is SO 1984 :scared:

And I also learned that Sanyo in Korea outsources its helpline to India!!!!! :wtf:

I wanna go back to the horse n' buggy days....this is all too much! :crazy:

[Dover]

3. My deepest sympathies...

Are you very rural?

I guess I'm part Luddite.
I wasn't going to go digital either and was all indignant...."Hmph! I'll just sit here in the dark..". I certainly wasn't going to spring for an expensive new digital t.v. with hd or whatever it's called because I too am on an antenna and so couldn't get it anyway. But I finally caved for some of the same reasons you did and got a little converter box paid for by the government that turned my old t.v. into a digital diva. And I was surprised that I actually got more stations than I had before. THREE PBS stations as opposed to one which is about the only station I watched besides the news/weather and maybe Late Night with Letterman.

I'd recommend getting a good weather radio or one that has both weather and t.v. audio. That really would be like the old days sitting in front of the radio listening to a program! But I think radio will soon be going digital as well and unlike t.v., the digital radio signals are not as strong (don't travel as far) as the old FM (if I understand it correctly). At any rate, I'm told that digital radio is a different animal than digital t.v.

Ahhhh...the digital revolution. Perhaps the Mercury retrograde is playing with you too. Patience. Maybe you can get someone to come to the house to evaluate your options if you aren't sure what's possible.

[northernlights]

7. It's OK! I found CBS last night!

That's all I needed...a real weather forecast. A co-worker kept insisting we were getting 2+ feet of snow this weekend. I saw the forecast -- that's inland and well north of us. We're on the rain side of the storm, so instead of running around trying to get oil delivery set up, I can run around making plans for potential flooding in garage and part of barn due to water on frozen ground having no place to run off too :crazy:

Wierd, wierd winter.

(And boy did the tv show I suffered through for half an hour waiting for the new suck...how do people sit through this crap? How did *I* sit through this crap?)

[hermetic]

4. I know nothing

about TVs, but I do know that you can get your weather on the internet. Just plug in the name of your town here.

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/weather/usme0017

Weather radio is a good idea, too.

[Dover]

5. True. T.V., radio and movies will all be streamed on the internet, ipods, i-phones, etc.

I can't keep up! But I think if you live rurally these changes
will come much more slowly.

[northernlights]

6. I gave up on the online weather

The weather here, where the mountains meet the sea, is extremely variable, with "microclimates" galore. The online weather forecasts are hopelessly, and for rural people dangerously, inaccurate. Like online will say sunny and we'll have rain or snow. Or online will say flurries and we'll get 2 feet. We just plunged from 40+ degrees F to 4 degrees in about 6-8 hours with almost no warning. The winds were phenomenal.

Radio is accurate, but only gives a couple days at a time.

The local weatherforecasters let us know what all the possibilities are, what their different models say, which they think are more likely to happen. And, especially important, if there is an arctic blast brewing we get a week or two of notice that an Alberta Clipper or Arctic Express due that will bring sub-zero temps with it. Or if the makings of a nor'easter or blizzard are headed our way, we have plenty of warning. Important to know when to call for oil delivery, move hay into the barn, plan for extra bedding, etc.

[PuraVidaDreamin]

9. Did you try weatherunderground.com

Their radar is great- and you can animate it updated every twenty minutes.

[davsand]

10. We are rural, and I agree weatherunderground is best.

You just enter your zip code and you get local radar whenever you want it. That way you don't have to depend on somebody else to interpret the weather FOR you--you ca SEE what it out there.



Lura

[Kind of Blue]

8. Yuck, Fox. I'm so glad you got CBS channel!

What a nightmarish choice to have that as one of 2 channels.

I heeheehee over Fox today. Time Warner is in a big old dispute with Fox - that wants an exorbitant amount of money to air their shows. Time Warner- for a change - isn't having it. So they put out a big ad in the paper, email, et cetera, to say come January 1st, they won't carry it! I guess Fox is ignoring the county turned blue this past election season and many of us don't care.

I'm sure they'll work it out, and though I've blocked the stations, but it would be nice never to mistakenly land on their cable stations again!

[Fire Walk With Me]

11. Yes, amazing how much money they're getting us to pay for what once was free.

AND they still make money on commercials!