Rotophonic

A geeky blog discussing the world of music, technology & politics.

Archive for category Television

Watch Real People Green Their Homes on Greenovate

Nov 30

Posted by rotophonic in Television | 6 Comments

Greenovate Logo

Greenovate coming soon

Starting Monday, you can see how regular people implement green techniques and technologies in their own homes on the new TV show, Greenovate.

Premiering Monday at 9:30PM e/p on the Discovery Home network (once thought to be changing their name to Planet Green) the half-hour show follows regular homeowners as they try to save the planet by doing things as simple as compact fluorescent light bulbs or as complex as a living roof.

The show comes from the company that makes Flip That House and Morgan Spurlock’s 30 Days, so it should be a lot of fun to watch…and a lot less exhausting to sit on the couch and watch others green their houses.

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Now Costanza Could Really Save His Frogger High Score

Nov 13

Posted by rotophonic in Friday Laughs, Technology, Television | 2 Comments



On Seinfeld, George Costanza went to a lot of trouble trying to save his “world-record” 860,630 high score on Frogger using a gerry-rigged combination of caution tape, batteries, extension cords, and a guy named Slippery Pete. In the end, his Frogger was mowed down in the street.

If you’re a stickler for detail, that episode never seemed quite right because it wasn’t clear how they’d gotten the Frogger unplugged from the wall and plugged into the extension cord without powering the machine down.

Now with Wiebetech’s new HotPlug you can jack into the power lines or the power strip feeding your favorite video game machine and take it away. Here’s the video of the HotPlug in action:

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NBC’s Zucker: Apple Destroyed the Music Business

Oct 30

Posted by rotophonic in Apple, Music, Music Business, Technology, Television | No Comments

Steve Jobs“We know that Apple has destroyed the music business — in terms of pricing — and if we don’t take control, they’ll do the same thing on the video side.”
- Jeff Zucker [source]

Acting as a proxy soldier for the Music Industry’s third prong of attack on itself, Jeff Zucker, President & CEO of NBC Universal, attacked Apple (and the iPodfather) for destroying the music industry’s pricing model.

Zucker’s statement is painful because it’s so far from reality. The music industry was aware of the changing digital marketplace throughout the 1990’s and launched venture after venture to try and capture a piece of the digital music market. They failed. Again and again they failed. The iTunes Store opened in 2003 after Steve Jobs, likely sick and tired of watching the Music Industry’s bungled attempts to sell music hurt Apple’s iPod business, decided to bring his golden consumer touch to the world of selling music.

When the iTunes Store opened, the music industry had already spent 10 years trying to sell music online. With crappy subscription models, oppressive DRM, limited selection and overpriced music tracks (I’m talking to you, MusicNet, PressPlay and Rhapsody), they’d fail to gain any traction with consumers (not that it was their fault…labels like Universal basically made that impossible with their licensing terms).

Finally, Apple comes along with enough clout to make a deal and a simplified pricing model and the features consumers wanted (the ability to easily play tracks on multiple computers and burn CDs).

Zucker is mad that Apple wouldn’t let them sell downloadable copies of NBC shows for $4.99/episode (something that NBC took pains to deny, but Apple had confirmed). You read that correctly: $4.99/episode. You mean a season of Heroes is worth $115? In digital form? At 640×480 resolution? With no incremental costs to NBC for distribution? Wow. We are still talking about the show that beams for free through the airwaves to every home in America, right?

I can buy the DVD set for $40, but the digital version is $115? And the DVD set includes “several behind-the-scenes featurettes, mini-documentaries, 50 deleted scenes, select episode commentaries, the original pilot (w/ commentary), and a character map?” And I can get the HD DVD for $70. But Zucker wants to charge me $115.

Zucker, you’re nuts. I can’t wait to see Hulu.com. Perhaps they’ll sell episodes of 30 Rock for $30? Oh wait, Hulu content is free with commercials. Huh?

I get that the Industry is bitter at their inability to build a store that could sell their own products, but to blame Apple for the problem is complete crap. If Zucker really believes this, I would seriously question Hulu’s future. Apple didn’t do anything that the industry couldn’t have done (more easily) for themselves long ago.

[UPDATE]
Just how delusional is Zucker? “Apple sold millions of dollars worth of hardware off the back of our content, and made a lot of money,” complained Zucker. “They did not want to share in what they were making off the hardware or allow us to adjust pricing.” So now he’s retroactively bitter about all that money Sony, Magnavox, RCA made selling TVs. Clearly the flavor of the month at NBC Universal is charging the hardware manufacturers for their content.

And just to be clear, Zucker, Apple made millions of dollars off of MY content: my music, my shows. Items that I own and purchased.

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Steve Jobs! Where’s Final Cut Server?

Sep 21

Posted by rotophonic in Apple, Technology, Television, Video Editing | 1 Comment

Final Cut ServerA lot has happened in the video editing world. Avid is scared shitless. And tons of things have changed since I begged Apple to get serious about workflow applications. Despite that, Apple has still not released Final Cut Server.

At NAB they promised to release the software “this summer”, but, while I’m no calendar expert, I believe we’re at summer’s end. What’s the story? Apple hasn’t made one change to their promotional page for Final Cut Server since NAB. It’s difficult to believe that this is a positive development for Apple’s “Avid Killer”.

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Gay Basher Tucker Carlson

Aug 29

Posted by rotophonic in Politics, Television | 2 Comments

tucker.jpgJon Stewart once described Tucker Carlson as being “as big a dick on your show as you are on any show.” Apparently, he’s been that way forever.

On the August 28th edition of MSNBC Live, Carlson described how he was “bothered” by a man in a restroom. Then Carlson jokingly describes how he reacted: he and a friend went back and smashed the man’s head against the wall.

ABRAMS: Tucker, what did you do, by the way? What did you do when he did that? We got to know.
CARLSON: I went back with someone I knew and grabbed the guy by the — you know, and grabbed him, and — and –
ABRAMS: And did what?
CARLSON: Hit him against the stall with his head, actually!

[laughter]
[source: MediaMatters]

NBC’s Victoria Beckham: Coming to America Trainwreck

Jul 16

Posted by rotophonic in Television | 3 Comments

Victoria Beckham Arrives in LA

The entire show in one image

While I seem to rarely write about television despite working in it, the NBC “special” Victoria Beckham: Coming to America so barely represented the notion of entertainment that I’m compelled to give it a few lines here. As someone who has seen reality television produced, I couldn’t restrain myself from uttering, “Fake, fake, fake, fake!” at the television during the airing of NBC’s newly compressed one-hour special. I can only hope one thing: this show is never rerun on TBS every other weekend like it’s Eddie Murphy namesake.

While pseudo-reality shows craft situations that challenge the celebrities featured and make good TV, every shot in this pathetic epic was a staged, piece of crap (Really. These 42 minutes are that long). Here’s the episode breakdown:

- Photo shoot with David and Posh in Spain. Settle in Becks lovers as this is the last time you’ll see him until the final 40 seconds.

- Slow motion shot of Victoria arrving to mucho paparazzi as Victoria feigns surprise at the attention caused by the show’s press release about her arrival.

- Arrival at the rental house with champagne toast, soon to be followed by arrival of new American personal assistant: faux dramatic moment—the assistant thinks David Beckham is cute. Drama, drama, drama

- Goes for a drive, gets pulled over (probably by a fake cop), cheats on driving test (had to prevent my wife from forcibly changing the channel)

- Shopping therapy

- Faked surprise meeting with Perez Hilton to show him how cool she really is. Oh, Perez. The only good moment in the show as we actually learn how deep the Victoria pool truly is: She never eats on camera and intentionally wears an unhappy face in public. Yes, folks, that’s as deep as it gets.

- Lunch and tequila shots with a whole room full of women who looked like plastic surgery scarred AbFab Patsies. Fake.

- little league practice to assess Victoria’s ability to throw out a first pitch at a Dodgers game: shockingly the verdict is poor. Fake

- The above mentioned Dodger game with a 10 second moment on the field turned into a 5 minute moment of suspense as we wonder if she can toss the ball ten feet. Dramatic moment: “Where’s the ball?” Also, fake.

- VO about the flight back to arrive with Beckham together. 30 seconds of footage of the paparazzi mob around Becks and Posh.

- “God bless, America!”

- Apology to wife for making her endure this show.

Having to restage the show from six half-hours down to one hour must have been challenging for the 20 editors and AE’s assigned to this project, but thank heavens someone at the network caught a look at one of the dailies and sought to minimize the misery for the audience, while still giving the Beckhams their big appearance on American TV. Even the staged vignettes throughout this painful hour were so obvious that I had to force my wife to continue to watch. Reality editing lesson one: if the subject is being shot at dusk, don’t cutaway to a reaction shot in broad daylight. Sorry Tommy Lasorda.

I’d love to hear more from the players involved with the production of this show. I feel for you. If you have any information on the trials and tribulations endured in the production of this piece, drop me a line at rotophonic at rotophonic.com and I’ll keep your identity safe.
[photo credit: Joesete1]