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Asmodeus

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#64955 26-Jul-2010 17:34
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Does anyone else think Discovery channels line up is getting worse over the years? IMO, the major decline started when they started constantly airing American chopper years ago. This was followed by several other motorcycle shows as well as several car modification shows, some of which were really poor. Now I have nothing against these really and I used to watch American chopper but it did get old and they ended up saturating the channel with it.

Next came the murder shows. Doco after doco of young girls murdered, violent attacks, rape/murders, etc. I think that some shows on forenscis, etc are good (even though forensics is not a pure scien either) but it got to the point where there was murder on most of the time. Theyve calmed it down a bit now (by creating another channel solely devoted to it...) but there is still alot of it on there. Most of it wasn;t even good cases, just some guy who murdered his wife and they busted him cos he took out a 500k life insurance on her the week before... There are stilla fair few of these but not so many now

Then came the fishing shows. deadliest catch, lobster men, tuna wranglers, plus at least 3 others! I do like the odd one of these but 6 different fish shows is OTT.

Now, its the turn of the ghost shows. This bullcrap is not science (no matter how many infrared cameras and other instruments they wheel out). There are 3 of these now at last count.

There's also other stuff like Destroyed in seconds, etc which isnt really documentary material if you ask me

I dunno, I thought Discovery was supposed to be a science documentary channel and it definitely used to be more of one but now they just play the above stuff over and over along with endless reruns of man vs wild & mythbusters (also good but not endless repeats). There is a lack of new quality scientific docos.

I know they can do whatever they want and theyre probably got a bigger audience now they play this dumbed down stuff more but it annoys me at least. Don't bother blurting out the crap about if you dont like it dont watch it, I know all that. I just used to have a much higher opinion of the channel.

Anyone else? Is Discovery HD just as bad?

/rant

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richms
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  #356684 26-Jul-2010 17:40
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Well in the states they have countless spinoff channels so there must be some content available.

In anycase, is it even 16:9 yet?




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Handsomedan
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  #356689 26-Jul-2010 17:47
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Some of it's 16:9. Some comes up more like 14:9 and a lot of it is 4:3.

I agree with the original poster in that there's a lot less good content on Disco channel. I also think Nat Geo has become less interesting too.

As for the WW2 channel sorry - History Channel - that's utter bollix too.

Travel channel has potential but i can see that going doen the tired rerun route too after a while.

Why is it so hard to find fresh material of a doco-worthy nature?




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draculahowsby
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  #356860 27-Jul-2010 01:33
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its not just discovery its comedy central also they say on their website they will air new episodes of the daily show straight of the satellite yet they air them 1 month later. 



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  #356871 27-Jul-2010 06:33
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Handsomedan: Some of it's 16:9. Some comes up more like 14:9 and a lot of it is 4:3.



No Discovery content is 16:9. It's all 4:3 letterboxed (ie is native 16:9 content letterboxed for 4:3 transmission and distribution)


LookingUp
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  #356897 27-Jul-2010 08:17
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Totally agree on all counts.

Not only is the content on the 7x channels rubbish, the delivery is also very poor. 16:9 delivered as 4:3 letterbox is crap, as you have the option of watching a very small picture, or zooming in and getting a blurry mess due to the lack of resolution. May as well be watching YouTube :-(

Are they trying to save money by using less bandwidth?




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Zippity
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  #356922 27-Jul-2010 09:07
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If you don't like it, don't watch it. PERIOD!


[Mod (N8): Post edited]

NonprayingMantis
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  #356943 27-Jul-2010 09:50
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Zippity: If you don't like it, don't watch it. PERIOD!


regardless of whether you watch it, you are still paying for it.

There is no option to remove crappy channels from the basic sky package.



I agree with the OP,  discovery channel generally sucks nowadays.

I like animal planet - they were showing Blue Planet the other day, Brilliant stuff.

 
 
 

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meesham
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  #356947 27-Jul-2010 09:52
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Zippity: If you don't like it, don't watch it. PERIOD!


Unlike FTA channels people are paying for the Discovery Channel, they're not allowed to complain about the (lack of) content on there?

If you don't like to read about people complaining about something, don't read forum threads containing the phrase "getting worse and worse".

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  #356989 27-Jul-2010 10:39
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LookingUp: Totally agree on all counts.

Not only is the content on the 7x channels rubbish, the delivery is also very poor. 16:9 delivered as 4:3 letterbox is crap, as you have the option of watching a very small picture, or zooming in and getting a blurry mess due to the lack of resolution. May as well be watching YouTube :-(

Are they trying to save money by using less bandwidth?


It's nothing to do with bandwidth.

The world is still not a 16:9 one with significant numbers of channels and content still recorded and broadcast in 4:3, particularly in the USA.

Discovery Channel AU/NZ is produced in Singapore and is a 4:3 channel. Why it's still like this is something only Discovery can answer and I've yet to see an answer from them.

allstarnz
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  #356995 27-Jul-2010 10:47
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http://www.yourdiscovery.com/web/contact-us/newzealand/

apparently these are the contact details.

patatrat
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  #356997 27-Jul-2010 10:51
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I don't have sky, but I have watched a discovery channel show called 'The Colony'.

It was a reality tv show about a group of survivors trying to live in a simulated post-apocalyptic world. It was really great - a great mix of education, entertainment and really gets you thinking 'what would I do in that situation?'.

I have no idea if its been screened here or not, but hunt it down if you can. After watching that, I know that the discovery channel can come up with good programing....


Asmodeus

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  #357092 27-Jul-2010 13:26
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patatrat: I don't have sky, but I have watched a discovery channel show called 'The Colony'.  
 
It was a reality tv show about a group of survivors trying to live in a simulated post-apocalyptic world. It was really great - a great mix of education, entertainment and really gets you thinking 'what would I do in that situation?'. 
 
I have no idea if its been screened here or not, but hunt it down if you can. After watching that, I know that the discovery channel can come up with good programing....  
 


Yeah that was on a couple of months ago and it was quite good. I'm not saying that ALL the content sux, just that alot of it is dumbed down and over-repeated (as well as broadcast in crappy format/quality). They do come up with a few new ones now and then but it seems to be getting less and less. Then once they find something popular they add multiple other shows of the exact same genre.

6 extreme fishing shows?!?!


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Asmodeus

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  #357099 27-Jul-2010 13:35
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I'd also like to complain about the ads Yell

It's bad enough they break an hour long show 6 times just to tell you whats being repeated every 5 hours but now there are Harvey norman ads screaming (literally) all the time as well as ads for all sorts of other shyte, including ads for cruddy shows from other channels

It never used to be like this, they used to have things like "Discovery moments' which were a couple of minutes long micro-docos and other stuff like that. Not any more...

This particular annoyance is Sky's doing, not Discovery channel in Singapore. They used to have the Discovery moments things from Australia (well they were all speaking in oz accents anyway) but now it's just cheaply made, loud offensive local ads

SepticSceptic
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  #357114 27-Jul-2010 14:07
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Asmodeus: I'd also like to complain about the ads Yell

It's bad enough they break an hour long show 6 times just to tell you whats being repeated every 5 hours but now there are Harvey norman ads screaming (literally) all the time as well as ads for all sorts of other shyte, including ads for cruddy shows from other channels


Aye, aint that the truth. But no point b!tchin' about it here, you are preaching to the converted :-) Write a letter to Corporate Relations C/- Sky. Outline that you are PAYING for a service, and don't appreciate being bomarded by obnoxious advertising. If more people actually took the time to write, hopefully, Sky will take heed.

Though I do agree with you about dumbing down of the Doco channels, I meticously recorded all the content I wanted to watch from Sky doco channels, (mostly space progs, and some history / ancient warfare type stuff), and then cancelled Sky. Too much dross, repeated.

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  #357118 27-Jul-2010 14:14
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Discovery can't roll out 16:9 until all re-broadcasters (or the majority) agree... There has already been noises made within the NZ industry.... :)




 

 

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