NBC kills useless, bit stealing, Weather Plus channel

If you've ever tried to enjoy a sporting event on NBC, you've probably noticed that when the action really starts getting good, your picture quality goes south, and fast. This phenomenon has been thanks to 90 of the NBC affiliates around the country deciding to steal bandwidth away from the primary HD feed and dedicate the bits to a 24-hour weather channel called Weather Plus. Well after four years of trying, NBC Universal decided that if you can't beat 'em join 'em, and instead bought a stake in The Weather Channel, which thankfully ended up meaning no more Weather Plus. The bad news is that the macroblock loving fools are already starting to think about what other crappy SD programming can go in its place.

[Roberini Posted Oct 8th 2008 2:36PM]

Did you mean "phenomenon" instead of "phenominom"?

By the way, that channel is still on in my area.

[aarond12 Posted Oct 10th 2008 8:55PM]

It's still on here in Dallas...

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 8th 2008 2:46PM]

Sorry to hear that. They had the hottest female weather forecasters.

[RockinOscar Posted Oct 8th 2008 3:09PM]

you should see Jackie Guerrido. she's on Univision around 5:30 pm ET doing the weather.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 8th 2008 2:46PM]

As my retired father-in-law always says. You just can't have enough weather channels out there. I mean just one of these can get boring so it's nice to check to see if the other weather channel is giving the same forecast. And if it's in HD well it's just that much more accurate...

I've always wondered why they waste the bandwidth on these channels. I barely need one - and in Kansas City I have three separate weather channels!

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 8th 2008 2:48PM]

Out of the 1,440 minutes in a day that could be in that picture, I find the time up there very funny.

[wyldtek Posted Oct 8th 2008 5:09PM]

Indeed :)

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 8th 2008 7:21PM]

OK, is it an inside joke or something? What is so funny about 4:20pm?

[RockinOscar Posted Oct 8th 2008 7:57PM]

@Wayne

haha.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 8th 2008 8:31PM]

HAHA, I was about to say the same thing. Its the best time of the day.



How will I know if its raining now? The hell I'm walking outside.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 8th 2008 2:51PM]

Until they replace it with a Weather Channel subchannel.

[kmp14 Posted Oct 8th 2008 2:54PM]

Good point. They might just simulcast the Weather Channel on where "Weather Plus" used to be. Why else would they buy a stake in the Weather Channel?

[kmp14 Posted Oct 8th 2008 2:52PM]

Hopefully they give that bandwidth back to the main channel as soon as Weather goes bye-bye.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 8th 2008 3:27PM]

Ending this sub-channel is one of the greatest things to happen since NBC started broadcasting HD.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 8th 2008 7:30PM]

I think i am seeing the down side of these sub channels first hand. NBC's audio sounds like my moms old 13 inch black and white tube from back in the day, but is beautiful on any and every other channel. It will be interesting to see if the loss of this waste does anything from stopping me screaming at the TV during Heroes

[MiggityMikeB Posted Oct 8th 2008 4:39PM]

Give it up. Give the bandwidth back.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 8th 2008 6:09PM]

Does the signal degredation only apply to over-the-air signals?

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 8th 2008 11:34PM]

Most cable and satellite companies pick up the signals over-the-air and re-transmit it.

[ddude220 Posted Oct 8th 2008 5:20PM]

I liked this channel. I guess I'll have my PS3 as a backup weather / time reporter, but for those of us living with free OTA, this channel wasn't all bad. As the financial crisis worsens I wonder how many people will realize that OTA HD looks just as good (if not better) than anything satellite and cable provide.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 8th 2008 5:55PM]

Weather+ sucked so bad. Ill take WeatherScan anyday

[Dopefish Posted Oct 8th 2008 6:00PM]

This is mildly disappointing, as I have used the channel 5.2 in the Dallas area when I wanted some weather and it wasn't time for one of the local broadcasts.

Hopefully it's replaced with a Weather Channel substation as was suggested above.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 8th 2008 7:49PM]

I think the bandwidth used by these channels is a little overstated, if you're having problems with sports games going all macroblocking with the channel, I suspect you'll still see some macroblocking even without it. If 20Mbps was enough to transmit perfect 1080i60/720p60 HD in MPEG2, then, well, we'd have HD using existing DVDs just by spinning the disks twice as fast and allowing 1080i60 as a supportable resolution.

ATSC really should have supported H.264 from the beginning. MPEG2 isn't just less efficient, it doesn't degrade as well as H.264. I guess the timings weren't right, but it's still a crying shame.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 8th 2008 10:24PM]

I bet they replace it not with the Weather Channel, but with a local news channel. There was a NY Times story about how the local affiliate WNBC is launching a 24 hour local news. It reportedly is an experiment that if popular will be launched elsewhere in the other big media markets where the affiliate can afford it.

[Biggiesized Posted Oct 8th 2008 11:45PM]

Thank God that Weather Plus is getting the axe. My local NBC HD channel looks like shit. They've been broadcasting the news in HD since last October and I can't fully enjoy it.

[RandallLind Posted Oct 9th 2008 9:12AM]

How many damn weather channels do we need I think I have 5 or 6 of them. ABC,Fox, BayNews 9, weather channel, NBC guess not any more. but, I am sure my local NBC willl replace it with their own.

[spin cycle Posted Oct 9th 2008 10:05AM]

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

It was stupid it was there in the first place, but getting rid of it now is better late than never.

Image quality DOES matter. I'm glad NBC sees this.