Get ready for some serious controversy. On Monday, the Discovery Channel will hold a press conference to promote the upcoming documentary produced by James Cameron, “The Lost Tomb of Jesus,” and what it calls perhaps the greatest archaeological find in history: “the tomb that once may have held the remains of Jesus of Nazareth and his family.” And that’s not all, the documentary will suggest that Jesus may have had a son named Judah. “It doesn’t get bigger than this,” says Cameron. “We’ve done our homework; we’ve made the case; and now it’s time for the debate to begin.”
The tomb, as shown in a new section on Discovery.com with an interactive tour, photos, blogs and a soon-to-be-heated discussion board. Press release below…
Log on to FakeYourSpace.com and pay .99 cents each for a hot someone to become a “friend” on your MySpace page. Or you can do what many people do and start another account, upload a photo of a random hot model and add yourself as a friend.
This is the only version I can find of this fantastic appearance by Bob Schieffer singing the original song “(I Wanna Be) A TV Anchorman” a fun country & western ditty that pokes fun at TV news, anchors and - yes - consultants. If anyone knows where I can find a longer, better synced version, just let me know. Meantime - enjoy.
Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. PT, MSNBC.com will stream the annual, irreverent awards show, The Razzies, which celebrates the worst picture of the year. And there’s a twist: “In the spirit of the Razzies, the production team will forego traditional video cameras and instead use their cell phones to capture and transmit the action,” reads the press release. “The broadcast will aim to provide viewers with four unique perspectives of the award show: backstage, on-stage, around the stage and with key players in the action.” This should be interesting. (Thanks, Brian!)
Updates Safran: Watching it live now. Two surprises: how good the picture quality is (especially from the cam-phone down front) and how weak the audio is. I would have predicted the other way around. This actually bodes well, when you think about it. Live event coverage of ambient audio is always tough, even with pro-grade equipment - you usually need to tap into an audio board. So the fact that they can pump out such good video quality is the more difficult of the two tasks. A live reporter speaking into a headset would be heard clearly. A replacement for broadcast quality? No. An impressive proof of concept? Absolutely.
Adds Alan in comments: “Watched it, too, and had the same results: Okay video but awful audio. I assume the audio problem could be fixed without any major problem. But streaming live events isn’t as important as the ability of anyone to broadcast live video. This is truly a ** revolutionary ** application.”
Adds Scott: “I’m with ComVu Media, the company that arranged and provided the cell phone streaming technology, in conjunction with Nokia. We were using 6 Nokia N93’s for the broadcast. Yes, we did experience poor audio quality due to over modulation of the on-board mics in the phones. In other words, the audio was way too hot. Nothing we could do about it. We are really pushing the envelope here, and it looks like the handset manufacturers need to modify the auto gain control in the devices.”
I got a Vista PC recently. I’ve been playing with it, and that alone could explain my absence from LR for the past two weeks. (Well, that and vacation). I’m not going to spend a lot of time Vista-bashing. First, as a known Machead, I’m biased. Second, the “Hey – Vista is almost like a Mac!” shtick has been done. Third, there is no third, but you’re supposed to write in threes. More, after the jump. (Are you sure you want to click that jump link? Yes… No… Never…)
The folks behind the site Channel101.com are teaming up with VH1 and Jack Black for an innovative video show called Acceptable.TV (watch the hilarious promo). In a nutshell, users upload their own three-minute mini-shows. The user shows are combined with “professional” shows produced by the Acceptable.TV team. Users then vote for the shows they want to cancel or let live for another week. The “acceptable” shows air on TV, and all of the shows (including clips that are too edgy for TV) will be online. But here’s the kicker: Acceptable.TV’s video will be powered by Revver, and users who submit shows will get a cut of ad revenue each time their clip is viewed on the web. The more popular the clip, the more money they make. Add all these components together — a blend of user-created and professional video, uncensored clips, a hilarious host, an interactive experience and revenue sharing — and it all adds up to a very promising idea. The website goes live on Monday, and the show premieres on March 23rd.
Acceptable.TV’s first promo features Jack Black and others ripping TV for being “too slow” and “not interactive enough.” The second spot features a woman who falls asleep watching TV and leaves “him” for the internet.
Airing this Sunday after the news comedy show The ½ Hour News Hour, Fox News Channel will test runIt’s Out There, a show that will discuss stories pulled from political blogs. Conservative blogger-columnist Michele Malkin and former Clinton administration operative Kirsten Powers will host the show. By the way, The ½ Hour News Hour scored a big number last week — nearly 1.5 million viewers, just under The Daily Show’s 1.6 million. I, for one, will still opt for The Daily Show.
Last year, old-fashioned CRT TV sets accounted for 46 percent of all shipments to North American retailers, partly because they’re so affordable compared to pricey flat screen sets. The Consumer Electronics Associates predicts that CRT sets will no longer be sold in the U.S. in two years time, but perhaps that’s a little optimistic. Unless, of course, TV manufacturers want to slash prices on flat screens. Two years ago, I bought a 32″ Sony CRT HDTV set for $799. Today, the least expensive 32″ Sony HDTV flat screens still cost over $1,000. And I bet my CRT picture beats the LCD in quality.
Adds Zack in comments: “I prefer my HD CRT over any LCD on the market. Unfortunately it’s VERY heavy. Recently, I hired movers because I didn’t want to take it down three sets of stairs again. I’m just holding out as long as possible until they can improve the flats.”
Adds FishPatrol: “I won’t argue that some analog HDTV sets can outperform most or all mid-level LCD TVs, most likely including mine. For me, the logic included being able to move it myself, using less electricity, and connecting to a computer via DVI to watch movies, play games, etc. And with i.Link (Firewire) I can record shows directly off the set, onto the computer for later watching or archiving.”
MTV.com visitors can enter to win a place on the Road Rules RV pit crew in a unique contest with search engine Ask.com. To enter, users must fill in the blanks with Road Rules trivia — which changes every week — and the answers can be found by searching for suggested keywords on Ask.com. A very creative way to encourage MTV’s younger audience to give the search engine a try.
The user video site Revver has inked a deal with Verizon’s rapidly-expanding IPTV service, FiOS TV. “We’re joining with Revver to bring the user-generated video phenomenon to the TV set,” said Marilyn O’Connell, Verizon SVP of video solutions. “This is just another way that FiOS continues to distinguish itself from old-fashioned TV.” Revver will also supply clips to Verizon’s broadband entertainment portal.
Adds Lenny in comments: “The Maryland county where I live is one of the first to approve the FiOS TV franchise and everyone I know who has it loves it. In January, crews came to the neighborhood to lay the fiber and install below-ground junction boxes at the curb. It seems to take a few weeks before they are ready to actually install the service to the houses but I plan to be first on my block to schedule an appointment.”
Jeff Jarvis makes an excellent point in this blog post that urges news organizations — especially newspapers — to focus their dwindling resources on their strengths instead of trying to duplicate coverage that’s widely available elsewhere. Newspaper sites are already posting more national wire and syndicated stories to free up their reporters to cover more local news. But Jarvis goes a step further to suggest they link to sites that are doing a better job covering a story.
There’s an interesting implication here for TV news, as well. The majority of stories in local TV newscasts (and the networks, too) are exactly the same. This sameness is not a detractor in a linear world: most people who watch TV don’t turn off a newscast if they’ve already read or seen a story somewhere else. But on the web, sameness is a drawback: people who have already read or seen a story somewhere else aren’t going to click on it to read it again. Posting the same stories as everyone else has a more tangible impact on pageviews than airing the same stories has an impact on ratings. This becomes even a bigger drawback when you consider all the stories TV newsrooms get from newspapers, which have already been online for most the day before they end up on the TV websites. In the end, covering unique, original stories is a must for TV sites — resources willing — even if it means diverging from TV’s daily coverage. Or better yet, TV newsrooms should cover more enterprise stories as a percentage of daily assignments.
