Secrets of the City

I’m a little curious to know how this affects the standing of Brad Childress with Vikings fans now. I certainly can’t be counted as one of his fans, but you know what they say about the deodorizing effect of victory.

The board The Rat read said he should be fired, but that seems to be every-week sort of thing no matter who’s coaching the team.

He doesn’t pass, block, tackle or kick. But when the team loses it’s: Fire the coach.

Dennis Green coached many teams into the playoff without a bit of slack cut his way. So, no, I don’t expect the heat is off ol’ Childy. Heck, even Gardenhire gets a lot of hate, and he’s done more with less for longer than any manager in MLB. I think you have to win championships every single year to be a beloved coach.

I haven’t been that frequent on the Vikes fan board I used to frequent, but wonder if it’s the same one Rat likes.

I don’t really like it. It’s the one one Twincities.com. The people there are not good.

The one I (don’t much) go to is what’s left of the former Star Tribune folks. They’re OK. Find them at talkvikes.gorge.net.

Also, it looks like the Vikes will actually play the Iggles. Not sure when they’re scheduled to play.

I like that the game will be on FOX, so I can watch the Viking-misery unfold in HD. Go Eagles!

Yeah, Kevin, I miss the Barnstormers, too!

the game will be next sunday 3pm CST. I’m guessing the vikes will be 2 point favorites. vikes might win that game, but they will be toast @ NYG or @ CAR. either of those teams will just bulldoze them.

in week 2, my buddy in Detroit vowed to not shave his beard until the lions won a regular season game. he’s going to have one rough summer.

Is it a problem getting any of the HD signals in town? I happen to like anyone but FOX, because games look better in 1080. Of course I refuse to shell out for digital cable, so I guess we don’t get ESPN in HD at all.

I think Fox has the “worst” HD of the football networks.

Do a side-by-side comparison of a cable HD signal and one received directly via antenna. You’ll begin to wonder why anyone would want to shell out extra dollars to pick up local channels digitally on cable (or satellite, for that matter).

I get my local HD from cable and it looks no different than the HD my parents get over the air.

I have Dish Network HD and the signal is actually pretty close to the on air HD signal. The big plus is the DVR attached. I typically will start watching the recorded game about 1.5 hours after the game starts. By skipping though the commericals and the injury TO’s and the moronic commentary I usually catch up right at the end of the game.

Plus instant replays that I can control. Like boob exposure during the Super Bowl.

noodleman, the broadcast channels come in HD for free if you have a ClearQAM TV tuner (we only have a Basic+ package). Working the way it does, there is no incentive for cable companies to compress those channels.

Although the cable company would love you to be a digital subscriber, where they can squeeze more channels into less bandwidth with compression and switching, apparently they don’t want to find a model that kills analog altogether by making every subscriber a potential PPV and/or premium channel customer with a free set-top box.

@champs: Maybe things have recently changed but satellite TV was notorious for squeezing HD channels into their limited bandwidth.

Re: cable set-top boxes. As of 2009, Comcast will be offering their set-top boxes and the basic-basic channels (i.e. local non-HD) for free.

I get local HD channels from Comcast as part of my basic analog cable. I always thought they came over the air, but a Comcast guy who came to my house to get channels 5.1 and 5.2 working (he failed to) said they are part of basic cable. So if you hve any Comcast servie at all, you shoulnd’t have to get them OTA>

I was under the impression that current FCC regs prevent cable companies from killing analog completely, for the time being.

But, Comcast supposedly has plans to kill the analog signal in certain markets as soon as they are allowed.

They practically do already. The analgo backage with ESPN and stuff costs a litte bie more than the comparable digital package, so it would be kind silly to have analog at that level.

Sorry about the bad typeing. It’s hard to typ[e with gloves on.

@kwatt: Where do you live? A half-decent indoor Radio Shack antenna attached to my DTV brings in all of the local HD channels. Might upgrade to a roof-top antenna, though, because I do get periodic drop-outs.

Just make sure you’re pointing the antenna in the right direction, i.e. toward Shoreview for every station but KSTP/KSTC.

Kwatt had the right idea at first, trying to indulge in a little smack talk. Then things got derailed by all this techie gibberish.

@kwatt: P.S. “Basic cable” costs to subscribe. “Basic-basic” cable — the ultra-slim package with just the local over-the-air channels — will be free beginning in 2009 … but it does NOT include any digital channels; just the analog VHF/UHF channels.

I think we need to clarify terms. I believe people are mistaking analog for SDTV or Standard Definition Digital. After February there will be no more analog over the airwaves because the government will be selling those frequencies to other providers raising huge bucks in the process.

I’ve done the roundabout with Comcast telling me I can’t get 5.1 and 5.2 b/c of a KSTP problem and KSTP telling me they have no problems with their signal. I can see the KSTP radio tower from my porch, but pick up 0 zignal. Very frustrating. This all has to be resolved by the time LOST comes back next month, so I may just bite the bullet and get an HD box, which I found out you can do even if you have analog cable service. I’d rather pay the $10/month or whatever than have to wait until the next day to watch LOST online. Yes, I know.