I hate NBC Sports as far as their NHL & Olympic coverage goes. If I had this blog up last year, you’d have seen copies of the many emails I sent to NBC Sports about their lack of HD Hockey coverage as well as their lack of live HD Olympic events. In 2004 when the Olympics were in Greece, their HD channel was pretty much 24/7 HD Olympic programming. The SD feed was the usual daytime crap with a couple of hours of the Olympics at night. For whatever reason, they didn’t do that in 2006.

I’m also really upset at their lackluster attitude towards the NHL. They are the only major network (Versus is not a major network IMHO) that broadcasts NHL games. Supposedly they are all supposed to be in HD (all 9 regular season games - how’s that for a commitment to a sport?) but for whatever reason, the March 4th game I saw was in SD. The reason?:
NBC made a late decision not to air the Philadelphia/Pittsburgh game in high definition. We did not receive notification of the change until Friday evening. The Dallas/Detroit game, which was advertised as well over the past weeks, did air in high definition in other parts of the country. I apologize for the confusion and hope you will continue to watch our programming in the future

Who’s on this Sunday you ask? No one. I have no idea why they’re taking this Sunday off from showing NHL games, but my bet is that it’s golf.

And, while this has nothing to do with HD programing, I love how the show airing locally before the Sunday games is an infomercial, while the hosts plug their 30 minute online pregame show. Someone has to remind NBC that not everyone has a TV sitting next to their computers.

At least their NFL Games are in HD

I like HDNet as well as HDMovies. They do show a handful of NHL games throughout the year as well as some other sporting events (soccer looks amazing in HD) I’m hoping that they will be able to broadcast some of the 2007 NHL Playoffs, but I have a feeling that’s not gonna happen anytime soon.

I hate CBS. Since I follow the Bills, I’m pretty much forced to watch at least 8 games a year on CBS. I think 1-1/2 of them were in HD last year. How is 1/2 a game in HD you ask? The Bills were getting their asses handed to them by the Bears, so CBS decided to change the national feed to another game. That left us watching the 2nd half of the game in SD.

In Nov 2005 I wrote this letter to the local CBS affiliate (I’ve written many to CBS Sports, but I’ve never gotten a reply)

Subject: Show the HD NFL games!

Way to go! I just turned on Fox & will enjoy the Dolphins & Falcons in HD with my antenna.

This is the reply I got back:
As you may be aware, we are at the mercy of CBS. We only air what they give us. We are hopeful all CBS games will be in HD next year.

Regards,
John
Director of Engineering and Operations
WIVB-TV/WNLO-TV

I’m sorry to say that 2006 was the same. I think they only have 3 HD camera crews, which doesn’t work that well if you broadcast 5-7 NFL games each week.

My fingers are crossed that CBS will get all their NFL games in HD for the 2007 season (and you know I’ll be complaining if they don’t)

If you want to complain to CBS about this (and have your complaint fall on deaf ears) then please go here:
http://www.sportsline.com/help/contactus/usersspeak

I live in the Buffalo, NY area. One of the perks of this has always been that we get a couple of Canadian TV channels - both thru the cable company & via an antenna. CBC broadcasts their HD feed from the top of the CNN Tower, so we get crystal clear reception over then antenna. I love hockey & Hockey Night In Canada is always on (unless there’s a Sabres game) So, you put my love for hockey together with my love for HDTV & you get my love for CBC.

And, as much as I hate to say it, their coverage of the Olympics is 10x’s better than NBC.

I am a BIG HDTV geek. I have 2 Sony HDTV’s. The 1st is an old 42″ plasma (I say old because I bought it in 2001 and paid a fortune for it) which is located in my Pool House. I have an HD receiver thru Time Warner & I also have a Terk antenna on the side of the house (Time Warner recently added Fox HD to their line up so it’s only real use now is picking up CBC out of Toronto) The 2nd is a 56″ rear projection monster that’s also hooked up to an HD Time Warner receiver as well as one of those 1950’s TV Antenna’s. This allows me to watch something on the antenna while The Bride is recording something on her TiVo (and before you ask, no, it’s not an HD TiVo)

I’m one of those people that think EVERYTHING should be in HD, but I know that we’re years away from a time where that will be a reality. But what ticks me off the most is that a majority of major sporting events are in HD and when I find one that’s not, the letters & emails start flying!

Back when we were looking to buy a new house in 2001, the one thing that sealed the deal for me was what the brochure called “The Pool House” It’s a 30×30 building near the pool & while it was not exactly perfect, with a little remodeling, we made it into one hell of a party area. I’m due to take pictures of it again, but here’s a list of the crap I have in there:
42″ HD Sony Plasma
2 28″ TV’s
L shaped 16×8 bar (that’s pretty much fully stocked)
2 keg refrigeration unit with taps
4 arcade video games
Bubble Hockey
3 sets of speakers (1 outdoor Bose, 1 crappy ceiling, 1 Cerwin Vega)
Fridge
Ice Machine
Stereo with XM Satellite Radio & iPod dock
Poker Table (I can have a 30+ player tournament)

There’s more, but you’ll have to wait for the pics

Hockey is my true love & Fantasy Hockey almost goes hand-in-hand with it. This will sound really dumb, but when I was a kid, my buddy Keith & I each had one of those table-top hockey games (and a couple years ago I fulfilled one of my life long dreams & got my own Bubble Hockey game) and we’d have little fake drafts, where we picked players from the NHL & they were on our team. We’d play table top hockey & keep track of who had goals & assists & write up stats & have tournaments. I know, silly.

In the early 90’s my friend Jeff & I got into a Fantasy Hockey league that was done thru the mail. We’d rank the players & send them in for the draft. Each week, we’d have to mail in our lineups & we’d be mailed the results from the previous week. Thinking back on it now and based on the internet & technology, it was a really horrible way of doing it. I think we realized it was horrible at the time as well, as the next season we started up our own league. It was (and still is) a very unique league, where you started 3 lines each week (C, RW, LW, 2 D) and you’re 1st line went against their 1st line with 8 points per line up for grabs (goals, assists, P/M and PIM) You also started 2 goalies and your #1 goalie went head- to-head with the other team’s #1 goalie. We did this for 2 or 3 years, compiling stats by hand from the newspaper as well as typing up the results & rosters each week. We tried to get a league together based on this format last October, but we can not find a stats service that will accommodate us.

In the late 90’s I got into an established perennial league where you get $200 fantasy dollars to use to bid on players at the draft as well as sign players to long term contracts. There’s also a supplemental draft where you can pick up players for free after all the rosters are filled. I did finish in the money in this league a couple of times (it might only be one time) but I don’t think I ever really grasped the concept until this year. So now I’m trying to get prospects for cheap so I can sign them to long term contracts. This year I picked up Jason Pominville & Jordan Staal in the supplemental draft & with the way they’re playing now, they’ll be on my team for the next 7 or 8 years.

You won’t see me talking about this too much until next season, as I am in last place with 3 weeks to go.

In 2006 I was in 3 Fantasy Football Leagues. I am in a big league that’s based out of my home town, one that’s based ion Florida run by a guy I grew up with as well as a small one that I run. In the 2 big leagues, we draft both offensive & defensive players. From what I’ve seen looking at other leagues, drafting individual defensive players is not the norm in the fantasy Football world. Defensive players points are: 2 for a tackle, 1 for an assist, 6 for a sack, 8 for a pick, 3 for a fumble, 6 for a TD, etc. I like it a lot - adds a lot of thought & prep-work to the league.

Draft Day is, of course, a big deal. I’ve been hosting the draft here for a couple of years & I’ll be flying back down to Florida again this August for that draft.

I also suck at fantasy Football. I don’t think I’ve won more than a total of $200 in the 5 or 6 years I’ve been doing it.

I am one of those geeks that into Fantasy Sports. It all started back in the early 90’s when I co-ran a Fantasy Hockey League for a couple of years as well as a few failed attempts at Fantasy Baseball & Fantasy Basketball. This was all before the internet, so we had to compile stats by hand, type up the rosters, results & standings & then deliver them to everyone in the league.

I’m currently in a perennial Fantasy Hockey League as well as a couple of Fantasy Football Leagues (one of which I manage) These are all run by friends thru stats services (meaning you won’t catch me in any ESPN Fantasy Leagues)

Hello

Welcome to the new & improved BlinkerFluid.com. For the last 7+ years, this site has been nothing but links to other stupid websites. That part will continue (and I ask that everyone continue to send in silly websites) but I found myself needing an outlet for my mindless ramblings about HDTV, Sports, recycling, TiVo and numerous other irrelevant topics. So that’s what this site will now become - rants & silly links

So give it shot for a couple weeks. 1st thing on my list will be to go thru & write up the reasons I have these categories as well as some past rants. Enjoy!