Bontrager

Like a lot of you I set my DVR to record the Tour of California at 1 AM each night (CST). Why the F do they have to put stupid basketball and other crap that no one cares about when they're supposed to be broadcasting the Tour? Forget that it's a day behind and the middle of the night and I already know what happened. Throw me a frikkin bone here, ESPN2 - stick to the schedule or at least tell the Guides that it's delayed so my DVR doesn't record another stupid no-one-cares-interview for 1/2 the time.

No, I'm not bitter!

bigskymacadam

i feel your pain ... after the other night i've set mine to record a half hour longer.

travis200

Yea I am not impressed at all with the games running long why not have it on later to allow for the games if it is going to be a problem.

feltdude

I'm afraid that from the majority's perspective, basketball is important and cycling is the "crap that no one cares about."

Grasschopper

Yes the key here is that BB is where the money is at right now and effectively no one cares about cycling. After the TT I think I have it locked up now...10min wasn't enough, I am up to 30 min extra time to ensure I get all the coverage.

bac

I heard that next year the ToC will be on "The Ocho" @ 3:30am.

2Rodies

Part of this has to do with advertising. ESPN2 has sold X amount of ad time during each of it's shows. If that show gets canceled or moved then ESPN2 has to make it up to the advertiser. When it does a make up ad it does it as an 'out of pocket' cost so networks don't like to do it.

Also it's pretty common for any network showing live sports keep the live programming on and not to cut away to a taped show.

DvB

Am I the only one on this board who loves both basketball (college, thank you) AND cycling? Why all the hate? Do you really expect ESPN to cut away from a live game -- for anything, much less taped cycling?

If anything, the problem is that they didn't cut into the odious "Quite Frankly with Stephen A. Smith" -- quite possibly the worst show on television. But then, if they'd cut that, the cycling would have come on too early, and those of us recording the show would have been just as flummoxed. It's a labor of love, being a cycling fan.

As grateful as I am that we're getting coverage at all, it is remarkable how poor the production is. Thank God for Paul and Bob, who make it tolerable. Those guys must be as frustrated as we all are, given the lack of cameras, clocks, time differentials, etc. They're commenting from the same insufficient video feeds that we're all watching, and they're doing a damn good job with the little they have to work with. Only way to improve it would be to have Phil -- the best ever -- take the lead. At least Trautwig isn't there.

Enough ranting. So I'll finish with a positive: It's been a great race -- really great -- so far!

--DvB

aham23

program you DVR to record and extra hour and be done with these threads. later.

curiouskid55

What has amazed me is that even with too short a time allottment, inadequate camera coverage. almost laughable amateur camera work, no graphics , no splits, baffling editing, that this is one heck of an exciting race to watch. I was prepared to be thoroughly disappointed, but this has not been the case. Cant wait to watch today's stage.

DocRay

DON'T COMPLAIN.. at least you get to see something, eventually. OLN doesn't show cycling at all in Canada and just repeats the same four shows all day (all crap).

Warblade

Yeah, actually two nights ago, when the ITT was on (I believe). The show "Quite Frankly" went all the way to 10:18PM when the TofC was supposed to start at 10PM. Although the TofC ended at 10:16PM. So they made up for it.

Remember I'm in Seattle (West Coast) so play times are different.

Hawkear

That "Quite Frankly" show was about the dumbest 2 minutes of TV I have ever watched. I switched over to South Park, and eventually came back after the cycling had started.

worker4youth

Really? Over 1 million spectators for the ToC coming to see it live vs thousands at a basketball game? They're projecting it to be the biggest sporting event in CA, with the exception of the 1988 Olympics.

Sincitycycler

Wow. Alot of guys hate "ball sports" here.
I like all ball sports pretty much being a big guy growing up and playing them.

You think college basketball is on TV to much, just wait. Ever hear of "March Madness"? Party!

Bontrager

Umm. If you watch what I taped when the SCHEDULED cycling program is SUPPOSED to be on you'd be pissed too.

I follow and play lots of other sports. If they delayed broadcasting a playoff game because Martha Stewart had to show you how to make a lovely table runner for your holiday get togethers with the inlaws you'd be pissed. Same thing.

They schedule stuff to go on at a certain time but don't broadcast it at that time. If they just updated their stuff my DVR would auto update and I'd be happy. But no, they have to broadcast it at 12 AM and then start late and end early.

TheKillerPenguin

Yeah, last night I turned ESPN2 on and some football show was on. I couldn't keep myself awake until the tour was on

When did it start last night?

ReedZ

Ditto! Fast forward is your friend.

Bontrager

8 minutes late according to my DVR. I ended missing the finish because my DVR stopped recording when Paul said "...we will be thundering into Santa Barbara..."

I originally wanted to cut out the commercials and Bittorrent them for those less fortunate... oh well.

CPcyclist

So what are the odds that ESPN will at some point re-air the coverage at a reasonable hour that we can sit down and watch 8 hrs of TOC.

If you have the recoding post them any way maybe we can get lucky and come up with a complete set of torrents.

Bontrager

What's the best way to encode them and what size do you want? I was thinking Xvid at 320x200 default settings/single pass after cutting out the commercials??? They're encoded as DVR-MS so I can't use my *ahem* copies of TMPEGEnc's suite of tools which are exellent for MPEG2's.

apw55

I'm guessing, pretty poor. As I'm sure you've noticed, ESPN2's Prime Time schedule is filled with "real sports" played by "real athletes", such as "The World Series of Poker", "Bassmasters" and "Texas Hold'Em Billiards".