Weather Channel - Local Weather on the 8's

[OBXParrothead24]

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@Keyboards wrote:

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@OBXParrothead24 wrote:

I believe what this man is asking is what I want to know. With the cable company (Comcast in my case), when the Local on the 8's came on, I got radar localized on Fredericksburg not Washington, DC. (Weather Channel has local codes to make this happen). So when there is a storm, I can see how close it is to me. On the DC feed, Fredericksburg is usually at the bottom of the screen when it goes to the Regional radar. Many times there are local alerts that affect other parts of the area that do not apply to everyone. I have waited for almost 2 years with Verizon FiOS to allow them to catch up and fine tune the system. If the cable provider can do it, why can't Verizon? I get local government from Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania.

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The problem is the basic architecture of  FiOS vs. cable.  Cable has many local head ends that all have Intellistars (the device responsible for the insertion of Local on the 8's).  Fios has a regional hub archiotecture with a single "regionally set" Intellistar which would require multiple Intellistars and multiple channels to distribute.

Think hub and spoke as opposed to daisy chain.

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If Verizon wishes to compete with the cable guys, they need to offer comparable service. They are charging the same price as the cable company. The cable now offers phone service too. Do you think they only offer Long Distance servie because of hubs, etc? Of course not. They offer local and long distance. Seems that the phone guys need to catch up instead of offering lots of bells and whistles to amuse us.

[wessock1]

I personally don't understand all of the frustration on the issue. Just check out the weather on weather.com. It's more detailed, up to date, takes less time to check with no waiting, radar you can adjust and pan around, gives a longer forcast, etc. All of the people complaining obviously have internet access since they're typing here. I was actually suprised by the topic since I thought most people got their weather from the web these days. I doubt it will be much of a priority for Verizon since I'd have to imagine web based weather forcasts are increasingly the trend.

[aclarion]

I really miss the local on the eights. I can access the internet when I am on the computer, but it was nice to check the weather on TV when we wake up in the morning. If the rotten cable company can do it, why can't mighty Verizon? Let's go Verizon, we want our local weather!!!

[thetick]

The new weatherbug widget has my local weather from my town and radar.  Just a few quick tips.  Hit the red "c" button for hour listings and again for the radar, then hit the OK to see the radar full screen.  It's actually pretty useful.