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TechTV.com RIP
SlashdotOgre writes "It has finally happened, www.techtv.com is no more. This was
somewhat expected after Comcast decided to give the
ax. This is a bit of a shame; as many users know, the
site was an excellent resource for both product reviews and
software. Most noteably, the Call for Help section has
disappeared and The Screen Savers only has recent episodes in the Episode
History section. If Comcast does own the rights to older
material, I do hope they decide to post some of it (but I doubt that
will be enough to ge me to watch their "new" network)."
It's merged with the G4 network and is now G4TechTV.
Just as well to, as I get G4 on my current digital package, but TechTV was up on a higher tier. To get it, I'd have to get out of my current promotion and reassemble into a new package with the techtv tier - taking a normally $6.95/mo tier up to almost 40$ - since I'd lose the savings I was currently getting!
Looking for hardware (Currently need: Large Etch-a-Sketch) Have one? See my journal!
Archive.org has some archives of the old site. Much of the old data can be found there.
The Technonaut
I'm trying to shed a tear but.........I can't. I thought their reviews to be lack luster, and the "reporting" to be subpar. They were, at their best, like Slashdot on a very bad day.
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
--
I saw this coming. I real shame too. I really liked TechTV. Now that I've moved, I can't get TechTV OR G4. The cable company didn't carry either network.
I am MuchTall
"Where's the Archive? The past three months are available now. The entire archive is coming soon! " on the site... guess all that good info will be back soon?
Yes ZDTV/TechTV will be missed. It was nice having a geek network. So Who wants to start a new network?
SimonTek
The new G4TechTv on Dish. So far everything I have seen that has come over from G4 is really lame. I'm not saying that everything on TechTv was awesome, but the quality of the shows I've seen from G4 is not very good. Has anyone seen PLayers? Yikes, I really do NOT want to watch uninsteresting people play video games. Am I missing any G4 shows that are worth my time to watch at all? As it is I'd rather watch and laugh at 'The Big JOe Polka Fest' on one of the crazy community access channels... it's like a bad accident-- nobody wants to see it, but everybody looks.
~Z
Does anyone know if TechTV will still be letting users watch old episodes online or by request (e.g., copy of the episode). I am particular looking for video segment on The Ant Farm case mod (invalid link now) online or on tape/whatever media. I did e-mail TechTV staff a few months ago after this mod story was posted on /., but never received a response. I doubt I will get one after sending another request today. Anyone got this segment in their TechTV collection? ;)
:(
I managed to savage the Web pages and thumbnails from Google Caches. Archive.org didn't have this Web story when I tried the original URL.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
This seems fairly self-explanatory to me...
It had the ugliest sets, hosts that were more or less inept, and the same boring content played over and over. TechTV always had new content, their sets were professional and made you actually want to watch (as opposed to giving you the feeling that you should be going to a Disco), and their hosts were competent technical experts.
Which brings us to the final question. What sort of drugs were they ON?!?
-Vendal Thornheart
I really hate that G4 merged with TechTV. I tivo ScreenSavers, TechLive(g4 canceled) and Martin unscrewed. Xlive is fun to watch if its a game I want to buy. Great channel for geek news.
The website tv ep history is gone, its an ugly POS. Shame.
Wonder what g4techtv will become, because if it goes mainstream its going to suck.
It is really sad to see this day finally come. I haven't watched techtv much recently but I was a loyal fan of ZDTV back in the day when the network first launched.
In addition to the computer related programming, I really liked having one channel where you didn't see the same old crap being advertised. They had mostly technology commercials and weird little artsy zdtv "amaze yourself" ones. Then they actually let users make their own little "we'll be back after the break" clips via webcam..... Its been mostly downhill since the big advertisers stepped in and redirected the network.... too bad.
I've only tuned into the channel once since the takeover occurred and was annoyed how their logo G4TechTV was now at the top of the screen, large, colorful, and covering up the computer screens that they were displaying.
Oh well. I still have my "ZDTV Dot Coms not Sit Coms" bumper sticker.. Good luck fired techtv employees.
Belive in Technology and AMAZE yourself. -- RIP ZDTV/TechTV
Think about it for a second...it's just begging for a change in meaning.
/. users would watch this.
Programming would almost certainly be sparse for a while:
SlashDot
- On the Hour and Twice a Day,
- News for the nerdy crowd
ThinkGeek
- Half an Hour of the Coolest Shopping,
- And whatever else they scrape up.
Forge & Savannah
- What released this very day??
- What might be the coolest thing today?
Open Magazine
- Let's bring it back with full force.
- Or combine with the half-dozen LinMags
Open Testing
- True Benchmarks
- Performed Live!
Security Watch
- The most important show
- Most likely to expand into a spinoff
Gamer's Dungeon
- And for the less geeky...
- Or is the extremely geeky?
FX Designs of...
- Most
- Most people would watch this!
UberGeek Interview
- If you stretch the meaning...
- You could get 100 different people!
DevTraffick
- What's new in Gnome? Kde?
- How about non-nix projects?
Hardware Hackers
- Now, finally, a COOL show
- Yup...finally....
DistroWatch
- So many distros
- Too much time....
TrendWare
- What colour blackberry is hot?
- How out of date is your new system?
And finally...Dilbert, Futurama, Lexx, Farscape, Stargate, Star Trek, and whatever else geeks would watch....
"Yeah...it was the numbers that were irrational, not the murderous cult of vegetarians...." -- Hippasus of Metapontum
They fired the entire S.F. studio - and gave only a select few the option of moving to the G4TV studios in L.A. Also the firestorm of hatemail, online petitions, and angery forum posts for Leo Laporte and Call for Help's demise I think really got G4 thinking "WTF do we do now?" So they negotiated a few 90 second clips with Leo to be aired durring The Screen Savers. His face is on their homepage, twice. And they're looking at selling his show to another network. Damn you Comcast and G4... now I have to answer even MORE noobish questions.
This will also affect TechTV Canada, as stated on their website:
Toronto, On (May 13, 2004) - Recently TechTV in the United States changed names to G4techTV. This was as a result of the Comcast Corporation becoming the new owner of the channel thru G4 Media inc.
G4techTV will be the new name for the Canadian digital channel TechTV Canada. It will combine popular programming from both technology lifestyle channels, G4 and TechTV. As part of the deal, G4 Media inc. assumes one third ownership of TechTV in Canada.
Rogers Media, based in Toronto, will continue to operate the channel as managing partner and G4techTV will continue to be available on digital cable and satellite in Canada
The full press release can be seen here, and the FAQ for the Canadian merger can be found here.
Last I heard, comcast in my area doesn't show techtv. Not even on digital cable. I've been watching it on cband satellite for a long time, since it was zdtv. Anyways, I don't think comcast likes to do what the customers want. So for those of you hoping for archives of the old techtv.com, good luck.
01100010 01101001 01110100 01100101 00100000 01101101 01100101
...has little to do with being rational.
I hope Satan uses the skulls of the entire Concast e-staff as commodes.
I have had the opportunity to watch the new network, and I am not sure if I like it. Many of the shows show potential, but are just plain boring in practice. I don't want to watch a bunch of geeks deathmatch on Arena. I did like the E3 coverage with Dane Cook, he is just a really funny comic though, I am not sure anyone else could have carried that segment. I am miffed that they kept Thunderbirds from TechTV, I don't know about any of you guys, but I think that show sucks bigtime. I do hope they keep Wil Wheaton, I was getting into his subtle ribbing of the callers on Call For Help. Comcast is making a huge mistake, IMHO, why fix something that is not broken? If they can get rid of all of the "robots battling each other" shows, I will be at least slightly happy. I will give the network a chance though, granted they keep Leo.
I hate sigs.
My favorite tech tv memory was that guy who fumbled and broke that priceless phonograph recording thing. That was great. http://www.ebaumsworld.com/techtvblooper.html
Click for offensive t-sh
Leo was probably one of the most tech savy folks on TechTV. He also seems to be the only regular that really embraced Linux...
For those that don't know, there's been a lot of discussion about the cancelation of CFH on Leo Laporte's forums. Here's the link to Leo's Comments.
Basically, Leo is still doing his 90 second segments on TSS, but he is working on some new projects...one of these will be Leoville.TV...he says that he is going to be getting some of the old TechTV folks to work with him. He also says that there are offers coming in from other channels, but he probably won't be back on TV on a regular basis until some time in the Fall.
Until then, there's always his radio show on KFI...
The problem with an all games network is that there's just not enough that happens in a given day to fill up 6 or 7 full time shows.
What you get are about 5 "review" shows with pretty much the same content...a couple "lets watch people play games" shows and some "filler" (Anime Unleashed and Thunderbirds...while I don't mind either, neither has a place on a tech oriented channel..I know these came from TechTV, but noone's perfect)...
X-Play was ok, but it seems that ComCast is just sucking the soul out of what was TechTV...
Most of the shows on the new channel just feel like a badly done public access show. These people obviously don't know anything about the technology and I've caught more than a few of them with the "deer in headlights" look...Don't get me wrong, TechTV had its share of "Pretty Boys", but there seemed to be an attempt at putting someone who was "dumb" with someone that knew their stuff (Leo and Cat on CFH for instance)...
Of course I think Comcast would be best to look at why Leo Laporte was such a good host...he had radio experience and knew when guests were getting "boring" and would change the direction toward a more interesting subject...
Wouldn't something like this do MUCH better on a pay-for download basis? Shows like this are NOT expensive to produce, and using bittorrent as a distribution model (those who leach pay more) would make it more efficient to distribute.
Especialy since it's a tech oriented show.
I would rather be ashes than dust!
I wonder why the current format wasn't setting the world on fire...hmmmmmm..lets look at it.
Screen-Savers 8 hours a day.
The LAME Robot Wars 2 hours a day.
Other non-original progamming that had very little to do with real "tech".
These guys coasted for a year on nothing interesting. I switched on the channel twice in the last 6 months. Once, they were building a mod case out of an Army ammo can (uh...couldn't afford a REAL case?) The other time, they were reviewing music players (for the 13th time).
Hopefully, Comcast will actually keep it as "Tech"TV and then actually develop a few good series out of that instead of just rehashing the same 8 topics and the same 4 programs for the next 2 years. I liked the CONCEPT of TechTV, but I hated the REALITY of TechTV. Buh0Bye. Perhaps something good will come out of this (like a series where geek contestants test their knowledge of C++ for fabulous prizes, or they do a real, cooperative Gillagan's Island. They strand 7 geeks, and tell them there are hidden resources on the island they can use together to make things (radios, solar cells, etc) Anything would be better than watching those two middle-aged dorks cruise t the set in their mustang anymore. I was embarasesed for them.
"Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect."- Steven Wright
No more Leo...That's too bad. It was a good show - had something for everyone if you waited long enough. They didn't leave out the Mac or Linux crowd (even think I remember them talking *BSD a few times) and weren't just a bunch of Windows Power Users filling a time slot. All good things come to and end I guess.
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
I have been watching G4TechTV over the weekend, (while working on exams) and thus far I have seen just about every show on G4TechTV, (or part of it) One word...Crap..Crap (all right two) the sets all seem to be from the seventies and are all brightely colored...(Filter I'm thinking of you) They need to have a disclamer before the show.."Sets best viewed stoned" (not that I support that kind of thing) also every single G4 show seems to have stayed (not sure if they cut any) I mean atleast cut the crap..like Pulse (hour long weekely game show where they jump from topic to topic sometimes in under 15 seconds) The only good thing I've seen was that behind the scenes of the new Riddick game, which has me looking into it and I might buy it (once I get an X-Play review :D)
All the reporters on G4 are all in there 20s and have almost no experience..they talk WAY too fast, I can talk fast, but I have a hard time understanding them sometimes...
Notice how it is G4TechTV...and not TechTVG4...they merged TechTV into G4 and what they should have done..was merged G4 into TechTV..(drop Thunderbirds, robot wars...) except I do not see any content that G4 has that should even have anything to deal with TechTV.
I once watched Leo Laporte explain Quake internet/multiplayer play as if it were Doom multiplayer. He said, "the entire server can only run as fast as the player with the slowest connection." And went on in an elaborate description of all online, internet games as if they were built on Doom multiplayer. I changed the channel.
/. crew hate each other....
For the most part though, I did enjoy the reviews and tech tips, and picked up lots of info on technology from TSS.
More than anything, I enjoyed watching the blaring interpersonal battles that the hosts shamelessly let slip on to camera day after day. Sometimes, the hosts obviously battled with producers as they were being reprimanded via their ear pieces, and Leo one time even bucked that (cuz I guess he was high and mighty). Watching Dvorack and Laporte go at it was fun too until Dvorack got axed.
It's too bad we can't watch the
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill