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What's The Bug, Tell Me What's A-Happening?

bmfc1 Apr 07 2021 07:21 AM

(I can write obtuse thread titles, too!) https://awfulannouncing.com/mlb/which-rsn-has-the-best-mlb-scorebug.html Did you know that there are 10 different types of scorebugs for televised MLB games? Which one do you like the most? The new "Bally's" one isn't bad but it has a distracting ticker with out-of-town game information.

Fman99 Apr 07 2021 07:28 AM Re: What's The Bug, Tell Me What's A-Happening?

I've grown accustomed to the SNY one I guess. They all mostly suck though. Smaller = better.

metsmarathon Apr 07 2021 07:59 AM Re: What's The Bug, Tell Me What's A-Happening?

huh. the sny one is the most legible. simple, yes. but legible is a pretty good feature. if i'm in a bar or restaurant with sports tvs on, 'm hoping they're tuned to sny. not only because the mets would be on, but because i'd have the best chance of actually knowing what's going on in the game.

Edgy MD Apr 07 2021 08:12 AM Re: What's The Bug, Tell Me What's A-Happening?

I think the SportsNet look is the closest to a winner for me. https://cdn1.thecomeback.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/94/2021/04/sportsnetbug-e1617647824236.jpg> The cropped batting circle logos is a nice compromise between respect for the classics and a bow to the digital age. These are pros here and the logos prove it. SNY fails in that regard. I also like the contrasting colors behind the two teams. There's some ascetic concerns butting up against policy issues here also, as the Blue Jays' primary color (somewhere between royal blue and navy blue) and the Yankees primary (somewhere between navy and black) clash when placed top to bottom, so they assign the little-used Yankees secondary color (battleship grey) to the Bombers' background. That's thoughtful, but shouldn't the home team get the primary color and the away team get the secondary? Their neutral background is also navy. On the downside, oso much space is lost in between the pitcher's and the batter's name and the small amount of game data on those two that they want to provide. They can probably put those both on one line at the bottom of the bug, better serve the viewer, and open up the screen. I like the big bold base graphics, though so much blank space where the navy blue background sits would also be helped by more transparency.

MFS62 Apr 07 2021 08:17 AM Re: What's The Bug, Tell Me What's A-Happening?

None of them bother me unless they obstruct some of the action (the director keeps it up when the ball is in play). What does bother me is the news crawl at the bottom of the screen during some news broadcasts. Some stations keep it going during commercials, but some don't. If they interrupt them, some re-start from the point of interruption, which is ok. But the ones that really bother me are when they interrupt the crawl just before sports scores are coming on. Then after the break they re-start it from the beginning. So we have to wade through national news headlines, local news, weather, traffic and then, maybe , the scores start. Yes, I could change the channel to SNY, but my cable carrier stopped providing SNY, so I am at the mercy of the 11:00 news shows until the sports segment comes on at around 11:25. Pisses me off. The wait turns what should be a relaxing time at the end of the evening into a stressful one. Later

Benjamin Grimm Apr 07 2021 08:39 AM Re: What's The Bug, Tell Me What's A-Happening?

I remember having that same frustration with the crawl. You watch for a while, waiting for them to get to baseball, then to the Mets, and if it's interrupted by a commercial break, you may miss the score you were waiting for. But that was before smart phones; you can now get the score whenever you want. I can't remember the last time I watched a crawl looking for an update.

kcmets Apr 07 2021 09:18 AM Re: What's The Bug, Tell Me What's A-Happening?

Song's gonns be in my head all day...

Willets Point Apr 07 2021 09:23 AM Re: What's The Bug, Tell Me What's A-Happening?

Song's gonns be in my head all day... "When do we ride into Jerusalem?"

kcmets Apr 07 2021 09:24 AM Re: What's The Bug, Tell Me What's A-Happening?

Why should you want to know?? hahaha

Johnny Lunchbucket Apr 07 2021 11:52 AM Re: What's The Bug, Tell Me What's A-Happening?

The only time I notice these things are when they're wrong. I recall SNY several years back debuted one at the beginning of the season that was very easy to misinterpret but I can't remember why (maybe something to do with being unable to tell the difference between innings or outs. we must have discussed it here). They trashed it after a few games iirc. Small and unobtrusive is good, I like the top left Me, I often don't wanna see other scores or a crawl. Last night for example I studiously avoided knowing anything about the Islanders game going on concurrently and being DVRed (I speed-watched afterward. They won, I can report)

bmfc1 Apr 07 2021 12:21 PM Re: What's The Bug, Tell Me What's A-Happening?

The one for MASN (WSH and BAL) lights up to indicate the occupied base(s) but the top/bottom of the inning is indicated by the blank arrow. Be consistent! I don't need logos, but like team colors, pitch counts, batter and pitcher names.

Frayed Knot Apr 08 2021 07:42 AM Re: What's The Bug, Tell Me What's A-Happening?

(I can write obtuse thread titles, too!) I like it! 'Bugs', to me, are fine and I don't get too interested in analyzing the aesthetics of each -- it's the creepy crawlies I don't like. The problem with the crawl is that it's constantly moving and therefore distracting even when you try to ignore it. If I'm watching a baseball game I don't need the results of some WNBA game flashing across my screen every five minutes. As usual, ESPN leads the race to the bottom on this; it's the one time they actually try to be the 'Leader in Sports' so their crawl includes Everything, but mostly it features what will be coming up on their network(s) later that day or week. So while it's bad enough to have having the results of a UFC fight intruding on your set, having what amounts to an advertisement for the latest version of a human cockfighting "championship" three weeks hence (available on ESPN's pay tier of course) is even worse. And, hey, the first college football game (and guess where you can see that?) is only 100 day away!!!! And, yes, we're going to maintain this countdown every day for the next three-plus months!

Ceetar Apr 08 2021 09:23 AM Re: What's The Bug, Tell Me What's A-Happening?

things I've learned reading that post: I don't like the strip at the bottom. rectangle is better, more visible in one eye glance. I don't like all the graphics. I prefer a bug w/o team logos or graphics, I want it to be DATA, and somewhat flat display. Information, not aesthetic. I'd like if more of them kept the pitch count up there permanently, though I do like seeing what the last pitch was too. I'd leave that up too, though i admit that might be bordering on too much info at once. 99mph, slider, ball, would be nice.

Frayed Knot Apr 08 2021 10:01 AM Re: What's The Bug, Tell Me What's A-Happening?

The one thing I don't like about bugs is when the operator tries to update the bases-on situation as the play is going on. A double into the corner with a runner on 1st starts morphing into 1st & 2nd and and then 2nd & 3rd but if you glance at it you're libel to be momentarily confused as to whether that was the condition at the start of the AB or a (very) temporarily live update which is going to change again in the next few seconds.

bmfc1 Apr 09 2021 07:56 AM Re: What's The Bug, Tell Me What's A-Happening? Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Apr 20 2021 04:26 PM

That's a good point, FK. Also, don't count the run until home plate has been touched. We don't need pro-active bug operators! ("human cockfighting championship"--really funny, I think, it could be true.)

batmagadanleadoff Apr 20 2021 01:42 PM Re: What's The Bug, Tell Me What's A-Happening?

I have two TV's. One is a modern flat-screen HDTV with all of the typical bells and whistles that you would reasonably expect from a contemporary TV. The other TV is almost 20 years old, with a relatively square (4:3 ratio) screen. On the newer TV, the edges of the image are cut off. I don't see the left half of the scorebug and most graphics are cut off on both sides. This is especially common when I'm watching live sports or news. I have no idea how to fix it, assuming it even can be fixed. On a side note, I love my older TV. The modern TV distorts the image of most programs. I'm not a fan of the better quality higher resolution images on these neweer TV's because movies now have a video feel to them and that grainy film look is gone. I'm not sure that older movies are meant to be viewed the way they're displayed on these modern smart HDTV's. On the newer TV, the only time I'm sure I'm watching a movie image that isn't distorted is when I'm watching a DVD. I love my older TV and will miss it when it eventually breaks down.

Ceetar Apr 20 2021 02:24 PM Re: What's The Bug, Tell Me What's A-Happening?

I think many newer tvs have 'zoom' buttons that stetch/fit/adjust the image. This isn't really a tv issue so much as it's a production/streaming/producing one.

Benjamin Grimm Apr 20 2021 02:31 PM Re: What's The Bug, Tell Me What's A-Happening?

Yes, they do. I think they're primarily aimed at people who don't like letterboxing.

batmagadanleadoff Apr 21 2021 01:54 PM Re: What's The Bug, Tell Me What's A-Happening?

=Ceetar post_id=61515 time=1618950248 user_id=102] I think many newer tvs have 'zoom' buttons that stetch/fit/adjust the image. This isn't really a tv issue so much as it's a production/streaming/producing one.

Fixed it. It was a cable box issue. I had to change a setting on my cable box. It wasn't a TV issue.

Ceetar Apr 21 2021 02:01 PM Re: What's The Bug, Tell Me What's A-Happening?

cable boxes are some of the worst pieces of electronics ever created.