I have a new thing to be annoyed by. When using certain streaming apps on our (supposedly) smart TV, the sound often gets out of sync with the images, so that you see people's mouths move and a few beats later you hear what they are saying -- or, if you are watching live sports, you'll see a great play, and then as everybody is celebrating you'll hear the announcer enthusiastically call the play that you already watched. It's extremely irritating. It especially happens with Peacock, and it gets so bad that by the end of an episode of The Office* the dubbing is worse than on an old Godzilla movie.
*We've been making our way through the series as a family. We are on the final season, and honestly, at this point, it can't end soon enough. It's gotten b-a-a-a-d. It took a big step down when Steve Carell left (how could it not?), but an even more extreme inflection point, I've come to find, is when Catherine Tate joins the cast. Her character is so annoying, and the (many) storylines centered around her are excruciating to watch. Somebody told me that Tate didn't even like her character, which would make sense, although I cannot independently confirm that through my extremely brief internet search.
I've tried to troubleshoot the problem but haven't been able to find a permanent solution. I did learn that it's the in-program commercial breaks that cause it, which could be why we only really see it with certain apps. Netflix, for example, doesn't have these types of ads (at least not with our subscription), so it doesn't happen when we stream from here. Also, if you leave the stream and reenter, it syncs up again, so at least there is a workaround. When I'm streaming football by myself, every half hour or so, when I notice the sound lag has gotten bad, I'll exit the stream and it enter again. It's a bit annoying, but there are plenty of breaks throughout a football game, so it's not like I miss anything. Plus, I frequently watch with the sound off and the game on in the background, so it's a nonissue.
When I watch The Office with the family, however, I don't do the leave-the-stream-and-reentry-it trick, because doing so annoys everybody else. I have no idea how this little hack, that takes literally less than 20 seconds, can annoy them more than the sound being completely out-of-whack, but it does. So, I just live with it. I mean, like I said, the show is pretty terrible now, anyway, so I don't feel like some great watching experience is being sullied.
I've noticed the YouTube app also frequently has a bit of a sound lag -- or at least it used to. I haven't tried it in long time. But I probably should because I don't like watching YouTube through the browser because the pause button for some stupid reason is directly below the start of the status bar. So, if go to hit pause, and miss by a millimeter, you'll hit the start of the status bar instead and reset the video to the beginning of the clip. I guess I have particularly fat fingers because I do this all the time. It's such a stupid layout, and I've noticed that it's not like that in the app. In fact, it might be such a stupid layout specifically because they want you to use the app. I've notice that with other Google products -- they push you toward the app by making the non-app version really annoying to use. Google used to be my default search engine on my iPhone, for example, but then every time I would go to search something -- every single time -- I would get a little pop-up saying that it was better to use their app, and I couldn't figure out how to turn it off. So, I just switched my search engine to Yahoo!. I won't be bullied into switching to the app!*
*Actually, I often will, and what I find, I must admit, is that I usually like the app better. But I'm still resentful when companies make me do it, and so sometimes I'll take a pointless stand against it.
I've been watching a decent amount of YouTube lately, because it's NFL and MLS season, so I will frequently watched extended highlights of Seahawks and Sounders games. I've also been hitting up Love is Kimes, the Love is Blind recap show hosted by my favorite football analysts (who also dabbles in reality TV) Mina Kimes. It's a great show, both Kimes and her cohost, David Dennis, are super funny. I'm not usually into reality TV, but I do enjoy watching Love is Blind with S, and the recap shows are a big reason why. This season has been pretty good too -- lots of fun couples getting engaged, and a few love triangles, including one prominently featuring this rich art dealer who turned into a great reality TV show villain (and who mysteriously left the show).
I feel a bit of compunction sometimes, however, because a big draw to the show is, of course, the drama, which is often caused by other people acting ridiculous. So, you get what I call the "American Movie Effect," in which you feel genuine empathy towards the subjects you're watching, but you are also laughing at their shortcomings, and let's be honest, feeling superior to them. What are the ethics behind this? I've come to the conclusion that it's okay with reality TV, because there is an informed consent in play. At this point, people know what they are getting into when they sign up to be on a reality TV show, and they still do so enthusiastically. I'm okay with being entertained by people taking risks, so long as they are fully informed of and fully consent to such risks. In football, you might get a debilitating injury; in reality TV, you might get mocked by viewers. We all know this by now, and you should only participate in these activities if you are willing to accept these possible negative outcomes.
Alright gotta go. Until next time...
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