Monday, August 30, 2010

Death to the Crawl line!

Or the ticker,or the info centipede,or whatever you want to call it.It's a bad idea.
I don't have any illusions that anybody actually reads my blog (heck,I don't even have any spam in my comments) but I'll have my little say.
I hate crawl lines.They are in fact a useless distraction.In the age of the Internet,and super phones,and ipads, there are other,better ways to give people information than to ugly up a TV screen.
When you try to watch a tennis match, it's like having a strand of string raked across your eyeball.There it goes constantly racing across the bottom,or middle,of the screen insisting on it's own importance."Look at me!!" "I'm value added!" "Wouldn't you rather read trivial information than watch a sporting event?"
No. No I would not.

Maybe dull witted people don't mind it.Goody for them.
It bothers me.It bothers plenty of people.But how loud would you have to complain to get it stopped? Probably hopeless.
I'm afraid the button pushing monkeys in the control rooms enjoy it to much."Ooh,ooh dump some more eye stabbing crap on the screen." "Because we can!"
Just because you can,doesn't mean you should.

ESPN has always done this.They should have classed up and dropped it some time ago.But now for some inexplicable reason,Tennis Channel has added a constant crawl line.Which is usually in the middle of the screen.To small to read,but enough to annoy.
What are you thinking?

If it does irritate you;there is a way to rid yourself of the pestering visual trash.Cover it up with duct tape.
No I don't mean to stick it to the screen,and damage the TV.

Get two long strips of duct tape,and stick them to each other.Sticky side to sticky side.
Wrap the strip around the bottom of the screen.Put a little tape on the ends to hold.
Visually neutral,and much better than a crawl line.

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