TiVo Community Forums Archives - Who else loves the Discovery Channel?

TiVoCommunity.com
(c)opyright 1995-2005 All rights reserved
indexcheckTC
This area is a static history of posts in the TiVo Community Forum Archive.
This archive history was made for the simple indexing of search sites like Google.

Pages:1

Who else loves the Discovery Channel?
(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)

Posted by: daveyg013

I used to think that the Discovery Channel was just a bunch of boring educational stuff. However, thanks to Tivo Suggestions and recommendations from this board, I now have 6 season passes for the Discovery Channel:

- Mythbusters
- More Than Human
- Monster Garage
- Monster House
- American Chopper
- American Hotrod (new series, coming soon)

Before Tivo, I used to watch whatever lame sitcoms were on at the time. Now, 75% of the time I'm watching shows that actually teach me something. I'm a pretty smart and well-educated guy, but I seem to learn something new everyday from the shows I Tivo.

Posted by: Fustanella

It's one of the dozen or so must-have channels in my book. What's "More than Human"?

Posted by: Todd

I watch Discovery some (even more now since I have DiscoveryHD), but the History Channel is even better. I love Modern Marvels! :up:

Posted by: daveyg013

quote:
Originally posted by Fustanella
It's one of the dozen or so must-have channels in my book. What's "More than Human"?

It's a show where they try to explain how people are able to do superhuman things or survive near-death experiences. Examples are a guy who can bend a steel bar with just his neck and a guy who survived a flight in the wheel well of an airplane. They make up all sorts of cool tests. It's kind of a MythBusters for stuff that really happened. They even bring the real people on the show to help figure out what's going on.

There's new episodes starting Thursday at 10:00 (replayed a couple times later in the week).

Posted by: daveyg013

quote:
Originally posted by Todd
I watch Discovery some (even more now since I have DiscoveryHD), but the History Channel is even better. I love Modern Marvels! :up:

I like the History Channel's shows, but I think the Discovery Channel does a better job of making their shows fun and entertaining. A lot of it is the stars of the show. From the MythBuster guys to the Teutals on American Chopper to Jesse James to Steve from Monster house, all these guys have interesting personalities that make the shows different from your typical educational television.

Posted by: MarkofT

What R. Lee Ermey and Mail Call? He seems to have some personality.

Posted by: LtKernelPanic

Love Discovery. Right now I wish they'd stop sowing the same 5 untitled episodes of Monster House, Myth Busters and American Chopper. I think I've deleted the same 3 AC episodes 4 times now in the past 8 days.

Posted by: bicker

Mythbusters is one of the only shows that I burn to DVD regularly -- it is just that entertaining!

Posted by: Fustanella

quote:
Originally posted by daveyg013
It's a show where they try to explain how people are able to do superhuman things or survive near-death experiences.

Ooh. I'm in. Thanks!

Posted by: leoburner

I love Discovery Channel. Thanks to them and Tivo, my 4 year old son and I are watching animal shows intead of the same mind numbing cartoons every Saturday and Sunday morning. Check for "Way of the Warrior". It's a documentary on various martial arts.

Posted by: Bradc314

I used to watch the Discovery Channel all the time. Now I'm on the History channel more often. There's just nothing about choppers I really wish to discover. If you ask me, Chopper and Monster House belong on FOX, or ABC Family.

Posted by: YCantAngieRead

I'm with Brad. I still like the Discovery channel, though. And very occassionally I'll get into a chopper show. :) I really like the forensic style shows on Discovery...even though they've cut down on those some.

Posted by: MacThor

Not as much as THIS guy : http://www.freelancetimes.com/

He named his boat "Discovery" because of all the work they hired him for!!!

His voice is very recognizable in the DC area, he also does the DAILY radio commercial for "The Washington Post."

Posted by: Dromomaniac

Great voice. Horrible Web site. :)

Posted by: adelimon

I think that shows on Discovery, TLC, Travel Channel, and History Channel make up about 75% of what is on my Tivo at any given time.

Love Mythbusters too. Although at times I wonder if those guys really don't like each other.

Posted by: tgr131

I've really been enjoying Discovery, History and DIY. I love the fact that they often repeat things in the wee hours, so I can Tivo them and watch them later.

Grabbed a HC show recently called Ghost Plane: Lady Be Good. It was about a wayward WWII bomber that crashed in Libya, to be found in 1959. They had massive searches by the military several times over the next few years, that found very little. Almost every discovery related to the plane was made by British Petroleum survey teams prospecting for oil.

I'd never see this kind of stuff without my trusty tivo, and my WWII wishlist.

Posted by: vman41

I like the discovery Channel except for Shark Weeks, which I can't stand.

Posted by: DaveLessnau

I hate the Discovery Channel. For most of their programming, the focus is on WHO did something instead of on WHAT was done. Almost invariably, they fill the show out with huge amounts of "dramatic re-creations" (which make me ill). I much prefer the way the History Channel usually does things (which is to cover the subject, not the process). What I wish would happen is that the History Channel would cover the HISTORY of something and then the Discovery Channel would cover the SCIENCE or ENGINEERING (in depth (i.e., with math)) of it.

In either case, they should leave the soap opera dramatizations to the SOAP channel.

Posted by: bicker

Gosh. Even with a MS in Mathematics I wouldn't want to watch something like that!!! :)

Posted by: DaveLessnau

That's the trouble. No one (or only a very, very few people) would actually watch that kind of stuff. But, surely with hundreds of channels on every cable/satellite system, at least one channel could go into some kind of detail on the science or engineering behind something. As it is, we've got a hundred channels that are more or less alike: lowest common denominator for whatever their subject matter is.

But, I guess it'll never happen. Fox cancelled Firefly because it "only" had a few million viewers (rot in the hot, brimstone-filled place, Fox executives). So, no one's going to run a show that has about 10 viewers.

Posted by: bicker

Surely not until is becomes more profitable to do so. What could possibly change to make such limited-audience programming worthwhile? Would you, for example, be willing to pay a substantial amount extra for it? Consider how much it costs to write, produce, market, sell, schedule, promote and then present such a show. Then consider how many people would be willing to pay for it, and divide the cost by the number of viewers. Would you be willing to pay THAT much??? I just seems so unlikely to me that a profitable model for narrowcasting of any reasonable level of quality will be forthcoming in the near future.

Posted by: lmk911

I really like the Science Channel. I also enjoy the History, History International, National Geographic, The Learning, and Discovery Channels.

Posted by: bicker

Great examples. They all fail Dave's test for scientific rigor, generally presenting programming that is accessible by the average Joe. The fact that there are so many, and yet none of them present the kind of programming Dave is looking for, shows the free market in action.