American TV shows with automated Computer Screens rolling out Text

[CP/M User]

I tried asking Google this, but all I got was the problem CRT had in relation to Screen Burn, which didn't answer my problem question.

It relates to a number of American TV shows, I can't remember which network, I call it the NCIS Network because the NCIS franchise of shows have it and I also watch reruns of Scorpion, which has it too and I think the updated MacGuyver does this too, where there's a group of people in a scene along with a Computer Screen with writing constantly being written onscreen and rolling the screen along as it moves to the next line.
I thought maybe that's believable at NCIS because their Networked with other departments or has a major Hub with all these updates, though at Scorpion their kind of Independant since their a bunch of Intelligent people, okay their kinda attached to Homeland and Cabe Gallow is a representative from their, though he just doesn't seem to be the sort to be at the computer reading updates of some kind.

So I'm now puzzled why a number of shows do it and to me it makes the show less believable, yes it puts a bit more action onscreen of a distracting kind, if it were a mystery I could see where that could be used to distract the viewer from a critical bit in the story.

 

[GiGaBiTe]

The average TV show and even movies have always done stupid things with technology that make no sense, or aren't possible.

I remember one episode of Smallville where the MC and one of his friends were using the original iMac G3, which had clearly had the guts hollowed out and a small monitor mounted inside. When you got a picture of the actual screen, it most definitely was from a PC and not at all Mac OS. This was back when the iMac was still a relevant platform and they could have used the iMac as it was intended and not destroy it.

But one of the most infuriating things those dumb crime drama series have done is the stupid "zoom and enhance". Like "hey, let's get the reflection off this guy's cornea, zoom and enhance, which is also reflected through the car mirror, zoom and enhance again and VOILA, a perfect 4k shot of the perp where you can count the pores on his face"

As someone who does CCTV work, I get asked all the time "why is ur crap not like what I see on NCIS! I want that clarity!" and it has to be explained ad nauseum that it doesn't exist and isn't possible. It's the writers on the shows having no concept of technology. You can upscale an image, yes, but you can't fill in detail that didn't exist in the original image, let alone do it in real time.

 

[CP/M User]

The average TV show and even movies have always done stupid things with technology that make no sense, or aren't possible.

I remember one episode of Smallville where the MC and one of his friends were using the original iMac G3, which had clearly had the guts hollowed out and a small monitor mounted inside. When you got a picture of the actual screen, it most definitely was from a PC and not at all Mac OS. This was back when the iMac was still a relevant platform and they could have used the iMac as it was intended and not destroy it.

But one of the most infuriating things those dumb crime drama series have done is the stupid "zoom and enhance". Like "hey, let's get the reflection off this guy's cornea, zoom and enhance, which is also reflected through the car mirror, zoom and enhance again and VOILA, a perfect 4k shot of the perp where you can count the pores on his face"

Yeah I know those ones too. I always remember a particular episode of Law & Order:SVU where they were trying to get Robin Williams on one of those.

I don't know when those Zoom and Enhance things started, but it was being played around with in 'Blade Runner'.

As someone who does CCTV work, I get asked all the time "why is ur crap not like what I see on NCIS! I want that clarity!" and it has to be explained ad nauseum that it doesn't exist and isn't possible. It's the writers on the shows having no concept of technology. You can upscale an image, yes, but you can't fill in detail that didn't exist in the original image, let alone do it in real time.

There's an interesting website called 'Starring the Computer', that rates the Importance of the Computer used in the storyline.

 

[vwestlife]

TV shows depict unrealistic enhancement/analysis of audio recordings, too. I remember one show which took a recording of a cell phone call made by a guy who was kidnapped and trapped in the trunk of a car, and based on the noise in the recording they were somehow able to figure out exactly where he was being driven to.

But that's still not as big of a goof as any TV show or movie depicting the sound of laser weapons in space. First of all, lasers are silent, but even if they did actually make noise, you wouldn't be able to hear it in the vacuum of outer space!

 

[eswan]

Fringe was bad about this. A screen with serveral windows open, one of which is showing a dos window with a scrolling list of files in a Windows 3.1 directory.

 

[Plasma]

But that's still not as big of a goof as any TV show or movie depicting the sound of laser weapons in space. First of all, lasers are silent, but even if they did actually make noise, you wouldn't be able to hear it in the vacuum of outer space!

Yeah but space is boring without sound. Maybe all the ships have giant stereos playing simulated battle sounds for the crew. Like fake engine noise on electric cars.

 

[Agent Orange]

How about NCIS LA with the local command post getting updates in real time like the perps have a film crew following them around. Also, last night, a couple of agents were on a Navy carrier using cell phones in a passageway on the 4th deck.

 

[Eudimorphodon]

But that's still not as big of a goof as any TV show or movie depicting the sound of laser weapons in space. First of all, lasers are silent, but even if they did actually make noise, you wouldn't be able to hear it in the vacuum of outer space!

If you were actually on a ship firing space weapons you certainly might hear something. Laser light itself is quiet but the power supplies might make significant noise/vibration which would transmit through the ship's hull into the pressurized area. For suspension of disbelief you can always just pretend you're hearing the internal noise of every ship in the fight.

(If we're talking about real-world possibilities for powering a powerful laser weapon I can imagine a vessel using something like a "Compulsator", which stores energy mechanically like a flywheel to be harvested in brief pulses, as the power bank; with a little imagination you can even picture it making something like a sci-fi "pew!" noise when stored power is being drawn out and ominous humming noises the rest of the time. And if the vessel is using chemically pumped lasers those are basically powered by internal combustion.

Of course sci-fi vessels are usually firing "phasers" or "blasters", not lasers, so who knows what's going on in their breech blocks.)

 

[VERAULT]

Fringe was bad about this. A screen with serveral windows open, one of which is showing a dos window with a scrolling list of files in a Windows 3.1 directory.

That sounds GREAT! Thats why Fringe was a good show...

I know what you mean though.

You know what really really really gets me going.. Its not an issue anymore for the the longest time Movies like "The NET" [HORRIBLE MOVIE!] used the Mcguffin about a single floppy disk holding all the secrets, or a billion dollar program, etc etc.. Long after floppy drives were even relevant. It bothered me in 1996.. It really upset me when they were still doing this in 2004.

 

[mR_Slug]

Anyone know what the OS at the company was in the NET? Kinda looked like the lovechild of Motif and MacOS, with a bit of OS/2 1.3. To be fair IIRC the program linked to some system with the secrets. It's been along time since I've seen it thou.

Remember Hackers? That had to be worse. Hack the Planet! Hacking is 3D man, my laptop has a P6 chip in it in 1995 THAT's why.

π​

 

[VERAULT]

hackers was terrible for realism.. it was just supposed to be a fun movie with a good techno soundtrack... i liked it much more when it came out..

I dont think Id watch it again just because i cant stand the Joe Lee.

 

[CP/M User]

TV shows depict unrealistic enhancement/analysis of audio recordings, too. I remember one show which took a recording of a cell phone call made by a guy who was kidnapped and trapped in the trunk of a car, and based on the noise in the recording they were somehow able to figure out exactly where he was being driven to.

That sounds like Sneakers when Robert Redford was taken to a Mystery place to talk with Ben Kingsley. The Blind Guy whose part of their crew gets Robert Redford to describe everything he heard from the boot of the car.
There would have to be some technical inconsistencies in that movie though.

 

[CP/M User]

How about NCIS LA with the local command post getting updates in real time like the perps have a film crew following them around. Also, last night, a couple of agents were on a Navy carrier using cell phones in a passageway on the 4th deck.

Oh!! I think I've lost count the number of times someone yells out NCIS/FBI/Police and the Perps Run for it!

 

[VERAULT]

If anything Sneakers is the best portrayal in a movie.. And yet so many havent seen it.

 

[SomeGuy]

How about NCIS LA with the local command post getting updates in real time like the perps have a film crew following them around. Also, last night, a couple of agents were on a Navy carrier using cell phones in a passageway on the 4th deck.

Current TV shows go out of their way to glorify cell/smart phones because they know full well that their smartphone overlords may be advertising during their show.

You will almost never hear a grainy sounding cell phone or a choppy video conference, they will always get perfect reception, and characters never stand around like zombies futzing with them. They usually try to make it look like POTS/landlines or simple flip cell phone don't even exist any more, but if it does come up they take the opportunity to dis them.

Also, notice how many TV shows and commercials shove a smartphone in the viewers face just so they can show hypnotic scrolling.

Rolling text? Ha, lots of TV shows try to make computers look "busy" by showing windows with scrolling text like they are running multiple C compilers or something. The average numb nut doesn't even know what a command line is. A real desktop would be sitting at whatever default background Microsoft pushes out. With a few browser windows showing cats.

Lately some TV channels have been showing old episodes of CSI Miami - in some episodes they appear to be using some huge "futuristic" holographic computer display where everything is translucent. I have some 1980 overhead transparencies that can demonstrate how unreadable that would be. But if big corps were to make and market such a thing out the yingyang every consumertard would gladly snatch one up and genuinely believe it is better somehow.

Talking about dumb tech, a few years back I caught a minute of some kind of sci-fi show where some characters supposedly had some kind of high-tech futuristic car, but the only thing that even looked different from a current car was some glowing blue LED crap on the bottom of the car, and a huge touch screen in the front where they had to scroll through a list of the car's features one huge icon at a time. The show should have ended there as they took their eyes off the road and plowed in to something. Dumb people would love a car like that.

 

[vwestlife]

Even Microsoft goofed by showing a laptop without a webcam being used to do a video call:

 

[NeXT]

It's actually kinda interesting at at some point in the 2000's TV and movie production really started clamping down on rogue branding and you started seeing a lot more GUI's without any directly recognizable style or computers without any identifying marks or branding. That is why stuff you see on a monitor now is so over the top.
This simply came down to if you wanted to have a computer displaying some sort of a minor plot device, you could not display for example the fact that it was a Macbook running 10.11 because then you would need to call up Apple, ask for permission to display their products in a movie and additionally sometimes have to pay a fee to do so. It was easier for the art department to draw something up to fake the display and cover the Apple logo with a vinyl wrap, post-it notes etc. I've had to assist in props where it was something as nutty as a video playing fullscreen to hide the Mac OS toolbar because displaying it would cause legal problems. Even in fiction, it's frowned upon when BigEvil Corp. uses Apple Computers for everything.
Of course there's not to say some brands are still openly displayed, but at that point it's because said branded called in and asked basically be a sponsor.

I'm talking to you, Larry.
Your stupid Oracle branding all over Iron Man....and...

 

[vwestlife]

Windows Task Manager? No, that's "VR Matrix Simulator"...

 

[CP/M User]

If anything Sneakers is the best portrayal in a movie.. And yet so many havent seen it.

It's been a while since I've seen it, though they start off focusing on the number of clicks going over the bridge and they use some software to simulate the spacing of the clicks, they eliminated other Bridges based on if any Fog Horn was heared.
I could be mistaken about any inaccuracies which are in the film though and it's a film I do enjoy watching.

 

[krebizfan]

It's been a while since I've seen it, though they start off focusing on the number of clicks going over the bridge and they use some software to simulate the spacing of the clicks, they eliminated other Bridges based on if any Fog Horn was heared.
I could be mistaken about any inaccuracies which are in the film though and it's a film I do enjoy watching.

The use of a program to cancel out other details was new and fit the characters. The using sound to find where a blindfolded person had been was old hat back in the 60s when The Saint used that routine to fill half an episode with exciting footage of how the second unit got lost in Rome.