Coaster show on the National Geographic Channel

I was flipping through the channels last night when I cam across a coster show on the the National Geographic Channel and I was wondering if anyone else has seen it and what they thought of it. IMO it was one of the best coaster shows I've ever seen because rather than just have POVs with some overzealous coaster fan narrating it had either the deisgner of the ride or at least someone who worked at the park and actually knew the mechanics of the ride narrate the POV.

One of the designers was John Wardley who they did several interviews with and while riding Oblivion and AIR he described how they worked. There was also computer models of how the S&S towers work as well as X. This show was very informative and I wish more coaster shows followed the same format as this show. I'm not 100% sure what the name was, but I think it was something like Thrill Zone: Coasters. *** Edited 1/2/2005 11:11:13 PM UTC by lilspike333***

It's called Ultimate thrill rides & is usually shown from time to time.

Since National Geographic is a digital/sattelite network you should easily be able to find their schedule of daily programming using your on screen guide.....I can get up to 6 days advance notice on my system.

I checked the NGC website and here's what I was able to come up with for you. If you have digital cable or if you have the "On Demand" service with your cable, check it!

The show "Ultimate Thrill Rides" is showing on National Geographic Channel "On Demand" throughout January 2005. Sorry I couldn't get any specific dates and times, but I don't even get "On Demand".

I guess it's time to kiss up to the in-laws since the do have it!

I agree, I saw this program on Demand and it was one of the most informative, and I liked the desginers viewpoint and not all those fans that give rides an instant 10. From what I remember the rides that were mentioned were:

Power Shot and TTD at Cedar Point

Oblivion and Air at Alton Towers

X at SFMM

Was just going to bring up the On Demand thing. Saw it a few nights ago with my little sister, she's 10...found it for me. It's a good show though. But I wish they wouldn't show the same damn Superman launch/drop at SFMM...I mean it's a simple ride to watch, really, why show it so much?

The part when they showed S:TE was when I started watching the show and I have to admit they showed the same launch so many times it got quite monotonous. But that one segment was the only bad thing I can remember about the whole show.

On Demand is a nice little gem for finding the odd or occasional coaster/park show. You can usually find at least one show if you sort through the listings.

That & you can save it for I believe 12 to 24 hours(can't recall which)as well as pause,rewind & fast forward.

A funny thing about the show is one time while viewing it a month ago(via on demand) it still had all the network advertisments in it....now you'd figure these would be edited out of the program but I guess they aren't.

Did anybody catch that some of the footage from Power Tower was pre Millenium Force 98 or 99

So what day and time is it on again for those of us who don't have On-Demand or Tivo or any of that?

Just check your cable system's on screen program guide for dates & times.....I can get schedule info up to 6 days in advance on my digital cable system.

I think his question is for people who DON'T have digital cable. Those of us back in the 1990's with "regular cable" don't have "on screen" guides.. heck, I don't even get that funky TV-Guide channel.

We just started getting the TV-Guide Channel, after the stupid cable company decided to switch every damn channel around 1 day after knockingout my TV and Internet for 12 straight hours.

My parents won't splurge and pay an extra 5 bux a month for the box, but oh well, 70 channels without a box for like 20 bux a month ain't bad. It's the 50 dollar a month internet that really kills us! ;)

Checked out your site, Kyle. My oh my, I feel old now! ;)

Glad you had a good time for New Years, though.

If anything it's worth it for the brief shot of the Mean Streak infield queue full of people. Not sure I've ever seen that in person. :)

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That & you can save it for I believe 12 to 24 hours(can't recall which)as well as pause,rewind & fast forward

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When it's free, what's the point of that stupid save feature? I suppose it's a menu or two less to wade through to play it again, but I never understood the time limit/saved program feature on free programs on On Demand - just start it up again.

Lord Gonchar,

I noticed that shot as well. The first couple of seasons that ride was open, I actually waited that long more than once. What was I thinking? =:^)

I think the show was very well done. Some of the camera angles that were shown were some of the best I have seen for a coaster program. The Dragster segment at the end is worth checking out the whole program IMO. They really did a great job with giving a non-rider a great idea of how high it looks while at the top, and with complete front seat POV. It was also funny to see John Pagel doing a "reaction ride" with a few other people. Very rarely do the marketing people at CP do on-rides.

Now onto tech stuff regarding Time Warner.

I recently picked up one of the HD-DVR boxes (8000HD) from Time Warner. It has it's flaws but I am impressed with how easy it is to record things.

I did run into a problem though. There was some things that I had recorded that I wanted to transfer to digital tape. Time Warner has purposely voided all the analog outputs for the box. Apparently they don't see the reason why anyone would want to use the outputs considering the DVR can record programs with ease. I can see why they did that, but what if someone like myself wants to archive a program to another form of media? The box I have has a 40-hour storage limit. Yea, that's a lot of hours but it can fill up rather quickly with stuff you don't want to erase.

I contacted Time Warner and asked them if they planned on releasing any firmware upgrades that would allow the use of the analog or S-video outputs. Other cities have gotten upgrades. I was told there were no plans for an upgrade to help me out and there was no possible way for the outputs to be enabled. The exact words were, "You are out of luck. Sorry."

I was kind of bummed because I really wanted to save a news story I had recorded but didn't want to erase it if I filled up the hard drive. I went online to check to see if anyone had a solution. Luckily I read on a site that if I held in the volume and channel buttons on the front of the box at the same time, I would enable the Standard Definition mode. This would enable the outputs I needed. Sure enough, it worked. I was able to record the story I needed and then later erased it from the hard drive.

I plan on taping the National Geographic show in this same way. Hopefully it will work out.

-Sean

There is an easier solution to your dilema.....it's called using a standard VHS recorder connected to your TV's coaxial port.

I just installed a new DVD/VCR combo myself(the only electronic X-mas gift that I can seem to use) & it works just fine if I want to tape any programs that happen to be on.

Now if only discovery will get their act together & start producing more coaster shows instead of that american chopper garbage they seem to enjoy running every memorial day weekend.

Yeah, VHS through Coax works if quality is not an issue.

I'm like Sean, I use DV. (for the easy transfer to DVD) However, I have at least three places (TV, Cable Box, Receiver) that I can lift the signal from.

I don't even have a VCR hooked up to any of TV's in the house anymore, just easier and better quality to slap a couple cables in and hook up the mini DV for as little as I want to keep.

I have almost every coaster/park show aired in the past year on DVD now :) (and I actually admitted that)

Yes, I meant good old fashioned cable. Our TV guide doesnt list the National Geographic channel, and the TV guide channel only shows whats on for the next few hours. We don't have the box or any of the digital cable. So, any help?

^As far as I know National Geographic channel is only available through digital cable or satellite systems at the present time so if you've got analog cable I'm afraid you're outta luck trying to catch that particular program.