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Interactive Television - is this the future?

BBC's Click celebrates its 1000th episode with an interactive episode (July 2019)

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VM
VMPhil
JCB posted:
Interactive TV will die out just like 3D did.


I am secretly and selfishly glad that 3D TV didn’t take off, because although I never had the experience of watching it, I have seen several films at the cinema in 3D and unfortunately I can't really see the effect, if that makes sense. I remember seeing Avatar and only a few elements looked like they had the effect - I was underwhelmed and after seeing other films in the format and trying out the Nintendo 3DS console, it appears that I just don’t ‘see’ 3D very well. Give me UHD and HDR over 3D any day!


If you have amblyopia (lazy eye), for example, then 3D content tends to be underwhelming. If your experience of 3D viewing is anything like mine, you didn't really miss out with 3D TV.

As far as I’m aware, I don’t have any issues with my eyes (yet), which is why I tried 3D so many times.
RI
Riaz
My first experience of Interactive television came with Videotron’s Videoway service which I’m pretty sure was the first of its kind in the UK, if not one of the earliest. Like the services today it utilised the fasttext coloured buttons of the Videoway remote. There was some original UK content including collaborations with LNN and Sky and also some content from the Canadian division of Videotron. Also available via the Videoway box were computer games like QBert and and information services like weather and cinema listings.


That's a blast from the past!
LL
Larry the Loafer
As far as I'm concerned, interactive TV technology peaked with Beehive Bedlam on Open....


Beehive Bedlam was the business!!! I'm absolutely convinced that it was the Open keyboard being sluggish that caused me to lose all the time!!!


Jokes aside I'm a bit gutted that there's so little preservation of the Open..../Sky Active services. There's only one or two clips on YouTube. But I suppose very few people would be recording themselves sending an email or something.

VM
VMPhil
Was always jealous of my cousins who had Sky Digital and access to those interactive games. I remember being there and playing Beehive Bedlam one day when the weather was very bad and causing picture breakup on the channels.
ST
Ste Founding member

Jokes aside I'm a bit gutted that there's so little preservation of the Open..../Sky Active services. There's only one or two clips on YouTube. But I suppose very few people would be recording themselves sending an email or something.



This playlist has a few Sky Active clips - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6bxhKnt_fYxTElAkVAhxSwyOaJURD8x_
NW
nwtv2003
I remember when we switched to NTL Digital in 2000 you were promised a whole host of interactive activities and features in relation to programmes. It never materialised, it got as far as play along Fifteen To One which lasted all of 6 months. (From when NTL upgraded the software to the point Channel 4 axed the show.)
GE
thegeek Founding member
BBC Radio broadcast an interactive drama in 2001, with one thread on Radio 3 and another on Radio 4. There were 20-odd break points where you could choose to switch over to the other stream, and supposedly 90 million permutations.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/apr/16/mondaymediasection10
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/1552369.stm
https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/9aee4619ec5a41a4b0845d001bd991ae

I remember listening to it on my (brand new) DAB tuner, where the secondary service let you switch between streams. I thought there was a third one as an extra service but it's not clear from this page whether that was actually the case.
BR
Brekkie
Retuning between radio stations seems one of them most impractical ways to do this. No wonder really it didn't take off if it took 4 years to make a 23-minute radio event which it seemed passed most of us by, though a nice idea.

I think ultimatlely though just like how with sport in the end viewers wanted the directors to select the best camera angles people tend to want drama to be a passive experience and the novelty soon wears off. I think one-off pieces like Bandersnatch will probably crop up from time to time, but ultimately it's not something that's viable for a series.
JJ
Juicy Joe Founding member
As far as I'm concerned, interactive TV technology peaked with Beehive Bedlam on Open....


That underwater diver/submarine game used to be pretty good too!!
JO
Jon
Fathom?
DB
dbl
My first experience of Interactive television came with Videotron’s Videoway service which I’m pretty sure was the first of its kind in the UK, if not one of the earliest. Like the services today it utilised the fasttext coloured buttons of the Videoway remote.

I totally remember doing this also via Cable & Wireless in late-90s as a kid. There was some sort of kids show that came on that special channel, where you could choose the narrative.
Last edited by dbl on 10 July 2019 6:25am
TR
trivialmatters
I find this all totally pointless. The internet itself is a 'choose your own programme' application. You could produce a standard news article with videos embedded in it, and I can click to play the ones I'm interested in - it does not need to be presented to you as a 'TV programme', and indeed that just makes the whole process more cumbersome.

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