DOG Watch

DOGs = Digital On-screen Graphics

This debate has been aired on various other sites before. Since the advent of digital TV, they have been on just about every channel.

There are two excuses for using them:

1) Branding. Just like you might have a Ford badge on your car, Philips badge on the front of your TV or Wrangler label on the back of your jeans, having a Five, ITV2, Sky 3 etc DOG in the corner of the picture is a way of branding the channel.

2) To show you what channel you're watching. A poor excuse I say, for that you can press the Info button on your remote.

Do we really need them? Surely they spoil the picture.

Whilst channel hopping I've just noticed the CBeebies DOG is now translucent whereas it used to be opaque (and quite gaudy actually). The BBC have toned that down a bit, was that following complaints from parents? If so why didn't they just get rid of it altogether?

When Channel 5 first launched on Easter Sunday 1997 it had a 5 dog in the top left hand corner. They toned that down shortly after launch. When the channel was rebranded five in September 2002, they dropped the DOG. However they brought it back when the channel was rebranded FIVE in October 2008. What sense was in that, bringing it back after removing it?

DOGs on some channels are very gaudy, and/or animated which really spoils the picture. If they insist on having a DOG, at least have a toned down static translucent one (preferably white).

BBC One and ITV1 still (thankfully) don't use DOGs, but their HD equivalents do use them. Isn't that enough to make people want to switch back to the original SD version, just to have a DOG free picture? What incentive is that to switch to HD.

Discuss the issue here.

Blimey, you're masterful, aren't you?

The better picture quality.

True you switch from BBC One to BBC One HD to enjoy far superior picture quality. The snag is you get a BBC One HD DOG in the top left hand corner of the screen, which surely spoils the picture, whereas you don't have a DOG on BBC One.

Isn't that enough to make some switch back to BBC One just to have a DOG-free picture? If BBC One can do without a DOG, why does BBC One HD need one?

Ditto ITV1 HD which has a DOG (whereas ITV1 doesn't).

But the BBC One HD DOG is in the very top left corner, fairly difficult to notice, and will probably only be a nuisance if you look for it.

In fact, BBC HD recordings on the Virgin TV iPlayer have the DOG outside the HD safe area, which is right at the corner of the screen, meaning you have to turn overscan off if you want to see it in full (not that you would ever want to mind).

Tumble Tower requesting the opinions of others? How, how out of character...

Incidentally Mr Wumble, Five's DOG came home quite a bit before the Oct 2008 rebrand. A surprising oversight given your penchant for frothing over the most minuscule of details.

In what respect is that out of character? I'm just asking what other people feel about the use of DOGs.


I thought they reintroduced the DOG when five was re-branded FIVE in October 2008.

The other annoyance/problem with DOG's must be the danger of screen burn. Having still got a good old CRT set, I don't have that problem, however, it does annoy me still, espcially when recording progs. Also, with so many +1 channels, the amount of space taken up by them is increasing.

At least the CBBC/CBeebies DOG's animate, which would, I assume, reduce the risk of screen burn (probably those channel could be on for some length of time in some homes). Of course, the animation may be a distraction to some (parents more than kids?).

Personally, I wish they would ditch them, or at least show them intermittently (I.e. at beginning, towards end and b4/after ad breaks).

Screen burn generally affects CRTs much worse than any other (commonly used) screen technology.



That would be even worse, at least at the moment they just sit in the corner doing nothing most of the time. If they started appearing and disappearing all the time there would be far more complaints about them being distracting.

Either that or 'Digitally Originated Graphics'... both of which are obsolete terms as all TV graphics are digital and on-screen. In the industry they're more commonly they're known as 'bugs' (and there's a common bit of kit called a Bugburner which generates them)


... and this one for many years. Is there any point going through it again?

no it was before that as I remember when Neighbours came to five they had the DOG upside down, they don't worry me really it's only in the top left hand corner don't let them get you down people.