noggin's posts, page 116

15,946 search results, most recent first

NG
noggin Founding member

International Presentation

JamesM0984 posted:
Those SRF idents for both networks are beautiful. Oh if only BBC One and BBC Two had those packages.

Or indeed ITV 1 and Channel 4 - the "Zwei" could easily be replaced with the iconic blocks.


They don't really work for the UK requirement for a station ident though do they? They are incredibly fast cut and distracting for a VO announcement to be overlaid over the bulk of the sequence. They look much more like station ID stings.
NG
noggin Founding member

Top of the Pops

JamesM0984 posted:

Yeah, I can see why that might fail. Would a textual warning before the song not have been acceptable?


No - you are really only allowed to be compliant with a verbal/graphic warning on live, or fast turnaround, shows where it isn't feasible to test and/or edit the content such that it will pass a flashing pattern test. If you have the time to fix it, you have to fix it. This is a legal regulatory requirement.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and-on-demand/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code/section-two-harm-offence

Quote:
2.12 Television broadcasters must take precautions to maintain a low level of risk to viewers who have photosensitive epilepsy. Where it is not reasonably practicable to follow the Ofcom guidance (see the Ofcom website), and where broadcasters can demonstrate that the broadcasting of flashing lights and/or patterns is editorially justified, viewers should be given an adequate verbal and also, if appropriate, text warning at the start of the programme or programme item.


None of these apply to a TOTP repeat, where it clearly is reasonable practicable to follow the Ofcom guidance...
NG
noggin Founding member

NOW TV

London Lite posted:
noggin posted:


(Newer Roku solutions do this for pretty much every source I can find - but I don't know if this is handled at App level via an API or whether the OS handles it automatically.)


AFR doesn't work with Pluto TV for some reason.


That suggests it's an App API thing then - and not automatic at the OS level?
NG
noggin Founding member

Royal Institution Christmas Lectures

james-2001 posted:
kernow posted:
The television broadcasts have moved around a lot in recent years.

After being on BBC 2 for over 30 years, they were shown on Channel 4 from 2000-2004, then on Channel 5 from 2005-2008, then More4 in 2009, and BBC Four since 2010.


Seems a very strange fit for Channel 5 really!


Channel 5 often did some good quality factual stuff back in the day. There were some excellent Paul Merton travel docs back in the day ISTR.
NG
noggin Founding member

Article 13 - The End Of Archiving TV Presentation?

AlexEdohHD13 posted:
I am also against Article 13 because I feel it will limit free speech.


In what way will it limit free speech?
NG
noggin Founding member

Anglia/East of England News Discussion

m_in_m posted:
South Today posted:
Is there any particular standards the regions are instructed to follow? It all seems so much of a mish mash!

I guess this is one of the downsides for the BBC over ITV. Am I correct in thinking ITV graphics are centralised in Birmingham where as in the BBC each region handles there own?


Each BBC region certainly generates its own content graphics on-site (though sub-regions may share design facilities with their 'mother' region sometimes)

Opening titles, historically, have varied. Some refreshes have involved Network, Nations and English regions getting titles all made by the same team (though not always introduced simultaneously). Other refreshes have been locally generated.

There is always a tension between consistency/uniformity and local editorial variation, and local teams often have a better understanding of their audience than a team covering the whole country would (particularly when featuring local landmarks, place names etc.).

Given that only a small number of TV enthusiasts regularly watch multiple regions, the important thing is that the network brand and each local variation look and sound to be part of the same brand. It's far less important that every region looks identical - as most people only watch one region.

What SHOULD be specified nationally (and adhered to) is a common branding style guide (and someone in each region who understands it well enough to enforce it) - though this isn't always the case it seems. (With some slightly random font choices being made in some cases...)
NG
noggin Founding member

Top of the Pops

james-2001 posted:
noggin posted:
james-2001 posted:
Strange thing on the 86 Xmas special last night, during the Boris Gardner performance they altered the picture for some reason and it looks very muddy (possibly because of the brightly lit disco ball behind him not matching modern broadcast standards?). Clearly done as part of this repeat, as you notice the captions are affected- as are the pillarboxes (if you were watching on the HD channel or the iPlayer). You can see the brightness/contrast change when Peter Powell appears on screen at the start, and it changes back to normal as soon as Gary Davies appears on screen after the performance.


It's not unusual for TOTP to be edited to reduce the contrast/brightness of shots that fail Ofcom's Photosensitivity testing requirements.

Passing a PSE test, which is usually carried out using a Flashing Pattern Analyser (FPA), is a legal requirement for a recorded show, and so repeating TOTP untested (and unmodified were it to fail) would be a legal issue. (FPA devices used for PSE testing include Harding, Baton, Vidchecker etc.)

Without having seen the effect I can't say for certain but it's not unusual, particularly if there is a large amount of flashing in the shot.


It starts around 19:10 here if you want to see it: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0001r5k/top-of-the-pops-25121986


Yes - the mirrorball featured throughout that performance is generating video, particularly on close-ups, that would cause anyone working in TV today to question its suitability for broadcast. I suspect that rather than fix it shot by shot, there were so many fails in the sequence that they treated the whole performance. (The fact that it impacts the pillarbox bars as well suggests that the edit was done in the 16:9 domain - probably in HD. It's a pity the editor didn't mask the effect to just the active picture area to avoid this, but I can understand why they didn't)
NG
noggin Founding member

NOW TV

London Lite posted:
noggin posted:
London Lite posted:

It appears they've left it as the responsibility of app owners to add AFR if you have Android TV/Shield of which there is Kodi and the IPTV app Perfect Player that have the functionality (along with the French service Molotov), yet the big apps like Prime Video and Netflix don't.


I guess if it requires an app to implement it then it isn't quite 'automatic' - just as the Amazon Fire TV isn't? (AIUI it's quite difficult to implement AFR on DRM-ed content?)


The new 4K Fire Stick has AFR on some apps including Prime Video and Plex, but not Netflix which as you say isn't automatic. I'd expect AFR to be on the new Fire TV Cube when it's finally released in the UK.


Amazon (and I believe Apple and Android TV) haven't implemented Automatic Frame Rate switching in their core video playback functionality - i.e. when you send it 23.976, 25, 50, 59.95Hz content it doesn't automatically, at an OS level, automatically switch frame rates.

Instead they've introduced app-controlled frame rate switching using an API supported in certain OS releases on certain hardware. AIUI the API the app can, optionally, tell the OS to change the video output refresh rate (if supported and enabled). This requires the app to be coded to support that API and report the correct frame rate to the OS. It appears to the end user as if it is automatic, not manual, but at the app level, it isn't automatic, and has to be coded for. AIUI the reason for this is that it's difficult (impossible?) to probe DRMed content to discover its frame rate prior to decryption, and for security reasons, de-DRMed content that could be probed isn't easy to access (for obvious security reasons)

Some Amazon apps support this app-controlled frame rate switching, most (all?) Apple TV apps seem to, and very few Android TV apps appear to... (Whilst Amazon's Fire TV OS is a fork of Android, it differs from Android TV in how it signals frame rate to the underlying OS) I believe in Fire TV OS it's known as 'Cinema mode' as it's main reason to exist is to output 23.976Hz content at 23.976Hz, not with 3:2 at 59.94Hz (as previously the case). Given that almost all US high-end OTT content on Prime Video is 23.976Hz - this makes a lot of sense...

I'd expect all new Amazon hardware to support the Cinema Mode API and all future Fire TV OS releases to support it on newer hardware.

(Newer Roku solutions do this for pretty much every source I can find - but I don't know if this is handled at App level via an API or whether the OS handles it automatically.)
UKnews and London Lite gave kudos
NG
noggin Founding member

NOW TV

London Lite posted:
noggin posted:
London Lite posted:

Edit: The AFR feature is also excellent, unlike the Shield where I have to manually adjust it, on Netflix it's changing between 24Hz, 50Hz and 60Hz.


Yes - the lack of automatic, or app-driven, frame rate switching on the nVidia Shield TV is now really annoying. There were suggestions it nearly made the last Shield Experience update but was pulled (alongside Rec 709/Rec 2020 gamut switching). Fingers crossed it arrives soon.


It appears they've left it as the responsibility of app owners to add AFR if you have Android TV/Shield of which there is Kodi and the IPTV app Perfect Player that have the functionality (along with the French service Molotov), yet the big apps like Prime Video and Netflix don't.


I guess if it requires an app to implement it then it isn't quite 'automatic' - just as the Amazon Fire TV isn't? (AIUI it's quite difficult to implement AFR on DRM-ed content?)
NG
noggin Founding member

BBC One Christmas 2018

Critique posted:
How does inserting an obit caption onto the end of shows work? Was watching the Christmas Lunch episode of the Vicar of Dibley on iPlayer a few days ago and I noticed an obit slide for John Bluthal (who played Frank) at the end, which caught my eye as I'd missed news of his passing in November.

It was dropped in before the original copyright notice from 1996, and was quite neatly done with the end of theme tune (which would have played out over the copyright slide originally) playing out over it. I seem to remember the same thing happening when they replayed an episode upon Emma Chambers' death.

Is this something that the BBC has to go back to TigerAspect to do, or something that the Presentation team do themselves?


My guess is neither. I expect that BBC Studioworks (or possibly BBC Creative) edited the version of the programme in the BBC library to add the obituary card. All BBC acquired shows go through a BBC Studioworks edit suite I believe, so there are suites designed to handle programme delivery.

It wouldn't be something I'd expect the Red Bee Playout team to do, nor would I expect the BBC to commission Tiger Aspect to reversion the programme.
NG
noggin Founding member

Article 13 - The End Of Archiving TV Presentation?

JAS84 posted:
Because that's Brexit day. After that, we won't automatically be taking on any of the EU's new laws, and can freely change existing ones. Which means if they pass a similar law to this anyway, it'll be the fault of our elected representatives, not the unelected guys from Brussels. And they'll feel the wrath of the electorate!


That depends on whether we leave, and if we do whether it is with a deal or with no deal.

If we leave with a deal and thus move into a transition period on March 29th, then there are areas of new EU law we will be expected to continue to implement into UK law. Whether Article 13 is one of those, I don't know.

If we leave with no deal then it will be up to UK lawmakers to decide whether to mirror EU laws. There is no guarantee we would chose not to, particularly if we want reciprocal intellectual property protection in EU states to apply to UK content.

(Personally I've always found it a bit odd that Google are able to make money out of content posted on their site that they don't own, and is the copyright content of others.)
NG
noggin Founding member

International Weather Coverage

Mouseboy33 posted:
Its so crazy how tiny live broadcasting equipment has gotten, so reporters can broadcast live from anywhere.
*
*
Reed Timmer - Accuweather


Interesting.

That rig, as photographed, would fail a BBC risk assessment. The camera isn't tethered within the car. If there were an accident at speed, the camera could turn into a high speed projectile, a tether would stop this... (This has happened in the past during in-vehicle filming)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/safety/resources/aztopics/recording-in-and-from-vehicles
"Secure camera & kit i.e. by using a camera strap attached to the seat belt or suitable lanyard."