noggin's posts, page 198

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NG
noggin Founding member

Discovery buys Scripps

dbl posted:
Interceptor posted:
Including UKTV?

Half of UKTV, yes.


Have the rumblings about the BBC exercising their right to buy-out in this circumstance proved to be false?
NG
noggin Founding member

ITV abandons the South Bank

bluecortina posted:

I suspect that's how the industry works now, so pretty much any LE show from any of the major studios look very similar if not identical. Any thoughts?


I know some LDs have their own personal settings that they like VSs to use as a default - some will ask for a little bit of red push, an increase in saturation, a little bit of black crush etc. Don't think many play that much with the matrices though.
NG
noggin Founding member

Comcast bids to takeover Sky

whoiam989 posted:
If that happens, what will happen to Sky in Mexico and Brazil? Currently, they are owned by DirecTV (which is in turn owned by AT&T), and licenses the Sky brand from the British company. Will they have to rebrand once Comcast successfully take over Sky UK?


If Comcast end up with both the Comcast and Sky brands, then I suspect a decision will be taken as to which is the most sensible to use in those markets. Given that Sky is the incumbent brand, it may be pointless to rebrand.
NG
noggin Founding member

ITV abandons the South Bank

bluecortina posted:
noggin posted:
Run_Telecine posted:
Speaking of TLS pictures, you can see just how red they make the skintones look on this DVE inset box on Takeaway. Screenshot (can't post an inline image for some reason, so a Dropbox link:). https://www.dropbox.com/s/ukcu6yq6viyf6po/Screen.png?dl=0 Probably a matter of taste, as it's the 'look' the LD will want, but it hurts my eyes. Ditto 'The Last Leg' pics.


The full-frame picture is horribly cold and flat though... LE pictures should always be warm and inviting, not cold and clinical IMHO.


Yes, I agree.

I believe the sequence was likely to have been recorded in a dressing room, so it wouldn't be beyond imagination to speculate the lighting was simple fluorescents in the room? After all, the suspect might have gotten a teeny weeny little bit suspicious if she was sat in a room with full telly lighting for no good reason.


Oh - I'm not dissing the picture in context, just don't agree that the DVE-ed inset pictures are terrible. They are a warm and inviting 'LE' style of picture. Sure they're quite saturated and possibly a little 'warm' - but that's not a bad thing on an LE show.
NG
noggin Founding member

The New ITV & BBC Weather Thread

London Lite posted:
The Norwegian Meteorological Institute app almost matches the Weather Channel app for snow showers in my part of London tomorrow.

BBC/Meteogroup is still going for cloudy weather during the same period with light snow tonight.


Never bet against yr.no....
NG
noggin Founding member

ITV abandons the South Bank

Run_Telecine posted:
Speaking of TLS pictures, you can see just how red they make the skintones look on this DVE inset box on Takeaway. Screenshot (can't post an inline image for some reason, so a Dropbox link:). https://www.dropbox.com/s/ukcu6yq6viyf6po/Screen.png?dl=0 Probably a matter of taste, as it's the 'look' the LD will want, but it hurts my eyes. Ditto 'The Last Leg' pics.


The full-frame picture is horribly cold and flat though... LE pictures should always be warm and inviting, not cold and clinical IMHO.
NG
noggin Founding member

Eurovision 2018

deejay posted:
Michael Ball came second though. And the uk came second in 1993. The 90s generally were far from the doldrums for the uk.


To be fair - the language rule was still in force until 1998... We last won in 1997... Once the language rule went - we generally didn't do quite so well.

(The language rule meant that the UK, Ireland - and I think Malta - were the only countries who could enter a song in English.)
Last edited by noggin on 24 February 2018 6:56pm
DE88 and JosiahStuart gave kudos
NG
noggin Founding member

Sky News | General Discussion

Woodpecker posted:


I never knew that there was such an uproar over letterboxed movies being shown.


Generated huge numbers of complaints in the UK. We didn't have a tradition of letterboxing TV drama (though 15:9 Super16 film was beginning to creep in)

Quote:

I suppose I can understand people wanting their screen to be filled. I realise that I'm probably in a minority, but even with a smaller TV, I would have much rather had black bars and seen the whole picture than a full screen with only part of the picture. Am I right in thinking that 14:9 was mainly used here? From what I've seen of broadcasts on the continent, they seemed to use 16:9 letterbox a lot more...


I would tend to agree - but if you've been forced to watch 16:9 deep letterbox on a 14" portable, it does get tiring very quickly (particularly if it has subtitles)...
NG
noggin Founding member

Sky News | General Discussion

VMPhil posted:
14:9 TVs weren't sold, but several years ago I think Tesco were passing off 16:10 computer monitors as small TVs, which is a similar aspect ratio to 14:9. At least, I think it was a Technika badged one (a Tesco brand) I came across when I stayed at a cottage in 2011 that had one. I don't know if it had a TV tuner as this was a part of the country where a dish was necessary, so the TV signal was through a Freesat box.

So you could either view the 16:9 picture with the left and right cut off, or squeezed in to show the whole picture. Not nice. Useful to have Freesat though as all the BBC regions are available directly through the EPG, so I could see how bad the riots were back home(!)


These were quite common at one point - I've got a Samsung example... Annoyingly you can only drive the display at its native panel resolution at 60Hz...
NG
noggin Founding member

Sky News | General Discussion

Woodpecker posted:
noggin posted:
Rkolsen posted:
Now in the late 90s were TVs sold in 4:3 or 14:9 aspect ratio?


The first 16:9 CRT TVs started going on sale in Europe in the mid-90s - before DVD and DVB 16:9 full-height sources became available. They were initially sold to display letterboxed VHS and Laserdisc movies full-screen. Sony launched a PlayStation 16"(?) 16:9 CRT portable TV which was very popular as a floor monitor in TV studios (the only other options were 4:3 CRTs running scan-crushed letterbox)

14:9 was never a broadcast aspect ratio (it was just an active area within a 4:3 or 16:9 frame - we used 14L12 and 14P16) and no 14:9 TVs were sold AFAIK - as there was no real point to them.

14L12 was the 14:9 letterbox that we showed most 16:9 shows in on 4:3 outlets.
14P16 was the 14:9 pillars that we used to convert 4:3 news content (and other archive) for shows made otherwise in 16:9 for 16:9 outlets.


I never understood the point of 14:9. I can understand the argument of viewers being put off by heavy black bars - but surely they would have gotten used to them after a while?


It seems strange now - but in the 80s and early 90s when the largest TV most people had was a 24" 4:3 CRT, a 16:9 letterboxed image was really quite small. It wasn't a case of getting used to it per se - more that people weren't happy with having such a smaller picture.

It's really amazing to think we've (i.e. my household) gone from 21" 4:3 CRTs to 50" 16:9 flat panels in 25 years...

All the broadcasters got LOTS of complaints when they showed letterboxed movies. LOTS of complaints.

The BBC therefore trialled a weekend of 14:9 letterbox - as they knew 16:9 letterbox wasn't an option, and felt 4:3 centre-cut was too limiting creatively. The weekend's shows were shot 4:3 but masked with black bars top and bottom I believe (camera operators framing appropriately). Far fewer complaints were received (I suspect CRT overscan reduced the bars yet further) and that set the option.

The exception to the 14:9 rule was sport - 4:3 broadcasts of 16:9 sport were 4:3 CCO (letterboxing sport caused the most complaints I believe...)
NG
noggin Founding member

Sky News | General Discussion

Woodpecker posted:
noggin posted:
Rkolsen posted:

Very true. But a more amazing feat is that a few days after the BBC went widescreen WRAL in Raleigh converted to an HD newscast (and thus widescreen) on October 13, 2000 and in January of 2001 all newsgahering went HD.


Yes - the US (and Aus) went HD a LOT earlier than Europe. However as a result both are saddled with an ancient, inefficient codec and modulation system for HD broadcasting.

We all have NHK in Japan to thank for HDTV though - their original HiVision standard developed in the 70s (and used - for example - at the 1984 LA Olympics) is effectively the baseband 1080i standard we use today (it was 1035i and 1050i before it settled on 1080i - and it shifted from 60.00Hz to 59.94Hz - but the overall 1125 line standard is pretty near identical).

It's important to remember Japan was broadcasting in HD from the late 80s using their analogue MUSE standard fed with HiVision production gear. (They had 1" open-reel digital VTRs in the late 80s... The BBC shot a drama with NHK using that gear. There was a MUSE-based laserdisc standard for HD movies too - a precursor to Blu-ray, before DVD existed...)


Some interesting footage of New York City in 1993, filmed to demonstrate the MUSE standard that you mentioned:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT4lDU-QLUY


Not sure if that was to demo MUSE or just HiVision. The D-VHS (aka Digital Theater) source tape won't have been via MUSE - though I guess in 1993 they may have shot this stuff to demo MUSE as an analogue HD option (there were LOTS of analogue systems being developed - as well as the European Digitally-Assisted analogue HD-MAC)

I still find it amazing that NHK wanted to shoot some of the 1980 Moscow Olympics in HD (but tech export restrictions meant they couldn't). I remember seeing 1984 LA Olympics stuff at an IBC in Brighton ~1989-1991ish, along with 3D HiVision (two projectors and polarised glasses). Also saw Wimbledon, Albertville and Barcelona Eureka 1250 stuff as well as some TV Centre shows shot HD - it was amazing at the time. Would love to see that footage now.

Pity the BBC haven't repeated The Ginger Tree in HD (the first BBC drama shot in HD).
NG
noggin Founding member

Sky News | General Discussion

Rkolsen posted:
Now in the late 90s were TVs sold in 4:3 or 14:9 aspect ratio?


The first 16:9 CRT TVs started going on sale in Europe in the mid-90s - before DVD and DVB 16:9 full-height sources became available. They were initially sold to display letterboxed VHS and Laserdisc movies full-screen. Sony launched a PlayStation 16"(?) 16:9 CRT portable TV which was very popular as a floor monitor in TV studios (the only other options were 4:3 CRTs running scan-crushed letterbox)

14:9 was never a broadcast aspect ratio (it was just an active area within a 4:3 or 16:9 frame - we used 14L12 and 14P16) and no 14:9 TVs were sold AFAIK - as there was no real point to them.

14L12 was the 14:9 letterbox that we showed most 16:9 shows in on 4:3 outlets.
14P16 was the 14:9 pillars that we used to convert 4:3 news content (and other archive) for shows made otherwise in 16:9 for 16:9 outlets.
Last edited by noggin on 24 February 2018 1:29pm