noggin's posts, page 212

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NG
noggin Founding member

Feeds to Irish Channels

rdd posted:
When UTV Ireland was in operation, they had access to the same “semi-clean” ITV Network feed that UTV themselves did (and STV still do). On at least one occasion, automation failed and ITV promos were aired on UTV Ireland by mistake. Don’t know what arrangements are in place now for TV3.


That could well be an uncompressed feed for UTV. I think ITV circuits - including UTV - have been IP over BT MPLS circuits since 2004 (though the MPLS carriage may have been replaced by a different BT solution since then - as HD was introduced).

Whether TV3 get the same circuit - or just the same contents passed on via a different route and thus a compressed/converted version of it - I guess would be the interesting point. Don't know if BT provide direct connectivity in the Republic, and if not whether it would be carried over a different carrier's network (or a dedicated circuit leased / owned by someone )

Quote:

When MMDS was introduced, a fibre-optic link was put in place, owned by Irish Multichannel, that provided themselves and Cablelink (and others?) off air feeds from Divis of the NI terrestrial channels. That link remained in place into the 2000s, at least.


Those will be very low bitrate emission-rate SD feeds though, with each service less than 8Mbs (probably around 4-5Mbs). Compare that to the 270Mbs for uncompressed SDI (170Mbs for 8-bit 4:2:2 720x576 if you run 8 not 10 bit and discard blanking), or 1.5Gbs for uncompressed HD-SDI (830Mbs if you accept 8-bit 4:2:2 1920x1080 if you do the same)
NG
noggin Founding member

Feeds to Irish Channels


Despite not seeing TV3 or RTÉ as members of the Digital Production Partnership - ITV and TG4 are so I imagine the standards may be similar. I’m guessing based on these guidelines they would want to receive an uncompressed HD-SDI feed via fiber.


That would very much depend on their budget I suspect. Uncompressed would be ideal - as they are adding an additional hop to the DPP specs that will have been used to get the live programmes to ITV Playout. However uncompressed circuits are not insignificant in cost, and that may mean that a compressed solution is preferable in budget terms.

I'd avoid taking the DPP Live stuff as gospel. The bitrates specified in that document for satellite, for instance, are not always complied with. 24Mbs and 34Mbs H264 (and lower bitrates) are in widespread use for contribution circuits, and I know of very few shows that have paid for 60Mbs MPEG2 satellite circuits...

The EBU use less than 45Mbs H264 for their main distribution circuits (the Eurovision Song Contest - which is pretty challenging content to encode - is around 38Mbs H264 I think)
NG
noggin Founding member

Local TV


So instead of having local licences for Maidstone, Tonbridge and Brighton, you'd have a regional licence which would use Bluebell Hill, Dover, Hastings, Heathfield and Whitehawk Hill to cover Kent, East Sussex and the Brighton & Hove belt.


If you do that - aren't you close to replicating the BBC South East region through? I thought the point of Local TV was to be more local than the BBC and ITV regional news, and provide real local TV (mirroring local print press)?


While that's true, the then regional channels would have to find a niche that some of them already have, so not to duplicate what is on the BBC/ITV regional channels.

KMTV are a good example of providing a news bulletin that isn't just a straight copy of SET or ITV News Meridian.

Fact is that after four years of Hunt's vanity project, the areas chosen are too small for most. Salisbury for example can just about support a commercial radio station owned by a media group, so no chance for a local tv channel.


I still think most of us question the need for local TV in the UK at all, or at least a dedicated local TV channel.
NG
noggin Founding member

Local TV


So instead of having local licences for Maidstone, Tonbridge and Brighton, you'd have a regional licence which would use Bluebell Hill, Dover, Hastings, Heathfield and Whitehawk Hill to cover Kent, East Sussex and the Brighton & Hove belt.


If you do that - aren't you close to replicating the BBC South East region through? I thought the point of Local TV was to be more local than the BBC and ITV regional news, and provide real local TV (mirroring local print press)?
NG
noggin Founding member

NOW TV

Still no change to the branding on the Now TV boxes sadly.

Gold has reverted to SD again. Worth noting that most live channels are streaming at just under 5000mbps for the 720p channels and 2500mbps for the remaining SD channels.


Are they all still 25p ?


Yes unfortunately. 1080/50 seems to be a pipe dream.


720/50p would be better than 1080/25p for native 50Hz material.
NG
noggin Founding member

NOW TV

Still no change to the branding on the Now TV boxes sadly.

Gold has reverted to SD again. Worth noting that most live channels are streaming at just under 5000mbps for the 720p channels and 2500mbps for the remaining SD channels.


Are they all still 25p ?
NG
noggin Founding member

YouTube Gold

The enthusiastic TVam presenter is Georgey Spanswick, now the presenter of the BBC's national local radio evening programme

http://www.lunzerwineevents.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Georgey-Spanswick-BBC.png

*


Georgie was also a reporter on the afternoon show on the early-90s National Cable station 'Wire TV - The Cable Network'. CNN's Femi Oke, and Kathryn Aponowicz also presented. Georgie mainly presented live OBs from around the country (they'd spend a week in each region) - the main studio was in a Bristol shopping centre I think.
NG
noggin Founding member

Good Morning Britain



Is there something special happening tomorrow?


Have you been following the news today? If so there was a march this weekend that might cause 'comedy fireworks' between Piers and Susanna? (Pier is a noted feminist after all...)

** Or maybe the football - as someone else pointed out... **
Last edited by noggin on 21 January 2018 6:29pm
NG
noggin Founding member

Eurosport Player

So glad I can't tell the difference.


Seriously?

I guess the most common reason for people not seeing the difference is that lots of people haev TVs with Motion Flow / Natural Motion interpolation enabled that attempts to convert 25p to 50p (or 100p in some cases) and thus looks more like a 50p / 50i original - but the artefacts this interpolation introduces are horrible.

Compared to iPlayer - which does full 50p streaming - it's a real shame.

Looks like the Discovery/Eurosport Winter Olympics on-line will be disappointingly in 25p via Amazon (not sure if other platforms are also this reduced quality).

Annoying - as the BBC streams are now almost always 50p. (Checking now and they all are - Snooker, Netball, Alpine all 50p not 25p)
Last edited by noggin on 21 January 2018 1:27pm - 4 times in total
NG
noggin Founding member

Eurosport Player

Just thought I'd give the Amazon Prime TV Channel 7-day free trial a go. I had hoped that a sports channel would run at 50Hz, but no - all the live and on-demand stuff is a horrible 50->25Hz downconversion (the horrible bit refers to it taking place - not that it's a technically bad conversion) I've tried on both on an nVidia Shield running Android TV (configured 4K 50 Rec 709 output) and via the web browser on my laptop...

If iPlayer can do 50Hz - why on earth aren't premium services? Sport is shot at 50Hz for a reason...

If IP platform operators and service providers want us to ditch cable or satellite - they'll need to up their quality.

I get why NowTV runs at a lower quality - they want to be seen as a 'cheap and cheerful' alternative to 'fulll quality, full price' Sky.

I don't get why Amazon - who are pushing 4K and HDR - aren't also pushing full quality TV... Surely they want to be better than Sky or BT, not worse?
Last edited by noggin on 21 January 2018 12:39pm
NG
noggin Founding member

The RTE News Thread

rdd posted:
But we know exactly the reason that duplication exists, the requirement under the Broadcasting Act 2009 to seek ministerial consent to channel variations. Seemingly RTÉ planned on removing the RTEjr block from RTE Two (leaving the TRTE block of older children’s programmers) but was informally told that request would be refused.


Is that because RTÉjr and RTÉ2 are on different DTT muxes - or are both muxes available to the same audiences?

Are there any platforms that carry RTÉ2 but not RTÉjr?

Isn't RTÉ2 also HD, whereas RTÉjr is SD - at least on DTT. I doubt the govt care that much about HD vs SD in kids programming - but it may play a part?
NG
noggin Founding member

Big Brother (UK) - may be axed

Those ratings, are the second lot millions too or thousands as it's written??


Thousands, as it says at the top of the column. First figure is the +7 audience, in 000s, second figure is the +28 audience, in 000s.

+7 is audience after 7 days, including time shift, catch-up etc., and +28 the same after 28 days.

This is increasingly important for bigger shows (call the midwife on Christmas Day got something like a 50% increase when +7 came out and ended up beating Mrs Browns Boys I think)

The first set of figures look to be overnights (which will only contain very close-to-transmission catch-up viewing within the same 24 hour period) and are millions.

(It's not unusual for ratings to be listed in 000s to save writing extra 000s and to keep tables neat)
Last edited by noggin on 21 January 2018 9:26am