noggin's posts, page 323

The Sport Thread

Didn't see it - but it could have been any number of things. If it was pre-recorded they may have shot it on a C300 (which can shoot 50i but most people use 25p), or a camcorder like a PMW500/PDW800 that had previously been used for a 25p shoot and nobody spotted that it wasn't (particularly if it wasn't live)

If it was live then it could have been the above too, or also if a 3G/4G circuit was used like a LiveU or a WMT, they sometimes have the option to run at 25p rather than 50i.

Or as others have said, it could have been shot on a DSLR, iPhone, iPad, or any consumer camera...

Channel 5 general discussion

Yes - though that happened quite a while ago now didn't it? C5 were able to move their HD variant to 105 on the Sky EPG when they did this some months ago. (Until then Ofcom rules meant that if the SD channel was more regional than the HD, the SD variant got the 'better' EPG slot)

Is there an easier way to get TV recordings to a hard drive?

Yep - I do a lot of that too

You can also do more useful things like take a Freeview HD recording with 5.1 AAC audio and convert it to have an AC3 5.1 Dolby Digital track which is useful if you have a playback solution that works better with Dolby 5.1 than AAC.

Government White Paper on the BBC

Certainly 'jobs for life' is very much a thing of the past in BBC Television (formerly BBC Vision) - though it is more common in the core departments like BBC News, where continuous, core output means you can employ staff production teams.

A large number of people making non-News, non-Sport output are freelance or on relatively short fixed term contracts (often for the duration of a series) with most departments having only a small core of programme making staff.

Government White Paper on the BBC

Classic 'Dead Dog on the Table' approaches seem to have been increasing of late... Though in this case I'm not sure Whittingdale is intentionally doing this, though others in government may be using him to.

Channel 5 general discussion

Arguable, and I don't agree. I think HD adds a lot to factual programming - particularly natural history content - and these days I'd argue it's become the norm. If you watch Crimewatch - the last BBC Network origination in SD AFAIK - it sticks out as looking lower quality now.

However SD-acquired shows look a LOT better on HD channels than the same content shown on teh SD channels because the HD channels suffer far less from overcompression and use a better codec (apart from on Virgin Media).

Watch a 1981 TOTP repeat on BBC Four SD and then BBC Four HD. Sure the source material is composite SD, but it looks a LOT better on the HD channel...

Is there an easier way to get TV recordings to a hard drive?

Learning how to use ffmpeg is definitely worth it (and most software that does transcoding and rewrapping is based on it). It remuxes (i.e. doesn't transcode) content incredibly quickly - which is what I do for .wtv files usually - and gives you a LOT of options for transcoding (if you want to take 1080i H264 and 576i MPEG2 and converth them for iOS etc.)

I've only had one source of .wtv files that it has struggled with (and those were from non-UK pay-TV sources using a CAM which mangles the PTS elements of the stream I think)

Handbrake is great for a quick conversion without having to think, but if you learn how ffmpeg works and aren't afraid of a command line, then it pays dividends. It often works for very oddball formats too. It's a great Swiss Army knife for video.

East Midlands Today - New Set 29th March

I suspect it is up to each region how they resource their Sunday opts on a week-by-week basis, though equally I suspect that the general move to a Friday pre-record means that there is less money around than there may have been previously, so funding a full crew on a Sunday will require money to be found from somewhere.

This Morning

Yes - though codec delay is increasingly significant as longer GOPs and lower bitrates are used...

This Morning

You usually have just the codec delay with fibre connectivity - plus a bit of standards conversion if you are going from 59.94 to 50Hz. It's not instantaneous even with fibre, but it's usually pretty low latency. If you are willing to pay for higher bitrate, or accept lower picture quality, you can run your codecs in low-latency mode (which delivers lower picture quality for a given bitrate) to reduce delays further.

Is there an easier way to get TV recordings to a hard drive?

Really? I've had zero problems rewrapping from .wtv to .mkv or .ts or .mp4, with MPEG2 and H264 .wtv files made from DVB-T/T2 and S/S2 cards in Windows Media Centre. You need to know what you're doing in ffmpeg (one of the two DVB-T/T2 audio tracks is silent when there is no audio description for instance) - but it works fine. VLC should play them fine.

Government White Paper on the BBC

Quite.

Same people also say the BBC shouldn't compete with ITV News at 10pm. Conveniently forgetting the BBC only moved the 9 O'Clock News to 10 when ITV moved away from a regular 10pm bulletin...