noggin's posts, page 50

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NG
noggin Founding member

BBC Three to return as a linear channel?

Stuart posted:
Some have suggested selling BBC Three & BBC Four.

I could be wrong here, as I'm no legal expert, but surely the BBC cannot 'sell' PSB channels (even to its commercial arm BBC Studios) without a major change to their charter. Perhaps the only way would be to close both channels (OK, BBC Three is technically only online - but the brand exists), then sell the programme rights to BBC Studios.


It's probably a bit different to that. BBC Studios-made shows would be decommissioned by BBC Public Service (who run BBC Three and Four currently) and then a UKTV Three and a UKTV Four channel could recommission them from themselves - though if they pre-dated the BBC Studios split from BBC Public Service the BBC PS operation may retain IP rights - so that could be complex.

The channels couldn't be called or branded BBC if they carried advertising or sponsorship domestically and were UKTV channels. I think that's pretty clear.

Commissioned shows from indie producers would need to be recommissioned - and that would be less cost effective - but still do-able.

Quote:

However, they would require new EPG slots on both Freeview and Sky, and renaming, perhaps back to just 'Choice' and 'Knowledge'. I'm not sure this would be a solution in such a crowded market where competitors would have better slots.

It would also mean that some of the back-catalogue would no longer be available on BBC iPlayer.


They wouldn't get protected EPG slots - and couldn't be carried on PSB1 (the main BBC SD Freeview mux) as that is reserved for BBC public services channels only. However they could buy the CBBC downtime on PSB3 (the UK HD mux) as that doesn't have the same protection.
NG
noggin Founding member

BBC Three to return as a linear channel?

Amber Avenger posted:

Not sure Only Connect is shoved away on BBC Two either, isn't it one of the channel's highest rating shows?


Quite - the ratings Only Connect is getting on BBC Two these days would be record breaking on BBC Four. The move of Only Connect from Four to Two increased its ratings hugely. It's hardly shoved away - it's co-scheduled with University Challenge and does very well.
NG
noggin Founding member

BBC Three to return as a linear channel?

jake-watson posted:
BBC Three 24 hours wouldn't be a bad thing but for it to work they would need to axe the cbbc brand. After all netflix don't brand their kids shows any differently. CBBC has tried to skew their drama older in recent years with the extension to 9PM, provided they did that with other genres e.g gameshows it could bridge quite nicely.


That doesn't work in EPG terms does it? If the channel stays on-air 24/7 then either it's in the general section (and kids won't know it's there as they surf between channels) or it's in the kids section (which is weird for a channel aimed largely at adults for large chunks of the day)...
NG
noggin Founding member

TV Breakdown Appreciation Thread

commseng posted:
noggin posted:
commseng posted:
If I am on site in an uplink truck then I am not monitoring too many sources compared to an MCR.
Therefore the freeze is a better option for incoming feeds that will be used on air.
If there is a sudden problem it is less objectionable and bear in mind that I will be receiving on a small dish, either 2.4m or 1.8m, not the same as the teleports will be using.


I've heard a production argument that black or 'incoming garbage passed through' are both preferable to freezes on IRDs and Frame synchronisers on live shows - as audience that see a freeze frame will think the show is recorded and 'the tape has been paused' if something that they think is live then freezes on-air.

I had heard that when radio cameras were first put through syncronisers and would freeze rather display noise as they faded, this caused issues with horse racing coverage.
Viewers, and especially those who were betting on the races saw the CRE freeze as it broke up, with horses midway over a jump.
There were accusations that the race had been recorded, and was not live........


Hence the popularity of Quantel 1751s I believe (which would run in a GIGO mode)
NG
noggin Founding member

Britbox UK - UK SVoD Platform.

Asa posted:

Such a shame that from what I’ve read the BritBox UI isn’t very good and no 50i . I must get around to trying it...


Tiny detail - but very few streaming services (the only one I can think of is one of the early, now deprecated, iPlayer-on-DVB implementations) use 50i (aka i25) for streaming. Sky's download service uses it, but the dominant streaming services that offer 50Hz fluid motion (iPlayer, Amazon Prime Video, ZDF and ARD in Germany etc.) use 50p (aka p50). This is because a lot of platforms have very poor support for full-motion deinterlacing (and it often requires more power). Android platforms in particular have very patchy support for replay of interlaced content with on-the-fly deinterlacing to 2x frame rate (which is required for full motion)

Deinterlacing 50i (aka i25) sources to 50p (aka p50) rather than to 25p (aka p25) at source, prior to streaming, makes sense in this scenario (as you remove the requirement for the receiving/displaying platform to have to deinterlace)

The one caveat to this is that 1080p50 h.264 is a higher level/profile than is required for 720p50 and 1080i25 DVB broadcasts, so deinterlacing 1080i25 to 720p50 makes some sense in compatibility terms.

Sky can use 50i (aka i25) for their Sky HD download platform as it only operates on a platform that they 100% control, and that has guaranteed interlaced decoding and output functionality (and will be connected to a display capable of deinterlacing).

(What does Sky Q do when streaming hard drive recordings made off-air to tablets and phones over local WiFi - does it deinterlace to p25 or p50?)
Last edited by noggin on 6 March 2020 11:51am - 2 times in total
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NG
noggin Founding member

Coronavirus | Television News Coverage

Rkolsen posted:
Stuart posted:
mapperuo posted:
Also a very subtle jump in picture as it switches, To I assume the output of a different gallery?

I didn't actually notice a jump in picture as it switched, just all the on screen graphics sweeping away (in the normal fashion) and a pause before they were replaced.


I thought all the galleries at NBH were interchangeable, so I would have expected such a change to be invisible in terms of the picture feed from an outside source.


I believe I was told by either deejay or mediaboy that all the galleries are directly linked to the studio.

Yes - NBH is based around galleries and studios being dedicated to each other, not switchable (So a specific gallery always works to the same studio)

Quote:

Apparently it was cheaper to setup a smaller individual router and infrastructure.

Yes - you don't have to put in a whole bunch of additional infrastructure to allow you to switch sound feeds, cameras, vision tielines etc. It reduces flexibility - but also reduces potential points of failure - as well as cost. In other facilities where galleries can switch to use multiple studios there are sometimes routing issues that take time to iron out (I know of one facility where you allow for at least 30 minute of tests after a studio/gallery switch)

Quote:

However the vizrt engines are pooled, all outside sources I assume are available to each studio and there’s likely a house or master control router controlled by BNCS which allows switching between studios and networks. I think when there’s an instance like this or a control room change slight jumps are to be expected. I have seen it nationally and locally in the US.


Sort of.

Each gallery has it's own outside source router destinations on the building-wide router(s) - and these outputs (which are what are called 'outside sources' when they are reach each studio aren't shared between studios/galleries. OS1 in Gallery A is unique to Gallery A for instance - and not shared with any others.

The sources on the building-wide router(s) are of course routable to any destination - so the same router sources can be routed to any studio's gallery outside source destinations.

The building-wide router isn't really a single, large, router - it's a collection of routers with resilience planning to mitigate failure.

Quote:

One way to prevent them (I’d assume) to do a soft opt during a transition. You’d run the the Victoria Derbyshire’s studio B gallery output through Studios E’s and during the change top of the hour change there wouldn’t be a jump. I’ve seen it done on some of the regions on YouTube during the 10pm news. They run the network through their circuit and control room during the TOTH while the ident is playing and they can easily run the tease during the local avail in the headline bed without having to worry about both switching from network to logo in addition to switching and producing the tease simultaneously.


That's jumping to a conclusion that Studio AA fed through Studio BB to a destination (lines to Red Bee, Network destination etc.) and Studio BB routed directly to the same destination (which is what a soft opt would do) would be an invisible switch. That would require there to be no differential delays on the two soft-opt paths. The reality is that almost certainly won't be the case.

As a result soft-opting could introduce a 2 or 3 frame delay on the switch.
NG
noggin Founding member

TV Breakdown Appreciation Thread

peterrocket posted:
james-2001 posted:
Very 80s/90s looking captions for a modern piece of equipment!


You should see the user interface....

*

*

Maybe harks back to DOS but it works, reliable and no messing around with windows and inevitable updates.


Although I believe it is running Windows underneath that UI isn't it? The UI is DOS-like, but I don't believe they are still running DOS (or a DOS-like OS) as the underlying OS?
NG
noggin Founding member

TV Breakdown Appreciation Thread

commseng posted:
If I am on site in an uplink truck then I am not monitoring too many sources compared to an MCR.
Therefore the freeze is a better option for incoming feeds that will be used on air.
If there is a sudden problem it is less objectionable and bear in mind that I will be receiving on a small dish, either 2.4m or 1.8m, not the same as the teleports will be using.


I've heard a production argument that black or 'incoming garbage passed through' are both preferable to freezes on IRDs and Frame synchronisers on live shows - as audience that see a freeze frame will think the show is recorded and 'the tape has been paused' if something that they think is live then freezes on-air.
NG
noggin Founding member

NOW TV

London Lite posted:
The 128 and 192 look like audio bitrates, while the 7831 look like video bitrates. Just under 8MB sounds about what has been suggested NOW TV is streaming in using the HD boost.


Yep - that's what I'd interpret from those with no other real information.

The new iPlayer 1080p50 SDR h.264 streams (which appear to go to SmartTV clients only) are at a similar bitrate I think. (The iPlayer 720p50 SDR h.264 streams are around 5.3Mbs)
NG
noggin Founding member

PSB VOD

VMPhil posted:
thegeek posted:
PFMC84 posted:
Isn't that what BritBox was supposed to be, a Hub for all PSB content or is this one going to be Strictly for free catch-up content. If so, I'm All 4 it, just as long as they have a rule that all content is available in HD. Why are the BBC the only ones giving HD content as standard on their catch-up? The picture quality on other PSB catch-up services is a disgrace and the applications themselves frequently crash or cut off parts of the programming to insert ads or have horrible interfaces.

*groan*

iPlayer is one of the few catch-up services which has given any thought to accessibility - you can toggle subtitles, and (were available) AD or sign language. I'm not sure I've even seen subtitles as an option in the rest.

All4 has subtitles, in fact on the Apple TV they even use colour coded subtitles like on broadcast. iPlayer does not support subtitles on Apple TV.


iPlayer on Apple TV always seems like a slight 'odd relation' to iPlayer on other platforms.
NG
noggin Founding member

PSB VOD

james-2001 posted:
The iPlayer is also one of the very few streaming services which handles 50/60hz content properly.


Is there 60Hz content on iPlayer now? If so what is it?
NG
noggin Founding member

Bake Off

Brekkie posted:
This may be of interest- it is about the US version which films in the UK tent so they film the entire thing over 2-3 weeks with a days practice between each show. The refreshing thing though is how producers are keen for contestants to shine, hence the practice, rather than building them up for failure.

https://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2020/02/great-american-baking-show-casting-interview/


It's a different tent in the UK though AIUI (I note they say 'has' in the article - as they may have shared it at one point).

The C4 show is made on location near Newbury, the US version is now made on the back lot of one of the film studios (Pinewood or Shepperton) I believe. There was a point where both the US Bake Off and the UK Junior Bake Off were shooting simultaneously.
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