noggin's posts, page 70

BBC Breakfast - 16th July onwards

Yes - I swapped the new and old branding in my head...

BBC World News: Reith look onwards

They aren't tolerated at all at the BBC. Whilst the person in question posted a humorous comment - there are Rentokil baited vermin traps all over the place, and whenever a mouse (or other rodent...) has been reported more go in and pest control contractors come in to look at the location in case more extreme measures are needed.

Once this happens you don't normally see them for a good while... In that location...

BBC Breakfast - 16th July onwards

If that sting runs on BBC One only then it's possible it's played in by Red Bee rather than Breakfast, and they haven't been supplied with a new version?

Which TV is better please?

Ah - on the Roku Streaming Stick + (one of the only players that supports proper 2160p50 HLG Rec 2020 iPlayer UHD output) - AFR works on everything OTHER than Netflix (or that was the case last time I checked)

At one point everything on the Roku SS+ was AFR - but that caused issues in Netflix with the auto-play trailer backgrounds (as they kept re-syncing the TV as they AFR-ed if they weren't all the same frame rate) - so they disabled the function just in that channel/app.

I'll have another look this evening - they were getting a lot of flak in their online forums when they disable it (without at least making it optionally disabled)

** EDIT - just checked - AFR still borked in Netflix on the Roku Streaming Stick + with software update from 25th Sept **

(The Apple TV has the benefit of Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos support - alongside AFR on Netflix and Amazon - which neither the Roku nor the nVidia Shield TV support)

The Sport Thread

The current Doha IAAF World Championships is being host broadcast by ITN believe it or not. (Not dissing ITN - it's just that their presence in this area of production may surprise some who think of HBS, OBS, S+V and IMG as the natural host broadcast producers for these kinds of events)

ITN signed a deal a couple of years ago to be the IAAF's production partner, and there is now an IAAF productions division at ITN.

https://www.svgeurope.org/blog/headlines/itn-productions-hires-jennifer-angell-as-iaaf-productions-head-of-broadcast-operations/

Which TV is better please?

Yep - the Shield TV is a neat solution, if only it supported Automatic frame rate switching in Netflix, Amazon, iPlayer etc. It's such a faff to constantly adjust the output frame rate depending what shows you are watching (Netflix has 23.976, 25 and 29.97 stuff, Amazon has that and 50 and 59.94 live sport...) The Android Pie update has also mullered the Rec 709 / Rec 2020 colour gamut switching a bit AIUI (which was only recently introduced)

Which TV is better please?

Lots of this comes down to personal preference - but Sport and Vivid modes are definitely best avoided - they distort pictures massively (Vivid in particular winds up the colour saturation to the point that pictures look like cartoons). On some TVs cinema mode can be useful (it will often disable some of the harshest processing) - but my advice to anyone buying a TV is to go to the shop and watch channels with content you typically watch on both. Ask for the remote control - and get the picture to a state you like. Personally I usually end up in a Standard or Custom mode usually - though on some TVs there is a reasonable 'calibrated' or 'THX' mode that can be pretty good. I also don't agree with having different settings for different types of content. Your TV should just be correctly set up and then display what it is fed as accurately as possible...

In my case I disable all the digital picture 'enhancements' - like Motion Flow/Natural Motion, Noise Reduction, Live Colour, Contrast enhancement etc. I set the picture to a reasonably warm setting (by default most TVs are far, far too blue - and when you first do this you think the picture is far too orangey/pink - but it's actually often more accurate, and much nicer to watch as a result) and reduce the sharpness to the setting where it has no impact on the picture (on most TVs this is 0, but on some it's 50%)

Personally I'm not a fan of LG LCD TVs (sometimes now called LED TVs) and prefer Sony's picture processing (or lack of it when it's disabled). (LG are much, much better when it comes to OLED TVs - not to be confused with LED-backlit LCD TVs)

However this is a personal preference - and budget vs cost vs subjective preference is always a balance. Personally I don't like the integrated smart TV functionality on most TVs and prefer to use an external solution like a Roku Streaming Stick+ (though now it doesn't frame rate match Netflix it's not as desirable) or an Apple TV (which is - for me - probably the best TV streaming solution currently around)

BBC to switch off red button text

Arguably PSB Muxes 1 and 2 are the last muxes that should go from DVB-T to DVB-T2.

HOWEVER - there is definitely some sense in migrating the COM4-6 muxes from DVB-T to DVB-T2 and from MPEG2 to H.264 compression - even if they stay SD. That would free up significant amounts of spectrum, whilst driving uptake of DVB-T2 receivers, without removing BBC TV services from licence fee payers...

BBC to switch off red button text

Yes - though any TV sold pre-2009 won't have a Freeview HD tuner in it (as the standard didn't exist until then) - so there were three years+ of HDTVs sold before you could buy a Freeview HD TV, and it wasn't mandatory until 3 years ago. My first and second HD TVs - both still in use - don't have any HD tuners in them. My first HD TV with an integrated Freeview HD receiver was my first UHD set.

BBC to switch off red button text

That's a slightly misleading figure to quote. I believe that 72% HD penetration figure was for the single, main set in a household - not all TVs in use. I know many households - mine, my parents', my in-laws' - all of which have HD viewing solutions for their main TV (either with an integrated tuner or external STB capable of receiving HD), but still have Freeview SD sets in secondary locations (bedrooms, kitchen etc.)

The HD figure will drop significantly if you count all TVs in use.

BBC to switch off red button text

If the BBC are retiring MHEG5 then there will really be no reason for it to continue - as all the Red Button stuff will be HbbTV and point to online streams instead of a DVB stream. The BBC could conceivably run it as a scheduled linear channel - but navigating and promoting it would be tricky and audiences would probably be pretty low.

I've read reports that it is MHEG5 that's being switched off (not just Digital Text in MHEG5) - as the reports also mentioned the end of the graphic front pages for the DVB-T Radio services too - so my guess is that Red Button linear channels on DVB-T are likely to go.

I'm assuming Freesat MHEG5 will also go - but not sure about Digital Text on Sky (where there is no HbbTV or Connected Red Button equivalent)?

Naga Munchetty | BBC DG Overturns Ruling

Are you saying the pool of English speaking journalists who speak Mandarin fluently isn't far smaller than the pool of English speaking journalists who don't speak Mandarin? I didn't say very few - I said the pool was far smaller than those who speak English (and don't speak Mandarin)

That was my point - North America Editors for UK news organisations need no additional language skills, ideally China Editors for UK news organisations speak Mandarin.

My point wasn't to say that there weren't any other suitable candidates other than Carrie - it was to point out that it was an additional skill required (ideally) for the post, which could (should?) command a premium if anything.