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More 4 and More4 +1 Dogs

(May 2006)

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TW
Time Warp
james2001 posted:
nwtv2003 posted:
There are far worse DOGs on TV, but these appear on channels that the majority don't watch that often, such as Music channels or stations you may watch for half an hour rather than a whole night.


The music channels are a joke, I only ever have them on now as backgroung msuic, I never actually "watch" them, as the graphics on most of them are far too numerous and annoying to be able to put up with.

The logos are getting bigger and more colourful, nearly all of them feel the need to tell us what programme/music video slot we're watching (Obviously, the EPG hasn't yet been invented), if it's a chart then the poisition is permanantly on-screen. There's scrolling banners, usually for competitions or forthcoming programmes, permanant & pop-up advertising, text message "games" telling me John is 82% horny (or whatever- I don't give a **** about these people or their sexual preferences).


Not forgetting 'Beat the Monkey'. Wink

Also the fact hat these channels take a break every 10 minutes or so, and annoyingly, all at the same time too.
SE
seamus
In america, EVERY Network has a DOG. CBS, NBC,FOX, ABC, UPN, WB, and PBS have them. But they are transparent, so you can hardly see them. And they are in the lower right corner, so you don't miss anything.
EH
Edward H
seamus21514 posted:
In america, EVERY Network has a DOG. CBS, NBC,FOX, ABC, UPN, WB, and PBS have them. But they are transparent , so you can hardly see them. And they are in the lower right corner, so you don't miss anything.


If the DOGs in america were transparent you wouldn't be able to see them. Wink
SE
seamus
Here is what it looks like:


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/63/60_Minutes.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3e/Jim-rosenfield.jpg
AL
aland1999
Edward H posted:
seamus21514 posted:
In america, EVERY Network has a DOG. CBS, NBC,FOX, ABC, UPN, WB, and PBS have them. But they are transparent , so you can hardly see them. And they are in the lower right corner, so you don't miss anything.


If the DOGs in america were transparent you wouldn't be able to see them. Wink


I don't think he quite got what you meant Razz


--

Transparent = invisible; those DOGs are semi -transparent.
TV
tvarksouthwest
nwtv2003 posted:
I don't see what the big hoo-hah is about DOGs, most channels they stay in one corner and usually one colour and don't really distract your viewing. There are far worse DOGs on TV, but these appear on channels that the majority don't watch that often, such as Music channels or stations you may watch for half an hour rather than a whole night.

You miss the point. DOGs are deliberately situated in the top left because the human eye scans from left to right, top to bottom. And they often make it difficult to concentrate on the actual programme.

The fact is, DOGs are superfluous in this era of electronic programme guides, yet TV marketeers still insist on them for the sake of their corporate egos.

And they could be deterring some viewers from going digital. Interesting how "Digit Al" and the digital switchover website make no mention of this more negative side of "greater choice"...
JA
james2001 Founding member
tvarksouthwest posted:
And they could be deterring some viewers from going digital. Interesting how "Digit Al" and the digital switchover website make no mention of this more negative side of "greater choice"...


Why would they? They have to keep it simple. Most viewers don't have a clue about digital. Most of them don't even know what widescreen is.
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
seamus21514 posted:
In america, EVERY Network has a DOG. CBS, NBC,FOX, ABC, UPN, WB, and PBS have them. But they are transparent, so you can hardly see them. And they are in the lower right corner, so you don't miss anything.


The American networks seem to have the right idea about the DOGs - in the right corner, at pretty much a bearable degree of brightness and it virtually disappears under the right conditions.

Come over here though, go through Sky Digital and consider the various sizes and positions of DOGs on our channels and every conceivable position has been taken. Top left (UKTV, E4, etc), top right (Every Flextech channel), bottom right (abc1), bottom left (Sky News, News 24) and the entire screen (any music channel you care to mention). I'm pretty sure that its only the music channels and the Sit-Up channels that have managed the unique feat or spreading themselves across all four corners of the screen at the same time.
SE
seamus
I know, I'm Irish, and I had Sky, so I know.
PC
Paul Clark
The BBC TWO DOG during the Learning Zone worries me - not only does it look very jaggy, but it seems practically fully opaque. Why haven't they made it more transparent as the other BBC channel DOGs are, and properly anti-aliased?
NJ
Neil Jones Founding member
Paul Clark posted:
The BBC TWO DOG during the Learning Zone worries me - not only does it look very jaggy, but it seems practically fully opaque. Why haven't they made it more transparent as the other BBC channel DOGs are, and properly anti-aliased?


The Learning Zone DOG has always looked like being an afterthought in the branding department because it can't make up its mind as to whether it wants to be there or not.

Some nights you can go through the entire output and not see the thing at all, others it comes on halfway through a programme, others it sits there all night. I seem to recall they had a huge problem with the software to generate the DOG a few years back so had to recreate it manually. It came back so big and so bright it was really offputting and fully visible against the white background its supposed to be disappear on.

Since then though, they've never been able to reset the DOG to how it was before it was remade, as it was just perfect back then - not too big, not too bright and just generally "correct" for want of a better word.
DB
dbl
I agree, I think one of the best DOG's is E4's it's bearly visible at times, also with US DOG's; I think some of them are a bit too big, NBC's jacks up the brightness, ABC's is good in some respects, during dramas they lower the brightness and it's like a light stamp:

http://img75.imageshack.us/img75/6651/vlcsnap5921980cc.png
(It would be 4:3 safe, but this is taken from the HD feed)

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