...I have an example here to hand. It's where Ch 4 slotted in their first News Report on the London Bombings. Hopefully Real Media will be able to handle the breakup.
I've not seen a junction in/out of C4 News in ages... upload it to let me see what is happening.
You
would
think that it is a sync' problem: and they did use a drop of black to hide the aspect ratio switch. What I find strange is that the break-up starts, as you said, just at the end of the ident
before they've gone to the ITN source
.
Perhaps someone on the forum with a more techy brain could offer an explanation.
The fact that it sometimes happens, sometimes doesn't... could be down to an intermittent fault on the syncroniser used on the ITN feed or on the Outside Source router. It's all guess work. The more puzzling thing is... why have they let the problem persist for this length of time?
ITN is one of Ch 4's regular live programme providers. Curiously, I have also spotted the same picture disturbance on occasion during cuts to/from live Big Brother programmes.
As you say, it would be nice to have a definitive explanation of the cause.
ITN is one of Ch 4's regular live programme providers. Curiously, I have also spotted the same picture disturbance on occasion during cuts to/from live Big Brother programmes.
As you say, it would be nice to have a definitive explanation of the cause.
Obviously I don't know exactly how C 4 pres' operate; but my guess is that if it's a problem that only affects outside sources, it might be (as I said before) an intermittent fault with a syncroniser or their OS router.
The reason the same applied when going in and out of Big Brother was that that was also originated in 4:3 to accomodate the cameras in the house.
YES the aspect ratio switch OUGHT to occur in the black, but it actually occurs very slightly early, hence the glitch.
If you watch it on a 16:9 television, set to follow the broadcaster's ratio, you can see the sides of the picture come in, right on the final couple of frames of the ident.
The reason the same applied when going in and out of Big Brother was that that was also originated in 4:3 to accomodate the cameras in the house.
YES the aspect ratio switch OUGHT to occur in the black, but it actually occurs very slightly early, hence the glitch.
If you watch it on a 16:9 television, set to follow the broadcaster's ratio, you can see the sides of the picture come in, right on the final couple of frames of the ident.
On the very odd occasion I watched Big Brother, I didn't see any glitch occur during the aspect ratio switch. Hence the fault must be intermittent. The glitch/break-up is not the same as seeing the
"sides of the picture come in"
. Seeing the aspect ratio switch before the black is unfortunate; I've noticed that happen when watching C 4 on my sister's TV, on my TV the switch always occurs in the black.
Nick:
Have you seen this kind of break-up occur on aspect ratio switching in to 4:3 pre-recorded programmes on C 4?
Mike:
Have you seen the break-up occur when C 4 cut to a live outside source that is in 16:9? (I can't think of any live 16:9 programmes on C 4 as an example: T4 I think still comes from the gallery/small studio in the Horseferry Road HQ).
I have seen the pixelisation breakup around ad breaks on Channel 4 News and occasionally around ads during live BB broadcasts.
The suggestion here seems to be that the ratio switch required for certain LIVE OBs may be causing the picture breakup?? This distortion, however, does not occur on all occasions.
So, I would assume that:
(a) there is possibly some sort of intermittent fault and Ch 4 cannot isolate the cause
or
(b) there is a known limitation/bug with their kit for which they have a workaround but don't implement this workaround on all occasions.
Whatever the issue, given that it seems to occur during live broadcasts from different sources, I tend to be of the view that the problem is at the Horseferry Rd end.
Have you seen this kind of break-up occur on aspect ratio switching in to 4:3 pre-recorded programmes on C 4?
It does it in and out of Friends, but, it has to be said, to a much lesser degree.
When you say "to a much lesser degree", do you mean that the pixelisation does not happen at all, and that all you notice is the shape of the picture changing before the drop to black? Or do you see some pixelisation as well as the aspect ratio switch?
If we can rule out 4:3 material being played off local server, and say that the pixelisation only occurs on outside sources, and that of those
only 4:3 sources
(and not 16:9 sources such as live cricket) are affected, then one possibility is that there could be a fault with one of their ARCs (aspect ratio converter) which is being used on live 4:3 sources.
