Computer graphics on Micro Live 1986

The iPlayer recently published a new collection of archive programmes about computers, including two episodes of Micro Live. In one of them the second half of the programme is dedicated to computer animation.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0306q6v/micro-live-series-3-17101986

It includes an enjoyable summary about the state of the art at the time, including how you can create animations with your home computer, an interview with Dr John Vince of Rediffusion Simulation and more.

Nice find. Lovely retro programme.

Micro Live was an excellent programme. I actually went to the Bletchley Park retrospective they did on the series and met Fred Harris who was a delightful man to meet. He was and indeed still is also very intelligent, and wasn't just a presenter. He clearly knew his stuff.

For a while there was a download going around of all the episodes that someone had recorded onto VHS at the time. Sadly a lot of the VHS's were degraded, but there was a lot of great content there. I also seem to remember a certain Martin Lambie-Nairn being on the programme talking about TV computer graphics, and if i'm right he even commented on one of Pixar's very first computer animations that had just been released. Though my memory may be cheating me there.

No. Here it is...
http://youtu.be/cHFR5W3ews8

From memory, Micro Live (at one point known as "Making The Most of the Micro - Live") earlier in its run and its predecessor "Making The Most of The Micro" used a BBC Micro to do the closing credits. (Mode 7 rules...)

Can't remember if "The Computer Programme" did or not. For those who saw "Micro Men" which was the BBC Four drama recreating the Sinclair vs Acorn rivalry and the BBC Micro's birth, you'll have seen the recreation of the even older, "The Computer Programme" behind the scenes bits.

There was at least one wooden prop BBC Micro apparently, with some clever cheating using older Acorn computers and/or CEEFAX pages in the very early recording sessions as there weren't enough working BBC Micros. Or so I remember hearing at the time...

**EDIT : And I think the first "Making The Most of the Micro - Live" was the first time I can remember a show asking for e-mails! In 1984 via BT's Telecom Gold or Micronet 800 via Prestel.

Great find thanks




Yeah i remember watching a few episodes, and the list of different services they invited contributions from was funny, as there were clearly a few experimental ones out at the time. They even had their own dial in system where you could dial into and extract info and send messages. It was so popular that it crashed the first time they used it.

Couple of Interesting side notes, i've noticed that if you watch the Micro Live episodes on iPlayer in HD, they actually display in the same way you'd get on a 50i interlaced TV. Have they somehow been converted to 50fps progressive?

Also, the versions on iPlayer are very different to the versions i've seen on the VHS recordings. In the case of the animation episode, the VHS versions must have been repeats, as they were chopped down with different introductions by Fred Harris. Also on the 'final' episode, the VHS recording makes lots of references to the episode being live, whereas the iPlayer version has different introductions. Same script, but just different recordings with the presenters not mentioning the liveness at all. Must have made different versions for repeats later.

Is that through the website, or on a TV/STB? I watched a bit through my Freeview box yesterday, and a bit on the website just now, and at times it does seem 50i/p, but I think that's just because a lot of it is low-motion talking heads. A few quick hand gestures showed it to be 25p.

On main PC browser based BBC iPlayer here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0306rt1/micro-live-series-3-28031987

Look at specifically the difference between the filmed segments, and the VT segments. The Quantel(?) zoom transition effect to the studio just after the title sequence really gives it away.

I think the iplayer has had 50p playback on HD for a couple of months now, at last. One of my biggest gripes with internet video is that it's been stuck at 24/25/30p even on originally 50/60Hz content, so it's good to finally be able to see stuff as it looked on TV.

Annoyingly the Virgin Media TIVO version of the iplayer is stuck at 25p, which is really annoying seeing as non-TIVO Virgin was always at 50i (as are the other catchup services, even on TIVO).

Yep. iPlayer now includes 960x540/50p and 1280x720/50p profiles on some platforms which gives you full motion on native interlaced sources. I don't think it used for all encodes at the moment - as some 25p stuff is still kicking around.

This development is important for native interlaced sport, entertainment content etc. where iPlayer has always suffered in comparison to broadcast outlets (*) as the 50Hz native motion has been halved to 25Hz. (Interesting that a major selling point of Apple TV 4 Major League Baseball is that is 60fps)

(*) The non-Tivo Virgin Media and Sky+ HD catch-up services use different encoding and have offered 50i content natively for a long time. (Sky also includes 5.1 Dolby audio where relevant)

** EDIT - if you right click on some versions of iPlayer player windows you will see the stream bitrate and resolution reported **

I also noticed that the first episode of The Computer Programme has different edits at the start. The original mentions the year of Information Technology (1982), while the iplayer version seems to have an acting sequence. Was this used for repeat versions?

I happily stand corrected, as this is a very welcome development. That said, I've been able watch 50i iPlayer on my Freesat HD box for years ("higher quality" mode, SD but smooth).

And my "modern" YouView box is still getting 25p only...