Does ITV still use a test card?

I was wondering if ITV still have a test card, especially with their HD tests being carried out. Although they obviously haven't broadcast a test card for years I was thinking that they must still have test cards for internal purposes, the same with Channel Four and Five.

I doubt ITV still use the electronic test card of the 1980s. I remember this well from Channel 4 and I used to find it very creepy!

Can't say I've seen one, other than colour bars and the Technicolor branded feed identification slide (formally London News Network branded).

For testing HD it seems they have favoured short video clips with aerial view footage of landmarks and other similar things, or clips from movies and shows.

I believe STV did have one Before there moved offices. ( it had the 1985 logo!)

I do not believe there have one now, as STV/UTV do not get proper clean feeds thus, no lines are running up to the glasgow or Belfast.

All companies use testcards, I am sure ITV has lots, certainly while we see everything as ITV News, all the VT clocks etc are still branded ITN, and the clean feed available to ITN's clients still have ITN branding on it.

I would imagine they probably have access to TCW and possibly the HD version, as these are joinly owned by the BBC, BREMA (the TV set makers and installers trade association) and the ITV Companies Association.

STV does not get clean feeds! that's another reason why there away to court, ( I did post this info in the STV thread) there fed up of having to rely on itv, there want clean countdown clock/ test card

STV do get clean feeds from ITN, as do UTV and ITV plc. but Channel get a feed lifted from ITV Meridian.

I was very interested to hear that STV had their own test card as well as the standard IBA Electronic test card. It makes me wonder if other ITV companies also had their own test cards in the 1980s and 90s.

I didn't know Test Card W was jointly owned by ITV and BREMA, although I was aware that the famous Test Card F was (of course "W" is basically a widescreen version of "F" with a few variations). I am quite surprised how ITV in their digital tests haven't broadcast a test card, surely it would be more useful than the clips they broadcast instead.

There had a monkey on digital card

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1920000/images/_1923211_itv_digital_testcard300.jpg

The problem with transmitting test cards now is the potential for screen burn on modern LCD and plasma sets. A proper test card has areas of 100% peak colour, which can burn in alarmingly quickly. BBC HD tweaked the version they use to try to avoid this, and only show it for a few minutes at a time.

All TV stations/facilities houses which have outgoing lines have colour bars or other identification/test slide, They're used so that when you're lining up with another place they can check the signal and know where it is coming from. Often that's as basic as just writing the station name on the colour bars (the equipment has this built in) but some places like BT and Sky have graphics that mix bars with phone numbers.

Static test patterns aren't much use any more as digital lines and HD signals really need moving elements.What is increasingly common is a set of colour bars with a circular built in lip-sync test - the receiving can feed this into their bar/lip sync test generator and it will tell them how far it is out of sync, very clever

But all that is very different to a 'Test Card'

Even if that made sense - it's not really got anything to do with 'test cards'