Eurovision 2007 - Helsinki

Does anyone know which other countries show the semi-final, and, more importantly, whether any show it in 14:9 or 4:3?

It was noticeable on Thursday's BBC3 transmission that none of the captions were 4:3 centre-cut safe, or even 14:9 safe.

By Saturday, they'd moved the captions over, to be, at least, 14:9 safe.

I wondered if the caption move was as a result of a cock-up on Thursday evening, or whether everybody who showed the semi-finals showed them in 16:9.

As much as I dislike this contest that does sound like a good idea for it, it would certainly be more fairer. Plus get rid of the voting by nations that aren't taking part on the night

Can't see the Greeks being too pleased about that if Cyprus don't qualify - bang will go a source of guaranteed douze points.

In any case the voting for your neighours thing is as old as the contest itself. Cyprus and Greece have been doing it for years.

For anyone thats interested, here is the Final's scoreboard.

http://www.eurovision.tv/addons/scoreboards/2007/final.html

I think that we really need an east/west divide for the contest - there's rumours that Ireland won't compete next year because theres no chance of them winning if all the Eastern countries vote for each other like this year leaving them at the bottom.

I did like the Serbian song though - it was one of the best. I also loved the set. It realy worked in the song with the bus stop in with the long road!

I think someone earier in the thread asked how many countries were relaying the concert in HD. The BBC were one, SVT were another... anyone else? ORF maybe? They've produced the New Year's Day Concert in HD/5.1 for some years now...

All countries competing in the contest have to show the semi-final I believe. In 2004 this wasn't mandated and a few countries didn't (and couldn't vote as a result) - however from 2005 broadcasting the semi was a requirement for all competitors. It doesn't have to be broadcast on the same channel as the final.

The discussions about 2 semi-finals included only allowing competing countries to vote in each competition, and removing the requirement for non competing countries to broadcast competitions they aren't in.

I believe that the 4:3 SD feed from the EBU is 14:9 letterboxed - this is so that 4:3 countries don't have to convert the 16:9 feed themselves locally (which some smaller countries may not be equipped for)

The graphics for the semi looked to be very unsafe - but they obviously tweaked for the final (probably because countries like the UK who were broadcasting in 16:9 to 4:3 centre cut receivers complained about the lack of safety). A few years ago Melodifestivalen started with unsafe graphics, but by the second week they were back 4:3 safe!

Wogan was, as usual, the only thing that made Eurovision bearable last night. Some of the entries (in particular Bulgaria and Armenia's) were quite nice, but I shudder to think how close we came to having someone who looked like an alien from the planet Zarg as this year's winner.

On a sidenote, has anyone noticed how one of the members of Serbia's band looks like Julia Somerville?

It seems some people are still under the impression that this is a 'song contest'. The fact that we entered Scooch seems to indicate that a) it's a vote-for-your-neighbours contest and b) that a lot of British music is rubbish.

Someone on Have I Got News for You had the idea of putting Terry Wogan in charge of Election Night . Sheer genius.

But We have never taken this well sercoiusly

( I'm still trying to firgue out WHY the dam onbroad spell checker is not working! )

Though Terry was not as on the ball during the voting as he once was. On loads of occasions he was trying to pre-empt who got the 12 points but suggested a country that had already been voted for in the 1-7 automatic voting. Maybe his eyesight wasn't good enough to read the scoreboard from a small commentary monitor?

I'm really angry. Our song didn't deserve first, but it def deserved top 15. We get last instead. Our announcer sucks, Marty Whalen. He always interups when somebody is speakin, even in english, so it's hard to hear what both are saying, and his voice just annoys me, I don't know why. So we watched it on BBC One, and switched back for voting.

He actully Siad he could NOT see the broad form his booth and the writing was so small! ever I had trouble see it on my TV