I have only watched the opening ceremony so far where on my freeview box and NTL the programme was broadcast as 16 x 9. The picture was only 4 x 3 with massive black bands to the left and right of the action.
Because of this I turned over to British Eurosport who were correctly broadcasting the opening ceremony as 4 x 3 thus resulting in better picture quality aswell!
Aaaagh @ 4 x 3 picture within 16 x 9 frame! (Didnt they learn after Euro 2004 about this annoyance?)
I have only watched the opening ceremony so far where on my freeview box and NTL the programme was broadcast as 16 x 9.
Dunno about Freeview/cable now or satellite last night but it's definitely 4:3 now on Sky.
Can't comment on the titles yet but full marks for the backdrop - really nice view. The VR studio in 2000 was just horrid and wasn't it true that the camera failed to pull out a couple of times, resulting in a bizarre sequence with the studio view completely out of sync?!
Don't you just love it when the presenters / commentators don't have a clue about the sport they are talking about - and typhical that the lad who was suppose to win our first gold medal is out within the first couple of hours of the games.
The graphics may be the same style as Sydney - but a few subtle changes have made them look alot better. The lighter blue looks alot nicer, and having the clock on the translucent background, with the rings on the blue (rather than the other way around) just works so much better.
And looking at the details for broadcasts on NBC - is America one of the few countries in the world where the Opening Ceremony isn't broadcast live?
Does anyone know if it is possible for non-UK IP addresses to access the live coverage on the BBC Sport website? The site's coverage is really excellent and the feeds are as well, but I would have thought that international access would not be allowed. Who knows......
And looking at the details for broadcasts on NBC - is America one of the few countries in the world where the Opening Ceremony isn't broadcast live?
I think Indonesia is the only country that wasn't taking the Opening Ceremony Live. At least thats what Bruce Macavaney (Seven Network Commentator) said during the opening ceremony this morning, and he's pretty reliable with his information and stuff, but who knows...perhaps NBC did delay it?
Sorry I may be only a lay person but why on earth have they not given the English regions control over BBC2 on digital when they are still shoving shows onto it for things like this?
Because it would virtually double the transmission costs.
You would think it be possible to kind of just have one regional feed, but switch it over to BBC2 - so viewers tuning into BBC1 would get BBC1 London Olympic Ceremony while those tuning into BBC2 would get their BBC region.
You know what I mean - or to put it simpler - tuning into BBC1 you would automatically get the Olympics, while on BBC2 you get London News, but the BBC regional feeds usually available on BBC1 are now available on BBC2 - even if it's a PRESS RED for regional news feature.
The problem is that the BBC One digital opt-out kit in the regions is PERMANENTLY in circuit on BBC One (it isn't just switched in for the opts) - that is how BBC One in the regions is derived. (The BBC One incoming distribution feed is permanently de-coded, fed via an opt-switch, and then re-encoded at emission rate for transmission) There is a back up London feed at emission rate - but switching this in and out is an "emergency back-up" kind of thing - and not seemless. (Viewers would get very cheesed off with freezing pictures etc. on switches)
Additionally BBC Two is statmuxed with CBBC/BBC Three and BBC News 24 in London and fed to all of England on DTT to share bandwith. This means that if you wanted to opt-out on BBC Two, you'd have to remove it from the statmux pool (as the content would be different region by region) and run it at a fixed rate. You'd either have to put BBC One into the statmux (again a far from invisible process) - or run both networks fixed bit rate - which would reduce the quality of BBC Two, or CBBC/BBC Three and News 24, or probably both.
This is a non-trivial issue - and hugely expensive to sort. The only realistic solution would be to do what BBC One does, and put a permanent opt-chain into the BBC Two circuit (this would cost shedloads in kit and distribution), AND either put statmux and coding kit into the regions for all channels (and feed distribution quality BBCThree/CBBC and BBC News 24 feeds), or shift BBC Three/CBBC onto the other BBC Mux and lose a BBCi video stream... £££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££££ of licence fee
The real solution is for the BBC to stick to their original plan - NO regional variations on BBC Two!!!