[James2001]

They look to me like transfers of master tapes rather than off-air recordings, notice the picture quality (they wouldn't have looked that good on air, the pre-2000 laserdisc system had notoriously poor picture quality) and lack of selection number graphics.

The burnt-in DOG is strange though. None of the local cable versions of The Box I saw ever had any sort of DOG on their videos, burned in or added live, and the Sky/national version's DOG (which hadn't even launched at the time these songs came out) was added live, not burned into the videos, so would be interesting to know where these are sourced from.

The first of those songs (Happy Birthday by Technohead) was actually on this week's BBC4 TOTP!

[James2001]

Songs with titles like Ciao Adios, Goodbye (not the Spice Girls song, but won't be suprised if we see that), If We Ever Meet Again and Don't Go playing over the last half hour, presume the next 2 hours will be like this.

[NI92]

Songs with titles like Ciao Adios, Goodbye (not the Spice Girls song, but won't be suprised if we see that), If We Ever Meet Again and Don't Go playing over the last half hour, presume the next 2 hours will be like this.

Never even realised until you said, Box playing closing time and time of your life at the minute, magic playing songs like end of the line, turn back time etc

[WillPS]

I'm assuming the ident they've been running with the cube is a really early one, certainly not one I'm familar with so presumably pre-dates 1997.

There was some discussion on the blue place when this presentation first showed up in 2019 - I don't think they're authentic old assets; they certainly doesn't look like something which has been cropped from 4:3 to 16:9, and those 90s shapes and swirls look just a bit too '2019 idea of what 90s graphics looked like' to be the real McCoy.

Not that it matters particularly, it's the old logo, and the idea of the square rotating as a cube was certainly something The Box genuinely used.

[James2001]

There was some discussion on the blue place when this presentation first showed up in 2019 - I don't think they're authentic old assets; they certainly doesn't look like something which has been cropped from 4:3 to 16:9, and those 90s shapes and swirls look just a bit too '2019 idea of what 90s graphics looked like' to be the real McCoy.

Not that it matters particularly, it's the old logo, and the idea of the square rotating as a cube was certainly something The Box genuinely used.

Well, I only meant the opening bit with the dropping cube (you can even see what looks like a couple of Betacam tape dropouts on that part... something I doubt they'd have gone to the effort of recreating considering few people would even notice it. It's always over the top chewed up VHS filters when trying to recreate that sort of thing!).

But yes, the last part with the flying logo and colours clearly isn't original.

I do remember live action idents with people holding or throwing a physical, transparent version of that cube and the slogan "I'm not a control freak, but I like to choose what I watch".

[lovinthetelly]

The final 10mins of each channel, live:

www.youtube.com 

[James2001]

Never even realised until you said, Box playing closing time and time of your life at the minute, magic playing songs like end of the line, turn back time etc

The full title of Time Of Your Life is "Good Riddance". Clearly a sense of humour there.

[WillPS]

Well, I only meant the opening bit with the dropping cube (you can even see what looks like a couple of Betacam tape dropouts on that part... something I doubt they'd have gone to the effort of recreating considering few people would even notice it. It's always over the top chewed up VHS filters when trying to recreate that sort of thing!).

But yes, the last part with the flying logo and colours clearly isn't original.

So it does - hadn't noticed that but good spot. Yes, if they'd have tried to add a VHS filter it'd have been over the whole thing, and it would have resembled that bit in the closure promo which as you say is rather over-the-top in the distortion it adds.

Just flicked over to Kerrang and saw I'm Not Okay and In the End, presumably never to be played again. Couldn't even guess what the total amount of airings they must've had.

And now the obligatory Goodbye by Spice Girls on The Box. Looking absolutely terrible cropped to 16:9. Ah well.

[James2001]

And now the obligatory Goodbye by Spice Girls on The Box. Looking absolutely terrible cropped to 16:9. Ah well.

Cropped well beyond 16:9 as well. The faux-letterbox bars on the video are a lot wider than that, and it's been zoomed in to cut them off entirely.

The box have over the last month been showing a fair few vids with faux-letterbox bars fully pillarboxed though, even if it does leave a picture floating in the middle of the screen it's the way I think they should be shown, the letterboxing is an intentional effect after all.

---

So the closure promo for the last time, then "this service has now closed" caption, was hoping for a bit more.

Well, at least the final track is one I actually did phone up to request. And the penultimate one a song I actually bought the single of (remember singles, kids?)

[WillPS]

The final songs were

4music - Pink - Raise your glass
The Box - Spice Girls - Goodbye
Kiss - Don't Stop the Music - Rihanna
Magic - Boyz II Men - End of the Road
Kerrang - Fall Out Boy - Thks fr th Mmrs