[Jameseh]

Wonder if the clip provided to Ofcom had de-interlaced stuttering?

[Neil Jones]

Wonder if the clip provided to Ofcom had de-interlaced stuttering?

If broadcasters supply material to Ofcom its supposed to be of broadcast quality. So (in theory) they shouldn't be able to send any old crap that looks like it was filmed on a potato.

Mind you Ofcom don't seem that fussed about "technical standards" these days, though in fairness some of it is probably beyond the broadcaster's control (perils of quantity over quality on Freeview for example).

[James2001]

The IBA of old would certainly have had something to say about the current UKTV situation however.

[Neil Jones]

The IBA of old would certainly have had something to say about the current UKTV situation however.

Yes but the IBA hasn't existed since 2003 (or in a broadcast regulatory capacity since 1991) so its moot anyway what they think and in any event as was discussed elsewhere their remit didn't extend to Astra.

Whether the ITC would have stuck their oar in is debatable, since they didn't own the infrastructure like the IBA did so... Long as they got annual wads of cash promised into government coffers job done.

[Technologist]

UKTV. Are doing more with SES
www.tvbeurope.com 

UKTV invests in linear with SES distribution expansion - TVBEurope
Broadcaster will continue to work with the satellite company until the end of th…
  Source: www.tvbeurope.com

[Orry Verducci]

If broadcasters supply material to Ofcom its supposed to be of broadcast quality. So (in theory) they shouldn't be able to send any old crap that looks like it was filmed on a potato.

Mind you Ofcom don't seem that fussed about "technical standards" these days, though in fairness some of it is probably beyond the broadcaster's control (perils of quantity over quality on Freeview for example).

It's supposed to be 'as broadcast'. There's no requirement that says it must be broadcast quality.

It's not uncommon for compliance recordings to be below broadcast quality to save space, especially when you consider you have to retain 60 or 90 days of 24/7 recordings.

For example where I worked we broadcast in HD but recorded for compliance in low bitrate SD. As long as it showed what was broadcast on the HD service they were happy with that.

[James2001]

Though I guess the point being made isn't about what quality recordings get sent to Ofcom, but that the programme in question is going out on TV itself in a sub-broadcast quality filmised, zoomed and blurry mess- and this has been going on for months without being fixed (or UKTV even admitting there's a problem when people have tried to inform them).

[Technologist]

It's supposed to be 'as broadcast'. There's no requirement that says it must be broadcast quality.

It's not uncommon for compliance recordings to be below broadcast quality to save space, especially when you consider you have to retain 60 or 90 days of 24/7 recordings.

it is also these days done by recording the transport stream - you cannot get much closer to whats broadcast than that ...
and you can do the recording anywhere within the service area!
and it there are other issues you have got everything - Video,Prog Sound, Subtitles and AD.

[James2001]

And now today's EastEnders is going out on Drama in a 14:9 frame pilarboxed in 4:3 in a 16:9 frame.

I guess it's likely they recieved a 14:9 copy of this episode, though that doesn't explain why it's flagged as 16:9 rather than 4:3- so the pillarboxing is there even on the SD channel and the DOG in the 16:9 area.

And of course it's still filmised and zoomed in (as evidenced by how thin the 14:9 letterboxing is).

I don't know if someone's trying to fix things and just making it even worse. Most episodes of Casualty have noticable interlace artifacts on the text on the scrolling end credits now, which wasn't the case until a couple of weeks back.

[James2001]

Because of yesterday's second episode going out in 14:9, it means you can see to the top and bottom of the frame- and doing this side by side comparison of the end shot from the first episode, it shows you just how much picture's being lost at the bottom of the screen by UKTV's zooming in. You can see how narrow the 14:9 bars on the first example are as well as a result of the zooming.



Also the horrendously blurred and pixellated text shows what a mess they're making of the picture quality.

How the people at UKTV claim they can't see anything wrong to everyone who's tried to alert them about this is something that's baffling me more and more as every day goes by.