[James2001]

Though if we're at the point where the people who work there think that it's because "it's an old programme", rather than it just being something to fob off viewers (not that they should fob off viewers this way), then there really is a problem.

And it's not just The Upper Hand affected either, it's a significant chunk of their output.

I remember reading something similar when Red Dwarf came out on Blu-Ray, Series 3 and half of series 5 were filmised, and people there also got the "it's because it's an old programme" nonsense. Eventually they admitted there was a problem and issued replacement discs, but really these things shouldn't be happening in the first place (how many stages does Blu-Ray production go through for this to not get noticed?), let alone need a lot of repeated pressure to even get people to realise there's a problem and fix it.

I don't know if it's because we're in a world where people are just so used to seeing archive content through low quality social media videos and streaming services that only handle 25/30p that even many working in the industry just don't realise it's not how these programmes are supposed to look. So used to watching YouTube videos on mobile phone screens and the likes of Netflix and Amazon butchering archive content that when people are telling them there's a problem they're reviewing the footage they think it's "normal".

[harshy]

What channel does the Upper Hand go out on ? I’ll have a look at the EPG.

[James2001]

What channel does the Upper Hand go out on ? I’ll have a look at the EPG.

Drama, though this issue seems to be affecting new acquisitions of SD content across the UKTV channels since the end of last year, not just that show.

[James2001]

There were a couple of episodes of Casualty last week where the scrolling end credits had some noticable interlacing artifacts, which maybe suggests that someone's realised there's an issue and is fidding with things, the episodes were still a blurry filmised mess though. God knows how much longer this will be going on until it's actually sorted.

[Neil Jones]

Going back to The Upper Hand for a second, unless again its me, I feel that the captions are too close to the bottom of the frame on the Drama repeats? It appears to be zoomed in slightly?

[James2001]

I've thought that about some of the other shows that have been affected too (the episode name/writer captions and copyright strap on Casualty in particular feel very close to the bottom of the screen, especially as I'm watching with overscan turned off, definitely doesn't look like what would have been graphics safe by 1991 standards), so it's possible that whatever's causing the de-interlacing on these shows is zooming in slightly too.

When this filmising first started happening, the affected shows also had a thin black bar at the top of the screen, but that got quickly fixed (I think EastEnders and Some Mothers Do Ave Em were the only shows that had it). A shame the bigger problem of de-interlacing wasn't fixed too.

Talking about Casualty, but unrelated, was interesting to see Jerome Flynn in today's episode, as Robson Green was playing Jimmy the porter at this time, rather unfortunately they didn't share any screen time. I think the first series of Soldier Soldier had already been shown by this point (though I don't know which was filmed first). Obviously Unchained Melody was still 4 years away...

[James2001]

Wonder if there's anyone on this forum with contacts at UKTV who might actually be able to get to the bottom of what's happening and get it sorted. Becuase those of us who have got in touch with them through the viewer contact channels are getting nowhere.

[London Lite]

UKTV Play has now been added to Android TV devices including the Chromecast with Google TV and Nvidia Shield.

[harshy]

Wonder if there's anyone on this forum with contacts at UKTV who might actually be able to get to the bottom of what's happening and get it sorted. Becuase those of us who have got in touch with them through the viewer contact channels are getting nowhere.

If they want me to have a job of fixing it I’d happily take it as I like archive programmes to go out as original as possible not doctored or added a post production effect by accident.

[James2001]

I have a feeling practically any of us on this forum would be more capable of spotting and fixing the problem than the people who work there.