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How did those “mosaic” or barker channels in analogue cable used to work? Often it would have the cable network branding in the middle with a local radio station in the background (so in my case when I lived in Southampton it was Videotron then Cable & Wireless) originally the station used was Max FM which I believe was only carried over analogue cable it wasn’t actually on FM. After this station closed it was switched to Wave 105.
So I’m just wondering how did they manage to operate this channel?
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Mosaic to me suggests the set up like a multi-viewer where several feeds are shown as part of the frame, and the appropriate cut out is shown in a window as part of as an mheg "interactive" thing. As a way of cramming more services in to limited bandwidth
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Yes I forgot to add there were about 15 or 20 previews around the outside of the screen which also showed the corresponding channel number for each one, they used to change every so often
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There was the later version I remember seeing on Cable London which resembled a modern-day EPG with now and next information for each channel. I've seen other versions of with different branding so I assume that one was a bit of kit or software available for cable companies to buy.
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Cablelink in Dublin had one of those for a while in the 1990s - basically there was twelve mini screens around a centre screen which had the logo and contact details - don’t think it lasted too long into the NTL era though.
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Diamond Cable here had one too, I have some videos of it. The logo in the middle changed to a feed of the Front Row preview channel shortly before the rebranding to NTL.
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Do film studios stipulate a timeframe when their films can be shown within the overall contract?
Reason for asking is that on my dodgy box I have UK and US movie channels and I have noticed that some films appear to be shown in parallel with each other. You will see it being shown on a UK and US channel within a short time frame and then it not appear for months before popping up again in a similar way or being shine at the exact same time.
For example… Forrest Gump is starting in an hour in both the UK and the US - Sky and Showtime
Not sure if it is just a coincidence or not?
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(26-08-2023, 01:07 AM)Daveuk Wrote: Do film studios stipulate a timeframe when their films can be shown within the overall contract?
Reason for asking is that on my dodgy box I have UK and US movie channels and I have noticed that some films appear to be shown in parallel with each other. You will see it being shown on a UK and US channel within a short time frame and then it not appear for months before popping up again in a similar way or being shine at the exact same time.
For example… Forrest Gump is starting in an hour in both the UK and the US - Sky and Showtime
Not sure if it is just a coincidence or not?
First time I've ever seen anyone on this sites admit that they've got a dodgy box. Can't say I've noticed likewise
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(25-08-2023, 11:52 PM)James2001 Wrote: Diamond Cable here had one too, I have some videos of it. The logo in the middle changed to a feed of the Front Row preview channel shortly before the rebranding to NTL.
From memory Diamond Cable used that as a filler when certain channels were off air? There was definitely a 'guide' channel like @Transmission describes too - from memory every couple of mins it would show a live preview of another channel for a minute or so, and sometimes that live preview would get stuck. I remember watching a whole episode of Kenan & Kel on there in a period my parents subscription didn't include Nickelodeon!
chatps.com
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From a transmission tech perspective, how do +1 channels work?
Presumably most of the time they are literally a box which takes the live feed of the normal channel, delays it by 3600 seconds, and spits it back out for tx with a different DOG?
However does the broadcaster have the ability to break into this process, either at the box side or the tx side, with different content? I have seen before where, for rights reasons, the +1 has had to be blocked. Is this done at the box or downstream from this? Could broadcasters, if they chose to, put some completely different content up instead of the blanking?
Do any +1 broadcasters have a completely separate playout chain for their +1 channels instead of this delay box, where they could put different content/adverts/trailers on the +1 version?
Are the delay boxes located at the playout side (and require a separate uplink) or the tx side?