All posts by Rog
Below are all of Rog's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Of cause it depends on the size of your TV screen and picture as to the real benefit of so called HD - lets face it in the 1940's 405 line black and white (VHF) was referred-to as 'High Definition'(compared to 30 lines vertical it certainly was) - in the 1950's and to the late 1960's we had one or two TV stations (BBC or ITA) late 60's BBC2 on 625 lines UHF only still b/w; but because the new 21" TVs produced a degraded 405 line picture 625 (UHF) had to come, meanwhile Hollywood and Pinewood were loosing audiences even of full colour star studied movies to say at home TV, so into cinemas came wide screen as it was thought TV would 'never be able to show Cinemascope' etc and in USA NTSC Color TVs were expensive and big, full of tubes and 'Never The Same Color' at each scan.
After a couple of decades when TV was in a sort of limbo in the UK after BBC and ITV had started in 625 then PAL colour along came Sky dishes and BSB 'table mats' but then came the clever move of the TV manufacturers (90% non-British) to push the UK public into wide screen , big screen, digital , p.c. linked , led and lcd (young chaps in TV shops explained to customers CRT is dead - I suspect half didn't even know what CRT stood for!) anyway it was away from the box in the corner to the flat screen hanging on the wall time (bad for your eyes and your neck)so to the tip with the 28" and to Currys for a 50" so you could watch the movies meant for the cinemas - what comes around goes around .......
| link to this comment |
Over in Eire they get (and have got for years) BBC1/2 and Ulster TV (nearer N.Ireland), however here in UK we are told we can't watch RTE TV and the usual tripe about copyright is rolled out . We can watch TV from the continent via Hotbird which presumably is subject to copyright and presumably some EU rule allows our Irish neighbours to watch BBC - why not us in the UK being allowed to watch RTE via Astra 28E ?
| link to this comment |
Personally I feel local TV has come about 50 years too late in UK. Way back when ITA began we could have had home town ITV as well as regional. The money was around for commercial TV then. Now ITV has abandoned the regions to a one-size fits all (based on a copy-cat of BBC) cobble-up from a splendidly truly INDEPENDANT television network of individual companies ; To now bring in yet another coble-up of group-owned TV stations purporting to be 'local' seems a straight con organised by an increasingly out of touch Ofcom. Get these advertising/selling only channels cleared-off and put a few specific interest or hobby stations on NATIONALLY, maybe a free to air classic older movie channel - take sport off BBC1 and ITV1 and put it on a specific free to air channel so those not brain dead from football can watch normal programmes - then at least being mesmerized by 'travelling' adverts 'round the grounds of rugby, soccer, cricket etc can be tolerated by the viewer knowing he's paying for it not through his licence but the products advertised.
No sir 'local' TV was fine when from Anglia (Norwich), ATV/Central (Birmingham) etc,
on a home region basic. Bring back ITV regions - scrap the idea of home town TV - it's too late.
PS can this web-site please use UK English not US spelling.
| link to this comment |
London Local TV licence award to the Evening Standard's London
Saturday 9 February 2013 3:19AM
Hinckley
Saturday 9 February 2013 3:19AM
Hinckley
Am I being naive but I seem to remember the Act to bring in commercial radio and the Act to introduce commercial television (in the 1950's) specifically excluded the printed media/ press from having an interest in TV or Radio ? So presumably this firm ruling has been 'forgotten' to suit certain interests ?
| link to this comment |
Would you please warn people off these 7" and 9" screen 12 volt (DC) portable digital receivers with 5.75" mag mount aerials or more likely pull-out wire 'twigs' of similar length - they are often sold on *bay . The sets are usually well build (by today's standards) but have no external aerial socket (coax Belling-Lee type)-though I have heard that one manufacturer uses a mini-jack socket for aerial in! - unless you live about 5 miles or nearer to transmitter you simply cant use these devices , the same goes for the PC operational MobiDTV Pro - works spot on with a proper roof aerial but the 5.75" supplied is no use . Though to be fair MobiDTV Pro do fit a proper aerial socket. Regrettably this is one serious loss with digital, the now you have it now you don't signal, whereas Analogue was far more use with portable TVs even in only average reception areas. Two steps forward - three steps back!
| link to this comment |
With respect the above coverage map is c*rap especially between Leicester and Nuneaton where if it weren't for good old Sutton Coldfield we'd be in the ... mire ... it was very poor (from Waltham), indeed the signal was very poor in Leicester and needed a relay/booster, when we had analogue but now its vile or simply not there in a lump of South Leicstershire . Please tell BBC and ITV etc not to tell porkies. However you didn't print my last submission so you probably wont print this :-((
Rog.
| link to this comment |
My, that's original calling local TV stations 'local' it's almost as staggering as when dear old 'Auntie' BBC re-named her wireless stations abolishing such silly names as Midland, West Region, Northern ect, Home Service and during a corporate 'brain storm' called the 'one size fits all' former Home Service Radio 4 then on a re-think Radio 4UK (that didn't last) just to make sure all listeners were confused , together with the startlingly descriptive Radio1 , Radio 2 and Radio 3 . So whats wrong with calling 'local' LOCAL ?
Try setting your Sky box for an 'alternative' itv region (for regional TV news programmes) , BBC1 no problem, but itv has become a pain. I'm sure these days to work in UK broadcasting (especially commercial) a lobotomy helps.
| link to this comment |
Now I realise this may be classed in these days of DAB (Dead And Buried) broadcasting to the few and a government determined to stamp out Medium Wave and Long Wave broadcasts in and to the UK like spitting on hospital floors, as profane; but whilst you quoted Brian the fees for 'Local' TV if and when it really arrives and those for non-BBC FM stations - what about LPAM (Low Power Amplitude Modulation) broadcast licenses as used by Hospital and Community Stations. After all with no serious national broadcasting now on Medium Wave (Five Live, Asian Network, TalkSport, and a few Gold) and both the government and 'Auntie' predicting the valves will soon go futt on the (so far very reliable for decades) Long Wave 198kHz Radio4 transmitter (they hope!!) it seems surely the space of various stations going digital (in other words to all intents and purposes off the air) could be taken by community LPAM stations, yes?
So may I ask how much these not for profit stations have to pay to be on the air?
It may also happen here as in places like France etc, that stations suffering loss of advertising go from a small audience on digital to a far larger one back on Medium Wave AM .
| link to this comment |
Briantist: Where ever did you get the idea Radio4 was 'a mixture of programmes from the Home Service and Light Programme name your evidence. Radio 3 was the only one of four national labels and they'd already tried to re-name that as Network Three - though it was not a network. As for the re-naming which previously did give some idea of the station content and regional qualities of the Home Service - the listener/ compulsive up to then licence payer had no choice but to accept the totally undescriptive numbering. As with the itv where again regional content or opt-out is almost ended - itv wanted to end regional news but the government reminded them of the details of the Commercial TV Act. For decades people have been a little proud of being in ATV, Granada, Anglia etc areas in the same way they are as being Midlanders, Yorkshire folk etc. Itv completely ignored that in London , If BBC can 'label' their regions , as the itv companies did for decades then so can itv - the laws controlling contract rights and regional advertising haven't changed for years only the amount of advertising per hour has been allowed to almost double! (at peak up to 4 minutes from 2.5 in the years of the networking companies). It is now the industry that thinks it knows - but apart from a flawed system of audience counting it's not getting anything like the viewers for 'peak shows' ('Doc Martin' etc average quoted itv 9 million, whilst in the mid 1960's Steptoe & Son got 21 million.
I remember several people being confused when BBC 4 and BBC 3 came into operation simply because of confusion with radio 4 and radio 3 and a refusal of BBC to name the BBC TV4 and BBC TV3 one excuse was that in Europe there was already TV3 - however when it was pointed out the continental (French I believe) was not receivable on UK TV's BBC still insisted on not adding TV to the station names! I have now been told BBC do no longer use the general term 'radio' but the Audio and Music Dept.
Brian, you know commercial and national/regional boundaries are not recognised by radio waves so saying itv can't offer itv regions outside the broadcast area in incredibly naive and in effect scientifically impossible as far as unscrambled satellite transmission is concerned. Itv must also accept were regions and sub-regions meet (i.e. East Midlands and West Midlands) and particularly where the 'official' region transmitter fails to cover the particular town or community area then your final paragraph is unworkable - by itv itself!
| link to this comment |
Tuesday 22 May 2012 9:09AM
Why is 198 kHz Radio 4 not shown on the page where you claim ALL AM and FM frequencies are shown?
Recently variations of signal and sound quality , 'beeps' during programmes, tales of doom in the press and general anti- LW spiel and you add to it by apparently not recognising the transmissions !