Hi-Def Recording: I Actually Managed To Record A Whole Programme!
December 2011 By Colebox
Following on from my previous blogs about recording HD television on my PC (optimism and disappointment), I had noticed that my PC hadn't crashed for quite a while.
So maybe it was time to give the Nanostick another go.
At last a success! My first complete HD recording is from BBC HD and a repeat of Doctor Who Confidential: When Time Froze. A nice result as this also contains the mini-episode "Death Is The Only Answer" and River Song's chronological appearances.
With Christmas coming up I hope that I can rely on my PC to carry-out a few more HD recordings for me.
Colebox's Scrapbook:
BBC Space Themes: My Only Surviving Copy
September 2011 By Colebox
This is one of the first handful of audio-tape to CD-R conversions that I did. Made on my very first PC: a Hewlitt-Packard Club 77 with 64mb of Ram, a 10GB hard-drive and Windows 98SE.
It isn't that bad for its day. I had got to know the recording programe's settings, having done a rather poor tape conversion of Toyah's 'Sheep Farming In Barnet'.
However, there appears to have been a problem with the tape itself - I think I found it in a boot fair - as there is a noticeable tape noise throughout the last three tracks.
This is still brought out from time to time for the Quatermass theme, although I no longer have the tape that I converted this from.
Way back in February 2010, I posed the question as to why I couldn't see a difference between a capture from my DVD recorder or a capture from Windows Media Center (sic) even though the bitrate for WMC was lower.
I then went in the opposite direction, in January this year, where I said that I could see a difference after all.
At last I have found out why there is a difference; it's about DVD compliance. The DVD recorder will 'beef-up' its recordings to make it a DVD compliant file; WMC, via the TV dongle, is merely recording the Mpeg stream that it receives.
Apparently, converting the WMC captures into a DVD may not be able to be played in all DVD players (but probably most these days).
Having said that, surely the DVD authoring software makes all files compliant anyway?
But why the Doctor Who screen cap? Here's why, the first dongle...
In 1993 I wrote to the BBC about the reported cancellation of a thirtieth anniversay special - The Dark Dimensions - for Doctor Who. They wrote a nice letter back to me but the franking, on the envelope, was rather ironic.
This week saw the sad passing of Elizabeth Sladen who played Sarah-Jane Smith in Doctor Who.
She was one of the first companions that I can remember and the companion, along with Harry Sullivan, who was there on my first Vintage TV night, in 1984, when I watched my first VHS tape featuring Revenge Of The Cybermen.
How Many Copies Of Genesis Of The Daleks Does One Need?
April 2011 By Colebox
This week I took delivery of my latest copy of Genesis Of The Daleks. This release is from the Vintage Beeb range which is releasing classic albums first available as BBC LPs, now reissued on CD, as advertised on the CD's notes.
So how many copies of Genesis Of The Daleks, and in what formats, do I have?
The original BBC Records and Tapes vinyl LP. This was purchased in 1979 and at a time when no other vintage Doctor Who was available.
The original BBC Records and Tapes cassette tape. I can't remember when or why I bought this, but the chances are that it was in a sale.
Target Novellisation. The first book that I ever read from cover to cover in a single day.
BBC Radio Collection cassette tapes. In 1990, Genesis was reissued with the 1986 sixth Doctor radio adventure, Slipback. I bought this for the Slipback episode.
BBC Video VHS. The video release of Genesis in 1991 was a must-have and was packaged along with the Sontaran Experiment.
BBC Radio Collection CD. Genesis was then repacked in 2001 along with the Schools radio adventure, Exploration Earth. I bought this for the Exploration Earth episode.
BBC DVD release. Genesis made it to DVD in 2006. A must-have to replace the VHS, for the cleaned-up picture and because I am collecting all of the DVDs.
Vintage Beeb CD. The original 1979 release repackaged as a CD with all of the same sleeve notes and a CD made to look like the original vinyl.
So that makes eight; the most copies of a single programme that I own and I don't suppose it will be the last either.
Listening To Radio Drama And Audio Books On The Way To Work
December 2010 by Colebox
I have been walking to work for a few months now (I so need the excercise), and since getting an iPhone, I have been listening to a lot of radio drama, audio books and Big Finish productions
BBC 7 (with a bit of help from the BBC iPlayer) has provided me with a wealth of material recently; especially the Seventh Dimension: fantasy and sci-fi segment of the day. Makes the two miles, each way, pass much more quickly.
But, primarily, after nearly thirty years I have finally managed to listen to Earthsearch!
Above is one of my earliest cassette tape to CD-R recordings: Doctor Who's State Of Decay talking book (appears on the Television Archive On Other Formats page). If you look very closely you can even see that the make of CD-R that I used was Kodak. Very much from the early days as sticky labels never go anywhere near my CD-Rs and DVD-Rs now.
After all these years, I still make an effort to buy the Radio Times every week. It's probably out of habit or tradition and it is still, by far, the best television listings magazine available. It's worth paying a premium for as it isn't so heavily soap-opera orientated as most of the other listings magazines.
But - and there's always a but - they have Alison Graham as their head critic.
What annoys me so much about Ms Graham is her lazy writing and a recurring anti-British television rhetoric. In this week's Radio Times (18th September) she scored on both of those. In an article about her love of Spooks (something we do agree on), Ms Graham stated: "...we're not very good at adventure on British Television. Look at The Deep. I rest my case."
[Rant] Where do I start? I know! A list of some adventure series from the past: Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, The Prisoner, Quatermass, Blake's 7, The Saint, The Avengers, Space 1999, Randal And Hopkirk Deceased, Joe 90, Robin Of Sherwood, UFO, Ultraviolet, Bugs, Strange, Adam Adamant Lives, The Professionals etc etc etc.
Then there are the recent/current British television adventure series: Merlin, The Sarah Jane Adventures, Primeval, The Fixer, Robin Hood, Torchwood and, probably one of the most popular adventure series in the world, Doctor Who
Doctor Who alone prooves Ms Graham wrong; we are good at adventure series on British television and the facts proove it. [/rant]
When I was younger I did buy, or get given, some of the Doctor Who merchandise that was about (some long gone and some still with me). I had a Palitoy talking Dalek, a Palitoy talking K9 and a Louis Marks Dalek. I did buy a few of the Dapol figures, a few of the various Doctor Who jigsaw puzzles, badges, keyrings and a watch. I also still have all of the Target novelisations I read during the early 80s.
But now, the only merchandising I buy are the DVDs, Blu-Rays, the occasional Big Finish CD and a mug or two (although I did buy a David Tennant figure and would like a Matt Smith one).
Therefore it was rather nice that, for my birthday this year, my work colleagues bought me a Desktop Dalek and I love it! What was especially nice is that some thought went into what to buy me.
So I appear to have a reputation as a Doctor Who fan!
This month, the latest Doctor Who DVD release, Revenge Of The Cybermen, dropped onto my doormat. This is of great significance to me as Revenge was the very first commercial VHS that I bought in 1984, twenty-six years ago (as described here).
I haven't seen this story since watching that first video cassette and part of me doesn't want to watch it again because I have this warm fuzzy memory of that first, almost ceremonial, occasion of playing my first purchased video tape.
Will a new viewing spoil that memory? Will I find it poor, now that I have seen so many more and better vintage Doctor Who stories?
Or will I still have that affection for the Doctor Who adventure that started off my video collection all those years ago?
In the Seventies and Eighties, I used to often hear people complaining, usually aimed at the BBC, that there were too many repeats on television. I never really held that opinion back then. It always seemed wasteful to spend all that money on a programme and only show it once. Also, in those days, if I missed a programme it stayed missed - unless, of course, it got a repeat showing.
However, I would have to wait for a year (sometimes two) for the programme to be repeated before I got a second chance to see it. Miss the repeat and I felt it would stay missed forever. On many occasions there wouldn't be a repeat at all.
Really, what was there to complain about back then; get two chances to see a programme and that's your lot.
Nowadays there is a silly amount of chances to catch up with a missed programme; especially with on-line catch-up services (BBC iPlayer for example), DVD releases and, for a selected few programmes, a constant loop of repeats on certain channels.
It's this constant loop of repeats that I have a problem with. For a big production programme, such as Doctor Who, to have it on constant repeat (on BBC Three and UKTV Watch), for me, cheapens the programme.
BBC Three's mid-noughties run of Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps was another case; it seemed to be on an endless loop with two episodes nightly and as soon as it reached its end it returned to the first episode. See also Friends and Father Ted accross Channel 4's stations.
This behaviour is repeated (no pun intended) on other channels where some looped programmes are shown two or three times on the same day.
I still hear that old repeats complaint today, still aimed at the BBC mainly, but the situation has gone well beyond occasional repeats. Constant looping repeats just reduces programmes to being mere space-fillers and that old complaint, accross all television, is now very valid.
Only in February did I comment on the curse of modern broadcasting: logos and banners. On Saturday 24th April, on BBC1, during Doctor Who this happened:
Quite rightly, this caused the BBC to receive thousands of complaints and we can just hope that these complaints can turn the tide against this advance of screen litter but I won't hold my breath. A small logo, such as BBC 4's, I can put up with; a garish multi-coloured banner accross the screen is unacceptable.
The trouble is, many of the cable, freeview and satellite stations have been using what's-coming-up-next banners for years. The only example I have from days-gone-by is the ITV3 repeat of Lawless in 2005:
Sadly, ITV used the same tactic during an episode of Primeval, in 2009, which spoilt the drama during Professor Cutter's death. No out pouring of complaints on this occasion and maybe this shows why television companies happily litter our screens like this: viewer apathy. However, crossing Doctor Who fans is something else.
As far as I'm concerned, this behaviour just shows contempt for the viewer by television executives. However, in the cases of Doctor Who and Primeval it also shows stupidity; make a flagship drama and, on its first showing, ruin it.
A new trailer so soon after the last special was broadcast, but this one is the trailer from Children In Need 2009 for the forthcoming Doctor Who Christmas special. Because David Tennant's tenure as the Doctor is coming to an end the anticipation is quite high; for us sad old Doctor Who fans at least.
It won't be that long until the proper trailer is broadcast along with this Christmas's BBC line-up.
After the major disappointment of the previous episode, "The Planet Of The Dead", I was really looking forward to "The Waters Of Mars"; the trailer (above) looked really good. Having said that, the trailer for "The Planet Of The Dead" was quite promising but, unlike TPOTD, TWOM did live up to its hype. Excellent stuff!
A superb performance by David Tennant as a Doctor, at first, prepared to abandon the desparate survivors on the Bowie Mars Base and then willing to go against the laws of time and hang the consequences - and the consequences slapping him in the face!
Let's hope that the Christmas specials can keep up this pace.
For my Birthday I was given a Seal USB Digital TV Adapter Dongle, to watch television on my computer, which was purchased on one of those shopping channels (owned by Virgin). I had seen these being sold on the channel myself and was balking at the total lack of knowledge of the presenter trying to sell it: "download the tv programme to your dongle". What! Most of us watching who know at least a bit about computers were yelling at the telly.
It doesn't really strike much confidence in the item if the presenter doesn't know what they are talking about. You sort of expect it in Dixons (or Currys Digital as it is now) as the staff get paid the minimum wage; but I digress...
I have had tv cards/tv usb plug-ins before and they have been poor to fair at the most. Admitedly the first ones I owned were at a time I had a lower spec PC but the constant loss of signal and/or poor quality picture put me off: an analogue Pinnacle PCI card (watch only), an analogue Pinnacle USB plug in (watch only) and a Tevion Digital PCI card (dreadful buggy software and no 16:9).
The Seal took me completely by surprise. It's actually quite good and recordings are straight to MPEG2. Excellent as a back-up for my archive recording. The picture quality may not be as sharp (but only slightly) as a proper DVD recorder but this only sells at about £15 to £20. For that price it is superb.
To put it through its paces I recorded 2008's Children In Need and was very happy with the results. Of course there had to be a bit of a tinker with the settings (turning off progressive playback, for PC monitors, to lower the processing required) and there is the odd picture jump here and there (like most of us have watching normal television anyway) but overall quite happy with its potential. I can see this item being very valuable for thoses special themed evenings that occasionally occur on BBC4; it is far easier to edit an MPEG file that is already on the PC. The alternative is spending ages carving up a recording, on the DVD Recorder, to copy them to several DVD-RWs.
I might add that the PC I use with this is a 3ghz Pentium 4 with 3gb of Ram. Not exactly up to date (dual-core/quad-core etc) but powerful enough to cope with this dongle if nothing else is being done at the same time. On the evening I recorded Children In Need I left the PC alone - nothing else was processing at the same time (save for the anti-virus and firewall). The results achieved will undoubtabley depend on how good the PC, it is used on, is.
One thing to watch is that, as it is a USB stick, it is put into a snug fitting USB port. Better still, use the USB extention lead that comes with it. I had a situation where the weight of the aerial lead was pulling the dongle down which wasn't allowing proper connection in the USB port. This caused signal reduction and a loss of most of the stations.
Oh yes, if anyone decides to get one of these (or something similar by Pinnacle etc) just be aware that the telescopic aerial supplied, as pictured on the box, is utterly useless; it has to be connected to a proper aerial.
Below are a few screen captures from the Children In Need Doctor Who Christmas special 2008 preview recorded using the dongle:
I have talked a bit about Blu-Ray releases recently but there is one television release where there is a cause for concern; Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds. This programme, made in the 1960s, was filmed in 5:4 ratio and all subsequent releases, VHS and DVD, have been in this format. However, the Blue-Ray version has had the picture cropped top and bottom so that it is presented widescreen in 16:9.
It is funny how things turn fill circle; not so long ago when we all had 5:4 televisions and VCRs the vast majority of cinema VHS releases were in pan and scan or, to put another way, had the sides of the pictures cut off so that the picture would fill the screen. This is because the consumer wanted to have their television screen filled. However, we were quite used to this; for many years this is how a film would be broadcast by the television stations; only on rare occasions would a film be broadcast in widescreen (showing black bars at the top and bottom of the picture). There would be special widescreen VHS releases of some blockbuster movies - my VHS copies of the original Star Wars trilogy are in this manner - but these were not the norm.
Apparently, the opposite is now true; the average consumer now has a widescreen television and they want to have this screen filled too.
At a friend's house recently, I was horrified to discover that they watched all their old television DVD releases (made in 5:4) stretched to 16:9 widescreen. He thought that seeing black bars on either side of the picture was cutting off some of the picture but couldn't see that it made all the actors look short and fat! It is a little wonder as our high-street electrical retailers had been demonstrating widescreen televisions like this for years.
Just compare the three 5:4 images below as would be seen on a widescreen television:
The first picture (above) is correct for a 5:4 programme with black bars on either side of the picture. This picture is showing as it was originally intended to be seen for when 5:4 televisions were the standard.
The second picture (above) has been cropped at the top and bottom to create a widescreen version but when compared to the first picture it is apparent that part of the picture is lost! Is this how we are going to see all future vintage television releases on Blue-Ray? If so I'll stick to DVD!
The third picture (above) is stretched to make a 5:4 picture fill a 16:9 screen but the picture is distorted. When widescreen televisions first came out this is how nearly every electrical retailer would have their displays set up.
...well, if you believe many of the views and comments in the press, web and your friends and colleagues, then nearly everyone does. Even some of the actors themselves. Not me though.
It is true that there is an over-use of cheap reality TV and Soaps; I despise Big Brother with a passion as it represents all that is wrong with today's TV and maybe even society as a whole - those who don't like it are not allowed to escape it. The trouble with these programmes is that they create 'celebrities' that get plastered all over the place. You nearly have to be in a coma to avoid them. The Apprentice isn't much better here either.
In this respect Channel 4 should be singled out. When it first started it used to have an imaginative diversity of programmes. Now it's all Big Brother and home improvement programmes.
I will admit that, in general, British television was dull as diswater in the mid-90s. No diverstiy at all and certainly no telefantasy; it seemed almost a dirty word! Any that did exist was imported: Star Trek: the Next Generation, Babylon 5 and The X-Files. There were two notable exceptions back then: Bugs (which I loved) and Channel 4's amazing Ultraviolet. Apart from that I am hard pushed to think of anymore aside from Red Dwarf but this famously was ordered not to include science fiction story-lines in its first series and a single series of Crime Traveller. Back then it realy was the cliche of Hospitals and Detective dramas. But, in the 00s, things have got better.
For me, the turning point was Christmas 2001 when one of the BBC's big dramas for the festive period was The Lost World (shown last month on BBC4). It was cinematic fantasy television and was an excellent piece. Sadly, it was beaten in the ratings by ITV's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, which was on every night of the week back then! It seemed that all was lost for telefantasy again; people didn't want it. Well, bar a re-make of Randall And Hopkirk (Deceased) but this was personality led by Reeves and Mortimer so doesn't count!
But were things realy lost? Another two toes in the water were the series Strange and Sea Of Souls. Strange didn't get treated very well in the schedules and was cancelled leaving the story in mid-air. Very poor of the BBC! Sea Of Souls, on the other hand, managed three series and an episode of a supernatural anthology series. ITV even dabbled a couple of years previously with its bleak The Last Train and a few later with Afterlife.
But then Doctor Who made a stunning return in 2005 and this has really changed the face of British telefantasy. Definitly fuelled by a nostalgia it was hugely successful and has brought back to British television not only further telefantasy but the family drama.
So, on the heels of the success of Doctor Who - and I honestly believe that these wouldn't have been made without it - came ITV's enjoyable romp Primeval (those who think Primeval is better, okay, but they have to accept it wouldn't have happened without Doctor Who), Jekyl, Frankenstein, Robin Hood and the up and coming Merlin, and re-makes of Survivors, The Prisoner and a up-dating of Blake's Seven on Sky.
And the point of all this: the last episode of series 4 of Doctor Who (and the best yet), Journey's End, was rated the number 1 most watched show of that week. Telefantasy is tops!
