Introduction
This is a blog about all the things that bug me. It will contain my own opinions about a range of subjects and I'll update it when I think of something new to add. The views expressed are entirely my own and on the whole are not meant to offend.
Television Wide Screen
Now in days of yor (whoever he/she was) the only programmes that were made in wide screen were films, and when they were shown on the television, you always got a pan and scan version, i.e. the wide screen image is enlarged to fit the whole screen and the 4:3 viewing area is panned around the wide screen original footage to show the most important action. Indeed, in the States they sometimes sell films in a wide screen version and also as a full screen version. Nowadays on television wide screen stuff is usually letter boxed, i.e. black strips at the top and bottom of the image, retaining the full original picture, but reducing the size to fit into a 4:3 screen. Not everyone has a wide screen television, and even those that do will still get a black strip as the ratio of the screen is not always the same as the original picture. Just look at the ratio shown on the back of a DVD (almost all of which in the UK are wide screen) and they will range from 2.40:1, 2.35:1, 1.96:1 , 1.85:1 or maybe just 16:9.
With Freeview, the television signal is transmitted in wide screen on some channels, and if you have a new television with a built-in Freeview tuner, chances are the picture will put the black strips in automatically. But if you have an add-on box for Freeview with a regular television set, the wide screen signal will not get the black strips. Five Life tends to do this with some programmes, obviously filmed in wide screen, like the first chance Home & Away shown after the current episode on Five. If I watch it with any of the add on boxes, the screen is stretched vertically, and some of the picture is lost on the sides. One of my televisions has a 16:9 button, which squashes a stretched image back down again, but some of the picture is still lost on the edges. Some channels letter box the picture before the signal is sent (so the TV is getting a 4:3 signal) but when the programme has some old footage that was filmed in 4:3, the picture is even smaller as you also get black borders on the left and right in addition to the top and bottom ones. This has been particularly bad with some adverts and football matches shown on ITV 4, where the wide screen signal reduces the viewable picture to almost a square, with a stretched ratio.
Television Logos and Adverts
Television channels now insist on telling the viewer what channel your are watching. Now I don't mean the terrestial channels (although Channel Four do have their T4 logo) but the digital channels on Freeview, and probably on cable/satellite but I don't have them. By the time 2012 Olympics come along the terrestial signal will have gone completely and everything will be watched on the Freeview channels with either a new television or an add on box. Not all the channels have idents (the digital versions of BBC 1, BBC 2, ITV 1, Channel Four, Five and Film Four notably) but most of them do. If you press the info button on your remote you can see what channel your viewing, but the companies insist on their logos. When some programmes are show the logo gets in the way, like when ftn repeat old episodes of Gladiators, and you can't see the countdown timer in the top right hand corner of the screen because of the logo.
But some programmes seem to be exempt from the logo problem, like some episodes
of Doctor Who when they are repeated on BBC Three, and some programmes on BBC Four. Not all of the Doctor Who episodes mind, the
current repeats of series three have the logo, but older repeats of previous series didn't. When they showed Torchwood, the logo really got in
the way in some shows, and don't get me started on the whole watching Doctor Who on BBC 1 then flipping over to BBC Three for Doctor
Who Confidential. The number of times I missed the beginning of the confidential programme was too many. Now the Confidential programmes
(or rather, the making of the episode you've just seen) were good, but when they repeated the full episode, they also repeated the Confidential
programmes, but they were called cut downs, and were only fifteen minutes long, instead of the full 45 minutes. Just to add to the confusion,
the BBC Three repeats of Doctor Who are followed by the full 45 minute versions of Doctor Who Confidential.
Now as I said before, the television channels think the viewer is really stupid and has to be reminded as to what program is going to come on. This trend used to be just a voice over saying what's coming on next as the credits rolled, but now you get the strips appearing in the last five minutes of the programme saying what's coming up. ITV with their four channels have their strip along the top and show what's coming on ITV 1, ITV 2, ITV 3 and ITV 4. BBC Three have a blue bar near the bottom of the screen with sometimes the brown Bob character, and Channel Four and Five have started it as well with a white bar at the bottom. Some programmes are pushed to half the screen size and a preview of the programmes coming up is shown on the right, with a voice over, which means if you were watching a program for the credits to see who played a particular character, you have no chance. BBC Three reduce the credits down to a quarter screen with previews and voice overs. Now I don't mind being told what is coming up AFTER the programme has finished, but not during the programme or credits. Sometimes they really go overboard, by interrupting the programme your watching with the strip, then a voice over, and then an advert for the programme just before the programme is due to come on. BBC Three and BBC 2 were the worst with the premiere of Torchwood, and I really got fed up with the amount of times they kept telling me it was coming on. I was not alone as I'm sure someone mentioned it on Points of View.
Television Scheduling
One of the things that annoys me is the way that some really good television programmes are scheduled. It's been going on for several years, and tends to effect American TV shows shown here in the UK. The people who come up with the schedules often don't understand the programme, and put it on at the wrong time. Seinfeld was a very popular programme in the states, but when the BBC put it on in the UK, they placed it late at night on BBC 2. Now it's not offensive, it doesn't include swearing, and yet the programme was on varying times, from 11 to 12 midnight. There was very little advertising relating to the programme so the viewing figures must have been low. When Buffy The Vampire Slayer came on, it was placed at around six, perfect for for the kids, so they thought. Except all the violent parts (like Buffy actually killing a vampire) were edited out because of the time. It was repeated the same day later that evening, at around 11, uncut.
More recently Family Guy and American Dad have been appearing on BBC Three, but again really late at night. Now I know that these cartoons are quite violent and feature swearing, but putting the programmes on at 11:30 to 12 midnight just alienates what little audience it has. Family Guy has been cancelled several times, but the sales on DVD brought it back. OF course the confusion of having series 5 (as it is in the States) shown as series 6 in the UK does not help, but at least with this series, you can't buy it on DVD yet (though the current series is supposed to out in September 2007).