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TiggsPanther

Listed below are comments made by TiggsPanther between Sunday, 11th October 2009 and Monday, 23rd November 2009.

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Points of View and HD Picture Quality: a response 07:51am on 23 Nov 2009 I'm a long-standing believer that, in any situation, when people raise a complaint they don't want "a" solution they want "their" solution. As a result, I guess I'm the only person who actually agrees with the following:

> "I have no doubt that for those who believe the bitrate cut has killed picture quality, none of the changes to the encoders that we will make to address the problems which we know are there will make any difference, unless they go hand in hand with an announcement that we've upped the bitrate."

People wonder why Danielle doesn't reply in-line anymore. Well, I'd guess she no longer sees the point. People really are waiting for a "we uppsed the bitrate" and nothing less. I'm a complete outsider and it looks tat way to me, so how much mroe would it look that was to people inside the BBC?
BBC HD: Interview with Danielle Nagler on Points of View 08:01am on 10 Nov 2009 @49

"John Lewis, Comet and Curry's are not running BBC HD previews at present"

Not entirely true.
It was either Comet or Curry's in Barnstaple, two weeks ago, where I saw the BBC HD Preview on a pretty large sized screen. (40"+)

Looked clear to me. In fact, it looked clearer at 40" than a DVD upscales on my more modest 22" screen. At a much larger screen size, the picture resolution actually seemed to be appropriate to the size of the screen.

And with all the fuss there's been on here for the past year or more, you can be certain that I spent a good few minutes looking closely at it.

Were there a sub-12-month option of going HD (long story, out of my control), I'd switch tomorrow.
A day in the life of the Head of BBC HD 08:18am on 03 Nov 2009 @48

Paul, your two options are somewhat simplistic extremes. Especially when you play them out how most things tend to work in most work environments.

1) Wait for the users to stop complaning - of which all but the most vocal minority will.

2) Try to persuade Upper Management, Finance, etc to change their minds. Which they very rarely do.

Now obviously #2 is the preferred option, quality wise.

Problem is, you're combined two options each of which would be both an improvement and a challenge. There are obviously issues with simulcasting stuff. They seem to have their hands tied on when they can broadcast vertain things (rights/restrictions that I fully disgree with, but that TV has to work with)
And trying to get them to insist on both more freedom of scheduling/simulcasting at the same time as upping the bitrate... well, that'd be a near-impossible sell.
Picture Quality on BBC HD: a response 09:30am on 28 Oct 2009 Question:
When shops show the Preview Loop, is it live or some sort of (local) recording. And is the loop indicative of general quality on the channel?

I'm curious, as I caught a few minutes of it in Comet yesterday and gave it a bit of a study.
I'm not going to say what I thought of the quality until I know whether what I saw was representative or not.
Picture Quality on BBC HD: a response 4:03pm on 26 Oct 2009 @763
> "and also a manager who has to asky why we want certain shows in HD."

How else would they know? It's far from obvious, although it might seem otherwise. As one person's "no brainer" answer isn't necessarily someone else's.

The only way to get a decent idea of what really would be popular is to ask.

To some people, the "killer app" for HD is more sport. To others, more live musical shows. To still others, both of those may get them turning off but they'd dearly love more period dramas.

So a manager asking why something is wanted in HD gets the "what people want" answer rather than the "what we think people probably want".
Closing the News Multiscreen 1:08pm on 22 Oct 2009 @42

The same point works in reverse though, and that's the problem with situations like this.

It's an either/or choice. And there are people on both sides who want one and not the other. But you can't assume that the other point of view doesn't exist.

Like I said, I know I'm probably in the minority. But I'm also putting it out there that there are some of us out here who will benefit from the change. Or who won't mourn the loss of the missing functionality.

And as someone not in a position to get satellite or cable for the forseeable future, the "keep HD off Freeview so we can watch the news" seems equally selfish.
It's all to do with one's viewpoint. They can't service both sides, and each can only see the other's argument as wanting to lose something useful for the addition of something less so.
Whichever side "wins", the other loses.

I'm just worried that this is going to turn into an outcry that is protrayed as "the entire public wants...", but the "public" isn't speaking for everyone.
Closing the News Multiscreen 09:55am on 22 Oct 2009 I can (and frequently do) acquire news content form multiple sources via the internet for free. If I do this, noone complains.

If I tried to acquire high-definition commerical video content for free via the internet, I would get called "Nasty Pirate".

I rarely used any of the additional inteactive streams on Freeview. News I get via websites. (Most notably BBC's) Radio 1's concerts were fun, but hardly essential viewing. Doctor Who's commentaries were frequently prempted for flower shows, always lost the show's audio track, and I did better by playing the podcast side-by-side with the regular BBC1 (or DVRs) showing.

I may be in the minority, but they're removing things I don't use for something I actually would watch.

And, just for once, I'm in the group being advantaged, not the one being short-changed. It makes a pleasant turnaround.

Roll on Freeview HD.
Picture Quality on BBC HD: a response 08:10am on 15 Oct 2009 @577

Doesn't mean she's necessarily calling the shots. It might just mean that someone else calls them, and that Danielle's the one in the firing line when people aren't satisfied.

If things need changing, if indeed it's possible for them to change at all, you need to appeal to whoever's ultimately calling the shots. Not just "whose name is on the door".
Picture Quality on BBC HD: a response 10:48am on 14 Oct 2009 @555

Were I to switch to HD tomorrow, there are many older shows I would enjoy seeing a repeat of in HD. As I'll only have seen them in SD, if at all.
As I am not the kind of person who habitually "acquires" the HD versions of BBC shows over the broadcast version.

I can't, however, think of a single football match that would interest me at all, never mind in HD.

Now this is a personal rpeference and I know I'm in the minority, however I also knwo I'm not alone in that. As HD is still a growing audience, do bear in mind that one person's "repeat" may be another's "first time to watch in HD".

I also idly find myself wondering exactly how the powers that be could phrase anything other than "we'll up the bitrate" in a way that people would accept.

All taking it higher tends to accomplish is the same answer from the higher levels. I see it all the time at work. They don't realise that, in the majority of cases, taking a matter higher tends to result in asking the person who handed the original "no" down in the first place.
Now I'd love to be wrong, but this whole situation has that sort of a feel to it.
Top Gear on BBC HD from November 15th 9:42pm on 11 Oct 2009 @Andrew Knight

Just to play Devil's Advocate for a moment...
For some (like myself), investment in HD is put off in part becase of a fear of programming being pushed aside for sport.

I used to get that enough from terrestrial, and don't want to invest in new kit only to suffer the same fate.

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