All posts by MikeB
Below are all of MikeB's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
Michel: your very nice new tv (one of our favourites at work) is only 4 miles from Crystal Palace! In other words, your far more likely to be suffering from too high signal strength. If you search for 'too much of a good thing' on this website, you'll get a lot of guidance.
Check your signal strength, its probably very high, and the tuners are hating it. You can buy attenuators for less than £2 on Amazon, and they are £2.59 each from Screwfix. I got some fixed ones, which you can put in series if you want.
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Michael: I actually confused miles and km - according to the Digital UK tradeview, your actually less than 4 km away from the transmitter, which is even worse.
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Jack Luxon: I had the same thought last night, while watching a recording of '24 Hours in A & E'. Thanks to the PVR's 'next chapter' feature, apart from a couple of seconds of the Honda idents which went with the programme, we watched no adverts at all.
Its very useful for us, but if you are a commerical TV company which needs revenue to both makes programmes and make a profit.
The 'non linear' nature of watching is something covered in a report I linked to during a discussion on the licence fee recently. Although most TV is still watched live, and so adverts are still viewed, increasingly they are recorded or streamed.
Streaming still has adverts (and you cannot fastforward), but PVR's have made the way we used to fastforward on VCR's much easier.
The cost of watching TV in Scandinavia and the German speaking countries is much higher than ours, which puts the licence fee into context...
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trevorjharris: I think your ideological slip is showing....
Can we first get out of the way the idea that the 'The BBC will send you to prison if you don't pay. That is draconian'. Briantist has already pointed out that the BBC does not jail you for not paying your licence, but it should be also notied that Draco would not have jailed anyone - slavery or more usually, death would have been the penalty. Of course under Draco's rule licence evasion would be zero....
Logically, why would any other commercial broadcaster need to ask the courts for sanctions, since they reply on advertising...apart from Sky! Premier League clamps down on illegal Sky use in UK pubs
As for 'Benefits Street', C4's programme has been accused of misrepresention and selective editing by a whole load of different commentators, and its not the first time that C4 has made a prgramme which was economical with the truth for the sake of sensation. In fact I've complained to Ofcom myself...
In any case, its a legit topic of debate (its was also on Newsnight), and certainly isn't a manifestation of 'left wing bias'. What your seeing says much more about you than the BBC ....
Michael: I think your right about the pro's outweighting the cons, but although general taxation sounds attractive, there are several problems. Much as I hate hypothication, there is a case to be made that you pay for what you use. If you dont have a TV or radio, then you could argue you should not pay for the BBC. Its actually a very weak arguement, but there you are.
The other is much stronger - that taxation means government control. We have never had a 'government' broadcaster, although the 1926 General Strike did show how much influence the government could have (Reith was very angry at it), and certainly the BBC is managerially 'conservative' with a small 'c' (Christmas trees!).
If you allow government to have control over finance every year you end up with a creature of the government, with its whims, paranoia and preoccupations. You'll end up with government appointees in charge (Lord Patten is very far from that), rather like Greece.
You could also end up like the Italians or possibly the French.
Sky's perfect scenario is something like the US, where NPR and PBS are small players ($443m from government), with no real power, but are subject to the vindicativeness and occasional kindness of politicians. Its an excellent service, but it neuters itself (referring to GOP Congressmen as 'Washington Lawmakers' when reporting on a GOP stop to a popular bill), and constantly has to scrimp and beg. The GOP voted to remove funding from the CPB Funding Cuts Leave The Future of PBS in Question - even though it was tiny amount (in terms of overall US spending) and in terms of PBS's budget, and Mitt Romney said he would do the same The Presidential Debate’s Biggest Loser: Big Bird - ABC News - killing Big Bird was more about theatrics than saving money.
I dont want Grant Shapps (or Tony Blair during the Iraq War) suddenly deciding to cut the BBC's budget, because of something they have said or reported, and I certainly dont want the threat to hang over any reporter that a report might displease in minister, and thus kill their budget. The Conservatives certainly are ready for such a threat...
We need a seperate BBC, with enough heft to do good work, which is open, and admits when it does things wrong, but is brave enought to talk truth to power. Thats why a licence fee, rather than taxation, works.
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Mike Dimmick: Hopefully certain parties might read your summing up of the BBC's benefits - wonderfully put, and a reminder that the BBC has an effect on all our lives.
Briantist: The 'five act' structure must be maddening for TV writers - you have to have something dramatic (needed or not) in the first two minutes to stop people switching to another channel during the first commercial break, and a hook to keep them.
You notice the difference with something made for HBO (or other cable channels) immediately. because there is much more likely to be a slow build - The Soprano's, for instance, tends to treat the viewer is much more intelligent way. Mad Men and Breaking Bad (both from AMC) also have a more subtle approach. In that way they are much more like British dramas.
I did notice that HBO product is often 'precut' so that normal US still commercial breaks without a huge breakup of the story flow, but its not easy. I still remember trying to watch The West Wing in the States - the number and frequncy of the ads really jarred.
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trevorjharris: As usual, your reply to any comment about the BBC starts with hyperbole, and continues with a great deal of handwaving and unsubstantiated comment.
Lord Patten actually is a baron (Baron Patten of Barnes) - but I think we know a media baron when we see one, and its simply nonsense to suggest that he is acting like one.
The BBC does put a great deal of educational material on (although since you profess to never watching any BBC programme, how would you know?). Radio 4 has a huge range of educational material - and certainly this mornings 'In Our Time' was an accessable undergraduate discussion on the Battle of Tours.
BBC4 alone has documentaries on history, archaeology, physics, chemistry and geology. They have an excellent music night on Fridays, and a whole series on film music (plus a very good prgramme on John Boorman just coming up). Obviously this is far inferior to that which you can get from University of Sky, but its pretty good for the rest of us..
I agree that BBC News is not always brilliant - their US coverage is frequently anodyne at best, but their coverage of the Middle East and Africa is generally rather good. However, I notice that NPR uses the World Service as their main news feed, and try watching the BBC and CNN together - you'll see the difference very quickly.
If your going to use the phrase 'dumbed down', at least show some examples. In God we trust, all others bring data.
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Briantist: The site is incrediably useful, and I've learnt a great deal from it in a relatively short time. There was some discussion a little while ago of how to alert people to FAQ's and what sort of information those asking a question should include, so perhaps something along those lines might be useful.
The thing I do notice which does need an upgrade is the 'Connecting it all up' page Connecting it all up | Installing | ukfree.tv - 11 years of independent, free digital TV advice . It dates back to 2006, and even in the last 3/4 year, a lot has changed on the back of a TV.
HDMI is now the main connection, and for a 32in and above 3 is average (4 or 2 sometimes, depending on the brand/cost). On all 3D TV's (and many 2D ones as well), one of the is Audio Return Channel (ARC), which allows a 1.4 HDMI cable to communicate with a home cinema system or soundbar bi-directionally. Some high level TV's will also have a HDMI 2.0 input for 4K, etc.
There is just one scart now, and on certain brands, it is highly likely to be a kind of plugin system, with the wires hanging down. You will still have RGB inputs , but the yellow RCA (Composite) phono input has gone this year, although the Red/White ones remain for use with the RGB.
VGA/DVI has long gone (modern laptops have HDMI outputs and wifi/DLNA has made this less useful anyway), but you will instead often find at least one USB (often 3 on a higher level set).
Digital opitical (SPDIF) still remains, as does the 3.5mm headphone socket (apart from HDMI, now the only ways to get an audio signal out of a set), as does the UHF socket (!), and there are often F connections (for Freesat or generic sat. tuners).
In a similar vein, pretty much no blu-ray player has analogue outputs, and very few Freeview HD boxes (Humax, Philips and Segam do). HDMI is now the standard.
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Briantist: Your right - you have to try and have something for everyone. I dont like Eastenders either, but considering its ratings, a huge amount of people do. Thats fine - the BBC should be a broad church.
BBC4 almost has a fanclub over on the Britmovie website - there is a huge amount of quality material broadcast by them, which isn't bad for a channel which is only on from 7pm. I forgot that the Egypt programme was on, so thats one for Iplayer.
BBC3 has made some very good programmes. Tough Young Teachers looks good, as does Underage and Over the Limit. They had a very good series about Junior Doctors, and the one where they sent people who bought cheap fashion to the places where they were made was particularly effective (CBBC has done something similar). Considering the high percentage of programmes which are original and UK made, they are doing well, and I'm well outside their age demographic!
As for BBC Radio, Iplayer has huge amounts of stuff. The 'Dinosaurs in the Drawing Room' was very good, Acts of Union and Disunion was excellent, The World in 100 Objects is still available and they are broadcasting David Sedaris (his Elf monologue is an NPR Christmas tradition) and John Finnemore. You could spend all day on it and barely scratch the surface...
But also try KCRW in the States - KCRW 89.9 FM | Internet Public Radio Station Streaming Live Independent Music & NPR News Online from Los Angeles, CA - KCRW 89.9 FM | Internet Public Radio Station Streaming Live Independent Music & NPR News Online from Los Angeles, CA - 'Good Food' is excellent, 'The Business' is the best programme if you want to really know about Hollywood (its the local radio station) and they have a music station which breaks new talent all the time. Its an NPR station, so try 'American Life' and 'Car Talk' (which is kind of about cars...). There is an NPR app as well, and they are on Itunes.
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Chris Critchley: Briantist replied to you very first post last June by pointing out that 'The usual reason for wet weather degrading terrestrial viewing is that your aerial cables have perished and are letting in rainwater'. Seemingly you didn't check that out.
Since your just one km away from one transmitter, and not that far from Winter Hill, its evident that its your own aerial system at fault. The person you should complain to is you...
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Sunday 12 January 2014 10:41PM
Chris: If its dodgy, then thats it.
As far as a new TV concerned - get the size right (there is a discussion about this elsewhere...!), but if your about 4-6 feet away, and you've got a 23in at present, then 32in would probably do (although 1.6m-2m might nudge towards a 40in). Best value at the moment is the LG N575 - was £299. OK, a slightly clunky style, but great picture (I'd buy it). Currently on huge backorder (because its such a good deal, as is the 42in - http://www.johnlewis.com/…5776 - also on backorder) - but hopefully available for a little while yet.
Best for smart (all catchup services) - the Samsung 5500 Buy Samsung UE32F5500 LED HD 1080p Smart TV, 32" with Freeview HD online at John Lewis - picture OK, but lots of value. Around £350 you will do fine on all four major brands, and everything is Full HD, Freeview HD, Smart (at least Iplayer) and has wifi. Normally 3 HDMI's, 1 scart and RGB, plus 2 usb's (Sony 654 only has 2 HDMI's).
Again, all four brands for decent blu-rays from about £50 - plays everything, Smart too, and about £99 is wified as well. Could be fine for less than £400 all in, plus some HDMI's, and the recording part continues with the Humax.
Its a really good time to buy (prices wont get less, and there is still stock), so find somewhere decent to look and ask questions.