All posts by Pete
Below are all of Pete's postings, with the most recent are at the bottom of the page.
I seriously hope you don't class me as a Digital Radio "hater" Brian. If only the quality matched the hype, I would be thoroughly satisfied. After all I did embrace the technology at a very early stage (in summer 1999 purchasing a very expensive Technics ST-GT 1000 still going strong but mainly in FM mode these days sadly, even though I recall you didn't believe this date when I first told you). I actually think your site has been one of a very few areas for good reasoned discussion on this subject and although certain arguments may have gone round in a bit of a loop, in the main the contents of the blog have certainly been beneficial to me personally. I have learned an aweful lot whilst admittedly having a bit of a winge from time to time, but without challenge, people can miss such a lot at the planning stage making unnecessary and incorrect assumptions. Hopefully pointing out some of the serious issues, which only time & switch off (whenever that will actually be) will tell accurately. Only then will we see and hear if the promises match the hype and all pitfalls have been fully or even partially resolved. Withouht the concerns expressed by the average and I have to say "caring" listener who is going to take notice. There is no point ringing BBC Information these days, manned by very inexperienced people with very little technical knowledge, who try and fob you off with any old rubbish using the oft trotted out phrase that your views will be paseed on to ... blah de blah, when you know full well they won't be. Digial text is still printing out garbage in the p200 SAVINGS section for certain accounts after over a year since I pointed out a basic error in the display for both Freeview and Freesat viewers !!
YOUR SITE IS INVALUABLE !!
Please don't get disillusioned.
Keep up the good work and try not to redact too much. If you don't want to answer as many queries, fair enough, but let others (especially the well qualified bods) help you, unless they are spouting total rubbish.
I am all for fair and well meaning and argued "freedom of speech".
Many Thanks for all your hard work over the period, I discovered you quite late in the day in Winter 2009.
Finally, my genuine hope is that as many people as possible receive digital radio (especially DAB) across all networks across the country and in cars in the best possible quality, speech and music stations alike.
Very best wishes,
Nedbod
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WHAT A DIFFERENCE A COUPLE OF WEEKS MAKES (336 LITTLE HOURS) : You may recall the posting in your Feedback
section on Friday 18 February 2011 >>>>
"I was listening to the TODAY programme on BBC R4 this morning and they were talking about reducing the amount of adverts per hour down from the current 8 minutes on the main commercial channels and by even more on the other digital commercial channels to improve "... the viewer experience...".
How does three (or sometimes more) ad breaks of 4 minutes and 15 seconds (minimum) on ITV1, Channel 4 & Channel 5 = 8 minutes ?? I am on a different planet in a different decade.
I make it at least 12 minutes and 45 seconds per hour not 8 minutes ? and that doesn't include promos, trailers and sponsored programme inserts "... brought to you by BT Vision.... !! etc. "
Well I was listening to THE TODAY PROGRAMME last week and astoundingly they announced that OFCOM were "now" allowing ITV1, Ch 4 & Ch 5 to ACTUALLY "INCREASE" their advert slots to those of the digital channels and possibly more. This will simply encourage more of us to either record more of the prime commercial stations & fast forward through them (as John Humphreys pointed out) or, as I do, edit them out altogether so I have a totally commercial free end product that allows you to concentrate on the content. Ironically if the ad breaks were shorter I might not bother. Aren't they shooting themselves in the foot and extending us way past our tolerance thresholds. Hence "PP" (Product Placement), with yet another LOGO (heaven forbid).
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Is it just me, or do others find that the basic sound volume level on BBC Freeview Radio channels is much louder than the TV Channel sound and almost bordering on being distorted. Any idea why ? I have two separate Freeview sources and this problem is the same on each.
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How odd this certainly appears to be the case from the Winter Hill transmitter on Channels 702-710 on the BBC Multiplex on Ch 62 ? at least to my ears.
Interesting.
I now find that recording from my computer onto a CD gives the best quality, although programmes can freeze from time to time, which is a pain. Still at least you cam play the finalised CDs in the car and at today's prices the discs are cheaper than even old cassettes, with much better quality. The hard drives however can record hours of radio at a time, and again can be transferred to CD with the ability to edit first if required to help fit the CD time limit.
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Just seen the week's schedule for the newly launched PICK TV, which has now replaced SKY 3.
It's even duller than SKY 3 was, if that's possible, and there's certainly no need at all for PICK TV +1. My personal impression is that SKY are trying to dumb down Freeview as much as possible so that people switch to Satellite TV ? Plenty of evidence for this like them buying up Virgin 1 and replacing its sucessor with a game/quiz channel (Challenge), which wouldn't challenge a mentally retarded concust slug (sorry if I have insulted any slug fans no offence intended).
This tactic simply doesn't work with me. Rather than waste my hard earned cash on SKY, I just delete all their dross using the DELETE channels feature, so my programme guide only displays the channels I actually like, saving me hours of trolling through endless garbage on the programme guide. I also use both elements of the EPG (i) the all channel day to day sideways display and (ii) the scrolling up & down programme option per channel. You still have to be a bit careful with the times on the recording section, as some programmes overrun or even start early (as was recently the case with the afternoon drama on BBC One MOVING IN which started 1-2 minutes before the scheduled time of 14:15 !!). I personally prefer to use the manual option and leave plenty of slack either side of the guide times. With the hard drive this is easy and if required you can trim the programmes (including adverts) post recording. You can even give them a really professional touch with a few seconds of blank at the begining and end using Channel 306, if desired.
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To edit programmes using the Toshiba hard-drive recorders once recorded go to EDIT pause at the point you wish to edit the programme, press divide than add the divided tile to the playlist, when you have finished adding all the bits go to playlist and use the combine feature to paste them back together - SIMPLES !!
Don't forget to Delete all the unwanted bits from your main titles so that you free up space on your drive. Test them first though so you don't delete the main feature.
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I have noticed on FREEVIEW a growing trend recently on BBC TV programmes of having a "PRESS RED" & BRIGHTLY COLOURED (mostly BRIGHT YELLOW) RECTANGLE appearing on BBC TV programmes in the top right hand corner before they have finished, including dramas, comedy, music and sports programmes, encouraging you to switch to generally related content, often in addition to voice-overs reinforcing this in the closing credits (also often reduced in size to a point where they are unreadable even for people with 20/20 vision). This is so annoying when you are engrossed in the programme and VERY distracting, ruining your viewing experience. Often the thing they are directing you too is deadful anyway. Another example of dumbing down I'm afraid. I don't pay £145 + quid a year to enjoy MY BBC only to have it ruined by some idiot who can't be bothered to leave the viewer to enjoy the expensive programmes in their pure form. They should at least leave these promos to the closing credits or the "NEXT TIME" bit so that I can watch the main programme uncluttered. I hate the next time section anyway as I am prepared to wait for the next episode generally and do not want its contents ruined.
Examples : EPISODES (BBC TWO), WATERLOO ROAD, CASUALTY, SKI SUNDAY, BBC FOUR CONCERTS & ROCK MUSIC PROFILES, BEING HUMAN (BBC THREE), which already has a GHASLTY bright PINK logo + the word NEW in the top left hand corner (as we are obviously too stupid to realise that a programme is NEW anymore even though from 1939 - 2000 we were able to discern this apparently?). OK rant over.
PS : If at the very least you want to remove the NEW on Being Human, record the repeat at 23:30 on Sun or 22:30 on Mon (BBC THREE), you still get the BECOMING HUMAN PRESS RED rectangle though !! The i-player has a smaller logo (even smaller for HD programmes for some reason) and no rectangle at the end. Otherwise it's the DVD sadly - even more expense and extra profit for the BBC, maybe that is a significant clue ?
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Incidentally after many complaints after a Graham Norton logo appeared in DOCTOR WHO, the BBC said this was a mistake and they would stop this practice, so why haven't they then.
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I don't have a mobile Brian and legacy or not I do have a CD player in the car.
I do however have very very cheap landline phone bills with free broadband and free UK & International calls 24/7 + mobiles to USA and a few other countries for a very tiny line rental, in itself reduced by £3.75 per month by TalkTalk for being a loyal customer. I love my CDs in the car, legacy or no. I have never had one go wrong yet. It would be even better if the standard car stereos played the re-recordable CDs so I could re use them if required, not very envronmentally friendly of them is it ?
My lifetime mobile call charges being £0.00
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Friday 18 February 2011 1:36AM
Many UK BBC WORLD SERVICE listeners who listen on 648kHz MW in the east and south east of England and after dark in other areas will soon no longer be able to do so.
The BBC is ceasing its 648 kHz transmissions of BBC World Service English language radio on 27 March 2011 after decades of broadcasting on this frequency and 1089kHz (276m) before that plus occasionally on 1296 kHz in the UK (including programmes for listeners learning English). The end of an era and quite sad day for me as I used to place my transister radio in one particular place on my window sill near the BT box and 276m and later 648kHz & 1296kHz used to boom out very clearly, despite the distance between Orfordness and Mottram-in-Longdendale and the fact that the signal was beamed primarily towards Europe.
The BBC say they have had to make some difficult decisions about the distribution of BBC World Service radio around the world, as a result of the Spending Review settlement that BBC World Service received at the end of 2010.
Closure of the 648 kHz service continues the process of withdrawing from direct broadcasts to Europe in response to a declining number of direct listeners.
However BBC World Service continues to be available in Europe by satellite, cable and online. Not much use in a car on the move.
This will remove the service from car radio listeners in Western Europe too. Not really sure how they can call it a WORLD service anymore with such drastic cuts.
198kHz LW will continue to relay BBC World Service overnight between 1am and 5.20am overnight (except on General Election night) as will Radio 4 FM (and R4 MW in certain areas).
I imagine part of the decline is a result of programme changes with far more repetitious rolling news and business news and sport programmes and drastic reductions in popular music, classical music, specialist music, comedy, science, thrillers and other drama output.