Nobody Cares about TV and Film

[Argent Stonecutter]

The funniest thing about this is the guy just chilling out on the porch of what is essentially his space-trailer-home in his full suit of armor

The Excalibur 24-hour Armor meme?

 

[Isabeau]

I suppose I could have placed this in the books thread but Star Trek and Star Wars are used as examples so it belongs here, too.

What the Universal Translator Tells Us About Exploring Other Cultures - Reactor

Science fiction is full of miraculous technology. You’ve got instantaneous teleportation across great distances, time travel, faster-than-light starships, cryogenic suspension that lasts centuries, and so on. But one of the most fascinating science fiction tropes is the universal translator...

www.tor.com

Science fiction is full of miraculous technology. You’ve got instantaneous teleportation across great distances, time travel, faster-than-light starships, cryogenic suspension that lasts centuries, and so on. But one of the most fascinating science fiction tropes is the universal translator. (Or, in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the Babel fish.)…

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Is anybody else weirded out by like really old TV shows that are broadcast in HD/4k?

I was at the doctors office and in the waiting room the TV started showing this old show from the 1980's called "In the Heat of the Night". Upscaling a lot of these old TV shows is easily possible because even though the shows were intended for standard-def broadcast TV, the physical film they were printed on held much finer detail.

But it just looks so weird. Seeing a show that you know in your head is from like 1989 but it looks like it was filmed yesterday on someone's phone is just so weird, almost jarring. It almost looks fake - like somebody literally did just a few months ago make a video and they're trying to pass it off as an episode of this old TV show but the picture is just too clear for it to be believable.

 

[WolfEyes]

Is anybody else weirded out by like really old TV shows that are broadcast in HD/4k?

I was at the doctors office and in the waiting room the TV started showing this old show from the 1980's called "In the Heat of the Night". Upscaling a lot of these old TV shows is easily possible because even though the shows were intended for standard-def broadcast TV, the physical film they were printed on held much finer detail.

But it just looks so weird. Seeing a show that you know in your head is from like 1989 but it looks like it was filmed yesterday on someone's phone is just so weird, almost jarring. It almost looks fake - like somebody literally did just a few months ago make a video and they're trying to pass it off as an episode of this old TV show but the picture is just too clear for it to be believable.

It depends on the quality of film they used when recording the episodes. Some were high quality, others not so much. Obviously the higher quality ones are the ones that look the best on new TVs.

 

[Noodles]

Is anybody else weirded out by like really old TV shows that are broadcast in HD/4k?

I get more weirded out by reruns that are played at like 100% speed tonmake room for an extra minute of commercials.

Friends is REALLY bad for this. Everyone sounds like a damn chipmunk. They say you are not supposed to be able to tell but trust me, I can tell, everyone sounds weird.

Thats not new tech though. I think I first noticed it ages ago on like, Cheers on Nick at Night.

On the visual upscaling, its not that fake in TV upscaling that some TVs do is it? That always looks really off. Like people are sliding across the screen instead of moving.

 

[Casey Pelous]

I get more weirded out by reruns that are played at like 100% speed tonmake room for an extra minute of commercials.

Friends is REALLY bad for this. Everyone sounds like a damn chipmunk. They say you are not supposed to be able to tell but trust me, I can tell, everyone sounds weird.

Thats not new tech though. I think I first noticed it ages ago on like, Cheers on Nick at Night.

On the visual upscaling, its not that fake in TV upscaling that some TVs do is it? That always looks really off. Like people are sliding across the screen instead of moving.

Now I'm really puzzled about what you're hearing/seeing with Friends. You can't just speed up a videotape like you would an audio tape -- put simply, all hell breaks loose. What you can do is use editing software that pulls out every "xth" frame -- but to make up a minute in 22 minutes of show, you'd only need to zap .... *calculator keys tapping* ... about 82 frames per minute or a mere 2.7 frames per second out of 30. Assuming some decently programmed software (like what I have on my computer that costs less than $100 ...) that should not make much perceptible difference at all. Also, when network shows are shot, there are cut points built in to allow them to be shortened for syndication with no speed alteration necessary.

So, what I'm saying is, based on what you heard, they're putting in at least two more minutes of commercials and maybe more.

I'm not gonna be hunting down a daytime showing of Friends, so .... I'll probably just stay mystified unless Kalel chimes in with some more current tech than I know about.

 

[Noodles]

I went looking for some articles on it.

How networks speed up TV shows to shove more ads in your unsuspecting face

A new video on reddit exposes a decade long phenomenon of networks speeding up your favorite TV shows in order to bombard you with even more commercials.

www.digitaltrends.com

Here is one where Courtney Cox noticed it on Friends.

Fast forward: Networks speed up TV shows to play more ads

Think TV shows are faster than they used to be? You may be right

www.cbsnews.com

 

[Free]

Happy 4th.



Maglink

 

[Kalel]

Now I'm really puzzled about what you're hearing/seeing with Friends. You can't just speed up a videotape like you would an audio tape -- put simply, all hell breaks loose. What you can do is use editing software that pulls out every "xth" frame -- but to make up a minute in 22 minutes of show, you'd only need to zap .... *calculator keys tapping* ... about 82 frames per minute or a mere 2.7 frames per second out of 30. Assuming some decently programmed software (like what I have on my computer that costs less than $100 ...) that should not make much perceptible difference at all. Also, when network shows are shot, there are cut points built in to allow them to be shortened for syndication with no speed alteration necessary.

So, what I'm saying is, based on what you heard, they're putting in at least two more minutes of commercials and maybe more.

I'm not gonna be hunting down a daytime showing of Friends, so .... I'll probably just stay mystified unless Kalel chimes in with some more current tech than I know about.

nothing has changed.. just so many more options and compression software to chose from...

Older Network TV shows usually come with 5 -10 seconds black videos between segments so they can slide in the network Promos..

and yeah when you compress video and/or audio your removing data. If they do it too much you'll get that sliding effect. each software codec tries it's best to detect what data to pull out of each frame..

Was the original shot on digital? or Tape( and then digitized)? Does the company have the orginal file or jsut a copy? the new network may not have the orginal files (this happens allot more often then you think) they have a copy.. of a copy ... of a copy... the file may have gone though several companies... been converted dozens of times... we don't know the history of the file being broadcasted but you have to take all of this into account...

NTSC?(29.97DF FPS American standard) or PAL(30fps Europe Standard)? If the show was filmed in america and tried to show it in europe... they may have added data creating "artifacts".... and then you tryin to take away that data again with a different Codec... etc.. etc....it's a mess..

but yeah if your seeing a slideshow it got through quality control( if they bothered checking in the first place... >.>)

 

[WolfEyes]

I get more weirded out by reruns that are played at like 100% speed tonmake room for an extra minute of commercials.

Friends is REALLY bad for this. Everyone sounds like a damn chipmunk. They say you are not supposed to be able to tell but trust me, I can tell, everyone sounds weird.

Thats not new tech though. I think I first noticed it ages ago on like, Cheers on Nick at Night.

On the visual upscaling, its not that fake in TV upscaling that some TVs do is it? That always looks really off. Like people are sliding across the screen instead of moving.

What they do is speed up the credits at the end and then sometimes they cut the end credits short because they are trying to cram as many commercials in as possible. It's gone from 10 minutes of commercials within an hour to about 20 minutes of commercials within an hour. Some even cram nearly 30 minutes of commercials in.

 

[Caete]

Happy 4th.



Maglink

 

[Caete]

Sadly no Tim Choate as he died but

‘Babylon 5: The Road Home’ Voice Cast Unveiled (Exclusive)

 

[Caete]

 

[Zaida Gearbox]

We watched and really liked The Last Thing He Told Me on Apple TV. Now, I'm going to have to read the book and see how it compares.

 

[Isabeau]

We watched and really liked The Last Thing He Told Me on Apple TV. Now, I'm going to have to read the book and see how it compares.

I’m two episodes in and am enjoying it. Nice little time waster.

 

[Caete]

Dear TRVL channel, I know you love to show ghost/paranormal shows because more people will watch those than a show about random cities, but WTF? Who the hell bought Ghost Brothers? If it was any cringier I'd expect it to be on MTV. No real static long shots, lots of fake night vision shots, a constant barrage of bro, oh hell naw, if that moves by itself thats my clue to leave. I'm surprised we don't get any "oh muh lawdy, ghostses!" And wth is up with the "new tech gadgets" provided by their white stoner crazy guy? A foam core cosplay helmet with a battery pack and random wires draped over it that "will create a rotatng emf thru your brain and allow you to see ghosts" seriously? Then mr nt a scientist states "just watch out for the brown tone" This is an incompetent written show that would barely work in a 30 min format let alone the actual seriously insert shot padded out to fill 60 minutes format.


Dear BET, wth happened to you? Your entire program line is a shadow of its former self. Now it is just every Tyler Perry piece of crap in a row, then The Breakfast Club (wtf? to cleanse your palete?) followed by hours of black ish which then cuts back to the Tyler Perry shitstormathon.

I used to think the History Channel's Ancient Aliens marathons that are still running at this moment, was some of the worst programming outside of MTV buy congrats, you two are fighting for that top position amongst yourselves.

 

[Khamon]

Old-fashioned, commercial injected, network programming has gone to pot on every channel. It's simply a waste of time to watch non-streaming, or at least commercial free, programming. There are a few odd reruns and movies that I'll sit through while folding, or darning, or social mediaising. But suffering nearly four hours to see a cut, sped, two-hour movie is intolerable if I actually want to watch the movie. The syndications can be worse because not only are scenes cut, lines are interrupted, mid-sentence, to squeeze eighteen minutes of commercials into a thirty-minute slot.

 

[Caete]

Old-fashioned, commercial injected, network programming has gone to pot on every channel. It's simply a waste of time to watch non-streaming, or at least commercial free, programming. There are a few odd reruns and movies that I'll sit through while folding, or darning, or social mediaising. But suffering nearly four hours to see a cut, sped, two-hour movie is intolerable if I actually want to watch the movie. The syndications can be worse because not only are scenes cut, lines are interrupted, mid-sentence, to squeeze eighteen minutes of commercials into a thirty-minute slot.

Yeah, daytime tv is a wasteland. Hell cartoon Network was essentially unwatchable back when I moved out decades back. The only block of shows I've found to hold my attention is over on METV which shows lots of old series. For me, the unskippable block is on their Sci Fi Saturday. We get Svengoolie, an episode of Adam West's Batman, Star Trek TOS, Kolchak, Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Land of the Giants, Time Tunnel, The Invaders, Thunderbirds. All shows I used to watch with my Dad when we could. Well not Svengoolie. Yeah it may be a bit cheesy schlock but far better than 95% of the crap that the other stations show.

 

[Khamon]

METV's Saturday night lineup *is* da bomb and the other Khamon knows that I need to be home with the pizzas to watch it.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Rolf Harris died at age 93. Harris, who was one of the most well known and respected Australian actors and entertainers turned from national treasure into national disgrace, after he was convicted on several cases of child abuse as pedophile in the time period from 1968 to 1986 in 2014. He was sentenced to 5 years and 9 months of prison, but released after 3 years on parole and due to high age.

Harris never apologized to his victims; he died in Bray, Berkshire, England, where he lived from 2017 to the rest of his days due to cancer and old age. In the last period of his life he was fed with tubes.

He died at 10th of May 2023, since he had no agent any longer and his family wanted privacy this information was delayed.

Rolf Harris, Disgraced British Entertainer, Dies at 93

His career as a musician and a painter over six decades ended abruptly when he was convicted of sexually abusing teenage girls.

www.nytimes.com