BBC News, Introduction and Interuption muisic

[scrumpyjack]

Escaped cloned female mutant crayfish take over Belgian cemetery

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/1 ... -cemetery/

This story is more interesting/important than most of the stuff that makes it to the BBC news!

[dave559]

I have to say I'm a huge fan of the BBC News theme. It's based on the "pips", it's got messenger's drums to let you know the news is coming, and it builds and builds until it reaches the :00 second (and it's pretty hard for the presenters to nip over in time to fit it in). Near perfect theme/ident music, if you ask me.

But I agree, continuing it after the start of the programme to play it over the headlines is wrong. I think that perhaps only happens at the 10 O'Clock News (?), and not the normal half-hourly summaries, but it's still wrong. Once the news has actually started, being able to hear the headlines clearly is the important thing (and an accessibility and Equality Act issue: submit a complaint on those grounds and I'm sure they will quickly do something about it!).

[Mike4]

But then you do have subtitles

Ah now, if I may develop this tangent you've just started... I was amused back in the summer when subtitles informed us that Captain Tom Moore had been promoted. He has, apprently, been made a kernel.

[kiloran]

But then you do have subtitles

Ah now, if I may develop this tangent you've just started... I was amused back in the summer when subtitles informed us that Captain Tom Moore had been promoted. He has, apprently, been made a kernel.

That's nuts!

--kiloran

[Arborbridge]

If your difficulty is with the first minute of the program, I suggest you are being too impatient. Why not come in one minute late like I did I see no reason to turn it off or miss content.
Arb.

You are right of course. The PVR is set to skip 2mins fwd and .25mins back, even for me that's not a difficult task ( if only I could remember).
But why?
I doubt you would find many people who thought it improved the programme in any way.
Is not their purpose to be a more attractive provider than the opposition?

Whether people thought it improved the progam, I doubt too, but really. Surely this is such a slight problem that one shouldn't waste emotional energy on it - indeed several of us didn't even know of the "problem" until you raised it, and frankly, I still haven't found it!
And if you are so pained that you are motivated to run a thread here about it, one wonders why you cannot remember to skip forward to avoid it, or simply ignore it by talking to the dog for 1min 5 sec, or switching the kettle on, or some other distraction.

Arb.

[Arborbridge]

You watch BBC ! Don't you know you're only s'pose to pay for it , not watch it ?

I rarely watch anything other than BBC (most other channels are rubbish), and if I do, then I record so as to cut out those dreadful time wasting adverts which I pay for though my shopping. It's amyth to say one pays for BBC for does not pay for other channels - there is no such thing as a free lunch.

The quality of TV generally has reduced, I assume due to Covid restrictions on production companies activities. Sometimes the only thing worth watching are our old recordings of Star Trek - The Next Generation, which are full of interesting topics and philosophical questions.

Arb

[Arborbridge]

not to mention the huge outside broadcast unit with 30 overpaid staff who went along with the intrepid BBC reporter to cover something totally non newsworthy.

Question: how do you know they are overpaid? And compared with which others are they overpaid?
For example, are they overpaid compared with "top" executives who think they need "compensation" and millions of poinds worth of company shares just for turning up in the office - of more likely these says, having a half hour zoom meeting - and then when they make a hash if it are rewarded for leaving?


Arb.

[Arborbridge]

But then you do have subtitles -
running 10~25 secs out of sync and containing some 50% of garbled content, what more mental stimulation could we want

I must defend subtitles, because quite often they are a great help to me. Even with headphones "to bring to sound in" actors these days are so badly spoken that the diction is dreadful, and subtitles can be essential. Ay least most news reporters speak to camera and bother to talk intelligibly.

True, there are some hilarious mistakes sometimes, but they add a touch of humour and remind us of the fallibility of technology and that robots are not better at everything just yet.


Arb.

[Arborbridge]

I have to say I'm a huge fan of the BBC News theme. It's based on the "pips", it's got messenger's drums to let you know the news is coming, and it builds and builds until it reaches the :00 second (and it's pretty hard for the presenters to nip over in time to fit it in). Near perfect theme/ident music, if you ask me.

But I agree, continuing it after the start of the programme to play it over the headlines is wrong. I think that perhaps only happens at the 10 O'Clock News (?), and not the normal half-hourly summaries, but it's still wrong. Once the news has actually started, being able to hear the headlines clearly is the important thing (and an accessibility and Equality Act issue: submit a complaint on those grounds and I'm sure they will quickly do something about it!).

Thanks for that link - what a wonderful group of concoctions. I enjoyed listening to them and had no idea that such a web collection existed. Amazing what one can learn from TLF.

Arb.

[swill453]

True, there are some hilarious mistakes sometimes, but they add a touch of humour and remind us of the fallibility of technology and that robots are not better at everything just yet.

Article describing the subtitling process here https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2018 ... tles-work/

It's mostly professional re-speakers, speaking into a voice recognition system.

Scott.

[Arborbridge]

True, there are some hilarious mistakes sometimes, but they add a touch of humour and remind us of the fallibility of technology and that robots are not better at everything just yet.

Article describing the subtitling process here https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2018 ... tles-work/

It's mostly professional re-speakers, speaking into a voice recognition system.

Scott.

Having read that, it is remarkable that the subtitles appear at all! Thanks for linking.

Arb.

[gnawsome]

[b]But then you do have subtitles -
running 10~25 secs out of sync and containing some 50% of garbled content, what more mental stimulation could we want

I must defend subtitles, because quite often they are a great help to me. Even with headphones "to bring to sound in" actors these days are so badly spoken that the diction is dreadful, and subtitles can be essential.

I am heavily dependent on sub-titles and also use headphones.
It is the lack of sync - sometimes up to 25secs delay - that makes them near useless The delay then prompts truncation and restarts at a later point in the broadcast so I don't know where I'm at.
I do wonder if my TV set-up with PVRs attached may contribute towards the shortcomings that present.

[Arborbridge]

I am heavily dependent on sub-titles and also use headphones.
It is the lack of sync - sometimes up to 25secs delay - that makes them near useless The delay then prompts truncation and restarts at a later point in the broadcast so I don't know where I'm at.
I do wonder if my TV set-up with PVRs attached may contribute towards the shortcomings that present.

We need the same help, it seems (plus glasses for the subtitles!)

Interesting that you should comment on the delay, because I have noticed it more lately. I think it has grown worse - the time delay never was this long, I'm convinced.

I also wonder why there is any (significant) time delay at all with some programs which are scripted.

Arb.