TV Live Forum

JAS84 post_id=52699 time= user_id=881 Wrote:

Quote:not brilliant picture quality full of interlacing artifacts,

Do they have poor quality masters then? That would explain why they haven't aired them, could they be considered not up to standard?

Seems to be the way UKTV Play themselves have transferred them to their system, not anything to do with the masters they've recieved. They don't seem to bother even trying to properly de-interlace most episodes, so you get the "mouse teeth" artifacts on movement. There's also a very strange artifact where on the extreme right edge of the picture, you get a thin strip from the extreme left (hard to describe, if you watch the episodes you'll hopefully see what I mean), you can see it on this episode: https://uktvplay.uktv.co.uk/shows/the-bi...9236645001

From when I've watched it at other people's houses, if you watch them from UKTV's section on Sky's on demand service (which downloads 50i copies to the box rather than steams the 25p files delivered through the website and various apps), they look as they should- proper 50i movement, no "mouse teeth" artifacts or the strip on the right hand side of the frame, which shows the masters they've got from Fremantle are fine, it's how they've been converted for the web & streaming apps. Though I don't think all the episodes have been offered via Sky.

Being stuck at 25p, even without the artifacts, is still inferior to actually seeing it on the TV or DVD/Blu-ray though... how many more years are we going to be stuck with streaming services not being able to offer 50/60fps content?

The thin strip of the left hand edge on the right happens on a few other programmes from this era, not unique to UKTV though. The DVD releases from early 1998 had a similar issue, which I think is to do with the way they edited them and what software and hardware was used. There was one where the thin strip was a few frames ahead of the main picture too.

Sad news this morning... George Rossi, who played DC Duncan Lennox, has died.

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/tvandsh...harebarweb

Rob post_id=62047 time= user_id=2 Wrote:Sad news this morning... George Rossi, who played DC Duncan Lennox, has died.

https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/tvandsh...harebarweb

Sad news indeed, he was one of my favourite characters when I started watching the Bill in the late 1990s and 60 is no age to pass away today. I was watching some of the old episodes on Drama over Christmas and he was a standout character for me. May he rest in peace.

Noticed that on Drama, the episode "Angel" the first episode of 2000, was thrown out at 3:10AM this morning (the only reason I got it is because I have a series link slot)- it's not getting a showing in any of the show's usual slots. I wonder if they considered the themes of the episode unsuitable for daytime broadcast?

So recently the reboot surfaced again in the press, from reading it seems UKTV want to reboot it (in all but name), I assume it's one of their most popular programmes.

I was reserving judgement that the project was going nowhere, until some Facebook groups I was part of advertised for police script advisors from retired/soon to retire officers for an 'exciting new project' with a UKTV email address provided which seems to be linked, unless UKTV want to start a different police drama any time soon.

I did see something a few weeks back about two versions being considered - one basically using the old cast and then an updated version for today. Radio Times though then reported it was not true.

https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/the-...ewsupdate/