BribieG Posted April 12, 2007 Posted April 12, 2007 Sat up till 1.30 watching the somewhat bizzarre 1971 movie "Blindman", actually not too bad for a Spaghetti Western and certainly more entertaining than Clint Eastwood's early efforts. It was shown in letterbox, which was quite acceptable. Then after the second ad break the movie came back "gutterboxed", i.e. not only black bars top and bottom, but even wider bars left and right. This completely destroyed the aspect ratio, the picture being squeezed left and right so the actors were long and thin like stick figures and the picture occupied about 50% of the screen. SBS were quite happy to let this continue till the end of the movie. SBS seem to love gutterboxing at every possible opportunity, but last night was obviously a technical stuff up. Not only can't SBS do HD, and have polluted their programs with in-show ads, but now they can't seem to even show a 36 year old spaghetti western without screwing up. Minor complaint, for sure, but this will probably mark the end of my SBS viewing career!
Neon Kitten Posted April 13, 2007 Posted April 13, 2007 Since SBS started with the ad interruptions I've found that I've almost completely stopped watching it. I used to see interesting documentaries and movies in the guide and check them out. These days my reaction is "can't be bothered, it'll just be butchered with ads and pop-ups". The only things I watch on SBS these days are RockWiz and Mythbusters, and both of those I record on the PVR so I can nuke the ads. Vale SBS. You were once a great channel.
Wing Nut Posted April 13, 2007 Posted April 13, 2007 Ditto - SBS was maybe 50% - 70% of my viewing, but that's all history now. I'm lucky to watch two SBS shows a week now while nuking the ads, of course. It peeves me the shows are probably shortened too. I know SBS now get the shorter 'International' version of TopGear explaining they don't clip anything out to counter the critics who reckon they do. The UK domestic version has more content and was the version we used to see, so both sides are right - it is shorter, but nothing is clipped ... by SBS, at least. I guess Mythbusters is nobbled somehow too to fit several ads breaks. I have several pre-advert SBS TopGears and Mythbusters on my Toppy, so it will be interesting at least to see how their 'advert-added' repeats match against these. That's about it for my SBS viewing now. I used to record several other SBS docus on the off chance they might be mildly interesting, but it's too much hard work now for probably clipped and/or repeat content. Every time networks change programming lately, it seems to have an adverse effect on viewer enjoyment - never for the better. Reminds me that Ch7's M*A*S*H is so clipped whole sub-plots and characters go missing only to show up in the end stills and credits. Scares even more of us off to try Ch BT.
50mxe20 Posted April 13, 2007 Posted April 13, 2007 Nobody mentioned the quality programming like "Inspector Rex".
LBM Posted April 13, 2007 Posted April 13, 2007 SBS often play movies in the postage stamp format as well as a few documentaries. I guess that is how they were delivered to them, letterboxed 4:3.
Eth Nick Posted April 13, 2007 Posted April 13, 2007 While on SBS (& probably not worth starting another thread for this), did anyone notice audio on SBS going in & out just a few times yesterday? I noticed it during the Champions League soccer matches & on a couple of documentaries.
flipswitch Posted April 13, 2007 Posted April 13, 2007 I turned it on about half an hour before the second ad break (why is there an ad break anyway?) then after the second ad break they screwed up the screen ratio.I was surprised they left it for the remainder of the film. The film was crap btw but still better than whatever else was showing.
BribieG Posted April 13, 2007 Author Posted April 13, 2007 The film was crap btw but still better than whatever else was showing. You are obviously under the age of 50 and not privy to the secret that Italian Spaghetti Westerns (actually filmed in Spain, not Mexico) were SUPPOSED to be crap!!
flipswitch Posted April 14, 2007 Posted April 14, 2007 Ah I see. That blind man sure can move around! What language where they speaking in? It seems that their voices where dubbed over, just made it more amusing I guess.
Jet1503559506 Posted April 14, 2007 Posted April 14, 2007 I caught "Blindman" by accident the other night alas, and yep the AR was disturbingly bad, almost as if it were being put to air by a blind TX operator? The following is speculation on my part, mixed with a little inside info - and should be taken with a grain of salt!!! I hear rumors that the TX Ops people at the 'Special Boat Service' are not a lot of happy campers at the moment, about to be outsourced to "RedBee" (yet another subsidiary of the carnivorous Macquarie Banking Group) and that somehow SBS management have found a way to not pay out any proper redundancy's to the poor buggers, about to be shown the door... Perhaps its no wonder they don't give a stuff about the PQ or the AR - the programs are there just to fill in between the ad breaks, the viewers don't count much anymore except as raw meat to the Advertising agencies who are SBS's new true valued customers. Strange days indeed. Jet :ph34r:
IanD1503559705 Posted April 14, 2007 Posted April 14, 2007 Since SBS started with the ad interruptions I've found that I've almost completely stopped watching it. I used to see interesting documentaries and movies in the guide and check them out. These days my reaction is "can't be bothered, it'll just be butchered with ads and pop-ups". Adverts aren't really an issue when timeshifting and archiving to permanent media, except that I'm sure the programs have been edited to be able to fit the adverts in and so we are losing actual content. Unfortunately even documentaries now seem to contain only 20% informative content and 80% fluff to pad it out. I'm about ready to let SBS RIP and obtain all my material from DVD and "other" sources.
Neon Kitten Posted April 14, 2007 Posted April 14, 2007 Adverts aren't really an issue when timeshifting and archiving to permanent media, except that I'm sure the programs have been edited to be able to fit the adverts in and so we are losing actual content. Not only that, there's all those dreadful "now/next" and program title popups, all of which are not only positioned 4:3 safe but are also located a quarter of the way up the screen.
Santa1503559644 Posted April 14, 2007 Posted April 14, 2007 Nobody mentioned the quality programming like "Inspector Rex". Are you on some kind of Rex retainer, Lyle?
betty boop Posted April 14, 2007 Posted April 14, 2007 SBS are at it again. think postage stamping is what they call it.ch 10 used to do it with videohits, not sure if they still do it as stopped watching. couldnt stand watching the way they had it ! its jsut a matter of zooiming in properly. perhaps too much of an ask to achieve ?
BribieG Posted April 14, 2007 Author Posted April 14, 2007 Inspector Rex speak: 1: "woof" = ve haf ways of making you talk 2: "woof" = you vill be begging us to let you talk before the end 3: "woof" = ve ask the questions here 4: "woof" = stop the car stupid constable (who I outrank), I need to lift mine leg against that tree........
'ct' Posted April 14, 2007 Posted April 14, 2007 I am very disturbed and somewhat surprised that some people are still viewing SBS. And why is the Australian taxpayer still funding what is now a mass marketing propoganda machine for commercial interests?????
IanD1503559705 Posted April 15, 2007 Posted April 15, 2007 I am very disturbed and somewhat surprised that some people are still viewing SBS.And why is the Australian taxpayer still funding what is now a mass marketing propoganda machine for commercial intertests!!!! Up till now, SBS have had some very interesting documentaries not available on any other channel (even if they are 4:3) and "world movies". However, I'm finding a lot of this material now appearing on DVD, so there is less incentive to watch SBS, even if I have to pay for it (although I get anamorphic quality or full res 4:3 in exchange). Also, SBS seems to be repeating most of its material from a year ago. It's about time SBS was absorbed by ABC (funding and channel space), cut back to 2 SD channels (giving ABC a HD channel bits to use for better quality across the board) and adverts dropped. SBS material doesn't need HD and I doubt whether most of it would be available in HD from the source anyway. I wouldn't like to see SBS programming dropped as I feel it has a lot to offer. What is a commercial "intertest" CT?
betty boop Posted April 15, 2007 Posted April 15, 2007 Up till now, SBS have had some very interesting documentaries not available on any other channel (even if they are 4:3) and "world movies". However, I'm finding a lot of this material now appearing on DVD, so there is less incentive to watch SBS, even if I have to pay for it (although I get anamorphic quality or full res 4:3 in exchange). Also, SBS seems to be repeating most of its material from a year ago.It's about time SBS was absorbed by ABC (funding and channel space), cut back to 2 SD channels (giving ABC a HD channel bits to use for better quality across the board) and adverts dropped. SBS material doesn't need HD and I doubt whether most of it would be available in HD from the source anyway. I wouldn't like to see SBS programming dropped as I feel it has a lot to offer. What is a commercial "intertest" CT? I have no probs watchign sbs for the documentaries, movies and other interesting programs it puts on. but yeah no need for them to butcher the pics, making unwatchable !
DrP Posted April 15, 2007 Posted April 15, 2007 Not only that, there's all those dreadful "now/next" and program title popups I saw one of those now and next popups last night. What the hell were SBS thinking when they designed such a blot. It makes 10's popup ads look mild.
'ct' Posted April 15, 2007 Posted April 15, 2007 What is a commercial "intertest" CT? Typo, now fixed.
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