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More news than CNN?
High definition digital television.
That is what they are talking about on the 7.30 report on the ABC. It will
be frequency precise and more flexible. It will be clearer and you can have
6 channels instead of just one.
I can see Peter Klanowski of Sat-Nd fame pricking his ears up.
He said digital television is not about being better. It is about more
money for the broadcasters.... And I agree. I am a pessimist as well. You
do have a choice though 1 channel of high definition tv or 6 channels of
mediocre programming that you can get the curious to pay for. All you have
to do is get a bucket (bouquet) of channels, have one free to air and see
the SCRAMBLE as the curious buy programming. I have seen some of the
scramble to get the local cable and one month later it appears that 1 or 2
videos from the video shop suffice anyway. Here in Australia we have too
much warm weather and girls on the beach (oh! well men as well for the
girls) to stay inside and pay to watch something only a little better than
what most readers here can experience now.
I have cable running past my place..2 steel cables mounted with
brackets to the electric light poles. The co-ax is supposed to come later.
I think they gave up and thought it was a bad idea. This goes along with
the MDS antennas and the 60 cm satellite dishes that have been abandoned.
This could happen ONLY IN AUSTRALIA. The secret find something that is
better than sunshine and surf. Even in the winter we can go out without a
jumper on.
I can remember when colour came in...
Your picture will be clearer and will be hi-fi viewing. About the only
thing that left an indelible imprint was that Svedish (Sweedish) group
ABBA! The first special about 1972 gave Australian viewers their first
glimpse of sophisticated special effects. Mainly chroma key and multiple
images. I think we only had wipes, dissolves and fades back then. We also
had the epilogue with pastor whatsisname and all go to bed after God save
the Queen. There was a time when Australia had 3 proposed national anthems
played. Waltzing Matilda and God save the Queen LOST.
I can remember when television came in. For the eastern states of Australia
it was 1956 just before the Olympic games in Melbourne. The soothsayers all
predicted the end of the world. The last place on earth is still Tahiti.
Technically it was about as good as the Indian coverage of Mother Teresas'
funeral, only in black and white.
Rumour!!!! HDTV will be launched for the 2000 games in Sydney. If I am
right I want royalties. See it's all about money.
Now that leads me on to another subject. Over the last couple of
weeks we have had 2 technically demanding events for television. The first
was Princess Dianas' funeral. I have already covered this event and to
recap there were a sprinkling of poor and mediocre feeds, but in the main
the camera and sound coverage was well stage managed.
Not so in India. I thought that my sound was playing up until the
various networks started apologising for it. It started out reasonably well
as the gun carriage went right past one of the cameras. The other camera
was out in the park hidden behind trees. Along with the microphone I think.
To hide their short comings I think the grabbed camera 1 and took it aloft
in a helicopter.Colour processing was executed by Phil the painter and the
guy in the tree then went to the roadside and just missed the gun carriage.
I believe that this was mainly the constraints put on the event by the
Indian Government. Here in South Australia they never took a split at all,
leaving a few edited highlights for the evening news service.
The guy with the microphone made it to the stadium in time for the
service and this is where we saw roofcam for the first time. If something
is wrong with one of the other feeds, GO TO ROOFCAM. It was predominently
pink?
I think the Indians think that a colour balance is some kind weight
measuring device. I will never complain about my old 3 camera setup again.
I think you can get too much satellite tv. I had not watched a
local news service for a couple of nights, prefering world events. Well the
pollies snuck in an election on me and it was not until Sunday I saw all
these ??? hanging election posters on electric light poles, nearly up to
those steel cables I was telling you about earlier.It is a bad time
really,the pollies write you personal letters on govt stationery. This is
good to keep for when there is no election on friends see this govt
envelope under a magnet on the fridge and they are impressed, no, nobody
cares because it is near the end of the football season and all that can be
argued about is wether the footy will be on tv if they sell all the
tickets. I think the election will be over before the finals and nobody
will have noticed.
Don't tell every body keep it a secret, but EMTV is in the clear
again and has been for about 4 weeks. Does any one know the philosophy
behind this? Watching palapa c2 I find the vertical signals inproving all
the time.At this rate they should be noise free in 2years time.
ATV news from Hong Kong can be seen on I 802 at 11.30z nightly. 4166 R
Ort 1 on Gorizont 27 seems to have good signals lately. My russian is not
up to scratch though.G27 crosses the equator about 10.00 z at the moment.
I have had a request to look out for the baccarat channel on I 701.The
frequency 3716 L. I can not see it here in Adelaide but maybe you can?
The Aurora package on OPtus B1 seems to have gone. What have they changed?
The Sumo wrestling on NHK is back again at 07.00 z to 08.30z.
I am taking bets 2 to 1 on Akebono...MMM Dawn French is on the ABC trying
to bump everyone off.Ch 9 has warned us that they are about tho show
something that has medical procedures in it, Ch7 has Jaws,(Thats self
explanatory). CH 10 has Baloney, No! that's Moloney,SBS is still there and
EMTV has Doris with her community service anouncements.I 802 has Malaysian
News on 4188 R
Oh! what a killer...The Japanese guy from NHK reading the news on I802 4166
R is sitting on a stool reading the news from a broadsheet newspaper. I
suppose NHK has to go out and buy the Hong Kong Star to get their news.
I have to go and throw the PAL switch on my Hi tech tv set as the
feed on 4166 has changed from NTSC to PAL. I think I am the only person in
the world with a mechanical PAL switch on his tv set.The guy I like sits
there before the news for about 5 minutes and fiddles with his tie and hair
constantly.
I 701 is still there no sign of the wobbles yet. The Tahitians have
all gone to bed.You can hear pleasant Polynesian music while the station
runs the radio service overnight.Don't forget their theme song is
"Yesterday".
Australia Television on Pas2 has the last paradise a story about
Papua New Guinea. GMA Philipines has a comedy 1 for 3 classified parental
guidance and the actor is wearing a gold coast T shirt.
The Indonesians have News... For the New Zealanders... Here is a
true Australian story. Every now and then I get a visitor who remarks on
the sign language service on the Indinesian news service. My immediate
reply is that is for blind people... What worries me is that about 10 of my
visitors have either accepted this with no comment and I have had one say
it is a teriffic idea why dont they do it here..I have forwarded their
names to the authorities who will find them appropriate employment. I have
just found out that for ageless sex appeal you should take Lecit E. A
commercial on GMA.I wonder wether it is against the law to watch cigarette
comercials from other countries when it is banned on local tv? I had a
couple of university students who had never seen a cigarette comercial on
tv.They thought it was rather novel. TVRI has Balinese dancing and the
British Royal Family. and ABN is still checking the dollar.
For the New Zealanders again.
Asiasat 2 sits at 40 big deg above the horizon and CCTV 4 has the Communist
Party congress on.TVSN is still flogging its wares RTP is still in
Portugese and the Eygptian channel has yet another old B&W movie on. French
dialogue with English subtitles this time.In Mongolia the Mongols are
singing to their sheep and playing a Mongolian Banjo? Worldnet is there as
large as life.
All those digital SCPC's I will check them later.They are just so strong.
All the rest is chinese to me anyway....
Bevin.
Bevin BODEN drbb@gamgee.cc.flinders.edu.au
vk5tv vk5tv@vk5tty.#adl.#sa.aus.oc
Adelaide or vk5tv@N0ARY.#nocal.ca.usa.na
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
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