Fake tape detectors, 'from the stands' footie and UGH! Internet of Things in my set-top box

Re: BBC documentaries

I suspect if you applied the same to Channel 5 documentaries, you'd make them even shorter.

Just about all TV docs these days seem to have an over-reliance on recaps. A button on the catch-up services labelled "Show each piece of stock footage only once" would be quite illuminating, I think.

Re: BBC documentaries

Part of the problem with programme material for the BBC is it has to fit the BBC time slot but may also be sold to other broadcasters who have shorter slots, especially advertising based channels. It is easier to make the programme for the shorter slot and pad it out than it is to cut to fit. Recaps fall after where ad breaks would appear and many may have been made for advertising channels in the first place.

I am sure the reason we have so many 'coming next' and other BBC self-promotions and pointless idents are to make imported programmes fit the artificial 'on the hour' programme start times we expect in the UK.

Re: BBC documentaries Or Channel 4's Grand Designs

"... reduce most BBC documentaries by about a third - by removing all the many repeated synopses and recaps."

Or Channel 4's Grand Designs where they insist after each advert break to do a full synopsis so far as viewers can't possibly have remembered over the two minute ad break.

It is what the fast forward on a PVR is for!

The recent BBC Documentary on Stonehenge was another classic case, two one hour programs that would have still had padding if a 30 minute broadcast

Re: For instance, picking up audio from the goal keeper, or turning off the commentary.

Other potentially interesting things include being able to control the mix more easily. For example, if granny needs the audio description, but everyone else is driven mad by it, object based systems could offer the possibility of delivering the AD to a specific speaker, at a volume of your choice. Sit granny next to that speaker and everyone should be happy.

Re: For instance, picking up audio from the goal keeper, or turning off the commentary.

Don't forget the god-damned bloody freaking vuvuzelas in certain football matches in yesteryear.

Turn it off and password-lock it in the off position with 256-bit encryption.

Can I switch that puny 1.5 liter turbo engine noise from this year F1 by the lovely aspirated Renault V10 engine roar we used to have? It sounds so 'meh' now.

Re: For instance, picking up audio from the goal keeper, or turning off the commentary.

Seconded!!

I live in the US..

I started to get a clue when I wanted to see parts of the Athens opening afterwards and was shocked when I got exerpts from the BBC version on YouTube. (The BBC announcer knew Greek literature and science and our USA counterpart just babbled.)

I watched the London live but then found a HiDef Australian version on a torrent site. I was horrified to find bits had been omitted.

I bought a clue by four and skipped watching the Russian opening entirely and just downloaded a BBC version when it became available.

Are you aware we have ad breaks over here in the US which increase exponentially as the show progresses? And when you get back parts of the opening (especially the march of nations) just gets dropped on the floor?

Yes. The ability to just go with the stadium feed would be wonderful!

Re: Law abiding Mongolians

Can't say the same for the Brazilians. It's a jungle down there. Even the Russians can't compete.

Re: Law abiding Mongolians

I like the way the piracy rate in Canada is completely uniform across the whole country, even the uninhabited bits.

Re: Law abiding Mongolians

The first time I was happy to see Australia had been left off a map!

Re: "Fake tape detectors..."

The part at the end where "doctored" tapes are submitted with cleverly-edited audio and such.

"A common trope in a lot of drama, pirated or otherwise, is where the protagonist hands on a recording that could have been faked, or altered."

Re: "Fake tape detectors..."

The Fraunhofer audio forensics, mentioned in the last two paras.

With the combination of looking at background electromagnetic cycles, microphone profiles, and codec characteristics, it's possible to say with a fair degree of certainty that a recording has been tampered with. So, when a site gets sent a "you won't believe what politician X said in this closed meeting" recording, these tools will make it much easier for them to verify whether or not edits have been made.

It will help, hopefully, to avoid the egg on the face when the recording you're claiming to say "of course we don't care about the poor" turns out to be a tampered version of someone saying "of course our opponents would say we don't care about the poor"