The ITV thread 2007

[revmeister]

If you thought ITV was bad you should have heard the Speed Vision broadcast. It sounded as though the boys had been having a few drinks. Just terrible!

[NoahsGirl]

Did anyone notice Martin back tracking after DC admitted he was at fault in the incident with Wurz?

[SteveA]

Great to see F1 in Widescreen . Pity the graphics have still to be 14:9 within a 4:3 frame

It does look silly, but I think it'll always be like that so that its 4x3 "safe".

[Mark]

It does look silly, but I think it'll always be like that so that its 4x3 "safe".

Specifically 14:9 safe. As there will be people watching an analogue broadcast i.e. 4:3, on a widescreen TV, who then zoom the image to 14:9.

It's a pity tho, just look at BBC News 24 for an example of how graphics can look much better at the edge of the screen. If they could move the graphics off to the left and right it would look far, far better. But then they'd have to have a different feed and layout for digital than analgoue which is a lot of extra work.

[BDunnell]

Did anyone notice Martin back tracking after DC admitted he was at fault in the incident with Wurz?

Yes. I thought that was rather weak.

[wedge]

Nothing wrong with that.

Just been listening to the Beeb's podcast and Maurice Hamilton called the incident 50/50 because both drivers admitted their fault.

[Dave B]

In fact, Martin admitted "it wasn't as far back as I thought" once he'd seen the replay, long before DC's comments. I'll defend him on that one.

[Somebody]

Specifically 14:9 safe. As there will be people watching an analogue broadcast i.e. 4:3, on a widescreen TV, who then zoom the image to 14:9.

No, even when the basic picture is rated 14:9 safe, on-screen graphics have to be 4:3 safe. Partially because some digiboxes (NTL/Virgin and some Freeview boxes in the UK for instance) output only 16:9, 4:3 or 16:9 letterbox in a 4:3 frame. And guess what lots of people (including my parents, until they finally got a widescreen telly) do, especially when they have a 4:3 TV?

[That's not counting the possibility of other countries only outputting 4:3 still]

It's a pity tho, just look at BBC News 24 for an example of how graphics can look much better at the edge of the screen. If they could move the graphics off to the left and right it would look far, far better. But then they'd have to have a different feed and layout for digital than analgoue which is a lot of extra work.

Well, on their most recent relaunch, BBC N24 put their clock outside the 4:3 frame. SO far outside, in fact, that it wasn't even 16:9 safe! They moved it into the 16:9 frame proper after a week or so, then gave up and put it right of their logo, in the ticker bar, after complaints continued to flood in...

[They had clearly done absolutely no beta-testing of these graphics for "safe areas" on non-pro TVs, since graphics were also too high & low for the frame at first...]

[Marbles]

I think James Allen started toning it down mid-way through last year and rightly so. I like a commentator who gets excited about a race, as long as it's the same race I'm watching. Not somebody who's screaming at the top of his lungs when the race winner has a lap on the entire field and any battle for track position would have had to been conducted using ICBMs. As much as I disagree with his views sometimes, I've always enjoyed Brundle. It was an okay broadcast.

I must admit that I've got my fingers crossed because I don't recall hearing Ted Kravitz or any of his flabbergasting views on pit strategy, race strategy or race delaying protesters.