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Author Topic: BBC, ITV, C4, C5 etc saving old programmes?  (Read 2244 times)

Bowdon

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BBC, ITV, C4, C5 etc saving old programmes?
« on: September 17, 2018, 11:47:20 AM »

I was thinking yesterday of how many old programmes are eventually brought out on DVD, or even on the  netflix, amazon type services.

I'm a bit of a collector of older British comedies, mostly of the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s eras.

One problem I've noticed is when I've watched a comedy with a good actor in, I tend to look for other programmes they are in. But sometimes the programmes were either wiped by the TV channel or there are only 1 or 2 episodes i.e. its an incomplete series (similar thing happens with old radio series too).

So I was thinking really TV channels these days should be trying to archive in storage drives as many programmes as they can do for future generations.

But then it got me thinking how big the drives would have to be. I think the channels used to store them on tapes that kept getting wiped and over written. But storage drives will be able to hold a lot more data. But then we probably produce more programmes. I'm assuming they are storing programmes these days. But what do they use now they don't use tapes? How big would the drives have to be? How big is the biggest hard drive?

I wonder one day if all the programmes could be moved on to hard drives and maybe for an extra fee the achieve could be opened up and we could watch all programmes ever made :)
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jelv

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Re: BBC, ITV, C4, C5 etc saving old programmes?
« Reply #1 on: September 17, 2018, 12:55:47 PM »

I heard a trailer of a radio dramatisation of The Citadel this morning which reminded me of the absolutely excellent BBC production starring Ben Cross which was broadcast in 1983. It was broadcast as 10 50 minute episodes. Can you imagine anything to day being given that treatment? It would be cut back to around four episodes or two two hour episodes.

A bit before that in 1980 the BBC broadcast To Serve Them All My Days starring John Duttine, Frank Middlemas, Susan Jameson (James Bolan's wife - she was in New Tricks) and a very young Nicholas Lyndhurst. That was 13 50 minute episodes. Absolutely gripping to the end.

Both of those would easily stand reshowing.
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jelv

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Re: BBC, ITV, C4, C5 etc saving old programmes?
« Reply #2 on: September 17, 2018, 01:01:16 PM »

I've just looked and both are available on YouTube - but the quality is pretty poor!
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Ronski

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Re: BBC, ITV, C4, C5 etc saving old programmes?
« Reply #3 on: September 17, 2018, 01:25:46 PM »

Largest hard drive I know of is 16TB, but that article is over a year old.

https://hddmag.com/top-x-largest-hard-drives/

Actually six months ago they did a 30TB SSD, hate to think what the cost of that is.

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/2/20/17031256/worlds-largest-ssd-drive-samsung-30-terabyte-pm1643

With the advent of H265 you can get a 2 hour Blu Ray down  about 3GB + Audio, without affecting the quality, possibly smaller. With a couple of audio tracks that ends up around 8 to 10 GB

Old style TV programmes will take up hardly any space in comparison.
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phi2008

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Re: BBC, ITV, C4, C5 etc saving old programmes?
« Reply #4 on: September 17, 2018, 02:10:16 PM »

You can read about the BBC archive here -

Quote

BBC digital storage requirements (uncompressed):
• Preservation:
– 1500 video items / 800 hours/week = 80 TB per week
– For 16 years to digitise whole archive
– 65 PetaBytes
• New content:
– 300 hours/week = 30 TB per week
– moving to 120 TB/week with move to HD
– 100 PetaBytes (in 16 years time)
• Total storage needed in 2026:
– 165 PetaBytes (one copy only) (Data tape cost £5.8M)
– 330 PetaBytes (two copies) (£11.6M)
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DaveC

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Re: BBC, ITV, C4, C5 etc saving old programmes?
« Reply #5 on: September 17, 2018, 02:39:24 PM »

It's a scary amount of storage that's required for TV archiving.

Apart from any archiving of the original TV programmes (i.e. the "master tapes"), the BBC also have a long-running R&D project known as "BBC Redux" which has been recording the actual transmissions 24/7 for at least the last 10 years.  If you search google, you'll find some info about it.  This is basically a giant PVR that records all the BBC's output and archives it forever.
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Bowdon

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Re: BBC, ITV, C4, C5 etc saving old programmes?
« Reply #6 on: September 18, 2018, 03:35:13 PM »

Thanks for the links and the replies.

There is a growing following for the older programmes these days, as can be seen by more repeats of them being shown on TV.

I think there would be a lot of money to be made by archiving programmes and I think for some its becoming abit like stamp collecting is, were people like to complete a set of all programmes that has a certain actor in.

My only disappointment really with the BBC's iPlayer is they made the decision to remove the radio function from the app version. I can understand it for music. But some of the non-music stations are pretty good, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 4 Extra, BBC Radio 5 etc.

I'm finding that the programmes that aren't given big amounts of money tend to be the ones pushing thought-provoking programmes, especially on the radio as we don't see much of that on TV these days sadly.

Speaking of the radio. If there are any fans of Dads Army here, there is a radio show called It Sticks Out Half a Mile which is a continuation after the war were they buy a pier. It's currently playing in 13 parts on radio 4 extra. There is also another radio show called Parsley Sidings which as many of the Dads Army actors which features a remote railway station.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Sticks_Out_Half_a_Mile

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsley_Sidings

The only place to hear these are on the BBC Radio. They don't give us a chance to buy an audio dvd, then wonder why people turn to piracy  :(
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j0hn

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Re: BBC, ITV, C4, C5 etc saving old programmes?
« Reply #7 on: September 18, 2018, 05:47:18 PM »

Quote from: Bowdon
My only disappointment really with the BBC's iPlayer is they made the decision to remove the radio function from the app version. I can understand it for music. But some of the non-music stations are pretty good, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 4 Extra, BBC Radio 5 etc.

BBC iPlayer Radio?

edit: to add, I know they removed iPlayer Radio from Android TV.
You can easily sideload the app, though the touch screen mobile version can be a little awkward to use on my Nvidia Shield TV.
I often need to use the virtual mouse to navigate some menus.

There may be older versions of iPlayer Radio for android tv  on some apk archive sites but I've not had to try this as shield tv's controller works great as a virtual mouse.
« Last Edit: September 18, 2018, 05:51:30 PM by j0hn »
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jelv

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Re: BBC, ITV, C4, C5 etc saving old programmes?
« Reply #8 on: September 18, 2018, 05:55:56 PM »

IPlayer radio on Android phone works fine

[attachment deleted by admin]
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Bowdon

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Re: BBC, ITV, C4, C5 etc saving old programmes?
« Reply #9 on: September 18, 2018, 06:48:27 PM »

I'll have a look at those apps.

I usually use the bbc iplayer app on the ps4. I think I have it on my tv too, I'll have to see if that one as the radio part to it.
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j0hn

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Re: BBC, ITV, C4, C5 etc saving old programmes?
« Reply #10 on: September 18, 2018, 08:36:21 PM »

It has its own app, iPlayer Radio.
According to the BBC these are only available for phones though.

BBC stopped offering iPlayer Radio on Tv's.
That's why I mentioned the part about it no longer being on Android TV.

No idea if it is/has ever been available as a standalone app on Consoles.
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