Big Screen Blog: Entertainment

"Ten HD" launching this Saturday..

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 04:32:38 GMT

As mentioned previously on this blog - the Australian TV Networks are starting to launch breakaway 'HD' channels (rather than just simulcasting HD + upconverted SD content) - and this Saturday the 16th Network Ten (10) will be launching their own channel.

Some details were released about a week ago (sample Guide included) - and it's looking like this new offering from Ten will be really worthwhile for Australian viewers. (with over 50+ hours of unique HD content per week)

Some of the highlights include :

- Time shifted News from 5:00pm to 5:30pm (this is actually really useful for me as we quite often eat at 5:30pm - and have to wait until 6pm otherwise).

- Breakaway programming during the weekday afternoons (HD documentries) at 10:30pm each night - HD movies plus drama series like Veronica Mars (previously taken off air down here) - Over There and The Shield.

- Sci Fi Thursdays (was going to be Saturday initially). This includes new episodes of Smallville, Battlestar Galactica, Torchwood, The 4400, etc.. Breakaway viewing will start at 7:30pm on this night (normally 10:30pm). Hopefully the HD Movie they show on Thursdays will also be Sci Fi as well...

- When simulcasting - TEN HD claims to have HD versions of nearly all the latest US/Imported shows - plus will simulcasting all home/away footy matches next year in HD.

As with previous HD transmissions - shows will be broadcast in 1080i (with 5.1 DD).

Rival network Seven's HD channel (already launched a couple of months ago) hasn't been too impressive so far (for some reason HDTV has meant showing a whole bunch of episodes of 'The Grid' and 'That 70s Show' - which isn't even widescreen - and the odd matinee movie). This channel however seems to be evolving - and by looking at this weeks guide - they seem to be adding a lot of extra content. (maybe now that there's some impending competition).

Channel Nine ("Me Too" HD) are still yet to reveal their hand - but promise it will be "everything everyone else's is and then better" - (ok these weren't the exact words but was something vaguely along those lines)... no known launch date for this one as yet. If Channel 9 actually pulled all those really great shows they are sitting on out of the closet (as TEN are doing) - and treated viewers with respect for a change (so they have some comfort that the show won't suddenly be pulled, shown 2 hours late without warning, or moved to 3:00am etc) - they could actually have a winner.

Fairy Tale: Australian TV Networks and the Age of Digital Extinction

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 05:27:28 GMT

Once upon a time - there lived three commercial TV Stations - Channel 7, GTV 9 and Network 10. Times were never better, and the citizens of the land only had to switch on their tubes to get the latest news, current affairs and light entertainment - often hours before the rival Newspapers had a chance to deliver their versions of events.

The lowly peasants were indeed happy - and mostly due to the 'clever' television stations having devised an ingenious way of providing these offerings to them for free - by getting other such prophets and purveyors of goods and services to pay for voicing their opinions.

To ensure peace and harmony - the residing king had also passed laws - that protected the citizens from foreign media invaders - and divided the citizens up in equal shares to each of his friends (at least those who had bought him lunch) - the commercial TV stations.

One day, a fierce and ferocious beast - the internet - invaded the land. The commercial TV stations at first ignored this beast - however the citizens however embraced it with open arms.

The commercial TV stations ran to the king with their arms in the air - and said 'help protect us from this terrible beast - we fear once the citizens have tasted choice - they will never want to listen to us again'. Again the king passed more laws - but being unaware in the many mysterious ways this beast worked - was not able to stop it.

Soon the commercial TV stations saw the errors in their ways - and thanks to their large inheritances - they were able to purchase most of the goods the internet beast had to offer. And once again they lived in harmony with the citizens - and were again able to provide the services for free to them - via charging the same group of prophets eager to voice their opinion in this new medium.

But once again, the peace and harmony was disturbed by a new wave of foreign invaders - that were this time much more ferocious and intelligent then ever before. These included the Earl of Torrent, the Duke of PVR, the Prince of IPTV and by far the nastiest of them all - the Lord of EPG. These new invaders all had one thing in common - they had made close alliances with the internet beast long beforehand - and they were all good friends.

The commercial TV stations once again ran to the king - who passed even tougher and stricter laws - but this time the citizens weren't listening. The commercial TV stations however this time refused to make peace with these new invaders, and instead squabbled amongst themselves, allowing other less noble citizens to prophecize.

After several years passed, they came up with many solutions. 'Lets charge the citizens lots of money for what they used to get for free' said one. 'Lets make it really poor quality and restrict what they can do with it' - said another. 'Ive an even better plan' - said the richest - 'lets buy all the goods and never let the citizens see them unless they are awake past midnight and are willing to wait a year or two'. But by far the most devious solution was 'Lets silence the Lord of EPG once and for all - and not let those pesky citizens know what we are up to at all'.

But unfortunately, by this time - the citizens had in fact also made close alliances with the internet beast, the Earl of Torrent, the Duke of MCE and the Lord of EPG - and no longer subscribed to the ways of the past. Not only that - but they no longer needed to be friends with tv stations - who had long since become irrelevant to their way of life.

The commercial TV stations began to slowly wither and die - many going to the same retirement homes as their poor cousins who previously owned record stores - and no amount of law passing by the king could save them.

The citizens however - lived happily ever after.

The End.

Aussie TV: Chasers War on Everything - Starts Next Week

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 12:44:02 GMT

One of my favorite comedy shows The Chasers War on Everything (fka CNNNN ) - is starting again next week (March 28th) for Series 2. It's a locally (Australian) produced show from ABC TV - and probably wouldn't make a whole lot of sense if you're not from these parts. Chasers made the news a few times last year with their stunts (and even managed to get arrested on one occasion) - and cast member Craig Reucassel is at it again with something we will probably see on next weeks show.

So if you're in Australia - set your pvr's to record at ABC - 28th March / 9pm for episode 1. They got a pretty raw deal with scheduling (I think they are up against shows like House, Heroes, Prison Break and Medium at this timeslot - so a dual tuner may not help you either) - so luckily there's a repeat of it 11pm Friday's - and then some more on ABC2 the following week.

If you're really worried about missing it - you can also run their countdown clock on your desktop.

Off-Topic: Petey and Jaydee Xmas video on YouTube..

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 09:56:30 GMT

A good friend of mine (that I've known since high school) - Dylan Perry from Momentum Animations - dropped around last night for some laps of Ridge Racer on the 360.

Dylan, and his wife Rachael have been running a 3D animation company for a few years now - and after initially starting out on TV commercials and Music Videos - they have since produced a couple of their own shows.

One of which is 'Petey & Jaydee Go Exploring'- which comprises of 45 second episodes - where two micro sized aliens 'Petey + Jaydee' arrive on earth and 'discover' various human appliances such as toasters, microwaves, shavers etc. By the end of each episode - one of the aliens always gets killed/diced up by the appliance (and of course miraculously appears again in the next episode). Petey + Jaydee has enjoyed some success around the world - and has been popular on 3G mobiles and on TV. (and its short runtime and lack of actual spoken dialog makes it work in universally). There's I think 6 series now of this show (with 13 episodes a piece) - with each one featuring the aliens in a different location (ie Series 1 was the kitchen, Series 2 the Bathroom... and the last couple being themed - ie World Cup, Christmas etc)..

Dylan mentioned that he'd put up a 'special' Christmas music video on You Tube for Petey & Jaydee - which contains a lot of footage from the Christmas series - a funky Xmas remix tune (sung in P/J gibberish) - and is actually a lot longer then a standard episode (its about 3-4 minutes). This is somewhat of a rare treat - as you normally have to be on the right tv network/mobile network to be able to see their shows. Unfortunately the YouTube compression does it's nasty work on the video quality so thats a small price to pay (as it actually looks pretty stunning when it's at full DVD or HD quality).

So anyhow - if you have a moment - go check it out on YouTube! (and you can also see a couple of other clips by them from another Show 'Dragonslayer Junior'). If you like it - you can also visit their new Online Store - and buy a copy of the DVD - or some t-shirts/caps etc.. (and there's a few episodes for internet download there too).

Here's a couple of pics of Peter and Jaydee -

Something that also might be of interest with this - is that they use a 3d program called Animation Master (from Hash Inc.) to do almost everything you see (except for some of the final fancy stuff done with Adobe AfterEffects). Animation Master is distinct in that - it only costs US$299 for the full product - as opposed to $1000's (or $10,000's) you would pay for some of the rival products. (3D Studio, Maya etc).. So this makes it totally in reach for a lot more people - and smaller companies/developers who want to create high end 3d graphics. I think there's a demo version available on their site - so if you're into this sort of thing - give it a shot. (and I believe there's a strong/active community of end users and enthusiasts for AM to help you along).