21 replies to this topic

[Santa]

First, the good news:

CURB IS BACK!!!      
(11:00pm Wed, Nine ... hopefully not rpts)

The Shield IS BACK!!!      
(11:30pm Sat, Ten ... hopefully not rpts)



The bad news:

*As anyone watching would know, The Wire finished!      
{BTW: For Wire watches ... it looked to me like, being too good for its own good, the Wire didn't get a go-ahead for another series, thus the "quickly tie up all loose ends in one final episode" fiasco... At the start of what turned out to be the last ep, I thought "bloody well done", as they had the balls to remove a major character which is so rare in most shows ... but, then, of course, they just ditched the whole thing!  }

*It also seems that Keen Eddie has gone...  

[Neon Kitten]

Santa, on Jan 1 2006, 03:25 PM, said:

The Shield IS BACK!!!      
(11:30pm Sat, Ten ... hopefully not rpts)

Sheesh, nice time slot, Ten. NOT!!!!

These will be the final 4 episodes they didn't screen when they suddenly decided to pull out Secret LIfe Of Us a few months back.

At the time, I called Ten and asked where The Shield had gone. They said they would show the remaining episodes of season 4 "sometime next year". If they'd bothered to mention that time would be right at the start of January then I wouldn't have downloaded the remaining episodes, but hey, what do they care, right?

So now, thanks to their idiot programmers who I no longer trust, The Shield joins Boston Legal, Six Feet Under, The L Word, The West Wing, Amazing Race, 24 and Lost in my list of shows that just get downloaded without bothering to wait for local TV to get its collective act together.

By the way, these last S4 episodes of The Shield are absolute crackers - if you're into the show and DIDN"T download them, don't miss 'em

[benjo]

I'm thrilled the shield is back on, and I think the new timeslot is great.

At 10:30 wednesday, it really wasn't rating at all well, and even though ratings are less important this late, it's still a little important and news would have done a better job.

So, instead of taking the show off all together, Ten waited for a better timeslot. Joker Poker used to be late on Saturday nights, but now that the new episodes of that have finished they've moved the shield to this much easier timeslot. I really don't think ratings will make any major difference on whether the show survives.

What's even better is that season 5 premieres on tuesday the 10th of jan, so hopefully once the final 4 episodes of season 4 are shown ten will go straight into season 5. This would mean they'd be shown just a couple of weeks after being aired in the US. This may nmot be possible depending on how quickly the producers deliver the tape, but here's hoping.

Why didn't channel ten inform you that they were going to bring it back early january late saturday night? Probably because they didn't know at the time, and were looking for the right timeslot. If they'd said early january, and it turned out to be february, you'd be attacking them, so instead they say nothing.

[Santa]

benjo, on Jan 4 2006, 12:48 AM, said:

I'm thrilled the shield is back on, and I think the new timeslot is great.

At 10:30 wednesday, it really wasn't rating at all well, and even though ratings are less important this late, it's still a little important and news would have done a better job.

So, instead of taking the show off all together, Ten waited for a better timeslot. Joker Poker used to be late on Saturday nights, but now that the new episodes of that have finished they've moved the shield to this much easier timeslot. I really don't think ratings will make any major difference on whether the show survives.

What's even better is that season 5 premieres on tuesday the 10th of jan, so hopefully once the final 4 episodes of season 4 are shown ten will go straight into season 5. This would mean they'd be shown just a couple of weeks after being aired in the US. This may nmot be possible depending on how quickly the producers deliver the tape, but here's hoping.

Why didn't channel ten inform you that they were going to bring it back early january late saturday night? Probably because they didn't know at the time, and were looking for the right timeslot. If they'd said early january, and it turned out to be february, you'd be attacking them, so instead they say nothing.

Yes, its great that its back.
However, the timeslot means for most people its shytemarked (recorded on SD).
Also ... they pulled Keen Eddie ... now thats a bastard! {Maybe they are considering re-running with better timeslot, now more people are realising the attractions of Sienna Miller, vaguely rumoured as a new Bond girl...}

[DavoNogo]

Santa, on Jan 4 2006, 12:39 PM, said:

{Maybe they are considering re-running with better timeslot, now more people are realising the attractions of Sienna Miller, vaguely rumoured as a new Bond girl...}

Her?

[Santa]

DavoNogo, on Jan 4 2006, 09:44 AM, said:

Her?

Interesting choice of pic for a screensaver ...

BTW: I prefer others in that group you've found. (Though, I'd rather take a few of my own...    :ph34r: )

[DavoNogo]

The strange thing about this group of photos is the fact that she doesn't exactly look the same in each of the photos

[Santa]

DavoNogo, on Jan 4 2006, 09:52 AM, said:

The strange thing about that group of photos is the fact that she doesn't exactly look the same in each of the photos

Not exactly the same ... all the better AFAI'm concerned ... and looks              in all!  

[Neon Kitten]

benjo, on Jan 4 2006, 03:48 AM, said:

Why didn't channel ten inform you that they were going to bring it back early january late saturday night? Probably because they didn't know at the time, and were looking for the right timeslot. If they'd said early january, and it turned out to be february, you'd be attacking them, so instead they say nothing.

And as a result, I assumed the worst. Last time I asked them about the remaining episodes of a program it was Secret Life Of Us (ironically!), which was pulled with six or so episodes remaining. It took nearly A YEAR to finally see them.

This has little to do with "the right timeslot". My guess is that Ten realised they were contractually obliged to complete showing SLOU before the close of 2005 (note how close to the end of the year it finished) so mindlessly pulled The Shield with only 4 episodes to go and right in the middle of the crucial, central story arc that had been developing.

Not good enough.

This is why people "illegally" (ha!) download TV shows.

[DavoNogo]

Neon Kitten, on Jan 4 2006, 05:50 PM, said:

This is why people "illegally" (ha!) download TV shows.

I thought it was because (wrt the shows on Seven) of the better picture quality from the overseas broadcasts (because Seven is so shyte when it comes to quality, even though they're the only ones advertising "available in HD")

[Neon Kitten]

Seven's SD picture quality is fine.

[DavoNogo]

To you maybe, but I wouldn't watch it unless I was a considerable distance away from the screen, far enough so that I don't see the artifacts evident on Seven's SD

[anthonysimilion]

I don't notice Seven SD to be particularly bad either. Do you have any examples?

Last episode of 'The District' was shown on Nine tonight - last episode ever made.

[DavoNogo]

How about this? http://img269.images...7134/7sd0to.jpg

PRiME's 576p did not suffer from this horrid picture - http://img269.images.../primehd8hw.jpg

I know this one's not from Seven directly, but still:

SD - http://img37.imagesh.../primesd3sa.jpg
576p - http://img37.imagesh.../primehd3pt.jpg

[Champion_R]

Neon Kitten, on Jan 4 2006, 07:48 PM, said:

Seven's SD picture quality is fine.

It's SD and that is the main problem. Nine and Ten upconvert whereas Seven do not. Seven's SD is also worse than Nine or Ten's.

[anthonysimilion]

DavoNogo, on Jan 5 2006, 08:26 AM, said:

How about this? http://img269.images...7134/7sd0to.jpg

That's from their 'bodge' () 1080i -> (other steps) -> 576p -> 576i process. I agree, they are very bad in that respect. 'The Great Outdoors' always suffered from that problem in SD. However, other programming (such as overseas HD -> SD) looks fine (similar quality to other stations) to me.

I'm always for 1080i - never forget that!

[Santa]

Speaking of *&#$*#$*#$*#$   #$*&#$#&*,

I just loved the kindness of Nine in showing Curb ... on time (or early)!!!

I'm so freakin' used to everything running so freakin' late, I missed the first segment!      

It's called Santa's luck ... every single time I don't start watching/recording something on the scheduled time, its early ... every other time when I'm ready (99% of the time) ... its 12-50 mins late!

    

Oh, well ... at least I've got most of the show to look forward to!  

[benjo]

Santa, on Jan 5 2006, 01:26 PM, said:

Speaking of *&#$*#$*#$*#$   #$*&#$#&*,

I just loved the kindness of Nine in showing Curb ... on time (or early)!!!

I'm so freakin' used to everything running so freakin' late, I missed the first segment!      

It's called Santa's luck ... every single time I don't start watching/recording something on the scheduled time, its early ... every other time when I'm ready (99% of the time) ... its 12-50 mins late!

    

Oh, well ... at least I've got most of the show to look forward to!  

Late night shows seem to start early often, particularly if there are a couple of US shows earlier in the night. An example is when The Shield was on 10:30 Wednesday, and before it was Medium and SVU. In the schedule it was 8:30 medium, 9:30 SVU, 10:30 The Shield, 11:30 News. In actual fact, it worked out to be 9:30 SVU, 10:25 The Shield, then 11:15 News. This is to do with the limit on ads, and the fact that the US show more ads than Australia is allowed.

One to watch out for will be The Shield on Saturday. With two movies preceding it, anything could happen, but my guess is it will start 5 or 10 minutes after the scheduled 11:30 because movies normally run slightly longer than 2 hours.

It's quite funny really. In america, the public kicks up a stink if shows start/finish 2 minutes late because tivo is messed up.

[DavoNogo]

I always thought the reason why shows end quicker at night is for the News people, so they don't have to wait so long (they get enough from Rove and The Panel).

Battlestar Galactica, when it first started out, would take the full 1 hour timeslot, but then gradually shortened to a full 3-4minutes worth of ads total.

[DavoNogo]

anthonysimilion, on Jan 5 2006, 12:52 PM, said:

That's from their 'bodge' () 1080i -> (other steps) -> 576p -> 576i process. I agree, they are very bad in that respect. 'The Great Outdoors' always suffered from that problem in SD. However, other programming (such as overseas HD -> SD) looks fine (similar quality to other stations) to me.

Hey, here's another great example:

http://img365.images...5/5507/75lb.png

[anthonysimilion]

There's always going to occasions where you'll see macroblocking if you take a particular frame, but from the actual viewing of the video segment, it's quite a lot more difficult to pick out. The rain would have stressed the encoders.

[DavoNogo]

It's not just the pixelation, but the artifacts aswell (which are noticeable to me during motion). There's a lot of noise on Seven's SD that I can't stand