Unfortunately, leaving it in the 14:9 area isn't the best - when showing 4:3 content, it's partially in the black.

One would have thought that they would be capable of 'arcing' the watermark so that it sits 4:3 for 4:3 content and 14:9 for 14:9 or 16:9 content.

- Miles.

It's here and it's too big. If they had something like the news watermark, it would be better but still it is not nice having an ABC watermark.

Complaint time (not that they will listen).

Here are some screen caps (its an old Pilot Guides episode).

http://img204.exs.cx/img204/7964/abcwatermark19mh.jpg
http://img204.exs.cx/img204/4703/abcwatermark29ve.jpg

First thing I said when I saw it was "it's too big" also it appears a lot more opaque than the other networks.

hehe, yeah, now thats a "logo" placement position I could live with. Tho I think it needs a little adjustment.

----------------------
|..........................| *watermark here*
|..16:9 full image...|
|..........................|
----------------------

Yup, that would work

It might blow up the odd lg, though! (Not that that is such a bad idea! )

Actually, I think the best place for a watermark is ...


on an entirely different network!



{If not, the WaterMark Station® - a low bitrate channel with nothing but watermarks for the network marketing softc*cks and Ian to watch!}

Um, if you like I was just keeping the concept as simple as possible. The outer set of brackets was to represent the non-safe 16:9 area. The result is the same, with the watermark off the edge of the screen.

Looks like a Panasonic CRT.

Looks like Tony wants 16:9 letterboxed on 4:3 tv!

Dude, your not standing behind me are you?

A Panasonic PanaFlat PF90 CRT is exactly what I am using and watch all my TV, DVD, etc on. Hooked up to my main computer with my toppy plugged into that.

Santa, you are close, 16:9 full image adjusted to WS pixel ratio using software on the said 4:3 PF90 CRT. The one thing you can't do with a TV (that I know of), adjust display ratio in software, that way I get my WS image and don't lose pixel information doing a 16:9 letterbox resize on the STB.

If you're in the Sydney area, you can ring: (02) 8333 1500 and tell 'em what you think about their hideous bug - but please try and be nice to the switchboard people, it's not their fault the bug is on air, they are just the unfortunate bods that have to wear the punters complaints. The 'real' evil do-ers are much higher up the food chain.

Those in other States / Regions, check your local phone books.

R.I.P. Oz Public Broadcasting - Died 7 Feb. 2005 after a long and painful illness.

Jet :ph34r:

yeah the Abc warer marks now on all programming they must have jsut started off with the news andf now onto other programs eg on dr who i noticed it i havnt; been on abc for a while so hadn;t noticed it til now
cheers

I have just emailed the abc: http://www.abc.net.au/contact/ and politely told them that the watermark serves no useful purpose and makes the ABC looks cheap. I urge everyone to either email, write or phone the ABC ASAP. If enough people do this, then perhaps (Our) ABC might take notice.

I found tonights episode of Dr Logo - The Logos of Death to be most enjoyable - NOT. At least its a fairly translucent logo.

Are the people who prefer to "put up and shut up" when it comes to SBS's current lamentable state of affairs going to do the same wrt the ABC ShyteMark®?

Maybe when both the ABC and SBS are reduced to running a single shared programme 24/7 consisting of a quarter-screen image (surround by advertising, fully shytemarked) of the Prime Minature, John Howard playing soccer with Ivan Milat to the tune of the Toyota jingle, people may say "ooops! maybe its too late!"

Wasn't all that translucent in dark areas tho. I'll be making my phone call tomorrow. "Watermarking Dr Who, this means war!!!!"

Out of interest, who is the Federal polly "in charge" of the ABC, maybe a few less votes will make a differance.

The ABC has a dedicated complaint form, available at http://www.abc.net.au/corp/audience/complaints.htm

Or alternatively, phone them (this 'counts' more than email, I'm sure):

• Victoria - (03) 9524 2222
• ACT - (02) 6275 4555
• South Australia - (08) 8343 4000
• Western Australia - (08) 9220 2700
• Northern Territory - (08) 8943 3222
• Queensland - (07) 3377 5222
• Tasmania - (03) 6235 3333

The ABC Advisory Council is next meeting in Hobart on 7/8 March 2005. Their contact details are below:

The ABC Advisory Council,
c/o Executive Officer to the Board,
GPO Box 9994, Sydney 2001
Phone (02) 8333 5310
Fax (02) 8333 5482
Email: abcac@your.abc.net.au

They have not yet formulated any recommendations in relation to watermarking.

- Miles.

Of course the next question is "What watermark will ABC2 have?".

If the idea of a watermark is to differentiate between channels, ABC2 can't have a similar logo to ABC1 (or whatever we are supposed to call the current ABC channel).


Evan

I noticed the watermark wasn't present on the upscaled HD ABC ch 20.

Too bad I record Dr. Who on SD.

SACRILEGE!!!!!

Sent my little message to let ABC know what I thought of watermarking or "branding" as the so-called ABC "management" would call it.

It'll be that big giant 2 they have on the ABC2 website, I presume. Possibly with ABC or an ABC logo in front of it.

Ahhhhhhh...... the 2....... which will confuse the people who refer to the ABC as "Channel 2" not to mention those who watch the ABC on LCN 2.


Evan

At least I'm not the only one annoyed beyond belief by this awful "watermark".

It's one of those small things that makes life just a little bit less enjoyable.

Yes, there are more important things in life. And most of them are as easy to solve as switching off the watermark.

Yep, that'd be why they put forward other suggestions such as "ABCd" - but of course the original ABC is "d" as well, so it was just as meaningless as ABC2. Can't remember the other choices but ABC2 was the best, unfortunately.

this is possibly best posted here...

too anyone who is finding the standard ABC watermark annoying and distracting: Simply watch ABC Kids for awhile with it's giant green blob watermark. Then when you switch back to watching normal ABC (with its slightly less bright and non green watermark) things seem less intrusive.

I agree with many of the comments here.

Personally I think the ABC logo could actually be a bit smaller and still be effective from their point of view.

And I also agree that against a dark background it is too prominent - especially on the dark blue set of the 7.30 report.

the abc kids logo is a disgrace - do kids need this big green glob up there to tell them its abckids and after a morning of viewing I'm sure to have it burnt onto my plasma for quite a while - come on abc tone it down and shrink it down a bit - it doesn't need to be as big as it is now.

People have mentioned software for removing watermarks.

I've seen the other post about Virtualdub, and some examples.
Makes the "pirating" argument incredibly redundant.

Can anyone direct me to a site about this topic, or any other software packages.
I'm keen to learn more.
Being a Mac user I fear there are none for me.

Last night on PM (Radio National) they were talking about a decrease in viewing of free to air television mainly from the point of view of advertisers. Their primary concern naturally was that pvr's would mean no one watches any ad's. They were talking of 5-10 years before a major impact. So once again I find it rather strange that they are actively encouraging viewers to find alternatives by their use of watermarks, pop up adds, etc., etc.. I think all of the television executives should spend less time in marketing meetings and more time actually watching television, and heaven forbid actually taking notice of their viewers!! This doubly applies to EVERY ONE'S ABC.

Damn you ABC and your watermark. I'm going to boycott shopping at ABC shops and purchasing items branded with an ABC logo. BBC shop here I come!

LOL... what good that will do. At least JJJ doesn't have a watermark!

mate if they could the jjj drums onto the radio broadcast they'd do it !

They could do an audio watermark by having a voice whisper "JJJ" every 10secs during each song. That would amount to the same thing.

shhhh, for gods sake don't tell them that, the fact that it isn't on the HD is currently my only saving grace.

PS. Want to drive up HD and digital sales, make all HD channels watermark/ logo/ banner ad, etc, etc FREE. Just think, a super hi-res image that is clean and sharp and just like the content makers made it to be. make that a law so that n-one could just turn around and add all this junk to HD and the sales would go through the roof.

In the case of that Radio National bit, its a pitty no-one called to tell them its not PVR's they have to worry about, its all the crap they are "adding" to our shows, thats driving ppl away.

Hi new member here - found this forum from google when I searched on this topic - and am about to write to the ABC after two phone calls... S e r i o u s l y pissed off at the watermark. Could somebody please explain to me the demographic that watch more often as a result?

Yeah, its the marketing drones just checking out their handiwork! Oh, and Ian - he likes watermarks "so he knows what channel he's watching" (thats ijd, since you're new here ... ask a question about NEC plasma or elacs or getting thrown out of audio stores and he'll pop up).

Well, according to gepm you've only got a few weeks of HD/upconversion before the ABC removes all HD from its airwaves (ie broadcasts Dick Alston 7 style frame-repeated SD)...

Ian suggested to me once to use the watermark to check for overscan on my plasma so I guess thats what he uses it for. Given most of the watermarks a re 100mm in from the screen I'm very worried about the overscan on his NEC ! hehehe

I think the demographic is "TV station execs".

LOL, I think the ego of the person who thought of it will also be watching closely.

O'**** I hope not... Is this the price we are paying for ABC 2 is it? Because if its due to so VPG or something, then I'm going to shot someone.


awww, screw it, I give up, they all win. Now, what DVD am I going to watch tonight. (That was the goal of all this wasn't it, to make me stop watching TV!!!!!)

been watching foreign correspondent on hd ch20 and the bad news guys is theyve managed to get the watermark ont othe hd channel too - so no respite for us from the dreaded watermark.

jees photography was just superb on forreign correpondent ! - except spoilt by the horrible thing in the corner !

[quote=alebonau,Feb 8 2005, 09:10 PM]

[/quote]

been watching foreign correspondent on hd ch20 and the bad news guys is theyve managed to get the watermark ont othe hd channel too - so no respite for us from the dreaded watermark.

jees photography was just superb on forreign correpondent ! - except spoilt by the horrible thing in the corner !

[/quote]

HD has not got watermaking - yet! the F. Corre, is a program watermark.

At least get a good looking watermark, that's in the 16:9 safe right hand bottom corner.

And next up...Criswell from 'Plan 9 From Outer Space' predicts...
Splt Screen end credits.

At this rate, externally paid for TVC's will arrive within 12 months.

He he he...managed to capture the watermark on a solid black background during the end titles to Wildside last night, which means I'm well on the way to getting rid of the damn thing with X-Logo!

They're being a bit cunning by fading the watermark before the end of programs, so finding a solid black background has been difficult. I'm not sure if I'll need the watermark on a solid white background as well, but I'm on the lookout for a sample.

The Bill last night had plenty of scenes where the logo 'glowed' against a totally black screen. It totally ruined the whole show.

I was thinking that in terms of the Foxtel Digital excuse. I am not sure but I think there are about 500,00 subscribers to their digital service. So what makes the small proportion of these who would be watching ABC so special against the rest of the population? Is the ABC trying to morph itself into a pay television channel!

I was thinking the exact same thing watching the bill yesterday. The show is made so well but yes distroyed by the glowing distracting watermark in the corner !.

I noticed today that abc kids logo has been relocated to bottom right instead of top right, but it's still just as annoying

Just watching parliment "yeah why" by accident and guess what NO WATERMARK