Wallace and Gromit

[ffutures]

Just heard back from the BBC re. my complaint over the cock-up re transmission times for A Matter of Loaf and Death, which resulted in a lot of people missing the last couple of minutes. Their reply isn't very convincing, but does say that they're showing it again at 7pm on BBC One tomorrow.

Now to set the recorder again, this time allowing a couple of minutes before and five after to be sure...

Later: Just set the video for that, noticed that they're also transmitting highlights of the BBC Doctor Who prom followed by the Xmas episode The Next Doctor from 1.50 onwards.

Comments

[ramtops.livejournal.com]

It's maddening - we sat down to watch the last Wallander last night, and found that the preceding programme had run *seven minutes * late.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

It's also on iplayer.
TBH, I've given up on expecting anything to be on at the set time on the BBC, let alone a regular schedule (mainly Saturday evenings, like the Merlin/Strictly mixups recently). Then again, we're paying good money for it so we should be able to expect a reasonable service in return.

In Germany, there's a system called VPS which (I think) was controlled via video text and made sure that a recording would only start when it actually started so if a previous programme overran, the target programme would be recorded in full. I think it's called differently here but should follow the same principle.

[sirernest.livejournal.com]

VPS also allowed you to easily set up the recording just by inputting the number printed next to the programme of your choice in the TV schedule into the VCR (as long as that was equipped with the necessary software).
Of course it did depend on a special signal broadcast by the tv station and some stations were notoriously lazy about it. On occasion you could see how suddenly a technican somewhere remembered that there was something to be done and the signal came starting or stopping the VCR 15 minutes late.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I think that there was something like that on the analog channels, but the digital rely on the electronic program guide, and the Beeb don't always remember to update it.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Ah, if they don't update it (or create new codes) then it obviously won't work. Bah.

[uninvitedcat.livejournal.com]

Oooh - thanks for the info. mR and I were hit by this, so it's good to know.