Forces TV

[JesusAndYourBush]

I currently have a Channel 790 that's at the very end of the guide, labelled as "Rescan Now for Together TV" but when I rescan it fails to appear.  I wonder if it's on this other multiplex that I can't get?

[monkfromhavana]

To be honest, you're not missing much. Looking at it's schedule today, it only appears to show 4 programs - Garden Rescue, Wartime Farm, some Monty Don shit and that Mary Millington documentary.

[Bently Sheds]

Fucks me off that my EPG is full of +1 channels that seem to have nothing on them. All the ITV +1 channels are nearly always just a blank screen for me and yet interesting nostalgia channels like Forces and Now are being chucked off.

Do people really need +1 channels in the age of steaming?

[Fambo Number Mive]

I like how it's always +1 as well, what if you want to watch a film that started two hours ago?

[Bently Sheds]

"Good job I'm running exactly 55 minutes late that I can get home in time to watch the 10 year old repeat of Martin Clunes' Detective Inspector Doctor Vet programme on ITV3+1"

[Ambient Sheep]

I like how it's always +1 as well, what if you want to watch a film that started two hours ago?

I used to get a film channel called DMAX, and they only had a DMAX+2, not +1. I could be wrong but I think they only started their films on the hour too, padding with filler.

Incidentally, this +1 business seems to be unheard of in the USA.  I have a friend there who was absolutely mystified when I once casually mentioned it, and I had to explain the whole concept to them.

[JesusAndYourBush]

To be honest, you're not missing much. Looking at it's schedule today, it only appears to show 4 programs - Garden Rescue, Wartime Farm, some Monty Don shit and that Mary Millington documentary.

Oh I know it's shite.  It's just that whenever I took a look at the Mary Millington documentary it was always showing something totally different, making me wonder if it was showing a completely different channel.  I just wanted to finally work out just WTF was going on with it.

[Lost Oliver]

Thanks man, I'll get it. Worth a try.

Didn't work I'm afraid. They mention some kind of extra extension in the instructions but I'm not gonna bother. I'll save it for when I eventually move into a place that isn't underground.

[Sebastian Cobb]

There is a discussion here with some links.

https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/2405361/com7-to-close-by-30th-june-2022-at-the-latest

According to freeview com7 currently serves:


https://www.freeview.co.uk/corporate/platform-management/channel-listings-industry-professionals

Not much of a loss (imo), although further marginalisation of BBC Four by removal of its HD service.

[A Hat Like That]

That's TV showed a brief run of Rik Mayall-fronted comedy-dramas over this weekend.

EDIT: turns out there was 2 series!

Anyway, the one I watched was quite good fun. Not-quite-all-star-cast, decent script, Rik playing the sleezy 80s yuppie type, Salford Quays standing in for London.

The bit I find mental about That's TV is that they don't seem to have listings up until maybe 3 days in advance. Fingers crossed for another Cumbrian Coats railway documentary tho'.

[EOLAN]

I used to get a film channel called DMAX, and they only had a DMAX+2, not +1. I could be wrong but I think they only started their films on the hour too, padding with filler.

Incidentally, this +1 business seems to be unheard of in the USA.  I have a friend there who was absolutely mystified when I once casually mentioned it, and I had to explain the whole concept to them.

Was in a chat with an American who said when he didn't have access to cable, there was no way for him to find out scores of live sports games in the 90s. I was a bit bemused why he didn't just use their version of Teletext. Seemingly they never got that advanced.

[A Hat Like That]

That's TV currently showing re-runs of early 90s Through the Keyhole but telling you whose house it is in the listings. Brilliant.

[Uncle TechTip]

Was in a chat with an American who said when he didn't have access to cable, there was no way for him to find out scores of live sports games in the 90s. I was a bit bemused why he didn't just use their version of Teletext. Seemingly they never got that advanced.

I think it was down to fewer lines in the US broadcast standard available to put teletext in, as well as their fragmented station system.

America quite often fails to adopt technology from around the world until it's too late. I think they're still using SMS in significant quantities.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

Freeview is strange because it's actually improved, then regressed as time goes on. Any extra bandwidth it gained for extra channels has been sold off for mobile phones, and now it's back to the same state it was ten years ago.

Are there any plans to replace it with a more modern system with better compression, codecs etc, like DAB+? Mind you, they'd probably just cram even more channels on there at the same or worse quality as before if there was a Freeview+, just like they did with DAB+.

[gilbertharding]

Freeview is strange because it's actually improved, then regressed as time goes on. Any extra bandwidth it gained for extra channels has been sold off for mobile phones, and now it's back to the same state it was ten years ago.

Are there any plans to replace it with a more modern system with better compression, codecs etc, like DAB+? Mind you, they'd probably just cram even more channels on there at the same or worse quality as before if there was a Freeview+, just like they did with DAB+.

Freeview is still full of cretins trying to sell hideous watches to credulous sad-sacks and sad-sacks trying to sell hobby craft tat to lonely shut-ins, and American History channels showing cheap documentaries about aeroplanes and murders... I suppose I'm naive to think that if they all went then there'd be more quality channels.

[Blumf]

Are there any plans to replace it with a more modern system with better compression, codecs etc, like DAB+? Mind you, they'd probably just cram even more channels on there at the same or worse quality as before if there was a Freeview+, just like they did with DAB+.

FreeviewHD uses the DVB-T2 standard that encodes with MPEG4 H.264/AVC, as opposed to the old DVB-T MPEG2 standard for plain old Freeview.

Suspect nobody is going to bother doing more than that, as everybody's streaming now, granddad!

[Sebastian Cobb]

I think the FreeviewHD spec also includes the ability to list a channel in the EPG but stream it over IP instead of over the airwaves but I dunno how widely supported that was in practice, my 2010's Samsung wasn't having it and then shortly afterwards everyone started making smart tv's with apps, which eventually evolved into the Freeview Play standard.

[Pranet]

Forces TV shutting down entirely.

https://twitter.com/Forces_TV/status/1537019135573499904

[non capisco]

The ghost of Anton Rodgers weeps.

[Norton Canes]

It's a strategic withdrawal

[Blumf]

Who'll get the Blake's 7 Tapes?

[Goldentony]

oh fuck off they're barely even a quarter of the way into WATCHING and we've just got past the Billy Mitchell years. does Malcolm marry Brenda?

[monkfromhavana]

This is just like the botched pull-out of Afghanistan all over again. Forces TV bigwigs in their Boeings on the runway, whilst hordes of 70s and 80s sitcom stars flail around on the tarmac hoping to get on.

[neveragain]

That's TV currently showing re-runs of early 90s Through the Keyhole but telling you whose house it is in the listings. Brilliant.

I was quite annoyed by this. What a life I lead.

[non capisco]

I was quite annoyed by this. What a life I lead.

Reminds me of myself getting unduly annoyed with Mike Smith forever telling you who was coming up later on episodes of Top Of The Pops. Ended up muting the little blonde jeb end every time he was on screen.

[Pranet]

In other multiplex closing news, Freesports is leaving freeview and That's TV is taking their slot.

List of all the changes in this article.

https://rxtvinfo.com/2022/freesports-leaves-freeview

[monkfromhavana]

In other multiplex closing news, Freesports is leaving freeview and That's TV is taking their slot.

List of all the changes in this article.

https://rxtvinfo.com/2022/freesports-leaves-freeview

Well, that's shit.

[Blumf]

Huh, Horror is closing? That sucks, it occasionally shows some decent stuff.

EDIT: Ah, it's rebranding to 'Legend' as a more general purpose channel, not just focusing on horror film.
https://www.cordbusters.co.uk/freeview-shakeup-nine-channels-shutting-down/


Also, why the endless fucking with channel numbers? I can understand the fiddling with multiplexes, but surely the channel numbers can be assigned regardless of what frequency the station is on.

[dissolute ocelot]

Huh, Horror is closing? That sucks, it occasionally shows some decent stuff.

EDIT: Ah, it's rebranding to 'Legend' as a more general purpose channel, not just focusing on horror film.
https://www.cordbusters.co.uk/freeview-shakeup-nine-channels-shutting-down/

Horror has always shown a mix of stuff, especially in daytime when the options for horror are limited. Hopefully they won't get rid of the horror entirely, as it shows some good movies amid a lot of fairly terrible ones. But it's fairly silly having a channel called Horror that's packed with Star Trek and fantasy movies till 9pm.

I see 4Music is rebranding too, which makes sense as (like MTV) it doesn't show much music. If you can't be bothered firing up the internet for All4, it shows Scrubs, IT Crowd, and all your other Noughties favourites.

[kaprisky]

Can confirm that That's TV (UK) is on bog-standard Freeview and currently has back to back to back episodes of the Kenny Everett Video Show, although it is in the wrong aspect ratio. They appear to be the same cuts as the Network DVD release.

The first couple of days' schedules had music advertised as being from the 60s, 70s and 80s and biographies of dead pop stars!

Let's see how long this channel lasts.