TG4 HD

NewHillel

lawhec wrote: »

As an Anglophone myself, I agree that TG4 is a very good channel. If RTÉ had the same efficiency and drive as those in TG4 have with the much bigger budget that they have, you would have one of the best PSBs in Europe at Donnybrook. Irish language commentary for sports broadcasts doesn't bother me - an English option would be nice, but it's not essential as I'm more concerned with what is on the screen and that the channel is doing what it says on the tin, it has no obligation (nor should it) to accommodate non-Irish speakers any more than what it does at present.

It shows what can be done with a limited budget, with the right leadership and commitment. As you say, RTE could learn a lot from it.

NewHillel

mjsmyth wrote: »

With regards to TG4 on Saorview, rather than TG4 reinventing the wheel and broadcasting an English soundtrack of their own, would it be possible for them to broadcast the radio soundtrack? Could they come to an agreement with RTE perhaps?

Thats an excellent suggestion, that deserves a far wider audience. There is no technical reason why, if TG4 had a suitable playout system, that this couldn't be done for matches, and such like. If they are upgrading their technology for HD, this would be the perfect opportunity.

icdg

ardmacha wrote: »

I don't why a technical forum has been derailed by Mac an Chruiteir rattling on about the unfairness of TG4 funding.

These forums were never meant to be "technical" forums as such, or to be the preserve of techies. Originally they were to discuss issues covered by the Irish Cable and Digital Guide site which I ran at the time (2001 or so) and which was more focussed on Cable/Digital TV products and services rather than how the technology worked. Later we ended up in the Tech section of Boards.

Anyway, yes this thread is about TG4 and its possible future provision of a HD service. I'd rather a debate on the bigger issues surrounding the channel take place over in Broadcasting. If ye want to the debtate the Irish langauge in general take it somewhere else.

mcwhirter

Pangea wrote: »

It has a daily viewership of 800/900,000. Hardly a few hundred now. :rolleyes:
Government intervention, so what? TG4 is public service broadcaster. TV3 is a commercial broadcaster and its programming hasn't got a patch on TG4.

TG4 generally gets just under 2% of viewers on a daily basis, not sure where you get that figure from. It's not a fully public service broadcaster now though and with that many viewers can it be explained how it is being funded?
It doesn't make any commercial sense and as for choice and variety on irish tv, you can probably thank the brits for that and not by an irrelevant tv channel such as TG4

Hotblack Desiato

mcwhirter wrote: »

TG4 generally gets just under 2% of viewers on a daily basis, not sure where you get that figure from. It's not a fully public service broadcaster now though and with that many viewers can it be explained how it is being funded?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TG4#Budget

I have been known to give out about the poor value we get from other taxpayer-funded supports for the Irish language, but TG4 is excellent value for money, even if most people only watch the English language content, programmes subtitled in English, and sport.

It doesn't make any commercial sense

BBC Alba doesn't, S4C probably doesn't either, but then again the whole idea of public service broadcasting is to cater for needs which purely commercial channels can't / don't meet. Even TV3 gets some small PSB funding - but if we had no licence fee, no direct govt. funding, and purely commercial TV it would be wall-to-wall lowest common deniminator pap.

and as for choice and variety on irish tv, you can probably thank the brits for that and not by an irrelevant tv channel such as TG4

On Irish TV, not all imported programming is British, if that's what you mean. I would imagine UK and US imports would be about the same.
If you mean that we are lucky to get Freeview/Freesat overspill, then yes we are lucky, but most people who have the option subscribe to pay-TV anyway.

Hotblack Desiato

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Tg4, the conveyor belt of fine women, and now in HD, nice!!

They also gave us Hector :eek: :pac:

Hotblack Desiato

Is it really going to cost them much to go to HD? Playing out films, I would imagine not. Similarly with sports OBs, RTE have shown it can be done without having all the HD studios etc. back at Montrose. Everything else could be upscaled for a few years until equipment is replaced on a phased basis. They will require a bigger slice of RTENL's bandwidth, but do they actually pay transmission costs anyway? If they do it's just one part of government writing another one a cheque.

watty

TG4 is part licence fee, part government and part commercial funded.

They pay RTE NL (not RTE) for Transmission. RTENL gets no government funding. Not even for DTT roll out. RTE NL had to borrow the money for DTT.

Capt'n Midnight

GBCULLEN wrote: »

put this link in your faourites and enjoy

http://www.tg4.ie/en/tv-listings/tv-listings.html

gbc-

fyp (again)

Capt'n Midnight

Apogee wrote: »

I heard that the turf-fired crematoria are running 24 hours a day in Baile na hAbhainn. You can see the smoke for miles!

I'll see you burn for that.

Antenna

Once again this talk of TG4 HD is ironic, considering much of the current output picture quality is well below what SD (Standard Definition) is capable of.

Anyone see the particularly appaling picture quailty of the 'Hector San Oz' series for instance?
Weird colour/ bad motion blur etc
This production could surely have done better, picture quality wise, even with portable gear.

Sam Russell

Antenna wrote: »

Once again this talk of TG4 HD is ironic, considering much of the current output picture quality is well below what SD (Standard Definition) is capable of.

Anyone see the particularly appaling picture quailty of the 'Hector San Oz' series for instance?
Weird colour/ bad motion blur etc
This production could surely have done better, picture quality wise, even with portable gear.

It is hard to get good picture quality on a mobile phone.

Minstrel27

Antenna wrote: »

Once again this talk of TG4 HD is ironic, considering much of the current output picture quality is well below what SD (Standard Definition) is capable of.

Anyone see the particularly appaling picture quailty of the 'Hector San Oz' series for instance?
Weird colour/ bad motion blur etc
This production could surely have done better, picture quality wise, even with portable gear.

I didn't realise that TG4 had no programming in their schedules made for High Definition. Thanks for sharing this.

Elmo

mcwhirter wrote: »

TG4 generally gets just under 2% of viewers on a daily basis, not sure where you get that figure from. It's not a fully public service broadcaster now though and with that many viewers can it be explained how it is being funded?
It doesn't make any commercial sense and as for choice and variety on irish tv, you can probably thank the brits for that and not by an irrelevant tv channel such as TG4

TG4 get 2.2% of the audience it is the 8th most watched TV channel, just below both BBC 2 and Channel 4 (both around 2.4% - 2.8% share). That is last year, on several occasions TG4 have reached an average of 5% particularly during holidays such as Xmas, St. Paddy's and Easter.

Public Service Broadcasting cannot be defined by audience alone. TG4 does allot of good work, and much of it is bi-lingual. It provides some US and UK programming outside its Irish Language remit, this is used to attract audiences to other TG4 programmes. RTÉ and TV3 both do this and to an even larger extent. Imagine if TG4 bought Coro St??? But then you would be giving out that they need an English Language programme to bring the audience share.

IMO it is the laziness of both TV3 and RTÉ to rely so heavily on imports.

TG4 does provide Irish Choice, outside the ordinary imports and the "brits" who don't often to provide Irish Cultural choices. I think Irish TV would be all the lesser without TG4, in terms of production and experience that it has provided and also some choice that some may not choose.

BBC is hugely commercial (but as usual I am going to be told they are not!) and there are many PSB that get funding through advertising and public funding. (and other means but sure I will have an opportunity to get to that)

watty

Sky 1 gets less viewers.

It's ironic that TG4 made a big deal of commissioning everything in WS before WS was launched,

Especially since with SD, WS is LOWER quality than 4:3 as both can be 720 horizontal pixels

Elmo

watty wrote: »

Sky 1 gets less viewers

But people pay for Sky 1!

watty

Amazing isn't it!

channnels

TG4 and indeed the rest of the SD channels on Saorview and Sky aren't even 720x567 - they are 544x567.

SD BBC channels on satellite are 720x567 and the difference in picture quality is obvious.

At least RTE 2 looks ok in upscaled SD on Saorview but just as muddy as the others on it's Sky feed :-/

Tony

desaparecidos wrote: »

I wish TG4 would stop using Government grants to outbid RTE on match rights.

What leads you to believe this is the case ?

mike65

Could they do it any other way?

Tony

mike65 wrote: »

Could they do it any other way?

Quite possibly since Irish language sports rights are treated differently to English and there may well be separate deals.

mike65

Hmm fancy that! TG4 have it pretty cushy, top level tennis as Gaeilge at a knockdown rate while RTE would have to pay more. Doesn't sound like a level playing field, baring in mind TG4 can be seen in as many homes as RTE and TV3.

Pity they don't make a bid for some cricket

watty

Why should TG4 pay more than Welsh, Bulgarian, Estonian, Flemish?

mcwhirter

Elmo wrote: »

TG4 get 2.2% of the audience it is the 8th most watched TV channel, just below both BBC 2 and Channel 4 (both around 2.4% - 2.8% share). That is last year, on several occasions TG4 have reached an average of 5% particularly during holidays such as Xmas, St. Paddy's and Easter.

Public Service Broadcasting cannot be defined by audience alone. TG4 does allot of good work, and much of it is bi-lingual. It provides some US and UK programming outside its Irish Language remit, this is used to attract audiences to other TG4 programmes. RTÉ and TV3 both do this and to an even larger extent. Imagine if TG4 bought Coro St??? But then you would be giving out that they need an English Language programme to bring the audience share.

IMO it is the laziness of both TV3 and RTÉ to rely so heavily on imports.

TG4 does provide Irish Choice, outside the ordinary imports and the "brits" who don't often to provide Irish Cultural choices. I think Irish TV would be all the lesser without TG4, in terms of production and experience that it has provided and also some choice that some may not choose.

BBC is hugely commercial (but as usual I am going to be told they are not!) and there are many PSB that get funding through advertising and public funding. (and other means but sure I will have an opportunity to get to that)

Tg4 should only be compared with TV3 and RTE, and not uk channels for viewership percentages.
Compare and weep, TG4 ratings are extremely low, due to lack of irish speaking natives.

Cú Giobach

mcwhirter wrote: »

Compare and weep, TG4 ratings are extremely low, due to lack of irish speaking natives.

Would you like some salt and vinegar to go with that chip of yours? :rolleyes:

watty

mcwhirter wrote: »

Tg4 should only be compared with TV3 and RTE, and not uk channels for viewership percentages.
Compare and weep, TG4 ratings are extremely low, due to lack of irish speaking natives.

82% of people have Pay TV, yet TG4 beats Sky1

What would TV3's figures be if they had never forced ITV channels of Sky and partially off Cable in Ireland? Even before Digital TV about 75% of households had HTV or UTV.

TV3 and 3e are the nearly pointless "Irish" channels, not TG4, and I don't speak a word of Gaelic. Well not a sentence anyhow.

liamtech

My Irish Starts and stops with "An bhfuil cead agam dul go dtí an leithreas"! (I had to look up the spelling, i assure you!)

That being said they do have fantastic irish history documentaries. My Missus is doing a PHD in Irish History and she often watches them as they can be quite specific in their topics. One a while ago on Parnell was of specific interest to her, and i admit that with subtitles i genuinely enjoyed it too. TG4 do decent work, but i will admit that without the subtitles i would be lost! (My Missus is practically fluent so perhaps she could record a dubbing track for me lol)

watty wrote: »

TV3 and 3e are the nearly pointless "Irish" channels.

WHAT IS IT ABOUT THIS FORUM AND TV3! lol:D:rolleyes:

Yee really cant stand them! Classic!

il admit much of what they broadcast is not the may west and the picture quality is dreadful, but just like TG4 they do have their charms... I for one love Vincent Brown (platonically i assure you). Monday nights for me are my Two Hours of Power - Frontline followed swiftly by my Time delayed Vincent Brown (Thank you Humax!).

But genuinely TV3 isnt that bad, aside from Vinnie B they do have some documentaries (not as much as TG4 fair enough), and i for one would welcome a TV3 HD if we are presented with one in the near future.

watty

You've watched ITV?

copacetic

Tony wrote: »

Quite possibly since Irish language sports rights are treated differently to English and there may well be separate deals.

There aren't any Irish language rights to the Heineken cup, there are just the Irish highlights rights which TG4 bid the most for. They could broadcast them in English if they wanted to.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/tg4-trump-rte-for-euro-rights-2671102.html

liamtech

watty wrote: »

You've watched ITV?

if what your saying is that TV3 and 3e just show ITV prgramming then i agree but they do show 'some' home grown documentaries, i quite like there news, and Vinnie B is always amusing - especially around election time. lol

There not the best channels and you could argue that in terms of choice they are the weakest of the Saorview line-up for those who also have Freesat - but for those who dont and, who want to watch X Factor etc (i dont PLEASE believe me) then they are a decent addition to the line-up - saorview would be a weaker service without them - two RTE stations and TG4 is hardly a sufficiant line-up - RTE+1 RTE-JR, and RTE NEWS NOW, surely these are more pointless -