E4 is a coming - whos a going?

The Cigarette Smoking Man

They picked a good time to switch over I was innocently watching CNBC and suddenly some stripper pops on the screen.

Charles Slane

I noticed that they just have a blank screen this morning, so it seems they won't be showing the E4 preview ads.

colinsky

Originally posted by Charles Slane
I noticed that they just have a blank screen this morning, so it seems they won't be showing the E4 preview ads.

On the other hand, I did see an ad for specific shows on E4 (sunday night reruns?) this morning on Channel 4, which I had never seen advertised before. So there's obviously some coordination for advertising and launching the channel here, which I find pleasant. (They're thinking of us! )

Charles Slane

Originally posted by colinsky

They're thinking of us!

....and our money ......

But I'm glad it's here now. And the fact that the very first scenes on NTL in Ireland were of a naked woman can only be a good thing (if it's a sign of things to come).

Nice to see the standards in broadcasting rising

Now that they'll have a lot of viewers in the republic, wouldn't it be funny if this was the first year that Big Brother didn't have a gay Irish person as a contestant.

It just wouldn't be the same !

colinsky

Originally posted by Charles Slane
Now that they'll have a lot of viewers in the republic, wouldn't it be funny if this was the first year that Big Brother didn't have a gay Irish person as a contestant.

It just wouldn't be the same !

Well, for me it's my first UK big brother. (Did see CBS/US BB1 and 2, though). So, I hope it's good!

icdg

Originally posted by Charles Slane
I noticed that they just have a blank screen this morning, so it seems they won't be showing the E4 preview ads.

They were showing previews for FilmFour and E4 when I left this morning.

Last night, waking up and unable to sleep, switched on the TV and E4 was on. There didn't seem to be any adverts at all overnight though, apart from one or two in between the programmes. And I'll be avoiding E4 until the Autumn it seems, some of their programmes are just too far ahead of N2 for comfort...

David C

Two points about ntl's relay of E4:

1: It's in Mono! A popular entertainment channel like this needs stereo! You really can't get away with flat sound like you could perhaps on CNBC.

2: As this is ntl's first mostly widescreen station on analogue, problem's were to be expected. Widescreen programmes & ads are not shown with black bars at the top & bottom of a picture. Instead the picture is stretched to fill the screen. Since there is no widescreen flag being transmitted either, a Widescreen tv will still show a streched picture as there are no black bars to detect. The viewer has to manualy change their TV's widescreen setting every time they switch to E4.
4:3 sets just show an ugly vertically stretched picture.

Knowing ntl they'll never fix these problems. Like that hum on TCC/Nicks sound right up until they were forced to replace the dodgy reciever for Sky digital. Hopefully they'll surprise me!

I would have expected better from NTL, than to have a mono signal.
Thats something Chorus would get away with but not NTL.
Complain
mm
Regarding widescreen...
It sounds like their digibox is set to 4:3 again this is something expected of a deflector or Chorus.
Very unprofessional

icdg

ATTN:

I've merged the two E4 threads into one.

I'm also going to ask users who wish to protest about the departure of TV5 to do so in the Sauve Notre TV5 thread.

This town IS big enough for both E4 and TV5, in my opinion anyway...

patrickmooney

E4 is being show in widescreen.....well almost. If it was set to 4:3 (Pan and scan on the digibox), you'd get a zoomed in picture, thus loosing all bugs etc. The option they have chosen in my opinion is the best, most of us have widescreen options on our tvs to adjust it. If they had chosen letterbox, you'd get a double wide sceen on 16:9 TVs. Hope this makes sense to ye...! NTL only relay, chances of them doing a 14:9 job on it is hardly likey as E4 is meant to be aimed at the digital audience, ie those with digiboxs allowing them control these ratios.

Victor

It was on instead of CNBC today.

John R

Originally posted by patrickmooney
E4 is being show in widescreen.....well almost. If it was set to 4:3 (Pan and scan on the digibox), you'd get a zoomed in picture, thus loosing all bugs etc. The option they have chosen in my opinion is the best, most of us have widescreen options on our tvs to adjust it. If they had chosen letterbox, you'd get a double wide sceen on 16:9 TVs. Hope this makes sense to ye...! NTL only relay, chances of them doing a 14:9 job on it is hardly likey as E4 is meant to be aimed at the digital audience, ie those with digiboxs allowing them control these ratios.

I have to disagree, most people do not have widescreen options or do not know how to use it or care to. The location of the logos are up to E4, they seem to be ok with SKY digital viewers who use 4:3 seeing a cut-off logo on some programmes. I appreciate that many want widescreen (I prefer ws programmes myself) but most viewers just want a regular picture without having to fiddle with the tv everytime they change channels. A picture with an incorrect aspect ratio is just horrible to look at.

I don't know what ntl were up to today when I tuned in they were showing a 4:3 programme stretched to 16:9 and cropped to 4:3, very distorted although they almost succeeded in making Ally McBeal look fat


AFAIK there never was stereo on that frequency with eurosport or CNBC, maybe they are using a modulator without nicam?

Makaveli

Originally posted by Victor
It was on instead of CNBC today.

CNBC is where TV5 used to be now.

colinsky

When I was flipping through the channels this morning, E4 wasn't using a stretched widescreen -- at least for its advertisements. Is this normal when they're not broadcasting programs, or did NTL decide to play with the signal?

colinsky

Yeps... now that I 've had a chance to check it out tonight, it really looks like after only two days we've lost our widescreen option. The "E4" logo looks cut off at the top, and the channel web address is way off the right of the screen.

Anyone know which NTL address I should write to to complain? It'd be nice to get it all set and right before Big Brother starts.

John R

What the hell is going on, E4 has now dissappeared from digital. I am not happy at all. Eurosport, E4 what next? I can see my ntl subscription going very shortly. The only reason I got ntl digital was to get a good picture quality (and widescreen) because the analogue signal is so crap in my area, if they are going to cut channels from the digital service it is not worth paying for.

Jessica

John,

e4 should still be on your digital channel line up with ntl. reboot your set top box, pull out the plug for about 30 seconds and put it back in and e4 should be back. If not contact ntl there may be a problem, although i don't think so, i have e4 playing out on dublin digital no problem at all.

John R

Thanks Jessica. There must have been a glitch somewhere, when I rebooted the box earlier it didn't come back but this time it worked. I have never had a channel dissappear before, although the box crashes every now and then. Everything is back to normal now.

BTW is the clock on your stb a few minutes slow?

Jessica

hi John,


possibly the clock is slow, remember it is going on ntl time


Always remember if anything is funny with the box reboot it. then check the wires, after that contact ntl.


More than likely anything that does go wrong with it, is resolved with a plug out or the scart leads being alittle loose.

I presume E4 is in stereo on NTL digital??
mm

bubbleowner

It is so unfair that they are moving TV5 to the digital channel which you have to pay extra for. ntl gets TV5 free! English speaking countries are so poor at speaking foreign languages yet ntl is determined to remove a channel which costs them nothing and which at least gives people the opportunity to watch a foreign channel. It provides sub-titles in French, English and other languages. Probably a satellite dish would be better value than paying ntl more for a load of channels you don't want. Then you could choose the channels you really want.