Category Archives: Television

Internet, Technology, Television

Battle of Internet TV platforms: Panasonic Vieracast vs Sony Qriocity

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So, TV manufacturers are embedding Internet capabilities in their TVs and set-top boxes. I’ve recently had experience of a couple of platforms – Qriocity via my brother’s new Blu-Ray player, and Vieracast via my Dad’s Skype-enabled TV.

So: what is Qriocity? Well, the full Qriocity platform enables TV, film and music on demand – a la Spotify Premium crossed with iTunes. It’s priced comparably with iTunes and pretty easy to use. However, the real kicker here is that YouTube, iPlayer and various other Internet TV services work seamlessly (other than the fact a remote is not in any way optimised for typing into an Internet TV search bar), rather than Qriocity itself. This is awesome – easy access to everything from iPlayer HD to a bunch of other services. V. impressed.

Vieracast, by contrast, brings up a series of apps that let you access network-enabled widgets, of which Skype is one. Skype on a TV should be a good thing but – it’s not HD, so looks mediocre, you can’t use your normal Skype account if, like me, you have “too many” contacts, and its fiddly to configure for the same reason that the Sony remotes are rubbish for search – typing on a TV without a keyboard is tedious. Other apps are pretty limited, responsiveness is a bit sluggish, and on the whole it is a slightly underwhelming experience. Not to mention that the TV doesn’t come with a built-in wireless card so we had to hunt for a networking solution (the one supported brand of wireless card, a Netgear jobbie, isn’t widely distributed in Malaysia).

Therefore: de facto winner of this shootout is Sony…!

I’m looking forward to seeing what Google TV has to offer and will resist the lure of Jobs and Apple TV here. My media centre does most things you’d want from an Internet TV service, but I can appreciate it in principle… for other people. Not so much for me…

None of these service socialise TV watching – I think these is still a multi-device experience- watch on TV and couchsurf on iPad or laptop. I remember Joost trying to do real-time social TV but it was too complex for most people to handle and I’ve not heard hide nor hair from them in some time… and I’m certainly not counting Ping as having achieved anything on this front to date.

Television

Will there be an Outcasts series 2?

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Update 3: The interview with Ben Richards is live here! Read it for updates on season 2, thoughts on the cancellation and the down-low on the ratings.

Update 2: I’ve emailed a bunch of questions (including some reader submitted ones) to Ben Richards, who has promised a response but evidently not had a chance to do it yet. He mentioned being in discussions with the BBC about some kind of resolution to the show, although series 2 didn’t sound likely from our brief Twitter exchange. Will share more when I have it.

Update: The BBC doesn’t seem to be continuing to track for buzz about Outcasts so my more recent posts haven’t been flagged on the official Outcasts page. Fans visiting this page might be interested in my follow up posts: Why do ratings matter for the BBC? and How to protest the Outcasts cancellation. You might also be tangentially interested in this comparative cost of TV license fee chart, across Europe.

In addition, show creator Ben Richards has agreed to talk to me about the Outcasts cancellation. Please submit any questions you would like me to put to him here.

Original post follows…

No, sadly not. Here’s the confirmation via the BBC Outcasts Facebook page, and here’s an interview where the show creator/writer Ben Richards talks about why he thinks it all went down the way it did (not without bitterness.) It sounds, broadly speaking, like it was felt that the show missed its mark in terms of hitting a mainstream audience, didn’t get the ratings it needed (no idea if iPlayer ratings came into play) and misjudged its pacing. The episode length issue is discussed – an hour slot was tough to write for.

I still haven’t finished catching up on the show and will do so in the next couple of weeks and share my thoughts. Will also probably do a final “best of comments” as I’ve had an overwhelming number on here thanks to the trackbacks from the BBC website and there have been some fantastic comments about the show – positive and negative – some of which are worth highlighting! Thanks all for your contributions.

A cynical part of me is a little melancholic if the BBC One controller, Danny Cohen, is going to drive all his television making decisions based on ratings in quite this way (as indicated by this), but I guess if the show was designed for a mainstream audience and had a mainstream budget then its a fair enough decision. Although as per the comments, and as a fan of shows with complex and long-running story-arcs (Joss Whedon fans out there?), it can take a while for these things to build…

As a partial aside, whilst we’ve both been watching Outcasts, Amanda and her brother and mum have been watching a niche piece of BBC4 television, Danish crime drama The Killing. I guess as a BBC4 programme specifically designed for a niche audience the criteria are different (and the critical feedback has been much more consistently positive than Outcasts’), but I can’t help but wish/hope that the kinds of decisions that spur the funding of programmes like that would support things like Outcasts too. Why is all BBC SciFi/Fantasy output ‘mainstream’ (Dr Who, Torchwood, Merlin etc) – isn’t there room for some niche sci-fi from the Beeb?

Television

Outcasts–mid season view

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Given the massive response to my earlier post, here’s a bit of an update as we continue to watch our way through the series.

Four episodes in (we’re catching up), I’m definitely growing in fondness for Outcasts. It’s pretty sophisticated writing, with layer upon layer of plotline piling dark edges on top of each other to create a really satisfying universe with characters you don’t quite know how to place and baddies you aren’t entirely sure are baddies – with the exception of the supremely creepy Eric Mabius as Julius Berger.

I’m hoping they continue to leave points of conflict open – from the romantic plotline between Fleur/Jack/Cass to the darker political one with Julius/Tate to the psychological ones with Tipper/Tate and beyond… but that’s only if they are given time to complete the story arcs as (apparently) intended. My concern, with only four episodes to go, is that there isn’t anything like enough time to round out all these stories properly. I’m hoping they avoid Deus Ex Machina where they can – my screenplay writing training with Robert McKee a few years ago drilled a strong distaste for that into me.

Quick plot check four episodes in (spoilers herein, avoid if you’re not at this point):

  • The past plotline – jawbone et al
  • The Fleur/Jack/Cass romantic plotline
  • The Isen girls plotline
  • The Tipper Malone plotline
  • The future of the ACs plotline
  • The Julius Berger / sexual assault plotline
  • The Julius Berger / Tate political plotline
  • The Tate/kids plotline
  • The kid from the pilot’s plotline (will he return?)
  • The role of the XPs plotline
  • The planet plotline (white-outs et al)
  • The Earth plotline (what’s happened etc)

That’s a lot to resolve in 4 hours of television – have I missed any? I’ll be impressed if they get through it all.

As to the future of the show, who can say? There’s certainly been an outpouring of support in the comments here but 2,800 odd fans on Facebook will not a renewal make, not for this man from the sound of things. Although what’s interesting for me from the ratings (increasingly worse, hence the rescheduling) and the comments (most people watching on iPlayer, and its in the ‘most popular’ TV on iPlayer section) is how little traditional ratings might mean for this show. It’s sci-fi, which means a passionate core audience. And it’s the BBC, so iPlayer might be the way to swing it.

Fingers crossed.

Technology, Television

Micro Men

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I do love the BBC. It gets to make programmes that couldn’t possibly pass the muster, unless of course they were being pitched to Nick Cage (thanks to Kate for that).

Flicking through the channels whilst blogging this evening I came across the amusing Alexander Armstrong and the wonderful Martin Freeman as Clive Sinclair (of Sinclair Computers, the ZX Spectrum people) and Chris Curry (of Acorn Computers) respectively, in a dramatic retelling of the computer boom of the early 80s. Some wikipedia couchsurfing ensued so I could cross reference the history as it was going.

Fantastically British. Wonderfully sweet in its own way. Interesting for the tech geeks amongst us – I learned a bit of basic at primary school in Malaysia, and my brother had, back in the day, a ZX Spectrum complete with cassette tape games.

The epilogue, told in 8 bit green computer text tells the tragic end of the British computing boom, such as it was, with the sale of Sinclair to Olivetti and of Acorn to Amstrad, both for fractions of their peak value. Wonder what the likes of Tranquil PC have to say about that?

Clip below.

Television

New sci-fi–Outcasts

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Update: Further thoughts on Outcasts here.

I’ve only seen the pilot of Outcasts but am loving the ambition of the show. Bold, crazy, post-apocalyptic universe, Jamie Bamber making an appearance with his native British accent*, big budget BBC drama, Roz from Spooks, staggeringly striking sets in South Africa… so many good ingredients.

It saddens me that there have already been negative mutterings about its ratings and its been shifted to a graveyard slot – probably with a doubtful future. Why set these shows up on a pedestal? It’s sci-fi! For some reason, with rare exceptions, these shows always attract what the BBC controller describes as a “loyal, core audience” and rarely hit the mass-market mainstream – so why expect otherwise? I guess SFX budgets still don’t come in cheap, and everyone’s hoping they write a BatGal or a Star Trek.

Still – even if it doesn’t do great here, the BBC didn’t do much for its chances to do much better overseas with its weird series formats. 8 episodes? What is that?? An American half-season is 13 episodes – a length which gives you more time to get into a story or a universe, and which gives time for things to evolve to a point of genuine goodness.

Sigh. Well, if it gets cancelled, I’ll hope that it gets worse by episode three and I won’t regret its demise. But I’m not hopeful – I enjoyed the pilot. Check out the trailer here:

 

*I swear I thought he was American, he must be a good actor because I thought his English accent in Outcasts was unconvincing after seeing him on BatGal for years!

Food, Observational, Television

Should you keep milk in the fridge door?

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fridgedoorSo I know this is a burning question many of you have, reading the blog of a lactose-intolerant sci-fi loving, pr-consulting, soup-eating technologist, but hey – if I learn a valuable lesson from ‘House’ I like to pass on the love and help clear up the common misconceptions of this world.

The answer is no, as Dr Wilson revealed in a recent episode. His point – the fridge door is subject to the greatest variability in ambient temperature, so if you want to keep your milk fresh, stick it at the back of the fridge. I keep telling you, Karla, it’s the only medical drama worth watching – even though it’s never lupus, it’s both entertaining (Hugh Laurie is legend) and educational, apparently.

And whilst I do cope with a splash of regular milk in my tea, for all serious milk-drinking, baking etc., we get in the Lactofree – a genius invention for people like me and Curtis Donovan – and will keep you safe from the lactokinetics of this world (Misfits fans…).

Current affairs, Television

Missing a television event

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I didn’t watch Derren Brown’s lottery guessing bonanza last night. I caught a few minutes of it but due to general hecticness sleep was required more than experiencing the event. That said, I knew he was going to manage it and I’m going to be subjected to speculation as to how he did it today…

Sadly it is likely that it was a trick, camera timing, secret headsets etc. – as whilst I have great fait in Derren’s mentalism skills, I do think that actual magic is beyond his beardy face. Sadly. Chris thinks he’s worked it out – frame rate magic – will look forward to the true secret unveiled…

Derren is totally rock and roll, though.

Television

Spooks

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Been getting into Spooks lately. Tonight’s episode annoyed me slightly as they used an iPod Touch to hack into an iMac which was on the desk of a CEO of a City Firm – improbable on many fronts. Generally it was an awesome episode, though, just annoyed the geeky party of me, as I’ve never seen a non-marketing/design/publishing firm make widespread use of Macs — even at Google, where people can use pretty much any machine there want, there’s a fair mix of Mac and PC.

However… Spooks itself has clearly been having an impact on me. Today, walking back to the office at lunchtime, I didn’t see any bins where I’d expected to and so naturally assume that MI5 had moved them somewhere due to the threat level.

I think my brain works funny.

Television

BBC’s Merlin == awesome

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Did anyone else bear witness on Saturday? Ok, so the CGI dragon is a little ropey, but it has all the ingredients of awesome. Hopefully they’re done with exposition for now and can get on with some real drama… Very glad its set up for a 13 episode run as am sure it’ll sell well beyond the UK and earn itself new seasons.

Was anyone else a bit weirded out to see Gwen Cooper shifting forms?