General TV History

seems interesting! might go if i get the chance

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I’m with you mate. :slight_smile: :+1: It does sound Interesting… I’d imagine Nine would advertise this to the lead-up to the relocation of the Perth studios to the CBD with a new set and, a possible relaunch/refresh.

Peter Mitchell interrupted the Crows/Bombers game on Seven, at least for SA, NSW and QLD viewers(and maybe WA viewers too) Did 5AA stay with that match given it was the Crows playing?

It’s 10 years this Thursday since Peter Brock died. This is the only news footage I can find about his death. Steve Irwin and Peter Brock within a week were two huge losses to Australia

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Beating Around The Bush star Ian “Beat” Hill has passed away this morning

This is a rare one. A 2003-era Nine ident with a Special Presentation opener in the same style as the movie openers of the era. Also note the tag line “Adelaide’s No.1”

This is a really weird one: I actually remember watching Pompeii on Nine’s PNG affiliate EMTV as a kid.

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These Channel Nine cricket graphics from 2003/04 seem really strange when viewed in widescreen. I get that not many people had widescreen TVs in those days, but I do wonder why they chose to have the green score box begin at the edge of the screen all the way to the 4:3 safe area.

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I think it was just to be consistent. I seem to recall all the graphics for that package went to the edge.

IIRC the previous package didn’t go to the edge.

Edit: ok it did except the scoreboard which faded towards the edge. This was early 2001

The graphics which came after didn’t go to the edge of the screen. I doubt many people had widescreen back in the early-mid 2000s so few would’ve really known. Those who did probably didn’t care.

Back in the late 90s, the BBC standardised their graphics across every channel (BBC One, Two, Choice, News and Knowledge). Their unique way of making graphics look ‘normal’ on both 4:3 and 16:9 displays was to centre the text in the bottom of the screen.

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Was finally changed during the 2006/07 Ashes series.

I remember paying $3000 for a SD plasma TV in 2005. Widescreen CRT’s was much cheaper. I know any HD display was over $3000. Nine HD looked good in Perth back then as it does now. I remember seeing the 2004-2005 Nine look looking so vibrant on a plasma TV. I barely knew anyone with a widescreen TV back then.

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My grandparents bought a widescreen plasma back in 2004 as well. All I remember of the time was that a lot of Foxtel channels still hadn’t made the switch to widescreen at that point. And yes the difference was amazing.

Sadly the take up of HD was much slower than widescreen.

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I got my first wide screen TV in 1996-7. It was a Phillips CRT and weighed a massive 80kg - it was HEAVY.

Australian TV shows were generally ahead of the US in taking up 16:9 ratio.

You can see in this video that the US show as 4:3 as opposed to While Collar Blue

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I think I may have had the same model. The thing cost a small fortune when I purchased it on an interest free deal from Harvey Norman back in 1996. Stabbed myself in the leg with a Stanley knife while assembling the cabinet and nearly dropped the thing on my foot when I tried to lift it into place by myself. It was still working like a charm when I finally got rid of it a few years ago when analogue transmission ended.

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It had IDTV (Improved Definition) with 100Hz and frame doubling and being from Europe lots of SCART sockets. The front speakers were detachable and there was a subwoofer-like speaker at the back of the set, but the weight of the glass tended to make it front heavy.

Great for watching anamorphic movies and much brighter screen than modern sets for daytime viewing. There was also an aspect ratio “justified” that stretched a 4:3 image to the full screen by just stretching the periphery and keeping the central area looking normal.

Back then without multi channels, they could apply a much higher bit rate to each stream, as they have always had the full 23 Mbps available to them.

I think the SD channels were running at 7 Mbps, whilst HD was 12 Mbps, though still MPEG2, which would probably explain why they looked comparatively good now.

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The Man Trap”, the first episode of Star Trek was shown at 8.30pm on 8 September 1966 on NBC 50 years ago today.

Seems it took over a year for the series to come to Australia. In Melbourne, at least, the first episode screened was Balance Of Terror on Tuesday, 26 September 1967 at 7.30pm on GTV9. The second episode to air was Arena and then The Enemy Within. So it seems Nine were showing the episodes out of order.

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Seems like it. I don’t know about QTQ as I didn’t see the show when it first went to air. The Man Trap was actually the 6th episode in the production order but NBC picked to use it as the premiere. The first 2 of those episodes that GTV picked would be among the most popular.

A rare footage on the morning of 9/11 on CNN 15 years ago tomorrow. 0:58 shows the last ever view of the Twin Towers lit up.

Any Australian news footage/coverage from that night and the day of 12 September, 2001.

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