So a little over three months since me and Myles spotted an episode of The Bill being filmed with Louisa Lytton & John Bowler near our flat, the episode finally aired on TV a few nights ago, and after close expection lo and behold, there was me! Driving past the pet shop which was the main focal point of the episode!
My five seconds of fame, shown here in a screencap from the episode.
While I sit here typing away with James Bond; Tomorrow Never Dies playing in the background on our seven year old standard definition (SD) television, people around the world are snapping up the latest in technology – High Definition (HD) televisions. With the chance to watch much better quality TV, and with prices becoming lower and lower you can’t blame people for moving over.
But already, the next generation of TV’s have started being developed, in the form of Ultra High Definition (UHD). Back in November 2005, the Japanese public service broadcaster, Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK), first demonstrated the technology, but with the recent news development has begun, it only shows that we’re one step closer to it becoming a reality in our homes.
Now, how does UHD compare to HD you may ask? Well, its alot. An awful lot. If UHD was a Ferrari, HD would be an everyday Ford, and SD would be, well, a Skoda. An old Skoda at that, from 1981. Anyways, UHD is capable of a very impressive 7680 x 4320 resolution compared to 1080p HD (thats the decent HD, not the cheap ass HD) which broadcasts at 1920 x 1080. Yes, I know that’s alot of numbers which probably mean less to you than anything. But, in a nut shell, you would need 16 HD TV’s, placed into a 4 x 4 grid to replicate what UHD TV can produce.
To make it easier to understand and actually visualise, the image on the right is an accurate representation of the sheer magnitude of UHD TV. The blue area represents UHD TV, the yellow area represents 1080p HD TV, and the white area is 720p HD TV. The picture quality is undoubtly un imaginable until we actually see it for real, but my question is, what size TV would you need to make UHD TV actually worth it?
But with this increased resolution brings an increased file size for video and television broadcast. One minute of uncompressed video footage is 194GB, which would mean a two hour movie would need approximately 25TB of storage, (thats 25,000GB). The transfer rate currently is 24 Gigabits a second, something which is unbelivable in todays current broadcast systems. This is one of the biggest hurdles at the moment facing this new technology. The video data would have to be encoded to be able to be broadcast to make it feasable, but seeing as how at the moment each encoding unit (you technically need 2, one at the broadcast end (ie. TV Studio) and one in the TV itself) being as tall as a person, they would need to be the size of a few chips able to fit into the back of a TV to make this technology work.
Either way, there’s no doubt UHD TV is years and years off yet, so there’s no need to throw away those sparkly new Blu-ray and HD DVD’s just yet, but it does go to show that one day we will have to again, and with his new technology already in development, it’s only a matter of time.
Well, another year, another television season is coming to an end in the states. Here, I’m going to delve into each major show which I watch and give my views on them all!
[I'll be discussing the plots and season finale's of - Lost Season 3; Ugly Betty Season 1; Greys Anatomy Season 3; 24 Season 6 - all at American Pace - so if you don't want to know yet - look away now - you have been warned!]
Ugly Betty
A pretty good season finale here; with the shock of Santo’s surprise death which was done pretty well, and with Betty not being able to stop Henry in time, what will happen!? A show I’m looking forward to returning in a few months!
Grey’s Anatomy
It ended?!?! I was honestly expecting one more final episode! A pretty mundane finale compared to the others this year in my opinion, granted we do have the ‘What’s gonna happen to Burke and George?’ and I guess we were introduced to a couple potential new stars, namely the new 1st year interns. But, other than that there was no real fanfare, the worst kept secret of all time that Addison Shepherd would be leaving was hinted at, and yea, we’ve now been left with then ‘What’s going to happen to Derek & Meredith… but, unless it’s just me, that story is getting a bit old now, over the past three season’s they’ve split up and gotten back together more times than I’ve gone toilet! But, nevertheless, it’s still a good show and I’ll be waiting eagerly for the next season…
24
Fantastic double episode finale, and really sums up so far the true Jack Bauer, and how his career has changed and affected his life and everyone he cares and loves forever. The suspense throughout was gripping, only to end with a sentimental last ten minutes. It’s what the season and the show needed at this point, and they pulled it off fantastically. I now don’t know how I will cope having to wait until January 2008 for the next season and what the future has instore for Jack, especially how the network executives are planning a ‘major change’ to the show; I’ll be waiting with much anticipation!
Lost
Oh My! I’m not going to say much about Lost, for all those who are yet to watch it! – Ahem! – but this was a truely amazing season finale! The twists and such and wow. Best finale from Lost yet in my opinion, and I really, really, wont be able to cope until it returns in January!
Other shows which ended thier seasons a while back, but still worth a mention; Eureka – A show which finished it’s first run way back in the Autumn which seems like a life time ago, it’ll be good to get it back! Stargate SG-1 - Sadly TV Season-wise it may be over for good, but the two new TV Movies which are airing this Autumn will be a long waited return and hopefully a final good end to a good story line. Stargate Atlantis - Back this Autumn as well, and seeing as how we were left on a knife edge not knowing what will happen to our Atlantians, and the rumoured ‘Cast Culling’ will be interesting to see what happens, and hopefully when Sam Carter arrives there will be plenty of Sam – Rodney scenes!
So, what will I be watching over the summer months to keep me sane until the next season starts in a few months? Well, Studio 60 starts again tonight, and after a few months off the air, it will be good to get back into that, even if it will probably only be for a 6 – 8 more episodes. Another Aaron Sorkin show which I’ll be watching is The West Wing, which until recently I hadn’t seen even one episode of, but now I am hooked!
While heading towards the town center earlier today, Myles and I came across what we thought was a film crew getting prepared, and, shortly there after it was confirmed, The Bill (which reguarly uses Kingston as a filming location) was being filmed just minutes from our flat. Then we spotted Louisa Lytton (PC Beth Green (aka Ruby Allen from the Eastenders)) who will be on your screen in The Bill in a few weeks time and John Bowler (PC Roger Valentine), filming scenes in and around an abandoned shop which ended up lasting all day.
We then attempted to take a couple photos from my car as we drove past from my camera phone, but luck wasn’t on our side and the photo didn’t end up too good, even with Louisa smiling and posing for the shot as she noticed what we were doing.
It’s Friday 13th, and for some shows and for some fans, this really is not going to be a good day! I can tell you are all eager with anticipation to find out who won the SOS poll. This year the top two shows will be given support to be brought back, so in theory, the shows in both first and second place have won.
Results (Position/Name/Votes) (Top Five Also: TV Network & Link);
1. Gilmore Girls: 2.2 million (CW)
2. Veronica Mars: 1.9 million (CW)
3. One Tree Hill: 950,802 (CW)
4. Supernatural: 413,014 (CW)
5. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: 120,312 (NBC)
6. Crossing Jordan: 30,552
7. Friday Night Lights: 23,195 (six more scripts have been ordered)
8. How I Met Your Mother: 21,761
9. What About Brian: 14,003
10. Jericho: 13,328
11. The Class: 13,238
12. Medium: 11,811(six more scripts have been ordered)
13. Scrubs: 9,248
14. 30 Rock: 5,189 votes (already picked up by NBC)
15. Close to Home: 2,433
16. Six Degrees: 1,711
17. The Nine: 1,126
As you can see the CW fans were out in force, with four of the top five shows being from the CW network. Now, what this says about what will happen to the shows which didn’t make it – is anyone’s guess, but it’s still TV bubble time in the states, and within the next few weeks we will know exactly who the real winners and losers were this year. Hopefully my favourite Studio 60 will survive! Hopefully…
Full Information and Link: SOS Poll Results @ E! Online