BBC to make archive public??

[tgpo]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3177479.stm


No Way!!!! How sweet is that!

[stiltman]

No Way!!!! How sweet is that!

Think it all depends on how much you're willing to pay for that "sweet"
IMO, I bet most broadcasters will have something like this soon. It's just another way to generate revenue.

[flaninacupboard]

hahahaha!
great news and all, but the headline on the article cracked me up!

Dyke to open up BBC archive

I can just imagine!
"Damn! we should have used a lesbian proof vault!!"


I wonder if the system will just cover material produced by the Beeb, or whether it'll also be all the films they have rights to? that'd be good, watch a streaming film of something, then if you like it go buy it on DVD.

It'll be great for TV shows to! imagine when you're having one of those late night arguments "i'm -telling- you! he turns rimmer into a chicken!!" "no you prat, it's a hamster not a chicken!"
You can just jump online, and watch that episode!
(From memory rimmer becomes both a chicken -and- a hamster, but not at the same time )

[housepig]

Think it all depends on how much you're willing to pay for that "sweet"

from the article:

The service, the BBC Creative Archive, would be free and available to everyone, as long as they were not intending to use the material for commercial purposes, Mr Dyke added.

looks like a good price to me. can't wait.

[EddyH]

ohhhhh baby. that sure IS sweet. pinch me im dreaming, been wanting something this smart and inspired to happen for a long time, rather than all the tape reels / discs sitting locked away in some vault.

just so long as it applies retroactively (ie to material produced before 2003, and then backwards thru the decades as they slowly digitise it - will require a small army of techs) and to material licensed from other companies as well as their own productions (because a number of great programs shown on auntie B have been made by outside sources and sold to various companies of which the BBC is just one... but there's no other way to get hold of the stuff).

:P 8)

[Faustus]

I like the EVERYONE part, thats awsome.

[Solarjetman]

I have to question though the quality of the downloads. It may be no bigger than a postage stamp size video. My reasoning is that having EVERY program would draw lots of downloaders. The bandwidth needed for a high res video would be huge.

[flaninacupboard]

I am curious how they're going to control who views it. Everyone in the UK who wants a TV must pay a licence fee, so it's our fees paying for the service. perhaps they'll limit you by postcode as to whther you have a licence or not. or perhaps they won't limit it at all, and you dirty americans will crash their servers by watching monty python allllllllll day.

I would assume they would use 384X288, so they can claim it's VHS resolution. I know the real player format supported a system whereby the same file could be streamed at out at different qualitities, iw the windows media formats support a similar system they'll probably use that. Hopefully they'll cater for big bandwidth users, and someone will be downloading a copy of streambox........


woo! 1100 posts!

[Will Hay]

Man this is exiting news!
Anyone know what the timeframe is?
Will

[bugster]

Man this is exiting news!
Anyone know what the timeframe is?
Will

Agreed, but don't hold your breath waiting

[Hardcoreruss]

Will be forever I bet, but it does sound good.

[Hardcoreruss]

However there must be some restriction like who would buy the red dwarf dvd's, only fools etc.. if they could download it for zip. I bet there will be some limitations like no show made within the past twenty years or after a certain date.

Could download the Good Life though !!!!

[flaninacupboard]

I assume they'll try to implement some kind of evil DRM

Either that or it'll be crappy 300k streaming files only, kinda worth watching, not worth saving and making VCD out of.

Even if all of Red Dwarf were available online, i'd still buy the DVD's. I just wish they'd released Red Dwarf on Laser, the old crappy video isn;t really suited to DVD, they use heavy noise filters and you still see plenty of artifacts. i compared the recent black adder DVD's to my LD's, and found my LD's far more pleasing to the eye. Yes the image was a lot "livelier" because there'd been no filters applied, but it looks a bit crsiper and more detailed than the DVD.

[Ironballs]

flaninacupboard

I'm pretty sure it was Lister that turned in into a chicken & hamster in the classic episode of DNA.

OK I'm sad.

[flaninacupboard]

Yeah, silly me, how could a hologram have DNA?

Perfect example of why the archive will be great though!

[ofbarea]

All Dr. Who you can watch for free...

Sweet