The BBC Red/Press Button

Posted by: J.N. on 20 April 2012

Most of the time it simply accesses the digital text feature, so why display it for that purpose? I have to keep turning it off with the green button on my remote control.

 

I wrote to Auntie Beeb stating that anyone who cannot find the 'Text' button on their remote control should not be in possession of electrical apparatus. Neither should they have control of automotive machinery. They should be supplied with a donkey to ride (with an instruction manual), out of the licence fee.

 

My comments were obviously filed under B One N. The sodding thing persists.

 

All part of the dumbing-down culture and reverse snobbery of keeping it simple for the 'ordinary' people I suppose. I think Saturday evening TV programming actually does the general populace of this country a disservice. Can there really be that many cretins out there?

 

I'm off for a stiff rub-down with The Radio Times. Harrumph.

 

John.

 

Posted on: 20 April 2012 by Gale 401

John,

Just re-tune your box or tv .

I want to know what that white blur on the  almost top left of the screen is?

When watching the cricket.

KP got nine great 6's yesterday.

But that bloody blur was getting up my nose.

It was in red today ???

Stu.

Posted on: 20 April 2012 by J.N.

I'm talking about BBC on Freeview Stuart. The 'DOG' (as they are called in the trade) cannot, to my knowledge be permanently diasbled.

 

And yes; why do we have to tolerate the irksome splurges at top left reminding us which channel we're watching?

 

John.

Posted on: 20 April 2012 by Tony Lockhart
And, when almost every tv is receiving a digital signal, and almost every tv is a widescreen, why on earth do they insist on putting the leaderboard in sports events a quarter of the way across the screen? Sorry, if someone still has a 4:3 goldfish bowl they probably don't watch sport on it. Tony
Posted on: 21 April 2012 by Gavin B

A couple of answers....

 

The blur in the top corner of the IPL coverage on ITV is a blurred out sponsor's logo from the original feed.  ITV can't or won't show it.

 

The Red Button can be useful to access additional coverage on various events.  Tournaments that have multiple 'options' - Wimbledon, Snooker use it to allow access to watch different matches.  Some events are just shown this way (I've recently watched field hockey coverage).  It's also used to provide more extensive coverage of events such as Glastonbury above what's shown on the standard channels.

 

Gavin

Posted on: 21 April 2012 by Derek Wright

Come the taxpayer paid advertizing junket in the summer - no doubt the red button will give you access to continuous formation swimming and beach volleyball even when the 100m sack race is being broadcast.

Posted on: 21 April 2012 by J.N.

Fair enough - when the Red Button gives access to other programmes, but take the bloody thing off when all it does is activate digital text - which is most of the time.

 

Oh yes; the Olympics. I shall be listening to music for the duration of that ludicrously expensive, inconsequential nonsense. The Greeks invented it. They should keep it.

 

John.

Posted on: 21 April 2012 by Paper Plane
ludicrously expensive, inconsequential nonsense.

How right you are.

 

steve

Posted on: 21 April 2012 by deadlifter

Oh yes; the Olympics. I shall be listening to music for the duration of that ludicrously expensive, inconsequential nonsense. The Greeks invented it. They should keep it.

 

John.

 

I concur

Posted on: 24 April 2012 by Gale 401

John,

Forgot to say ,Press your green button to remove the red button logo from the screen.

Stu.

Posted on: 24 April 2012 by BigH47

We shall be in Greece for the first week, and ignoring it for the following 2 weeks.

 

I'm sure our normal TV fare and plenty of music and trips out will fill that time.

 

"These games are value for money"  they have over spent , funding shortages and what do they do ? Build a £17M pile of iron. How much on opening and closing ceremonies FFS?

 

Saying that there MAY be some better legacy from this than say Greece, we went to their Olympic site and it is fenced off and derelict.

Posted on: 24 April 2012 by Reality
Originally Posted by J.N.:

I wrote to Auntie Beeb .....................

 

I hope you addressed the envelope correctly?

Please refer to the Derek and Clive recordings for correct procedure

 

Posted on: 24 April 2012 by Jon Myles
Originally Posted by BigH47:

We shall be in Greece for the first week, and ignoring it for the following 2 weeks.

 

I'm sure our normal TV fare and plenty of music and trips out will fill that time.

 

"These games are value for money"  they have over spent , funding shortages and what do they do ? Build a £17M pile of iron. How much on opening and closing ceremonies FFS?

 

Saying that there MAY be some better legacy from this than say Greece, we went to their Olympic site and it is fenced off and derelict.

I'm sure there will be a legacy: A football stadium (as it will have to be), a great many new flats and one enormous shopping centre.

 

In the meantime, we'll also be looking to spend the Olympics time on a sun-soaked Greek island perhaps watching the 100m on a TV in a taverna.

 

And that's despite the fact as a London ratepayer I've been paying for this overbloated happenstance for the past four years.

 

(Oh, and Lord Coe had the gall to tell us all via an interview we should all stay in London otherwise we don't know what we're missing! What? The only way I can watch it is on TV. So it might as well be on the other side of the world.)

 

Rant over.

 

Posted on: 29 April 2012 by JamieL_v2

When Sky started with the 'Red Button' I rang up to see if it could be disabled. It can not.

 

They have got a little better with it, but not a lot. As fan of American sports, and cricket, it is really annoying that it reappears after every advert break, and often flicks on just as you are trying to follow some complex action.

 

The only way I have found to disable it on a Sky+ box, is to put the programme into live pause for a second, which means you are then watching playback, which can not have the 'active functions'.

 

Of course you are then not watching live, but then the satellite delay, and probably the satellite relays before that mean you are a second or more behind the action anyway.

 

Mostly I can't be bothered, and keep the remote handy and flick the 'backup button' which kills it.

 

What really annoys me is that most of the time it does not have anything to 'enhance' what you are watching, but is just trying to get you to lose money with Skybet, which is vice I do not have, and other unrelated, junk.

As for the Olympics, apart from being an embarrassment to the graphic design of this country (couldn't they have allowed the logo designer's dad to do it, instead of a three year old?), there was a great piece on the news today where the M.O.D. are intending to house anti aircraft missiles in residential areas of East London, rather than the venue building a specific place for such measures to be housed.

 

I just hope it does not leave this country as in debt some similar game left Sheffield for the past twenty years.

Good thread for ranting as grumpy old in though.

Posted on: 29 April 2012 by Gale 401

Jamie,

I seem to remember the people could vote on the Olympic logo.

Millions did.

They said it was shite please change it?

Would they change it ?

NO.


Total waste of time asking the people to vote.


Stu.

Posted on: 29 April 2012 by winkyincanada
Originally Posted by Gale 401:

.....on the Olympic logo.


Stu.

You mean the "Lisa Blowjob".

 

Posted on: 29 April 2012 by Gale 401
Originally Posted by winkyincanada:
Originally Posted by Gale 401:

.....on the Olympic logo.


Stu.

You mean the "Lisa Blowjob".

 

This load of .

You can colour it in with any colour you like?

Its still shite.

Stu.