I missed it when it was shown on ITV1 earlier this year, but I stumbled upon the utterly, utterly charming Pushing Daisies in TV Choice on Demand at the weekend. There are only four episodes (of nine) available so far, but they're an absolute treat.
If ever a series was to benefit from being shown in high definition, this is it. They were shot in HD, but Virgin only has them in SD and the rendering often struggles with the detail of the sumptuous Barry Sonnenfield cinematography (the opening field of yellow flowers being a good example of SD just not being up to it - artefacts everywhere).
So come on Virgin - give it to us in HD. Pretty please?
9 comments:
Aren't there "artefacts everywhere" with lots of stuff viewed via 'On Demand'? Isn't this inevitable due to imposed limitations (eg. Bit rate, bandwidth, or whatever) of the process employed within this particular facility? I always notice a similar degrading effect while viewing programmes via 'TV On Demand' (eg. Countryfile), whereas it is never apparent on recordings made on my V+ box. But movies viewed via 'Movies On Demand' seem OK. Perhaps someone with the necessary technical knowledge could enlighten us, please?
I find that On Demand artefacts seem to depend on the source. I've had BBC iPlayer stuff that's looked fine but BBC News programmes such as the rather good "Click" are always pretty blocky (check out the title sequence...urgh!).
The archived stuff seems to be a bit hit n miss PQ wise. For me, the thing with "Pushing Daisies" is that it is so beautifully shot the artefacts really do spoil things.
Also, not sure if episodes 5 - 9 will appear anytime soon either. That's a big downer with VoD - Virgin just don't tell you what's going on. How difficult would it be for VM to have a page on the website with On Demand news and listings?
Re Virgin not telling us what's going on, I think the same thing could be said of BBC in respect of their BBC HD listings to which you have helpfully provided a link*. Episodes within a series are not always identified or distinguished on their webpage. Consequently one sometimes doesn't know if BBC are transmitting a new episode, the next episode, or a repeat of one transmitted a few days previously. To take this coming Thursday's listing as an example, we see that at 8.00pm we have another screening of one of the three main 'Britain From Above' programmes, and we are given a brief description, but is this 1/3, 2/3, or 3/3? I believe such brief additional info is helpfully stated in the Radio Times, at least for the traditional channels, so why not here?
*This facility is far more convenient than Virgin Media's on screen TV Guide when looking at the whole output for each of the days ahead.
This week's "Britain from Above" on BBCHD is the second episode.
I take my BBC HD info from the Radio Times website, which has listings for the next fortnight. Sometimes there are late changes (like the film Sylvia last Saturday, which replaced Miss Potter) and sometimes the info is a bit sketchy mind, like the recent listing for "Spooks" that was actually "Spooks: Code 9"
Thanks, Nialli, that's helpful to me.
Fair enough point. The opening scene looks particularly poor in SD with artifacts plastered all over the screen. Updates to vod are quite annoying, they've been adding tripe again recently, I've been so looking forward to Danish Tractors...
You can get some Season 1 episodes on ABC TV at: http://fep.abc.go.com/fep/player?src=abccomjs&show=93528&pn=index
Unfortunately the ABC site is only available to US folk
Hey Nialli its a nice post!!! Its a nice show with nice story, cast & plot. You people can also Watch Pushing Daisies TV show from here & enjoy with this great show!!!!
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