The joke that is RTE.

tvnutz

Is anyone watching,or trying to watch CSI Miami on RTE 2 at the moment? They are showing a double bill. They showed the first episode at 9pm...all fine. Half way through the second episode they show an ad break,then when the ad break is coming to an end,they show a whole other set of ads. Then they return to the 2nd episode,which seems to be missing a big chunk.

Then they switch to a screen with "RTE 2" written on it,with an announcer apologising and saying they will return to CSI Miami as soon as possible.
A few seconds later,they return...but start showing the first episode again,the one they had just showed an hour earlier. That plays for a few minutes before they again go back to the announcer,apolgising again.

They return to the right episode,but still missing a big chunk? How hard is it to play a tape? Seriously? This is supposed to be a national broadcaster,and they can't even play a show properly,its a joke!

*rant over*

Smurfpiss

ha. was waiting for a thread like this....
Yeah it was ridiculous how they couldnt handle a simple play button. I thought it was hilarious how they went back to the first episode "ahh sure stick in any csi episode, they wont notice!"

Bixmoo

the guy at the controls must have been tugging his bird

Nightwish

Lol! I was going to post a rant about it here! It totally pissed me off waiting for it to come back on and then to show the previous episode! RTE are incompetent boobs.

Ivan

Oh come on, it was a minor inconvience and who knows what the cause was. Dont be such a pack of whingers

aidan_walsh

Ivan wrote:

Oh come on, it was a minor inconvience and who knows what the cause was. Dont be such a pack of whingers

Besides, its CSI: Miami. Its not like you missed anything...

Our man in Havana

You might have missed one of Horatio's witty one liners.

Rollo Tamasi

a man got murdered while the city got hit by mini tsunami of all things and Horatio pointed out that it was a crime wave! FAN****INGTASTIC!

Mossy Monk

its not like other channcels **** up every once in a while

niall mc

I think its pretty funny when tv stations **** it up a bit. Like a frozen screen or loss of sound.

you can just picture the people running around trying to get it back online, going nuts and ripping out their hair!

Dermington

Nightwish wrote:

Lol! I was going to post a rant about it here! It totally pissed me off waiting for it to come back on and then to show the previous episode! RTE are incompetent boobs.

mmmmmmmmm boobs.

coolcon

niall mc wrote:

I think its pretty funny when tv stations **** it up a bit. Like a frozen screen or loss of sound.

you can just picture the people running around trying to get it back online, going nuts and ripping out their hair!

Ye and I wonder if they have to drag an announcer out of the cantine or something to say sorry !

Pigman II

It's amazing that they never seem to fúck up during the adbreaks. Odd that.

aidan_walsh

Pigman II wrote:

It's amazing that they never seem to fúck up during the adbreaks. Odd that.

Its happened.

tvnutz

Ivan wrote:

Oh come on, it was a minor inconvience and who knows what the cause was. Dont be such a pack of whingers

Maybe it was minor,but it was annoying and just plain stupid...hit the pla y button there please.

And Horatio Caine is the coolest character on tv Bet you couldn't look so cool by wearing sunglasses 24 hours a day

J.R.HARTLEY

in fairness they did the same thing last sunday, when going over to the GAA qualifiers draw they played the ads and the return RTE 2 sting only to start the ads again and whatever eejit was doing it, played a soccer mnms ad (offside in GAA indeed) but it does only happen every so often, not too bad but definitely down to paid people not paying attention.

abetarrush

Retarded Technicians Eire

Telefís

In fairness, as pointed out, this type of thing happens exceptionally rarely - once out of thousands of hours of broadcast material, and happens just as often with other broadcasters. (Though RTÉ's Pres department's lack of finesse in entering and exiting certain programmes is a rant for another day)
In this case it was a simple VT error, where the cue point, or 'in point' returning from the break got muddled up for whatever reason - it seems here that the VT continued playing during the break instead of holding.
Admittedly how the channel director or announcer managed to play the wrong episode entirely second time round is anyone's guess... :rolleyes:
That is frankly an almost impossible error to make, but rolling forward in an episode is generally an excusable error. A dedicated audience tend to be unforgiving with a director, ignoring the fact that the person operating the programme isn't necessarily its greatest fan. They don't watch most of the material going out - only the in and out points.

As an aside, in the BBC they've an interesting setup whereby the Presentation announcers have their channel piped through to their toilets, and an emergency button outside the door which when activated, kicks in an automatic station ident or other form of temporary measure till they get back to the control room

irishcsifan

I was waiting for thread like this. i don't mind the F**K ups but when the start showing the first eppy again well i just kept thinking what a bunch of twats.

FlutterinBantam

Most of these people work in places where nothing EVER goes wrong...I just happen to know that

John R

Telef&#237 wrote: »

In fairness, as pointed out, this type of thing happens exceptionally rarely - once out of thousands of hours of broadcast material, and happens just as often with other broadcasters.

Sorry but RTE have a much higher frequency and wider range of technical fukups than any other broadcaster that I can think of.

I would say that it is more like once every 100 hours or so. I see one every month or so and considering how little of their output I watch there has to be 20 I don't see for every one I do.

FYI the Planespotting programme immediately preceeding CSI Miami yesterday was broadcast for the whole hour in the wrong aspect on analogue, so 2 programmes and 2 technical problems. They are unprofessional halfwits who obviously don't give a damn.

In the end after spending 5minutes+ broadcasting the wrong material they still hadn't managed to return to the correct place in the programme.

Telefís

Well in contrast to you, I watch much of RTÉ's output, and have done for years, so am perhaps in a slightly better position to comment on frequency of such errors. In terms of VT errors, RTÉ generally don't have these problems over and above other broadcasters, but I fully agree with you about aspect ratios - a different kettle of fish altogether.
In this respect they are incompetent twats of the highest order.

As such, I refuse to take your bait and enter into wholescale rant mode

John R

Telef&#237 wrote: »

Well in contrast to you, I watch much of RTÉ's output, and have done for years, so am perhaps in a slightly better position to comment on frequency of such errors.

2 24hr channels is a LOT of tv to watch, if you have been viewing a big chunk of that how could you possibly be watching enough of any other channels to compare their performance?

Considering that I don't go out of my way to watch RTE the fact I have at least half a dozen enjoyment-ruining problems committed to VHS speaks for itself. I have maybe one or two from SKY and none from BBC or Channel 4 despite taping more from them over the years than from RTE.

Perhaps if they spent less money on the plank there would be more available to train the monkeys in the basement.

Telef&#237 wrote: »

As such, I refuse to take your bait and enter into wholescale rant mode

We'll see about that

Telefís

Oi - less of the monkey stuff! They are what the broadcast industry is. All the focus on talent glitz is a load of crap - it doesn't even exist. The monkeys make these people who they are!

I watch a balanced amount of output, leaning more towards RTÉ. Don't have $ky so can't comment there

J.R.HARTLEY

Telef&#237 wrote: »

Oi - less of the monkey stuff! They are what the broadcast industry is. All the focus on talent glitz is a load of crap - it doesn't even exist. The monkeys make these people who they are!

I watch a balanced amount of output, leaning more towards RTÉ. Don't have $ky so can't comment there

telefis you were the one who showed us a thread full of technical cock ups on the news only about a month ago, you can't ignore RTEs consistant catalogue of errors recently, of course mistakes happen, but they are getting paid to do a job, out of our licence fee, which means we're paying for incompetent techies, and it's obviously a lack of attention thats causing these problems. otherwise the cameras would be ready at news time and the VT operator would have remembered which deck he went to a break from. it's just carelesness from a select few who need severe warnings that they don't have to like their job in order to do it well.

crybaby

in fairness it was the tape that was messed up, bit silly putting the first episode back on but the person was probably in the midst of a fully fledged panic attack at this stage

Telefís

That is unacceptable though for a Presentation operator - they are paid specifically to handle situations like these. For the error to happen is excusable, as a machine or server cock-up can happen anyone, but the clumsy handling of the situation most certainly was not.

J.R.HARTLEY wrote:

telefis you were the one who showed us a thread full of technical cock ups on the news only about a month ago, you can't ignore RTEs consistant catalogue of errors recently, of course mistakes happen, but they are getting paid to do a job, out of our licence fee, which means we're paying for incompetent techies, and it's obviously a lack of attention thats causing these problems. otherwise the cameras would be ready at news time and the VT operator would have remembered which deck he went to a break from. it's just carelesness from a select few who need severe warnings that they don't have to like their job in order to do it well.

I fully agree with you J.R. - only we're referring to Presentation here. The News Division is a very different ballgame, alas :rolleyes:
RTÉ Pres are usually very good - reliable, stable, and have made huge improvements since their new Pres suites were fitted out about 18 months ago (for example note the new, nice clean fades to black on cuts, or the stable cutting up of studio sources which used to be woeful until recently with purple lines flying across the screen with every cut to live studios within the Montorse complex).
They are however lacking in finesse in their operations, for example cutting out of programmes too early like the closing headlines of news bulletins, failing to leave nice lingering wide shots of studios at the end of certain progs like the Late Late, the early or too late fading of audio, the crass cutting in of graphics, etc etc. This is what needs improvement, while their systems in general are very good and stable.

Also a major problem of late that they simply refuse to sort is the audio cut to the Newsroom, appalling eveident on the Nine, where the newscaster's audio gradually fades up for the first 2-3 seconds, at times cutting off their first words! This seemingly automatic fade was introduced several months ago, and nothing has been done about it. Watch Nine tonight and see - it's worse on some nights more than others, depending on when the newsreader starts speaking.

As for News production however - how long have you got... :rolleyes:

tvnutz

Telef&#237 wrote: »

Oi - less of the monkey stuff! They are what the broadcast industry is. All the focus on talent glitz is a load of crap - it doesn't even exist. The monkeys make these people who they are!

I watch a balanced amount of output, leaning more towards RTÉ. Don't have $ky so can't comment there

Admit it,you are director of programming at RTE

-Al-

Bond-007 wrote:

You might have missed one of Horatio's witty one liners.

Horatioisms

Tha Gopher

For all the stick we give it RTE is alot better than the UK free channels. What have they got?

ITV- utter bollix. Premieres films that were already on RTE two years previously.

Channel 4- manages to pick up US TV shows 9 months after RTE.

BBC- the odd good documentary and decent news coverage. Apart from that Only Fools reruns are the only thing worth watching on it.

As bad as RTE can be, it could be alot worse. They often grab US TV before the UK satellites, they show decent films.

irishcsifan

Tha Gopher wrote:

For all the stick we give it RTE is alot better than the UK free channels. What have they got?

ITV- utter bollix. Premieres films that were already on RTE two years previously.

Channel 4- manages to pick up US TV shows 9 months after RTE.

BBC- the odd good documentary and decent news coverage. Apart from that Only Fools reruns are the only thing worth watching on it.

As bad as RTE can be, it could be alot worse. They often grab US TV before the UK satellites, they show decent films.

Well you've got point there

Nightwish

RTE deserve stick over this: it appears that the last 2 episodes of the current CSI Miami season arent going to be shown over the next 2 weeks. CSI:NY season 2 is starting next week, with no sign of the conclusion of CSI Miami.

J.R.HARTLEY

Nightwish wrote:

CSI:NY season 2 is starting next week, with no sign of the conclusion of CSI Miami.

i better hurry up and finish my season 1 boxset, i like NY.

Metacortex

Nightwish wrote:

RTE deserve stick over this: it appears that the last 2 episodes of the current CSI Miami season arent going to be shown over the next 2 weeks. CSI:NY season 2 is starting next week, with no sign of the conclusion of CSI Miami.

Hold on, am i reading this correctly as i don't follow CSI - RTE have shown the whole series, people tune in every week to watch it and now they aren't even going to bother airing the final two episodes in the series!??
They're not going to show the season finale, the one episode which a series usually builds up towards????

I know RTE are bad, but surely that can't be right?? :eek:

I would be fuming if they did that to a show i followed.

John R

Metacortex wrote:

Hold on, am i reading this correctly as i don't follow CSI - RTE have shown the whole series, people tune in every week to watch it and now they aren't even going to bother airing the final two episodes in the series!??
They're not going to show the season finale, the one episode which a series usually builds up towards????

I know RTE are bad, but surely that can't be right?? :eek:

I would be fuming if they did that to a show i followed.

They are that bad, I can think of at least 4 occasions where they have missed entire episodes, usually season enders for some reason.

DMC

Tha Gopher wrote:

For all the stick we give it RTE is alot better than the UK free channels.

---

As bad as RTE can be, it could be alot worse. They often grab US TV before the UK satellites, they show decent films.

Agree with all of the above.

RTÉ has faults. But no channel out there is perfect.

_Kaiser_

I tend to agree that RTE seem more error-prone than most of their competitors. I don't watch that much of it, but their news coverage for example consistently has things like presenter's microphones not turned on or left on during a report, wrong captions/no captions at all.

It's just poor and lazy presentation and all the more visible on one of their flagship programmes.

Trode

Metacortex wrote:

Hold on, am i reading this correctly as i don't follow CSI - RTE have shown the whole series, people tune in every week to watch it and now they aren't even going to bother airing the final two episodes in the series!??
They're not going to show the season finale, the one episode which a series usually builds up towards????

I know RTE are bad, but surely that can't be right?? :eek:

I would be fuming if they did that to a show i followed.

RTE have a long-standing tradition of buying in decent American shows and treating them like something they scraped off their shoes. CSI:Miami is actually one of the ones that gets off lightly, having had a fairly consistent timeslot for over two months now and often even showing episodes in the correct order. Just ask fans of the other two CSI shows, which have been on-and-off random timeslot-fillers whenever RTE remember they have them, or when Gerry Ryan and Simon Delaney aren't available to fill up the airtime. 24, which was a major part of their schedule one year,gets dumped in a graveyard slot with zero promotion the next. There's even another thread down a bit on what they do with popular,criticially-acclaimed teen drama Veronica Mars.

That's why, although I love Lost, I smile a little when its fans get up in arms because it's delayed half an hour, or even put back a week for some big sporting event. They could have it so much worse

rlogue

I would have specific criticisms of RTÉ; the technical quality and direction of their TV news bulletins has not improved over the years, and I hear that Sky+ owners frequently lose the start or finish of late running programmes due to RTÉ's inability to keep the $ky EPG updated.

But overall, RTÉ actually do make good quality programmes when they put their minds to it.

I have said elsewhere that their sports coverage, drama and documentary programmes are the equal of any other broadcaster in terms of quality and professionalism. And despite the fact that Ireland has a relatively small population, RTÉ do produce a higher than average proportion of home produced programming than similar European countries.

And in any case, if you think RTÉ are bad, then I have only one word for you....

TV3

*shudder*

Ruskie4Rent

Tha Gopher wrote:

For all the stick we give it RTE is alot better than the UK free channels. What have they got?

ITV- utter bollix. Premieres films that were already on RTE two years previously.

Channel 4- manages to pick up US TV shows 9 months after RTE.

BBC- the odd good documentary and decent news coverage. Apart from that Only Fools reruns are the only thing worth watching on it.

As bad as RTE can be, it could be alot worse. They often grab US TV before the UK satellites, they show decent films.

That's a bit harsh on bbc and ch4. They do have alot of brilliant comedy and drama output. For every 100 bbc police shows there's a good one.

lodgepole

Surely the show wouldn't have been playing off a VT by choice? What do they use in RTE for transmission control, is it Landscape? If a server crashed and they had to run the episode from tape (which would mean finding the back up tape and getting the cue details) then a mistake would have been very easy to make. It could also have been the case that a type was made by the scheduler when programming their schedule on Landscape.