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Big Brother 2004 on official YouTube channel (Live streamed Aug 29 -30 + Sept 6-7)

matts bb

matts bb

Always Watching šŸ‘€
šŸ“¼ We're digitising the Season 4 tapes LIVE on YouTube: @bigbrotherau

šŸ’¬ Weā€™ve seen the FOMO in the comments, so the marathons will now run in back-to-back 12-hour bursts to make catch-up replays easier, across two MASSIVE weekends!

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šŸ’” A few tapes are damaged, but weā€™ve got hi-res versions to fill the gaps while they're being restored.

#BBAU | Back on Channel 10 this year
 
So much for "they've already been digitised". Unless that was like the national archive that was doing that and not 10 themselves.
 
matts bb said:
šŸ’” A few tapes are damaged, but weā€™ve got hi-res versions to fill the gaps while they're being restored.
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I bet it's the finale again, from overuse over the years, and I'm going to be crushed. Possibly Merlin's eviction, too? šŸ˜”ā˜¹ļø 12-hour bursts will make my capture plans a lot more manageable, but I already have to adjust my expectations.

I really hope they can restore the damaged tapes, and it isn't just "yet more bloody overpromising".
 
matts bb said:
ā€œA few tapes are damaged, but weā€™ve got hi-res versions to fill the gaps while they're being restored.ā€
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So why not just stream all of them from these ā€œhi-res versionsā€? Unless theyā€™re referring to streaming upscaled fan rips again, like last weekā€™s Finale.
 
I donā€™t like them calling this process the digitising part. Clearly they already have them ready to go. I think thatā€™s just them making it sound fancy.

If theyā€™ve already ran the analogue tapes through something to be aware that tapes are damaged, then it means theyā€™ve most likely already done the ā€œdigitisingā€. Especially if theyā€™ve had the chance to replace episodes with other versions. And presumably someoneā€™s already had to sift through most, if not all, these seasons to ā€œclearā€ them anyway.

The fact the live streams also run seamlessly, with the countdown between ads already removed and no delay between changing tapes, makes me believe theyā€™ve already technically digitised everything.

Rather, they likely just need to upload the stream theyā€™ve pre-edited together.
 
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the Theorist said:
I donā€™t like them calling this process the digitising part. Clearly they already have them ready to go. I think thatā€™s just them making it sound fancy.

If theyā€™ve already ran the analogue tapes through something to be aware that tapes are damaged, then it means theyā€™ve most likely already done the ā€œdigitisingā€. And presumably someoneā€™s already had to sift through most, if not all, these episodes to ā€œclearā€ them anyway. The fact the live streams also run seamlessly, with the countdown between ads already removed and no delay between changing tapes, makes me believe theyā€™ve already technically digitised everything. Rather, they likely just need to upload the stream theyā€™ve pre-edited together.
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I 100% agree with all of this, too... Well, they probably still have to play their edited stream "live", but that's just a nitpick. They could just as easily upload the whole thing and premiere it at a certain start time.

I'm guessing this is why they're getting increasingly cagey about what will and won't be streamed/uploaded... they got the archives through and got excited, and said "We're going to upload everything!", and then found out that might not actually be possible. And they've been trying to temper expectations ever since. šŸ˜¬

Bit awkward to pull everything from YouTube and Dailymotion, only to resort to re-airing those exact same rips, but I guess I can understand getting excited and jumping the gun. Whoever's behind this, it's clearly real BBAU fans.
 
BB: ā€œSeason 1-8 are all on tape. They are all being checked and prepared for digitising now. Exact episodes (that are damaged) can't be confirmed yet as the team are still prepping them, we've been told to expect issues for the first few weeks but the end of the season and the finale should be fine.ā€

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the Theorist said:
BB: ā€œSeason 1-8 are all on tape. They are all being checked and prepared for digitising now. Exact episodes (that are damaged) can't be confirmed yet as the team are still prepping them, we've been told to expect issues for the first few weeks but the end of the season and the finale should be fine.ā€

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"Should be fine" they'd better be fine šŸ˜­
 
Iā€™m actually quite surprised that so many of these archive tapes are ruined. I wonder if it also came down to how theyā€™ve been stored over the years.

TV master tapes are usually in a lot better condition. Look at Neighbours, Prisoner, etc, as a random example - older, over 10,000 episodes between them, both archived online and/or DVD, and those shows arenā€™t damaged like these are.
 
Being Big Brother said:
Wait, @matts bb ... Won't it be September 5th and 6th? Have they even said one way or the other? šŸ¤”

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ETA: Big Brother has said on Insta, "Season 1-8 are all on tape šŸ«£", so things may not even improve.
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Good call out, yes it should be the Friday and Saturday I think. But if they are doing it in bursts it may be Friday - Sunday for both weekends.... we may have to wait and see.

Either way, ill be capping it all hehe like i have the others.
 
matts bb said:
But if they are doing it in bursts it may be Friday - Sunday for both weekends.... we may have to wait and see.
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I think there's only enough for two days per weekend... Depends how literally you take "12 hours". šŸ¤“ Kevin's BB04 rip (minus Uncut, UpLate clips, Rove clips, etc.) comes out to 53h 26m 59s... or 53.45 hours, which works out as 4.45 Ɨ 12 hours.

I guess we don't necessarily know which days though.
 
James T said:
Itā€™s so strange there were no digital archives of 2008 after 10 went HD
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Yeah. Obviously I donā€™t know so canā€™t say for certain, but Iā€™m not convinced. It feels very bizarre that, at the very least, 2008 is still on a tapeā€¦
 
I can't say for sure, but magnetic tapes only have a lifespan of ~20 years. I had some old Hi8 family video tapes from the 80s/very early 90s converted back in 2020 and some of them didn't make it. I would assume a combination of shelf-life and how they were stored would play a major factor. I also think they have streamed them "live" for the most part. This was prominent in a stream either last weekend or the weekend before when they accidentally skipped an episode and went back to play it. In studios they have VTR decks - usually a couple each hooked up to their own monitor - and when one episode is playing they cue the next episode on another tape deck. One episode ends, they start playing the next tape and change the source. The countdown is how these are "cued" up - easy to bypass allowing it to stream if they feel like it. They could've also been transferred to longer tapes, allowing multiple episodes on one cassette tape, making it easier for whoever is streaming these to churn out. Just guessing at this point based on experience in the industry.

Don't forget that they probably had a whole capture ecosystem in place when they were churning these out each year. It would've been a massive investment to switch entirely to digital, whether it was the cameras or the recording decks. At that time they probably had no intention of re-airing these in a world of 2k and 4k TV so it wasn't high on the priority list. These days capping to drives (specifically SSDs) is common. Capping to DVDs was never really standard, but that would've been expensive even back then compared to tapes. HDDs (the ones that spin) and SSDs (solid state) would've been extremely more expensive than they are now in the mid 00's. HDDs also only have a modest shelf life too.

They also made a comment about this is how they "got the tapes back" - so perhaps they weren't in 10's possession all these years.
 
dasnico said:
They also made a comment about this is how they "got the tapes back" - so perhaps they weren't in 10's possession all these years.
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This was my first thought. If theyā€™ve been moved around for various reasons over the years, potentially without much care, then that may very well have contributed to their decay.

Also found this discussion about the switch to HD in the later seasons.
 
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