The TV Room

Old thread: https://www.tvforum.co.uk/mediawebsites/tv-room-45656

It’s about time they do something with their archive. Rewind by the TV Room is now online:

https://rewind.thetvroom.com/

Surprised this hasn't had a better response, there's some really good stuff on there

Sadly if it's not on Youtube and pushed to them directly via an AI algorithm, a lot of the forum base isn't that interested to look and will happily just miss it. It's why many of us don't bother posting much of an update on here ourselves these days.

But for those who do take the time look in though, there are indeed some great things going up in good quality and with a lot of information attached, and its still early days!

Yeah, there is...

The 1950s Batwings ident - in colour! - as used in the 1980s for a "60 Years" week.

And I like how the chevrons form snowflakes on this 1987 Yorkshire TV clock.

There’s some very good rare material, especially BBC1’s new look of 81- and it is all very well presented.

And no incomprehensible youtube comments!

Both have their place. But as I've said before, YouTube etc have made sites like these obsolete - there's just more and more substantial content being uploaded, better usability, and most importantly the ability to embed. Plus YouTube doesn't close down for months or years for a rebuild

They both do different things, a site like this is a curated museum of short clips. If you just want to see just an ident or a title sequence then that's what they do well. If you want to see television - while chunks of old television - all the elements in their context then YouTube is the place.

I'm not sure what you mean by it being selected by an 'AI algorithm' - don't most people just use channel subscriptions? You don't just find new clips by chance and there's no need for the channel owners to post on here with their latest updates because they just pop up in the subscriptions section

Lack of comments is an irrelevance, channels owners don't have to enable comments and visitors don't have to read them. In fact they're a lot more hidden on the app version these days

The AI algorithm controls what gets Recommended For You, and what shows up on the homepage. So yes, while you can subscribe to specific channels, you do also see random stuff without having to specifically search for it.

On This Day in TV History section was also moved to Rewind sub site, leaving TV Forum’s section empty
https://rewind.thetvroom.com/on-this-day-in-tv-history/

It’s good to see the site getting updated regularly now. They’ve also uploaded the first 6 minutes of the first Channel Four Daily from 1989:

https://rewind.thetvroom.com/25400/programmes/the-channel-four-daily-opening-titles-and-presentation-first-edition-3rd-april-1989/

I know I've said this before, but the Channel 4 Daily clock is according to my parents how I learned to tell the time, comparing it with the carraige clock we had on top of the TV.

Reading analogue clocks is apparently a lost skill, and some schools don't teach it. Which is quite scary actually. I know replacing Big Ben's clock faces with digital alternatives has been the source of April Fools jokes before, but it may become a reality if an entire generation don't know what "Big hand on 12 and little hand on 9, what time is it?" means...

Ironically this week I received an analogue clock as a present and restored two others to working order. I think we have one in every room of the house now.