Video on bbc.co.uk/topgear/

Video on bbc.co.uk/topgear/

  • The original film, as aired on Top Gear

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • A cut down, "highlights" clip

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    0

Webmonkey

Former BBC TG Webmaster
Joined
Jan 4, 2005
Messages
323
Hello, I just want to conduct a straw poll.

If you went to bbc.co.uk/topgear to watch video, would you rather see the full uncut films, or reduced length snippets, say of around 5-10 minutes...

Please, when voting, could you take into account:

1) Most people download the whole ep, so think about what you would like to see if you didn't have the whole episode.
2) How prepared you would be to watch a very long clip on your computer.
 
Are we talking about downloadable clips? or a separate window that opens and plays with real player?

If it's the latter, I'd rather see the snip-its. I'm sure others agree we dont want to be "Buffering" for four days to see a 1 hour episode in a tiny frame. I like the idea of 5-10 minute clips. Or even some footage we haven't seen, like bloopers and such.
 
like you said, most people download the whole clip from some "obscure" place :p

people who are visiting BBC website, are a) just looking around or b)looking for a specific part

so i think short clips would have more success than the whole thing


i would only download the whole thing though
and as said above, bloopers and unaired stuff would be realy cool as well
 
If it's just for watching on the site, then just highlights and bloopers like No Boss suggested.
Some suggestions for clips:
- Cheap car challenges
- Car vs. Train/Plane/Ship
- Games (Football/Icehockey/ect.)
- Bloopers :mrgreen:
 
No Boss said:
Are we talking about downloadable clips? or a separate window that opens and plays with real player?

If it's the latter, I'd rather see the snip-its. I'm sure others agree we dont want to be "Buffering" for four days to see a 1 hour episode in a tiny frame. I like the idea of 5-10 minute clips. Or even some footage we haven't seen, like bloopers and such.

Perhaps I should clear this up :)

We would put up a whole segment, say the Audi A8 drive to Scotland. Yes, it would be real player, and it would be about 12-15 minutes uncut, or we could trim it down to 5 minutes.

Which of those would you prefer.

Also, realvideo shouldn't buffer for long, no matter what length the clip is. I say shouldn't, but I think we all know Real is a law unto itself.
 
If its in realplayer most people with todays internet connections would be able to enjoy the uncut versions with no - to little buffering time..


.. Or why not do it in Flash like Google Video? - In better quality ofc.
 
I'd want to watch the entire segment.


I also know people hate real, but Real used to be the only enterprise scale video streaming system for a long time, and its not that bad, quality is quite often better than the wmv option.
 
Depends who you're targeting. You say people that haven't seen/downloaded the episode, but if the target of the clips are people that wont be able to view the episode, they'd prefer the full segment (the valuable route if this is a part of building awareness of TG in other countries). If the clips are aimed at, say British people that could see the whole episode on TV if they want, a shorter clip would be better.
 
Lilleput said:
.. Or why not do it in Flash like Google Video? - In better quality ofc.

Yeah, Google video format would be good, I just loathe RealPlayer.

I'd be for the full segments, like the Audi A8-800miles thing, instead of just little clips from that segment. Full episodes though, would just take too long.
 
put up the entire episodes for just like a week at a time or something ;)
 
Uncut definitely, we get some TG clips on a local car show and it's furiating when they edit them shorter.

On the ther hand if you have not seen the whole clip and therefore are unaware of what jokes etc. you missed you might still enjoy the edited clip just as well...
 
Lilleput said:
If its in realplayer most people with todays internet connections would be able to enjoy the uncut versions with no - to little buffering time..


.. Or why not do it in Flash like Google Video? - In better quality ofc.

We can't serve flash video easily, and the cost is far higher than real. Although, we are working on that :)
 
With the increase in broadband take-up, I'd say full clips for maximum effect. Full clips will appeal to and assist the "Did you see X on Top Gear last night?" conversations we have in the office every Monday morning of the season!

Mind you, since I tape every episode anyway I'm probably the wrong person to ask.
 
Top Gear isn't Top Gear unless you're watching the whole thing. The US version, for instance, was incredibly boring. Part of this was because I'd seen all of the video before, but part of it was the loss of all the in between banter that makes the show as entertaining as it is informative.

If the BBC made it possible to watch full new episodes online in a streaming format, then I would watch them, possibly even in place of downloading them elsewhere. I rarely watch these episodes a second or third time, so as long as the streaming format isn't too heavily compressed I might watch it in lieu of my current method.

However, I am not at all interested in just watching portions of an episode.
 
rootrider said:
Top Gear isn't Top Gear unless you're watching the whole thing. The US version, for instance, was incredibly boring. Part of this was because I'd seen all of the video before, but part of it was the loss of all the in between banter that makes the show as entertaining as it is informative.

If the BBC made it possible to watch full new episodes online in a streaming format, then I would watch them, possibly even in place of downloading them elsewhere. I rarely watch these episodes a second or third time, so as long as the streaming format isn't too heavily compressed I might watch it in lieu of my current method.

However, I am not at all interested in just watching portions of an episode.

:thumbsup: only full episodes will work for most of us.
 
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