A curse on TVX
Posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 1:41 pm
One day, I decided to add to my collection of Lolly B. stuff...... titles mainly
from the sizeable TVX range "Lolly's This and That...". You get the picture.
I could have been naughty, gone the pirate route and got third-rate clips for free;
but, being a reasonably moral sort of chap [and having a preference for good-quality
smut] I decided to 'play the game' and use the bgafd purchase-links to get the legal
downloads available from Gamelink. [This, despite my having HUGE issues with the
iniquitous DRM enforcement that means EVEN WHEN I'VE PAID FOR THE MATERIAL
OUTRIGHT I still can't burn it to disc unless I use (possibly legally-dubious)
protection-removal software].
OK, so far, so fair enough; and we'll also pass over the previously-aired general
unavailability of these titles as mint DVDs- I can accept that there's a financial
case to make for not supplying these [although hardly a customer-service one].
The first one I got was of such exquisitely appalling quality that I would have been
no worse [and financially the better] off going route one, as above.
But, in addition to being a r.m. sort of chap I also have a vestigial tolerance for
human frailty, so I tried a second, and a third, title. These too were of a similar
level of quite superlative grottiness.
You will realise, Gentle Reader, that I now felt not a little aggrieved by this callous
slap in the face for my avowed intention to do the Good Deed; and my newly-minted
hatred for TVX and all their servants, even unto the third generation, had now
filled my dorsal poison-sac with 2 litres of purest 110-proof pH2 venom.
I don't expect such downloads to be pristine DVD-quality [although they frequently
are]; but I do expect them, as an absolute minimum, to be free of massive amounts
of pixelation and dark and faulty colour-registers [if this is what their TV output
is like I'm glad I've never contemplated a subscription]. I haven't felt this
kippered since the bad old days of 'Your Scene' and the like- and since one knew
they were a bit 'naughty' one's expectations were of course correspondingly lowered.
The only explanation I can imagine is that the material downloaded is a wmv analogue
of stream-quality video; I know little about the mechanics but am aware that flv
is often used for the latter because of its comparatively small file-size [and
correspondingly generally poorer quality- one of the reasons I dislike streams so
intensely].
Whatever the technicalities may or may not be, any such explanation would fail to
account for the offering of what is essentially third-rate dross. Perhaps TVX are
fundamentalist Christians and are taking too literally the exhortation of Matthew 7:6.
Gamelink [who prior to this episode have supplied me with reasonable-quality d/ls]
I have alerted, on the presumption of prior innocence, in a politely stroppy email
pointing out their proffering of substandard material; I've also expressed the view
that they shouldn't be selling stuff without having first checked it for quality
[in accordance with their own nation's consumer protection legislation]- and if they
have so checked, then they should in cases like this provide a warning as to its
second-rate nature.
Bgafd I assume had no prior knowledge of the grottiness of the material to which
they are linking. One hopes their usual saturnine mien has been so discombobulated
by the this horrific narrative as to cause them to spill their Earl Grey.
So, at the end of this farce I'm ?20 worse off, a tiny bit worldly-wiser, 2% more
cynical of human nature; and 14% more dyspeptic. AND I'm still severely Lolly-deprived.
Would TVX, who I assume are presently spending the lion's share of my ill-spent
lucre in some downmarket wine-bar, care to comment [preferably by sending me a fat
compo-cheque and then committing collective seppuku, live on one of their shows]?
Oh, for a latter-day Ralph Nader.........
from the sizeable TVX range "Lolly's This and That...". You get the picture.
I could have been naughty, gone the pirate route and got third-rate clips for free;
but, being a reasonably moral sort of chap [and having a preference for good-quality
smut] I decided to 'play the game' and use the bgafd purchase-links to get the legal
downloads available from Gamelink. [This, despite my having HUGE issues with the
iniquitous DRM enforcement that means EVEN WHEN I'VE PAID FOR THE MATERIAL
OUTRIGHT I still can't burn it to disc unless I use (possibly legally-dubious)
protection-removal software].
OK, so far, so fair enough; and we'll also pass over the previously-aired general
unavailability of these titles as mint DVDs- I can accept that there's a financial
case to make for not supplying these [although hardly a customer-service one].
The first one I got was of such exquisitely appalling quality that I would have been
no worse [and financially the better] off going route one, as above.
But, in addition to being a r.m. sort of chap I also have a vestigial tolerance for
human frailty, so I tried a second, and a third, title. These too were of a similar
level of quite superlative grottiness.
You will realise, Gentle Reader, that I now felt not a little aggrieved by this callous
slap in the face for my avowed intention to do the Good Deed; and my newly-minted
hatred for TVX and all their servants, even unto the third generation, had now
filled my dorsal poison-sac with 2 litres of purest 110-proof pH2 venom.
I don't expect such downloads to be pristine DVD-quality [although they frequently
are]; but I do expect them, as an absolute minimum, to be free of massive amounts
of pixelation and dark and faulty colour-registers [if this is what their TV output
is like I'm glad I've never contemplated a subscription]. I haven't felt this
kippered since the bad old days of 'Your Scene' and the like- and since one knew
they were a bit 'naughty' one's expectations were of course correspondingly lowered.
The only explanation I can imagine is that the material downloaded is a wmv analogue
of stream-quality video; I know little about the mechanics but am aware that flv
is often used for the latter because of its comparatively small file-size [and
correspondingly generally poorer quality- one of the reasons I dislike streams so
intensely].
Whatever the technicalities may or may not be, any such explanation would fail to
account for the offering of what is essentially third-rate dross. Perhaps TVX are
fundamentalist Christians and are taking too literally the exhortation of Matthew 7:6.
Gamelink [who prior to this episode have supplied me with reasonable-quality d/ls]
I have alerted, on the presumption of prior innocence, in a politely stroppy email
pointing out their proffering of substandard material; I've also expressed the view
that they shouldn't be selling stuff without having first checked it for quality
[in accordance with their own nation's consumer protection legislation]- and if they
have so checked, then they should in cases like this provide a warning as to its
second-rate nature.
Bgafd I assume had no prior knowledge of the grottiness of the material to which
they are linking. One hopes their usual saturnine mien has been so discombobulated
by the this horrific narrative as to cause them to spill their Earl Grey.
So, at the end of this farce I'm ?20 worse off, a tiny bit worldly-wiser, 2% more
cynical of human nature; and 14% more dyspeptic. AND I'm still severely Lolly-deprived.
Would TVX, who I assume are presently spending the lion's share of my ill-spent
lucre in some downmarket wine-bar, care to comment [preferably by sending me a fat
compo-cheque and then committing collective seppuku, live on one of their shows]?
Oh, for a latter-day Ralph Nader.........