Why won't this thread die?!?

cause we would not be able to laugh at star attractions inane logic

Well why don't you start calling the channels by the codes I've suggested. Then you'll realise why I've invented them.

There's no need to refer to the channels by these codes, because most channel names already are codes, i.e. BBC1 is short for British Broadcasting Corporation One; ITV1 is short for Independent Television One etc.

Dreaming up channel codes is pointless as the codes assigned by Sky are final e.g. 501 = Sky News. After you have selected it a couple of times your brain will automatically instruct your finger which remote buttons are to be depress.

Surely.....end of story

Will someone please put this thread out of its misery, it's complete codswallop,the channel names themselves are short codes - no-one says ''I'm going to turn over to British Broadcasting Corporation Channel 1''. Could we discuss the price of dog biscuits or something really useful on this thread please :yawn:

At the risk of generating further conversation on this strange (and possibly a joke) topic, does this not make the identity of each BBC channel harder to determine? BBC One to Four is fine (though B4 clashes with the existing B4 music channel, which is presumably given a different code), but then there's no logical reason I can see that CBBC comes next as B5, aside from its arbitrary placement on Freeview. In fact the existing system on the Sky EPG comes across as superior there due to News 24 and Parliament using 5xx for news/documentaries (8x on Freeview?) and CBBC/Beebies using 6xx for younger channels (6x on Freeview?). A shorthand system should be immediately logical or there is little benefit to using it, reducing it just to a different system to learn rather than a superior one. It would make more sense personally to include some reference to content within the code of broadcasters that cover a wide range of channels:

B1 = BBC1
B2 = BBC2
B3 = BBC3
B4 = BBC4
BC1 = CBBC
BC2 = CBeebies
BN1 = BBC News 24
BN2 = BBC Parliament

This immediately separates the numbered channels (making room for a BBC5 and up if the BBC were ever inclined to go that way) and putting the Children's channels in a group together in a sensible order, and the News channels in another, clear group. It also then covers Freeview, Sky or any other system as long as they have the channels, and even safeguards against any EPG reshuffling that could switch the order of the channels. Of course, a code like BC1 is only one letter away from BBC1 which for some reason needed shortening originally.

Ultimately though I don't see the point. Unless you can recode the EPG of whatever system you are using to access the channels so that it accepts these codes you're just creating an additional level of complication.

"Can you put it on B7 please?"
"Okay. B7... That's News 24, which is 504."

Rather than:

"Can you put it on 504 please?" (if somebody is unfamiliar with the channel code I refer to it by that code)
"Okay."

But even if you could code the channels like that it doesn't really achieve anything. On a remote such as the Sky remote to type 101 for BBC1 I would press 1 then 0 then 1. To type B1 would requre pressing 1 twice quickly to get 'B' (assuming it followed mobile phone typing rules rather than having 26 letter buttons and 10 number buttons on a remote) follow by 1 again for '1'. Except that would bring up either the letter 'C' or, if it reset, the letter 'A'. So you would maybe have to hold the 1 button to get the number 1, or press an additional button to switch between letters and numbers. Presumably that's why channels are accessed purely by numbers rather than a combination of letters and numbers, it's too complicated.

So as a system it is not immediately obvious to the uninitiated, and has no practical use as a replacement for the existing system (indeed, it seems to add extra complication). So while there is an element of logic behind grouping channels into their own codes, there doesn't seem to be any logical application for such a system.

....or do you prefer your milkman leave the bottles on the left or right hand side of your front door

He always leaves the milk on the right-hand side.As he comes at about 4 am we never see him but he does leave his bill once a month. The paper boy comes at 0630 and always puts the paper right through the letter box with a clatter thus waking the dogs. But on Sundays he comes at 0730 and leaves the papers on the mat therefore allowing the dogs to slumber on (it's probably not the same paper boy unless he works seven days a week).Anyhow you'll have to excuse me as almost time for the Man U game

Inspired!!!! Oh my! A career in Luxembourgian bureaucracy would be just your ticket, SA

do you sit in a room without windows thinking up crazy crap like this?if so mate you need help, i mean do you actually have a life away from TV/computers?
i believe that you need to get out more, find yourself a woman and come out from the closet that is your world. Your codes are crazy ,inane and well useless in the 21st century world.
Jodie Marsh needs a new guy and from the threads written on here she will certainly bring something to the lonely world you inhabit.

This guy has to be joking, there's something knowing about his posts. He can't seriously believe that it's natural for anyone to think 'I'm watching approximately fourty-two minutes of B7 before [programme code] comes on on DS+1 .

Although... you know, if you are serious, SA, maybe you should come up with television programme codes as well . Each programme could be labelled firstly with the television station number, then with the genre, sub-genre and classification number.

Why stop there? Throw in the time slot and average audience as well! And maybe even a quick summary of what will happen in the show (in code of course) might be suitable

B8-POL-WA-0100-26-PR-XPCA

On BBC Parliament, a politics show (no sh&t!) featuring prerecorded action from the Welsh Assembly will be showing at 01:00, to an expected audience of 26 individuals, with extra Plaid Cymru action!

SA probably had all this planned before hand, and could have probably understood that before you even gave a definition.

My argument towards this thread is:

TV Channels have names for a reason, not so it can be shortened even more. Excluding SA, what lazy person won't say an extra two syllables all for the sake of a complicated shorthand code?

B1 Ee,7-30 Pa 11-m Sfd :d

Probably more people watching in VT than at home

BBC1, Eastenders, Starts at 7:30, 11m viewers. Not sure about the rest

correct but am not sure about the res now either

Star Attractions codes have fried me brain

Hmm, SA have you considered a career as a librarian?

You might be the first person to comprehend the Dewey Decimal System!

Well actually I do have a life.

I go to Bath Sports Centre twice a week: circuit training on Mondays and swimming on Wednesdays.

The last two years I've been a member of the Roller Coaster Club of Great Britain, and been on Club trips to theme parks.

I've been for plenty of other trips during the course of last year. I went on holiday to the IOW for four nights at the end of March last year, and for eight nights in Cornwall early in July last year. The first two days of last September I was in Portsmouth for what I call a mini-break; that included going to the adult night at Portsmouth Playzone the evening of Friday 1 September 2006 Saturday before last (27 Jan 2007) I went to Bournemouth Aviation Museum.

So don't you give me the rubbish that all I ever do is sit in front of TV, and on DS Forums making up TV channel codes. Far from it!
Last edited by Star Attraction : 08-02-2007 at 22:10

That was my birthday

OK... now we know this is a wind-up. And a pretty excellent one it is too.

The codes for the ITV channels are built up with the same formula (broadcaster code + channel code) as for the BBC channels.

Broadcaster code: I = ITV

Channel codes:
1 = ITV1
2 = ITV2
3 = ITV3
4 = ITV4
5 = CITV
6 = ITV Play

By combining the broadcaster code (I = ITV) with the relevant channel code, you get the full code for each channel:
I + 1 = I1 -> ITV1
I + 2 = I2 -> ITV2
I + 3 = I3 -> ITV3
I + 4 = I4 -> ITV4
I + 5 = I5 -> CITV
I + 6 = I6 -> ITV Play

Nah - you've given the game away now. Now that we know it's a wind-up it's not funny any more. Just tiresome.