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Post by Mr Helpful on Apr 17, 2006 12:39:23 GMT
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Post by Greg H on Apr 17, 2006 14:22:43 GMT
Didnt seem to much when I went there. Then again im using firefox, so maybe it only drops its thing with internet explorer. I dunno.
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Post by Joe Cole on Apr 17, 2006 15:06:25 GMT
Once people start to dig into this, they will realise just how much the BBC DID keep. It might change attitudes from people who think that there isn't much left from the 50s and 60s. There are endless recordings of every topic under the sun and barely any of them ssee the light of day.
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Post by Joe Cole on Apr 17, 2006 15:29:00 GMT
You start to wonder when typing in 'Till Death Us Do Part' and find that many of the missing episodes are listed!
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Post by Robert Simpson on Apr 17, 2006 18:32:26 GMT
I found it incredibly useful for some research I'm doing at the moment. Brought up a dozen or more entries for productions I didn't know about.
Of course, now there's the question of how does one get access to the actual archive material. Not something I've tried to do before....
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Post by andrew martin on Apr 18, 2006 12:48:07 GMT
You start to wonder when typing in 'Till Death Us Do Part' and find that many of the missing episodes are listed! There are some occasions when programmes are listed on Infax despite there being no holdings - and Infax lists every network transmission since July 1976. In cases such as "Till Death", the listings reflect actual holdings - there are clips existing for some episodes, and soundtrack recordings for others. Personally (as someone who works with the system), I'd rather Infax listed every programme the BBC had ever made, with some kind of simple indication where there are no holdings. In the vast majority of cases, an Infax entry up to June 76 means the programme exists at least in part... |
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Post by Dan S on Apr 18, 2006 13:40:04 GMT
I'd rather Infax listed every programme the BBC had ever made, with some kind of simple indication where there are no holdings. I was going to say the same thing. I found some things I searched for weren't listed at all, but that tells me nothing. It could be that no episodes exist or it could mean that they haven't been added to the database yet (as the site itself says, "it's vast, but not comprehensive".) |
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Post by andrew martin on Apr 18, 2006 15:50:55 GMT
The only things that haven't been added to the database are things that haven't gone out yet (there are two stages for adding new programmes, they are first 'planned' and then 'confirmed' on Infax, it could well be that only confirmed transmissions are shown when you access Infax on-line), also one or two programmes that are only held by the NFA (which will eventually go on when I get round to it...). And of course programmes that we don't know exist! The argument goes that if programmes are added that don't exist, people who have the job of cataloguing them would be wasting their time if they did so as there is nothing for people to borrow - the point of Infax is as a guide for tv researchers looking for clips, people planning repeats etc to see what is there, etc - it's not there as a historical record of all BBC transmissions. As I say, I wish it was, but until I can come up with a watertight argument - since it would cost time and thus money to do that - it's unlikey to happen soon. That said, I've been in favour of Infax being publicly available for years - I'll have to see what impact it has on queries on forums like this - but you do need to treat it with caution as not everything is as it might first appear!
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Post by Alfie Hill on Apr 18, 2006 19:36:14 GMT
Can't seem to get the link to work... On IE I get "Cannot find server", on Netscape I get the rather ominous message "The connection was refused" ....  |
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Post by Syd on Apr 18, 2006 20:23:45 GMT
It doesn't work for me either.
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Post by LanceM on Apr 18, 2006 23:32:32 GMT
Same here, page unavailable is displayed.
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Post by KennyG on Apr 19, 2006 10:33:57 GMT
I can get it working in IE but there seems to be no way of knowing from it whether a programme exists or not. Unless Andrew knows someway of seeing it...
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Post by andrew martin on Apr 19, 2006 11:46:37 GMT
I don't know how the system is appearing to users going in this way, the quick way of telling whether there are any holdings on Infax as I use it is that on the title list there is a dash ( - ) at the end of the line if nothing is held for it.
By and large though, almost anything pre-July 1976 that's on Infax will exist... If you're really desperate to know whether something exists you can always ask here!
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Post by Syd on Apr 19, 2006 12:19:50 GMT
Is the link that is provided by Mr Helpful a backdoor entrance to the same service that is supposedly accessed via registration with the BBC Motion Gallery? The link below takes you to a Username/Password page but I cannot gain access with my Motion Gallery password. www.bbcmotiongallery.com/infax/default.aspx |
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Post by KennyG on Apr 19, 2006 12:21:19 GMT
Actually, I found that there was a big note in capitals in the more information section you can click on about the fact the programme didn't exist.
Anyway, it certainly has the possibility of revolutionising the production of episode guides and it will be excellent for checking repeats etc. I just hope that the Beeb don't pull the plug on it...
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