Denial

I was recently given a set of 6 DVDs (in video format, not DVD-ROM) containing all 12 episodes of the french version of Bits'N'Bytes called Octo-Puce in french.

The gentlemen who gave them to me in exchange for a Behr Bonz cart made tremendous efforts to contact Radio-Quebec who aired them at the time (today Radio-Quebec has become Tele-Quebec) but failed to get access to actual masters.

Instead, what he found was a pile of VHS cassettes at a university near where he lives that were recordings of the original TV broadcasts. He transfered these to DVD with a DVD video recorder.

Needless to say the image quality is far from extraordinary but the sound quality is quite surprising as these tapes were recorded using VHS- HiFi technology.

See: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopuce

That brings back memories.

I remember both Octo-Puce and Bits and Bytes, both the original and then Bits and Bytes II. The problem was that computers advance so quickly and the information in the programmes became dated so quickly. Yet, I remember them being re-run for a couple of seasons so that by the time the last run was shown the information was largely useless. (Except to us nostalgic retro-programmer types).

I've still got Bits & Bytes (the original series, in English) on DVD if anyone wants them.

Wasn't Octo-puce shown on TvOntario? I remember that TVO would broadcast in French on Sundays after 12 noon.

(clearing out the cobwebs in my memory).

gklinger wrote:I've still got Bits & Bytes (the original series, in English) on DVD if anyone wants them.

I sure do!

pitcalco wrote:Wasn't Octo-puce shown on TvOntario? I remember that TVO would broadcast in French on Sundays after 12 noon.

I think they were.

on a related topic.

Just when i was about to hunt down the 3 remaining episodes of the Machine that Changed the Wolrd (1992 PBS/BBC) on the various univ campuses and bugging students to loan them for me, someone has done it for the community!

http://waxy.org/2008/06/the_machine_tha ... ingertips/

Neat!

Golan, you have a PM.

I've still got Bits & Bytes (the original series, in English) on DVD if anyone wants them.

wow!


i would love a copy!

i actually signed up for the TVO course they had associated with the show

I'd like to throw my name into the "me to" crowd.

davidv_ wrote:on a related topic.

Just when i was about to hunt down the 3 remaining episodes of the Machine that Changed the Wolrd (1992 PBS/BBC) on the various univ campuses and bugging students to loan them for me, someone has done it for the community!

http://waxy.org/2008/06/the_machine_tha ... ingertips/

I Dloaded that torrent and got the files but they are in a bizarre format called MP4 h264. When I play them, I don't get any video. I have searched for that and it seems a lot of people are having the same problem.

Do you know of any way to play these files?

I can play them on my Mac without any problem.

AAC/H264 are the most advanced audio and video codecs right now.
(H264, along with MS's VC1 are the codecs in BluRay and HDDVD)

This does the trick:

http://www.videolan.org/

Alternatively, theres always Quicktime/Itunes on pc.

gklinger wrote:I can play them on my Mac without any problem.

I can play them using Quicktime on the PC. However, installing Quicktime has incredibly annoying side effects.

For example, if I ever go to a web page that tries to play an MP3 sound file (imbedded in thepage), Quicktime tries to take over the normal codec built in windows and it just crashes internet explorer. It does the same for a bunch of different video files.

Davidv_ wrote:This does the trick:

http://www.videolan.org/

It does, thanks a lot!

eslapion wrote:I Dloaded that torrent and got the files but they are in a bizarre format called MP4 h264. When I play them, I don't get any video. I have searched for that and it seems a lot of people are having the same problem.

Do you know of any way to play these files?

This format is not bizzare.

Try VLC Media Player or Power DVD.

I recommed a good video card with 512mb of on board video memory + a P4 CPU 2.4ghz (and above) if you wish to watch high definition video on PC.

Occasionally, I watch hi defintion satellite TV on my PC.

(sorry about the necropost)

I've been on the lookout for Octo-Puce/Octo-giciel since many years and I could never recover more than 4 episodes (from my old tapes).
If anyone still got the DVD/digital versions or tapes, I'll be interested in making it worth the while for putting up a link.
Or buying them, I can offer a good price. Just let me know your options.

Cheers,