Only 4 more sleeps till Countdown and other assorted retro images and feasts to be enjoyed.


I MUST get lots of sleep before Saturday to be in FULL stance for this hopefully heavenly first weekend of January retro bliss *****

"I MUST get lots of sleep before Saturday" and you are posting messages at 1:41am - although it is good to practice staying up at night.

Rage Retro has been great the last couple of years and the new Rage crew have been far more receptive to suggestions from viewers so I am anticipating that they will again have a fantastic line-up.

My hopes now are that we don't have any extreme weather causing blackouts which have hit me 3 times since Retro started and if it wasn't for this site I would never have gotten the bits I missed from other generous forum users.

Bring it on

Excuse me for using so many emoticons but the guru is getting excited

I was up at 1:41 am because I have had a very bad flu this week. Not to well me...

Hey get better soon Jason - you need to be fighting fit for the coming Retro season!!

And Guru I can relate - every year not only do I eagerly scan the Rage website for details on Retro January, but also the weather forecasts as well!

I always get so nervous before Saturday in case there's a heatwave on and a blackout - although I've been fairly lucky thus far.

Fingers crossed Summer doesn't fully heat up until Feb 1..........

Well in Melboiurne apparently it is going to be a cool change on Saturday night. A cool change in melbourne means heavy wind, storms and rain. And if that happenes I am screwed basically!

I have been waiting for these ROck Arena's, if they are ruined by reception I will literally cry

Talking about rage/ABC transmission, can anyone tell me what is the best source to record from. I have been recording rage Countdowns onto DVD since Jan '06 using the ABC channel on Foxtel (Ch.102). Is this the best channel to use, or should I record from the set top box? The other night, I was flicking the channels during rage to see which looked and sounded better - ABC on Foxtel or ABC on set top box. I couldn't really tell the difference. Then there is the issue of which ABC channel on the set top box? There are a few ABC1 channels to choose from. Can anyone shed some light on this? Cheers.

Don't worry Jason, Guru Bob, Patrick or anyone else. I know about the bleak weather forecast in Melbourne Saturday night but every January for the last 17 years I have also lined up 3 or 4 friends from various areas (including outside Melbourne) plus a good friend in Queensland to also tape the whole night onto their hard drives. The odds of us all missing out due to power blackouts are fairly minimal I would have thought. I will have no problems helping anyone in here with anything they miss on DVD(at no charge) in that regard and I know I would not be alone. You, or others, will not miss out I can assure you. Don't worry about the weather!! I share all your excitement though!! We wait 11 long months for this!!

Have you tried ABC1 on HD (High definition). I reckon that gives you the best picture quality - though for older material such as is on Rage, I don;t think there is a big difference. Do you have a Widescreen Plasma, LCD or standard TV set? I don't like the wide black bars for all the 4:3 ratio Countdowns and other Rage stuff though on a widescreen TV so I do a full-screen adjustment when taping onto DVD. I know it stretches the picture a little bit but it is not noticeable when taped in HD. I just don't like the big black bars either side of the picture as it spoils viewing on a 42cm or 50cm plasma.

Michael,

I would go the set top box before the Foxtel ABC.

I have a Foxtel IQ so I tape both Set Top Box and IQ/Foxtel.

There are 2 key factors here.

Set Top Box does have a better picture I think, less grainy.

The thing with Foxtel which is good to is that you are likely to get less pixelation if the weather is crap.

I think what you should do is use the Set Top Box if the weather is good and if not then use the Foxtel.

I record on ABC1 on my Set Top Box as I find recording on the HD Channel 22, the volume gets a tad lower.

But anyhow, final verdict from me is ABC1 (Normal Channel 2) on the Set Top Box, for suuuuuure!

One more sleep!

Awesome - thanks for the info. I currently have a Standard TV set as the 150cm Plasma died about a year ago (ie the picture tube or brightness has gone and the screen is black, has to get repaired). So yeah, just using a crap TV, but the good thing is that it's default is 4:3 which is good for Countdown. I'll be rooted if Countdown was shown in 16:9 (lol) Jason, I did notice that on ABC HD (Ch 22 on Set Top Box) that the volume is slightly lower and I'm not keen on that. Tell you what, volume is amazing if you record from anologue signal, very loud. So, I will go with Set Top Box (Ch2). The weather is perfect in Canberra today, so I shouldn't have any problems with reception.

Cool,

Well I will be in trouble if Countdown is played in 16.9 as well as Rock Arena.

But I am quite sure rage will do the right thing!

About 7 and a half hours to go till Rock Arena, sigh!