Talk:Rundfunk der DDR

An entry from Rundfunk der DDR appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know? column on 22 February, 2006.

Wikipedia

Categories, Merging and Translating

Hi User:Redvers I put the category:censorship on this article.. I know you will decide if it is appropriate or not.. I am impressed with the quality of article and time it took from first day on Wiki.. Can you do a translation and merge of the en and de versions of Apartheid? , in DE and EN ?

Cheers Gregorydavid 06:33, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

West Germany

ARD/ZDF had a large audience share in the GDR but how widely was DFF viewed in West Germany ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.113.5.105 (talk • contribs)

It was available across the eastern half of the FRG, but was in Secam colour rather than PAL, and the programming was terrible compared to the west. Therefore, you could say it was available to perhaps 20 or 30 million people in the FRG, but watched by a tiny fraction (it wasn't as good as ARD, it wasn't in colour and it wasn't on cable - three reasons to reduce the audience to a tiny interested minority). I think the article makes reference to this. ➨ ❝REDVERS❞ 19:18, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

30 million seems far too much. Due to geography, many major population centres of West Germany were not able to watch it (reverse situation from East Germany). Watching East German telly was most common in West Berlin. Anorak2 10:41, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

"the programming was terrible" Was this just the news/political programming or did it apply to entertainment programming too ? And was this the widespread concensus or just a POV Is there any reason why cable systems in the west did not carry DFF but eastern systems (apparently) did carry ARD and how widespread was cable anyway ? 80.229.222.48 10:48, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Virtually all programming. I've no idea if this statement has consensus at large but I could find plenty of citations for it if needed; however, things said on a talk page don't need citing - only stuff that goes into the article. Cable systems in the west mainly didn't carry DFF because there was limited demand for it and space was at a premium. Some may have carried it, but I can't find evidence of that (which is not to say they didn't). Eastern systems did not carry ARD services at all. It was over-air traditional RF reception of a neighbouring country's programmes.   REDVERS ↔ SЯEVDEЯ  11:57, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Disagree somewhat. The non-political content of DFF was not universally regarded as "terrible", I think this is POV and can't really be argued. They had feature films (including Hollywood productions and loads of the ever-popular German pre-WW2 movies), self-produced series, imported series (I remember watching Fawlty Towers on East German telly, imagine that) etc. Nowadays the productions of DFF have somewhat of a cult following and are being repeated regularly.

Concerning cable: East German telly was available on West German cable systems in areas where it was available terrestrially, but probably not much beyond. West German telly was available on many East German systems since the 1980s, but not all. Western TV channels were the main point of establilshing private cable systems in the first place, so virtually all of them had it. Availability on "state run" systems varied, some had it but some others didn't. Anorak2 14:32, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

(ri)Anorak2, you're doing a great job picking holes in everything I say on this talk page. You are aware that this is just a talk page and not the article itself? If you have concerns about the article, please fix them (sources are most welcome), but I'd like to request that you stop trying to pick a fight with me on this page over items that aren't in the article and thus are not worth you fighting over. Thanks.   REDVERS ↔ SЯEVDEЯ  19:02, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Huh? I'm not trying to fight with anyone. I just have this page on my watchlist and whenever I see a statement that I know is wrong or exaggerated, I try to correct it or put it into perspective. It didn't occur to me that it's always the same person whom I correct until you pointed it out. :)

My motivation is to stop misconceptions from spreading. As this page is readable worldwide, but the number of people who have memories of East German television is limited, it's important that misrepresentations be corrected. I'm currently too busy to write much in the articles, but a word on a talk page takes less time and there's always a chance someone reads it and takes the time to word it "properly" in the article.

Sorry if this offends you, that's certainly not my intention. But some of the things you say really are wrong. Anorak2 07:54, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Use of SECAM colour

It is often stated that the use of SECAM colour in most Eastern bloc countries (including the GDR) was to discourage people from viewing Western programmes (which being in PAL would have appeared in Black and White on a SECAM set) even though colour TV's were scarce (and presumably expensive). However various Wikipedia articles mention that many people had converters or adapted TV sets to enable them to view the Western broadcasts in colour. How were these obtained given that one would assume that (state owned/controlled) shops in the East wouldnt have sold them and smuggling from the west was practically impossible ?

One would imagine that even for electronics enthusiasts a DIY convertor would have been difficult to produce given the difficulty in obtaining components (and books explaining the workings of PAL)

So how did they do it ? 87.112.88.106 15:31, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

Actually state-owned shops in East Germany did sell dual standard PAL/SECAM sets starting about mid-1970s, both domestic as well as (very rarely) Western produced ones.

East Germans could also legally buy dual standard sets from the West through Intershops or through a dedicated mail order service, provided they had Western currency. Finally they could receive them as presents from western relatives. No need to smuggle.

DIY conversion of SECAM-only sets may have existed, obtaining the hardware was of course an obstacle but certainly doable if you had the currency. I know about DIY satellite reception who had similar obstacles.

I'm not aware of "outboard" PAL->SECAM converters from pre-1990. There are some from after 1990 targeted at owners of SECAM-only sets after all the transmitters in East Germany had been converted to PAL.

You can safely assume that in the late 1980s single standards SECAM sets were rare in East Germany, because almost anyone who owned a colour set at all would have made sure it could receive PAL.

The remark about discouraging people from watching Western programmes is perfectly valid, but only for a specific period (50s/60s). In later years western reception was increasingly tolerated, as the domestic production of PAL/SECAM TV sets demonstrates. The state-operated cable TV systems which started to emerge in the 80s even carried Western programmes in many places. (The ones built by private initiatives did anyway).

Incidentally, black&white sets sold at approx 2,000 Marks (East) as late as 1989, domestic colour sets approx 6,000 Marks. An imported Sony colour set I once saw was 8,000 Marks.

Hope this answers your question. Anorak2 12:49, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

POV

By the way, some of the wording of the current article sounds quite biased. Apart from some information lacking, that needs to be fixed. Anorak2 10:41, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

• {{sofixit}}, as we say around here. Go on, be bold! ➨ ЯEDVERS 10:58, 14 November 2006 (UTC)