Computers used in TV and the movies

nealw · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:15

I've just watched an episode of 24 (awesome show btw), and me and my mates were debating about how real the technology used in the show actually is.

Are the programmes or operating systems that they use just a fancy flash based animation plucked out of thin air or do these kinds of things actually exist?

What do you think?

:confused:

tb2000 · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:17

I think for the most part computer displays in most TV programmes are jazzed up to make them more appealing and/or interesting to the viewing public.

PardonTheWait · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:19

Everything's always big on telly computers. It'd be a bit silly if you couldn't see what was going on.

Morlan · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:20

And they always use stupid sound effects for every bit of text and graphic that flashes up :rolleyes:

How annoying would that be!

Six6siX · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:21

Loads of films / series I've seen always seem to have apple macs in...not sure why...

tb2000 · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:22

Morlan said:
And they always use stupid sound effects for every bit of text and graphic that flashes up How annoying would that be!

I know exactly what you mean - like whooshing sounds for windows being bought up, that kind of thing!

Royality · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:22

probably advertising...?

alexakasloth · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:23

Six6siX said:
Loads of films / series I've seen always seem to have apple macs in...not sure why...

Advertising/ sponsorship. Apple promote them, they promote apple.

Berserker · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:24

tb2000 said:
I know exactly what you mean - like whooshing sounds for windows being bought up, that kind of thing!

All of which can be done in Windows, if you so desire.

I once went to a WWE (wrestling) show, and all their in-house displays crashed to the Windows desktop, complete with original Windows XP background. Man, that was funny.

alexakasloth · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:25

Berserker said:
All of which can be done in Windows, if you so desire.

I once went to a WWE (wrestling) show, and all their in-house displays crashed to the Windows desktop, complete with original Windows XP background. Man, that was funny.

"And it's ray mysterio, he's about to... wtf BSOD?"

tb2000 · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:29

Berserker said:
All of which can be done in Windows, if you so desire.

Thats true! It could get on your wick after a while though!

Berserker said:
I once went to a WWE (wrestling) show, and all their in-house displays crashed to the Windows desktop, complete with original Windows XP background. Man, that was funny.

I remember when I was walking through a shopping centre ages ago they had a touch screen display for information such as where the shops were located and a map, etc. - only this one was stuck on the Award bios bootup screen!

JRS · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:29

Six6siX said:
Loads of films / series I've seen always seem to have apple macs in...not sure why...

Because rather than build decent products, Apple spends all their money on advertising and trying to convince the world that Microsoft are evil

/runs away before any Mac zealots get here

tb2000 · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:30

JRS said:
Because rather than build decent products, Apple spends all their money on advertising and trying to convince the world that Microsoft are evil

/runs away before any Mac zealots get here

Funny because its true.

/runs

MATTeL · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:32

Berserker said:
All of which can be done in Windows, if you so desire.

I once went to a WWE (wrestling) show, and all their in-house displays crashed to the Windows desktop, complete with original Windows XP background. Man, that was funny.

Since Windows 3.0 IIRC... man the wav file of Arnie saying "I'll be back" for everyone closing windows was hilarious...

Berserker · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:35

tb2000 said:
I remember when I was walking through a shopping centre ages ago they had a touch screen display for information such as where the shops were located and a map, etc. - only this one was stuck on the Award bios bootup screen!

Yup. Seen a few of those myself. Also seen a cashpoint that had decided to kill itself and was permanently stuck in a reboot cycle. I'd say the vast majority of shop/travel/bank displays are based on Windows now. More money in Bill Gates' pocket.

tb2000 · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:36

MATTeL said:
Since Windows 3.0 IIRC... man the wav file of Arnie saying "I'll be back" for everyone closing windows was hilarious...

Had that for a while! Then the sound of Hudson from Aliens saying "Game over man" etc. That got a bit annoying after while as well!

Visage · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:37

Berserker said:
Yup. Seen a few of those myself. Also seen a cashpoint that had decided to kill itself and was permanently stuck in a reboot cycle. I'd say the vast majority of shop/travel/bank displays are based on Windows now. More money in Bill Gates' pocket.

But the vast majority of BSOD's/crashes are down to incompetant application programmers, rather than any failure on Microsoft's part.....

Berserker · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:40

Oi! I resemble that remark.

Actually, the majority are down to hardware failures. It's surprisingly hard to BSOD recent versions of Windows due to incompetent programming. Of course, if your aim is to deliberately try to make Windows BSOD, you can quite easily do that. If, on the other hand, you see an application error box, rather than a BSOD, then you're far more likely to be correct.

tb2000 · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:44

Berserker said:
Yup. Seen a few of those myself. Also seen a cashpoint that had decided to kill itself and was permanently stuck in a reboot cycle. I'd say the vast majority of shop/travel/bank displays are based on Windows now. More money in Bill Gates' pocket.

Indeed, when I was in my bank a few weeks ago they had the front off of one of the cash points trying to fix a fault and I could see by the display that it was running Windows. Looked like Windows 2000 to me.

Visage · 26 Mar 2006 at 18:50

tb2000 said:
Indeed, when I was in my bank a few weeks ago they had the front off of one of the cash points trying to fix a fault and I could see by the display that it was running Windows. Looked like Windows 2000 to me.

Win2k (in its stripped down, hardened form) is actually very stable. A significant portion of the UK's air defence infrastructure runs on it......