Just flicking around various gizmos and gadgets last night, I discovered the Channel 7 equivalent of ABC iView, Plus 7, had suddenly appeared on my Internet connected PS3. Yahoo! Based in the wilds of the south west of WA, where the best I can expect on free to air commercial TV is an entertaining angle on sheep dip, this could be a major leap forward.

Sadly no. The offerings are very low (at this stage) and worse, everything was badly out of audio sync. I watched an old favourite in Drop the Dead Donkey, which in the 90s used to be required journo viewing along with Frontline – and if you know history, still stands up today as a very funny show.

In fact, it is actually a great history lesson in that we see TV stations using VHS tape for program transfer and many references to 90s tech. And the acerbic tongue of Joy especially is a joy!

But the image quality is low, there were constant stutters and as mentioned the audio is out of sync. Worse, at about 20 minutes in, I got an “out of memory error” and the broadcast died in the bum.

What’s with that? My ‘net connection was fine, no drop in speed so it had to be at the vendor end.

Come on 7; if you (and 9 and 10) want to compete with the excellence that the ABC has pulled into iView, you need to get it together. Why should I pay bandwidth for something I cannot see the end of?

By David Hague

David is the owner and publisher of AusCam Online. He has a background in media dating back to 1979 when he first got involved with photojournalism in motorsport, and went from there into technology via a 5 year stint with Tandy Computers. Following that, he ran a software distribution company on the Gold Coast and was one of the first to recognise the potential of Microsoft Windows.

Moving back to WA, David wrote scripts for Computer Television for video training for the just released Windows and Office 95 among others, and was then lured to Sydney to create web sites for the newly commercial Internet in 1995, building hundreds of sites under contract to OzEmail including Coates Hire, Hertz Queensland, John Williamson, the NSW Board of Studies and many, many more.

He went back into full time journalism as the Managing Editor for Channel 7's 'Gadget Guy', Peter Blasina's publications VideoCamera and Pixelmag, before starting Australasian Camcorder magazine when these publications were shelved. He lives at Sydney's Avalon Beaches nearly on the ocean front with dog Budweiser and in his spare time is a nut for motor sport, road safety, fishing, science fiction - especially Dr Who - and technology.

David can be contacted via david@auscamonline.com