From: gingell@rock.concert.net (Michael J Gingell -- Personal Account)
Subject: DVS Jan-March Schedule
Organization: CONCERT-CONNECT -- Public Access UNIX
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1992 15:02:56 GMT


I didn't realize until recently that many of the programs
broadcast by PBS are accompanied by an additional audio track
which describes the visual action for blind and visually impaired
people.  PBS calls this "Descriptive Video Service" or DVS.  It
is transmitted on Satellite S4 channels 6, 8, 10 & 12 as an
extra subcarrier at 5.2 MHz.  At other times you may hear the
regular audio or a spanish soundtrack.  It is also broadcast
by most PBS stations in the SAP channel which requires a
stereo VCR or TV to decode it.  Stand alone decoders are also
available at special prices for the blind.

As I have a blind friend in England who would like to hear
these programs I have gone to the effort of typing in an
abbreviated listing so that he can choose what programs he
wants me to tape.  I thought it might be of interest to the
net so here is the schedule for the next quarter.  If there is
interest I will post future listings.

When I enquired about this on the net several people said they
thought that both Nostalgia & AMC occasionaly carried movies
with a narrative track.  I have not seen anything like this in
my searches since then.  Does anyone have any more information?
Nostalgia uses analog sound and as far as I can see there is
never any extra subcarrier.  AMC is VCII and there are no
subcarriers.  I have checked the alternate VCII sound but its
always the same.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Listing of DVS programs on PBS for January-March 1993

Masterpiece Theatre
Dec 27, Jan 3, 10, 17  Jeeves & Wooster (stars Fry & Laurie)
Jan 24  The Countess Alice  (starring Wendy Hiller)
Jan 31  She's Been Away  (starring Dame Peggy Ashcroft)
Feb 7   Impromptu ( 2 hours)
Feb 14, 21, 28  The Blackheath Poisonings (parts 1-3)
Mar 7   Henry V ( 2.5 hours) movie starring Kenneth Branagh
Mar 14, 21, 28 no information

Mystery
Dec 31  Hercule Poirot: Adventure of the Cheap Flat
Jan  7  Hercule Poirot: The Mystery of Hunter's Lodge
Jan 14  no program
Jan 21, 28, Feb 4  Prime Suspect - 1  (3 parts)
Feb 11, 18, 25, Mar 4  Primes Suspect - 2  (4 parts)
Mar 11  Sherlock Holmes: The Illustrious Client
Mar 18  Sherlock Holmes: The Creeping Man
Mar 25  Inspector Morse

American Experience
Jan 15, 22 The Kennedys ( story of the Kennedy Family, 2 parts 2 hours each)
Jan 18  Simple Justice (story of legal struggle Brown v Bd of Education)
Jan 25  Knute Rockne & His Fighting Irish (Notre Dame Football Coach story)
Feb 1   Sit Down and Fight - Walter Reuther & the Rise of the Auto Unions
Feb 8   Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (one woman's crusade against DDT)
Feb 15  The Johnstown Flood (Award winning film about events of 1889)
Mar 1   Goin' Back to T-Town (rise & fall of Greenwood Afro-American
        community in Tulsa, OK)

American Playhouse
Jan 20  Straight Out of Brooklyn (modern day morality tale about an African-
        American youth trying to get his family out of Brooklyn)
Mar 31  The Quarrel (Two survivors of the Holocaust meet in a Montreal
        park and resume the quarrel that divided them)

Nature
Jan 3   Tiwai: Island Of The Apes
Jan 10  Ice Fox
Jan 17  Madagascar: Island of Ghosts
Jan 24  Cheetahs in the Land of the Lions
Jan 31  Arctic Wanderers
Feb 3   Land Of The Unexpected (2 hours)
Feb 7   Horse Tigers
Feb 14  Gorilla: King of the Congo
Feb 21  American Trickster  (about the coyote)
Feb 28  Hebrides: Sound of the Island
Mar 7   Echo of the Elephants ( 1.5 hours)
Mar 14  Kali the Lion
Mar 21  no title
Mar 28  Realms of the Russian Bear, Part 1 of 6  Green Jewel of the Caspian

Wild America with Marty Stouffer
Jan 16  Billion Dollar Bass
Jan 24  The Beauty of Butterflies (about the monarch's migration)
Jan 31  Belligerent as a Badger
Feb 7   Headgear (about the role of horns and antlers)
Feb 14  A Tale about Tails (about the role of tails)
Feb 21  Some Feet Have Noses (about feet)
Feb 28  The Eyes Have It
Mar 7   Colors In Nature
Mar 14  Wild Wyoming
Mar 21  Home Is Where There's Habitat

The New Explorers
Dec 30  River Of Doubt  (A group retraces Theodore Roosevelt's charting
        of river in the heart of the Amazon)
Feb 24  Navy Dolphins  (exlusive access to classified government documents
        and footage on dolphin intelligence)

National Geographic Specials
Jan 20  Lost Kingdoms of the Maya

Degrassi High
Weekly on Saturdays.  (stories about life in a high school)

DVS is funded by viewer contributions, matching grants from The
National Endowment for the Arts and many private trusts and
corporations.  Quarterly guides are distributed free in the format
of large print, braille or audio cassette.  Contact
Descriptive Video Service, WGBH, 125 Western Avenue, Boston, MA 02134


-------------------------------------------------------------------

Mike Gingell, gingell@rock.concert.net
or            gingell%aurfs1%aurgate@mcnc.org
or            compuserve 70220,321
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU