British Pathé online archive launched

November 19, 2002 4:45 AM

Here is the News. The old news, that is: the entire 3500 hour British Pathé Film Archive covering news, sport, social history and entertainment from 1896 to 1970, with low-res clips available for free, was launched today.
posted by rory (15 comments total)

I love the idea of being able to look view old Pathé newsreels, but it appears that their site isn't very Mac-friendly. mozilla, IE and Chimera all fail to view anything. Considering that it's media and 'creative' industries that are most likely to pay for the high-quality footage, this seems a bit silly.
posted by influx at 5:04 AM on November 19, 2002

That's odd, influx - I had no problems using either IE 5.2 or Moz 1.1 on Mac OS X. Try this page to skip the flash intro.

The previewing of low-res clips is mildly annoying - you have to go through the motions as if buying the clip (but the price is set at £0.00).
posted by rory at 5:12 AM on November 19, 2002

The obscure stuff is wonderful. This is so good I may have to break my self-imposed no surfing at work rule. Thank you, kind sir!
posted by iconomy at 5:18 AM on November 19, 2002

Oh, but if you skip the Flash intro, you miss the crowing cock!

Even though the clips are low-res, this is an excellent way to get a quick glimpse into a lot of archival newsreel footage. I'm surprised and delighted that they offered any of it up for free.
posted by briank at 5:48 AM on November 19, 2002

i'm a potential customer but this site is a pain in the neck. i can't get a damn thing to play -- it shouldn't be so difficult. i want to see the carolina hoodoo man dance.
posted by subpixel at 6:30 AM on November 19, 2002

I couldn't get it to work either. Gave me an error message when I started to "order" a free clip.
posted by MaddCutty at 6:41 AM on November 19, 2002

They might be having launch-day server overload problems.
posted by rory at 7:30 AM on November 19, 2002

Thanks for the link, rory, this an amazing site.
posted by mert at 7:55 AM on November 19, 2002

the lucky dip is fun too. looks like I'm going to spend quite a few hours here. thanks
posted by gravelshoes at 8:17 AM on November 19, 2002

I get as far as ordering the Free Preview, then it keeps telling me I need to enter a "valid e-mail address" when I clearly have. Nevertheless, great site--probably worth checking out again in a couple of days.
posted by gimonca at 8:20 AM on November 19, 2002

currently im experiencing a state of being able to smell but not see the delicious offerings of the pathe news archive - why oh why
posted by monkeyJuice at 10:10 AM on November 19, 2002

yes - they seem to be having teething problems. definitely one to check in a couple of days.
lemme at it!

God Save the King!
posted by gravelshoes at 3:14 PM on November 19, 2002

"valid e-mail address"

Refers I think to the second box where you have to confirm your email address. Apologies if this is stating the obvious (and wrong) solution.
posted by pots at 8:44 PM on November 19, 2002

i just couldn't get it to work
posted by quarsan at 12:12 AM on November 20, 2002

How very frustrating - sorry everyone. I did get it to work, once, at the beginning (it emails you links to cached versions of the clips), but can't seem to get it to work a second time.

Still, I'll always cherish my hard-won blotchy Windows Media clip of Latex in the Home.
posted by rory at 2:14 AM on November 20, 2002