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Post by Rob Moss on Jun 11, 2014 17:18:40 GMT
Indeed. In fact, does the company even exist still..?
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Post by Richard Marple on Jun 11, 2014 17:56:10 GMT
I'vw wondered if any of the Perwee era episodes only existing in B&W could have been recorded in the USA in the 1970s, with the tapes still lingering in a collection waiting to be discovered.
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Simon Collis
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I have started to dream of lost things
Posts: 536
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Post by Simon Collis on Jun 11, 2014 18:58:01 GMT
Indeed. In fact, does the company even exist still..? Well, there's no doubt that Philips still exists - I pass a big building of theirs on the way into work every day. But the likelihood is that the dealers themselves would be the ones who took the orders, and it would be their records that we would want. Generally speaking, most small TV/radio shops there were around even 20 years ago have gone out of business - and even some of the big players (anyone remember Rumbelows? Radio Rentals?) What's worse, given the price of tapes, do you think anyone would have saved them? And how long would a domestic tape last, I wonder - especially at the bargain end of the market? Really, the chances of finding any off-air video recordings from the 1960s boil down to two chances: fat and slim.
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Post by Alex Dering on Jun 11, 2014 21:46:52 GMT
The approach is all wrong. A paperwork search would be fine, if the paperwork existed, but most businesses retain their stuff for as long as necessary then discard it. Better luck would probably be had by a legit, official type (that is, not the whole damned world) trying from the other end of it. Ebay has an AMPEX listed on it right now. The description shows that the current owner is not the original user. Someone official who had the time to weed through the various items: used Umatic tapes, etc., and making short inquiries about when the tapes were used, and who owned the equipment, and so forth. Still, it'd be like sinking a 100 foot putt with your eyes closed.
I also wonder about whether someone (again, not the whole world) going around and trying the video enthusiasts' societies, the film buffs, and the like would be able to dig up some leads that would actually go somewhere. If PM emptied out the archives (which we still don't know) that's probably the last hiding spot for any new episode recoveries.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2014 22:30:06 GMT
Well I have some off-air recordings of some Peter Davidson and Colin Baker episodes dating back to the 80s and they have certaintly seen better days. In fact we have replaced the Colin Baker episodes with off air recordings from UK Gold repeats. As for the Davidson ones well the Planet of Fire is knackerd and The Kings Deamons looking that way as well. The Five Doctors palys allright I think. Haven't played it in years. But my point is that if there are any off air recordings from the 1960s I would be inclined to think that they would be in the same condition as my copy of the Planet of Fire. (Though I think the Caves of Androzani is in good condition)
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Post by James Mcgrath on Jun 13, 2014 0:02:44 GMT
It's funny you should post this up now as I borrowed a magazine from a fellow fan last week that has that article in it!
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Post by Neil Megson on Jun 16, 2014 13:54:40 GMT
A quick note on the possibility of domestic recordings from the 1960s turning up - some are still being unearthed, for instance a few months ago I tracked down a recording of the Apollo 11 moon landing, which was digitised by Kaleidoscope. (There's a thread about this on the 'General' board). Sadly nothing which wasn't already in the archives was found.
The main reason so little survives is that blank tapes were so expensive back then (the equivalent of c.£80 today for 30 minutes), that owners tended to re-use the same tape over and over again - so the tape ends up with mid-1970s programming on it, at which point it was junked along with the machine.
Actors wouldn't have requested tapes of their performances as almost no-one else would have been able to play them, and telerecordings on film would have been prohibitively expensive - probably more than they were paid for the part !
Regarding the Wesgrove tele-taper (also known as the Telcan) - none of these machines seem to have survived, and judging by contemporary reports the machine was very temperamental - e.g. the American magazine "Popular Science" reviewed one in August 1965, and reported it took 30 hours to build from the kit, 20 hours to connect to a TV and 100 (!) hours to adjust all the controls satisfactorily. It's not impossible a tape may turn up from one, but none have so far.
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Simon Collis
Member
I have started to dream of lost things
Posts: 536
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Post by Simon Collis on Jun 16, 2014 18:06:16 GMT
Regarding the Wesgrove tele-taper (also known as the Telcan) - none of these machines seem to have survived. Do you mean in working order, as opposed to "at all"? I ask because there's a page on Total Rewind that says: That said, I can't find any reference to it on the website, but it's sparse on details to say the least... /edit: just to be clear, I'm not being critical, just trying to work out whether I should scratch it from my "places to visit" list...
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Post by John Green on Jun 16, 2014 18:17:31 GMT
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Post by John Green on Jun 16, 2014 18:25:31 GMT
A quick note on the possibility of domestic recordings from the 1960s turning up - some are still being unearthed, for instance a few months ago I tracked down a recording of the Apollo 11 moon landing, which was digitised by Kaleidoscope. (There's a thread about this on the 'General' board). Sadly nothing which wasn't already in the archives was found. The main reason so little survives is that blank tapes were so expensive back then (the equivalent of c.£80 today for 30 minutes), that owners tended to re-use the same tape over and over again - so the tape ends up with mid-1970s programming on it, at which point it was junked along with the machine. Actors wouldn't have requested tapes of their performances as almost no-one else would have been able to play them, and telerecordings on film would have been prohibitively expensive - probably more than they were paid for the part ! Regarding the Wesgrove tele-taper (also known as the Telcan) - none of these machines seem to have survived, and judging by contemporary reports the machine was very temperamental - e.g. the American magazine "Popular Science" reviewed one in August 1965, and reported it took 30 hours to build from the kit, 20 hours to connect to a TV and 100 (!) hours to adjust all the controls satisfactorily. It's not impossible a tape may turn up from one, but none have so far. For what it's worth,I'm guessing these would be man-hours,and a small team,or even a couple of mates,could cut the time.The 100 hours adjustment would possibly involve a lot of fine-tuning.Would it have been possible for enthusiasts to pick up international transmissions? Early TVs required a lot of tweaking for good reception,though I grant you not 100 hours!
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Post by John Green on Jun 16, 2014 20:38:24 GMT
[quote source="/post/121528/thread" timestamp="1402926880" author=" Neil Megson"} Regarding the Wesgrove tele-taper (also known as the Telcan) - none of these machines seem to have survived, and judging by contemporary reports the machine was very temperamental - e.g. the American magazine "Popular Science" reviewed one in August 1965, and reported it took 30 hours to build from the kit, 20 hours to connect to a TV and 100 (!) hours to adjust all the controls satisfactorily. It's not impossible a tape may turn up from one, but none have so far. For what it's worth,I'm guessing these would be man-hours,and a small team,or even a couple of mates,could cut the time.The 100 hours adjustment would possibly involve a lot of fine-tuning.Would it have been possible for enthusiasts to pick up international transmissions? Early TVs required a lot of tweaking for good reception,though I grant you not 100 hours! [/quote]
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Simon Collis
Member
I have started to dream of lost things
Posts: 536
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Post by Simon Collis on Jun 16, 2014 21:25:29 GMT
Indeed. I'd say if it ever did get off the ground you might have put it together wrong! :-P
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Post by Jaspal Cheema on Jun 21, 2014 6:35:06 GMT
Every now and then the discussion of missing episodes circles back to Ian Levine's side of the story when it comes to Pamela Nash, Sue Malden, "The Daleks", et al. This was originally presented in an interview conducted by Gary Leigh published in two parts across DWB #103 & #104 in July-August 1992. Details from the interview were included in a broader piece on the missing episode saga in an article written by Richard Molesworth for The DWB Compendium published in 1993. But since I'm not aware of the original interview being available anywhere else at this time, I've scanned both parts of it and made it available HERE. Just wanted to say a big 'Thank you' for presenting this article to us Matthew.A superb feature and one which I will be reading for a long time to come!Absolutely fascinating to read about Ian's role in recovering missing episodes over the years and rescuing the original Dalek story for us to continue to enjoy,50 years after it was made.I'm already colouring in the squares on the missing episode bar chart of the episodes that have been recovered since that article was published.Let's hope that one day,in the not too distant future we'll be able to colour them ALL in!
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Post by stevehoare61 on Jun 21, 2014 9:45:38 GMT
well certainly with some of the odd and bizarre cryptic comments coming from Mr Morris recently Jaspal, which feels like someone bursting to tell us something he cant, I have a good feeling you'd best get yer felt tips out.
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Post by Greg H on Jun 21, 2014 13:42:40 GMT
Really, the chances of finding any off-air video recordings from the 1960s boil down to two chances: fat and slim. I will have to respectfully disagree with that! If someone could afford a domestic video recorder in the 1960s, they must have been pretty well off and might have had a few quid left over to invest in a few boxes of blank video reels. Quite a few things have turned up via the domestic recordings route, some looking fresh and some looking a little the worse for wear. I feel it imprudent to rule out this particular avenue of research as frankly stranger things have happened. I cite the American off air 35mm recordings of a pre war BBC transmission as an example of something considerably stranger and less likely...............
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