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Post by stephen doran on Dec 11, 2004 18:13:38 GMT
colour started about november 1969 i recall tuning the uhf dial that night. ;D
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Post by Laurence Piper on Dec 11, 2004 18:28:00 GMT
P[quote author=Guest-H Hartley VHF 405 lines were switched off in January 1985. The last unofficial colour 405 line transmission could well be ' The Pub fighter' a Half Hour Story from 2/68 [/quote]
Any reason to think this? Was it made in 405 colour then? Does it survive as such?
As Louis says, there's no reason to think that any 405 line colour tests would have been carried on after the UK standard of colour had been decided upon (and BBC-2 had already began it's 625 line colour service a few months earlier). Also, Rediffusion (the makers of HHS) knew that they were losing their franchise since spring of '67 and so would not have bothered continuing with such tests at this time. Last show I know of that was made in 405 line colour was that surviving Palladium Show from March '66 - there may have been a few others afterwards but not for long I wouldn't have thought.
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Post by H Hartley on Dec 11, 2004 22:27:04 GMT
Obviously verify all your sources Lawrence, its a long time ago and I might be wrong, maybe AR did bother to convert to 625 even though their fate was sealed?
However take a look at the BFI 'Alan Clarke' season for February 05 .They are showing a half hour story called 'george's room' from 8/67 . Only up to the ad break survives, which I believe is in colour. This presumably was a 'teaser reel' to sell the series abroad? I would suspect on Rediffusion's tragic record 'the pub fighter' (featuring a well cast John Collin as thus) is long gone, this was set in a brummy pub with brummy accents so probably had little overseas potential? but somebody hopefully could prove me wrong?
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Post by PHNEILL on Dec 18, 2004 14:11:44 GMT
All main high power transmitters (both ITV and BBC) in all regions continued to transmit until January 1985.
A phased programme of switch off of small relay transmitters began in 1982. The frequencies in band 3 were released for private radio use. I think the broadcasters were able to use some of the frequencies in band 1 and 3 (the bands used for VHF TV)for sound programme OB links.
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Post by phneill on Dec 18, 2004 14:15:27 GMT
Rediffusion bought multi standard 405/525/625 line equipment in 1960 to equip studio 5 at Wembley. In 1966/7 it ordered 625 line OB units and studio equipment as it was convinced it would win the franchise renewal. The equipment was sold or leased to LWT when it took over Wembley studios on lease in May 1968.
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Post by Laurence Piper on Dec 18, 2004 15:38:11 GMT
All very interesting info; always learning something new!
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Post by PHNEILL on Dec 30, 2004 15:40:55 GMT
ABC got a 2 camera colour OB unit in early 1967. It also had plans to convert it 4 camera OB units (delivered in 1966) to colour. The 2 camera OB unit was used to record the tv series Frontier in colour in 1968. This series was made and owned by ABC but was transmitted by Thames tv in summer 1968 (in 405 lines monochromne). It had been made in colour with an eye to the export market. The series was found in the Thames library in the early 1990s and returned to the current owners of the ABC library.
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Post by Laurence Piper on Dec 31, 2004 9:24:43 GMT
Very interesting. Just remind me, what was Frontier? A drama series or something else? The title sounds vaguely familiar but that's all. So the tapes of this programme contain colour versions of the ABC ident at beginning / end? An interesting rarity if so.
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Post by John G on Dec 31, 2004 10:21:23 GMT
Lawrence. If you want see a quick flash of the old ABC colour ident in all its glory, have a look at the tv set in the pub, the next time they are showing the marvelous 'Quatermass and the Pit' (film version)
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Post by PHNEILL on Dec 31, 2004 16:14:09 GMT
Frontier was a drama series set in the northwest frontier of British India in the late 19 th century. It onsisted of the various adventures of a British army regiment which garrisioned the area. The red coats of the soldiers looked well in colour.
Incidentally the Palladium shows recorded by ATV in colour in 1966 were in 525 lines NTSC for the US market.
ABC recorded some test video tapes in SECAM colour in 405 lines in 1964 and 1965. It was possible to record SECAM in colour on a monochrome vtr because it was a very stable system which did not require special colour processing amplifiers to recover the colour.
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Post by helpful hartley on Jan 3, 2005 10:26:09 GMT
. Incidentally the Palladium shows recorded by ATV in colour in 1966 were in 525 lines NTSC for the US market. . Actually when they came across a tape from March 66 it did not play properly on 525 line. This was because it had been in fact recorded as 405 line NTSC. Lew Grade was known to want transmitting in colour ASAP, he was not interested in waiting for any new system and was quite happy with 405 NTSC.
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Post by Laurence Piper on Jan 3, 2005 10:55:08 GMT
Regarding the Goodbye Again shows: it may seem like an obvious question but - although Melvyn Bragg said they only survive in b/w - did anyone actually check with whatever U.S. TV company Lew Grade made a deal with to show the programmes whether they themselves actually kept colour masters? I would have thought there's a reasonable chance they are still out there somewhere.
The South Bank used a lot of material from the shows, a lot of which I thought was much funnier than expected. I think the programmes would stand a complete DVD release, rather than just a compilation. Ironic too that the only colour material surviving was film inserts - exactly the same as with the 1970 series on Not Only!
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Post by Anthony Harvison on Jan 3, 2005 11:57:01 GMT
Regarding the documentary, which I thought was full of good clips but ruined by pointless rent-a-quotes, I was not pleased that Mr Cook's official biographer got the NOBA survival rate so completely wrong. He said only three episodes survive plus inserts - which is absolute rubbish as one glance at the missing episodes list on this website can easliy confirm. How can 'experts' be so lazy as to not even check out the real status of their supposedly beloved series?
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Post by H Hartley on Jan 3, 2005 12:08:48 GMT
I found the SBS documentary quite annoying talking over the clips instead of showing them in full. I feel that it is futile to examine comedy and pompous and pretentious when tv tries to do so?
BTW wasn't the 'football hooligan' sketch very contemporary? IE it looked like it was made yesterday and you tend to think football hooligans as a fairly recent problem.
Maybe its the colour masters that need the restoration?
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Post by Barry Hodge on Jan 4, 2005 0:27:04 GMT
I wonder how distracting it will be, on viewing the DVD, to see Cook & Moore address the colour rather than the B&W camera in their to-cam pieces: looked very odd in the doc, especially the in-studio Robin Hood sing-song piece. (BTW, this was a remake of a NOBA sketch, yes? Memory very vague at the mo.)
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