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Post by Neil Megson on Apr 2, 2012 8:20:22 GMT
Does anyone know the date of the earliest UK home video recording that has been successfully played back ? Not necessarily a missing episode, but something recorded off-air in the mid-60s that is still playable ?
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Post by Simon Smith on Apr 2, 2012 8:55:53 GMT
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Post by Peter Stirling on Apr 2, 2012 9:04:38 GMT
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Post by Richard Bignell on Apr 2, 2012 9:44:01 GMT
Home recording in the mid-60s? Wasn't the first home use VCR only introduced in 1972? This from The Guardian of June 1963...  |
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Post by Laurence Piper on Apr 2, 2012 10:12:46 GMT
There's also a feature in a 1965 TV Times to win a video recorder (reel to reel variety). I have it here somewhere but can't recall the exact date offhand. There were quite a few different types and models around back then and a quick browse of Youtube will find you some fragments and ad breaks recorded on such machines in the 1967 - '68 period!
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Post by Neil Megson on Apr 2, 2012 12:59:36 GMT
The Philips EL3400 helical-scan 1" open-reel VTR was on sale in the UK by the beginning of 1965 - the manual is dated December 1964. As has been pointed out on other threads, video tape was so expensive back then that people tended to repeatedly record over the tapes they had - so even if TV was recorded off-air in (say) January 1965, any recordings left are most likely to be from much later.
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Post by Gary Critcher on Apr 2, 2012 16:22:51 GMT
Yep, we had an open reel (half inch?) video recorder at my junior school, so that would have been between 1968 and 1970. I remember it had to be operated by a special 'technician' who used to come in in a white coat and play the tape for us!
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Post by Brian Fretwell on Apr 2, 2012 16:59:41 GMT
Wasn't the earliest home recording still existing that Baird 30 line system 78rpm disc recording restored about 10 years ago?
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Post by John Harwood (bjblackpool) on Apr 2, 2012 18:10:20 GMT
Wasn't the earliest home recording still existing that Baird 30 line system 78rpm disc recording restored about 10 years ago? It's probably in with a shout of being the earliest recording but can't really be described as a home recording. I'd guess the earliest possible domestic VT recording would be 1964: at least I'm not aware of any domestic systems predating Telcan. Of course, there's always the possibility of clips being captured on cine: we know of the Doctor Who 8mm clips (I'm fuzzy about the date of those - the earliest storywise is Reign of Terror, but istr it's Australian so 1965/6 at the earliest), but has any similar earlier stuff been unearthed and identified? |
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Post by Greg H on Apr 2, 2012 18:41:01 GMT
No, I seem to distinctly remember that there was some aparatus for home recording 30 line transmissions onto disc of some kind. There was an article on Tommorow's World about it many years ago when some of them were recovered, but I think they claimed they weren't too sure how to decode the recording at the time or something like that. I could be having a wonky memory moment. Is that what you are refering to Brian? *Note, I googled it and it seems I was right.  Behold the Silvatone domestic recorder from 1930. www.tvdawn.com/silvaton.HTM |
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Post by Peter Stirling on Apr 2, 2012 18:53:47 GMT
Yep, we had an open reel (half inch?) video recorder at my junior school, so that would have been between 1968 and 1970. I remember it had to be operated by a special 'technician' who used to come in in a white coat and play the tape for us! Probably a Sony? which had taken the market by then. You can spot one also at school in the children's thriller series Tightrope, where it is in use up to no good for the villians. |
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Post by richardmarple on Apr 2, 2012 19:40:37 GMT
What's the earliest programme Galton & Simpson recorded on their reel to reel VTR?
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Post by Laurence Piper on Apr 3, 2012 9:57:13 GMT
Steptoe & Son: My Old Man's A Tory (1965) although i'm unclear if they recorded it off-air at the time or it was a dub made a bit later from the master.
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Post by Ian Wegg on Apr 3, 2012 13:23:59 GMT
Eamonn Andrews demonstrated one with the help of Billie Whitelaw on his show in May 1966.     Although described as a "home" video tape machine, they only predicted that it would appear in schools, libraries and businesses over the coming decade. I've no idea what it is. ~iw |
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Post by Neil Megson on Apr 3, 2012 13:36:24 GMT
Eamonn Andrews demonstrated one with the help of Billie Whitelaw on his show in May 1966. Although described as a "home" video tape machine, they only predicted that it would appear in schools, libraries and businesses over the coming decade. I've no idea what it is. ~iw It's the Philips EL3400 I mentioned earlier. |
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