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Post by Dale Rumbold on Feb 28, 2013 13:02:49 GMT
Just checking, as this dates from 1985/6 (ish) so probably all exists, but :
I am in the process of trying to recover things that I taped for my kids back in the mid-80s, from 2 Currys VHS tapes which are 'shedding' oxide. These are mostly episodes of Postman Pat (!!), but there are a few VERY short clips of a dark-haired Philip Schofield leading in / out in 'the broom cupboard' : the latest one I've retrieved also has a VERY youthful Aled Jones sitting next to him, and must last all of, oh, 2 seconds! I just thought I'd mention it here in case that continuity has been lost and any 'archive' needs / wants a copy.
As to how I am managing to rescue this stuff from the shedding tapes : I'll happily give details of my (very labour intensive) technique, if anyone is interested. Alternatively, if anyone out there knows a better way of rescuing stuff from VHS tapes with 'sticky shed syndrome', which might save me a bit of time (I haven't yet put them in the oven ...), please speak now!
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Post by Rich Cornock on Feb 28, 2013 13:14:32 GMT
Not sure but i have a feeling that these may not be in the archives as they were often broadcast live. Can someone else comment?
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Post by Rob Moss on Feb 28, 2013 13:54:22 GMT
Very little exists on broadcast quality tape, IIRC. That which does is mostly by chance, I believe.
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Post by Dale Rumbold on Feb 28, 2013 15:22:30 GMT
Well, I'm copying them all onto my PVR hard drive anyway, once I've managed to 'clean' each portion of tape! The quality, after the 'cleaning' process, is remarkably good : they would have been recorded on a Ferguson Videostar in SP, normal audio (no hi-fi sound). Have just got up to a slightly longer clip of Philip Schofield talking to a puppet called Glenda about the effect she has on Gordon the Gopher : surely that clip alone is priceless ...
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Post by Rob Moss on Feb 28, 2013 15:38:39 GMT
I hope you're saving them as uncompressed video files, not horrible artefacty MPEG..?
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Post by Andrew Haddow on Feb 28, 2013 15:49:17 GMT
Can someone else comment? I believe that the BBC didn't keep the Broom Cupboard footage except for guest interviews. Whether the BBC would be interested in it now is another matter.
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Post by Dale Rumbold on Feb 28, 2013 16:48:46 GMT
I hope you're saving them as uncompressed video files, not horrible artefacty MPEG..? They'll be in whatever format my dodgy Panasonic PVR / DVD Recorder uses : have only copied them in LP quality (equates to 4 hours per DVD) on the start / end of the Postman Pats, thus far, but will probably re-copy just the continuity bits in XP quality (1 hour per DVD) once I've got to the end. Not sure what DVD quality an SP VHS recording equates to anyway : the hard-drive LP copies look the same as the original VHS to my eyes.
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Post by Richard Marple on Feb 28, 2013 18:21:49 GMT
I've got a couple of links from 1989 - 90s with Andy Crane & Andi Peters.
I did read that the BBC used to tape some live output to VHS for viewing copies in the 1980s, not sure if the tapes were kept.
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Post by Nigel Lamb on Feb 28, 2013 23:31:14 GMT
I believe that Philip Schofield himself put out a plea for his broom cupboard links some time ago. He would be very interested in archiving such material.
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Post by Dale Rumbold on Mar 1, 2013 10:54:22 GMT
I believe that Philip Schofield himself put out a plea for his broom cupboard links some time ago. He would be very interested in archiving such material. Pass me his number and I'll give him a ring then! Seriously, have not got to the end of the 2nd tape yet so might find some more, but they will also be accidental and thus very short (1-3 seconds typically). It is taking me approx. 2 hours to 'clean' (i.e deal with the oxide shedding for) each 15 minute portion of tape (the length of a Postman Pat episode, roughly!), and I've got 6 more to do, so will be a week or so.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 1, 2013 15:38:59 GMT
I hope you're saving them as uncompressed video files, not horrible artefacty MPEG..? They'll be in whatever format my dodgy Panasonic PVR / DVD Recorder uses : have only copied them in LP quality (equates to 4 hours per DVD) on the start / end of the Postman Pats, thus far, but will probably re-copy just the continuity bits in XP quality (1 hour per DVD) once I've got to the end. Not sure what DVD quality an SP VHS recording equates to anyway : the hard-drive LP copies look the same as the original VHS to my eyes. Always transfer in top quality, Dale. That's the name of the game really. There may not look any difference between VHS and LP to some eyes but there will be! VHS is not a great format to begin with so for this reason it's important to extract the absolute best quality possible from the tapes. In LP there will be artifacts creeping in (there still will in XP - as it's still just a copy of an original - albeit to a lesser degree). Ideally, get someone from a body like Kal to do the transfer for you, in order to go the highest quality route possible from VHS to digital format.
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Post by Christopher Perry on Mar 1, 2013 16:00:29 GMT
Hardly anything 00000.1% is on broadcast quality 1". The majority was just VHs off airs held by the BBC and, in particular, Blue Peter off airs kept by the production office.
Now then, BBC have stated intention to get rid of VHS library, only key editions have been held. Most children's shows will be got rid of, so the continuity will go aswell.
Luckily, Blue Peter production office wanted to get rid of their VHS library but we took it. We have been archiving Broom Cupboard links to high def files ever since. We have a large number of links now, and will be keeping them all.
Anyone who has more, preferably as files, and not as encoded dvds, we would love to add your link to the collection. Knowing the tx date and time of transmission makes cataloguing them all so much easier. Please do contact us.
c
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Post by robincarmody on Mar 2, 2013 11:23:32 GMT
Recently transferred - from a compilation tape I won on eBay - all the links from 16th September 1985, the start of the second week of the Broom Cupboard. Interesting viewing in retrospect because he hadn't found his style yet, there were no viewers' drawings etc. on the wall and Schofield's approach was much more staid and much more like a regular BBC announcer than is usually remembered.
Another recent pres. compilation contained January & February 1986 links surrounding Wizbit, by which time Schofield was clearly getting more in the swing of things - although he never got as silly as some of his successors, and in fact those first two Broom Cupboard years have an appropriate "halfwayness" (if you see what I mean there).
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Post by Richard Marple on Mar 2, 2013 14:14:54 GMT
When exactly did Philip Schofield manage to make a complete mess of a link, loosing both sound & vision.
I remember he won a Golden Egg award for it on The Late Late Breakfast show a few weeks later.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2013 16:25:41 GMT
Recently transferred - from a compilation tape I won on eBay - all the links from 16th September 1985, the start of the second week of the Broom Cupboard. Interesting viewing in retrospect because he hadn't found his style yet, there were no viewers' drawings etc. on the wall and Schofield's approach was much more staid and much more like a regular BBC announcer than is usually remembered. Way I remember it was, Schofield was sprung upon us with no announcement or anything... suddenly he was there. Instant thought was the BBC ripping off Children's ITV and I think it marked a major turning point since I felt kids shows began getting real dumbed down after then. What was even weirder was none of us knew who the Hell he was. I don't recall him introducing himself and I remember an edition of "Points Of View" or some feedback program shortly after with various letters asking who the Hell this guy was. That was when I finally found out his name. I'm surprised there is nostalgia for all that broom cupboard stuff... for me they were the irritating bits between the programs and I remember often shouting at the screen "Oh GET ON WITH IT!" It got ever more irritating when Gordon The Gopher began to appear and that bizarre fixation they had with Petula Clark's "Downtown" - I do remember cringing at one link where Schofield and Gordon simply played the record and mimed to a part of it. Then Andy Crane began to appear and he really got on my wick. And don't get me started on Andi Peters!
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