How did TV Work in the 1960s?

[Krisander T. Weum]

This question might be a little odd/random, but I'm stuck at home as most of us are so I'm now interested in knowing how Television worked in the 1960s. When I was a kid in the 2000s I was surprised when my parents came home with a TV that could manage to not only record footage from a broadcast on the channel we were watching, but also rewind the broadcast incase if we missed a show or missed the news. So my theory/question is: How long does a Broadcast from the satelites live? and how with the right technology, how much can you rewind a dead broadcast?

Of course, i'm a graduate of IT as of April so when it comes to technology like Laptops, PCs, Servers etc. I know some stuff here and there, but when it comes to how a TV works nowadays or even back then in the 60s I have absolutely no idea. So the theory itself that I've thought off can be completely ridicoulus and be shut down by something that I don't know. If TV worked with Satelites back in the 60s like we have today, then what happens when a TV Station broadcast is done for the day or over 24 hours has gone, does the data and footage from the broadcast just dissapear in thin air since the TV station has stopped broadcasting or are all that data still stored somewhere or traceable with the right technology?

As said now we have technology that allows us to watch TV and then if we want to, record the footage or rewind back with a limit of how far back we're allowed to go. What if the limit wasn't there though? If a Program or Device could pick up old dead broadcasts with the right codes and setups from the satelites that may have been used since the 60s and are still used. Is it then a possibility (with as said before, with the right technology) to pick up and old broadcast from the satelites and go back in time by Days, Months and maybe even Years to get the old data broadcasted to the device/program again? If I'm not completely out of the field (as I have no knowledge of how TV or Satelites works), then if someone made a program like that would there then be a possibility to go back, pick up and record old broadcasts? 

Of course its just a theory and a lot of wishful thinking, but if thats how Broadcasts, Signals and Satelites works.Then maybe (with a lot of research, coding etc.) It might work and if that ever gets ¨created¨ then that could save a lot of these old missing shows, episodes and movies. So long the satelites they used back then is still Online up in space. So the question is: How did TV Broadcasts work back in 60s? and is my theory complete nonsense or is that maybe a possibility?

[Dale Rumbold]

I doubt that many of those digital satellite broadcasts from the 1960s are still hanging around these days ; even the ones captured forever by the Tardis ...

[Al Hine]

TV & Radio signals die very quickly, they don't hang about in space or anywhere else - the idea that say a VHF TV transmission could be received a squillion light years away is very unlikely, it's a lovely idea of course!

[Peter Stirling]

You could consider a transmission like throwing a stone in a river, the river will ripple in ever increasing circles where the stone hits.... but then the ripple is gone.

[paul carney]

Sept 28, 2020 22:03:13 GMT Peter Stirling said:

You could consider a transmission like throwing a stone in a river, the river will ripple in ever increasing circles where the stone hits.... but then the ripple is gone.

Cue Genesis.....

[Dan S]

Sept 28, 2020 17:57:07 GMT Krisander T. Weum said:

When I was a kid in the 2000s I was surprised when my parents came home with a TV that could manage to not only record footage from a broadcast on the channel we were watching, but also rewind the broadcast incase if we missed a show or missed the news. So my theory/question is: How long does a Broadcast from the satelites live? and how with the right technology, how much can you rewind a dead broadcast?

You're thinking of TiVo (or any of the similar systems) It keeps a buffer of the last half hour on a hard drive so you can rewind to see the bits you missed, or pause it to go and make a cup of tea. It doesn't record tv forever, it just buffers the last half hour (different systems maybe used different lengths of time). You can also use them to record shows to the hard drive. I suppose if you found an old one it might still contain some shows if the owner recorded any, you might even be able to extract whatever half hour is still in the buffer.

But digital TV isn't some magical device that keeps things forever, recording on some magical infinite hard drive. If you don't record it it's gone, just as it was with analogue tv.

[Marie Griffiths]

Broadcast satellites are a misnomer as they are just relays. Imaging satellites from the 60s did store images on film to be returned. Some satellites from the 60s are still up there and broadcasting signals such as the blue streak satellite but not video.

[Marie Griffiths]

I wondered the other day if terrestrial tv signals could hit a black hole in space. (Recently revealled to be all over the place) The signal could hit the black hole and be reflected back 180 degrees for a very much weakened signal to return. Could someone do the maths on this?

[brianfretwell]

Also satellites in the early like Telstar and Early Bird were in low orbit and only relayed for a short time every orbit, having to be tracked all the time by very large dish/horn antennae.