helpful Hartley

[Thames early digital exp]

Does anyone know any more about the early Thames'
experiments 1970/80s with digital TV ? . They actually made or re-recorded a couple of programmes on 16mm film but digitally encoded. So if they did exist they would look like no other 16mm film.

[PHNEILL]

I don't of any digital tv recording on 16 mm film experiments by Thames. However Thames did invent and experiment with a system for archiving tv videotape recordings on monochrome 16mm film using the Multiplexed Analogue Components (MAC) system. The system was described in an article in Wireless World Magazine in 1988. As I undertand it the video tape was film recorded in monochrome and the PAL colour information from the tape was transferred to the MAC system and this information was recorded as electronic information on a separate strip of film. The monochrome film recording was to be electronically combined with the MAC colour information to produce a full colour recording.

Thames proposed this system because they had lost some Quadruplex tapes due to improper storage and beleived that proposed system would be more robust.

The system was not a success and Thames subsequently transferred their Quad tapes to D3.

Incidentally I understand Kodak is experimenting with recording Digital Cinnema signals on monochrome film. I don't know if any real progress has been made with the system. Sound is already digitally recorded on film using the Dolby digital system and the SDDS system invented by Sony.

[Brian Fretwell]

Acutally the first cinema digital sound was developed party (?) by Kodak. Unfortunately it was only for 70mm prints. Named Cinema Digital Sound (CDS), the only film I remember shown in London was "The Doors".

[H Hartley]

PHNEILL. You must be right as I now recall that MAC was the great new hope of the 1980s.
Cheers for that.

[WilliamM]

there was a holographic film system developed in the 60s for recording video signals, can't remember who it was though.