In article
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wrote:
It's very unlikely you are seeing broadcast electronic video from the
60s and 70s as good as it was then. It'll have been transferred a few
times as tape formats go out of use - and the transfer equipment
likely towards the end of its life. Plus the fact that even a single
generation of quad VTR caused noticeable degradation, and most of the
stuff which has been kept will be two or more generations.

It IS unlikely but I work in Hollywood and am one of the few who still
get (got?) to work on quads so it happens to be true. I was watching
the original 2" quad tape played back on an Ampex AVR-1 just a few
weeks ago. It was an NBC Danny Thomas special (low band color so there
was some moire) from 1965 with Johnny Carson, Bill Cosby, Tim Conway
and others.

I started work for the BBC at their main production centre in the early
'60s in the days when some drama and LE was still live. And therefore saw
the introduction of colour in the UK from the sharp end.


You're also mistaken about how many generations you can go
down before you have noticeable problems. Network on air tapes were a
minimum of 3 generations down. Mind you, it's necessary to adjust
things properly unlike the newest digital machines that are close to
idiot proof but will tie you in knots with the myriad settings.

And you never noticed the degradation compared to live progs? With only
even one generation?

You probably never saw a Super High Band Pilot quad tape where the
time base reference was recorded analog along with the analog FM
video. Zero velocity errors as the pilot was the sample clock and any
timing errors on the video were also in the pilot so the error was
nada. That came out in the '70s along with the first 1 inch decks
which had the 'trick' video of slo-mo and still frames which were
previously unavailable to local stations. Quad died fast after that
but not until having a 20+ year run.

C-format degraded things too.

I was just repairing Ampex AVR-3s this afternoon.
G²

DigiBeta was the first tape based system I saw which in general didn't
degrade things noticeably.

--
*Why do overlook and oversee mean opposite things?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.