"michael adams" wrote in message
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"Harry Bloomfield" wrote in message
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I have been watching an occasional old film on 81 (Talking Pictures).

This morning there was a short BFI B&W kids film on (The Christmas Tree),
from 1966, with kids involved in journey taking a Christmas tree to
London. Rather oddly and despite it being a B&W film, the tree's foliage
showed up quite faintly as green. None of the grass, nor the other trees
showed as even slightly green.

I sometimes experience lemon tinted whites when watching B&W
films on a modern TV, say when a character is wearing a
white shirt - while all the other whites show up ok. Also sometimes
the sky has a distinct lemon or mauve tinge.

Another variable throw into the mix: not all black and white films on TV are
the same shade. The film base may develop a slight colour tint as it ages,
which leads to greys that may be very pale mauve or very pale green. You'd
think that when B&W films were transmitted on TV, they would set R=G=B so as
to achieve pure, untinted B&W irrespective of the colour of the original
film.