Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!ucsd!pacbell.com!att!bu.edu!telecom-request From: syd@dsi.com (Syd Weinstein) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Early Color Television Message-ID: Date: 21 Feb 91 21:41:21 GMT Sender: news@bu.edu.bu.edu Reply-To: syd@dsi.com Organization: Datacomp Systems, Inc. Huntingdon Valley, PA Lines: 36 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 147, Message 8 of 11 sjr@m-net.ann-arbor.mi.us (Sander J. Rabinowitz) writes: > What I find amazing was that there was technology to _record_ color TV > through videotape in the early 50's. I believe that was done with the > late Mary Martin's "Peter Pan" TV special in 1954, and that has got to > be the earliest videotape on record. Ok, I know this is off the track, but perhaps Pat will let one more in before he closes the door ... Color TV (NTSC) was stanardized in the 1950's. The reason color did not get popular until 1966 was the patent RCA had on the color picture tube. All color picture tubes prior to the patent running out had to be licensed from RCA. Now, to push the sales of RCA sets, and color tubes in general, RCA's network NBC did a large amount of its schedule in color (Thus the peacock and all the hoopla around color by NBC). Once the patent expired, all the networks that next year were suddenly in Color. I am sure the reason was more political than economic. Mary Martin's special in 1954 was not video taped at all. It was in black and white. As was the second one (I think 57, but I am unsure). The third one was in color, and that is the tape that was restored. It was done in 1960 (I may be off a year or two) and was recorded in 'low band color', the first color recording technique. The RCA VTR's that did this were really upgraded black and white ones that had been extended for low band color. This lead to a lot of restoration necessary to recover a good picture from the tapes. Modern 2" Quad (circa 1970) was high band color (a shift in the carrier) and had more bandwidth and time base stability. Sydney S. Weinstein, CDP, CCP Elm Coordinator Datacomp Systems, Inc. Voice: (215) 947-9900 syd@DSI.COM or dsinc!syd FAX: (215) 938-0235