On TV...

[CitroJim]

I so well remember Test Card F from my TV servicing days... Happy days they were

I really used to enjoy the test card music... Shame no TVs of the period had decent enough audio systems to really take full advantage of the quality of it...

[white exec]

In the 70s/80s it was a well-kept secret that UK broadcast tv usually transmitted "high quality" audio, at least as good as the best you'd then get from FM radio.

Jim, you are right, most tv sets couldn't do justice to the audio, with plasticky cabinets and slim oval speakers. There were a couple of exceptions, one of which was the "painted Murphy", offered in a fashionable series of matt-satin shades of green, red, orange, white, blue - and 'wood'. IIRC, these all came with an 8x5" forward-facing speaker, and sounded halfway decent.

Hi-fi buffs used to get hold of a component found in certain old televisions (the IF strip??), put it in a small box with a multi-turn pot drive, and run it for years from a PP9 battery. This device would accept a UHF tv aerial input, and conveniently output it as an FM signal, which you could feed into your FM radio tuner, thence to the hi-fi. I remember well using one of these: you could hear a tv newsreader taking breath and turning the sheets of the script! I still have one of these devices, in a box somewhere, dating from the early 70s.

History has unfortunately repeated itself: todays flat-screen tv's offer some fabulous pictures, but sound output via the inbuilt speakers is generally worse that anything which preceded it. I cannot understand how folk can spend upwards of £500 on a new tv, and be content with the apologies for speakers that go with it.

About a year ago, I helped some good friends and neighbours of ours install their new 49" screen. Appalled by the sound quality, I went back to tidy up the install, and took with me a small but decent amp, and a couple of bookshelf speakers. Plugged it in, and expected to hear "That sounds good...", but no, quite the contrary, they didn't like the sound at all, and preferred the tv's squitty efforts. I suppose it depends what you're used to. Perhaps they should be warned not to go to the cinema, or to a live concert . . .

[white exec]

I so well remember Test Card F from my TV servicing days... Happy days they were
I really used to enjoy the test card music... Shame no TVs of the period had decent enough audio systems to really take full advantage of the quality of it...

And weren't daytime episodes of Thunderbirds also used in the 70s by tv engineers to check out picture quality? IIRC, they were originally shot on 70mm filmstock, so image quality was as good as it could be, and streets ahead of the VT then available.

[CitroJim]

Jim, you are right, most tv sets couldn't do justice to the audio, with plasticky cabinets and slim oval speakers. There were a couple of exceptions, one of which was the "painted Murphy", offered in a fashionable series of matt-satin shades of green, red, orange, white, blue - and 'wood'. IIRC, these all came with an 8x5" forward-facing speaker, and sounded halfway decent.

Chris, speaking of the 'painted Murphy' you may enjoy this thread from the vintage radio forum discussing the restoration of one...

http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/show ... p?t=137894

Yes, there were ways of tapping off the audio from a TV but it had to be done with care as all were 'live chassis' along that time and the risks were significant...

There were also dedicated TV sound receivers briefly available which were composed of a tuner and an IF strip obtained from surplus stock disposed of my the major manufacturers via the good offices of the many dealers along the Tottenham Court Road...

There was a thread about them, and TV audio in general, on the vintage radio forum a while back...

And weren't daytime episodes of Thunderbirds also used in the 70s by tv engineers to check out picture quality? IIRC, they were originally shot on 70mm filmstock, so image quality was as good as it could be, and streets ahead of the VT then available.

Can't recall that Chris, maybe not in our region perhaps...

[white exec]

Tottenham Court Road or Edgware Road was where my tv tuner/if strip came from - iirc, Henrys Radio were advertising them for a fiver in the electronics mags. As you say, this was the safe way to do it!
What a welcome difference are modern tv's - bristling with input and output sockets, unlike the old stuff which had absolutely none.
You know, I'd forgotten just how grizzly a 405-line picture was... Remember seeing 405 on some 26" in schools.
Lines? What are they?

[CitroJim]

Ahh yes happy memories of Henry's Radio Chris... I can remember looking at their adverts as a young lad and positively salivating

Sadly, my meagre pocket money and earnings never quite managed to afford what i wanted to buy...

405 lines do look a bit rough these days but back in the day it was perfectly good. I was brought up on 405 lines!

Going back to Henry's, as a youngster I had a favourite TV in my bedroom. A BRC 850 which was a dual standard ready (or convertible) set. It had a 405/625 dual-standard timebase but a 405-only IF strip and no UHF tuner... Henry's at the time were selling 625 line conversion kits for these sets comprising a dual-standard IF strip (less valves!) and a UHF tuner - again, less valves...

I saved and saved but could never quite afford one before they sold out

When I finally got a 625 line set it was a revelation - and finally, I could then enjoy BBC2 and all the highbrow stuff on offer on that channel in those days

Oh the memories... All of them very happy

The TV area of the vintage radio forum is my favourite part of the whole site...

[Gibbo2286]

I remember a rude joke about Murphy's 17"...............................

[NewcastleFalcon]

Well I think this thread is an appropriate receptacle for things which are a bit longer than a clip.

This little half-hour gives some impression of what living in the International Space Station is like. I presume that the accomodation is a good deal more spacious than that for the first astronauts on a journey to Mars mission possible in the 2030's trailed on the POTD thread this morning. 13M views so quite a few have spent 30 minutes finding out what its like, kinda puts me off the job!



Regards Neil

[jgra1]

I haven't really read any of this thread, lol, but yes Chris, sound from modern tv's is rubbish! I usually plug mine into a Yamaha amp, using HDMI, and then through some speakers (I cant at moment, the stable I live in is too small!)

I couple of programs I have been watching recently, both on Quest, one is something like 'how it works'! not sure if the above youtube is it or not.. the other is Fantomworks,, ok ok it's US , but is watchable if you have time on your hands.. sort of like car SOS but with cash changing hands, and mostly musclecars..

[Hell Razor5543]

Tomorrow (19/11) on Channel 4, Guy Martin is (obviously with a lot of help) building a WWI tank.

[NewcastleFalcon]

...and trivia question of the day...why are tanks called tanks

I came across the answer somewhere this week, can't remember where from, probably "the wireless".

Regards Neil

[Hell Razor5543]

To make sure that spies did not know that mobile armoured assault vehicles with weaponry were being developed. They were called tanks as they were 'disguised' as 'water tanks' (water carriers) for the Middle East WWI theatre (well, that was what we hoped the Germans would think).

https://www.quora.com/Why-is-a-tank-called-a-tank

[Stickyfinger]

The first "real tank" was called Little Willie....(officially the No1 Lincoln Machine) built by William Foster & Co in Lincoln



Eustace Tennyson d’Eyncourt, the Landships Committee's Chairman, developed an obsession with secrecy over the promising creation of Swinton and his colleagues. Even British airplanes were banned from flying over the Foster plant while its assembly was in progress. However, there was still the risk of an information leak, which led to the necessity of developing a new codename for the vehicle—at least as a distraction—that would not give any hints to a potential spy. The main condition was the absence of any references to ships, albeit land ones.

Assembling the hull of «Little Willie»On 4 November, 1915, the prototype was called a “water carrier”, and that name was used until Christmas. On 24 December, Swinton and Lieutenant Daley Johns from the Committee of Imperial Defence decided to change the designation. “Container”, “cistern”, and even “reservoir” were among the variants. Eventually, the short and sonorous term “tank” was selected. The cover story was that the plant was producing water tanks.

[Hell Razor5543]

That was an really enjoyable program.

[CitroJim]

That was an really enjoyable program.

Just heard a bit about it on the wireless... Went on for two hours I believe... I also believe it's been well received...

Sadly, way beyond my cognitive capabilities

Guy Martin and Tanks seem like a match made in heaven