During the 1960s and 1970s video recording was in
its infancy, with machines suitable for domestic use being hard to
find, hard to use, and very expensive. There was no standard so many
different formats were produced, mostly using open reel tape, with
widths of tape varying from 1/4 inch up to 1 inch. Most were only
capable of monochrome recording, although some colour capable machines
did start to appear after the 60s. Some were only capable of recording
in 405 lines.
As the result of this plethora of assorted formats,
a lot of tapes existed containing programmes recorded off air, some of
which often failed to be archived by the TV companies at the time, due
to cost problems. By 1990 these old machines were turning up for
little money or being given away, and having a technical interest in
video recording, I realised that all these different formats would be
turning up one day needing machines to replay them. Having assembled a
large collection of all these old format machines, I found they
sometimes came with lots of old tapes. These tapes could, and
occasionally did, contain interesting old material. This is the reason
behind my recovering a number of old programmes believed "lost".
Maintaining the old format machines in working order is another story,
giving immense satisfaction when one can coaxe a picture out of a long
lost tape.
The following links will continue the story relating
to some of this work:
Click here to return to my
home
page.
This page is maintained by Martin