HD : BBC4 to recreate the first night of television.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

I enjoyed it, but think that they should have made it into a 2 or 3 parter to cover more things will less rushing.

I'd like to have seen what happened with regards to the break for the war and when they reopened, even up until the start of competition from commercial companies in 1955.

But it was only about the first live TV broadcast. Anything else would be a different show.

I did enjoy it

[RichardCoulter]

True, but I think that they could have expanded things a bit more by, say, making part one about the start of live TV broadcasts and then maybe a couple of more episodes.

[Stephen]

If they had that as a plan I am sure they would have but they were simply celebrating the anniversary of the first live broadcast and to me they did their job well.

[RichardCoulter]

Yes, I also found it to be very informing as well as enjoyable.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

Yes, I also found it to be very informing as well as enjoyable.

In 20 years' time, someone's going to pull that old Tivo box you stuffed in the loft in a fit of pique when you refused to send it back, and you will be lamenting about how enjoyable this little piece of technology was!

Originally Posted by Mr K

It was about an hour too long. The tecchy stuff of the 2 camera systems was interesting, but it's a story that's been told many times before.

I've heard the story before, mainly in the 1986 drama I linked to earlier, but what I hadn't appreciated before was just how impractical Baird's system was. I knew the camera was immobile, but I hadn't appreciated how it needed to work in a dark box and wasn't even a camera as we'd understand the term today.

It was the classic example of a technological blind alley, complete with complex workarounds to cover shortcomings that ought really to have killed it off long before opening night. I'm probably going to watch The Fools on the Hill again now just to be sure, but I don't recall them really going into the reason Baird's system got the gig, and how it survived for even half its contracted six month trial. Even last night Dallas Campbell skimmed over it with a one-line reference to Baird's personal influence in having pushed for development of a TV service in the first place.

Of course the system was so utterly impractical that BBC4 couldn't actually recreate it at all. A 3ft diameter disc spinning at 6,000rpm in a vacuum chamber ... a massive machine to process film stock and deliver it to another Baird camera in time to delay the "live" broadcast by a mere 54 seconds ... beyond the budget of a single documentary and doubtless ruinously expensive back in 1936 too.

Absolutely fascinating though.

[Stephen]

I couldn't believe how big and expensive and really impractical Baird's system was and even that early TV sets had a switch to change between the two systems, it really was experimental and a real shame that no real documentation exists in regards to the machine.

Imagine if that system did in some other reality win, then TV as we know it would not be here.

Still as you say very fascinating.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Stephen

I couldn't believe how big and expensive and really impractical Baird's system was and even that early TV sets had a switch to change between the two systems, it really was experimental and a real shame that no real documentation exists in regards to the machine.

Imagine if that system did in some other reality win, then TV as we know it would not be here.

Still as you say very fascinating.

I wondered this too.

After a bit of research I found this after someone asked what we were thinking:

'We still use mechanical TV systems. Blu Ray, DVD and VHS are all mechanical systems involving motors, even PVRs have mechanical parts.

The Apollo Television and early Space Shuttle TV used a version of the Baird sequential system which later went on to DLP with rear screen projection TV's using the Baird colour filter wheel as late as the 1990s'.

[Stephen]

Don't think you can really call hard drives and disc drives the same thing though. They maybe mechanical in terms of moving parts but they still require electricity to work.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

In 20 years' time, someone's going to pull that old Tivo box you stuffed in the loft in a fit of pique when you refused to send it back, and you will be lamenting about how enjoyable this little piece of technology was!

If it turns out that I won't be staying with VM, they're welcome to pick it up.

It is an interesting point though, think how many people disposed of their old VHF TV's after BBC2 UHF started, their monochrome TV's after colour started and their CRT TV's after DSO believing them to be worthless?

If it weren't for the odd person keeping them, there would be none available for historical TV enthusiasts to pursue their hobby and we would be historically poorer.

What was regarded as rubbish is now worth money again all these years later!

[theone2k10]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

In 20 years' time, someone's going to pull that old Tivo box you stuffed in the loft in a fit of pique when you refused to send it back, and you will be lamenting about how enjoyable this little piece of technology was!

Get more enjoyment gourging out my eyes with a blunt spoon full of butter.

[heero_yuy]

Originally Posted by RichardCoulter

If it weren't for the odd person keeping them, there would be none available for historical TV enthusiasts to pursue their hobby and we would be historically poorer.

What was regarded as rubbish is now worth money again all these years later!

I have a Pye 13U TV (bottom RH side of picture) stashed away. They were used by the BBC as studio monitors and later as props in Monty Python (mostly the 11U). With a bit of work it's probably a goer even now.



The turret tuner has the normal 12 VHF channels, and the UHF position but additionally a square and triangle for the video direct inputs though the one I have does not have the extra components for that function.

Pye_11U_series.jpg

[RichardCoulter]

It might be worth something to a collector, even if it doesn't work.

If you don't want to sell it, I'd definitely hang onto it after all this time.

[RichardCoulter]

Originally Posted by Stephen

Don't think you can really call hard drives and disc drives the same thing though. They maybe mechanical in terms of moving parts but they still require electricity to work.

An interesting post from another thread:

Originally Posted by sollp

The new V6 Has a hard drive fitted to the bottom of the box as VM will at some point go cloud based so a hard drive was fitted to the base of the new STB. So it already has no moving parts.

A hard drive has moving parts - a HDD uses magnetism to store data on a rotating platter, and the read/write head floats above the spinning platter reading and writing data.

If it didn't have moving parts, it wouldn't work.

Unless, of course, it's a SSD (Solid State Drive)...