> Composite video (single yellow RCA plug), as well as RF, encodes color as textured patterns (a 3.58 MHz sine wave in QAM with variable amplitude and phase) added to a black-and-white signal
In the 1970s the BBC transmitted colour TV programmes but archived them on black-and-white film, shooting a black-and-white monitor that actually had enough bandwidth to display the 4.43MHz PAL colour carrier. Someone wrote software to decode this and recolour footage based on what they recovered. It's not great, but it's at least as good as VHS colour.
Unfortunately the only really good examples of footage captured both on film in mono and tape in colour is an episode of Top of the Pops, presented by the infamous Jimmy Savile. In a happier example they were able to recover the colour from a couple of lost episodes of Morecambe and Wise.
The BBC regularly repeats old episodes of Top of the Pops, a music chart programme that was broadcast between 1964 and 2006. It's quite close to a random sample of weekly Top 40 listings - about half the episodes in the archive are unsuitable for repeat broadcast, because they were presented by notorious sex offenders.
There was a lot of crap in the charts, but I think the overall level of quality was higher. I think the reason for that higher quality was essentially negative - the routes to an audience were much narrower, so artists were practically required to get into the charts to sustain a professional career. A far broader range of artists were playing the major label game, because they didn't have many alternatives.
"Pop" is a much narrower term in 2018 than it was in 1978, because musicians don't need chart hits or radio airplay. Digital recording and distribution have created a much more fragmented music market, because artists can connect directly with audiences rather than relying on a very narrow funnel of publicity and distribution. Good music is somewhat more difficult to find today, but I think there's more of it and more definitions of "good".
Hacker Cinema
3 comments on Hacker News
Quite a lot of stuff is on iPlayer. But as always, licensing is the killer.
(Not to mention reputational risk, which is why so many episodes of Top Of The Pops are hidden)
> Composite video (single yellow RCA plug), as well as RF, encodes color as textured patterns (a 3.58 MHz sine wave in QAM with variable amplitude and phase) added to a black-and-white signal
In the 1970s the BBC transmitted colour TV programmes but archived them on black-and-white film, shooting a black-and-white monitor that actually had enough bandwidth to display the 4.43MHz PAL colour carrier. Someone wrote software to decode this and recolour footage based on what they recovered. It's not great, but it's at least as good as VHS colour.
Unfortunately the only really good examples of footage captured both on film in mono and tape in colour is an episode of Top of the Pops, presented by the infamous Jimmy Savile. In a happier example they were able to recover the colour from a couple of lost episodes of Morecambe and Wise.
https://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=16161
The BBC regularly repeats old episodes of Top of the Pops, a music chart programme that was broadcast between 1964 and 2006. It's quite close to a random sample of weekly Top 40 listings - about half the episodes in the archive are unsuitable for repeat broadcast, because they were presented by notorious sex offenders.
There was a lot of crap in the charts, but I think the overall level of quality was higher. I think the reason for that higher quality was essentially negative - the routes to an audience were much narrower, so artists were practically required to get into the charts to sustain a professional career. A far broader range of artists were playing the major label game, because they didn't have many alternatives.
"Pop" is a much narrower term in 2018 than it was in 1978, because musicians don't need chart hits or radio airplay. Digital recording and distribution have created a much more fragmented music market, because artists can connect directly with audiences rather than relying on a very narrow funnel of publicity and distribution. Good music is somewhat more difficult to find today, but I think there's more of it and more definitions of "good".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_of_the_Pops
(proxy required outside the UK):
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b00704hg