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Old 7th Nov 2019, 6:39 pm   #40
red16v
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Winchester, Hampshire, UK.
Posts: 639
Default Re: Colour TV in UK in 1966-surely not!!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gulliver View Post
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard_FM View Post
I've heard some editions of Late Night Line Up were transmitted in colour before the official launch, & not billed as such.

I guess the were using colour cameras to get studio staff used to working with them before the launch.
I've just finished listening to the audiobook of David Attenborough's memoirs, published in 2008. He was in charge of BBC2 at the time of the switch to colour and he confirms that some of the earliest colour transmissions in PAL were "Late Night Line Up"....specifically because they wanted to get skin tones right. Attenborough remembered seeing NTSC colour TV in the 50s and how everything was very garish. He and the engineers were looking at how to best deliver true to life colour pictures using the relatively crude colour cameras available at the time.
Although these were somewhat unpublished test broadcasts, on quite a few I saw at the time the programme presenter would actually reference the fact that they were transmitting the programme in colour. I was always watching in B&W.
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