UK Colour 405 line to RGB adapter wanted.

[Wirecutter]

The standard PAL to RGB converters have only limited input range timings and the 1960-61 NTSC colour tests in the UK had an unusual sub carrier not the 3.58 or 4.43 ones. Also the Spinning Colour Wheel used a field sequence R.G.B.at full band with a full B/W compatible signal, and it was only tried in the US or UK labs. Even John Logie Baird. never tried to put a 6 foot spinning disk in the home! But always Have Fun.

[cheerfulcharlie]

I have pointed to this before but that is because I think its significant.

This was the London Palladium Show shot I believe in 405 lines NTSC colour and transmitted direct.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAkNGdBTDQ4

Some later London Palladiums were shot with dual camera systems
405 line B/W and NTSC 525 lines for a possible interest in the US market...which there was not.

Lew Grade was keen on getting colour started ASAP on 405 lines NTSC but was obviously hampered by the GPO.

[Nicklyons2]

I'm doubtful, but willing to be convinced, that this is 405 NTSC. Two reasons 1) It seems to be generally agreed that it is 1966 era - by this time BBC2 had started and the question of what colour std the UK would adopt was just about sorted and 405 NTSC had been just about laid to rest.
2) Look at the diagonals, they just aren't 'steppy' enough for 405. Whenever 405 material is shown with diagonals like guitar stings or even shoulders they look like a staircase or sawblade because of the low vertical resolution - this isn't evident.

However I'm as certain as can be that it IS NTSC, the colourimetry (or should that be colorimetry!) gives it away. I suspect that is was a 'dry run' for the duplicate 525/405 recordings that were made by ATV. But I am willing to bow to more detailed knowledge....

[cheerfulcharlie]

I think you maybe right Nick ? I do know that the recording must has been 'restored' somewhat though- I have seen some of the original and a few errors I recall have been cleaned up.

However now finding this known 525 line recording using the same old (even then) Marconi cameras shows its quite comparable with the Palladium show.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NtyROCysfN0


So I will not mention it again LOL

[Andy Green]

Originally Posted by Andy Green

...there was an article in Wireless World in the 70s that I used to have that described a PAL to colour wheel converter...

I finally got hold of a copy of the September / October 1971 Wireless World article by T.J. Dennis describing his a field sequential colour TV adapter, and I have attached it here.

[emeritus]

The Autumn 2003 issue of "Television Lighting" (the Journal of the Society of Television Directors) published an article "NTSC Television in the United Kingdom" (by John Burgess) which mentions a company called "Intertel" that provided video facilities for US television networks and independent producers.

Intertel started in 1962 with monochrome 525-line VTRs, and added 525/NTSC colour in time for the Innsbruck Winter Olympics, using four Marconi 848 colour cameras (Marconi's badge-engineered and modified version of the RCA TK41). A 300kVA mobile generator (Big Bertha) had to be built to provide the power for the prodigious amount of light required for indoor filming, was occasionally used by the BBC and ITV for back-up power, and ended its days as an emergency generator for London Weekend Television's South Bank studios. The article says

"During its relatively short life from 1965 to 1968 OBIC, as the Marconi BD848 was known, covered many programme commitments including Sunday Night at the London Palladium, Ski Jumping at Innsbruck, the Moscow State Circus in Minsk amongst many others. "

The Marconi cameras continued in use until replaced by Philips PC60s in 1968 and were then donated to various training colleges.

The Palladium recording could well be a 525/NTSC recording from this era.

[red16v]

There's more on Intertel's studios/cameras at Stonebridge Park here if anyone's interested:

http://www.tvstudiohistory.co.uk/stu...ry.htm#wycombe

I used to work at their studio site, after LWT bought it from Intertel. When I last checked a year or so ago the entire site had been reduced to rubble - literally. A lot of people don't realise (or know) that LWT had this large studio base as the studio complexes up the road in Wembley, and latterly on the South Bank, were much more well known to the public.

[winston_1]

Originally Posted by audion_1908

Would feeding a uk 405 line black and white tv colour signal degrade the picture? if such a video source could be cooked up, MythTV?

No more than feeding a 625 line mono set with a colour signal. The 405 colour subcarrier was 2.7MHz so not really that intrusive on 405 lines.
Aurora do a 405NTSC converter and as it is only slightly dearer than the standard 405 converter I ordered one when I wanted a converter even though I don't have a 405 colour set. The dot pattern is hardly visible.

[Andy Green]

Yes I have one, and it is noticeable if you know what to look for