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Vintage Television and Video Vintage television and video equipment, programmes, VCRs etc. |
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24th Oct 2021, 1:41 pm | #1 |
Triode
Join Date: Oct 2021
Location: Leiden, Netherlands.
Posts: 11
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Apollo 11 1969 1" open reel video tapes
Greetings!
I found these 3 1" open reel video tapes with Apollo 11 labels at an online auction, grabbed them up immediately. The seller says he got them a few decades ago but doesn't remember anything else. Each tape holds 1 hour of video and was recorded on an Ampex type A machine. I have yet to play them back to verify if the labels hold true. What could be on them? Lost television broadcasts? behind the scenes studio footage?! I Love Lucy? Hope to give them a spin somewhere in the Netherlands the following months. Exciting! |
24th Oct 2021, 2:00 pm | #2 |
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Re: Apollo 11 1969 1" open reel video tapes
Type A wasn't a professional broadcast format. I suspect these are off-air recordings made at a university or college.
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24th Oct 2021, 2:13 pm | #3 | |
Triode
Join Date: Oct 2021
Location: Leiden, Netherlands.
Posts: 11
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Re: Apollo 11 1969 1" open reel video tapes
Quote:
Maybe BBC or Australian broadcasts but very unlikely... An other possibility is that an university or library requested a video tape dub from NASA. But then I don't see why they would have the landing too, because that didn't have any TV, only 16mm! |
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24th Oct 2021, 2:41 pm | #4 |
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Re: Apollo 11 1969 1" open reel video tapes
As the timings are given in GMT, this is likely to be a British recording, probably off-air BBC live coverage. The writing on the boxes has rather a 'British' look to it too. The '7' is British/American in style rather than continental European. However, the date format is American rather than British.
It will certainly be interesting to see what's on the tapes if you can find a suitable machine. |
24th Oct 2021, 2:52 pm | #5 |
Triode
Join Date: Oct 2021
Location: Leiden, Netherlands.
Posts: 11
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Re: Apollo 11 1969 1" open reel video tapes
The BBC Apollo 11 broadcasts are entirely lost (Expect a minute or so of telecine), finding those broadcasts would be truly historic.
There is a company in the Netherlands that has Ampex type A PAL and NTSC machines. I have asked them and hopefully I can give my tapes a spin on their machine to verify contents. The tapes did come from the USA however, so would need to have made quite the journey... Digitization is going to be very expensive unfortunately , 450 Eur per tape at their place. What video broadcast standards were used in 1969 Britain? Last edited by Dutchsteam; 24th Oct 2021 at 3:13 pm. |
24th Oct 2021, 2:52 pm | #6 |
Triode
Join Date: Oct 2021
Location: Leiden, Netherlands.
Posts: 11
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Re: Apollo 11 1969 1" open reel video tapes
This Google Drive link has much more photos in higher resolution.
Last edited by Dutchsteam; 24th Oct 2021 at 3:15 pm. |
24th Oct 2021, 3:24 pm | #7 |
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Re: Apollo 11 1969 1" open reel video tapes
If you bought the tapes from the US then that obviously makes it more likely that they were recorded there. The GMT timings are a puzzle though.
British broadcasters were still using 2" Quadruplex in 1969 (as was everybody else). Transmission was dual standard 405 and 625 lines, but all studio operations were 625 PAL. I don't know if the BBC had an electronic 525-625 standards converter for Apollo 11 - they may have used optical conversion. |
24th Oct 2021, 3:53 pm | #8 |
Heptode
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Birmingham, West Midlands, UK.
Posts: 708
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Re: Apollo 11 1969 1" open reel video tapes
It may save you some money by asking the transfer people just to try and find an identity clapperboard at the beginning and then just spool through, picking out some random.. say 30-second shots on the tape..This will give you some idea if they are in good condition and the material actually match what is written down.
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24th Oct 2021, 5:01 pm | #9 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Staffordshire Moorlands, UK.
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Re: Apollo 11 1969 1" open reel video tapes
Quote:
(source: https://web.archive.org/web/20110723...on_tv_cov.html) https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/...h/moon-landing
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Kevin Last edited by McMurdo; 24th Oct 2021 at 5:09 pm. Reason: added extra link |
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24th Oct 2021, 5:11 pm | #10 |
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Re: Apollo 11 1969 1" open reel video tapes
They had 625->405 analogue electronic converters, but NTSC is more challenging because of the different frame rate, so they may have converted optically. I know digital standards converters arrived around 1980, but I don't know if there were earlier analogue designs that could handle 525.
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24th Oct 2021, 5:40 pm | #11 |
Heptode
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Duffort, Gers, France
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Re: Apollo 11 1969 1" open reel video tapes
Different time zones have different times and who knows what time it is on the moon? It's quite common to use GMT, or UTC as it's known nowadays to have some sort of absolute reference.
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24th Oct 2021, 5:49 pm | #12 |
Triode
Join Date: Oct 2021
Location: Leiden, Netherlands.
Posts: 11
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Re: Apollo 11 1969 1" open reel video tapes
NASA used GMT time during the Apollo missions including all announcements.
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24th Oct 2021, 10:07 pm | #13 |
Heptode
Join Date: Aug 2018
Location: Rogiet, Monmouthshire, Wales, UK.
Posts: 615
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Re: Apollo 11 1969 1" open reel video tapes
If you get in contact with Chris Perry at Kaleidoscope, they will probably have the machines to check the tapes for you.
You could very well have lost footage. |
25th Oct 2021, 1:40 am | #14 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Greater Manchester, UK.
Posts: 18,676
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Re: Apollo 11 1969 1" open reel video tapes
Quote:
The studio presenters included James Burke, Patrick Moore, Cliff Michelmore, David Frost & Alastair Burnet. The title music was the epic opening bars of Richard Strauss "Also sprach Zarathustra, Op.30" In UK TV terms, this is gold-dust if it's what's written on the tin. The British Film Institute (BFI) have a project called MBW (Missing Believed Wiped).
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25th Oct 2021, 1:17 pm | #15 |
Heptode
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Stockport, Cheshire, UK.
Posts: 710
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Re: Apollo 11 1969 1" open reel video tapes
This is very interesting
Please keep us updated, hopefully you will be able to view the tapes soon. |
25th Oct 2021, 9:38 pm | #16 |
Heptode
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Birmingham, West Midlands, UK.
Posts: 708
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Re: Apollo 11 1969 1" open reel video tapes
LOL can't say it would be that interesting, just Patrick Moore et all waffling and ad-libbing away, trying to keep the momentum going with the help of the tatty models and graphics that the BBC were good at in those days.
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25th Oct 2021, 10:04 pm | #17 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Ramsbottom (Nr Bury) Lancs or Bexhill (Nr Hastings) Sussex.
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Re: Apollo 11 1969 1" open reel video tapes
I don't know about that Charlie. Patrick was and is still very popular. Defenders of the archiving policy [if there was one] often point to costs and that "You can't keep everything" but the Apollo Missions It was hardly the un-regarded and undervalued new fangled "pop" music, considered entirely disposable by some but a world wide event!
Dave W Last edited by dave walsh; 25th Oct 2021 at 10:10 pm. |
25th Oct 2021, 10:13 pm | #18 |
Octode
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: Stockport, Cheshire, UK.
Posts: 1,999
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Re: Apollo 11 1969 1" open reel video tapes
I was more incensed by hearing the BBC had wiped their tapes of the moon landing than I was with episodes of Dr Who!
This was probably because it was one of the biggest events of the 20th century & one that was shown live all around the world.
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25th Oct 2021, 11:44 pm | #19 |
Heptode
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Durham, County Durham, UK.
Posts: 640
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Re: Apollo 11 1969 1" open reel video tapes
interesting info about Apollo TV just appeared today on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3DfWR3CVlc John. |
26th Oct 2021, 5:31 am | #20 |
Hexode
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Faro, Portugal
Posts: 269
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Re: Apollo 11 1969 1" open reel video tapes
The camera was developed by Stanley Lebar and his team at Westinghouse. There's a fascinating
interview with him here at the Early Television Museum in 2009,sadly he passed away not long afterwards.It's a long video and the interesting parts are towards the middle/end from memory.Sound quality isn't great at times. Westinghouse were chosen as they previously had made a miniature camera for the CIA! https://youtu.be/Hjxi6r6TPr4 |