[QuadList] History - what is the REAL story

[DCFWTX at aol.com]

The following are my observations:

In the beginning of 2" quad, all color first generation recording was 
direct color. This includes RCA modulators, Ampex modulators, and Allen mods. 

Any color dub that was made machine to machine, or for on-air playback for 
example used heterodyne recovery. The color TV at home did not mind the 
heterodyne system. This I would say was "normal" till approx. 1965 on most VTR's 
reproducing color. There had to be an FCC waiver for this process to be 
aired this way.

It was not until the Amtec and Colortec combo did direct recovery become 
possible. But those units were not in wide spread use until the VR 2000 was 
introduced. VR 1000's and 1001's for example, could add on these 
Amtec/Colortec accessories for direct color recovery. Many operations could not afford to 
convert every VTR to direct color. I've seen color dubs way into the late 
sixties that were heterodyne color. RCA had their accessory modules on their 
machines also to do direct color recovery (color ATC). I would guess that 
the TR 70 was the first to have this as a standard item if ordered that way. 
The TR 22 had these as options I think. Later, Ampex Velcomp and RCA CAVEC 
helped direct color further with velocity correction.

Toshiba made a direct recovery unit similar to the Ampec/Colortec. I 
believe though that only one or two made it to the U.S. due to patent infringement 
problems, so I was told by an engineer way back when.

Another example of accessories was the dropout compensator. Not everyone 
had one on their machines. RCA, Ampex, and 3M had schemes. So dubs made back 
then came in all sorts of quality depending on the accessories on the VTR. 
Usually, the smaller market machines could just barely make a decent dub due 
to very limited money to add accessories.

If you had the money, you ordered a fully loaded VTR with all options. 


David




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