[QuadList] Was ACR-225, Now ACR-25 Stereo Mod

[Dennis Degan]

		On Feb 2, 2010, at 12:21 PM, C. Park Seward wrote:

> MTV started up with ACR-25s playing all the music videos. Fred 
> Reinstein told me they first operated out of his Production Group 
> offices in Hollywood.

		I recalled:

	I heard about that at the time.  They had a stereo mod I'd love to see.

		On Feb 3, 2010, at 7:59 AM, Trevor Brown wrote:

 > The sound was bad enough with narrowing the track to fit another one 
in, I cannot remember if we tried it but did not buy or just talked 
about it but we did not have it fitted.

		I conclude:

	The sound was bad, but considering the fact that it was more important 
for MTV to air in stereo, this was how it had to be at the time.  A 
marketing decision.  Stereo TV in 1981 was rarely found in the home, 
plus few cable systems even had a way to get that stereo sound to their 
subscribers.  There was no stereo MTS (Multichannel Transmission 
Standard) in 1981 when MTV started.  I think most cable systems that 
provided MTV in stereo did so by putting the stereo audio onto an FM 
radio frequency and expecting the subscriber to tune a cable-connected 
FM radio to that frequency.  That's for the cable companies that put 
forth the effort.  Most cable companies simply didn't bother with 
stereo at all at the time.
	I vaguely recall that part of the ACR-25 mod was the inclusion of 
Dolby Type "A" noise reduction, which must have helped somewhat.  That 
could have been easily installed as an external Dolby unit.

			Dennis Degan, Video Editor-Consultant-Knowledge Bank
	  					NBC Today Show, New York