[QuadList] Fred Astaire Color Videotape-Background-Part 1 ofSeveral

Sun Feb 27 20:22:11 CST 2011

G'day

For those of you interested in the restoration of videotapes or in this case missing videotapes this site explains how some twenty years ago the BBC restored missing Doctor Who episodes by using the monochrome video from 625 originated kines and the chrominance from 525 NTSC U-matics.

http://www.restoration-team.co.uk/

It would be a lot easier today, but still a challenge.

Chris Patten
Sydney
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Ted Langdell 
  To: Quad List 
  Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011 7:40 AM
  Subject: Re: [QuadList] Fred Astaire Color Videotape-Background-Part 1 ofSeveral

  Hi, Scott,

  There are some DVDs offered that were struck from Kinescopes. 

  There are a number of clips from Videotape on YouTube... likely from restored versions that were shown on the Disney Channel in 1988.

  I'm not aware of anything from videotape legally available on DVD.

  The restoration of "An Evening with Fred Astaire" from Quad to D-2 was undertaken in 1988, and resulted in an Emmy award for the participants.

  The stills-from-video shown here are from a KTLA TV news video report about the restoration project.

  KTLA engineer Don Kent handled the actual transfers and recalls:
  "The Astaire masters were found by a former employee of the UCLA Archive who was then working for Universal. He found them in their tape library.  They didn't even know they had them.  They were there because Astaire had a distribution deal with them, but primarily (I think) because of his movies.

  When Astaire died, Universal sold the "restored" shows to Disney.  They hadn't even been done yet!

  The restored D-2 is owned by Universal and is there now.  The original quads are in the UCLA Film and Television Archive in Hollywood."

  The "heavy lifting" was undertaken by Don Kent who transferred the tapes on this KTLA AVR-1 and by QuadList member Ed Reitan, standing over the AVR-1's left-hand circuit-card drawer.

  Reitan researched the RCA Labs hetrodyne color system used at NBC Burbank, designed and made circuit modifications to 10 AVR-1 boards that enabled recovery of the program.

  Kent recalls:
  "The AVR-1’s DOC was used.  The takeoff was at the input to the AVR-1 TBC.  Ampex labeled it “Demod”, as the signal hadn’t been timebase corrected at that point.  That was what we used to feed the N.E.C. and then it’s output went directly to the D-2 machine."

  The "N.E.C." was an NEC NTC 10 Timebase corrector supplied by QuadList member Ken Zin and Merlin Engineering Works in Palo Alto.  That TBC could handle the Quad's head switching.

  The stills-from-video shown here are from a KTLA TV news video report about the restoration project.

  Look for more parts as I have time to pull quotes from e-mails Don Kent and I exchanged.  Like a lot of projects, this one began with something personal to Kent.

  This series of posts will eventually become a section of the QuadVideoTape.com website.

  I'd finish the job in one pass, but I'm off to clear out what's left in my 10 x 20 storage H47 and put it into my 10 x 40 storage H-73 before the end of the day so I don't owe another month's rent!

  Some items may become available.

  Enjoy your Sunday! 

  Ted

  Ted Langdell
  Secretary
  Skype:  TedLangdell
  e-mail: ted at quadvideotapegroup.com

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