[QuadList] MTV and first video music shows

[Ted Langdell]

Cute picture, David...

Looks like a screen capture from tape.

Can you tell us the background?

Ted

On Jun 27, 2011, at 5:30 PM, David Crosthwait wrote:

> <TK42 MP.jpg>
> Chuck,
>
> I suppose your cameramen on those shows did not need a ladder?
>
>
>
> Best Regards,
>
> David Crosthwait
> DC Video
> Archived Media Transfer and Re-mastering Services
>
> Offices located at:
> 177 West Magnolia Blvd.
> Burbank, CA. 91502
> 818-563-1073
> 818-563-1177 (fax)
> 818-285-9942 (cell)
>
> DAVID at DCVIDEO.COM
> WWW.DCVIDEO.COM
>
>
>
>
> On Jun 16, 2011, at 5:25 PM, Chuck Reti wrote:
>
>> On Jun 16, 2011, at Jun 16 9:50 AM, David Crosthwait wrote:
>>
>>> I think many engineers were so fed up with the TK 42 that they  
>>> personally guaranteed their destruction i.e. opened the dumpster  
>>> for the deposit. The ones that Chuck were referring to had  
>>> apparently been given special treatment (as was the case many  
>>> times with educational TV stations). Meaning, many of those  
>>> entities existed only on donated and discarded equipment. It was a  
>>> personal goal for each and every member of the staff to make the  
>>> equipment do what it wasn't supposed to do in terms of  
>>> performance. Chuck said:   "It was kind of an ad-hoc hobby gig, as  
>>> we were working at "real" day jobs early in our TV careers. A  
>>> great many of us are still doing this (since we have no other  
>>> marketable or useful skills)."  Even though the cameras that  
>>> Chuck's associates used were at the end of their production life,  
>>> the care and feeding of them produced really good clarity and  
>>> color for what beasts they were for the most part. And that is a  
>>> real trick when you consider that the light path was split up four  
>>> different directions between and Image Orth. and three vidicons.  
>>> So, the video engineers in who took an interest in those cameras  
>>> deserve an award as far as I am concerned.
>>
>> In an exchange of emails with David regarding the look of these  
>> particular TK-42s, I passed along comments by my old friend Michael  
>> Hennessey, who was the person responsible for the set up and look  
>> of these cameras. This station we shot at was a very small,  
>> privately-owned UHF in suburban Detroit, quite literally operating  
>> on a shoestring, not an educational outlet, though we had done some  
>> earlier B&W shoots at university and educational TV studios. Mike's  
>> comments on TK-42 setup as folllows:
>>
>> "...4.5 inch IO's had inherently good resolution and handled high  
>> dynamic range lighting very gracefully: Remember how good the TK60  
>> and Marconi (4.5 inch IO, BW) looked? One trick to achieving this  
>> look was to use no video processor gamma correction for the  
>> luminance channel. The camera was slightly underexposed on a log  
>> chip chart and then target voltage was adjusted to just cause the  
>> mid gray chip to "lift off". The exposure was then adjusted for a  
>> clean looking "X" on the scope. The color channels were then set to  
>> match luminance. Lastly, color channel pedestals were lowered to  
>> clip the bottom chip - - - this is where most of the color noise  
>> and lag were. I also cheated the IO's G4 and G5 adjustments (I  
>> think that's right, it's been a while) for best corner resolution.
>> Basically, RCA's recommended setup was based on how the camera  
>> should have worked, not on what made it look best..."
>>
>> Mike often had big differences of opinion on this issue with his  
>> engineering supervisor at the TK-42-equipped station where his  
>> "regular" job was.
>>
>> Chuck Reti
>> Detroit MI
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Ted Langdell
Secretary

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