Best TV for viewing archive stuff

[lovecraft]

I recently splurged on a smart OLED TV as our main viewing option. Brilliant for streaming and blu ray but, by god, very unforgiving on archive stuff.

If I were to get something smaller for another room on which to watch Task Force, Blakes 7 and other delights, what would they look best on. LED, LCD, something else I'm not aware of?

[brigham]

For programmes made before 1970, 405-lines is best. It provides the immersive experience that television was in those days.

[Brian F]

Well yes, unless it was on BBC2.

[David Boothroyd]

When I briefly went back to a CRT TV a few years ago (one LED TV having expired), I found it took a bit of time to readjust to the 50Hz flicker (especially if you weren't looking directly at the screen), and that watching it led to headaches.

And yet I wonder if there will come a time when working CRT TVs will be extremely rare. They don't appear to have made any for a long time.

[fatcat]

The old TV/VTR format resolution was around 7x 5 size which also applies to DVDs.

Your new TV is probably showing 19x10 (1080p) size at least.. so a 7x5 picture on it is going to
show up its shortcomings.

Yet when you buy a Blue-Ray version of an old programme originally made on VT it looks much better than it did originally...so what is happening?

What they have done is 'upscaled' it ..they have used software to rebuild the picture into a larger size and being digital it can
ignore all the useless foibles such as videotape noise (which covertly contributes to the crappiness of the picture) and concentrate on the meat.

You can buy 'upscalers' on Ebay which convert on the fly . The cheap ones have a scart input for your old machines and a HDMI output for your telly. Obviously, you get what you pay for and being under £20 and Chinese, it is pot luck what you get and what it can do, but a good set-up can make even VHS recordings look significantly better.

..Or if your old recordings are all on DVD then DVD players with upscalers are also available.

The other thing to remember is the frame rate, if you want to retain that 'video' look and not make Eastenders look like Die Hard 3.Video tape was recorded at 25fps (or 29 US) with two low def fields per frame giving the illusion of 50fps. So your new magic box may adjust automatically but if it does not, it may 'progressively' think the two originally interlaced fields are really 50 frames and thus give everything a 'filmic' look in which case if you can get into the settings,set it for 25fps.

BTW does not apply to stuff originally made on film, that can be scanned at source to any resolution you like.

..something like that anyway


.

[lovecraft]

Thanks for the responses chaps.

[Private Frazer]

Just to mention a way to use a CRT TV. I have, in reserve, a CRT TV without a SCART (Ferguson TX Model 37101). Feeding the aerial input a UHF/VHF signal from a VCR with screwdriver-tunable output lets me play VHS tapes (or use the VCR SCART input). It took me a while to find the old-style VCR!

[Focus II]

I favour the Sony Bravia we have. Displays the correct 4:3 aspect ratio and even VHS recordings look good on it.

I've seen some modern sets display a 4:3 image as a square which looks very odd.

While I was never a fan of their Trinitron CRT sets, the Bravia gives results like an excellent CRT set.

[brigham]

For 405-era programmes, a 405-line TV is best.
It gives the ambience, as well as the correct line structure.

[Simon Coward]

For programmes made before 1970, 405-lines is best. It provides the immersive experience that television was in those days.

For 405-era programmes, a 405-line TV is best.
It gives the ambience, as well as the correct line structure.

"Bloody repeats!"

[Richard Woods]

Sing along to the tune of New York New York.

“405 TV so good he posted twice, I love it”

100% agree with Brigham’s sentiments too!!! I’ve got a 1960 405 line GEC BT302 (with Aurora Standards Converter) which we use to watch Vintage programming.

[brigham]

The 625-generation never had the full TV experience: the weird bluey-coloured light, the whistle, the warm comfortable smell ...

[Richard Woods]

100% Agree. We were really lucky when I was a young child living at Carlisle, we only had 405 until we left in 71. Three channels too, BBC1, BBC Scotland & Border. Heaven!

[Ian Wegg]

The 625-generation never had the full TV experience: the weird bluey-coloured light, the whistle, the warm comfortable smell ...

I don't remember a whistle on our 405 TV. When the first UHF sets arrived in our local electrical shop I could hear their high pitch tone from 500 yards.

[Richard Woods]

Ah, young ears! Those were the days. The joy of being able to hear higher frequencies. I can still just about hear the 405 line whistle in my dotage.

[brigham]

Ah, young ears! Those were the days. The joy of being able to hear higher frequencies. I can still just about hear the 405 line whistle in my dotage.

I can hear it well enough...except it's still there when I switch off!

[Richard Woods]

Ah, young ears! Those were the days. The joy of being able to hear higher frequencies. I can still just about hear the 405 line whistle in my dotage.

I can hear it well enough...except it's still there when I switch off!

You & me both Mate!

[Paul Hayes]

Although for the overwhelming majority of surviving 405-line material, you're watching film recordings so you can never really recreate what the audience at home were seeing at the time.

[paul.austin]

Although for the overwhelming majority of surviving 405-line material, you're watching film recordings so you can never really recreate what the audience at home were seeing at the time.

"By 1978, so many videotapes had been wiped by Engineering that not a single "Doctor Who" episode prior to "The Ambassadors of Death" was held on its original VT"...