11-01-2020, 11:44 AM
(10-01-2020, 11:19 PM)Richard_FM Wrote: One oddity I noticed when I was last in the USA in 2008 were that the picture quality during commercial breaks dropped quite a bit compared to the actual programming.
This probably wasn't helped by the hotel distribution system, but sometimes it looked like the adverts had been shot with the same film stock used for the Sweeney.
Could this have been served by a small local affiliate station who inserted local adverts using less than perfect equipment? The quality of some US TV could be dire.
I've probably mentioned this before but here goes. In 1968 we were installing a Dynatron colour set one afternoon. The usual test card on BBC2 had been replaced by a live broadcast by satellite of Bobby Kennedy's funeral. Fortunately, the lady of the house busied herself elsewhere because the picture quality was not a good advert!
In one lengthy sequence the camera was positioned behind the motorcade as it proceeded along a straight country road. All the cars had their lights on which highlighted the abysmal setup of the camera because the red tube was so badly misaligned that the cars had one rear light whilst a ghostly line of red lights proceeded gracefully along the fields alongside the road!
