Oh - I forgot to say NICE results! Marilyn's magenta-pink dress is a particularly difficult item to keep right.

Ben: Thanks and to your comment. I read a few reviews of The Red Shoes and wanted to see it for myself, so I just saw the movie for the first time recently.

Wayne: Thank you. I agree, The Red Shoes is subtle in color application and Oz does have a wide range of colors. I think the color gradation of Shoes, for lack of a true technical color description on my part looks very good to my eyes. I read that Natalie Klamus objected to adding color in movies just for colors sake. She wanted things "refined" in color films. Those are her words, not mine.

Edit: In Oz, at the early part of the film, when the witch goes to the shed for the first time and then turns back, I see about 2 seconds where it looks like they forgot to restore the film in my copy. It looks very dark and blurry. Can anyone confirm that?

In Shoes, there is one scene where the ballet dancer overhears a conversation at the train station. She is behind a black lace veil and her nose looks grey and unnatural, but the rest of her face looks very good in terms of color. I got the impression it's a flaw in the restoration and they did not catch it.

This is precisely why, for comparison's sake, bars or a color videotape can't be beat. There are too many variables when restoring a Technicolor film; each restoration, each print, each DVD/Blu-Ray/LD release will look slightly different. The nicest "Wizard of Oz" I have, in terms of color timing, is on a CAV LD. It was sourced from a then-surviving, now-lost, 1939 35mm print. It has the very dense look that projected IB Technicolor prints exhibit.

It's hard to say what you're seeing on the digital restorations.

That's a nice analogy Wayne; "The Wizard of Oz" is like one of those hokey stereophonic demonstration records from RCA, whereas "The Red Shoes" or "Meet Me In St. Lois" or even "DuBarry Was a Lady" are like a good recording of a Mahler symphony or a Neruda concerto.

It's not terribly intuitive to understand initially (at least it wasn't for me), but in general, I have found that the gaudier the color, the worse the set can perform before I notice. Very subtle color, relying more accuracy in the color sections, can be terribly difficult to get correct on a vintage set. This is why I prefer "The Red Shoes"; any pile of garbage can make "The Wizard of Oz" look passable, whereas "The Red Shoes" is a veritable workout for the color demod sections.

I don't see anything unusual in the scene where the witch first approaches the house and says "Who killed my sister?" But when she goes back to get the slippers and turns to say "They're gone!" the lighting is much harder, her costume is very dark with almost no detail, and the house is very out of focus. This appears as if it may have been a process shot (the house an image on a rear-projection screen) for some reason. I wonder if the original shot was no good and they had to recreate it later after the set was struck.

A note on the Red Shoes restoration. If you could see the original prints they had to work with, you would not believe it. Every frame had mold splotches and damage that looked like water puddles, and variable fading from frame to frame. During the showing, Warner Bros. of course did not give details of their software, but they did indicate it took months of work by hundreds of people directing the operation of the software by eye. Does the DVD have a special feature on the restoration? I'm heading off to smile.amazon to order a copy.

I would say rather it's a workout for the gray scale tracking and CRT color purity. When we demo these old sets today, we actually have a better chance of good pictures, because all the gray scale and shading problems that often cropped up in tube broadcast gear are non-existent in modern restorations.

That's fair. That said, I've found matrix issues to be MUCH more noticeable with very subtle color.

I've seen tape from a TK-26; it was... interesting looking, to say the least. :puke:

Even the Astaire and Eisenhower tapes reveal a lot of issues that would probably have gone unnoticed by the average viewer at home.

One thing to add: although the variations in the video gear are gone in modern copies, many Technicolor movie videos still have color "breathing" - the color balance changing slightly and somewhat randomly over a time frame of a second or so. The DVD of "DuBarry Was a Lady" that I have has that and color registration that changes from scene to scene and also is not the same everywhere in the frame. The variable registration is often not noticeable on top of minor convergence issues on an old set, but is very visible if I view the disc on my flat screen.

Warner Bros. is now capable of restoring the color registration to better than what could be achieved in the Technicolor printing process, even when the negatives were new and had not shrunk. As a result, they discovered in "Robin Hood" that Maid Marian's costume had gold threads woven into the fabric, which were obscured in all previous prints.

I lean to the subtle and well considered color mastering. Interesting analogies drawn, remembering "ping pong stereo" demo vinyl disk. Herb Albert and the Brass, yes bought all his releases.

Wayne, you are seeing what I tried to describe in the Oz scene and in the Shoe scene, it may possibly be the film was so damaged where her nose was and totally destroyed.

Yes there is a nice presentation booklet with two disks. It's available in DVD and Blu Ray. I bought the DVD version so I cold play it in my pre Blu Ray era DVD player. Watching the Shoes on a calibrated flat screen is a real treat, a must have DVD and makes the old roundie look good. Buy the Criterian collection version.

Another overlooked Technicolor movie is Kiss Me Kate (1953). A full spectrum of colors in the stage dance sequences and darker colors in the off-stage scenes. And a fun movie. Two pix below.

And honorable mention also goes to The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1947) from the same Powell/Pressberger that produced Red Shoes. It is British Technicolor which is just different to me. Not sure what they did differently.

One woman is responsible for the difference: Natalie Kalmus.

While she technically was the "color consultant" for Technicolor here in the US, she was largely ignored by American directors and cinematographers. Virtually everyone who came in contact with her hated her. George Cukor had terrible things to say about her, and is known to have ordered her off the lot on at least one occasion, Victor Fleming loathed her, etc If you wanted to shoot in Technicolor, you had to put up with Natalie.

Herbert Kalmus eventually started sending her over to "help" the Brits, mostly in an effort to get her out of his hair. They seemed to have actually taken her suggestions. Dare I say the British IB Technicolor looks better? She may have been an enormous b*tch, but she wasn't stupid. The more subtle color works.

Edit:

A few other great films for color roundie demonstrations:

La Cucaracha (1934) *Just a short
The Garden of Allah (1936)
A Star Is Born (1937)
For Whom The Bell Tolls (1943)

And the following all shot by Freund:

Blossoms in the Dust (1941)
This Time for Keeps (1947)
South of St. Louis (1949)
Montana (1950)

I forgot about Natalie. She was still around for Blimp and opened the Technicolor office in England but gone by Kate. Ironic that she lasts in our world as a badge on a BW set. Karma is for real.

Just now catching up with his thread. It's been years now since I heard an explanation for the 2-second 'fuzz' scene in Oz. It seemed plausible then, and I have always accepted this -- albeit now sketchy -- explanation. It simply was 2-seconds that had been recovered from a crappy old 16-mm print found somewhere in Europe . Again, details may suffer, so if this sparks a recollection, please update.

Pete

It's my understanding that the only reason Natalie had any Technicolor 'power' was because it was won in a divorce settlement.

Pete

Yes, according to books on the subject, the divorce was kept secret. She was such a thorn in one director's side that she was told her expertise was needed in England to get her out of the US for a while.

Dr. Kalmus and Natalie weren't divorced until the 40s though, despite having been separated since the 20s. Why then would she have been a "color consultant" for everything between the separation and the actual divorce? Does anyone know what exactly the nature of their relationship was for those 15-20 some odd years?

I just tried looking at the DVD in still frame mode. Unfortunately, the data rate must be somewhat low in order to get the special features on the disc. This means that the grain doesn't show very well, and comes and goes in blocks of artifacts. So, I looked at the Blu-ray version. The Blu-Ray shows the grain in all its glory, and it doesn't seem to change character on her face in that shot. (By the way, I am surprised at how much grain is in the highlights, as I thought most photographic processes are grainiest in the mid-tones.) Also, when she holds her head still momentarily, there seems to be full resolution in her features including the catchlights in her eyes. Her costume is a bit darker than in the surrounding scenes, but I think that's due to the oblique lighting also (the whole movie looks darker on the Blu-Ray than on the DVD on my setup).

So, to my eyes, it still looks like a process shot with very oblique lighting to prevent shining on the rear projection screen.

According to the book "Glorious Technicolor", they were divorced in 1921 but continued to share homes on both coasts. It says that Dr. Kalmus considered her to be a guest, but she acted as a hostess and insisted on being called Mrs. Kalmus. The unusual relationship was ended by written agreement in 1946 involving cash, continuing alimony and a pension from Technicolor. She had taken him to court repeatedly since 1921 trying to get the divorce nullified, and continued suing him into the 1950s regarding community property and trying to get more of the Technicolor fortune. The book also states that Dr. Kalmus, the perfectionist, was in favor of Natalie's work as head of the color consulting department.

I would note also that the closeup had to be shot separately and out of sequence in any case, because there are Munchkins lying about her feet in the wide shot.

Additional from
http://oz.wikia.com/wiki/Margaret_Hamilton

You may recall that Margaret Hamilton was burned during the exit scene because the flames started before she was completely below the floor. This happened on December 23 1938. She was not able to return to work until February 10.

It's quite possible that the close-up was filmed after February 10, and either the set had been struck by then, or her distance from the house was different, putting it out of focus.

One film that the Technicolor really bounces out at you is The Adventures of Robin Hood .... photography by Tony Gaudio and Sol Polito ..an early film stock to Oz (it was slower apparently).

Lots of exteriors.

It looks gorgeous on the cinema screen .... am sure it would look good on a CT100 or similar and bring a real range of Natalie's handiwork to the screen!

The Robin Hood movie is listed frequently as one of the best Technicolor films to view.

Technicolor founders Herbert T. Kalmus and Natalie Kalmus considered The Red Shoes the best example of Three-Strip Technicolor. During the filming, Natalie often complained that Jack Cardiff wasn't following the rules laid down for Technicolor films and demanded that they re-shoot various scenes. However, Michael Powell always backed up Cardiff and they got the film they wanted.

I'm sure this was the psychedelic dark and deep colors scene at the end of the 15 minute ballet of the red shoes.

A little know fact to me was in 1950 Natalie Kalmus licensed her name for a line of designer television cabinets made by a California manufacturer.

https://visions4netjournal.files.wor...2/img_4554.jpg

https://visions4netjournal.files.wor...2/img_4553.jpg

Edit: A friend sent his restoration photos of a Kalmus set. I have many more.

https://visions4netjournal.files.wor...2/img_4555.jpg

https://visions4netjournal.files.wor...2/img_4556.jpg

As mentioned previously in this thread, our goal is to create a tribute video film for Ed Reitan outlining his career and specifically, his involvement in the restoration of the NBC color special, "An Evening With Fred Astaire".

We were lucky to win Ed's RCA CTC-7 Worthington at the 2015 ETF auction. The Worthington was released in the same year as the television special, 1958.

A generous doner friend sent me a copy of the television special recently, so we are going to undertake full restoration of the Worthington next month. The servo motors within the main chassis are frozen and none of the controls respond. The image had a few minor issues as well.

In the meantime, we created a "sneak preview" to view, showing portions of the video on my 21CT55, but our goal is to have it playing on Ed's Worthington. If you watch the video, check the 1080P video setting for best quality.

https://youtu.be/VmgmbtkvdKo

https://visions4netjournal.files.wor...2/img_4709.jpg

I just received "The Red Shoes" and the color is very nice. I had forgotten how many exterior scenes there are, and the Monte Carlo shots are nice. I caught one flub - as Moira Shearer is approaching a fancy building for a meeting, they are obviously following her with powerful spotlights and or reflectors to light her back, which is toward the camera but in shadow. At the very beginning of the shot, you see one of the spots whip across the courtyard in front of her, getting into position.

The set comes with bonus material including Martin Scorsese showing and commenting on the restoration process; he breaks it down into separate illustrations for the processes of removing mold spots, correcting misregistration, and correcting color breathing. Nothing short of amazing.

Edit: many of the shots other than daytime exteriors are rather low-key, which is not an easy thing to reproduce on a vintage color set with a dim picture and reflective tube face. To add to the fog, the CTC-5, like most vintage sets, has less than full DC coupling. I found it advantageous to turn off room lights except for the "TV light" I have that lights the wall behind the set, and turn down the brightness control a little. This made the exterior shots a little too dark, but you have to compromise or some of the interiors look foggy.

That scene as she prepares to ascend the stairs was very noticeable and seems to be an obvious error that should have been caught. Also wonder why all the weeds were left to grow on the stone steps.

If you have a moderm television with a good color decoder and adjusted reasonably well, you owe it yourself to see the nuisances that the old roundie may not capture.

For anyone interested, we posted the entire ballet scene as reproduced by the RCA 21CT55 here at this link. Click on the 1080P setting for best quality.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0zfc_E...ature=youtu.be

Edit: From IMDb, "On her first day of shooting, Moira Shearer got badly sunburned and developed a blister on her back. Later in the production she also wrenched her neck quite badly when called to leap from a window, and received a scratch that turned into an abscess. Shearer would often find herself being suspended in a harness for up to eight hours while being buffeted by wind machines."

Possibly they rushed the scene because of Shearer's complaining. It was her first film and she was nervous. I would be p****d if suspended in a harness for two minutes, oh the pain if you know what I mean.

I also got the Blu-ray version for viewing on the big screen, have only had time to check a scene or two, but intend to watch the whole thing soon with all the detail the restored version can reveal.

Well, we have declared the restoration of the RCA 21CT55 complete, until something breaks. :-) We fixed a centering problem, adjusted the focus and screezed out a bit more green. (Our latest screenshots of Oz confirm this)

We have prepared a 44 minute restoration documentary with screenshots and nine video clips.

https://visions4netjournal.files.wor...2/img_5907.jpg



Edit: Discovered the embarrassing typo at the end in the credits. Will fix. Also fixed sound issues and added more information. Added diversity in the sound tracks which are royalty free. Can't upload the edited movie until next Monday. 5 GB a week limitation. Vimeo is higher quality, will display HD with no user interactions and displayed in full frame format.

Second edit: https://vimeo.com/219450643

Fixed the sound problem, added content.

Update:

We were doing a video of the 21CT55 and it was running continuously for about 4 hours. We left the set running alone for no longer then three minutes and after returning, found the horizontal collapsed about one third of the screen, badly converged color, and out of focus. No unusual sounds or odors present. WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED! After much testing, we thought the flyback failed. The set was only producing 10KV. More testing with the HV probe and we pulled the regulator tube and found the HV was at its full 20KV. That led us to suspect a resistor in the HV regulator circuit. We tested it and fond it “open”. The suspect resistor was “buried” under the damper tube. This was done at my home and with lack of proper test equipment, off the chassis went once again to Mike’s test bench/shop.

From Mike:

Greetings. I installed the new resistor into the HV. regulator circuit and jigged it up tonight. I now have good control of the High Voltage with the adjustment. It regulates between 18 KV and 21 KV as it should. The raster is full, the focus is good and the convergence looks reasonable for being on the jig. You are a lucky man! It appears that the flyback transformer is OK. No photos tonight, it got too late but I will be taking a careful look at the Chroma circuits within the next couple of days to make sure that I have not missed anything, mainly looking at the complaint of lack of Green. Anything is possible at this point since this chassis seems to be full of “surprises” with its early color television circuitry.

Regards, Mike

Greetings. I have done more testing tonight in an effort to identify any issues with the chroma circuitry and paying special attention to the green. All voltages and waveforms looked acceptable. After the testing, the “technician” in me decided to do some “empirical” adjusting of some of the transformers in the chroma circuits. When doing these things, one must be VERY careful to go slowly unless “he” wants to start all over again with the procedures to get things aligned. When I got to L44 ( the Quadrature Transformer), I adjusted the slug out about 1/16th of a turn CCW and the green got stronger on the right side of the raster. All I can say, is, maybe the trip on the road caused the slug to settle a little inside the coil form. This adjustment made no difference in the voltages anywhere but it did improve the green “strength”. All I can say is, “whatever works” and I will not argue with success. This should, I hope, make in improvement in the green response even though the CRT is a bit tired. I have included photos of the resistor I found in the High Voltage Regulator circuit which was causing the reduced high voltage condition and hence the shrunk raster, out of focus and poor convergence symptoms. The High Voltage was reduced to 10 KV with this failure. It now adjusts nicely from 18 KV to 21 KV as it should. The resistor was an original (made by International Rectifier) special film type, 3.4 Megohm 3 watt. I replaced it with QTY 2 (in series) OHMITE 2.2 Megohm 2 Watt film type which now makes the new resistor a 4 watt unit which is a 25% upgrade for power dissipation. I will be cycling this set for a few days. Please find photos of the resistors and color bars. Please ignore purity issues.

Regards, Mike

Author:

All I can say is the failure was a blessing in disguise. After re-setting the grey scale and doing a complete new setup, the green output is strong now and all the other colors “fell into place” as they should and now look very accurate. It looks like a totally different CRT was installed. Great work Mike and indeed we are very lucky it was only a resistor causing the HV problem. The failure gave you an opportunity to revisit and take a “second look” at the chroma circuits and adjust that slug.

After we improved the color performance of the 1954/55 RCA 21CT55, we wanted to test it against the 1958 RCA CTC-7 Worthington. The 21CT55 uses a 21AXP22 CRT, testing a “weak” Good on emissions and the CTC-7 uses a rebuilt 21CYP22A CRT, testing a “strong” Good. The 21CT55 uses superior “R-Y-Q” demodulation. The following test images are an effort to visualize the differences in image and color quality between a 1954/55 RCA 21CT55 and the 1958 RCA CTC-7 Worthington. RCA 21CT55 images appear on the left series of photos. Tap any image to open the image carousel, then tap the full resolution image tab. All exposures and focus were set at the center of the CRT image automatically by an iPad Pro 2 10.5. This is not a scientifically controlled test, only an approximation attempt with a non-pro camera. Please excuse the reflections.

Go to this link and scroll to bottom of the page. There, you can open the image carousel to view full resolution photo comparisons of each image.

https://visions4netjournal.com/vinta...tv-page-two-2/

https://visions4netjournal.com/wp-co...9E1872ED8.jpeg

https://visions4netjournal.com/wp-co...089DFC981.jpeg

https://visions4netjournal.com/wp-co...ADE318371.jpeg

CONCLUSIONS?
The first and obvious difference is the overscan of the CTC-7. The color temperatures are close in most of the photos comparisons. Where there are large differences, I believe it to be the fault of the camera. The camera seems to “shift” color temperature on its own. (Time to invest in a better dedicated camera) For instance, look at the fifth and sixth photo comparisons. You will also notice an annoying swath of pale yellow which is causing color variations or discolorations in the photos. This is caused by the camera and not visible when viewing directly. Also, these photos do not do justice to the actual images produced by these televisions. Overall the 21CT55 appears to be adjusted slightly “cooler” and the CTC-7 is brighter. The red gun of the 21CT55 is the weakest of the three.

Wondering why the CTC-7 has so much overscan and whether the overscan can be reduced to match the 21CT55?

The CTC-2B still isn't set up correctly. RCA specified an ultor voltage of 25 kV. Get your HV up and the picture should be brighter yet, even with a weak tube. 20 kV is barely acceptable for a 21AXP22.

Better yet would be to track down a better 21AXP22 and get the HV up, but that isn't going to be easy (or cheap).

As it stands right now, the CTC-7 looks to my eyes to have the superior image, even with the overscan.

We did measure 21KV. Still short of 25KV. Would like to find a spare flyback, but that isn’t likely either.

Keep digging. A 21-CT-55 flyback can kick out 30+ kV unregulated. Is your fly damaged?

If it is, I'm going to suggest something that is anathema to most around here: use a solid state HV supply. The set is not working correctly in the first place, so originality doesn't count for jack at the moment.

A solid state HV supply would get the set performing closer to how it was designed.

Best of luck in either case.

Speaking of Lizard From Oz...

http://videokarma.org/attachment.php...1&d=1510239036

We thought the fly was toast initially when the failure happened. We measured only 10KV. The thought was the fly was still good otherwise it would measure zero. It turned out to be an open resistor. I’d just like to have a good spare. Best chance for that is finding another 21CT55.

I think TCM broadcasts Oz annually.

What I'm driving at here is that 21 kV is not at all normal for a 21-CT-55, and is not good enough. The Hoffman I sold to Nick would uses the same exact HV section and would crank out 30 kV or more with the shunt pulled. Something has to be loading down the HV, my guess is that there's still some issue with the 6BD4A or the associated circuitry. Don't throw in the towel on the HV issue, and DO NOT run the set until it is properly fixed. Droopy HV could also be failing HV caps which WILL take out your flyback.

:lmao: All the makings of a timeless children's classic! :D

What is your HV reading with the HV control at max? It’s not uncommon to have to play with the value of the resistors around the HV pot, since any drift there will cause the grid of the shunt tube to not be where it’s supposed to be which drags down the anode.

We replaced a resistor in the HV regulation circuit which was found open. This caused the HV to drop to 10KV and messed up the picture badly. The resistor was an original (made by International Rectifier) special film type, 3.4 Megohm 3 watt. We replaced it with QTY 2 (in series) OHMITE 2.2 Megohm 2 Watt film type which now makes the new resistor a 4 watt unit which is a 25% upgrade for power dissipation.

That could be your problem, original calls for 3.4 meg and you installed 4.4 meg. Compare the grid voltages on the 6BK4 with what the schematic shows, my guess is it’s a tad high. (Measurement should be taken with brightness at minimum)

Here’s how the regulator works, in case you were unaware:

Plate receives anode voltage, cathode is returned to B+, grid is tied to a boost source usually. If boost rises anode voltage must also have risen, since they are in the same circuit. This higher boost voltage causes the regulator to draw more current, since the grid got pushed closer to the cathode (the tube is normally biased off, with the cathode over the grid). With the regulator drawing current the anode voltage will get dragged down taking boost along with it, in turn taking the grid of the regulator lower and turning it more off.

In this way the regulator tube places a constant load on the anode, but if it’s biased a little too hot to start off with the result will be consistently low HV because the regulator is dragging it down.

The correct HV setting for this chassis is 25kv, I suggest you take Ben’s advice and figure out why it’s low before the flyback protests too much. You also need to know what the horizontal output tube is drawing for current, if it goes much higher than about 215ma, you’re in the danger zone.

We already witnessed another member destroy an irreplaceable CTC-2B flyback by not heeding sound advice, please don’t be the second.