Best commercially available examples of TK-41 color?

[Eric H]

I wonder how the image from a 1950's Videotape compares to the image that would have been seen from a live broadcast?

It seems there's no real way to know this since all the existing TK-41 footage is from tape.

[benman94]

Originally Posted by Eric H

I wonder how the image from a 1950's Videotape compares to the image that would have been seen from a live broadcast?

It seems there's no real way to know this since all the existing TK-41 footage is from tape.

My guess is that the tape looks substantially better than what would have been seen by most people.

Say the show originated in Los Angeles, and was being picked up by a viewer watching WWJ-TV in Detroit on a color roundie. The picture would have been sent via microwave links and coaxial cable from LA to Detroit, then the signal would have been re-broadcast locally, picked up at the viewer's antenna, pass through the RF/IF strips and finally been demodulated and displayed on the color kinescope. There is a greater number of variables involved in a live broadcast as opposed to tape, where the signal would have been simply recorded onto quad tape in LA. Pretty easy, and much less room for signal degradation.

I'd be curious to know what video from the ETF's TK-41 will look like. If the feed from the TK-41 at the ETF is recorded onto a medium that allows you to exceed broadcast spec, it would allow us to see what our roundies could have done under the best possible circumstances with video from a TK-41; the circuitry of the set becomes the more limiting factor as opposed to decades old 3M tape. That will be interesting to say the least...