Tom,
As Andy noted earlier in the thread, most of this stuff that several folks are selling on eBay is downloaded from the
Internet Archive and is all freely available "public domain" material. They are ostensibly charging for their copying, not for the contents. In the case of a $2.99 DVD with free shipping, I'd agree it's a bargain compared to making it yourself. However, if you've got a cable modem, there's more material on that site than you could watch in ten lifetimes (although only a few DVDs worth of old radio and tv related movies -- which is still a treasure trove that I never expected to trip over.) I've used their stuff both commercially and as "fun" stuff to show at our local antique radio club. I think the Internet Archive is one of the most amazing resources on the 'net.
It's not well known that the Prelinger Archives material, from which most all of this stuff was culled, is not full DVD quality, even though it's published in MPEG2 form. So it delivers pretty much VHS quality, rather than DVD quality, and certainly nothing near what the original 16mm films had in them. To quote from the website:
"The files were encoded at constant bitrates ranging from 2.75 Mbps to 3.5 Mbps. Most were encoded at 480 x 480 pixels (2/3 D1) or 368 x 480 (roughly 1/2 D1). The encoder drops horizontal pixels during the digitizing process, which during decoding are interpolated by the decoder to produce a 720 x 480 picture... ...Picture quality is equal to or better than most direct broadcast satellite television. Audio was encoded at MPEG-1 Level 2, generally at 112 kbps. Both the MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 movies have mono audio tracks." All in all, it's mostly watchable quality, especially considering the price!
A search for "television" or "RCA" on the IA site will turn up most of what you are interested in, however I've found that sitting in your pajamas in front of the ol' computer with a couple of beers doing a search is a great way to work (yes, sometimes I actually get paid for doing that!) and has resulted in some absolutely amazing gems getting unearthed!
Watch out, though. Once you get hooked, this place can be a
great time-waster!
--Dave