What color TV was really like back then...

[Dave S]

Bryan,

I am NOT an engineer (and I don't play one on TV) but I do know that most signal feeds are received through a device called a frame synchronizer, which allows the incoming signal to be in the proper karma with the local system. If the signal is lost, most frame syncs will simply repeat the last good frame of video until they detect a valid signal input again. Could be what you were seeing.

I also had an early digital video editing system (The infamous Video Toaster Flyer) which for reasons which still remain unknown to me and perhaps everyone else on the planet, liked to "stutter" every once in a while at scene transitions and toss a single frame of the *previous* shot up between the cut you actually were making. Even my current system, Apple's highly regarded Final Cut Pro occasionally decides to resurrect a frame from "elsehere" in the program and mysteriously put it back on the screen when you least expect it! Digital is great, no doubt about it, but it's brought its own brand of weirdness to the table.