THINGS YOU DON'T SEE ANYMORE (Part 2)

[buffaloskinner]

When my daughter was small in the early 70's she once asked what the CLOSE programme was because it was on TV every night!!

[j.c.d.]

When my daughter was small in the early 70's she once asked what the CLOSE programme was because it was on TV every night!!

That image used to be on through out the day, if I was home I would have it on as the background music was very good. The little girl was the daughter of someone connected with that picture. I think in those days programmes did not start until early evening.

[iansmithofotley]

When my daughter was small in the early 70's she once asked what the CLOSE programme was because it was on TV every night!!

Hi everyone,

I always thought that the image shown on the television was the ‘Test Card’ and was used for setting up your television for clarity, sharpness, etc. Also, it was possible to adjust the height and width of the picture so that the circle was perfectly round. I can remember fiddling about with small knobs at the back of a television set to make these adjustments. It’s much easier these days when you buy a new television, you just plug it in, switch it on and it sets itself up, usually with a perfect picture (providing that the aerial setting is accurate).

Ian

[blackprince]

This test card was introduced with the advent of colour TV transmissions in 1967. The girl was the daughter of the BBC engineer who designed the card. I first saw it when visiting someone in East Leeds who was having a colour TV installed.
We got our first colour TV about 1973 from Vallances. It was a National Panasonic model with something called a green line tuner. For a better picture you twiddled a knob until a broad vertical green line was as narrow as possible , then turned back to normal viewing. That TV survived 2 house moves gave us good service for about 15 years.
-bp

[baldoldfatbloke]

Does anyone remember the "trade test transmissions" I think they were called, probably late sixties on BBC2. These were shown during the daytime and were instructional films in glorious colour so that TV dealers could show what potential customers were missing if they didn't get a colour set. I recall there was one about fish farming in NZ and another about electrical safety.

[liits]

Does anyone remember the "trade test transmissions" .............................

Youtube has lots of them. Its a sad indictment that they're of more interest than the programs that are shown now!

[warringtonrhino]

Theme One is a piece of van der graaf generator music by George Martin which was used to end BBC Radio One transmissions at the end of each day.
When at college I often jumped into my Fairthorpe with my flat mate late at night, and drove from Kingston down to Worthing.
The object was to stand on the beach, throwing pebbles into the sea, listening to Theme One on the transistor radio.
If the weather permitted the hood was taken off and an extra passengers could sit up on the back with legs between the seats.
We rarely hear Theme One, see a Fairthorpe, or listen to a transistor radio.

[Brunel]

"The girl was the daughter of the BBC engineer who designed the card."

Carole Hersee

[TABBYCAT]

Does anyone remember the "trade test transmissions" I think they were called, probably late sixties on BBC2. These were shown during the daytime and were instructional films in glorious colour so that TV dealers could show what potential customers were missing if they didn't get a colour set. I recall there was one about fish farming in NZ and another about electrical safety.

Not so much for showing customers colour, Mrs Tabbycat who worked for Baird TV in the 60's tells me they were broadcast for TV engineers to adjust colour sets during downtime in the programming schedules. As very little colour content existed at the time these gaps in regular programming allowed sets to be sent out to shops calibrated with colour as opposed to "coloured" TV. (orange faces and sickly strong green grass etc)

I remember them well "Cattle Carters" and "Giuseppina" being my favourites.

[j.c.d.]

In the 1950s when very few people had Television sets, some folks who did used to leave their curtains open even when it was very dark showing off their expensive purchase. this was before the Rental system came on the scene.