Home-Made TV Programmes

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32221, 13 February 1970, Page 3

Home-Made TV Programmes

(Hu RAY JOHNSTONE! 11 We all know the frustra-p tion of specially setting aside ■ an evening to watch a fav- ' ourite television show and then missing it because 1 friends decide to pay an unexpected call. 1 It’s a situation that shouldn’t annoy us for very 1 much longer. According to 1 television > technicians you will, within the next few 1 years, be able to buy tape ’ recording of films and television programmes you may ] have missed and play them 1 back through your television I iset in the same way lhat you 1 lean now run cassettes; !through a tape recorder. P Eventually you will be able! to do your own recording! 1 istraight from your television ■ ise‘ or get a neighbour to doi lit for you if you happen top jbe going out. I Of course, the concept off 1 (video tape recording isn’t : new. It’s been around for some time in the world’s major television studios which have even developed ' mobile recording units which ■ do away with the costly business of outside broadcasts and the complicated settingup of micro-wave links to relay the signal to the nearest transmitter. ii Until now. the equipment! —whether portable or studio- ; based—has cost thousands of pounds and has taken up so much room that it is impossible to fit into the average home. il But now all that is changed.' Home video machines are

jabout to come on the market (in Japan, America and

Europe—machines capable of [producing quality recordings (for a price that is comntercially viable. - Says Humphrey Burton, [former head of drama, arts and music with a London [television company: “At preI sent, the various systems [differ considerably in cost ;and there is bound to be a I lot of jockeying for position [over the next few years, just |as there was when tape was first introduced to an uncer-

tain and impecunious public.”' ' Already, he says, three] imajor companies are seeking]

agreements on compatibility and standards so you can play a videotape by one company on the equipment of another. There are problems, though, and C.B.S. of America, are putting their faith in an: alternative system called l E.V.R., which employs a] cheap type of film instead of tape. The outlay for home video machines, says Mr Burton', varies from around £330 for E.V.R. to £lBO for a tape machine, and up to £8 for an hour's cassette. But as he points out, you will almost certainly be able to hire prerecorded tapes from libraries much more cheaply. One machine, manufactured >by a British company, is I already on lhe market. It’s no bigger than the average audio tape recorder, and costs i £27s—about the same as aj (colour television. It weighs under 301 h and is child’s play to lace up and operate. And each six-inch spool of half-inch chromiumdioxide tape has a playing time of up to 45 minutes. Primarily, the recorder is aimed at schools which are not linked to an existing television education service. It is also designed to help manufacturing companies I with several factories to teach apprentices the firm's special!-] sed techniques. But as a spokesman says:i “Such is the price, the machine will undoubtedly find its way into hundreds of homes for lhe purpose of: recording and playing back

one's favourite shows. “There is every reason to

believe that once home video machines are installed in sufficient numbers, top television programmes and feature films will be issued by the television and film companies on tape for the home: after the productions have gone the rounds." In a way, it’s natural that they should put them on tape. After all some film production companies have been reissuing popular box-office picitures on film for home movie

i fans. The gauge has been re- 1 'duced from 35 millimetre to < Standard or Super 8 milli- i (metre, and the films, com- 1 plete with soundtrack, can be (bought or hired. ,i i And at least one big tele- > (vision corporation has issued I such events as the World Cup < soccer competition in these f narrower gauges. . . You can < get the matches in their entirety. . . including commentary. But the price of film is expensive. And despite the huge developments in the film industry, it is impossible not to lose clarity by running off prints that are a quarter of the size of the original. In ' any case, the cost of a really I good projector to screen i these films is not much lower i than some of the home video tape machines. The big advantage of tape is that there is little loss of clarity. A film, for example, can be transcribed on to tape through telecine apparatus : and, as a video tape record-: ing is as clear and sharp as, the original image, the play ’ (back would be just like! [watching a feature film put] out by a national television network. There is another advan-] tage, too. Video recorders! can be linked to a package deal close-circuit television system. One company has already marketed such a package deal for £250. For this, you get a camera complete with lens, fixing brackets and cable . . . and a monitor set. “This means that for a total of just over £5OO, you can have a complete television studio in the home,” the spokesman said. In other words, you will be able to make your own ] home video pictures, com- ■ plete with sound and with instant replay. . . without the] fuss, cost and bother of printing, developing and projection that traditionally go with filming.—Newsfeature (service.