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Vintage Television and Video Vintage television and video equipment, programmes, VCRs etc.

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Old 15th Nov 2017, 4:58 pm   #1
Biggles
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Default Change your B/W TV into colour?

Many years ago I (think?) I remember seeing a gadget advertised in a magazine which claimed to convert your black and white TV into "colour" by the addition of a filter that simply fitted over the front of the screen. The question is; Did they really exist or am I imagining this, and did anyone actually buy one to turn their picture an odd shade of purple or whatever? I think it ranks alongside the screen magnifiers which existed at the time to make your tiny TV picture into something more impressive.
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Old 15th Nov 2017, 5:09 pm   #2
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Default Re: Change your B/W TV into colour?

They did exist. Blue at the top, green at the bottom.

Stan Ogden bought one and was rebuked by Hilda. A sort of embedded public service announcement.
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Old 15th Nov 2017, 5:14 pm   #3
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Default Re: Change your B/W TV into colour?

When I was a teenager they were advertised in “Practical Television” that’s going to be 1945 - 48.
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Old 15th Nov 2017, 6:12 pm   #4
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Default Re: Change your B/W TV into colour?

Oh right, I did see it then. What was the reason behind that particular choice of colour combination I wonder?
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Old 15th Nov 2017, 6:36 pm   #5
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Default Re: Change your B/W TV into colour?

The colour choice was because in most programs there's more light [blue sky] in the top of the image and the bottom of the image is more likely to be green/brown.

You could also in the same epoch get 'magnifiers' to hang over the front of the TV screen. They generally resulted in horrible distortion to anyone trying to watch the telly from any position other than straight-ahead, but I guess if you were the sort of person who'd buy this sort of thing image-quality was not high on your list of priorities.
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Old 15th Nov 2017, 6:41 pm   #6
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Default Re: Change your B/W TV into colour?

The 6 inch VCR97 was the best colour tube back then......
Provided the image being transmitted was ALL grass !
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Old 15th Nov 2017, 6:54 pm   #7
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Default Re: Change your B/W TV into colour?

Good for watching snooker too...if you weren't too worried about the ball colours.
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Old 15th Nov 2017, 6:55 pm   #8
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Default Re: Change your B/W TV into colour?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Biggles View Post
Good for watching snooker too...if you weren't too worried about the ball colours.
Alan.
"for those watching in black and white, the blue ball is under the red....." (or something like it!)
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Old 15th Nov 2017, 7:31 pm   #9
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Default Re: Change your B/W TV into colour?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6w1b1XLrqs
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Old 15th Nov 2017, 7:52 pm   #10
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Default Re: Change your B/W TV into colour?

Made by 'DULCI'. There was a pinky orange bit in the middle gently blending into the top blue and bottom green. It was of course a novelty for kids watching Cowboys and Indians.

To be fair the liquid paraffin enlargers did work quite well. I have a number of them that certainly do increase the size of the picture to advantage.

There were a few bad ones but generally they were OK. The museum at Dulwich has a free standing one in front of a TV22. No distortion or apparent loss of brightness. It must have been quite expensive at the time.

I remember that advert for OXO. It must have been around 1962. They pulsed the cow with a similar wavelength to the colour brown but I doubt if many receivers could resolve it .John.

PS Sorry! Clashed.
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Old 15th Nov 2017, 8:35 pm   #11
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Default Re: Change your B/W TV into colour?

Quote:
Originally Posted by grampy2 View Post
...they were advertised in “Practical Television” that’s going to be 1945 - 48.
As far as I'm aware, Practical Television (as a supplement in Practical Wireless) stopped publication on 20-04-1940, restarting in March 1949, before becoming a magazine in its own right from April 1950. Prior to that it only existed as a stand-alone magazine from September 1934 to November 1935.

If anyone knows otherwise, I would love to hear from them.
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Old 15th Nov 2017, 11:26 pm   #12
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Default Re: Change your B/W TV into colour?

I bought one of these tinted coloured plastic screens in the late 60’s. It was tinted blue/orange/Green top to bottom. It was held in place by two cords which passed over the top of cabinet and each cord had a small hook on the end of it that hooked onto/into the ventilation grille on the back of the 23” set. I bought it from a small ad in ‘Exchange and Mart’ magazine. As you can imagine the results depended on the program being shown! I returned it after a week and got a full refund. Phew!
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Old 16th Nov 2017, 12:46 am   #13
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Default Re: Change your B/W TV into colour?

Filters did exist. I remember seeing one n my uncles house (he was an old original TV engineer of the old skool), but in his day an experimenter.
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Old 16th Nov 2017, 10:32 am   #14
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Default Re: Change your B/W TV into colour?

Some posts moved to a new thread here:-

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=141420
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Old 16th Nov 2017, 10:57 am   #15
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Default Re: Change your B/W TV into colour?

I remember them well, for countryside scenes they were excellent but for indoor ones you got an interesting array of colours for ceilings floors and wallpaper.

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Old 16th Nov 2017, 2:36 pm   #16
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Default Re: Change your B/W TV into colour?

I remember Chris Tarrant mentioning in one of his books about having a colour filter.

They weren't good for close-ups unless you like seeing people with blue hair & green teeth!
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