NBC "Magical Season"

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by AiboPet

there was a previous "not backward compatible" color format that would have caused this confusion.

Heard a possibly urban legend that some major sporting events back in the color sequential days were broadcast on the incompatible CBS color system, and some rich sports fans paid handsomely to have their B&W sets modified to show a B&W image of the game. Maybe because color sets could not be obtained. Oh, I imagine the sequential field flicker seen on the grass of a football field or baseball diamond would be annoying to some extent (but it would also be that way on a field sequential color set). It would probably be the horizontal and the vertical circuits requiring modification. Otherwise regular B&W sets could present a viewable image.

Though the legend had it that it was the World Series, but I've been told that those games were broadcast in B&W.

Other sports fans would have had to fall back to listening to the game on the radio, but maybe I'm not enough of a sports fan, but I find it hard to follow a game without the video.

[cbenham]

Originally Posted by wa2ise

Heard a possibly urban legend that some major sporting events back in the color sequential days were broadcast on the incompatible CBS color system, and some rich sports fans paid handsomely to have their B&W sets modified to show a B&W image of the game. Maybe because color sets could not be obtained. Oh, I imagine the sequential field flicker seen on the grass of a football field or baseball diamond would be annoying to some extent (but it would also be that way on a field sequential color set). It would probably be the horizontal and the vertical circuits requiring modification. Otherwise regular B&W sets could present a viewable image.

This piece: http://colortelevision.info/CBS_Colo...ming_rev_h.htm
by Ed Reitan, contains CBS color broadcast schedules showing several baseball, football and other sports broadcasts during the time it operated in 1951 as the US standard for color television.

There were several CBS color conversion articles in Popular Science, Radio-Electronics and Radio and TV News magazines which gave good instructions for converting several popular sets of the day to display CBS color in B&W.

They mostly involved changing the time constants in the vertical and horizontal oscillator circuits to operate at 144 Hz and 29,160 Hz. Some articles did mention that once the set was able to display a CBS color signal in B&W, the easy addition of a color wheel and motor would make viewing in color possible to complete the conversion. There were kits with motors and wheels offered in magazine column ads for experimenters.

Having worked with the sequential color sets for several years at the Early Television Museum in Hilliard Ohio, I can attest to the high quality and lack of flicker in CBS color. Baseball and football games viewed on these sets look especially good with the brightly colored uniforms contrasted against the
beautiful green grass that CBS color sets can reproduce.

A visit to the museum and attending the yearly convention is a great way to see for yourself how good CBS color was, or rather is.

Cliff