Old color was much more beautiful

[Captain Video]

I have never had the opportunity to watch "old" NTSC, I mean, NTSC generated with the use of tube equipment. Last night I had this opportunity: I bought a DVD called "Ed Sullivan Rock and Roll Classics" with shows of black artists such as The Jackson 5 and James Brown on Ed Sullivan Show in the 1960's. Let me tell you, I was amazed. I always read about the "problems" of the old tube color cameras, and such, but not only the picture seemed VERY stable to me ( corrected for the DVD? ) but also, and even more important, the QUALITY of those colors seemed IMMENSELY superior ... more vivid, more brilliant, much more interesting, more beautiful to watch, a kind of "electronic technicolor" . Today's TV colors looks so ... opaque, in comparison.

I talked via Internet with some people and they said that today's picture is opaque because it's "safer to the eyes" . Well, even if that's true, I don't care. Those old vivid "technicolor" TV pictures were much more pleasing to watch.

Other thing that caught my attention was the fact that TV directors seemed much more creative back than, with less resources. They made good use of the effect of "overexposion" of different images on the same take, and this effect seemed very nice to me, made beautiful combinations. I don't see people using this anymore.

I am almost regretting having watched that DVD ... because, since color TV here in Brazil only began in 72 ( despite some color broadcasts in 1963, 64 and I think 66 ), I never had any intention of getting myself a color roundie. After all, my interest is primarily on B/W sets from the 50's, because those are representative of the very early days of Brazilian Television. But since I watched that DVD I cannot stop to think: "if NTSC generated with tube equipment looks THAT GOOD watched in a 1990's transistorized set ... just imagine what it must look like watched in a PROPER TV set, I mean, a color roundie of the 50's or 60's ?

I am afraid I caught the "color roundie bug" ... but shipping of a color roundie from the USA to Brazil would leave me starving!

[oldtvman]

one of the reasons it seems that the colors were more natural was the fact that a lot of the early color sets didnt have the high contrast output of some of the newer sets, therefore the color imagaes stood out a lot more. Some of the newer sets drive the contrast so high the color images are almost drown out.

[Steve Hoffman]

Two words:

Vacuum Tubes.

In the old days everywhere, in the studios, cameras, consoles, VTRs, etc. Makes a difference in picture quality.

If you don't believe me, just watch a modern show on a 1964 RCA color roundie and watch it glow. See what I mean?

[ChrisW6ATV]

The big, critical question, whose answer may solve this "mystery" easily, is "When did TV makers stop adjusting their sets for "real white" (6500 degrees Kelvin) and start making them "fake consumer-TV white" (9300 degrees Kelvin)?" I know they did it because it was brighter and sold more sets to people who didn't know better, and soon we had no choice, until selectable color temperature became common in the 1990's.

[Pete Deksnis]

Soooo-o-o-o many variables at play. Actually, the only way to be sure you view broadcasts according to FCC-defined '1953NTSC' color television specifications is with a properly restored and calibrated CT-100, including gray scale adjustment for Illuminant C, the standard white point.

My reason for the strong statement about vintage consumer television sets (appropriate professional monitors and true clones of the CT-100 could meet the requirements also) revolves around the improvement of brightness of the picture: Phosphors changed; color picture tubes became more efficient (vertical stripe vs. delta, for example); but, as picture tubes generated brighter light, so did the spectrum change from the original R, G, and B phosphors used in the 15GP22.

Improved-brightness tubes required a change in the design of the NTSC-correct matrix found in the CT-100. The new matrix circuits favored acceptable flesh tones, often at the expense of correct hue in other areas of the picture.

By the early 1980's, this shift from original 1953 specs became so pronounced that is was officially acknowledged by SMPTE, as they shrank the 1953 color space to acknowledge its loss over the years.

Note that this was not a change in FCC broadcast standards; to the best of my knowledge, these have only improved with the advancing technology, and the analog transmitter of today is capable of sending my CT-100 the signal it was designed to process.

We can only hope that the telecine guys making the transfers of vintage color video strive to maintain 2.2 gamma and the color space of bygone technology. Cause it sure looks great on roundies!