Restoring a RCA 21CT55

[benman94]

Just an FYI for anyone interested, I downloaded the highest resolution copies of the Edsel Show tape, the WRC tape, and an evening with Fred Astaire from Youtube. I then used some light denoise, corrected an issue in the WRC tape chroma, scaled it down with a top notch scaling algorithm, reencoded/remuxed it to a DVD compliant TS stream (2 pass, VBR), built a little DVD menu for it, and have the ISO for anyone interested.

It still looks like sh*t on a flat panel (like most SD material) but looks very nice on an analog set. Short of getting access to the whatever Ed Reitan and co. dubbed the specials to when they played back the tapes, my lightly cleaned copies are probably the best looking out there.

If you want it, PM me.

[Kevin Kuehn]

I think ya'll are way over thinking this. Just adjust the set so it's a respectable representation of the colors as you see them in nature, and boom you're done.

[etype2]

Originally Posted by benman94

Just an FYI for anyone interested, I downloaded the highest resolution copies of the Edsel Show tape, the WRC tape, and an evening with Fred Astaire from Youtube. I then used some light denoise, corrected an issue in the WRC tape chroma, scaled it down with a top notch scaling algorithm, reencoded/remuxed it to a DVD compliant TS stream (2 pass, VBR), built a little DVD menu for it, and have the ISO for anyone interested.

It still looks like sh*t on a flat panel (like most SD material) but looks very nice on an analog set. Short of getting access to the whatever Ed Reitan and co. dubbed the specials to when they played back the tapes, my lightly cleaned copies are probably the best looking out there.

If you want it, PM me.

I'd be interested. Can you burn a DVD? Will send you a private message.

I uploaded two additional videos to YouTube.

First: https://youtu.be/EOKXCV35q7Y

About all the movement. I was not that shaky. We used a stabilization upgrade in YouTube Capture and it made the video much worse then original. The video is a bit over saturated.

Second: https://youtu.be/21DrJUTek6Q

This video was done to show the entire cabinet. Choose 1080p or 720P

[Kevin Kuehn]

I think your set looks great. However everyone's perception of color rendering is varied, just we all hear things differently.

[etype2]

Originally Posted by Kevin Kuehn

I think your set looks great. However everyone's perception of color rendering is varied, just we all hear things differently.

Kevin,

Thank you. Absolutely!

We have found through the years, it depends on program material. Some of it is good, some not so good. Looking at programming, especially the nostalgic stuff today, the video color quality varies from very good to poor. The same series can look great one night, the next night, not very good because the stations are broadcasting episodes which can be years apart, night to night. We are disadvantaged at the moment without the ability to display DVD content. We know the quality of DVD content on an old roundie is better then converted OTA broadcasts generally speaking, there are exceptions.

I feel very satisfied with the results of our restoration. I think we got it as good as we can knowing the limitations of 62 year old technology. Yet there is always that quest to get it better. I appreciate all the VK members that helped in our restoration, including you Kevin. Stay tuned. :-)