RTE TESTCARD MONOCHROME 405-VHF

[ongchorcool]

damn you!

[redfire20003]

Good Old Elephant Boy, But my favourite was......................WANDE­RLEY WAGON

[DXTV1]

LOL ... 9 minutes of a testcard :x

This could be part of the german movie "Sun Alley" (Sonnenallee) where two guys from Dresden, Saxony came to Berlin and watched western TV for the very first time ... and they looked at a test card like this above the whole night long...

*rotfl*

[millinchip2]

Faker.

You created this video in 2006 using rudimentary video software, and then pass it off as real. It just annoys me having it up here.

[tubedougz]

You should READ the information before being so infcredibly irritable!

Look at the penultimate sentence particularly ...

I will accept a simple "sorry" ...

[millinchip2]

It bares no resemblance to anything RTE put out on its 405 line service in the 60s, 70s ot 80s.. Thats why its of no historical value. I beg you, take it down for pitys sake.

[TheCaleyman]

@millinchip2 To a UK citizen like myself who's never seen ANY RTE testcard, this will have to suffice until someone somehow comes up with an original. Thank You tubedougs, I had been looking for some old UK testcards when I found this. I was a TV engineer from 1967 until 1990 when I got pissed off with the trade.

[anne3362]

Funny! Reception terrible everywhere! I remember Elephant boy too, it really was shown on RTE, thanks for all the funny memories! Anne

[dublinyam]

Crikey! Really feeling my age having stumbled across this somehow. I remember the anticipation as a young lad watching and waiting for something to happen. How things have changed! Thanks for the post

[tubedougz]

Correct in all respects - except it was set in India and not Africa.

[arthurvasey]

RTE ACTUALLY stands for Radio Telefis Eireann (pronounced rah-dio telly fish air-an) - but cynics reckon it actually stands for "Reception Terrible Everywhere"

[tubedougz]

Thank you. That's a very amusing comment! I haven't come accross that one before.

I live on the North Wales coast. On a clear day we can look over the sea and behold the Wicklow Mountains where the Kippure TV mast is sited. Therefore, RTE reception here, perversely, is excellent!

[tgvb12]

to tylko 1 plik foto :/

[tubedougz]

Ia. is on plik foto. testicul cardisos ooshiik one plik. Facto lifeo!

[UKSazzy67]

Is that Gaelic?

[tubedougz]

Ig as Gailiege agus RTE testcard Philips. Fir paig an Nuachtan na hEireann fulla poo!

[jratt2]

Elephant Boy. OMG. Its all flooding back...

[tubedougz]

Remember what the elephant was called? I think Kala?...

[jratt2]

Kala...sounds familiar alright.

[yachttaboo]

Was it Kalanag?

Spelling might no be right but I'm sure that is how he pronounced it.

[millsykafer]

Why doesnt Sky Sports HD have a test card like that??

MK.

[tubedougz]

Why indeed. I have bought a big flat screen TV recently - and it has both VHF and UHF. I haven't had a telly like that since the early '70's!

[thx1138X]

oh , where did i leave my anorack

[albertsab]

this is a fake! the PM5544 was created for use in 625-line

[tubedougz]

RTE used PM5544 on 405-line too. It looked crap but they used it none-the-less!

[albertsab]

The PM5544 is for use in 625 line. In VHF, if a test card is created for use in 625 line cannot be used in 405 line, but a 405 line test card can be used in 625.

[tubedougz]

This is the absolutely correct school of thought...

BUT --- RTE definitely DID use the PM5544 on its 405-VHF broadcasts too in the 1970's. Why they used it... don't ask me... but they definitely 100% certainly DID.

[PhB95]

Here is the explanation : Studio equipement is 625 since at least 25 years, so is the testcard. Then, the video signal is digitally converted to 405. I know, we did the same in France during the last years of our (longtime dead now) 819 lines standard.

[tubedougz]

Thanks!

[tubedougz]

Here is the explanation : Studio equipement is 625 since at least 25 years, so is the testcard. Then, the video signal is digitally converted to 405. I know, we did the same in France during the last years of our (longtime dead now) 819 lines standard.

[millinchip2]

This actual clip is a fake.

405 line artefacts don't look like this, also, you need specialized equipment to capture 405 line transmissions.

RTE 405 line transmissions were never of this high quality, and lastly RTE never followed a programme advertisment with a testcard.

One other thing, there was never a series called Elephant Boy on RTE or anywhere else for that matter.

[tubedougz]

Albanians don't know everything obviously.

Read my text and I confess to having created a replica. But there WAS a show called Elephant Boy and it WAS shown on RTE because I remember watching it!

[arthurvasey]

I remember Elephant Boy - it was supposed to be based on stories by Rudyard Kipling - having never read the book or books, I don't know - but it was set in Africa (presumably also filmed there) - the boy had the single name Toomai and was played by an actor with the single name Esrom - ITV put it out over here - can't have been too heavily based on Kipling's original story, as people drove around in cars, and there were no cars in Kipling's time.

[jratt2]

millinchip2: I watched Elephant Boy as a kid on RTE. It existed.

[tubedougz]

Did TV3 ever have a testcard?

I moved on to digital TV - so I don't see Irish TV anymore - alas! TV3 had just about started when I made the move to Sky and abandoned 625 ptobably for good seeing as the big switch-off now looms. Wales had the last 405 mast but Wales is the first region of the UK to turn off analogue. We seem to be guineapigs!

[steeviebops]

Only for the first 10 days of testing pre-launch. I picked up the Mullaghanish transmissions by accident but the picture was terrible and I couldn't make it out, I can only recall a digital clock and a circle. Later that day it changed to an animated version of Snell & Wilcox's Test Card M, a screen grab of that one can be seen on Richard Logue's website.

[rubensni]

How about that TV3?

[KBS500V]

Thats bollocks - The Philips PM5544 TC was made for 625 lines & is useless on 405 lines!

[tubedougz]

I know it was made for 625 but RTE did use it on 405 - I promise you because I remember it well! You are correct when you say that it was no good on 405 though - but RTE didn't seem to care - and neither do I! It's all history now.

[25AUG1968]

The luck of the Oirish, eh?! Mike S.

[tubedougz]

We aim to please! Obviously far too young to remember 405 tv from Ireland...

[aviatik]

that's probably the strangest thing i've ever seen.

[KenfromDublin]

Hilarious! Keep 'em coming Doug!

[tubedougz]

Thanks Kent - Thelma Mansfield and Derek Davis have a lot to answer for. Thet were a kind of Irish answer to Richard and Judy? They just didn't have to get up as early! At least they had Dermot Morgan to help out on occasion - Richard and Judy didn't!

[KenfromDublin]

You mean that's not Derek and Thelma behind the elephant boy?