recording TV on audio cassette / tape reel

[Semi42]

All I ever recorded were theme tunes and the odd track from TOTP
seemed to wait for ages for Carl Douglas Kung fu fighting and during, the dog started barking at the door when the line “chopping them up “ was sang.
can’t help but do a little woof at that point when I ever hear it.
also loved to re-listen to the six million dollar man theme.

[lydnjonny]

We had our first video recorder in our house in 1983/4, I used to record top of the pops on tape from the headphone socket on my tv to the line in on my old cassette recorder, it was about a year later I realised I was only recording in mono.
Brian

[warengryn]

Reel-to-reel tapes were the original kind of audio magnetic tape recordings, and while they are still considered to have the highest sound quality of all audio formats, their lifespan is limited. Reel-to-reel recordings, like cassette tapes and VHS cassettes, will degrade with time. It's better to have it in digital form. There are many ways how you can transform it, but the best would be to use a Screen Recorder for Perfect Captures, and save it on your PC or smartphone, so the quality remains the same even in 10+ years.

[MiniMort]

Appologies for ressurecting this thread but I recently bought a 4-track reel to reel tape recorder and the tape it came with was full of 1960s TV and radio. There were various recordings of Top of the Pops (including a missing episode from February of 1969), an edition of Family Choice (a kind of rebranding of Housewives Choice from late 1968), Two Way Family Favourites from 1966 or so and, perhaps the best bit, a recording of a Harry Secombe special from Christmas Eve 1967 which includes a commercial break!

I've actually found quite a bit of television on audio tape, really. Mostly music related stuff like Sinatra or Jerry Lee Lewis in concert, and an edition of Ready Steady Go from December 1963. You do have to trudge through a tonne of BBC Radio 3 recordings but it's worth it.

[beccabear67]

Nice find! There are people very interested in such audio from programs no longer available to watch as video or film... there's a group I'm in here: https://missingepisodes.proboards.com/

I know there are some Cook and Moore, and Michael Bentine Square World shows that are also among the missing presumed wiped where people would enjoy at least hearing.