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In the years before May 1989 when my family had "reluctantly" decided get into the 20th century at long last and have a video recorder in their home, (and also because I used to be fascinated by these machines that could play and even record television programmes as they were broadcast), I was often fascinated by which TV channel the video recorder was tuned to, and with features such as a four digit tape counter (and not just a three digit one that radio cassette recorders and some mid 1980s hi-fis had at the time). I think that it all started as early as 1984 when my Infant school had shown Mary Poppins on the TV set in the specialised TV room at school just before Christmas that year; I had noticed that it was tuned to channel eight (8) which seemed to be the case with a lot of non-domestic TV channels that videos were tuned to. Whether it was VHS, Betamax, or even Video 2000, I wouldn't have known back then. By the way, Ms Poppins was also shown after the late Queen's Message on Christmas Day on BBC 1 that year, but we didn't go to school on Christmas Day for obvious reasons, and slightly bizarrely, my class and others actually saw the same film at school a week before it actually premiered on British TV. It was played from a pre-recorded video which was presumably already available to get from the shops back then. A similar thing happened a few years after when I received the video version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory as a Christmas present, ironically when BBC 1 was also showing it in their Christmas or New Year schedules that year.
Most video channels were on channel 8; I am not sure why though. One assumes that it would be to prepare for future use of tuning new TV channels in such as the new Channel 5 a few years later, as well as to allow alternative ITV and BBC regions in areas where they can be picked up, and so channel 8 would be more likely to be free to use for video use for the foreseeable future. A lot of TV channels had up to eight presets on them, and so that channel 8 would be at the end of the list. On the other hand, my family's Pye set in which we first had in 1984 had a channel 0 (zero) where presumably not all manufactured TV sets had a channel with that number for obvious reasons; and so we used channel 0 for the VCR. I remember tuning it to a non-terrestrial channel other than 0 and seeing a bit of a flicker from the corners of the screen when a tape was played on it which didn't occur on channel 0. Back then, I also assumed that channel 8 was used because as when most TV sets used to use infra-red digital font numbers on the front of the set, the number eight was the only number in which every component which made up the number was used if you know what I mean.
Before we had a VCR, we briefly had a computer keyboard plugged in the back of the TV set in which I used on Sunday mornings circa 1985 (there was just religion and Open University on the TV back then and so it was a perfect time of the week to do that sort of thing), and the computer keyboard (with the TV set acting as the computer monitor), had used channel 14 for some reason; the TV set had a total of 20 channels, from 0 to 19, and most of the time, only four of them was used for the terrestrial TV channels, with an attempt of trying to pick up Yorkshire TV on Belmont on the fifth channel. Just like being able to watch one channel while recording another thanks to the different tuners, I used to think that if one used the keyboard and retuned away from channel 14, the writing on screen wouldn't work! So, we used channel zero, and I immediately assumed that it was specially made for video channels back then, certainly on Pye TV models. I obvious assumed that it would be same case by the time we got a video recorder, and I used to assume that because the aerial was plugged into the VCR and a cable connected between that and the TV set, that the video would literally get the direct signal from the transmitter even more prominently; something which I thought would benefit using Videoplus+ more by the mid 1990s.
I believe that before channel 5 came along in 1997, some households used to have their video channel on channel 5 as well, unless they had an alternative ITV or BBC region on that channel, that is. Does anyone remember the Channel 5 Video company which used to produce pre-recorded film classics and all that, usually monochrome films and used to be sold in WHSmith, and was even seen behind Mavis in some Kabin scenes on Coronation Street, just after Alan Bradley decided on videos to replace records in the newsagent? Also, when Bullseye was offering a video recorder as a prize on their prize board, a selection of Channel 5 videos was also accompanied the machine and that one would presumably have got them with the VCR if one actually won it, or as Jim Bowen would say: "a selection of video classics". Again, I used to assume that it was called "Channel 5 Video" because some homes literally had their video channel tuned in on that number, as well as the fact that one's video channel was literally the "fifth" channel on their TV sets, and the one after Channel Four. I assume that they had absolutely nothing to do with the actual Channel 5 which came on air for the very first time on Easter Sunday in 1997, and that the company had completely disappeared (or at least stopped making pre-recorded videos) by the time that the new channel was on the air for the first time - I would guess around 1995-ish, around the time that the original Channel 5 contract had been originally been awarded to Greg Dyke's Channel 5 Broadcasting. It is like how there was a programme in the mid 1960s called BBC 3 and then many decades later, and actual BBC 3 came into existence - a title used to almost accurately predict the future of something. The same with Eric Idle's sub-Python Radio Five namesake series from the 1970s, pre-dating the real Radio 5 by 18 years.
And I also used to get confused, and I had first noticed this when I first watched Channel 4's TV Heaven in 1992, and also the Granadaland themed evening at the end of that year - why was Granada on Channel Nine back in the 1960s? I assume that this had disappeared either by the time of the 1968 franchise round when Granada lost Yorkshire but won weekends in the North West, or just over a year later when colour television arrived in the larger ITV regions. Did Northerners literally watch ITV on Channel Nine? As for video channels, I had originally thought that the video channel was channel 8 for non-domestic TV sets such as the ones in schools and other educational establishments, and I thought that it had something to do with the "specialty" of the nature of the TV sets; the fact that it was perched on a teak cabinet with a shelf down below for a video recorder, and it was on casters so that it could be wheeled from room to room during the limited time that "Look and Read follows shortly" was displayed for around two minutes on the channel that one was about to watch. Thinking about it, does it really matter which channel the video recorder was on, whether it was 8 or even 108? A pity that radio cassette recorders never had double tuners on them so that one could tape Woman's Hour while listening to Ken Bruce or even Simon Bates - BBC Radio 8, anyone?
Most video channels were on channel 8; I am not sure why though. One assumes that it would be to prepare for future use of tuning new TV channels in such as the new Channel 5 a few years later, as well as to allow alternative ITV and BBC regions in areas where they can be picked up, and so channel 8 would be more likely to be free to use for video use for the foreseeable future. A lot of TV channels had up to eight presets on them, and so that channel 8 would be at the end of the list. On the other hand, my family's Pye set in which we first had in 1984 had a channel 0 (zero) where presumably not all manufactured TV sets had a channel with that number for obvious reasons; and so we used channel 0 for the VCR. I remember tuning it to a non-terrestrial channel other than 0 and seeing a bit of a flicker from the corners of the screen when a tape was played on it which didn't occur on channel 0. Back then, I also assumed that channel 8 was used because as when most TV sets used to use infra-red digital font numbers on the front of the set, the number eight was the only number in which every component which made up the number was used if you know what I mean.
Before we had a VCR, we briefly had a computer keyboard plugged in the back of the TV set in which I used on Sunday mornings circa 1985 (there was just religion and Open University on the TV back then and so it was a perfect time of the week to do that sort of thing), and the computer keyboard (with the TV set acting as the computer monitor), had used channel 14 for some reason; the TV set had a total of 20 channels, from 0 to 19, and most of the time, only four of them was used for the terrestrial TV channels, with an attempt of trying to pick up Yorkshire TV on Belmont on the fifth channel. Just like being able to watch one channel while recording another thanks to the different tuners, I used to think that if one used the keyboard and retuned away from channel 14, the writing on screen wouldn't work! So, we used channel zero, and I immediately assumed that it was specially made for video channels back then, certainly on Pye TV models. I obvious assumed that it would be same case by the time we got a video recorder, and I used to assume that because the aerial was plugged into the VCR and a cable connected between that and the TV set, that the video would literally get the direct signal from the transmitter even more prominently; something which I thought would benefit using Videoplus+ more by the mid 1990s.
I believe that before channel 5 came along in 1997, some households used to have their video channel on channel 5 as well, unless they had an alternative ITV or BBC region on that channel, that is. Does anyone remember the Channel 5 Video company which used to produce pre-recorded film classics and all that, usually monochrome films and used to be sold in WHSmith, and was even seen behind Mavis in some Kabin scenes on Coronation Street, just after Alan Bradley decided on videos to replace records in the newsagent? Also, when Bullseye was offering a video recorder as a prize on their prize board, a selection of Channel 5 videos was also accompanied the machine and that one would presumably have got them with the VCR if one actually won it, or as Jim Bowen would say: "a selection of video classics". Again, I used to assume that it was called "Channel 5 Video" because some homes literally had their video channel tuned in on that number, as well as the fact that one's video channel was literally the "fifth" channel on their TV sets, and the one after Channel Four. I assume that they had absolutely nothing to do with the actual Channel 5 which came on air for the very first time on Easter Sunday in 1997, and that the company had completely disappeared (or at least stopped making pre-recorded videos) by the time that the new channel was on the air for the first time - I would guess around 1995-ish, around the time that the original Channel 5 contract had been originally been awarded to Greg Dyke's Channel 5 Broadcasting. It is like how there was a programme in the mid 1960s called BBC 3 and then many decades later, and actual BBC 3 came into existence - a title used to almost accurately predict the future of something. The same with Eric Idle's sub-Python Radio Five namesake series from the 1970s, pre-dating the real Radio 5 by 18 years.
And I also used to get confused, and I had first noticed this when I first watched Channel 4's TV Heaven in 1992, and also the Granadaland themed evening at the end of that year - why was Granada on Channel Nine back in the 1960s? I assume that this had disappeared either by the time of the 1968 franchise round when Granada lost Yorkshire but won weekends in the North West, or just over a year later when colour television arrived in the larger ITV regions. Did Northerners literally watch ITV on Channel Nine? As for video channels, I had originally thought that the video channel was channel 8 for non-domestic TV sets such as the ones in schools and other educational establishments, and I thought that it had something to do with the "specialty" of the nature of the TV sets; the fact that it was perched on a teak cabinet with a shelf down below for a video recorder, and it was on casters so that it could be wheeled from room to room during the limited time that "Look and Read follows shortly" was displayed for around two minutes on the channel that one was about to watch. Thinking about it, does it really matter which channel the video recorder was on, whether it was 8 or even 108? A pity that radio cassette recorders never had double tuners on them so that one could tape Woman's Hour while listening to Ken Bruce or even Simon Bates - BBC Radio 8, anyone?
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