Revisiting Post Office Commpak carts with a back projector
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ต.ค. 2024
- Another look at the audio visual slideshow format which fuses 16mm film with an 8-track cart.
My previous video on this format can be found here: • The queue-bothering pr...
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This is my last video release in January 2024 - the next video will be out in February.
Thanks for watching.
Thanks Mat - hope all good with you, and you can relax/recharge/regroup :)
Thanks - just need a week off as well as a chance to catch up on a few offline things.
Well deserved Mat!@@Techmoan
@@Techmoan i want to send you my sony sports walkman "white" with autoreverse and analog tuner
Will you release the contents of all the tapes on one long upload? I'm sure many people would find that fantastically nostalgic.
Pleasepleasepleaseplease capture these and put them up on the internet archive! This is a time period that has had most of its content didappear due to shoddy recording formats and lack of interest, but I guarantee you that it will make some archivist's day (me)
If he does that, he better make sure he has permission of the museum to archive their material on the IA. Not every museum wants their material on there.
@@medes5597 Ah yes. Better allow every podunk museum to horde material and not allow other researchers and the general public to view it.
Then your gonna love what I got in the attic
He said the museum was planning to send them to the landfill, so instead they sold the cartridges to him. The museum doesn't seem to be interested in preserving this history on their own... unless they sold the tapes with the understanding that the museum would retain sole ownership of any digital copies... but if they wanted that outcome, they'd be paying for digitization services rather than selling the cartridges outright.
@@medes5597I think that (given recent events) Mat would probably have more to worry about from the post office themselves than the museum that sent him the stuff. Apparently they have quite the propensity for prosecuting people :(
I'm always amazed by how he makes a 'niche-within-niche' topic into a 20+ minute video that is fascinating from beginning to end. Quite an incredible skill, and undoubtedly part of the reason why this is one of the best channels on the platform.
Yes this!
@@boardsort Yes! Adam Savage's channel had a Tefifon recently in a thumbnail and I instantly recognized it by knew the name, that it was german, that it also came in a rare stereo version, etc all from Techmoan as I'd never even heard of it before
In comparison, there are other channels, where You think ”is that all You got out of that subject?”.
This channel, never that problem - just right amount of details.
It would be nice eventually to see a breakdown of use-case possibilities in the Rabbit R1, from this perspective for ancillary hardware like DACs and Walkmans. Even as just a command line entry device without a keyboard, I'm pretty curious about it.
Assuming LAM won't end up being straight up a sham product, which is still possible.
Couldn't agree more!
23:07 £20.95 (inc postage and packing) in 1985 for a VHS tape would cost about £84 today. Worth every penny, ma'am
The BoE inflation calculator put it at 70 quid. But yeah, the Royals are great value for money 😂
I had the same thought.
Thanks for doing the maths. Absolutely bonkers.
Blimey! I under-computed the inflation adjusted cost at £60,- in my comment (For 2023 Sterling) and that alone made me want to run to the toilet in shock... 📼🇬🇧💸😳
Also: You have to go to the post office, fill out a form and pay, and then wait for your cassette to be delivered. "Easy, isn't it?" Eeh, they haven't heard of stores that actually has the goods in stock so you could bring it with you..?
Hi Mat, I am working to preserve the format this is based on (it was called sound filmstrip and used an external soundtrack on record or cassette). Once you have copies of all of them the way you’re doing it, please look into properly scanning the film and assembling the audio and frames in a video editor. In the same way 16mm movies would be transferred to digital and not just filmed playing on a screen. Don’t hesitate to reach out if I can help in any way. This stuff is super-rare and Comm-Pak was used in more places than the Post Office, including the U.S. Army for a while.
Hope he sees this
It would also negate the need to get the video settings just right this time around. Just need the video for timing reference to edit the scans to.
In my experience he reads and answers email sent to the address listed on his channel's About page. I think you stand a much better chance of getting his attention that way than by hoping he sees your comment.
I'm always grateful for the no BS approach of this channel. I hate when youtubers need to insert fake stakes or drama. A breath of fresh air you are
gotta agree
"You won't believe what I found when I opened this 50 year old...."
It was nice to see one of these old machines arrive in fully functional condition.
@@MistahJigglah”customs banned me from getting this, but i got one anyway!”
"Have you ever considered an exciting career with the Post Office? Join today and you too could spend your life in prison!"
Do you mean that scandal with the faulty software but the Post Office blamed every franchisee for cheating/stealing money? Fujitsu Horizon IT?
The slow demonic voice of the slow speed setting might be more representative of the Post Office after all 😅
When I hear that voice I always remember the movie "Good morning Vietnam", when Robin Williams plays a record on wrong speed and he makes a joke about it.
us customs
I immediately imagined it saying "Horizon is a robust system" 🤣
should post them like that as well, and let us hear the demons tell us about things.
@@Kafj302 Maybe if you play it backwards there are special messages!
I believe that the unit was developed to US military specifications by La Belle as a government contractor so I guess that's why it's still on a no export list - and also how the UK Government owned Post Office got hold of the system too
If this technology was being used mainly for military and government applications though - As its U.S. export bar appears to suggest - I'm very surprised the Post Office were allowed to exhibit it publicly by using it for advertising purposes. As soon as any privy personnel from the U.S. saw one of those in a UK Post Office, they'd have been dashing to the nearest payphone - Then the next nearest, as BT never could keep those things in working order ;-) - and calling their superiors about it right away. ☎
The _Prepper_ part of my mind wonders if there might've been some civil defence related desire to have these in situ all over the country ready for deployment in the event of a national emergency - A nuclear attack, for example - Where Post Offices might've been employed as local communication centres. If that was the intent - And these had a risk of failing in storage/if not used for a while (I'm looking at *You,* Seagate! ☝) - Perhaps using them as ad screens was viewed the best way to ensure that would be operable in their moment of need. 👍
Imagine if Communist China should get their hands on this advanced US technology!
@mipmipmipmipmip Its possible, but the Adress on the German Sticker points to a residential Area, so it was probably some sort of traveling Salesman that did the Service. Since he WAS some sort of Lamp Salesman and the Sticker is on the inside he probably did service on it and not use it for his own sales presentations. It being a GE Lamp also isnt an indication that the Lamp wasnt chaged, GE Lamps of similar types werent uncommon in Germany until recently when everything got replaced by LEDs. However its unlikely that Mr. Zoepf worked on US Military Tech. The old Zipcode also dates the Sticker Pre-1990, so probably while this unit was still in active use and not after it had been thrown out. In 1989 and before this wasnt "VIntage", it was either still in use or garbage. Now it could have been sold by a US Base in Germany before our Lamp Salesman got hold of it, but wo is the Buyer? Noone could make their own Tapes for it. Its much more likely that a small number of these, between 50 and 500 (enough to make the Tapes, not enough that many survived) got bought by a german Company and used for Sales Pitches by other traveling salesman, anything from Insurance to Vacuum Cleaners. It being on the black list for exports in the UK indicates either a clerical error or, more likely since this isnt any special tech by itself, some Cartridges contain sensible Information. Now, since the Cartridge has no security on itself and getting the contents of one would als be really easy even with the Tech back then and without having the main playback unit, even that seems unlikely. But is possible and would explain some secrecy around the Device itself.
The machine that the UK Post Office used, shown at 18:57, seems to be of a different brand than La Bell, so it's likely that the format was not a classified technology, but the player used by the U.S. military, for whatever reason, was.
LaBelle was widespread in Germany and France. Even my school back in time had them for presentations. All imported from the US. I am sure these are units whose serial numbers are on a list of government-owned property. So a county, city, state government auction site sold those units but forgot to remove them from the property list. This happened to me with a 16mm movie projector I legally bought, but it was still marked as owned by the federal government. It had the decommissioned stamp and papers but still was on the list. Eventually I got this sorted out.
Post Office Technology - always topical!
😂
we aint going anywhere
@@-IE_it_yourself I'm the same
Don't mention the H word...
No software in this device....
It's like a real Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; retro as hell, cool as shit!
And mostly harmless!
13:40 Fun fact: The address still shows a 4-digit zip code ("D5270" - the D is for "Deutschland"). Germany switched to 5-digit zip codes in 1993, so this is from before that time. Today, Gummersbach has the zip codes 51643, 51645 and 51647 - depending on the district/area of the city.
Hanging a big heavy coat over these things improved them immensely. It would muffle the sound beautifully, and get a grin from the poor long-suffering staff.
Absolutely smashing, I love it. The sound is pretty decent too. Imagine if this thing was sold to school as a tutoring device, or at home for telling bedtime stories in say the 60 and 70s, I'm sure it would have been a hit.
we had them in school it was called "the mind" , used the 1.7/8 speed but we found the switch and could play one track of our 8 track tapes on it they were in study carrel type desks in the library
@@force311999 Nice, that makes a whole lot of sense. I don't remember them since We didn't have those back in the 70s when I was a kid, but hey, different strokes.
Regarding the export issues, La Belle were a subcontractor for the US Department of Defense. They made a variety of pressed metal parts for military use, including magazines for the M4 carbine. Completely plausible that someone in the customs process would look up the maker's name and refuse to export it out of caution.
ITAR strikes again!
With how wide-ranging US corporations can be, I can see this scenario happening more than once.
Customs Agent: Sir, someone is trying to ship some vintage Ball mason jars outside the US.
Manager: Isn't Ball a major aerospace supplier to NASA and the DoD?
Customs Agent: Yes.
Manager: EXPORT DENIED!
It's hilarious that you can export civilian firearms from the U.S. but not a slide projector.
@@hyperturbotechnomike ITAR actually makes this excessively hard..
@@joeblow5214 There are import services which will handle the purchase, paperwork, and registration. I have a friend, which imported some sort of special edition of a modern M1 carbine as a sporting rifle and he had no complaints. Went without any hiccups.
I helped my wife importing a self loading hunting rifle and a revolver, which she has inherited from her parents and grandparents. It was much more complicated (many years before the current situation).
£20.95! Thats a lot of money for a video even today! I wonder how many they sold?
You'd be surprised... the Brits love their Royals, you only have to look at all the ads for commemorative plates and coins in the Daily Mail weekend supplements, cheap tat sold to the gullible for extortionate prices, to see that.
£20 in early 1980s money would equate to about £70 today (according to the BoE inflation calculator). And even if you were an ardent monarchist, how many times would you realistically watch this thing?
Fools and their money eh!
At that price (About £75,- in todays money) I imagine they sold very few indeed. 💸
Thinking back to a similar mistake made by Atari respect of a game featuring an extra terrestrial being; I wonder where all of the unsold cassettes might have been buried? 📼👾😉
The unsold cassettes probably ended up in a bargain bin at some point.
I had some of these from the Post Office, advertising National Savings. I ran the audio tape on an 8-track and my friend Chris Squires scanned the 16mm Film. We then joined the pictures and sound back together with excellent results.
Did you transfer the magnetic tape to a regular 8-track cartridge to play it?
Lovely! I was about to suggest a film scanner for this. Is there anything those can be found? I tried checking your youtube channel, but wasn't able to find it.
The process would be much more interesting to watch than the final results.
You have to put the tape into an 8-track cartridge for that, right? At that point wouldn't it be simpler to spool it onto a reel-to-reel machine?
@@JZikovsky Yes, I transplanted the tape to a normal 8-track cart.
Go back to 1985, and I'm being drug into a post office by my parents, and we're shifting from one foot to the next waiting in line... I promise you these changing pictures and audio with voice and music would have consumed all my attention! I would have considered this a lifesaver, preventing me from EXPLODING with boredom.
It would be nice to get some sort of negative scanner that could scan the original frames, although I suppose you'd have to destroy the cartridge and film loop to do something like that. Still, my ears really perked up at the date mention, and this was more interesting to me than you might have thought. Truly a time capsule of how much could be done at the time with surprisingly little. Clever all the way around!
As much as I love a good broken to fixed story, the history of these weird formats is just as interesting. Plus there's always the preservation angle too, these once lost films will now be saved forever.
I have one of these units that was given to me by a dental office. It came with a cartridge titled, “Let’s Meet the Dentist” =) pretty cool! Great video!
I was starting to wonder what channel I was on when there was nothing broken on it! Never saw one as a child on my trips to the UK as far as I remember, but maybe that's a blessing.
You're not the only one.
If something is working properly, I have to wonder what's wrong with it.
A comment left twelve hours before the video was made public.
@@Tadfaftyhe puts the videos out early on his patreon, and people can comment there on them
They really need to start selling "untested" or "junk" items as influencer specials.
This reminds me of my dukane film strip viewer it uses a cassette for sound and then 35 mm film for picutres. I have scooby doo and a donald duck one. @@Techmoan
Almost looks like some "Vault-Tec" product from "Fallout".
The Post Office - always exploring new Horizons. Are you sure this wasn’t made by Fujitsu?
Great timing for a video related to the Post Office #justiceforsubpostmasters
Yeah, after that particularly spiteful little stunt, f**k the Post Office. Like another once-great British institution (the BBC) it's now so irreparably tainted that I really don't care if it lives or dies.
That sticker with the address is most definitely *very* old. It still uses a 4 digit postal code prefixed only by a D for Germany. This dates back to before the reunification, after which the old 4 digit postal codes were (briefly) prefixed W- for west and O- for east, before the now current 5 digit system was introduced...
Unification was 1989, so now you make me feel very old. I remember vividly what was going on, even though being from Holland. This device is from the eighties, so yes before unification, and I was a teenager like Matt back then.
18:06 It might be better to just connect a single channel input of the converter to the speaker output. Two 8 Ω inputs in parallel result in a 4 Ω input. So you again have an impedance mismatch between the 8 Ω speaker output and the converter.
Those converters usually have a relatively high impedance and don't actually present an 8 ohm load, so the paralelling in this case isn't a problem. Also if the impedance is too low on equipment of that era and style, the output would really be low or super distorted.
@@mxslick50 I'm more curious if he can fix the humm, grounding issue?
@@mxslick50 Interesting, and it totally makes sense to have a higher resistance so you don’t dump all the power of your amplifier into that small converter box.
Now I know where Eric Idle got his "official-mode" voice inflections. A lot of the voice-overs sort of sounded like him.
Initially, we're led to believe that Darth Vader's part-time job was narrating for the Post Office slide cartridges. 😁
Reliable Post Office technology, what a novelty. Obviously not made by Fujitsu.
This isn’t the first time I’ve seen a comment about Fujitsu under something about the post office. Are they universally terrible or something?
@@nooneinpart Google "british post office horizon scandal fujitsu" or something like that and I'm sure you'll find out what the connection is.
It's been all over the news recently, because it suddenly became a big deal due to a recent TV drama even though knowledge of the flaws in the Post Office/Fujitsu "Horizon" system and wrongful convictions associated with it have been known about for 15+ years and they didn't give a damn for most of that time.
@@nooneinpart Search for "British Post Office scandal". Fujitsu cost over 900 subpostmasters their jobs, money, sanity, freedom, or their lives by failing to disclose that their accounting software contained bugs and the Post Office officials did nothing to investigate the issues or reports from their subpostmasters. Its actually back in the new because I believe the government has decided that Fujitsu is actually to blame for the whole situation and should finally be held accountable.
@@nooneinpart If you're not in the UK, you've missed on destroyed lives and prison sentences for no reason all down to Post Office/Fujitsu. It's a hell of a story.
@@nooneinpart Fujitsu delivered a broken computer system to the Post Office meant for (among other things) managing money at local post offices. It had errors in the accounting, which led the Post Office to accuse hundreds of these local post office employees of embezzlement and fraud. Hundreds of them were prosecuted and convicted of fraud, leading to ruined lives and some suicides, even though Fujitsu knew from the very beginning that it might be their fault.
The mechanism that advances the film has a satisfying quality mechanical sound and action to it ..
Agreed, I love clunky old electromechanical stuff - stepper switches, jukebox relays and the like - even if it does look like a lost form of dark sorcery to the uninitiated!
@@rich_edwards79 Agreed and well said,,, have you seen CuriousMarc's videos on the Bendix air data computer ?
It's the ultimate in electromechanical dark sorcery !!
I like those sounds too, but we're not supposed to hear its trigger tones in the audio, though...
I didn't notice the tones,, just the tidy clean sounding film advance mech. @@djhrecordhound4391
If you run out of space to store it, you could always 'loan' it out to The Postal Museum in that there London. They may even give you and the Missus a free ride on the underground Mail Rail train.
I don't think I want a ride on the "underground mail rail train". Free or not!
@@TheCOZit’s actually a fun ride
Yes, this ancient Post Office tech ACTUALLY WORKS (Fujitsu bow your heads in shame)
I never saw one of these at a post office in Germany, but we had one in our local savings bank (Sparkasse) in the early nineties: It was built into a small walk-in cabinet with a little bench in it and came with two shower-head style handheld receivers instead of a loudspeaker. It was meant for the children of customers while they themselves queued or were being counselled. The machine presented fairytales and phantastic stories, accompanied by drawn or painted images or photographs of puppets in dioramas.
To me as a child, it was always a treat to listen to the machine while my mother stood in the cash queue, and I was quite sad when they finally installed a cash machine outside in the wall of the building and we didn't have to go inside anymore to withdraw money.
I think the beige player framing the slideshow content is perfect, and places the footage in its moment in time. No changes necessary, great job.
@techmoan You saying arse at the slow speed gave proper James may vibes 😂😂
I love watching old style pos media and this was a fantastic example thank you for a blast from the past..
Every time you play one of those cartridges do you end up owing the Post Office 10K?
This projector box is our newest piece of technology and is unflinchingly accurate and correct! Nobody else has had a problem with these devices! It's just you! :V
As far as yellowed plastic goes, i think this is a rather pleasant shade and compliments the darker portion of the case nicely, with an appropriate late ‘70s aesthetic 😁
I thought it was the original color until he mentioned it was yellowed
It's a very nice, appropriate color scheme. Nothing wrong with it. 😁
It's the natural life cycle of this type of plastic (with added bromine) that was widely used for electronics cases in the era.
maybe the best option would be to scan the film itself on high definition capture device, then capture the 8track audio separately and in the davinci or premiere put it togetrher (maybe also simulate the image shift) to get FHD or 4K version of it ;)
It's too labour intensive for its boring content, but seeing how it gets done would make an excellent video on its own
@@djhrecordhound4391 it depends what you want to accomplish either to get the recordings of the typical output from this format or to get the content from cartridges in the best quality. Btw this is how old movies are remastered on 4k blu-rays, it's fun stuff rly ;)
@@keiiko I restore audio from old media, so I'm well aware and enjoy how film also gets restored. Contents of these carts aren't historically significant enough to go through all the troubles to do them, but the processes used to do "proper" restorations would be fascinating enough to make a good YT video.
@@djhrecordhound4391 indeed, that's why techmoan is the first one to capture them 🙂 and indeed a fan of restorations of old media would go this way to scan film. Still would be nice to see the process on TH-cam 👍
Pretty sure I used one of these or something very similar in the late 80s when going through training for working on a Sainsburys checkout. It was when barcode scanning had just started and you would have this device showing instructions with an audio track via headphones and you would sit at an unused checkout going through what you were being told.
£20.95 for a video of the queen. That's probably equivalent to about £80 today. The Post Office, ripping you off today, as they did in the past.
£63 if it was recorded in 1985. Bargain
With it being the voice of Richard Burton though, you could pretend it's a deleted scene from the War of the Worlds musicial album.
I don't know what the going rate for a pre-recorded videocassette would have been by the mid-80s, but I do know that they were *really* expensive when they first appeared in the late 70s and early 80s. (*)
So yeah, that's incredibly expensive by modern standards, but- to be fair- I'm not sure if it was all *that* inflated by the standards of the time.
(*) Certainly more than the typical £10.95 price they'd fallen to by the early 90s (and even *that* would be over £30 in today's money.)
VHS movies weren't really much cheaper here in the US back then. Before prices dropped in the later '80s, blank tapes were ~$20 each, and actual movies ~$40-$80 each _(not_ adjusting for inflation). Which was a big reason why video rental got so popular.
@@NotATube This is starting to make me realise the _actual_ real-terms cost of my first _Sepultura_ album, bought for (IIRC) £10,95 in 1998... 💸😳
Finally, a Post Office system which works and doesn't send innocent employees to prison... Next video he can fix some Fujitsu accounting gadgets!
I bought a film scanner from the US about 12 years ago and the manufacturer had to declare it on customs as a second hand film projector with no mention of the hd camera section. So maybe the taxation category or the fact it combines film and audio in a form that enables a copyable output is the problem for customs.
Great content many thanks. The transfer quality is good.
Indeed, do not underestimate the influence of the "content" and other litigation-happy industries when it comes to import and export matters.
I wondered if maybe it was the manufacturer that was causing the issue. Given that it isn't a household name, I wonder if perhaps they made equipment for the military as well and thus anything with that name simply gets flagged. Since no one wants to bother actually investigating, they just refuse it.
I sent a Super 8 movie projector to France from the US and it posed no problem at all.
What can be is that devices who are owned by federal agencies or the military and turn out on yard sales cause problems when their serial numbers are still in the database of national and state property
I bought on ebay Uniden radio in october of 2021, but a month later same model was stopped twice from two different sellers, even before it reached export customs. Is it problem with new shipping services from ebay or something else - ebay experience is not the same as years ago.
I tried to by some plain blank BASF tapes (Reel to Reel) that were sealed new old stock many years ago from the US, and they were stopped. I came across the listing a couple of months later and there was an ebay (not the seller) notice saying not for export. I often get things from Mouser/Element 14/Digikey with restricted notices on the packaging. I'm in Australia.
I remember standing in a huge queue at the post office with one on these things booming out on a huge red plastic encased screen. Oh gosh it was so repetitive and dull!!!
Looks like the internal optics could do with a clean up before you archive them all.
Yeah, I remember being irritated by them, too. The terrible thing was that there was no real way to block the audio, not even with a Walkman. The audio on the Post Office machines were usually set too loud, at least in the ones I used.
Yes I recall it at Portsmouth post office. Bad enough that the queue was so long, and this just added extra annoyance and stress.
i don't remember this one but waiting in line at the post office really makes me apricate modern technology.
4:52 techmoan cursing! 😮
I think it is awesome that something like this has such a hidden history to those who have never seen one before.
Of course i will have to go watch the other video again now.
I remember a Flying Circus (and maybe more than one) that used joke title cards in sketches that seemed styled very much like in the Grattan catalogue. Was that a specific reference to this machine? Or just a general riff on a common visual trope on TV and educational films and whatnot?
I hope you put these up for everyone to enjoy. I think they are fascinating. 😊
It may not be a glorious job, but archiving and recording the history of these things is an amazingly noble thing. So much technical history is lost to time now. Keep up the good work!
Very interesting considering the ITV series about the Post Office.
Recent chatter in the customs/export control office:
"What is this thing?"
"Seems to be a laptop of sorts. Has a screen built into a suitcase. I tried booting it. Didn't work. Also tried connecting with Bluetooth or Wifi. Nothing."
"So probably some advanced, secret technology. A suitcase for spies."
"Yeah. Can't allow this to leave the country..."
I think it could not get in the Uk, it left the US fine. I would assume a 1980s technology wouldn't have a problem in customs, its not like it infringes on any copyright or competing tech...
@@PatricioGarcia1973 Some discussions under other comments appear to suggest that perhaps CommPak devices were made a controlled technology under U.S. regulations - It seems they might've been used by military and government organisations, so might not have been available commercially - And if that was the case you'd require a licence to export them from the United States, even in todays age of chips-in-everything... 🍟
(And when you think about it; Something _without_ chips in it has potential applications in a tech-dominated world, which might be why the export ban is still in place.)
In laymens terms imagine Ninja Gaiden for the NES where at the beginning of Act III a CIA agent "Smith" gives a lot of exposition via a device like this. Can't have people using government secret tech, can we?
@@PatricioGarcia1973letting a foreign national look through gen 3 night vision from the early 1990s is still a felony. The US doesn't ever really declassify technology. Plus the company thatade these also made equipment for the DOD, so it's probably just under a blanket ban for tech from that company from that era.
or simply sellers didn’t file the paperwork to state that they were exporters, so got denied because of that
7:14 You are the museum
I love staying up late on Friday night/Saturday morning here in the USA. (Pacific time, GMT -7/8) just for Mat’s videos. 😊
can i suggest that you run the recorded audio past a hpf high pass filter , and cut everything out below 70hz .. will remove the mains hum and any rumble and give you much cleaner audio in the vocal range ... you could also ad a lpf low pass filter and take off everything over about 16khz .. that would remove a great deal of the hiss :)
thanks as always for a fantastic video
Some/most of that hum might be coming from capacitive coupling in the isolation transformer (There's likely ~115V across the barrier). One could try tying the grounds together (preferably using ground points not in the audio path) to get rid of it, as it will also have harmonics of it in the vocal range
The faithful archivisation of all the material with all of its signal may take priority over fine post-filtering.
@@kkpdkI’d expect proper grounding as suggested will do the trick, and retain best audio (notorious for phono/line issues).
We had these at my primary school in New Zealand, back in the mid 1980s. I remember a version with a cassette player as well.
I've heard nothing but good things about the UK post office lately.
Circling the drain, same as everything else (BBC, NHS, Home Office, DWP) in this benighted country.
Sailing towards only the best Horizons!
I'm gonna need you to just upload a full uncut low speed version of the post office tape. It's an immediate somethingwave music sample moment. Edit: yes ALL FIFTEEN
I'm eagerly awaiting your archival footage of these cassettes! Both the content and the format are such a fascinating time capsule of the period in which they were produced, even if it's nothing but ads for post office merch.
Mixed emotions about the player working first time! Happy for you that it works (and great for the purpose you bought it for), but I do enjoy seeing the inner workings of these gadgets, especially the older ones. Gives some insight into the engineering of the time. May be an idea to build a makeshift blackout hood for recording the video. And I'd probably try to capture it in 4:3 or whatever is closest to the original aspect ratio, but of course it could also be edited to do the same. Best of luck with the project!
My father formed a business around this machine in the U.S. Pre-Internet and pre-personal computer, you could see virtual real estate tours of houses on the market. Each house had photos shot, they’d make the film strip, and record the narration. I remember some rapid-flip “animation” too, perhaps 3-4 frames. I think this was mid-to-late 1970s…
Thought I would have a look how much that Queenie video would be taking into account inflation - guessing it was released around `85 (could not find anything about it on imdb) - that video would set you back £79.55 today.
Think I'll pass.
2:01 Actually I rather like that color scheme. fits your setup rather nicely imo.
Beautifully mundane , an art unparalleled
Works better than Horizon
GPO scandal 1985: _A State entity asking people to pay £20,95 (~£70,- in 2023 money) for a commemorative video cassette._
GPO Scandal 1995: _Subcontracted to a private company per the preferences of a Thatcherite conservative government..._ 😉
Remember these slideshows in my Post Office in the 80s. Never saw them anywhere else.
4:28 - demonic post office voices, how apt with the horizon scandal at the moment. ha ha
Was going to say the same thing!
4:45 I think that this voice is Mat's voice before his death.
Fascinating piece of social history. I now know that once upon a time the Post Office was a beloved institution that used to sell reasonably priced stamps and wasn't trying to ruin people's lives (or even encouraging them to take their own lives).
I can't express how badly I want to relive the history of pantomime through stamps for Christmas
Oh no you don't.....
What?!? No Pantomime Horse⚠️🏁😢😮🛡️🧐
@@stepheng8779 Oh yes they do!
For under a quid no less!
Just straight up pantominin with the homies.
Still a lower failure rate compared to the horizon system 😅
I don't know why, but i can imagine old Protect and Survive films being played on this, in the tense build-up to a Threads-style nuclear holocaust. 'Mine is the last voice you will ever hear. Do not be alarmed!'
20 pounds in 1980s was a fair bit of change for a video cassette...
What could be another option is record the whole machine in high def and donate that material with one cardridge to a museum. They can show the recorded clip on a normal screen and because you recorded the whole machine, it looks like it's the machine. Idea maybe?
I like it, but the poor people working in the postoffices, all going POSTal hearing that day by day 😂
Neat to see that projector was made in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin where I attended the excellent Midwest Gaming Classic from 2006-2009. I helped with the vintage computer museum, and there were loads of game consoles, pinball, and arcade machines there. I even saw Billy Mitchell play Donkey Kong there, and he was really good at it and not cheating from what I could tell :)
The Post Office and tech is like oil and water 😂
Better tech than Horizon
Great vid Mat! I realized something when you did the tear down of the German machine and showed the light bulb. You said the bulb in the machine looked to be the original bulb and if that's true, I know why you couldn't get a machine shipped from the US. The light bulb showed contains mercury and afaik, that can be a big issue as far as the USPS is concerned and maybe that's why it kept getting flagged in customs.
I like the footage you played at the end. I am in America, but I miss the queen all the same.
We all do.
When you get every capture can we see them? Or at the very least get a link to view them from the museum maybe?
You have unwittingly stumbled upon one of the greatest secrets of the United States. Our whole society is dependent upon not exporting Commpak projectors. I cannot be any more specific than that. This message will self-destruct in 5 seconds. Have a nice day.
6:39 "A hundred and five decibel siren will be activated"
I remember seeing this advertised in a Post Office as a child, and they'd dropped the alarm level down to 99dB. Obviously there was a cost-of-living crisis at the time (Much like todays) but does making an alarm _quieter_ make it seem more _affordable?..._ 🙃
@@dieseldragon6756 3 dB is half/double the power so if they dropped it by 6 dB that means it uses four times less power - so maybe they could use a smaller, cheaper siren?
Made me sad yet happy at the end.
"Arse" 😂😂
05:16 - OVERKILL switch switching tool.... 😏😉🤣🤣🤣
😎🇬🇧
Christmas stamps and envelopes available mid-November? I'm flat out getting my Christmas cards out by February!
The lamp is actually just a fairly standard MR-16 halogen lamp, commonly found in high end residential downlight fixtures between the 1970's to mid 2000's (prior to LED fixtures killing them off), here in the USA. Also found in cheap Ikea lighting fixtures (along with the GU10 120v variant) before that too was replaced by LED. The letters EKG are the specification code that denote the wattage and beam spread option of that particular lamp. Though most, if not all MR-16's are 12v, so this 19v lamp is actually fairly uncommon, but a quick google search shows it as still available.
Might the "unable to export" have something to do with rules about unshielded speakers on airplanes like the japanese auctions?
They should state the reason so one knows.
There are rumblings in the other Comments that this device was made to Army specifications. That would associate this with the U.S. D.O.D., who you absolutely shouldn't screw with.
It probably *is* safe to export, but they chose to reject it out of an abundance of caution.
Best leave PO stuff at the moment!
"Stamps from our favorite pantomimes..." Wow....just wow.
Exactly. Favorite pantomime? Really??
The particularly dejected woman, pictured trapped in a Post Office, may have heard about the new Horizon system that was to be delivered shortly.
I found it fascinating, thank you. That Queen cassette was bloody expensive!
Yes, and you also have to consider you needed the equipment to play the tape too.
@@BBC600 the queen tape? It was vhs
@@BBC600yep, a VCR back then would set you back around a grand in todays money (though prices did fall very quickly in the latter half of the 1980s - we were late to the VHS party, and paid around £300 for a Sanyo deck in 1987.)
@@1969longshanks- Yes, a VHS (video) tape!
@@BBC600 Many were probably renting at this point in time right?
UK snack nerds alert! What are the 5 flavours of Hula Hoops at 21:00 ? I think Red = Original, Brown = BBQ Beef, Green = Cheese & Onion, Blue = Salt & Vinegar... but the orange pack?....
From a searchL
Big Hoops have been available in the following flavours:
Salted, formerly Original (red)
Sour Cream & Chive (dark green) (discontinued)
Sweet Chilli (pink) (discontinued)
BBQ Beef (brown)
Chilli (black) (discontinued)
Spicy Chilli (magenta)
Salt & Vinegar (blue)
His most optimistic hope was an ad for Hula Hoops, and even that was dashed.
A black cardboard mask is DIY film transfer’s best friend.
So happy for you to receive good recognition from no other than Adam Savage!
Indeed -- and I'm kinda surprised he hadn't seen the Tefifon videos already. 😀
If you resort to black cardboard use foam poster board instead, it’s a lot cleaner looking. I use it all the time in photo shoots. $1 in US stores and can be recycled when they get dirty or damaged.
Dejected looking sub post office manager. Now that's a surprise.
When I as in health class in middle school in the mid 90s they had some kind of slide show with audio, I wonder if it was this. It was so old they called STDs venereal diseases.
One wonders if there should have been twenty cartridges, but five have mysteriously gone missing. Careful the PO doesn"t come after you 😉. Great stuff as always, and I see you've got another mention on the Tested channel. Perhaps the title of this one should have been Post Office Equipment That Works 😁.
Yeah, don't f**k with the Royal Mail! If Mat mysteriously disappears into a British prison, sentenced to an eternity in the Tower at His Majesty's pleasure, we'll know why.
I like how these old adverts don’t gauge my age and demographics, then follow me home to check out the demographics of other people in my house only to then let other advertising tracking buddies into my house uninvited.