The Test Pattern & TV Presentation List, v3.0.4

Copyright © 1997-2003, Tom Walsh (avs@netport.com) and Steve Mindykowski (azumanga(@)tampabay.rr.com). All rights reserved. May be copied for personal, nonprofit uses only; for other uses, please contact the authors.

The most recent version of this document is available at http://www.rugratonline.com/testpatt/. This copy is the version v3.0.4 of April 7, 2003.

Purpose:

This list documents all websites dedicated to displaying test patterns and provides links to them. Also, some sites on the presentation of Tv channels, as well as other worthy sites that deal with the hidden aspects of TV.

Versions:

v2.0.0 - 25 Nov 1997 - Added Swedish test pattern site
v2.0.1 - 26 Mar 1998 - Changed the /mb site URL
v2.0.2 - 29 Apr 1998 - Changed the /mb site URL again; fixed a few other errors
v2.0.3 - 8 Dec 1998 - New address, as Avimall site closed down; added European style CBC Montreal test pattern to heading and background
v2.0.4 - 24 Sep 2000 - Moved Test Pattern site to Geocities, due to Yahoo's plans to cap Simplenet's basic webspace at 100MB. Also added a link to Andrew Wiseman's TV Room.
v2.0.5 - 12 Nov 2001 - Moved test pattern site to A+Net, home to The UNOFFICIAL Rugrats Online. This is due to the fact that Yahoo's Geocities service has severe bandwidth restrictions (which blocks many sites with no rhyme or reason), plus, of course, the annoying X10 camera ads that may pop up from time-to-time. Also, added and changed some links.
v3.0 - 1 Apr 2002 -- Page renamed "The Test pattern & TV Presentation List". Changed e-mail. Also, added and changed some links.
v3.0.1 -- 17 Jun 2002 -- Added one new link.
v3.0.2 -- 27 Nov 2002 -- Added a few new links.
v3.0.3 -- 5 Jan 2003 -- Revised a couple of links.
v3.0.4 -- 7 Apr 2003 -- Removed a link.

The List:

The Original NBC Living Color Peacock (1956-1975)

Anyone watching TV in the US through 1975 must've seen the peacock in all its glory and heard the memorable slogan and music, "The following program is brought to you in living color on NBC!"
http://hometown.aol.com/~gd8692/

The UHF-TV Morgue

These stations have left the air long ago, but are still on the air in our memories. Descriptions, plus links to other sites with descriptions.
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/3514/morgue.html

Farewell Analog (formerly Broadcasting 101)

All you wanted to know about test patterns -- and then some.
http://www.farewellanalog.net/

Television History -- The First 75 Years

Some historical facts about television, from test patterns, to cameras, to sets. And much more.
http://www.tvhistory.tv/

"Stay Tuned":

This site is dedicated to the preservation of European test patterns ("testbild" in German). Steve calls it a "random" site, a good description. Most patterns may be seen by entering the testbild museum. The sources of the patterns are not listed but may be guessed from the titles of the image files.
http://www.ping.at/users/ staytuned/program.html

Satellite TV Page:

Images and test cards gathered from satellites.
ftp://itre.ncsu.edu/pub/satelli te/images/

TELE-Satellit:

Images and test cards gathered from satellites.
ftp://itre.ncsu.edu/pub/ satellite/TELE-satellit/

Lyngsat

And here's a directory where you can find those satellites:
http://www.lyngsat.com/

Indian test pattern:

This is the most famous (besides color bars, of course) American test pattern. You can find it at the Modern TV site:
http://www.moderntv.com/

The Meldrum Home Page:

"Test cards" from British television, and now from around the world, including the US. Includes cards for all five terrestrial stations. You need a table-capable browser to view this site. Click on "The Test Card Gallery".
http://www.meldrum.co.uk/

BBC Testcards:

The famous "Test Card F", plus other slides and interstitials from the BBC's past, can be had here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/tv/testcards/index.shtml

Andrew Wiseman's TV Room:

Has everything about the insides and outs of British television, including idents and a few test cards, including the new Testcards J & W. Also, check out the Flash versions of the British TV idents. http://625.uk.com/

Irish TV

This site has the history of television in Ireland and Northern Ireland: http://www.irish-tv.com/

Transdiffusion

Slanted towards Britain, it deals with the various aspects of world TV. http://www.transdiffusion.org/

Nelson Media

A website that features extensive information on Canadian media. http://members.shaw.ca/nelsonmedia/

Television Broadcasts (Canada)

Technical site that has listings for TV stations in Canada. http://members.rogers.com/tvdx1/

(Note: This site also had screen grabs of the closedowns and test patterns of some of them. But, since I added this link, the webmaster removed those pictures for reasons unknown. If it's those that you're after, visit CDN:TV instead.)

HDTV DX Channels

The very first series of various screengrabs of digital TV stations throughout the midwest, as observed by a person in west central Illinois. From the people that brought you TV Guide Specialists. http://www.oldtvguides.com/DXPhotos/

You can also find a small sample of these same pictures, plus public reaction to them, here: http://pages.cthome.net/fmdx/hdtv.html

And here's another page of HDTV DX screengrabs: http://pages.cthome.net/fmdx/hdtv_ty.html

TVDX from Metro Detroit

Pictures of distant stations picked up in the suburbs of Detroit in the 1970s & 1980s. http://www.uhf.cc/ & http://driley53.tripod.com/tvdx/tvdx.html

Robert Kramer's TVDX Page

Includes pictures of stations picked up in the midwest from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s. http://hometown.aol.com/RKDX/tvdx-home.html

Test Patterns Etc.

Features miscellaneous, uncommon test patterns. http://pages.cthome.net/fmdx/patt.html

The TV Network Extravaganza

Features the evolution of TV network logos and IDs, from the 1940s to today. http://members.fortunecity.com/teamfx2000/television/television.htm

And for TV show and studio logos, try:

http://members.fortunecity.com/teamfx2000/

(Note: E-mail does not work. If you are the webmaster of this site, please let me know.)

Testcards from Thomas Bergstam's Homepage:

A Swedish site; a lot of test patterns, some scanned from books; patterns displayed in a serve-side map format. Note that I have bypassed his frame-formatted homepage, which has some interesting non-TV stuff
http://www1.canit.se/~thbe/testcard.htm

Displaymate:

SONERA Technologies' commercial site has a few free samples to view and download; test patterns for video equipment and browsers in gif format.
http://www.displaymate.com/patterns.html

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(Please keep in mind that the above companies are NOT* responsible for this site.)*