MovieChat Forums > Back to the Future (1985) Discussion > Playing JVC on Docs TV

Playing JVC on Docs TV

posted 2 years ago by gbu (585)
2 replies | jump to latest

I had a disagreement probably about 35 years ago with my aunt when she said there's no way Marty could of played the CAMcorder footage they filmed in the parking lot back on Docs TV in 1955, i was very young then and i think my argument consisted of saying "well Docs an inventor so probably knew how to wire it up to the TV" but she was having none of it.

I guess i could of said well it takes an ariel to play shows through the TV and the output from the camcorder must of had the same kind of coaxial cable.........however i have no idea if that was possible.

So was she right or is there a comeback I can say 35 years later to prove it was correct?

[–] BillySlater (4285) 2 years ago

In before Millsey calls this a plot hole. Your logic seems on point though.

[–] mikethemartian (7000) 2 years ago

I don’t think there would have been any problem whatsoever. Looking up the specs for the JVC GR-C1 it outputted a composite video signal which would not be compatible but a separate RF modulator was available for it to allow connection to the antenna input televisions. So as long as future Doc had the optional RF modulator as well it would have been very easy. 1955 Doc’s TV should have been able to read any NTSC analog signal up to when they turned it off in the US in 2009. Color TV signals were made to be compatible with B&W signals so a TV show broadcast in color could still be watched on a B&W TV (minus the color info of course). Likewise color TVs could be used with black and white broadcasts. The only thing Doc may want to do is use a simple transformer to match the 75 Ohm antenna connection leads on the TV to the RF modulator in case it was 50 Ohms. It would still work without the transformer but some signal strength would be lost. The transformers were commonly used to connect older TVs with only antenna leads with coaxial 50 Ohm cable from cable providers.