I managed to obtain a VCR (yes, this is already an obsolete item...) to watch the tapes recorded of TV3 Ambang Merdeka which was broadcasted on Merdeka Eve and Merdeka Day (thanks to Edmund's mom for recording them for me during my absence in KL) at 2 am this morning from Su as we went her back to her place before her flight today.
Haha, imagine trying to set up the VCR with my telly. At first I tried to hook up to my tv using the yellow-white-red wires I managed to find in my cupboard somewhere from the PS2 set and play an old VCR tape just to test it out. It appeared really bad and Su did tell me that it had been sitting there unused for FIVE years.
I managed to find the cleaning tape for VCRs at home but the liquid had dried up. It's like a normal VCR tape but instead of black film-type tape inside, it's white fabric-type tape in place of that black film. You're supposed to put a few drops of that cleaning liquid on it and run the tape in the VCR for a few seconds. I saw a few brown spots on that cleaning tape as well. Haha, there's a mini mushroom farm growing too.
So, I went to Jusco with ISP and tried to find some cleaning solution to use for VCR. No luck. I did manage to spot one VCR machine which is still selling for RM300 (meaning it still has that much of value! surprise surprise!). At the end, I bought the cleaning fluid for cassette players. I suppose they should work the same. I went back home, put some drops on the white tape of the cleaning tape and ran it on the VCR for few minutes. I tried playing the tapes again but it wasn't clear as well. It turns out that the tape was recorded in an extended mode ie. you can use a 2-hour-long tape to record for 4 hours. Some compression thingie I guess. So, everything was fastforwarded in speed even though I was playing it on normal play speed.
Hence I had to go back to my recording source and play the tapes there. I hogged Auntie's machine for 3 hours plus to go through every single minute of the tape and of course, I fastforwarded through the advertisement section! To my disappointment, no, I didn't appear. They must have left me out. Somehow, I wasn't surprised since mixfm was displayed across the top of ISP and mixfm is from Astro...no way TV3 would wanna broadcast it. Anyway, shall look out for Astro recording crew next time. I watched through an entire 2 hour black/white movie called 'Leftenan Adnan' and another 2 hours of a locally recorded gameshow. This was recorded on Merdeka Day itself between 10pm and 2 am. And then I sat through another 3 hours of 'live telecast recording', squinting at the screen for ANY sort of ISPs (I saw none). I did see a few recorded clips of other people but not me. But it did instill a certain sense of pride when I watched Pak Lah repeatedly holler 'Merdeka!'! =) It sounded exactly like Tunku back 50 years ago which was shown a few times on other segments of the tape, all in blackwhite display on that square. Ah well, I tried, I suppose.
Disappointed and eyes dead tired, I didn't go out for the whole day....and had an early sleep. I did get a call from a MixFM staff asking what have I been doing (o yes, for the readers out there...they do DO spotchecks on us) and I said I was gonna watch recordings..this happened on my way to Jusco.
No comments:
Post a Comment