Learn something new every day More Info... by email Originally,
the term kinescope referred to the actual cathode ray tube (CRT)
designed for early television sets, but it soon became
synonymous with a process of filming live television shows for
rebroadcasting. In the days before magnetic videotape, networks
would assemble the cast of a television show in a studio in New
York City and send out the live broadcast to affiliate stations
in the Eastern and Central time zones. The problem was that
stations in the Pacific time zone needed a three hour delay in
order to show programs during evening hours. The solution was to
use a 16mm or 35mm film camera to capture the images on the CRT
and show the developed film three hours later. The film record
of a live television show became known as a kinescope. There
were a number of technical issues which made the production of a
kinescope less than ideal. One problem was similar to the
situation a projectionist faced when showing silent films from
the 1920s. A film camer