hi guys, part time lurker, first time poster ;) Anyway am amazed to find so many episodes that people have generously shared, so would like to contribute if i can. It looks like alot of the gaps have been filled lately but i have composed a list of the episodes i have in case anyone wants some. I haven't kept a record of the episode numbers sorry, only the dates.

About 80% had been recorded onto the pvr then encoded to mp4 files, the rest were recorded onto a dvd recorder then copied over to disk & not digitized yet, so the pic quality of the latter i think is only 580p or comparable.

So just reply here or email me with which ones you need or if you need more info & i can work something out. Be warned though it might be a bit of a slow process since i only have a 5mps upload speed & not signed up to paid dropbox/filefactory etc yet. I am willing to send them out on usb sticks or dvd though, might actually be easier way of doing it for me.

read on below the list for boring technical details on the Countdown recordings

1975
march 1
sep 7

1976
dec 5

1977
jan 23
mar 4
dec 24

1978
dec 10

1979
nov 4, 18, 25


1980
feb 2, 17, 24
march 2, 9, 16, 30
april 6, 13, 20
may 4, 11
june 22
july 6, 27
aug 3, 10, 23, 31
sep 7, 21, 28
oct 12
nov 2, 9 23, 30
dec 12

1981
feb 22
march 15
april 5, 18, 26
may 3, 10 , 17, 24
june 7, 14, 28
july 19
aug 2, 16, 23, 30
sep 13
oct 11, 25
nov 1, 8, 15
dec 6, 20

1982
jan 3
feb 14, 21, 28
mar 7, 14, 21, 28
apr 4, 11, 17/18?, 25
may 9, 23
june 27
july 11, 25
aug 1, 15, 22, 29
sep 5, 12, 19, 26
oct 10, 17, 22
nov 7, 12?, 21
dec 12, 19, 24

1983
mar 6, 20
apr 3, 10, 19
may 1, 8, 27
june 19
july 3, 24
aug 14, 28
sep 4, 11
oct 2, 9, 31
nov
dec 11 , 24

1984
mar 18
may 6
june 24
aug 12
sep 23, 30


1985
mar 24
apr 7, 14, 21
june 9, 16, 23
july 14, 28
aug 4, 11, 25
oct 6,
nov 3, 10, 23
dec 15, 22

1986

jan
feb 9, 23
mar 8, 16
apr 6, 13, 20
may 4
june 8,
july 13, 20
sep 21
oct 5, 12
nov 2, 16, 23, 30
dec 14, 21

1987

jan
feb 15
mar 1, 15
apr 12, 19, 26
may 10, 31
june 14, 28
july 5

I did not record onto pvr off the ABC HD channel mostly because of space saving reasons, & quite honestly did not see the point since the source material would not have been recorded in HD. Doing a live comparison between ABC1 & ABC HD i couldn't see that it had been upscaled either, it would only be the in studio material that would be clearer anyway as most of the video clips played were average or even poor quality, especially on the 70's episodes.

i used Handbrake on windows 10 machine to encode the files from the pvr, most are to MP4 1200kbps video, some 1500, all 720x576. i also installed the excellent quality Fraunhofer's FDK-AAC 128k stereo audio encoder in Handbrake so no need to encode at 160k/hd etc. 1200kbps may seem low but using Handbrakes 2 pass encoding it produces an excellent quality picture. Perhaps not on par with the original file, but again i can't afford to be buying up a stack of exteranl hard drives to store all the files. I have however saved some of the live appearances cut to mpg file from the original, so they will be MPEG-PS 3,700 kbps/720x576/256k audio & about 100mb per file.

just realized i got the 1984 list wrong, here is the correct lot:

1984
feb 19
mar 4, 18, 25
apr 22
may 13
june 3, 24
aug 5,12, 26
sep 23, 30
oct 14, 27
nov 4, 11
dec 2, 9, 16