Mmmmmmm Retro Month is approaching and the usual suspects are coming out of hibernation. Time to get this thread at the top of the list where it belongs.......

cheers,

Kiersey.....
.

Hi, can anybody help me and post the Countdown episode of May 6, 1979 in very good quality?
I would be very grateful.

Thanks for bumping this thread up, Kiersey, and reminding me that I still have a few episodes which have alluded me. Can someone be so kind as to put these up on this thread? Please?

17th June, 1979 - Eric Oldfield (Ep. 198)
24th June, 1979 - Russell Morris (Ep. 199)
23rd March 1980 - Robin Scott (Ep. 232)
1st June 1980 - Village People (Ep. 242)
15th June 1980 - Skyhooks (Ep. 244)
24th August 1980 - Xanadu Dance (Ep. 254)
21st September 1980 - James Freud (Ep. 258)
26th October 1980 - The Romantics (Ep. 263)
16th November 1980 - Annie Lennox (Ep. 266)
30th November 1980 - Bette Midler (Ep. 268)
14th December 1980 - Neil & Tim Finn (Ep. 270)
1st March 1981 - Russell Morris (Ep. 274)
12th April 1981 - Dave Mason (Ep. 280)
19th April 1981 - Joe Dolce (Ep. 281)
12th July 1981 - Molly Meldrum (Ep. 292)
19th July 1981 - Marcia Hines (Ep. 293)
26th July 1981 - Kim Wilde (Ep. 294)
20th September 1981 - Adam Ant (Ep. 302)
29th November 1981 - Cher & Fee Waybill (Ep. 312)

Yay, I have a problem, yet another crap digital box bites the dust. I usually only use them once a year....and that's when I find out the problems. I don't really trust relying on a "cross my fingers" solution using an android box or the recording function on my 75 inch tv as I have never used it before and some items have file systems that have size limitations which means they can stop......in the middle of an episode.

I am looking for someone to supply me the Countdown episodes to be aired this February. I need them from the ABC's HD channel only and recorded in 16:9 @ 1920 x 1080. I also need them at a decent bitrate that meets or exceeds the rapidly shrinking amount of bandwidth the ABC is using. Unfortunately many compress episodes far too small and it's noticeable to the eye that they are using a bitrate that is lower than what the ABC are using. I know a few here do record in the quality I need.

Some may or may not know I remaster videos. Here are a couple of recent examples.

Sharon O'Neill - Maxine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY-VByga88Q&ab_channel=Austech

Little River Band - Help is On It's Way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrG2zQzBpco&ab_channel=Austech

Split Enz - She Got Body She Got Soul - An Example from Countdown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2ADsedKs64&ab_channel=Austech

(Just a Note : If you are SPLIT ENZ fan, I remastered their entire 2002 DVD recently and produced a far superior experience. I put it all in a playlist with other Split Enz material. My channel link is here https://www.youtube.com/c/Austech)

If you are familiar with any of the above clips, you will see that my copies are much much better than what you will have of seen elsewhere.

As I now I have a fairly capable computer I have built (Intel i9 running at 4.7ghz, 64gb ram, 8ghz graphics card, NVMe SSD drives), I will now also have the ability to actually remaster full Countdown Episodes without it taking forever. It's certainly going to be interesting, I have done some brief testing and have had a mixed bag of results but some have been very good.

Obviously things work best when you are working with material that is as good as what is being transmitted, and I need the best quality recordings possible. So if your recordings are from the HD channel, at a decent bitrate that is the same or more than what the ABC are putting out, in either .mp4 or .mkv format and you can help me out, it would be appreciated.

I am not going to attempt any full episodes until after February. I may then attempt to remaster all the episodes that come out over the next month as a start.

For those that are interested, here is a comparison showing how much sharper I can potentially make some of the video.

https://i.postimg.cc/9FPhy3Xt/Comparison.png

Thanks Kiersey,

One of my external hard drives crashed and I lost these episodes (I should have backed them up), so I really appreciate you doing this for me ..... thank you.

I'll be recording the episodes again this year and can host the raw HDTV files if anyone is interested. Everything is at the same OneDrive link I've been posting at for the last few years:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AmE5hleMzCmIqVTpHh_QjOB9Xi19?e=WGEJvW

I'm going out for the day but the episode below is uploading now:

COUNTDOWN May 26, 1985 (463: Meat Loaf) (ABC)

Look for it in the "HDTV Rips - Untouched" folder

Grant

Thanks for the reply Luuuc, it looks like Grant will be uploading them again so I will grab them there as it will be the easiest option (just grabbed the first one, in .mkv and a good file size so looks to be exactly what I want). I do appreciate the offer though.

With all the complaining that you read every day on the internet on just about everything, I just want to put out a thanks to everyone here. Going back a few years, there were people holding on to some episodes like they were solid gold and refusing to share or trade. I purchased a large group of episodes years back, and teamed up with Kiersey giving him access to what I had, and in return getting access to the trades he could make.

The last few years, I think we have seen a much more relaxed and helpful atmosphere where people have gone out of there way to help each other and with swapping and trading. Google Drive, Microsoft Onedrive, Dropbox and other cloud services have also made things a lot easier for everyone. So a big thumbs up to all those who have taken the time to help others.

Grant, your Onedrive is giving an "exceeded quota" message, presumably a few people downloaded the Meatloaf episode you put up. I managed to get it just before it came up.

I didn't know Onedrive had a hard limit, I might look it up as I have a Onedrive account myself.

Due to Grant's account being offline, I uploaded the copy I got from him to my Google Drive account. As well as Grant's .mkv version, there is also an .mp4 version with the logo removed.

No idea if Google has downloads limits, so good luck.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1NSdjDminVtGmU7sMR0WVP5HuXG9pozMe?usp=sharing

Thanks mate, I wasn't aware OneDrive had a download limit either! I found a site that said there's a 20GB daily limit so for those who missed out, give it a try tomorrow. The other two episodes from last night are also there now:

S1980E226 Countdown 1980-02-10 Hosted by Ted Mulry.mkv
S1985E463 Countdown 1985-05-26 Hosted by Meat Loaf.mkv
S1986E499 Countdown 1986-03-09 Molly Interviews Stevie Nicks.mkv

Many thanks Grant for uploading last nights eps - did record them but missed the opening of the 1986 ep

Hi grant, the meatloaf link isn't showing up , one drive just had a fit, can you clarify the situation please?

Regards👊😉

I'm doing the annual sharing of my limited collection of
Countdown
and
Rock Arena

As usual I am using FileFactory because it is free & easy for me.
Downloads are slow, but apparently less slow if you sign up for a free account.

Grants account seems fine to me ? I just got the other 2.

I'll upload them to my Google Drive account in case anyone is having an issue. The link is a few posts back - and you will probably need to give me an hour from now before they are there.
Thanks again Grant.

Edit : Mine have uploaded if anyone is still having trouble

Hi, can anybody help me and post the Countdown episode of May 6, 1979 in very good quality?
I would be very grateful.

I echo the thanks to those sharing these episodes...

I've been ripping / saving Countdowns since the mid 2000's and have quite a few now.

I'll try and find some time soon to start getting some in a file share.

Thanks to all those who share. I'm still looking for the following:

1st June 1980 - Village People (Ep. 242)
15th June 1980 - Skyhooks (Ep. 244)
24th August 1980 - Xanadu Dance (Ep. 254)
21st September 1980 - James Freud (Ep. 258)
26th October 1980 - The Romantics (Ep. 263)
16th November 1980 - Annie Lennox (Ep. 266)
30th November 1980 - Bette Midler (Ep. 268)
14th December 1980 - Neil & Tim Finn (Ep. 270)
1st March 1981 - Russell Morris (Ep. 274)
12th April 1981 - Dave Mason (Ep. 280)
19th April 1981 - Joe Dolce (Ep. 281)
12th July 1981 - Molly Meldrum (Ep. 292)
19th July 1981 - Marcia Hines (Ep. 293)
26th July 1981 - Kim Wilde (Ep. 294)
20th September 1981 - Adam Ant (Ep. 302)
29th November 1981 - Cher & Fee Waybill (Ep. 312)

I hope someone can help. Thank you in advance.

I have a lot of my RAGE Countdowns still sitting on VHS tapes. I was also taping from 1993 onwards.

Although I did make the mistake for the first year or two, of only recording stuff I liked.

I just haven't had the time to sit down and transfer them to digital format.

Brett, thank you for letting me know. Australia is a big country. Is there not even one person, a collector, who has this episode in very good quality and can share? I live in Poland. I'm a collector. I have a lot of rare videos and I can share. At the same time I'm looking for The Geordie "She's a teaser" video from GTK. I think there was a promo version there. Maybe someone will help me and post it for me? I would be very grateful

Thank you very much all who answered me. The Geordie was twice in GTK that was showed last year in Australian TV. One include video Black Cat Woman (GTK 1974) and second She's a teaser. Black cat woman I have got but this second video NOT.
If someone recorded both, please share for me. Thanks again and greetings from Poland

Hi Jan,

I've had a look and I think I've found the GTK episodes featuring Georgie that you're looking for.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AmE5hleMzCmIqVTpHh_QjOB9Xi19?e=WGEJvW

Have a look in the Requests folder.

Enjoy!

Grant

Wow, I knew that are good people in the world yet. Thank you so much. If you are looking for something, please say, maybe I have it, then I upload it.

Hi everyone. I have resurrected an old Topfield set-top box and I'm back in action grabbing Countdown episodes from rage!

Unfortunately the recorder I used last year let me down with some crazy encryption that I could not hack. Does anyone have the episodes that were aired last summer (2021)?

Also, any opinions on sharing files from OneDrive? Is it a good platform to use? I want archive the episodes I have in the cloud, OneDrive seems convenient but expensive.

Cheers!
Ross

Hi Ross,

I have last year's episodes here:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AmE5hleMzCmIqVTpHh_QjOB9Xi19?e=WGEJvW

Look in the folder "HDTVRips - Untouched".

I've used OneDrive for years and it has served me well. Thanks to a free 200GB bonus for being a Telstra customer many years ago I've never had to pay for it. :)

Grant

Hi Grant, my one drive access to the files has stopped working, are you able to send me a new link please,

Hi grant, I had access till this morning, but its expired for some reason , are you able to provide me with an upnto date link to the countdown episode.

Cheers

Thanks bruva😉👊👊💯✌

Does anybody have all the week 2 countdown episodes, as only 2 episodes have been uploaded, if anybody has an alternative link it would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers✌💯👊😉

So which episode is supposedly missing then? ❓🙀🖐🤷‍♀️💥🎵👀

It's working again now, dont know why uts stopping and starting, must be a technical issue at my end.
Episode wise, there's 9nly 3x episodes from week 1 2022, and 2 from weekb2?

There were only 2 Countdown episodes aired on Rage this week.

https://www.abc.net.au/rage/playlist/saturday-night-12-february-2022-on-abc-tv/13751054

COUNTDOWN October 16, 1983 (392: Brian Mannix from Uncanny X-Men) (ABC)
COUNTDOWN June 21, 1981 (290: Jon English) (ABC)

Thanks for the clarification, looking fwd to more episodes next week then, cheers Grant. 💯😉👊👊

Hey. For anyone interested (who may not have this).
I made a quick copy of the Countdown VHS released years ago.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/r67q4ja10x1lctn/AAD8Bw3O-Otqsnzr-9B_yd3Aa?dl=0

Cover included as a scan.
Enjoy :)

Hi if anyone can provide a decent d/l link for he Beat Box episode which aired last week I would appreciate it. I have it on a HDD recorder but converting that to a digital file is a pain in the ass....

cheers,

kiersey

Uploading Beatbox to my OneDrive now.. Should be there soon..