Author Topic: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )  (Read 8854 times)

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Offline SaabFANTopic starter

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I can't help but notice that Philips Scopes seem to be the go to-items when it comes to fill laboratories in movies and TV-Shows.

Yesterday I was watching a video with the most memorable Q-Moments from James Bond and noticed a PM3350 (or smiliar) Combiscope in one scene.
Got me thinking that they pop up fairly often or at least stick out more than others.

From memory I've got these so far:
- Analog Scope made by Philips in Stargate Atlantis Episode (the one with the asteroid-base from the second season, I believe).
- PM335x Combiscope in:
 
  • James Bond Movie from the 80s
  • Netflix-Movie Spectral
  • At least one more movie that I just can't place right now

What Scopes or other T&M-Equipment have you noticed in movies or TV-Shows? Or games - In GTA 5 there's at least one Scope that looks kinda like a low end TDS-Scope from around the mid 2000s :)

Offline Jwalling

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #1 on: March 13, 2018, 07:52:48 pm »
A Stanford Research SR510 lock in amplifier on the Big Bang Theory.
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Offline SaabFANTopic starter

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #2 on: March 13, 2018, 07:53:25 pm »
Looked at Spectral again - Kinda goofy lab with random equipment and non-connected Scopes that double as control-monitors for crazy lasers, 40€ Bench Power Supplies from ebay in Super High Tech Death-Ray developing lab, Closeup-Shots of Combiscope from the 80s in lab in the near future.

Funniest part is when the protagonist turns the timebase-knob and thereby turns the laz0r on that melts a block of ice  ;D

Offline abraxa

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #3 on: March 13, 2018, 07:56:32 pm »
Not T&M gear but still made me cringe: https://youtu.be/XGdbaEDVWp0?t=52s - those tape decks don't... uh... have a vacuum column and I love the random A/V gear they put into the "computer room" as props...
 

Offline borjam

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #4 on: March 13, 2018, 07:58:34 pm »
I was surprised by a spectrum analyzer inside a van in “The Wire”

And in a hideous Spanish TV series called “El Barco” the radio transceiver was actually a digital multimeter. With the visible legend even!
 

Offline lukier

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #5 on: March 13, 2018, 08:52:50 pm »
Tektronix TLA704 :D

 

Offline basinstreetdesign

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #6 on: March 13, 2018, 09:16:08 pm »
Not T&M gear but still made me cringe: https://youtu.be/XGdbaEDVWp0?t=52s - those tape decks don't... uh... have a vacuum column and I love the random A/V gear they put into the "computer room" as props...

I noticed at 1.04 my Rockwell calculator that I had in 1975+  :D
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Online Brumby

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #7 on: March 13, 2018, 10:08:58 pm »
I never saw the end production - but I was working in a Tandy store here in Sydney many years ago when someone came in and asked the boss for some products with lots of buttons which they could use to dress up the interior of a spacecraft.  IIRC they walked out with a bagful of timers like this one:

 

Offline Cyberdragon

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #8 on: March 13, 2018, 10:22:12 pm »
The rebel lab/computer room from The Hunger Games (part 3).

Some tube gear like Tektronix stuff, what appears to be some old reference standards/calibrators, and other antique goodies.
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Offline calexanian

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #9 on: March 13, 2018, 10:32:18 pm »
Much of the prop movie stuff comes from Apex Electronics or similar place. I am waiting for something from the many upon many piles of stuff I have dumped or traded there to make it into a movie. Being most of it was obsolete or otherwise unsaleable parts from our inventory, and most of it custom to us, most of it would be easy to recognize. I got a picture from my friend who works there of a bunch of stuff a prop house was buying and some of our stuff was in it. No clue if it was ever used in a movie though.
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Offline Cubdriver

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #10 on: March 14, 2018, 01:37:40 am »
I watched some of the original Battlestar Galactica series a while back on Netflix, and noticed that they had a lot of Tektronix TM-500 gear in the sets.

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #11 on: March 14, 2018, 06:42:49 am »
Air Crash Disasters....or one something similar.

Always an old'ish Tek CRO in the background with NO signal, just doing it's thing....just flatline sweeping on probably 100ms/div.   :bullshit:

Like it adds credibility to the scene.  :horse:
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Online tautech

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #12 on: March 14, 2018, 06:57:42 am »
Took me a while to find it.....I supplied a good # of props in this NZ TV advertisement:

https://youtu.be/loon0nHy-MM

It was shot just down the road from where member Dubbie works.
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« Last Edit: March 14, 2018, 09:15:45 am by tautech »
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Offline R_Gtx

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #13 on: March 14, 2018, 05:28:36 pm »
One for vintage oscilloscope aficionados, the British made Roband RO50, makes a number of appearances in "The Prisoner" (1967).

 
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Offline LaserSteve

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #14 on: March 14, 2018, 07:13:41 pm »
Galactica used a lot of 500 series, many Tek  XY  vectorscopes and a bunch of Tek 4051  or similar vector graphics programmable terminals.

Steve
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Offline Bassman59

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #15 on: March 14, 2018, 07:14:38 pm »
For some reason, every laboratory scene, no matter what type of lab, has an oscilloscope displaying Lissajous figures on it. Sometimes there are cables connected to the 'scope's inputs ...
 

Offline PA0PBZ

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #16 on: March 14, 2018, 07:44:23 pm »
Air Crash Disasters....or one something similar.

Air Crash Investigation? The same guys that always wave around a reel of tape when investigating the black box  :palm:
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Offline Cyberdragon

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #17 on: March 14, 2018, 11:10:40 pm »
Whenever there's some sort of wormhole involved in a sci-fi, there's often what looks like a Smith chart on a screen somewhere. ::)
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Offline vk6zgo

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #18 on: March 15, 2018, 08:22:17 am »
I remember years ago, when some character in "Days of our lives" was in dire health straits.
The "heart monitor" was an old  Tektronix 545B apparently stolen from the Network techs.

On another occasion, on "Doctor Who" the Doctor was fiddling with this very "high tech" looking cylindrical device with controls sticking out of every part of it.
Many years later, I saw the very same type of device sitting on a shelf in TVW's Camera maintenance area.
Apparently Philips supplied this device which was never used.

The "Beeb" obviously found a better use for it.

Not quite the same thing, but related:-
In the old "Battlestar Galactica", one episode had two of the main characters apparently on "present day" Earth.

They were equipped with motorcycles which were "supposed to blend in", with the " in joke" being that they looked too spectacular & futuristic to do so.

In fact, they looked positively "dowdy" compared to the then current Suzuki Katana.
 

Offline Harb

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #19 on: March 15, 2018, 08:35:34 am »
All the TV News crew gear that was in the Movie "The Nugget" was mine.....it was the scene where all the news crews went to his house after finding the big nugget.......it was all old stuff out of my retired gear warehouse.....even got in the credits lol...
I also have a bit of the gear used in the (Actual) Apollo 11 mission......Monitors and tech gear etc etc.
« Last Edit: March 15, 2018, 08:38:09 am by Harb »
 

Offline SaabFANTopic starter

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #20 on: March 15, 2018, 09:39:55 pm »
All the TV News crew gear that was in the Movie "The Nugget" was mine.....it was the scene where all the news crews went to his house after finding the big nugget.......it was all old stuff out of my retired gear warehouse.....even got in the credits lol...
I also have a bit of the gear used in the (Actual) Apollo 11 mission......Monitors and tech gear etc etc.

Nice!

From what has been presented so far, I very much doubt there are more than two or three movies out there that use lab equipment properly :D

Offline TerraHertz

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #21 on: March 16, 2018, 06:04:52 pm »

kpop. 4Minute - 'WHY'

'Why' is there a scope (powered off, but they adjust it) and what looks like some old chip programmer?

What movies DO use test gear correctly? The Dish maybe?
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Offline rdl

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #22 on: March 16, 2018, 08:40:00 pm »
...

What movies DO use test gear correctly? The Dish maybe?

Screenshot from Apollo 13:



« Last Edit: March 16, 2018, 08:41:45 pm by rdl »
 

Offline Harb

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #23 on: March 17, 2018, 09:17:03 am »


'Why' is there a scope (powered off, but they adjust it) and what looks like some old chip programmer?

What movies DO use test gear correctly? The Dish maybe?

The "dish" had a lot of gear brought in for the shoot....older stuff, but some of the stuff in there is still used today.........for the record I have played Cricket on the dish.......back before the upgrade to small mesh on the reflective surface.......they got a bit fussy when the new aerial cabin went up and the better mesh......dents in the mesh dont go real well with the higher freq's..........I also thought I was going to be there forever, as I got stuck in one of the manhole ports in the centre of the dish.......I eventually wiggled myself in as got out lol........the good old days of dish rides, you could even ride the sketchy elevator up one of the legs.......I imagine OHS would have a fit now........there were some awesome people out there.....very very smart.
« Last Edit: March 17, 2018, 09:52:18 pm by Harb »
 

Offline Gyro

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #24 on: March 17, 2018, 01:04:30 pm »
I watched 'Ghosts of Mars' the other night. Slap center of the 'dashboard' of their high tech bullet train was a huge unidentifiable old tube based scope, round domed white screen and all!  :palm:
Iiic, it was displaying a bright sinewave.  Maybe they needed it to be EMP proof.  :D
« Last Edit: March 17, 2018, 01:16:48 pm by Gyro »
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Offline TerraHertz

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #25 on: March 18, 2018, 09:32:02 am »
The "dish" had a lot of gear brought in for the shoot....older stuff, but some of the stuff in there is still used today.........for the record I have played Cricket on the dish.......back before the upgrade to small mesh on the reflective surface.......they got a bit fussy when the new aerial cabin went up and the better mesh......dents in the mesh dont go real well with the higher freq's.

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Offline Harb

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #26 on: March 19, 2018, 03:17:47 am »
I left the Area a few years back now........In Sydney these days.
 

Offline SaabFANTopic starter

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #27 on: March 22, 2018, 09:58:59 pm »
Not so much test-equipment, but I guess Philips did some "sponsoring" for Q-Division :)




And then there's this one:



Seems like a rare occasion where a scope is used correctly: It looks like it displays a FBAS-Signal, although it appears that the waveforms have been printed on foil and put on screen, as there's very little light coming from the screen :)

Offline Scratch.HTF

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #28 on: June 25, 2018, 09:01:49 am »
I've seen Tektronix equipment in Face/Off (also in the credits) and early in "The Core", but I am really wanting to know what movie where a LeCroy oscilloscope was depicted.
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Offline 1xrtt

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #29 on: June 26, 2018, 09:20:27 pm »
Doctor Who Episode "Hide" have the highest number of scopes in a stage, that I remember seeing.
I could only find a clip on youtube (see at 0:13)


 

Offline james_s

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #30 on: June 26, 2018, 09:50:59 pm »
I saw Westworld (the 1973 movie) the other day and noticed an old Tek scope on a cart in the lab. I didn't bother to figure out which model but it was one of the old vacuum tube mainframes.
 

Offline NiHaoMike

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #31 on: June 27, 2018, 02:00:17 am »
At 6:57, there's what appears to be a frequency counter with a glowing cable connected to it. And it always seems to be displaying all zeros.
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Offline steve30

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #32 on: January 22, 2019, 09:17:55 am »
Not quite electronics, but this music video features Windows Task Manager and Netscape Navigator running some VR stuff.

 

Offline basinstreetdesign

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #33 on: February 23, 2019, 10:01:38 pm »
We have been watching this one on TV for months.  I can't figure out how a high class HP spectrum analyzer is useful for diagnosing pain... :popcorn:  At least he actually adjusts it to shift the spectrum.
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Offline edpalmer42

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #34 on: February 23, 2019, 10:28:21 pm »
Not T&M gear, but in the original Robocop movie, the police force's main computer is actually a Northern Telecom DMS digital voice switch.  I watched the credits at the end and there was a credit to Bell Northern Research - I forget if it was their office in North Carolina or Texas.

 

Offline Richard Crowley

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #35 on: February 23, 2019, 10:53:54 pm »
Not T&M gear but still made me cringe: https://youtu.be/XGdbaEDVWp0?t=52s - those tape decks don't... uh... have a vacuum column and I love the random A/V gear they put into the "computer room" as props...
Yeah, it is hilarious that they put ordinary 1/4 inch reel-to-reel tape recorders inside a computer-looking cabinet. And then piled a couple of 3/4 inch video cassette machines on top.  But then they did make the cabinets sort-of "look like" proper 1/2 inch mag tape drives with the vacuum column in the center on the lower panel.  But those were only visible for a few seconds so perhaps we should be surprised that they went to THAT much effort.  That blue, wide-carriage IBM Selectric typewriter on the computer mainframe-style cabinet was quite in line with early 1970s mainframe computing.



In Hollywood there are many electronics, instrument, surplus companies that do a brisk side-business supplying "tech-looking" stuff to set designers and prop makers.  BigClive has done an episode or two on prop-making and set decorating.  And that was Adam Savage's job before becoming a debunking celebrity etc.

There are even specialized products made specifically for set decorating like...

http://www.apexjr.com/Props.htm









« Last Edit: February 23, 2019, 11:10:12 pm by Richard Crowley »
 

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Re: Movie Scopes (and other T&M-Props a little bit "out of place" :) )
« Reply #36 on: December 03, 2023, 10:18:04 am »
A few months back we were privileged to be asked to supply instruments for props for a very local film set for an advertisement launching the new product Flow from Autodesk.
https://www.autodesk.com/company/autodesk-platform/me

Auckland company Fathom worked with Autodesk to concept, write, produce and deliver this short film teaser where we got privileged access behind the scenes and the chance to work with EEVblog member and friend Dubbie and his crew.
https://fathomvfx.com/about

(1m40s)

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