[simonh]

There are many problems with that theory, but I think one of the most compelling is regarding video technology. The direct broadcast from the moon was continuously transmitted for about an hour with no break. The technology to record a transmission like that simply didn't exist, it would have taken IIRC at leat 3 tape reels, and any transition would have been clearly visible.

Furthermore it's often suggested that the motion effect of moving in zero G was created by over-cranking the camera, but that's only possible with a film camera. Any stage involving film would have left frame marks, and effect like over-cranking on video tape wasn't possible until years later. Finally the best video technology of the time was from Japan, not the USA, so the US didn't have the technical capacity to develop specialist tech just for the landings. Even using much later tech from a decade or more later, the manipulations would be easily detectable nowadays in the recordings. Finally, they needed to use radio telescopes to receive the video transmission from the moon. They'd have needed a rig much bigger than the Apollo vehicles had to receive a video transmission from earth with enough bandwidth, to then re-transmit back.

A real-time faked video relayed from earth would have had very little manipulation or 'effects' to simulate low-G motion. That really just doesn't seem plausible, and again thousands of people would have had to have known about it and never talked.