The film was originally a seventeen-second loop (expanded to six and a half minutes after 1970) except for half-hour intervals (and the start and end) when the camera pulls in and out for long shots shown over two hours.
The original log was filmed at New York City's Gracie Mansion, but when a spark set a priceless rug aflame, WPIX-TV was not allowed to use that particular fireplace. A lookalike fireplace was used in California, and that 1970 filming is the one that now airs every Christmas.
When WPIX brought back "The Yule Log" in 2001 after an 11 year absence from the airwaves, the producers wanted to visually clean up the image. The 35mm footage shot in California in 1970 was thought to be lost until it was found in WPIX's New Jersey storage warehouse in a film can marked "The Honeymooners - A Dog's Life."
The original seventeen-second loop footage used in the early years of "The Yule Log's" run was shot on 16mm film. The post-1970 version was shot on 35mm film.
In recent years, The Yule Log has been digitally re-mastered and fully restored. In 2001 the original film was color corrected and cleaned. In 2003, the Log was up-converted to High Definition and PIX now airs The Yule Log in HD. In 2006, to celebrate the Log's 40th anniversary, Lawrence F. "Chip" Arcuri and Joe Malzone, the creators of theyulelog.com, restored the audio of The Yule Log and in 2009, with the assistance of "Chip" Arcuri, PIX11 added a new fourth hour to the program, including 23 classic holiday songs. The fourth hour leads off with Mantovani's interpretation of Adeste Fideles, a classic that aired on the Yule Log in the late 1960s; now restored back to the program. The new hour adds 9 artists including Bert Kaempfert, Mitch Miller, Bing Crosby, Vic Damone and Johnny Mathis.