These days, televisions are commonly found in almost everywhere. In fact it is not altogether surprising to find multiple television sets within a home. Today of course with the kind of technology we have, there is a vast array of television types that one finds from your basic high definition television to LCD to plasma screens. However at one point early in its development, analog systems for high definition televisions were introduced which was a revolution in the history of television technology.
A High definition television (HDTV) when introduced basically provided a higher viewing resolution which means the picture was a lot clearer than the traditional television systems which were in common use at the time. These were called Standard Definition or SDTV. To give you an idea, HDTV has anywhere from 1 to 2 million pixels per frame which is roughly five times more than SDTV. Of course today’s technology is far superior providing digital broadcasts while employing video compression techniques. Prior to this however HDTV broadcasts were done using analog systems.
The terminology ‘high definition’ at the time was used to describe television sets which used higher than 30 lines of resolution. Of course at this time in the late 1930s, the previous models of comparison were the mechanical systems (less than 30 lines of resolution) which were in use prior to the analog. It was about a decade or so later that France started to transmit using an 819 lines system. This of course was monochrome only and was used only on VHF to broadcast the very first television channel in France. This technology lasted for about 35 years before it was discontinued in 1985. Similarly in the then Soviet Union, the fist HDTV was developed and it was called Transformator or Transformer. This system was capable to producing images which had over 1100 lines of resolution. Of course the technology was developed not for commercial but for military purposes to enable teleconferencing between the various military commands. The project which started out as research never really saw the light of day and eventually was scrapped with being used either in the military or in the civilian broadcasting sphere.
At the same time, Japan was announced as the world renowned leader amongst countries in the area of electronics. It was only in the year 1969 that a Japanese broadcaster NHK developed a consumer HDTV which had a ratio of 5:3 as compared to the traditional aspect ration of 4:3 which was considered to be the standard at the time. The 5:3 allowed for a slightly wider screen format than the 4:3. It was finally towards the end of 1994 that regular broadcast begun on the channel with commercials and programming.
In 1981, the Japanese MUSE system was unveiled for the first time in America. It contained the same 5:3 aspect ratio as the Japanese system. US wanted to introduce HDTV as the new technology but higher requirement of bandwidth on the system caused it to be rejected by the FCC. Today of course there are vastly improved and advanced systems than the old analog systems which were all but wiped out after the mid-90s.
