Television systems before 1940

A number of experimental and broadcast pre World War II television systems were tested. The first ones were mechanical based (mechanical television) and of very low resolution, sometimes with no sound. Later TV systems were electronic (electronic television).

France

France 1930 (mechanical): 30 lines, 12.5 frame/s
France 1932 (mechanical): 60 lines, 12.5 frame/s, 3:7 vertical aspect ratio, vertical scanning ~35x60 pixels per frame, sound, live images
France 1935-1936: 375 lines
France 1935-1939 (electronic): 455 lines
France 1943-1956 (electronic): 441 lines

Germany

Doberitz 1932 (mechanical): 48 lines, 25 frame/s, 4:3 horizontal aspect ratio, ~64x48 pixels per frame, sound, talking movies
Berlin R.P.Z. 1932 (mechanical): 60 lines, 25 frame/s, 4:3 horizontal aspect ratio, ~83x60 pixels per frame, test movies and live images
Germany 1932: 90 lines
Germany 1935: 180 lines
Germany 1937: 441 lines, 25 frame/s, line frequency 11025 Hz. Vision 46.0 MHz Sound 43.2 MHz.
Germany 1940: 1000 lines signal projection, no glass screen but projection screen (successful experiments in Reichspost laboratories, but no mass production, note that in Germany public telegraphy, telephone, and radio services were subject to the Reichspostministerium since the early 20th century, and TV was regarded a postal issue as well until the 1980s)

Netherlands

Netherlands 1930s: 441 lines, 25 frame/s, line frequency 11025 Hz
Late 1940s: 567 lines

Poland

Warsaw 1937 (mechanical): 120 lines, test movies and live images from a studio
Electronic TV (343 lines) was under development and was publicly demonstrated during the Radio Exhibition in Warsaw in August 1939, regular operations planned to start at the beginning of 1940, work stopped because of the outbreak of World War II.

Switzerland

Switzerland 1932 (mechanical): 30 lines, 16.6 frame/s, 4:3 horizontal aspect ratio, ~40x30 pixels per frame, test movies and live images

Italy

During the 1930s there were also experimental transmissions from the Vatican - but further details are unknown

Italy 1932 (mechanical): 60 lines, 20 frame/s, 4:3 horizontal aspect ratio, ~45x60 pixels per frame, test movies and live images
Italy 1937 (electronic): 375 lines, 25 frame/s, 4:3 horizontal aspect ratio, daily from Rome, between 6pm and 9.30pm on 6.9 meters with a power of 2 kW
Italy 1939 (electronic): 441 lines, 25 frame/s, 4:3 horizontal aspect ratio, regular service from Rome and Milan. 2 kW transmission power on VHF 45 MHz

UK

Mechanical

England 1926 (Baird mechanical): 30 lines, 5 frame/s, black-and-white experimental transmissions
England 1928 (Baird mechanical): 30 lines, 5 frame/s, first experimental color TV transmissions
London 1932 (Baird mechanical) : 30 lines, 12.5 frame/s, 3:7 vertical aspect ratio, vertical scanning, ~70x30 pixels per frame, sound, live TV from studio
England 1936 (Baird): 240 lines, 25 frame/s, line frequency 6000 Hz, used from November 1936 to February 1937

Electronic

UK (1936, EMI): 405 lines / 50 Hz. Used by the BBC Alexandra Palace television station initially from November 1936 to 1939 and then 1945 to 1985 (interruption due to 2nd World War).
- The EMI 405 lines system was the first to have an ITU System Letter Designation.
- The EMI system is officially known as System A. As the EMI system predates PAL, there is no PAL designator in the ITU television system table.

USSR

USSR 1932 (mechanical): 30 lines, 12.5 frame/s, 4:3 horizontal aspect ratio, ~40x30 pixels per frame, test movies and live images
USSR 1938 (electronic): 343 lines, 25 frame/s, 4:3 horizontal aspect ratio, later (1940) replaced to 441 lines, 25fps. (RCA made equipment used).

North America

USA 1933: 240 lines
USA 1936: 343 lines; limited public demonstrations in New York City (RCA) and Philadelphia (Philco). Field tests in Los Angeles used various line systems, but adopted RCA's 441 lines system by 1938.
USA 1938-9: First TV receivers sold on a very limited basis, mostly in New York. Manufacturers included RCA, General Electric, DuMont, and Andrea.
USA 1937-1941: 441 lines @ 30 f.p.s.(RCA) and 605 lines (Proposed by Philco).
USA 1941-2009: 525 line System-M officially mandated on July 1, 1941 when the Federal Communications Commission issued the first commercial licenses. In use until 2009, when the FCC mandated cessation of analog broadcasting and conversion to the current 1080-line ATSC digital system. This system is still in use in the USA, by a dwindling number of low-power (LPTV) stations who may operate in System-M through August, 2015. System-M is still widely used in closed circuits to send content from video game devices, cable and satellite services, VCR units and digital converter boxes to analog receivers.

External links

Broadcast video formats

Television

Analog

525 lines	System M NTSC NTSC-J PAL-M

625 lines	System B System G System H System I PAL PAL-N PALplus SECAM

Audio	BTSC (MTS) EIAJ NICAM SAP Sound-in-Syncs Zweiton (A2/IGR)

Hidden signals	Captioning CGMS-A EPG GCR PDC Teletext VBI VEIL VIT VITC WSS XDS

Historical	Pre-1940 Mechanical television 180-line System A (405-line) 441-line 819-line MAC MUSE

Digital

Interlaced	SDTV 480i 576i HDTV 1080i

Progressive	LDTV 1seg 240p 288p EDTV 480p 576p HDTV 720p 1080p UHDTV 2160p 4320p

MPEG-2 standards	ATSC DVB ISDB DTMB DVB 3D-TV

MPEG-4 AVC standards	ATSC A/72 DMB DTMB DVB SBTVD 1seg

Audio	AC-3 (5.1) DTS MPEG-1 Audio Layer II MPEG Multichannel PCM LPCM AAC HE-AAC

Hidden signals	AFD Broadcast flag Captioning CPCM EPG Teletext

Technical issues

14:9 compromise Broadcast-safe Digital cinema (DCI) Display motion blur Moving image formats MPEG transport stream Reverse Standards Conversion Standards conversion Television transmitter Video on demand Video processing Widescreen signaling Templates (Analogue TV Topics)