Commercial Television is 70 years old today.

[wa2ise]

Back in 1941 TV was 441 lines 30 frames sec/60 fields sec/ interlaced, with AM sound. Which must have sounded awful. Then WW2 happened. Japan, which according to the history I was taught in school did not exist before Dec 1941, attacked Pearl Harbour and with Germany WW2 was on, and no consumer electronics was made for a few years. Afterwards the FCC decided to make it 525 lines, and make sound FM, to Sarnoff's great joy...

[Penthode]

Actually, the system that the FCC approved for commercial broadcast in May 1941 and officially launched on July 1 1941 is what we have today (or at least until recently). Namely 525 lines and FM sound.

The first NTSC in 1940 saw to that. 441 was moribund in 1940.

[MelodyMaster]

Originally Posted by wa2ise

Back in 1941 TV was 441 lines 30 frames sec/60 fields sec/ interlaced, with AM sound. Which must have sounded awful. Then WW2 happened. Japan, which according to the history I was taught in school did not exist before Dec 1941, attacked Pearl Harbour and with Germany WW2 was on, and no consumer electronics was made for a few years. Afterwards the FCC decided to make it 525 lines, and make sound FM, to Sarnoff's great joy...

The British 405 line standard, in use until the 80's, used AM sound which wasn't "awful." I still have quite a few audio recordings of 405 I'd made, from the late 50s to 1963, for a current reference. And of course early missing doctor Whos use off-air 405 line sound for CD compilations...

[wa2ise]

Originally Posted by MelodyMaster

The British 405 line standard, in use until the 80's, used AM sound which wasn't "awful." I still have quite a few audio recordings of 405 I'd made, from the late 50s to 1963, for a current reference.

With intercarrier buzz and other such imparements making a mess of TV sound FM, I figured that AM would be totally trashed...

[ppppenguin]

Originally Posted by wa2ise

With intercarrier buzz and other such imparements making a mess of TV sound FM, I figured that AM would be totally trashed...

Using intercarrier sound with AM would be almost impossible. When the 405 line service was started in 1936 the sound quality was higher than any other transmission or recording medium available at the time. Apart from being mono, the basic quality of sound on System A was roughly equal to FM radio. It could of course be degraded by the receiver or before it was transmitted.

[MelodyMaster]

Originally Posted by wa2ise

With intercarrier buzz and other such imparements making a mess of TV sound FM, I figured that AM would be totally trashed...

Originally Posted by ppppenguin

Using intercarrier sound with AM would be almost impossible. When the 405 line service was started in 1936 the sound quality was higher than any other transmission or recording medium available at the time. Apart from being mono, the basic quality of sound on System A was roughly equal to FM radio. It could of course be degraded by the receiver or before it was transmitted.

System A TVs never used intercarrier sound, they all had separate receiver sections for video and audio. Also remember that 405 line sets did not use fine tuning, the channels were set by crystal or sealed BFO -frequently separate crystals for video and sound. When you bought a set it only had crystals for the channels receivable in your area. I remember our 1950s Ferguson only got chan 1 (Crystal Palace) and 9 (Croydon) then a channel (and vert yagi on the chimney) was added by a technician for a second ITA channel. (Midlands?) And, something you see in Dutch TVs, the Ferguson switched to the correct antenna for each channel. Antenna switching was also something hardwired by the tech.

[JBL_1]

Here is the line up for the first week of commercial television
in New York. Some where I have the week before. It was
pretty much all test patterns.

[Penthode]

Originally Posted by JBL_1

Here is the line up for the first week of commercial television
in New York. Some where I have the week before. It was
pretty much all test patterns.

I like the disclaimer at the bottom:
"All programs subject to change without notice".