Quote:
Originally Posted by Heatercathodeshort
The 819 line system in the 1950's was poor when compared with the British 405 line system. Our pictures were sharper and the French sets that I remember when on a school trip to France in 1960, appeared to have less contrast. I doubt if the scanning spot could be made small enough to exploit the system to the full with the tubes available at that time.
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I only saw 819 line TV once, in Brussels in the late 1960s, on a 14" portable. It was an episode of the Forsyte Saga dubbed into French. Picture was a bit snowy. I remember that I couldn't hear the line whistle.
Roughly speaking, you need 6MHz bandwidth on 819 to get the same horizontal resolution that is given by 3MHz on 405. By the 1960s the British 405 system had been fully exploited by the technology so it's not surprising that the pictures could look good. Shame about the mean level AGC (= Always Grey Control) and lack of black level clamping which meant that few sets showed the system at its best.
Although I don't have any solid evidence, I think that the CRT was a lesser problem for 819. Video and IF bandwidth along with signal to noise ratio must have been pretty tough to get right.