19-04-2020, 05:19 PM
Pedant Alert ! In the UK (if we ignore the later Baird mechanical system of 240 lines trialled in the late 1930's), TV started on 405 lines. The unusual number was to allow synchronism of line and frame rates by using a cascade of electronic dividers each dividing by 3 or 5. Cutting edge stuff back then.
I still have a 9" screen B&W TV made by PYE in 1949 which can be made to display a good picture by means of a 625 to 405 line standards converter. When the BBC had standards converters in the overlap years of the late 1960's they filled two six-foot equipment racks. Today they are smaller than a paperback book !
That mirror lid TV would have been eye-wateringly expensive in its day. A very few survive which are nowadays worth thousands of pounds.
I still have a 9" screen B&W TV made by PYE in 1949 which can be made to display a good picture by means of a 625 to 405 line standards converter. When the BBC had standards converters in the overlap years of the late 1960's they filled two six-foot equipment racks. Today they are smaller than a paperback book !
That mirror lid TV would have been eye-wateringly expensive in its day. A very few survive which are nowadays worth thousands of pounds.