A BRIEF HISTORY OF TELEVISION

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF TELEVISION

• With a Parallel History
• Of
• Color in Film Television

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TWO EARLY TELEVISION SYSTEMS 1ST
MECHANICAL 2ND ELECTRICAL Both beginning in the
early 1900s
1920s Vladimir Zworykin and Philo Farnsworth
both advance the electrical model, including
crude (and not feasible on a practical level)
color systems.
BASIC TECHNOLOGY FOR THE ELECTRICAL MODEL An
electron beam continuously scans a subject
converting the light into glowing points (pixels
today) on the screen in proportion to the amount
of light originally emanating from the subject.
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1939 A KEY YEAR IN AMERICAN MASS MEDIA
HISTORY 1939 Worlds Fair 1st TV Broadcast
in the U.S. (NY) by RCA. Gone With the
Wind Wizard of Oz Early Technicolor
Films Orson Welles Production of War of
the Worlds Radio Broadcast, Halloween
Night
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Histories Basic Technologies

• Film
• 1895
• 35 mm standard size
• 24 frames/sec (16 sil.)
• 1.331. Aspect Ratio until 1950s. Now, standard
  aspect ratio is 1.851.

• Television (Video)
• 1920s
• NTSC standards
• 525 lines vert. Res.
• Interlaced scanning
• 60 Fields/sec
• 30 (29.97) frames/sec
• 1.331. Aspect Ratio
• HDTV Aspect Ratio 169
• Video Tape - 1954

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SOME KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN TV HISTORY
By the late 1940s all three major networks were
broadcasting via airwaves.
TV Sets (Black White) 6,000 in 1946 12
million by 1951. By 1955 half of all U.S. homes
had at least one set.
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Some Early Film TVComparisons
FILM TV

• Aspect Ratio 34
• Typical Screen Size45 X 60
• 90 of films are in black and white in 1946
• Film Industrys biggest box office year 1946

• Aspect Ratio 34
• Typical Screen Size13 diagonal
• 100 of programs in black and white until 1954
• Year that Broadcast TV takes off 1946

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The Beginning of the End of the Golden Era Of
Hollywood Feature Films and the Major Studios
In 1948, The Paramount Decision, breaking
up Vertical Integration in which Studios had
full ownership and control over Production
Distribution Exhibition
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FILM INDUSTRYS EARLY RESPONSE TO TV
Heighten Reality 3-D Cinema using glasses -
1951. Widen the Screen 1. Cinerama - 3
cameras/projectors, 1952 2. Cinemascope -
anamorphic process, 1953. Aspect Ratio
12.66 3. Vista Vision - Aspect Ratio,
11.85 4. Super Panavision 70 - aspect
ratio, 12.20 spherical 12.76,
anamorphic, 1960
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The Way A Cinemascope System Works
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MAJOR ADVANCE IN TELEVISION INTRODUCTION OF
VIDEO TAPE, 1956 Prior to that only Kinescope
(Film) Recordings Of Television Programs
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MAJOR ADVANCE The Home VCR (VHS
Beta) 1975 Cassette Recordings of Television
Programs Later, Studio-Released VHS copies of
their Films