@DAVEMC1000 In 405 lines, you'd need to adapt the line timebase and feed a UHF signal at 405 lines into it, provided the set will be able to handle it. Any TV set post-1970s, you can forget it!
If you wanted it exactly like the old 405 line system down to the last detail, not at all, although there were designated "dual standard" sets around at the time, some of which are still working.
@kbhasikevin It was a television system using 405 lines on the screen to make up a picture (you only saw 377 lines hough - the others were for synchronising the TV's circuitry to the incoming signal.)
Nowadays, analogue and normal digital TV is 625 lines (576 visible lines) and HD is 1080 lines.
I'm surprised that 405 line broadcasting ended so late as Jan 1985. I would have thought very few viewers would have had 405 line sets by then. Did they get much warning that the 405 line signal was about to be switched off? Like today, we have had plenty of warning about the terrestial tv being switched off in August. I wonder if those 405 line viewers back then had enough warning of the changes ahead?
Great nostalgic video. I miss the little white dot in the centre of the screen when you switched off the TV. I also miss the formal 'signing off' at the end of the day's broadcasting - because there IS no end any longer.
Nice old telly. Australia did experiment with 405 lines and the Australian government even looked at 525 lines.But We went with 625 lines for the start of tv in 1956 and colour officially in 1975. PAL Colour was tested on air in 1968 on ATV in Melbourne.
No national anthem anymore from Aussie TV as its 24 hours now.
Australia has some weird channel arrangements We have a Channel 0 ,Channel 5A and Channel 9A.
@fuzzybearish I heard about those weird allocations one of which is believe it or not a target for DXers over F2 propagation during solar cycle peaks. Your channel 0 has a video frequency around 40 MHz making it an excellent one to shoot for in reference to TV DXers in North America along with possibly even Europe and Asia. I do know that the Toowoomba channel 0 transmitter has been reported over F2 most likely because of its odd video frequency compared to most TV standards.
We never had a 405 line set, but this was interesting to watch. I remember that incarnation of the globe and when they used to play the national anthem at closedown though... Anyone know what the make and model of the set is?
We never had a 405 line set, but this was interesting to watch. I remember that incarnation of the globe and when they used to play the national anthem at closedown though... Anyone know what the make and model of the set is?
@stvsafiria US TV stations I think give the UHF 'channel number', British stations were just given numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 (and later 5) regardless of the UHF channel number. BBC1 as it was the 1st one to broadcast (BBC2, ironicaly, was the 3rd service in historical terms, following ITV, but pretty much everyone set it to preset no. 2). Channel 4 was the 4th channel to be launched, and so on. (Not counting 5 really- 5th terrestrial channel historically but there were more on satellite and cable...)
One thing I miss about pre-24 hour television is that nice warm cosy goodnight message to viewers. The same used to happen on radio I understand some years ago as referred to by Kenny Everett on some tapes I have. Thank you for uploading.
A most poignant farewell to 405-line, my mum's parents had one of the first 625-line sets in Ireland, that swiftly blew up and, her mother then had 405 until the main transmitters were shut-off in 1978. That was rather upsetting seeing the technician wave goodbye to 405 and then shut it off, for good. Irish transmission of 405 was ended altogether in 1982, with County Donegal having it's transmitter shut down.
Well, my videos are mainly of trains from an era when 405 was the norm.
The UK tv services organised the switchover from 405 lines to 625 lines so well, that when the 405 line broadcasts finally closed, only about twelve people phoned in to say that they could not get any tv service. It took the UK twenty-one years to complete the switch.
Remember this actual night. Was very ill from food poisoning after a new years day house party and had to stay in bed for 2 days lol. Serious is was that long ago! :)
Now we're going into digital signal in the USA, they're cutting out the analog. Soon we'll have holographic TV's that would follow us as we walk down the street.
I've been debating on building some sort of "steampunk" style cabinet and propping a small flatscreen inside of it. Imagine watching a DVD on a screen in a semi-Victorian style cabinet.
My father used to take old wooden TV cabinets and turn them into dressers! If I had the time & money, I'd take an old TV cabinet and rig up a small flatscreen inside of it.
Without a suitable signal being put in - providing the TV will power up and is in working order (valves die after a while after all) you get nothing but snow. There are standards converters available now that will allow these sets to display TV pictures.
Well, Mr. Miles had warned to televiewers that the 405 Line TV has ended after 48 years and 2 months. It was started in November 1936 and it was ended on Jan. 3, 1985.
405-line was low-resolution, VHF signals used originally for UK broadcasts. They were effectively rendered obsolete with the advent of higher-resolution (and later colour) 625-line broadcasts in the 1960s, and were stopped in the early Eighties. 625-line is being phased out over the next four years, being replaced by digital signals (which actually use less lines, go figure!)
Before WW2 much was experimented with an mechanic/electric system with a Nipkov-disc, a mechanical image-scanner with a maximum resolution of abt 140 lines!(See: TV experiments by British J.L.Baird in 20ties & 30ties on Medium Wave)In 1932 the"iconoscope"(plumbicon) was invented by the russian Zworikin with electronical scanning of image lines. Allowing much more lines than any mechanical TV-system. That's why 405 lines was called HD-TV in comparison to mechanical TV. France had 441-lines then!
And in the UK they used 8MHz channels so the video signal had a higher bandwidth. Great for broadcast but bad for VCRs (Videos) as the difference from OTA to tape was greater than in the US. I saw it in £ondon in 1984. S-VHS was probably a blessing for the UK.
And the color coding works in a way that PAL receivers/monitors don't have a "Tint", "hue", or "SC" (color SubCarrier) adjustment, the color is always spot-on.
This is due to the namesake of PAL, Phase Alternation by Line. It alternates the chroma (color) signal's phase by 180 degrees from line to line to keep it in check, IIRC. A quite ingenious idea, NTSC's lack of such has led people to refer to it as "Never Twice the Same Color". :)
to replicate what this would look like, you can take an image, shift the hue by 180 degrees, and then superimpose a fine grid of lines over it. take the fine lines, invert them, then superimpose them over the normal image, and mix them together. half the lines will have the inverted color signal, while the other half will not. if you look at this, it will look grayscale because the color is canceled out.
No, the last broadcast was from Crystal Palace. Channel 1 transmission moved from Alexandra Palace to Crystal Palace in about 1956. That was the time time too, I believe, the video modulation changed from double side-band to vestigial sideband (as in all other modern analog systems).
I can buy a new video camera and record the last analog transmission in my grandpa's house. He has his own TV. I will spend the night and by morning on February 18th, 2009, I'll upload the video on YouTube. I promise that.
Now I have an old camera and I am thinking about putting the camera near the TV so I can record the last analog television broadcast at my grandpa's house since it is the last TV in Grandpa's house to have analog. Remember, I'll put it on YouTube 2/18/09.
Technically that will not be the last analogue transmission. In the UK it's region by region, the the last analogue transmissions will cease on the Channel islands in 2012
In the USA, all full-power stations will go digital on 19 February 2009, but LPTV (Low Power) and CA ("Class A", low power with interference protection rights) stations can retain analog broadcasting, which explains why all the digital TV sets and converters sold here all have analog pass-through tuners. We have 2,100 LPTV stations, about 600 Class A stations and 4,700 low power TV repeaters (serving rural areas) in the USA.
It would be nice if even a handful of stations around the country gave NTSC the send off the BBC gave 405. And if they do I hope to see at least a couple here on YouTube, please! :-)
In some markets, the digital change has already taken place, but at least one channel must remain broadcasting analog in that market (for emergency information) until 12 June. Still, there will be utterly clueless people who will ignore the announcements and will be calling TV stations on 13 June to complain that their TV's don't work,
I remember collecting those old TVs when I was a teenager. They had some amazing designs. However, since they took a while to "warm up" you never really knew if they would work - and they would always smell of dust and hot components - I'd connect them up to a long extension lead in the garden, just in case they decided to overheat! They could be pretty dangerous things because of the risk of implosion of the "tube" and high-voltage shock - things are a lot better now and we have some amazing TV
Imagine all the old folks who wathed those boxes in black and white and are are now getting HD TV and Blue ray? It must be very weird for them. I remember the old Ferguson and Decca TVs. Good post.
Agreed. That's why I'm glad my '82 Zenith is still in use after 26 years. It is a piece of furniture, not a "BPC" aka "Black Piece of Crap." To be fair, BPC's do have their uses like bedroom TV's, a backup set, or to save space, but for a living room or family room set, I prefer a piece of furniture
End of an era (yet so few people knew about it), I wonder the BBC will also say goodbye to Analogue (for each separate region because the different regions are switched off between 2008-2013) for the Digital Switchover and in many years time the end of 576i for HDTV.
Britain seems to be slow for the Digital Switchover, despite been one of the first countries to use Digital TV, everyone I know now has digital, I have had it for 8 years.
I love this vid... being behind the scenes of a mostly forgotten (if anyone even saw it in the 1st place) televison history moment.
I really shouldn't watch it tho... when the announcer signs off for the night, it makes me cry normally (not sure why, think I'm broke) never mind if it's the end of something... at least he didn't mention "our friends on radio4 who will be with you, throughout the night"
Yeah, I think when a TC station signs off, it is like a completion of a task. I know sometimes here in the US, if a TV station signed off, if they had a radio affiliate, they would invite them to tune into the radio side to keep up with news and the like. I know WTAE-TV did that here in Pittsburgh, when they used to sign off, they said to tune into WTAE-AM. The TV side doesn't sign off anymore and WTAE-AM is history.
I know back in the 1930's, 405 lines was considered "high definition." Even here in the U.S., we had an old 343 and later 441 line system that was considered the same and then 525 lines came along. BTW, there was a couple of 1050 line high def systems that were developed by the occupied French and the Germans in World War II as well.
Yes, and the French had a 819-line system that was in operation starting in 1956, ans was discontinued in 1986, around the same time the UK discontinued 405-line transmissions.
And the Russian military also developed and used a HDTV system for their internal use in 1956, called "Transformator". It had a resolution of 1125 lines, but it was only used by the Soviet military for briefings and other communications, and was never released to the Soviet public at the time.
Interesting. I also know the Nazis used a 1050 line system in World War II for military use and the sending of strategic maps as well. So actually, HDTV has been with us for a long time.
Well DVB-T (terrestrial Digital Broadcast) has just been launched a week ago, They have given an end-of-life the the old 625 PAL Analogue system here in NZ of a further 5 years :-(
Yes, we have the same mentality here in the States, 525 line NTSC is being phased out for ATSC HDTV. At least the government is handing out coupons to pay for the lion's share of the converter box. One last thing to add, if a program is good it doesn't matter if it is in 405 line, NTSC, DVB or ATSC, but if it is bad, the enhanced features of hi-def is like "putting lipstick on a pig." I think the new TV's lack style, that 1938 Baird is a good looking set, TV is meant to be furniture.
I've got this on VHS somewhere (recorded with the aid of crocodile clips!). As I remember the ITV signal went off that morning, during Engineering Announcements.
I think it went off at different times region b region. i remember someone telling me that the Tyne Tees 405 signal went off during that afternoon's luncthime news.
Absolutely fantastic. It's a bit strange seeing that electronic BBC1 clock on such early technology though. Hmm, Terry, Terry Martini by any chance? I've heard he has a very interesting collection....
I waited for a reminder to switch off my set but all I got was a waving hand.
OrodesIII 1 month ago
I love how 405-line transmission was given a send-off whilst analogue is just switched off without fanfare (it was in Lancashire, anyway).
DitzyNizzy2009 1 month ago
40 K people still watch in black & white in the UK.
dutchgoing 2 months ago
That arm looks... strange.
ElementalChaosLP 5 months ago
Would a 625 line television be able to receive 405 line broadcasts?
DAVEMC1000 6 months ago
@DAVEMC1000 In 405 lines, you'd need to adapt the line timebase and feed a UHF signal at 405 lines into it, provided the set will be able to handle it. Any TV set post-1970s, you can forget it!
If you wanted it exactly like the old 405 line system down to the last detail, not at all, although there were designated "dual standard" sets around at the time, some of which are still working.
AidanLunn 5 months ago
what is 405 line tv?
kbhasikevin 9 months ago
@kbhasikevin It was a television system using 405 lines on the screen to make up a picture (you only saw 377 lines hough - the others were for synchronising the TV's circuitry to the incoming signal.)
Nowadays, analogue and normal digital TV is 625 lines (576 visible lines) and HD is 1080 lines.
AidanLunn 8 months ago
God that arm at the end freaked me out hahaha!
NeonStarGazer 10 months ago
I'm surprised that 405 line broadcasting ended so late as Jan 1985. I would have thought very few viewers would have had 405 line sets by then. Did they get much warning that the 405 line signal was about to be switched off? Like today, we have had plenty of warning about the terrestial tv being switched off in August. I wonder if those 405 line viewers back then had enough warning of the changes ahead?
Feisty1967 11 months ago
I have channel 7, 9, 10, 21, 22, 30, 33, (and I think we still have 34) 90, 99 and a couple more
Macintosh3745 11 months ago
Great nostalgic video. I miss the little white dot in the centre of the screen when you switched off the TV. I also miss the formal 'signing off' at the end of the day's broadcasting - because there IS no end any longer.
storebror21 1 year ago
Nice old telly. Australia did experiment with 405 lines and the Australian government even looked at 525 lines.But We went with 625 lines for the start of tv in 1956 and colour officially in 1975. PAL Colour was tested on air in 1968 on ATV in Melbourne.
No national anthem anymore from Aussie TV as its 24 hours now.
Australia has some weird channel arrangements We have a Channel 0 ,Channel 5A and Channel 9A.
fuzzybearish 1 year ago
@fuzzybearish I heard about those weird allocations one of which is believe it or not a target for DXers over F2 propagation during solar cycle peaks. Your channel 0 has a video frequency around 40 MHz making it an excellent one to shoot for in reference to TV DXers in North America along with possibly even Europe and Asia. I do know that the Toowoomba channel 0 transmitter has been reported over F2 most likely because of its odd video frequency compared to most TV standards.
bratina501 1 year ago
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4:35 It the day's when a white dot fading smaaler and out was saide to show a good quality tube.
Now the BBC are cutting staff by 25% to save cash.
Films4You 1 year ago
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Films4You 1 year ago
The last day was in 1985? You mean I've been paying that TV tax all these years for nothing? I wondered why my TV went blank...
unclesmrgol 1 year ago
the news-reporter sounds like he just had a cold
allstarsnorks 1 year ago
@allstarsnorks what news reporter?
AidanLunn 1 year ago
@AidanLunn the weather-man
allstarsnorks 1 year ago
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I cried myself to sleep that night.
LOCOMOTIONNUMBER1 1 year ago
It's amazing that 405 line was transmitted for that long.
wisteela 1 year ago
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We never had a 405 line set, but this was interesting to watch. I remember that incarnation of the globe and when they used to play the national anthem at closedown though... Anyone know what the make and model of the set is?
benmark10 1 year ago
We never had a 405 line set, but this was interesting to watch. I remember that incarnation of the globe and when they used to play the national anthem at closedown though... Anyone know what the make and model of the set is?
benmark10 1 year ago
Huh, you're lucky to have channel 1 in Britain -- American TV has always started at channel 2.
stvsafiria 1 year ago
@stvsafiria We haven't had VHF for TV at all since 1985, so it starts at channel 21 now :P
kuroistuc 1 year ago
@stvsafiria US TV stations I think give the UHF 'channel number', British stations were just given numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 (and later 5) regardless of the UHF channel number. BBC1 as it was the 1st one to broadcast (BBC2, ironicaly, was the 3rd service in historical terms, following ITV, but pretty much everyone set it to preset no. 2). Channel 4 was the 4th channel to be launched, and so on. (Not counting 5 really- 5th terrestrial channel historically but there were more on satellite and cable...)
thelyniezian 1 year ago
A reminder that "high definition" is a relative term.
danielearwicker 1 year ago
One thing I miss about pre-24 hour television is that nice warm cosy goodnight message to viewers. The same used to happen on radio I understand some years ago as referred to by Kenny Everett on some tapes I have. Thank you for uploading.
jared1971 1 year ago
A most poignant farewell to 405-line, my mum's parents had one of the first 625-line sets in Ireland, that swiftly blew up and, her mother then had 405 until the main transmitters were shut-off in 1978. That was rather upsetting seeing the technician wave goodbye to 405 and then shut it off, for good. Irish transmission of 405 was ended altogether in 1982, with County Donegal having it's transmitter shut down.
Well, my videos are mainly of trains from an era when 405 was the norm.
MetlineA62
MetlineA62 1 year ago
analogue
andygin 1 year ago
The UK tv services organised the switchover from 405 lines to 625 lines so well, that when the 405 line broadcasts finally closed, only about twelve people phoned in to say that they could not get any tv service. It took the UK twenty-one years to complete the switch.
welcome567 1 year ago
I have the same model of TV.
thecheesefactor 1 year ago
What a way to end 405 line television. At analogue closedown we could not even say goodbye, nothing. Thank you for putting this on YouTube.
northcliffe 2 years ago
so, this was the 1938 movie receive on tv? ( 0:31 )
boyhey1 2 years ago
This is the last 405 broadcast from 1985 shown on a TV manufactured in 1938. Hope that helps.
bluecandylover 2 years ago
Remember this actual night. Was very ill from food poisoning after a new years day house party and had to stay in bed for 2 days lol. Serious is was that long ago! :)
ChrissyboyH44 2 years ago 4
Awesome video. Keep on with that good work!
mig189189189 2 years ago
I really enjoyed this. The BBC great concept...
stuartthegrant 2 years ago
now for people like me in the US, the digital transition was the equivalent of this, except not at good.
kargaroc386 2 years ago
@kargaroc386 The DTV transition didn't take 20 years, though.
mubd1234 2 years ago
Very interesting!
keithch74 2 years ago
High definition
TheNewFormula 2 years ago
Pye 26" telly, 405 lines B&W, bit of ghosting, William Hartnell as Dr Who........thems were the daze...........
spottydog4472 2 years ago
William Hartnell was THE Doctor as far as I'm concerned, today I've been watching The Dalek Invasion of Earth on my 1959 GEC telly.
TashkentFox 2 years ago
whats ghosting???
boxa888 2 years ago
First it was 405, then 625, now 720 and 1080 line TV.
BayAreaBiker2001 2 years ago
The weatherman sounded like he was doing the weather on a treadmill. He sounded totally out of breath!
GitarStu 2 years ago
(from 4:30 onwards) A very fitting end to a chapter of TV history
quizmaster85 2 years ago
What things used to mean a, going over to high def , what we caled High Defintion then, and what it means now.
elliottveares 2 years ago
Now we're going into digital signal in the USA, they're cutting out the analog. Soon we'll have holographic TV's that would follow us as we walk down the street.
tkoizumi 2 years ago 2
same thing happening in the UK
k5uk 2 years ago 3
They did the same in Germany, too :(
nrdesign1991 2 years ago
I've been debating on building some sort of "steampunk" style cabinet and propping a small flatscreen inside of it. Imagine watching a DVD on a screen in a semi-Victorian style cabinet.
MrUnidyne 3 years ago
My father used to take old wooden TV cabinets and turn them into dressers! If I had the time & money, I'd take an old TV cabinet and rig up a small flatscreen inside of it.
MrUnidyne 3 years ago 2
If you turned on a TV like that today, what would you see? Would the image seem squashed? Would it display any image at all?
Just wondering.
Commanderraf 3 years ago
Without a suitable signal being put in - providing the TV will power up and is in working order (valves die after a while after all) you get nothing but snow. There are standards converters available now that will allow these sets to display TV pictures.
mwooldri 3 years ago
thanks for sharing
regentv980 3 years ago
Time: 12:07 a.m.
Date of closedown: Jan. 3, 1985 (Early hours of Jan. 4, 1985)
Announcer: David Miles
exploder76 3 years ago 2
Well, Mr. Miles had warned to televiewers that the 405 Line TV has ended after 48 years and 2 months. It was started in November 1936 and it was ended on Jan. 3, 1985.
reldex143 3 years ago 2
There is another piece of history is in this video: The BBC don't close-down and play the national anthem any more.
gomemdesoto 3 years ago 3
Oh fiddlesticks!!! I was born in 85, but in August, so I just missed the end of 405!!! :(
twocvbloke 3 years ago
Super clip. Interesting to hear that high-definition has since been redefined as standard definition.
UKArchiveTV 3 years ago
I'm a bit young to know about this, but what is 405 line?
Ringmistress 3 years ago
405-line was low-resolution, VHF signals used originally for UK broadcasts. They were effectively rendered obsolete with the advent of higher-resolution (and later colour) 625-line broadcasts in the 1960s, and were stopped in the early Eighties. 625-line is being phased out over the next four years, being replaced by digital signals (which actually use less lines, go figure!)
keda1981 3 years ago
but in analogue system I, not all the lines are visible.
kargaroc386 3 years ago
Before WW2 much was experimented with an mechanic/electric system with a Nipkov-disc, a mechanical image-scanner with a maximum resolution of abt 140 lines!(See: TV experiments by British J.L.Baird in 20ties & 30ties on Medium Wave)In 1932 the"iconoscope"(plumbicon) was invented by the russian Zworikin with electronical scanning of image lines. Allowing much more lines than any mechanical TV-system. That's why 405 lines was called HD-TV in comparison to mechanical TV. France had 441-lines then!
LizzyDouglas 3 years ago
AFAIK 576 lines are visible, others are for sync and overscan and stuff
asiekierka 2 years ago
Sometimes a piece of history always cheers us up.
xXxmidgexXx 3 years ago
Is it true the PAL has a higher resolution than NTSC in the United States?
timbabcock 3 years ago
higher resolution (625 lines), lower refresh rate (50 fields per second), different colour coding signal.
AidanLunn 3 years ago
And in the UK they used 8MHz channels so the video signal had a higher bandwidth. Great for broadcast but bad for VCRs (Videos) as the difference from OTA to tape was greater than in the US. I saw it in £ondon in 1984. S-VHS was probably a blessing for the UK.
andrewcheadle 3 years ago
And the color coding works in a way that PAL receivers/monitors don't have a "Tint", "hue", or "SC" (color SubCarrier) adjustment, the color is always spot-on.
This is due to the namesake of PAL, Phase Alternation by Line. It alternates the chroma (color) signal's phase by 180 degrees from line to line to keep it in check, IIRC. A quite ingenious idea, NTSC's lack of such has led people to refer to it as "Never Twice the Same Color". :)
pvx 3 years ago 3
to replicate what this would look like, you can take an image, shift the hue by 180 degrees, and then superimpose a fine grid of lines over it. take the fine lines, invert them, then superimpose them over the normal image, and mix them together. half the lines will have the inverted color signal, while the other half will not. if you look at this, it will look grayscale because the color is canceled out.
kargaroc386 3 years ago
okay wow, great video thanks!
i've wanted a tv like this for collection purposes, i love history of technology!
I want to record the last analog tv broadcast...
i wish we didn't evolve so quick
I want to keep my old stuff running! :)
atari26003 3 years ago
Alexandra Palace, not Crystal Palace!
GEOFFMYERS999 3 years ago
No, the last broadcast was from Crystal Palace. Channel 1 transmission moved from Alexandra Palace to Crystal Palace in about 1956. That was the time time too, I believe, the video modulation changed from double side-band to vestigial sideband (as in all other modern analog systems).
digitalmetadata 3 years ago 4
Ok thanks for clarification.
GEOFFMYERS999 3 years ago
I can buy a new video camera and record the last analog transmission in my grandpa's house. He has his own TV. I will spend the night and by morning on February 18th, 2009, I'll upload the video on YouTube. I promise that.
Tripp1993 3 years ago
Now I have an old camera and I am thinking about putting the camera near the TV so I can record the last analog television broadcast at my grandpa's house since it is the last TV in Grandpa's house to have analog. Remember, I'll put it on YouTube 2/18/09.
Tripp1993 3 years ago
Technically that will not be the last analogue transmission. In the UK it's region by region, the the last analogue transmissions will cease on the Channel islands in 2012
AidanLunn 3 years ago
I believe the Channel Islands will switch off analogue in 2013.
Rillington2000 3 years ago
In the USA, all full-power stations will go digital on 19 February 2009, but LPTV (Low Power) and CA ("Class A", low power with interference protection rights) stations can retain analog broadcasting, which explains why all the digital TV sets and converters sold here all have analog pass-through tuners. We have 2,100 LPTV stations, about 600 Class A stations and 4,700 low power TV repeaters (serving rural areas) in the USA.
MrUnidyne 3 years ago
It would be nice if even a handful of stations around the country gave NTSC the send off the BBC gave 405. And if they do I hope to see at least a couple here on YouTube, please! :-)
andrewcheadle 3 years ago 2
actually the changeover will be happening on June 12,2009
ma55aracin9 3 years ago
In some markets, the digital change has already taken place, but at least one channel must remain broadcasting analog in that market (for emergency information) until 12 June. Still, there will be utterly clueless people who will ignore the announcements and will be calling TV stations on 13 June to complain that their TV's don't work,
MrUnidyne 3 years ago 9
I´m still watching TV with the Nipkof disk ....
CapitanoGUC 3 years ago
You're still using a Nipkow disc? Let me know if you pick up any DuMont signals! ;-)
MrUnidyne 3 years ago 8
I remember collecting those old TVs when I was a teenager. They had some amazing designs. However, since they took a while to "warm up" you never really knew if they would work - and they would always smell of dust and hot components - I'd connect them up to a long extension lead in the garden, just in case they decided to overheat! They could be pretty dangerous things because of the risk of implosion of the "tube" and high-voltage shock - things are a lot better now and we have some amazing TV
MarkHarmer 3 years ago
Imagine all the old folks who wathed those boxes in black and white and are are now getting HD TV and Blue ray? It must be very weird for them. I remember the old Ferguson and Decca TVs. Good post.
FugginBarstod 3 years ago 2
In the 1950's,We had 405 line TV in Hong Kong too.The only TV station we had was Reddifusion TV.
Later on,we changed to PAL-I TV system,and we are going to stop the analog transmission system in 2012 and change to the DMB-T/H China DTV standard.
gtaherald 3 years ago
Agreed. That's why I'm glad my '82 Zenith is still in use after 26 years. It is a piece of furniture, not a "BPC" aka "Black Piece of Crap." To be fair, BPC's do have their uses like bedroom TV's, a backup set, or to save space, but for a living room or family room set, I prefer a piece of furniture
NowhereMan1966 3 years ago 2
i'll have to set each video recorder in the house going and record the shutdown of all of the analog tv stations
laurdy 3 years ago
End of an era (yet so few people knew about it), I wonder the BBC will also say goodbye to Analogue (for each separate region because the different regions are switched off between 2008-2013) for the Digital Switchover and in many years time the end of 576i for HDTV.
Britain seems to be slow for the Digital Switchover, despite been one of the first countries to use Digital TV, everyone I know now has digital, I have had it for 8 years.
bevanl 3 years ago
I think I might just do that...
Karlfalcon 3 years ago
wow... didn't realise 405 ran till '85.
I love this vid... being behind the scenes of a mostly forgotten (if anyone even saw it in the 1st place) televison history moment.
I really shouldn't watch it tho... when the announcer signs off for the night, it makes me cry normally (not sure why, think I'm broke) never mind if it's the end of something... at least he didn't mention "our friends on radio4 who will be with you, throughout the night"
brainsaw 3 years ago
Yeah, I think when a TC station signs off, it is like a completion of a task. I know sometimes here in the US, if a TV station signed off, if they had a radio affiliate, they would invite them to tune into the radio side to keep up with news and the like. I know WTAE-TV did that here in Pittsburgh, when they used to sign off, they said to tune into WTAE-AM. The TV side doesn't sign off anymore and WTAE-AM is history.
NowhereMan1966 3 years ago
Did any of the ITV regions warn viewers about the VHF shut down back in 1985?
colt79sigma 3 years ago
"For more HIGH DEFINITION viewing" sounds so weird coming out of a tv that was turned off 20 years ago..
mubd1234 3 years ago
I know back in the 1930's, 405 lines was considered "high definition." Even here in the U.S., we had an old 343 and later 441 line system that was considered the same and then 525 lines came along. BTW, there was a couple of 1050 line high def systems that were developed by the occupied French and the Germans in World War II as well.
NowhereMan1966 3 years ago
Yes, and the French had a 819-line system that was in operation starting in 1956, ans was discontinued in 1986, around the same time the UK discontinued 405-line transmissions.
And the Russian military also developed and used a HDTV system for their internal use in 1956, called "Transformator". It had a resolution of 1125 lines, but it was only used by the Soviet military for briefings and other communications, and was never released to the Soviet public at the time.
pvx 3 years ago
Interesting. I also know the Nazis used a 1050 line system in World War II for military use and the sending of strategic maps as well. So actually, HDTV has been with us for a long time.
NowhereMan1966 3 years ago 2
That hand scared me! Like those nasty You Tube videos that scream at you unexpectedly.
tsangari 3 years ago
Nice you waved.
They did that when turning off Grünten Transmitter in Germany.
digichris01 3 years ago
Well DVB-T (terrestrial Digital Broadcast) has just been launched a week ago, They have given an end-of-life the the old 625 PAL Analogue system here in NZ of a further 5 years :-(
classicnz 3 years ago
Yes, we have the same mentality here in the States, 525 line NTSC is being phased out for ATSC HDTV. At least the government is handing out coupons to pay for the lion's share of the converter box. One last thing to add, if a program is good it doesn't matter if it is in 405 line, NTSC, DVB or ATSC, but if it is bad, the enhanced features of hi-def is like "putting lipstick on a pig." I think the new TV's lack style, that 1938 Baird is a good looking set, TV is meant to be furniture.
NowhereMan1966 4 years ago 3
DVB IS BLOODY AWFUL long live analogue
bigimprint 4 years ago
No chance,the Govt are phasing analogue 625 out!
AnthonyUK 4 years ago
in great britain they are switching to DVB (digital video brocasting)
98770 4 years ago
yeah and its crap---even with the lousy cheaply made 'programs'
bigimprint 4 years ago
He used the phrase 'High Definiton' way back then....foreshadowing of the future, maybe? :)
RonicW 4 years ago
Does every one think they will eventually phrase out the 625 line pal system in favour for the 720 or 1,080 line pal system?
jonaynge2k7 4 years ago
I've got this on VHS somewhere (recorded with the aid of crocodile clips!). As I remember the ITV signal went off that morning, during Engineering Announcements.
g7mzh 4 years ago
I think it went off at different times region b region. i remember someone telling me that the Tyne Tees 405 signal went off during that afternoon's luncthime news.
will you be uploading it?
AidanLunn 3 years ago
Probably, if I can find it!
g7mzh 3 years ago
Absolutely fantastic. It's a bit strange seeing that electronic BBC1 clock on such early technology though. Hmm, Terry, Terry Martini by any chance? I've heard he has a very interesting collection....
presheaven 4 years ago
Go Terry!
Snubbythefrog 4 years ago