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Ay yi yi. Where do we start on this one.

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The beginning, always at the\h
beginning. In this instance,\h\h

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that beginning is 1940. Honestly, why do\h
I do this to myself. I could just say,\h\h

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it’s 1080P because of this. But no, no, no, I\h
have to create an entire history lesson. FML.

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But before I get started, there a couple\h
of ways you can support the channel;

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The first is to grab my latest book,\h
Nostalgia Nerd's Gadgets Gizmos and\h\h

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Gimmicks. An essential guide to\h
personal take through the ages.

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The second is Patreon. There'll you find\h
various tiers, including early access,\h\h

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producer credits, and a whole lot more.

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Of course, just watching is support enough,\h
so without further ado, let's back back to it.

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In 1940, The National Television Committee\h
was established by the United States Federal\h\h

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Communication Commission, and it had one purpose.\h
To resolve the conflicts between private companies\h\h

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who were attempting to deliver television\h
across the nation. In 1939 RCA had already\h\h

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begun broadcasting their NBC TV Network across\h
New York and Los Angeles, which relied on bulky\h\h

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Television Receivers produced by General Electric\h
and designed to receive the 441 lines broadcast\h\h

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by NBC. However, Dumont, one of the pioneers\h
in extending the life of Cathode Ray Tubes had\h\h

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their own television station, W2XVT, and were\h
campaigning to increase the number of broadcast\h\h

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scanlines to between 605 and 800, greatly\h
improving the resolution of TV pictures.\h\h

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The Committee would settle for a compromise\h
suggested by the Radio Manufacturers Association\h\h

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of 525 (or 486 visible) scanlines, split into two\h
interlaced fields of 262.5 lines, 30 times per\h\h

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second. Adopted nationwide, this would remain\h
the black and white television standard until\h\h

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1953 when the NTSC color television standard was\h
introduced, reducing the scanning frequency to\h\h

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29.970 frames per second, with the remaining\h
bandwidth used to carry the color signal.

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Other parts of the world would have their\h
own shit going on. For example, in the UK\h\h

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and other parts of Europe, our PAL system was\h
devised to improve on the shortcomings of NTSC,\h\h

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with one of those being an increased vertical\h
resolution to 625 lines, with 576 visible lines,\h\h

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and like NTSC the rest reserved for retrace\h
and sync data. Although usually broadcast at\h\h

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a slightly lower frame rate of 25 per second,\h
due to differences in our electrical systems.

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These standards would persist, pushing signals\h
to our 4:3 televisions for the remainder of the\h\h

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century. However, in the 1970s a new form of\h
technology popped up, and it had the arduous\h\h

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task of interfacing with television sets that\h
were not really designed for it’s arrival.

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Ahhh yes, the home computer. Humble yet powerful.\h
Limited yet mind blowing in it’s potential.

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Machines like the Vic-20, Sinclair ZX80 and\h
even game consoles like the Atari VCS, had to\h\h

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effectively act as mini TV broadcasting stations\h
so they could display pictures on your television\h\h

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set, but they had to rely on a few tricks to\h
make this possible, and importantly, usable.

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Although standards like NTSC and PAL had a set\h
number of vertical lines, they really didn’t have\h\h

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any fixed horizontal resolution, it was only\h
limited by the signal bandwidth and ability\h\h

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of the TV receiver. The lines you see going\h
up and down here are just the aperture grill,\h\h

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or shadow mask behind the screen used to target\h
the CRT gun, and although this dot pitch has\h\h

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an effect on the perceived picture quality, it’s\h
not tied the actual signal. For practical senses,\h\h

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there were standards, which equated to\h
around 338TVL for NTSC and 403TVL for PAL,\h\h

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TVL standing for Television Lines, defined as the\h
number of vertical lines that can be discerned.\h\h

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It’s not the amount of vertical information that\h
is broadcast as it’s just a continuous stream,\h\h

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it’s more a limitation of the signal bandwidth,\h
fidelity and the TV receiver. Interestingly, the\h\h

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human eye is more sensitive to vertical resolution\h
than horiztonal, so although this is lower than\h\h

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you might expect, it was helped in part by the\h
natural anti-aliasing effect of CRT screens.

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Although analogue signals, or CRT displays for\h
that matter, didn’t have a fixed horizontal\h\h

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resolution, a computer, being digital can.\h
However, a computer, especially at the time,\h\h

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had a limited amount of RAM, and therefore\h
the number of pixels and thusly resolution\h\h

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it could display were limited. Many computers of\h
the time would therefore display in something like\h\h

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160×200 or 320×200; far lower than\h
could be discerned on your set,\h\h

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whilst also forgoing interlaced scanning to\h
save memory and processing time, which also\h\h

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meant they only had access to half the screens\h
vertical resolution, each pixel taking up two\h\h

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vertical lines. In the sense of a computer then,\h
a pixel is a logical, rather than physical unit;\h\h

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the smallest addressable block on screen, as\h
defined by the machine’s ROM and screen mode.\h\h

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You could in theory have a 1×1 resolution screen,\h
that’s just one single colour addressable block.

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As more powerful computers came along, with more\h
memory and faster processors, their abilities to\h\h

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display higher resolutions increased, and although\h
machines like the Amiga could display pretty high\h\h

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resolutions through a TV set, the number of\h
vertical lines was a hard limit, which when\h\h

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interlaced would be particularly flickery, and\h
the horizontal fidelity was keyed to bandwidth,\h\h

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the dot pitch of the shadow mask (basically a set\h
of holes that the CRT gun would fire through) and\h\h

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phosphor density; which could vary from\h
set to set. Therefore dedicated computer\h\h

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monitors would become more widely adopted.\h
Something that professional machines,\h\h

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such as IBM PC compatibles had already\h
been using since their inception.

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Unlike television signals, monitor signals were\h
progressive. Meaning each line was drawn in order,\h\h

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with no interlacing, giving a more stable image.\h
Also, unlike televisions, monitors could have\h\h

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their own refresh rates and the ability to scan\h
the image onto the screen at different rates,\h\h

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allowing for different resolutions. Compared to\h
our modern LCD monitors, CRT monitors didn’t have\h\h

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a set number of physical pixels, but they still\h
had a maximum number of pixels they could draw on\h\h

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screen, limited by the video card, their hardware\h
the screens shadow mask and phosphor density.

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Early PC graphics standards would more of less\h
mimic the resolutions of TV based systems,\h\h

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but by 1987, something more usable was\h
required, and so IBM introduced the\h\h

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VGA monitor and VGA graphics card with their\h
PS/2 line of computers, offering a resolution\h\h

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of 640×480. Within three years, this was\h
the standard display type among PC users,\h\h

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which was quickly improved upon by third party\h
manufacturers into a de-facto standard that\h\h

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became known as Super VGA. But just like the\h
TV broadcasters before, lack of compatibility\h\h

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between these graphics cards and screens meant\h
something needed to be done to ensure they could\h\h

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be universally programmed for. This time, it was\h
The Video Electronics Standards Association that\h\h

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would create a common software interface for all\h
cards which confirmed to their VBE specification.

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This and subsequent specifications would\h
standardise the following resolutions;

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800×600, 1024×768 (also known as XGA) and finally\h
1280×1024 (also known as Super XGA). A natural\h\h

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step up in resolution, that all conformed to\h
the 4:3 viewing ratio of monitors at the time.

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However, whilst computers were doing their own\h
thing, the TV boffins were not at rest, and\h\h

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anyone who has watched my video on aspect ratios\h
will know where this part of the tale begins.

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1972

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Waaaayy back in 1972, Japan proposed a new CCIR\h
Study Program to work on an analog high definition\h\h

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television system. Utilising 2D filtering,\h
dot interlacing, motion-vector compensation,\h\h

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line sequential colour encoding and time\h
compression, it managed to cram a 20MHz bandwidth\h\h

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source signal into just 8.1MHz. However, creating\h
all this took time, and signals wouldn’t begin\h\h

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broadcasting until December 1988. The initial\h
aspect ratio for this Hi-Vision system was 2:1.

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However, around the same time, Sony released this.

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This is the HDM3830 Colour\h
Monitor and it’s a beast.

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This CRT not only has a 38″ visible picture,\h
but it can take a 1080i input. Yup, you could\h\h

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plug a PS5 into this thing and play until your\h
heart’s content. It also has a 16:9 aspect ratio\h\h

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that….. ok let’s stop there a\h
second. I’ve covered aspect ratios,\h\h

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but this TV could take 1080i… in 1988…\h
that’s crazy, right? Well yes and no.

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In 1974, Work on the CCIR Study Program\h
for High Definition Television had led\h\h

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to a number of groups and other International\h
initiatives, one of which was that in March 1977\h\h

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the Society of Motion Picture and Television\h
Engineers in America had begun development\h\h

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of a digital television interface standard. By\h
1979 a standard had been drafted that allowed\h\h

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the NTSC television signal to be sampled as a\h
single composite colour signal. Over in Europe,\h\h

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The European Broadcasting Union issued a document\h
at around the same time recommending a component\h\h

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television production standard, and it was\h
quickly realised that the community would\h\h

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be best served by a single set of standards\h
that could be applied to NTSC, PAL and SECAM.

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By January 1980 a SMPTE Task Force was\h
setup to ensure compatibility across\h\h

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all systems. Any transmission, either through the\h
air, or via the suggested new connection standards\h\h

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needs a frequency, and to get that frequency\h
we need to take our analog signal and convert\h\h

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it. Remember our Television Lines number, well\h
this needed to be sampled to make it digital,\h\h

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this sampling rate is known as the number of\h
samples per active line, and how many samples\h\h

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we take depends on the signal sampling frequency.\h
For example a signal sampled at 6.75MHz would give\h\h

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360 samples per active line. A signal sampled at\h
double that rate would give double the samples\h\h

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per line. At this point of negotiations the\h
stipulations were that European community wanted\h\h

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a luminance signal sampling frequency lower than\h
14.318MHz, whilst America wanted more than 12MHz.

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To accommodate all European standards for\h
active line periods, it was further put forward\h\h

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that the number of samples per line should be\h
greater than 715.5. With 720 being 6-factorial,\h\h

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allowing for many small factors, it seemed the\h
ideal number. This is much higher than the TVL\h\h

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numbers I mentioned earlier, but remember\h
TVL doesn’t relate to much data there is,\h\h

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it’s simply what is discernible on screen,\h
and really shows how much of the image was\h\h

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lost due to analog transmission bandwidth and\h
TV receivers. That’s in part why a DVD image\h\h

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looks so much clearer than an analogue image of\h
the same source material. So, in the business of\h\h

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converting an analog signal to digital, we’re\h
pulling a defined number of horizonal samples,\h\h

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which is then normalised to our number of vertical\h
lines, so as to retain the 4:3 image format.

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It was therefore suggested that a 3 x\h
4.5MHz sampling frequency should be used,\h\h

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equating to 13.5MHz. This makes sense as\h
both NTSC and PAL line frequencies can be\h\h

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synchronised to 4.5MHz, and therefore any\h
multiple thereof. This frequency delivered\h\h

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720 samples per active line, accommodating the\h
needs of both European and American systems,\h\h

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and allowing our TV Lines to be\h
defined in acceptable digital clarity.

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By February 1981, this component recording\h
technology was effectively born, with the EBU\h\h

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demonstrating component coded systems in January\h
1981 to the International Broadcasting Authority,\h\h

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followed by the Bureau of the Technical\h
Committee in San Francisco a month later.\h\h

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These demonstrations were supported by\h
companies including ABC Television, CBS,\h\h

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RCA Laboratories and Sony Corporation. By\h
Autumn 1981, NHK in Japan, the EBU in Europe\h\h

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and SMPTE in America had agreed on the 13.5MHz\h
4:2:2 component digital recording standard.

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By 1982, this had been put forward in SMPTE\h
125 and ITU Recommendation 601, which defined\h\h

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how to encode interlaced analog video signals into\h
digital video form. It also recommended that “The\h\h

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horizontal resolution for HDTV [should] be twice\h
that of conventional television systems”. If you\h\h

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take 720 samples per active line, that gives us\h
a horizontal sample rate, or resolution of 1440.

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Fast forward a few years to 1984, and a gentleman\h
by the name of Kerns H. Powers was working on the\h\h

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problem of standardising the image formats used\h
in our homes and in our cinemas. Ultimately,\h\h

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he laid out all the main existing film and\h
broadcasting ratios out in front of him,\h\h

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overlapping their centre points, to\h
give us the aspect ratio of 16:9.

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Now expanding a 4:3 screen out to 16:9 requires\h
one third more samples than a 4:3 picture ratio.\h\h

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So if we take our 1440 and adjust the count for a\h
16:9 ratio, we get 1920 samples per active line.

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Things are starting to take shape. Literally.

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In 1987, the ITU were still not entirely\h
convinced and were faffing about with\h\h

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screen ratios. Having defined the following\h
parameters for their first HDTV recommendation;

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Active lines: 1152

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Field rate: 50Hz

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Scanning Method: Progressive

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Aspect Ratio: 19:9

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Samples per active line: 1920 for luminance.

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So, when Sony released HDM3830, they were pretty\h
much taking a punt. Based on the SMPTE’s work,\h\h

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the technology for component connections had been\h
finalised, but globally High Definition TV had not\h\h

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completely been defined. Japan was pushing\h
out it’s experimental Hi-Vision HDTV system\h\h

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which delivered 1035 lines of visible\h
screen data with 1920 samples per line,\h\h

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but there was no guarantee this would stick\h
around. The fact that this thing can take 1080i\h\h

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signals is really testament to the work that\h
the ITU and SMPTE had done on standardisation.

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It wouldn’t be until 1990 at the\h
17th CCIR Plenary Assembly that ITU\h\h

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recommendation 709 was approved which\h
defined a picture ratio of 16:9 along\h\h

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with our 1920 samples per active line.\h
However, at this stage the total number\h\h

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of agreed vertical lines still varied\h
to allow for international variations.

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Something worth considering at this\h
point is that neither NTSC nor PAL\h\h

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pixels are square. I say pixels for want\h
of a better word, but ultimately we’re\h\h

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talking about TV Lines or sample width vs.\h
the vertical line height. NTSC pixels are\h\h

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narrower than they are high, allowing for the\h
720×486 aspect ratio… whilst PAL pixels are\h\h

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wider than they are high, allowing for the\h
720×576 aspect ratio. It’s what allows both\h\h

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formats to be different ratios themselves,\h
but yet fit in the same aspect screen ratio.

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It’s here where we jump back to the\h
computing community, who had one wish.\h\h

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Well I imagine they had hundreds, but in\h
terms of pixels, they wanted one thing.

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S Q U A R E P I X E L S.

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and that’s because computers, well, they\h
already used square pixels. Your average\h\h

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PC display in the States was the same\h
as your average PC display in the UK. No\h\h

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fuss. Just perfection which allowed our fabulous\h
resolutions to exist in harmony and abundance.

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It’s also because editing NTSC and PAL video in\h
a PC without standard pixel sizes is a menace.

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So, if you take our 1920 samples per line,\h
and convert them into the world of PCs,\h\h

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you effectively get 1920 pixels. If you\h
work out how many square pixels you’d\h\h

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then need to then fill the vertical\h
space of a 16:9 screen, you get 1080.

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!BINGO!

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1920×1080….. our HD resolution is born, and\h
although it wasn’t commonplace anywhere yet.\h\h

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It made sense from a manufacturers point of view,\h
and it made sense from a standardisation point\h\h

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of view. Especially when you consider that\h
the LCD screens about to hit the market had\h\h

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a defined number of physical pixels as opposed\h
to the more versatile whims of a CRT. Meaning\h\h

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that a pixel in your computer’s memory can\h
actually equate to a physical pixel on screen.

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It wouldn’t be until the year 2000 that\h
Recommendation ITU BT.709 was approved that set\h\h

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our HD resolution and our screen ratio, allowing\h
manufacturers to produce equipment at a lower\h\h

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cost, and for broadcasters to work towards\h
common HDTV program production standards.

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Our 720P screens also followed this same rule. 720\h
horizontal pixels x 4/3 resolution improvement,\h\h

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adjusted for 16:9 equated to 1280 x 720. Offering\h
a cost effective step into the world of full HD,\h\h

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and a noticeable step up in quality\h
from standard resolution video.

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As for 1080i, well, again, it worked well as a\h
stop gap, and did the whole interlace thing that\h\h

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our standards and we had been used to, but\h
progressive scanning was always the future.

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It would take about 10 years for HD 16:9\h
displays to be adopted universally by both\h\h

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the computing world and TV world. PC owners\h
went through a variety of resolutions between\h\h

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the millennium and 2010, with 1024×768 being the\h
most common at the dawn, before an abundance of\h\h

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5:4 LCD screens made 1280×1024 more popular,\h
followed by 1440×900 on16:10 displays which\h\h

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were more prevalent until economies of scale meant\h
that standardisation between computer screens and\h\h

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TVs made much more sense. Ultimately, it also\h
allowed graphics cards and their cost to catch\h\h

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up to the point where a 1920×1080 desktop\h
and gaming resolution made much more sense.

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But it will always be strange to me that although\h
computer resolutions led the way for so long,\h\h

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it would be the weird, cumbersome\h
and disparate world of television\h\h

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broadcasting that ultimately\h
took the lead and steered us on.

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It may have taken 70 years, but\h
standardisation finally came. Just about.

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Everything else that came after, 4K, 8K, well\h
it’s all born from this original HD standard.

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Until next time, I’ve been Nostalgia Nerd.

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Toodleoo.