The First High-Definition TV, Circa 1958

Posted by kdawson on Monday October 5, 2009 @01:46PM from the swivels-and-tilts-and-comes-in-purple dept.

An anonymous reader sends us to Gizmag for a look at a recent auction of a large collection of antique TVs. The star of the show was the Teleavia type P111, one of the earliest examples of high-definition TV. This rare 1958 console-stand television was designed by Flaminio Bertroni, who was also responsible for the iconic Citroen DS. The TV featured dual resolution capability, with the higher setting offering better resolution than 720p — 819 lines. This early attempt at a high-def standard, originating in France in 1949, didn't catch on in the marketplace.

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Re:This didn't catch on. . by Anonymous Coward · 2009-10-05 16:52 · Score: 5, Interesting

As a frequent pirate of movies, let me just say: 8-9GB for a 1080p movie (in h.264) is not sufficient to make compression artifacts non-noticeable on any decent display. And I've yet to find a codec that is better than h.264.