[opendtv] A detail in the history of video standards
- From: "olho_avatar_i@xxxxxxxxxx" <olho_avatar_i@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 22:25:45 +0200
I've always believed that the core principle of modern color televison
was an entirely US thing, done in the course of NTSC creation, and that
europe had just added small (but important) variations to the main
theme.
This core principle is, of course, the recombination of RGB components
in such a way as to allow compatibility between B&W and colour systems.
Curious about the origin of the concept, i observed that the credit
consistently goes to a Mister Georges Valensi, across several
independant websites.
This Mr Valensi appears to be...A french engineer.
So the idea has gone through a full loop, with the recipe being :
- create a workable idea for colour television
- export it to the US for germination and maturation
- import back the result, spice it up with additional european ideas, et
voila : you get a bunch of nice , reliable video standards.
It seems at the time the US would not shy away from including foreign
proposals into its own developments.
If the ATSC state of mind had prevailed in that period, the color wheel
design would probably have been preferred over everything else. And we
in France would probably be blissed with a colour wheel version of
SECAM :-).
So i guess we all have to thank the pioneers for their open minds.
It is also said that the idea, patented in 1939, has been granted the
longest life extension of all patents (up to 1971), the justification
being that actual colour television deployment occured so long after,
that there was no opportunity to extract revenues out of it for most of
its original life span.
Perhaps this is common knowledge among the members of this list, but it
came as a surprise to me.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
You can UNSUBSCRIBE from the OpenDTV list in two ways:
- Using the UNSUBSCRIBE command in your user configuration settings at
FreeLists.org
- By sending a message to: opendtv-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word
unsubscribe in the subject line.
Other related posts:
