The Rise & Fall Of 405-Line Television | An AMTV Documentary

The first of its kind in the world... This is THE RISE & FALL OF 405-LINE TELEVISION!

In this AMTV Documentary, we take a look at the early days of TV, and how 405-LINE TELEVISION became the dominant system in the UK! How it came about, how it persisted and how it clung on for years after its successor came in, before its eventual demise...

00:00 - Intro & Titles
01:03 - The Birth Of Television
03:13 - The Launch Of 625-Line TV
05:16 - Farewell To 405
07:18 - 405 Around The World
08:57 - Conclusion
10:18 - Credits

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#405 #television #history

[pchristy]

Back in 1970, as a young trainee broadcast engineer, I found myself working in the telecine department at a regional studio. We still operated dual standard standard at the time, switching between 405 and 625 line as required, though both were still monochrome. One day, we had some American engineers visiting, who were quite complementary about the resolution of our 625 images. They were very shocked to be informed that, at the time of their visit, we were actually operating 405-line...!

405-line was much better than people give it credit for, but by the time we were preparing for 625-line, other improvements had been made to the transmission system, most notably FM audio replacing AM, and negative picture modulation of the vision carrier. Both these gave a huge improvement in both interference rejection and fringe reception, and were at least as valuable as the improved resolution.

[montyzumazoom]

We didn't have electricity in our house in Southern England until 1967, when I was 7 years old.
Soon afterwards my Dad rented our first TV set. I remember the times before the TV, all of us sitting around the kitchen table, Dad reading the newspaper, Mum and Nan knitting and us kids playing cards or board games like snakes and ladders or Ludo.
On Sundays we were lucky enough to have a roast dinner and afterwards we all sat around the kitchen table talking to each other... Then the TV arrived and the conversation stopped dead. Everybody's chair was turned to face the TV.
We had 3 TV channels then, BBC 1 and ITV were broadcast on 405 lines, whereas the newer BBC2 channel was 625 lines. Our TV had a switch on the side to select 405 and 625 lines. Of course it was my job to operate this and change the channels. A little bit older now and many years have past but I can still remember that very first television.

[stevenoneill]

I remember when I were a kid growing up in the early 70's, a lot of houses had 2 lots of VHF aerials on the rooftops ; one aimed towards Pontop Pike (BBC) & Burnhope (Tyne Tees) & the other towards Holme Moss (BBC) & Emley Moor (Yorkshire).

In the mid-80's, I remember going on a day out to Lincoln & spotting 3 UHF aerials on a house rooftop. The bloke who lived there told me how, prior to 1974, he could pick up Anglia from Belmont, ATV from Waltham & Yorkshire from Emley Moor. Absolutely amazing

[jd]

I remember our TV with the two channel dials! One was for 405 and the other for 625. A blast from the past. Thanks Adam

[CBFP]

At the beginning of the 70s I worked for a TV shop as a delivery and installation driver, a lot of our customers still had only 405 line sets with 2 aerials a X, and an H, many were venturing into the new colour sets (the rich ones) where they had to have a new toastrack aerial fitted which was also required for BBC 2 which if I remember was always on 625 lines

[davidstone]

Thanks for this really interesting & excellently put together video.
As a retired electronics engineer who started off in the 405 - line only days, on domestic television, so seeing in the evolution to 625-line UHF monochrome & then colour TV gradually being taken up by the general public, it was fascinating to re-live part of it. Shortly after the introduction of colour, I moved into the broadcast engineering sector, where I remain almost until retirement. And still the technology marches on, with most people being totally unaware of the constantly evolving electronics behind it all.

[roberttucker]

I was a television engineer in 1985 when the 405 system was switched off and had managed to find an old Murphy dual standard black and white set that I got working and watched the shut down on 405. The set was on its last legs but having managed to unsolder the system switch that would give so much trouble as the set aged and were often soldered up by engineers to be permanently on 625 and replacing a couple of capacitors it actually gave a reasonable picture. I think I had to rejuvenate the crt, something that used to give a few months life to a well used t.v. I don't recall what happened to the old Murphy but I no doubt it's been consigned to landfill.

[LostsTVandRadio]

405 lines on a typical 12 inch set of the 50s looked fine, but once larger sets became available the picture was noticeably 'liney'.
The dual standard TVs of the 1960s were notoriously unreliable, but the 625 picture was a big improvement.
You can still see the occasional band I and band III VHF aerials on rooftops, unused for around 40 years.

[christopherhulse]

I had an old 405 line TV given to me as an 11 year old back in 1981 and it gave good pictures, BBC1 and ATV (Central after 1982) only but I never watched BBC2 anyway!
It lasted until 405 closed down in January 1985 and I shed a tear that day.

[darkstarnh]

Well memories! I was a sound engineer at HTV Wales (now ITV Wales) during that period. I was on the news crew covering the shutdown at the St Hilary transmitter outside Cardiff. We did an interview with the cheif transmitter engineer, got some pictures of the old equipment and then took the executive decision that we needed to see the 'big switch' thrown and the monitors go blank. Se we cued the engineer to switch it off. Several hours early. When we got back to base the switchboard had blown up with complaints! Bonus facts. The predecessor to HTV was TWW. the scene at 6:13 was from the studio that I spent my first years at; Pontcanna in Cardiff. Also the coming of stereo sound. We were the generation who trained up for its launch, we got a pay rise for the extra complexity.

[ElectromagneticVideos]

Fabulous documentary! It must have been amazing to see 405 line TV in the UK years before decent quality TV programming occurred anywhere else! regards for Canada!

[mattikaki]

Thank you very much. I was working at MTV Finland as a senior video maintenance engineer and was always wondered that your 405 line system. We admired the BBC picture quality which was the very best of all the countries.

[BlaiddLlwyd]

My grandparents kept their old monochrome 405-line TV until just before the shutdown. I remember watching it in the 80s, not bothered by the lack of colour or less definition. A lot of older houses in the place I grew up had the old aerials for a long time as well. EMI's system really lasted.

[LostsTVandRadio]

The vision modulation on a 405 line set was the opposite way round to that of a 625 set which gave quite a different 'feel' and contrast to the picture, particularly in weak signal areas.
Typically a 405 line set with no signal had a dark screen - the signal created the light parts of the picture. (The same was true for the French 819 line system.)
With a 625 line set the screen without a signal was typically white and the introduction of the signal created the dark parts of the picture.
The positive modulation on 405 also tended to create very noticeable interference problems if unsuppressed electrical devices were used nearby, or if cars without a good condenser passed nearby.

[LostsTVandRadio]

The geographical coverage of the 405 line VHF transmitters was phenomenal - many viewers could receive pictures from two or even three ITV companies. For example ATV/ABC Midlands could be seen as far south as parts of Surrey from the Membury transmitter and as far north as Liverpool from the Lichfield transmitter. UHF 625 line coverage was much patchier at the start - many people had to resort to installing masthead amplifiers to get a strong enough signal - particularly for an adequate colour picture.

[petermainwaringsx]

I remember the introduction of 625 line TV. It really seemed a quantum leap in viewing quality. Also after the introduction of colour the US programs like The Rowan & Martín Laugh In were still 525 lines with black bands top and bottom. The standards conversion equipment used by the BBC was big and expensive, Worth a video maybe? Thanks for the nostalga. Subscribed!

[The_Studioworkshop]

Amazing video! As a collector and restorer of our lovely vintage televisions, and one of 12 owners of one of the rarest pre war TVs in the UK, it’s exciting to see someone shedding some light on our entrance into “high definition” television!

[TheGramophoneGirl]

I vaguely remember watching the 405 line transmissions in the early 80s as a kid. We had a sony b&w portable tv that received both 405 & 625. When watching tv up in the bedroom I found that the 405 reception was pretty much perfect on a crappy pull out aerial compared to the 625 b&w picture. Though it noticeably had lower resolution and lines, it was overall clearer. I remember being disappointed when 405 was switched off as the portable then only received the snowy 625 uhf picture. The colour tv downstairs was fine - having a proper rooftop aerial.

[andrewbeer]

Thank you for covering 405 line television, one of my favourite topics. I'm currently restoring a 1937 HMV 900 and this is inspiring me to get on with it (it is a very big job!).
Cheers

[arthurdanielles]

The bulk of if not almost ALL tv sets manufactured and sold in the UK until the JAPANESE imports, were some of the worst electrical items that we Brits were subjected to. Unreliable, overheating and overbearing let alone as we would have said; over here... absolute and utter garbage. The first time I bought a JAPANESE tv set I realized there were those who were capable of making something that WORKED, WAS RELIABLE and worth every penny...