|
Haven't got the exact date to hand but prior to c1963 all conversion was optical. In other words a camera pointed at a monitor. Not very satisfactory but the best that could be done at the time. Even worse if you try to do it in colour. The only other method wasn't real time. It was to telerecord on film, then telecine on the output standard. Not really an improvement on optical conversion.
c1963 the BBC developed the world's first linestore converter. This used analogue methods to store a whole line of video. It was used primarily for 625>405 conversion. In principle this method could be used for any pair of standards that share the same field rate. This design was the basis of the analogue fieldstore converter that was first deployed in 1968.
Hence in answer to your question, the early US<>Europe satellie links used optical conversion.
|