New Website about German Prewar Television Sets

[yagosaga]

Hi,

since some days, a new website is online with a survey of surviving German prewar television sets:

http://fernsehen.bplaced.net/

Happy browsing!
Eckhard

[mbates14]

yea... happy browsing alright :-/

[jeyurkon]

Or if you're like me and don't understand german very well:

http://translate.google.com/translat...hl=en&ie=UTF-8

John Y.

[tubesrule]

Wonderful site Eckhard! Good to see so many nice sets still in existence. The original mirror screw sets are always interesting to look at.

Darryl

[Phil Nelson]

What a treat! It's wonderful for folks in the US to see many sets that would never be available for viewing or purchase here. So much great technology and design. Wouldn't you like to travel back in time and watch one of those TVs in its original owner's home?

Phil Nelson

[Steve K]

Eckhard:

Thank you for this link. I feel very privileged that you took me to meet Herr Liesenfeld in Heiligenstadt last month to see some of those great sets in person!

Steve

[yagosaga]

Hi Steve,

it was a great pleasure for me to take you on a trip to other collectors and to the thousand-year-old cathedral of Henry I.

Here is another goody: today, I have got the Funkschau from 1935, a German newspaper of radio and television news. This issue features the start of the world's first scheduled electronic television broadcasting service in Germany:

http://fernsehmuseum.net/img/FS15_1935.jpg

Kind regards,
Eckhard

[Sandy G]

Wow....Just "Wow".... (grin)

[old_tv_nut]

amazing! Thank you very much

[yagosaga]

Hi,

the appraisal of the world's first scheduled electronic television broadcasting service is a bone of contention from the beginning. Germany started the scheduled electronic television broadcasting service in March, 1935. One year later, the BBC in England started with a scheduled electronic television broadcasting service on Nov. 2nd, 1936.

But the British and the German scheduled electronic television broadcasting services were quite different. The Germans used a low resolution 180 line television standard, the British had introduced a "high definition" 405 line television standard. So, from a technical viewpoint, the British television standard was definite superior in comparison with the German television standard.

The main difference concerns the television watching people. In Germany, no television sets were sold to the public in public stores. TV sets were placed in public television rooms of the Reichspost, called Fernsehstuben. Some high-grade political officers had tv sets at their home. The selling of tv sets to the public should start with the E1 in 1939, but the beginning of WW2 blasted it.

In England, tv sets were sold to the public from the beginning. Most tv sets were constructed for easy selling:

http://www.thevalvepage.com/tvyears/...vy1936text.htm

So, in summa, the British scheduled electronic television broadcasting service was in view of what we consider as television today, the world's first actual scheduled electronic television broadcasting service.

The German television standard has many deficits. The main deficit was the low definition 180 line standard. This tv standard was upgraded to 375 lines in 1936 and to 441 interlaced lines in 1937, in the year after the 405 line television service started at Alexandra Palace in London. With every upgrade, the existing television sets became obsolete.

The U.S. Americans waited until 1939, when television was already well engineered. They started with a scheduled electronic television broadcasting service with a high definition 441 line standard, which changed to 525 lines in 1941.

Kind regards,
Eckhard

[jeyurkon]

Hi Eckhard,

Detailed histories, such as you gave, are always more useful than trying to figure out who was first. Who was first depends too much on the milestones chosen.

Thank you for passing this interesting information along to us.

John Y.