Forward to the Past.

[Stephen]

The nice thing about JLB's narrow band scheme was and is its compatibility with the bandwidth of standard radio channels and telephone lines. This compatibility offered the possibility of widespread adoption of the format as an adjunct of ordinary radio programming, regardless of the development of high definition television services in the "ultra short wave" region of the spectrum. I would imagine that early adopters assumed that most higher priced medium and short wave receivers, and especially consoles, would eventually have built-in televisors as an extra feature. It would have been possible too to have audio and video on a single channel, such as with video and audio modulation in quadrature.

Now see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/c ... 132171.stm . Perhaps what the public is clamouring for is a good low bandwidth audio-video system for radio, especially on the medium waves, that is usable with small screen devices, such as portable radios and mobile phone-radio units. A nice format for small screens that might not take up too much bandwidth might be 30-32 lines. A portrait-like aspect ratio, say, 3:7 or 2:3, might be suitable for mobile phone displays. Perhaps 12 to 12.5 frames per second might be adequate to impart relatively smooth motion whilst minimising bandwidth.