819-line was ananalog monochromeTV system developed and used inFrance^[1][2] as television broadcast resumed afterWorld War II. Transmissions started in 1949 and were active up to 1985, although limited to France,Belgium andLuxembourg.^{[3][dubious –discuss]} It is associated withCCIR System E andF.^[3]

When Europe resumed TV transmissions after World War II (i.e. in the late 1940s and early 1950s) most countries standardized on625-line television systems. The two exceptions were the British405-line system, which had already been introduced in 1936, and the French 819-line system. During the 1940sRené Barthélemy had already reached 1,015 lines^[1] and even 1,042 lines.

On November 20, 1948,François Mitterrand, the then Secretary of State for Information, decreed a broadcast standard of 819 lines developed byHenri de France;^[1][4] broadcasting began at the end of 1949 in this higher definition format. It was used in France byTF1, and inMonaco byTele Monte Carlo.^[5][6]

Some 819-line TV sets were available, like theGrammont 504-A-31 from 1951^[7] and thePhilips 14TX100 multi-standard 625/819-line TV from 1952.^[8][9]

The system was also adopted (with limited bandwidth, affecting image resolution) in 1953 in Belgium^[1][4] byRTB and in 1955 in Luxembourg byTélé-Luxembourg.^[10]

Broadcasts were discontinued in Belgium in February 1968, and in Luxembourg in September 1971. Despite some attempts to create a colorSECAM version of the 819-line system,^[1] France gradually abandoned the system in favor of the Europe-wide standard of625-lines with the final 819-line transmissions taking place in Paris from theEiffel Tower on 19 July 1983.^[11]

Tele Monte Carlo inMonaco were the last broadcasters to transmit 819-line television, closing down their transmitter in 1985.

The 819-line video standard also saw some use in the United States, by theElectronovision motion picture process. It was developed by producer and entrepreneur H. William "Bill" Sargent, Jr. around 1964 to produce a handful of motion pictures, theatrical plays, and specials in the 1960s and early 1970s using videotape recording utilizing the higher resolution afforded by the 819-line video standard for production, later transferred to film via kinescope for theatrical release.

Electronovision used conventional B&W television cameras (RCA TK-60 cameras were used) andAmpex2" quadruplex-format VTRs for the process that were configured to operate in the 819-line standard, which was a better fit for later transfer via akinescope process to 35mm film than the usual 525-line 30 frame per second video standard in use in the US at the time, due to the higher resolution and the 25 fps frame rate of 819-line video being closer to the resolution and 24 fps frame rate of motion picture film.

This was arguably the world's firsthigh-definition television system, and, by today's standards, it could be called 736i (as it had 737 lines active, but one of the lines was composed of 2 halves)^[12] with a maximum theoretical resolution of 408×368line pairs (which in digital terms can be expressed as broadly equivalent to 816×736 pixels) with a 4:3 aspect ratio. By comparison with modern digital standards,720p is 1,280×720 pixels, of which the 4:3 portion would be 960×720 pixels, whilePAL DVDs have a resolution of 720×576 pixels.

Thetestcards used with the system had resolution gratings that went up to 900TV lines.^[13][14] However, the theoretical picture quality far exceeded the capabilities of the analogue equipment of its time, and each 819-line channel occupied a wide 14 MHz ofVHF bandwidth.

819-lines were broadcast using two CCIR systems,System E andSystem F.

System E implementation provided very good (nearHDTV) picture quality but with an uneconomical use of bandwidth; a 625/50 signal providing the same clarity as an 819-line image, but matted down 4:3 with the same number of lines, would still need nearly 6 MHz for the vision carrier alone (vs typical 5 to 6 MHz in actual use), and 5 MHz for 525/60 (vs typical 4.2 MHz), although a 405/50 transmission could get away with only 2.5 MHz (typical3 MHz, asSystem A made no allowance for theKell factor and thus had a "narrow pixel"/"tall line" appearance). Thus even an unusually crisp "standard" definition (or slightly soft 405-line) image only needed half, or even one-quarter the vision bandwidth of the 819-line system to give a "balanced" appearance, despite their lower overall resolution still seeming perfectly clear on the more affordable small-screen receivers often used in the pre-color era. With the usual additions of sound carrier and vestigial sideband the result was a combined signal that demanded approximately two to three times the bandwidth of more moderately specified standards, even when colour was added to them (as the color subcarrier resideswithin the luma signal space).

System F was an adapted 819-line system used in Belgium and Luxembourg as an answer to the bandwidth problem, using only half the original vision bandwidth and approximately half the sound carrier offset. It allowed French 819-line programming to squeeze into the 7 MHz VHF broadcast channels used in those neighboring countries,^[3] albeit with a substantial loss of horizontal resolution (408×737 effective); although this still offered approximately twice the actual clarity of 405-line System A (twice the lines, roughly the same horizontal definition), the contrast between vertical and horizontal resolution would have made it seem perceptually softer than a 625 line signal with the same bandwidth. Use of System F was discontinued in Belgium in February 1968, and in Luxembourg in September 1971.

This is a list of nations that used the 819-line system for television broadcasting:

• France (TF1)^[1][2]
• Belgium (RTB)^[3][1][4]
• Luxemburg (Télé-Luxembourg)^[3][10]
• Monaco (Tele Monte Carlo)^[5][6]
• French Algeria (prior to independence)
• Saar Protectorate (before 1957)

• CCIR System E
• CCIR System F

• Television technology

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