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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Just for the joke, "high def" in France was imposed in 1948, with a 819 standard. This is due to the fact that the 441 lines system was an inherited from the German system, during the occupation (The occupation TV for German troops was supposed to be destroyed during the retreat, but let intact and fully functionnal). The "low def" 441 system was stopped brutally due to a fire of the transmitter in 1956, and the very small number of tv sets (less than 500) : offering a vouncher to buy an "high-def" system was cheaper for the state than rebuild the transmitter. The 819 "K" system was developed by Henri de France , was to wide on frequency to add a colour system. And funnily, this is the same engineer who created the SECAM colour system, on the CCITT standard 625 lines "BG" system.

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.

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.

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.

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!

I grew up with 405 lines tv and the black and white pictures it showed were very acceptable with a good contrast between light and dark and the definition was sharp especially when viewed on the screen sizes of the day. Also using a comparatively small number of transmitters almost all of the UK's population could receive the service.

My first TV was an old 405 line monster with a glass panel in front of the tube. And a dead spider in there. It had frame linearity problems, which seemed to be very common on this vintage of equipment. When I got a Thorn 1500 mono 625 TV, it seemed such a leap of technology. Thankfully I never had dual standard TV, they were unreliable with all those big switches in there.

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!

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.

During the 1950s, before BBC Divis (Northern Ireland) was opened in 1955 people the only signal possible in central Eire was to receive BBC TV from Northern England. A teenager (BATV fan) in 1960 I was surprised by the number of Band 1 aerials I saw on houses in Port Laoise, Abbeyleix and further south. Reception was usually not possible till after dark and the 3-element aerials were at roof level. I remember looking at several single channel 12" sets at a repair shop in Abbeyleix (1959) that had been recovered as people installed tall masts and switched to ground wave reception from Divis about +100 miles distant. I also vividly remember hearing NYC taxis breaking though on my uncle's 405 TV (41.5 mHz sound curtesy of the high MUF 1960 sun spot cycle).

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.

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.