An Interview with Dale E. Cripps, HDTV Pioneer - 1998

[Dale]

Dale Cripps:
The original goal of HDTV was to create a worldwide electronic production standard competitive to 35mm film. The goal soon became one to create a new experience for the home--the next generation of television. Test in Japan determined that a 30 degree field of view and the 5.1 audio system made for a dramatically new experience. To do that visually, and without artifacts, you would need about 2 million pixels in a wide shape (later became 16:9).

In the beginning HD was not recordable. Neither were there displays for it. Few had hopes of ever transmitting it. Through to 1984 it was driven fundamentally by this desire to have one electronic production standard that would downconvert with equal ease to the existing transmission standards. Finally NHK developed a HD satellite broadcast system in 1985, intended to be used for the launch of HDTV satellite services in Japan. That transmission system, they once thought, would be sought after around the world and their own beginnings in Japan would mean a lower cost of introduction elsewhere. Japan would dominate the information age with the ultimate information appliance.


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