Between September of 1927 and March of 1928, Baird made a series of recordings on standard 78 RPM gramophone lacquers using a machine he called a Phonovision. Playing back the platters yielded a 30-line video signal that ... well, that looked like shit:
John's Radio Web
If this starts to look even one iota more like the cursed tape from The Ring, we're leaving.
Five of these discs remain, and sure, they look like hell: Baird was unable to get anything going in terms of selling the video recorder/player, but he was quick to improve on the four-frame-per-second resolution and soon was producing video at a crisp 12.5.
Baird Television
On a machine that would've looked awesome in our 1920s living room.
The BBC actually began broadcasting 30-line television programs (programmes, sorry) using Baird's mechanical video scanning technology in 1929. Production switched from Baird's company to BBC One in 1932, and broadcasts continued using the same technology until World War II caused their suspension in 1939.
The whole concept of recording video to disc wouldn't reappear in the mainstream until 40 years later with laserdisc technology, and after a brief domination by DVD and Blu-ray, here we are about to abandon it again. Look, John, it was a nice try, but apparently we don't want our video on fucking discs.
Mike Floorwalker can be followed on Twitter, stalked on Facebook, or harassed on his blog.
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