television: Quick Facts

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The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last updated

Nov. 13, 2026

News •

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Nov. 15-21 include Christian Siriano and Allison Janney • Nov. 11, 2026, 7:02 AM ET (Hartford Courant)

Richard Lloyd, torrential guitarist of Television, dies at 75 • Nov. 8, 2026, 3:05 PM ET (The Philadelphia Inquirer)

Cheyenne Jackson brings Carnegie Hall concert to Orlando • Oct. 30, 2026, 6:29 AM ET (Orlando Sentinel)

Patrick Stewart, Shakespearean actor turned Star Trek and X-Men star, dies at 86 • Oct. 29, 2026, 4:11 PM ET (Straits Times)

Photos and Videos

Diagram of a color television picture tube using the shadow-mask technique, showing red, green, and blue electron beams from electron guns passing through an aperture grille to strike phosphor-coated glass, with labeled parts and a close-up of the grille structure.

John Logie Baird with television transmitter

Philo Farnsworth

Labeled diagram of an iconoscope television camera tube showing internal components including the electron gun, deflecting coils, anode, mosaic, signal plate, and scanning beam path.

production line for the RCA CT-100 television

Side-by-side comparison of standard-definition TV (SDTV) and high-definition TV (HDTV) aspect ratios using an image of an airplane. The SDTV screen is 4 units wide by 3 units tall, while the HDTV screen is 16 units wide by 9 units tall. Both screens show dashed rectangles indicating the safe action area (90 percent) and safe title area (80 percent) within the frame.

Diagram showing interlaced scanning in television: the top left image displays A lines from the first field, the top right shows B lines from the second field filling in the gaps, and the bottom image combines both fields to form a complete picture of an airplane.

Diagram illustrating sequential parallel-line scanning with two graphs: one showing a zigzag horizontal deflection wave form and another showing a sawtooth vertical deflection wave form, both corresponding to the scanning pattern on a rectangular screen.

A line graph displays the waveform of a monochrome television picture signal, showing signal amplitude over 63.5 microseconds. Peaks represent synchronization pulses, with labeled black level, white level, blanking, and timing intervals.

Side-by-side screens: left, vintage TV with black-and-white party scene labeled then; right, still from the Apple TV+ series Severance labeled now.

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Topics

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