Why did the early developers of television decide to use interlaced scanning?

Answer 1

Because the technology back then didn't allow fast enough scanning to complete the entire picture from top to bottom in one scan and still fool our eyes to see it as a complete picture.

By using interlaced scheme, a picture is drawn twice 50% of it at a time. Because of persistance, the first picture is still on the screen when second picture is drawn. This was a compromised method but still was good enough for human eyes.

I don't know if you remember this, or even were old enough to see this, but in older days of computers, we actually had interlaced PC displays. Those were much cheaper than non-interlaced kind. Before more sophisticaed and modern components became commonly availalbe, this was a cheaper way to get a color display for your pc.

no, there aren't two separate electron guns on interlaced displays. The same gun scans once, goes back, and scans again.

Answer 2

Actually this started with the first color TVs. The original format was what we now call progressive and since it was only B/W there was plenty of bandwidth to transmit via air waves the entire picture. But then color came around and there was not enough bandwidth to shove the chroma component in the mix. So they decided that the only way was to split the picture in half, add the chroma, and change the vertical so it physically would marry the two sub pictures together. Now that we can digitize the video, compress it, and manipulate it, etc they now can send far more information in the same bandwidth so progressive scan it back to stay. Think of bandwidth the next time you watch that commercial from Ikea and the Volkswagen meets the bridge. Imagine that is the picture that you are filming, and the bridge is the airwaves or the cable coax, and the other side of the bridge is the picture screen. The old way was to have two cars share the road. That was the old analog way of doing it. Now take all of the boxes off the top of the car, put them in a long train and even put extra boxes (the Hi-def components) , run the train under the bridge, then reassemble then after wards. This will take a little longer to do, that's why digital TVs are delayed compared to analog TVs.

Answer 3

The sole reason was that interlaced scan giving effectively 50 pics ( or frames ) per sec produces a flicker free picture.
Thats a lot of typing Megan for a load of bull crap !

Answer 4

clearer picture. There are two elements that create the picture so it is more efficient (one does one half the other does the other half and then they are interlace [think that is how it works]).

Answer 5

"Actually", you are wrong. The second guy is right.