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We have a saying in France about the minitel. It first put us 20 years ahead of everyone, and then 20 years behind

by nowahe 6y ago

agumonkey 6y ago
Probably a common issue with tech choices.
Jugurtha 6y ago
I would love a Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber book on this. Something like "Le défi américain".
aembleton 6y ago
Bill Gates writes about this in one of his books. Not about Minitel, but other technological first movers. His example was how the US first got television but then were stuck with fewer lines per frame than we had in Europe. First mover isn't always an advantageous position to be in.
- rsynnott 6y ago
  I think the primary problem with NTSC was more colour-related than lines-related, though the argument still basically stands. Interestingly, this one went back and forth, AIUI. The initial British (monochrome) standards, which was very early, was quite flawed; later US standards improved on that, then NTSC improved on those, then PAL and SECAM improved on that (and bounced off each other a bit; the version of PAL that was eventually released used concepts from SECAM). France, being France, did its own thing on the colour transition; SECAM wasn't used anywhere else in Western Europe (SECAM was better than both PAL and NTSC for the end user, but was hard to work with and not commonly used). British and Irish TV channels, incidentally, continued to broadcast the pre-PAL standard on separate frequencies until surprisingly late. I believe the Irish broadcaster only stopped in the _90s_, when their conversion equipment became unreliable.
  - 082349872349872 6y ago
    not western europe, but SECAM had eastern adoption: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23455155 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23455155 (The "Never The Same Colour" retronym also suggests it was colour-related.)
  - hyakosm 6y ago
    Similarly, the French first program ("première chaine de l'ORTF" before 1975, TF1 after) was transmitted in 625 lines SÉCAM on UHF band and simultaneously on 819 lines black & white on VHF. Old black & white 819 lines was the more highly defined television system before HDTV.

We have a saying in France about the minitel. It first put us 20 years ahead of everyone, and then 20 years behind

by nowahe 6y ago

We have a saying in France about the minitel. It first put us 20 years ahead of everyone, and then 20 years behind

agumonkey 6y ago

Probably a common issue with tech choices.

Jugurtha 6y ago

I would love a Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber book on this. Something like "Le défi américain".

aembleton 6y ago

Bill Gates writes about this in one of his books. Not about Minitel, but other technological first movers. His example was how the US first got television but then were stuck with fewer lines per frame than we had in Europe. First mover isn't always an advantageous position to be in.

rsynnott 6y ago
I think the primary problem with NTSC was more colour-related than lines-related, though the argument still basically stands. Interestingly, this one went back and forth, AIUI. The initial British (monochrome) standards, which was very early, was quite flawed; later US standards improved on that, then NTSC improved on those, then PAL and SECAM improved on that (and bounced off each other a bit; the version of PAL that was eventually released used concepts from SECAM). France, being France, did its own thing on the colour transition; SECAM wasn't used anywhere else in Western Europe (SECAM was better than both PAL and NTSC for the end user, but was hard to work with and not commonly used). British and Irish TV channels, incidentally, continued to broadcast the pre-PAL standard on separate frequencies until surprisingly late. I believe the Irish broadcaster only stopped in the _90s_, when their conversion equipment became unreliable.
- 082349872349872 6y ago
  not western europe, but SECAM had eastern adoption: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23455155 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23455155 (The "Never The Same Colour" retronym also suggests it was colour-related.)
- hyakosm 6y ago
  Similarly, the French first program ("première chaine de l'ORTF" before 1975, TF1 after) was transmitted in 625 lines SÉCAM on UHF band and simultaneously on 819 lines black & white on VHF. Old black & white 819 lines was the more highly defined television system before HDTV.