<P> Initially the existing 5: 3 aspect ratio had been the main candidate but, due to the influence of widescreen cinema, the aspect ratio 16: 9 (1.78) eventually emerged as being a reasonable compromise between 5: 3 (1.67) and the common 1.85 widescreen cinema format . An aspect ratio of 16: 9 was duly agreed upon at the first meeting of the IWP11 / 6 working party at the BBC's Research and Development establishment in Kingswood Warren . The resulting ITU - R Recommendation ITU - R BT. 709 - 2 ("Rec. 709") includes the 16: 9 aspect ratio, a specified colorimetry, and the scan modes 1080i (1,080 actively interlaced lines of resolution) and 1080p (1,080 progressively scanned lines). The British Freeview HD trials used MBAFF, which contains both progressive and interlaced content in the same encoding . </P> <P> It also includes the alternative 1440 × 1152 HDMAC scan format . (According to some reports, a mooted 750 - line (720p) format (720 progressively scanned lines) was viewed by some at the ITU as an enhanced television format rather than a true HDTV format, and so was not included, although 1920 × 1080i and 1280 × 720p systems for a range of frame and field rates were defined by several US SMPTE standards .) </P> <P> HDTV technology was introduced in the United States in the late 1980s and made official in 1993 by the Digital HDTV Grand Alliance, a group of television, electronic equipment, communications companies consisting of AT&T Bell Labs, General Instrument, Philips, Sarnoff, Thomson, Zenith and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . Field testing of HDTV at 199 sites in the United States was completed August 14, 1994 . The first public HDTV broadcast in the United States occurred on July 23, 1996 when the Raleigh, North Carolina television station WRAL - HD began broadcasting from the existing tower of WRAL - TV southeast of Raleigh, winning a race to be first with the HD Model Station in Washington, D.C., which began broadcasting July 31, 1996 with the callsign WHD - TV, based out of the facilities of NBC owned and operated station WRC - TV . The American Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) HDTV system had its public launch on October 29, 1998, during the live coverage of astronaut John Glenn's return mission to space on board the Space Shuttle Discovery . The signal was transmitted coast - to - coast, and was seen by the public in science centers, and other public theaters specially equipped to receive and display the broadcast . The first HDTV logo was created by Washington, DC - based advertising firm Don Schaaf & Friends, Inc . </P> <P> The first HDTV transmissions in Europe, albeit not direct - to - home, began in 1990, when the Italian broadcaster RAI used the HD - MAC and MUSE HDTV technologies to broadcast the 1990 FIFA World Cup . The matches were shown in 8 cinemas in Italy, where the tournament was played, and 2 in Spain . The connection with Spain was made via the Olympus satellite link from Rome to Barcelona and then with a fiber optic connection from Barcelona to Madrid . After some HDTV transmissions in Europe the standard was abandoned in the mid-1990s . </P>

When was the first high definition tv made