Letter: Letters: Viewers aren't dim

From JOHN ALLSOP

In Barry Fox’s article describing recent tests of PALplus (Technology,
17 October) I find two statements which appear contradictory.

We are initially told that if all transmissions were to be in PALplus,
viewers with existing equipment would see no difference. It is then stated
that 144 of our picture lines would appear as black borders. Unless I have
misread this, the inference is that, if all programmes are transmitted with
black borders, viewers will not notice that they have lost a quarter of
their pictures. Not so.

I do not believe that viewers would tolerate a return to virtual 405-line
television, even if they received a free service call to recover the whole
of the screen they had originally paid for.

Think again, Europe, before investing in yet another half-cocked system.

John Allsop Rayleigh, Essex