In 1968, NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai) Science & Technical Research Laboratories in Japan pioneered research on HDTV systems. Early development attempted to establish the best parameters for this system, by experimentation with different aspect ratios, interlace ratios and numbers of lines. In the early 1970's, exhaustive study eventually led to the conception of a new generation of television. Its major feature would be to provide an elevated, almost 3-D sense of reality and engagement for the viewer. This would require high levels of picture and sound quality. The need for this system arose from the fact that viewers preferred cinema styled screens rather than televisions. The reason behind this preference was that the viewers thought that cinema styled screens looked more real and the audience felt more involved. During the 1970's great efforts were made to develop and manufacture the necessary equipment for the emerging system and by 1980 when a system was demonstrated, all necessary cameras, picture tubes, projection displays and even videotape recorders were available. The camera used 70mm film since this ensured a high picture quality aimed at producing images that would look real. Continuing studies included tests of prototype hardware eventually leading to the development of a provisional standard defining the general technical parameters of HDTV. These parameters were published by NHK and were based on their public demonstration systems.
The problem was that the NHK system was not compatible with existing (widely used) NTSC/PAL/SECAM systems, although it used the same 60Hz field rate as NTSC. Despite this, it did provide for a reasonably simple coding procedure. In the U.S., after thoroughly examining the details of the NHK HDTV system, SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) proposed the format for adoption as an American national standard in 1987. It was not accepted for many reasons, including its incompatibility with the widespread NTSC system. Attempts to establish an International HDTV standard also failed, due to incompatibilities with the European analog standards. The problem was of compatibility of technology. Since the world never got down to establishing a single standard for television broadcasting and every continent was running its own systems, it became impossible to adopt any new/improved technology to the world broadcasting systems.
During the 1980's work continued towards public broadcasting of NHK system and a satellite system was used for some experimental broadcasts. In 1984 the Olympic games were transmitted in Japan using the NHK system and in 1989 Japan became the first country to go on the air with regular HDTV telecasts by running an hour-long service each day.
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