BBC television initially used two systems on alternate weeks : the 240-line Baird intermediate film system and the 405-line Marconi-EMI system.
2.
Initially two competing technical systems, the Marconi 405-line and the Baird 210-line intermediate film system, were used in alternate weeks, but the Marconi system was vastly superior and Baird s was quickly abandoned.
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The intermediate film system, with its expensive film usage and relatively immobile cameras, did have the advantage that it left a filmed record of the programme which could be rerun at a different time, with a better image quality than the later kinescope films, which were shot from a video monitor.