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2. The digital television signal can transmit pictures composed of up to 1,080 lines. That’s a long way from the first TV, demonstrated by John Logie Baird in 1926. It used just 30 lines to create a coarse image.

3. Baird’s television looked like a peep-show device, held together with scrap wood, darning needles, string, and sealing wax. His invention was partly mechanical, relying on a spinning metal disk with a spiral of holes to chop up images for transmission.

4. Two years later, Baird demonstrated color television, but black-and-white TV ruled for decades. People who watched such television as kids are more likely to dream in black and white than those who grew up with color TV.

5. Yes, it existed before Monty Python. On August 22, 1932, the BBC began regular broad­casts using the Baird system.

6.  By 1935 there were some 2,000 Baird TVs in use. They cost £26 each—the equivalent of $7,700 today.

7.  The largest plasma TV now available, a 103-inch monster made by Panasonic, will set you back $70,000.

8. Are television execs playing with hellfire? The inventor of all-electronic TV, Philo T. Farnsworth, called television a gift from the Lord and warned that “God will hold accountable those who utilize this divine instrument.”

9. By the age of 14, the average American child has seen 11,000 murders on TV.

10. The first television advertisement, broadcast in New York on July 1, 1941, was a 20-second Bulova Watch spot that aired before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies. The cost for the air buy was $9.

11. In 2008 the average cost for a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl broadcast was $2.7 million, the most expensive airtime in the world.

12. Still trying: Last March, 80 years and a lot of cardboard glasses after the first experiments, the BBC once again tested a 3-D TV system—this time on 200 sports fans watching a special broadcast of a live rugby match.

13.  Bad show: In August 2006 NASA announced that it had lost all the original tapes of Apollo 11’s TV transmission.

14. Gift of the gab? The long­est-running talk show in the world is either Ireland’s Late Late Show, first broadcast in 1962, or The Tonight Show, which began in 1954.

15. The debate over which show came first arises because The Tonight Show’s format and style didn’t settle down until Johnny Carson’s arrival a few months after The Late Late Show began airing.

16.  When Sony started selling VCRs that could tape television shows in the 1970s, film studios sued it for promoting copyright piracy. The Supreme Court ultimately backed Sony, enshrining everyone’s right to time-shift the Survivor finale.

17.  Is TV doomed? The amount of video delivered by the Internet and viewed on computers is rapidly increasing: 7.5 billion video streams were watched in May 2008.

18.  We are amused: Fifty years after her first televised Christmas address to the people of the U.K., Queen Elizabeth II launched her own YouTube channel.

19. About 36 percent (and rising) of cell phone users can now watch video beamed directly to their phones.

20. We can guess what they’ll be watching: A survey of 20 countries revealed that CSI: Miami is the most popular show on the planet.

CASABLANCA – Love, war, intrigue… all woven into the tapestry of a movie is perhaps what makes ‘Casablanca’ stand out as one of those timeless classics. It speaks about love, marriage and infidelity. The tried and tested recipe for the perfect romance.

Casablanca (1942) is an American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid and featuring Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. Set during World War II, it focuses on a man torn between, in the words of one character, love and virtue. He must choose between his love for a woman and helping her and her Resistance leader husband escape from the Vichy-controlled Moroccan city of Casablanca to continue his fight against the Nazis.

WHEN HARRY MET SALLY – Can a man and a woman be just friends? The debate has run for ever. This movie traces the life of two friends through college to their adulthood. Have you a tale to tell too?

When Harry Met Sally… is a 1989 romantic comedy film written by Nora Ephron and directed by Rob Reiner. It stars Billy Crystal as Harry and Meg Ryan as Sally. The story follows the title characters from the time they meet on a cross-country carpool ride, through twelve years or so of chance encounters in New York City. The film raises the question “Can men and women ever just be friends?” and advances many ideas about love that have become household concepts now, such as the “high-maintenance” girlfriend and the “transitional person”

PRETTY WOMAN – He needs a woman to escort him to an event and she is ready to live the good life.

Vivian is a prostitute who meets her knight in shining armour, Edward while at work. He sweeps off her feet and the rest is history

Pretty Woman is a 1990 romantic comedy film.

The film centers on the titular character, down-on-her-luck prostitute Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) who is hired by a wealthy businessman and corporate raider, Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) to be his escort for several business functions, and their developing relationship.

BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S – For a man, a woman becomes mystery when they can’t read her. This is just what happens to a struggling writer Paul Varjak who moves in next door to a pretty and quirky neighbour Holly Golightly. She flits through parties with poise and when alone she is pretty much vulnerable. This girl is something any man will look for.

Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a 1961 American film starring Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard, and featuring Patricia Neal, Buddy Ebsen, Martin Balsam, and Mickey Rooney. It was directed by Blake Edwards and released by Paramount Pictures.

DIRTY DANCING – Baby heads off to holiday camp and finds her life changed forever. Johnny Castle sweeps her off her feet literally with sensuous dance moves. Dancing is a great way to rekindle your romance!

Dirty Dancing is a 1987 romance film. Written by Eleanor Bergstein and directed by Emile Ardolino, the film features Jennifer Grey, Patrick Swayze, Cynthia Rhodes, and Jerry Orbach. The story details the moment of time that a teenaged girl crosses over into womanhood both physically and emotionally, through a relationship with a dance instructor during a family summer vacation. Around a third of the movie involves dancing scenes choreographed by Kenny Ortega (later famous for High School Musical), and the finale has been described as “the most goosebump-inducing dance scene in movie history”.

SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE – What if you never met someone but you knew they were your soul mate? Well, this movie shows how a couple can be united by the universe because of a karmic connection.

Sleepless in Seattle is a 1993 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Nora Ephron. Based on a story by Jeff Arch, it stars Tom Hanks as Sam Baldwin and Meg Ryan as Annie Reed.

The film was inspired by An Affair to Remember and used both its theme song and clips from the film in critical scenes. The climactic meeting at the top of the Empire State Building is a reference to a reunion between Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in An Affair to Remember that fails to happen because the Kerr character is struck by a car while enroute. At one point, some of the characters discuss Affair, with Sam commenting that it sounds like a “chick movie.”

ROMAN HOLIDAY – Meet Princess Ann, stressed out from her daily work routine. She runs away on a holiday to Rome where she meets a journalist, Joe Bradley, and ends up falling in love. Why not go on this exciting trip with this couple?

Roman Holiday is a 1953 romantic comedy. The film introduced American audiences to Belgian-born actress Audrey Hepburn, who won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Gregory Peck and Eddie Albert co-starred. The movie was directed and produced by William Wyler. It was written by John Dighton and author Dalton Trumbo. As Trumbo was on the Hollywood blacklist, he was not credited; instead, Ian McLellan Hunter fronted for him. Trumbo’s name was finally digitally added to the film’s credits when it was released on DVD in 2003.

TITANIC – A woman’s heart can carry her man’s love forever. Rose meets Jack on board the ill-fated Titanic and despite their social differences, fall in love. Though their romance was short-lived their romance lives on.

Titanic is a 1997 American romantic film directed, written, co-produced and co-edited by James Cameron about the sinking of the RMS Titanic. It features Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater, and Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, two members of different social classes who fall in love aboard the ill-fated voyage of the ship. The main characters and the central love story are fictional, but some characters (such as members of the ship’s crew) are based on real historical figures. Gloria Stuart plays the elderly Rose, who narrates the film in a modern day framing device.

GHOST – How deep a man’s love for a woman can be is what this movie is all about. Sam and Molly are happy till he is murdered. He comes back as a ghost to ensure she is protected. Doesn’t this sweet tale tug at your heart?

Ghost is a 1990 romantic fantasy film starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Tony Goldwyn and Whoopi Goldberg, written by Bruce Joel Rubin and directed by Jerry Zucker. It was nominated for multiple Academy Awards, including Best Picture, winning for Best Original Screenplay, as well as Best Supporting Actress for Whoopi Goldberg.

THE READER – A passionate and secretive affair between young Michael and a much older Hanna is what this romantic flick is all about. Watch how he saves her from a life of imprisonment.

The Reader is an Academy Award-nominated and BAFTA, Golden Globe Award-winning 2008 British drama film based on the 1995 German novel of the same name by Bernhard Schlink. The film adaptation was written by David Hare and directed by Stephen Daldry. Ralph Fiennes and Kate Winslet star along with the young actor David Kross. It was the last film for producers Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack, who both died before it was released. Production began in Germany in September 2007, and the film opened in limited release on 10 December 2008.