Abstract: High definition television (HDTV) signals are broadcast in a manner to be compatible with television receivers that operate to reproduce standard definition images, and the broadcast HDTV signals are contained within an existing frequency band in the electromagnetic spectrum allocated for transmission of the standard definition images. An image to be broadcast is scanned with a high definition camera capable of producing an image frame of N lines of resolution, wherein N is equal to about twice the line resolution of a standard definition image frame. The camera produces N/2 odd line image signals and N/2 even line image signals for each image frame. The odd line signals are modulated on a radio frequency (RF) carrier wave to produce HDTV odd line image signals occupying at most the same frequency band in the electromagnetic spectrum as occupied by standard definition images.