Televisions

[Pontius Navigator]

Fox, in my case, also Samsung, it had been in our lounge for 4 years but running through a Huawei box. We moved it into the conservatory and found we could only access programmes over the LAN. The RF unit had failed some time previously. After an attempted repair they gave us a Panasonic.

Nottingham is in a different country (sic). I did a day's work there in the summer and would not want to repeat that trip.

[Pontius Navigator]

Ric, and there lies the truth.

Come the winter we watch a couple of afternoon quiz shows marvelling at the find of trivia the contestants know, who won what when, but not the foggiest of which country is in which continent even. "I'm no good at geography". And these people are allowed to vote ?

[PHXPhlyer]

I agree with Fox regarding audio considerations. Best bang for the buck is a good soundbar / sub-woofer combo. Not surround sound but sub-woofer makes a huge difference. Good sound for under $300.

PP

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

I am a great advocate of full surround sound, including subwoofer. I fitted both my physics labs with it nearly 20 years ago, and the effect was amazing. Showing documentary stuff like jungle scenes or rocket launches was quite visceral. Every other member of staff wanted to borrow the labs to show their DVDs , and I was happy to oblige. I would use excerpts from movies as part of lessons. When teaching pressure, I would use the submarine pressure test sequence from Das Boot. With a completely blacked out lab, the drips and hull creaks from all directions had the kids sweating along with the crew.
Outside lessons, I discovered that surround sound explains the age certificate on a lot of movies. Kids will normally watch movies a couple of years above their age without qualms, but many on the age limit found stuff like the opening battle scene from Gladiator genuinely scary with surround sound, but not without.

The cheapest product from one of the top manufacturers is the thing to start with.

[Pontius Navigator]

Many years ago, before surround sound was heard of, I was watching The Longest Day at a cinema in Liverpool. I was sitting near the back of the circle. When the two Me109 flew done the beach I ducked.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

At the start of Apocalypse Now, a helicopter is seen crossing the screen, then another one some time later. With surround sound, you realise it's the same one which has completed a full circle around the audience.

[fin]

My family was likely the last on our block to get a television set. For what seemed like forever I would go to neighbors house to watch Farmer McGregor cartoons, Howdy Doody, or a test pattern. I think there were at most five working channels.

But in 1952 Queen Elizabeth, as some of you may know, became Queen of England, and even in the Colonies, it was deemed OK to get a little Dumont tv with rabbit ears, perhaps a 7" diagonal black and white screen to watch the event. It was followed shortly by television hearings chaired by Sen. McCarthy which gripped the community like nothing previously had done. In fact for decades I was addicted to news shows, and watched the events in the middle east on CNN narrated by the Scud Stud, as did virtually everyone I knew at the time.

Time rolled by, and technical events unfolded as so accurately related by posts above. The content of broadcast was PC'ed to the point that almost anything funny was censored. Networks stumbled over themselves remaking formerly funny shows into 'new' shows which only difference was the replacement of many of the white characters with non. I did get a LOT of mileage out of a channel called Turner Classic Movies with a very knowledgeable moderator named Robert Osborne, but eventually even that became solidly repetitious. So-called 'reality' shows were just beginning when I disconnected totally from the medium. News shows morphed into self promoting entertainment shows...white males not invited. The line between news and entertainment blurred, then disappeared totally.

There was a funny cartoon series in the states called Cathy, whose boyfriend purchased a large television and could not make it work until a half dozen youngsters appeared and whipped it into shape in seconds. The thing we currently have in the living room requires several remote controls to make it work, and if even a single one of the 70 or more available buttons is in the wrong place...nothing.

To be fair, I can and do see some movies and some news on my laptop, but television has seemingly left my life forever, unless unfeeling progeny stick me into a care home where nonstop teevee is considered to be enjoyable for their unwilling captives.

[G-CPTN]

We were the first family in our street to get a television (for the Coronation in June 1953).
Neighbours brought chairs and crowded into our front room.

[Pontius Navigator]

Ours too, 9 inch. Later we went up market and got a magnifying lens that have us 12 inches. Only one channel. Switch on wait 15 minutes. If someone switched off, wait 15 minutes to cool down.

6 o'clock was switch off, not news. Back in with McDonald Hobley and Lady Isabel Barnett, all in DJ and evening dress.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Bring back the old cathode ray tube!

[boing]

My good friend Gene from the airlines was married to a very techie lady and they had a wall-full of electronic equipment backed up by a dozen or so assorted remote controls.

One remote control was odd, it was wrapped in brown sticky tape with only two buttons accessible through windows cut in the tape, the CD/TV switch and the on/off switch. It was labelled "Gene's remote" and he was not allowed to touch any of the other remotes without help cos' he screwed things up. You would have thought an Airbus Captain could have handled a TV !!!!!!!!!!!!

The old joke was a question. "Should I bid onto the Airbus?", the answer was "If your VCR is still flashing 12.00 don't bother".


.

[fin]

Appreciate the gentle memory jag G-CPTN. It seems we got it in time for watching Ike be inaugurated, but with the definite thought in mind that it would also be useful the following June. It must have been circa 1948 that the first ones appeared in homes on our block. To a kid, that was a LOONG four years.

[G-CPTN]

My daughter was born in 1975 - we didn't have a television (the above facts were concerning my parents).
We moved house in 1977, thereafter daughter would 'escape' and manage to be invited into neighbour's house where television was available - excellent babysitters - we never worried abut losing her - we always knew where to find her.

[Rwy in Sight]

I still remember we were somewhat late obtaining a colour TV. And it was an amazing improvement as it did not need any warming up time.

[ian16th]

Bring back the old cathode ray tube!

My 1st colour TV was a Phillips G8, I also bought the workshop manual.

An hour or so with the 27 potentiometers, and I would have the convergence set up for 3 months or so.

When we came to SA the local TV was so bad, we did without for years.

When we did get a TV I bought a Sony with their excellent Trinitron CRT. We had 3 over the years, the last one was their WEGA with a flat screen.

Was it a wise move that Sony never licenced the Trinitron to any other TV manufacturer?

They did licence it to computer companies for VDU's.

[Pontius Navigator]

In 1974, when the Turks invaded Cyprus the media invaded too and were astonished that there was no TV links off the island. Before that we could watch the Olympics broadcast from Greece; they had the old 405 line and the signal reached us via anaprop.

[PHXPhlyer]

Color TV
I was in about 3rd grade 1963ish in the lunch line on a Monday. One of the kids in line had gone to someone's house the night before and had seen the first color TV that any of us had seen. They had watched Bonanza and all of us were asking about the color of the characters' shirts and more importantly, the color of their horses.
My parents didn't get color TV until I was in college.

PP

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Colour TV took longer to arrive in the UK than Color in the US, because they had to figure out how to get the 'u' in as well

The 1970 World Cup finals were watched on the first kid to get one's TV. Every kid in the neighbourhood saw at least 3 games, and he ended up with the largest marble collection the world has ever seen!

[Slasher]

Bloody hell Fox I had a sneaking suspicion you’d contribute a few informative lines to the thread but you’re a bloody expert!

Physics teacher, barn builder, chef, fluid dynamicist, aeronautics, tool expert, deep knowledge of complicated machinery like tellys, tractors, cars, particle accelerators, modern tyre pumps etc. Mate if you were a woman of acceptable breastery I’d marry you on the spot!

I’ve screenshotted your excellent post for future reference when I need it and, if I crop out the posting details, will forward same to mates in the same boat with your permission.

On second thoughts bugger it - I’d marry you just as you are!

[llondel]

I remember being invited over by my neighbour to watch the 1972 FA Cup final on his colour TV. We didn't get one for several years after that.

As for definition, Given typical viewing distances and the resolution of the human eye, you don't need more than HD. If it's a large screen there may be a case for a 4K TV but I bet most people wouldn't get much benefit from it.

The UK might have been later getting colour, but it was better quality than the US offering, not only in the image production, but quite often the content too.