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Watch TV from the 90s and earlier

(my90stv.com)
653 points thunderbong | 23 comments | 28 Jul 23 12:46 UTC | HN request time: 1.536s | source | bottom
1. coin ◴[28 Jul 23 15:37 UTC] No.36908469[source]▶
Why the static between changing channels. Analog TVs would change channels instantly.
replies(3): >>36908729 #>>36908780 #>>36910485 #
2. boomboomsubban ◴[28 Jul 23 15:54 UTC] No.36908729[source]▶
In my experience, it was fairly common for there to be (as an example) a channel 3 and a channel 5 but no 4, so if you were flipping through the channels on certain TV's you'd see static.
replies(3): >>36908784 #>>36908917 #>>36909096 #
3. bombela ◴[28 Jul 23 15:56 UTC] No.36908780[source]▶
Here is my guess. The author is most likely younger than you and I. And has never experienced the instant response of analog.
replies(3): >>36909290 #>>36909548 #>>36909951 #
4. jwells89 ◴[28 Jul 23 15:57 UTC] No.36908784[source]▶
It was also a common experience for those of us who didn't have cable or satellite, with the only channels available being whatever came in over the air.

Even in more densely populated areas there were blank channels you'd flip through, and where I grew up there were only two channels that came in most of the time with another 1-2 that'd briefly become available at certain times of day or during specific weather where atmospheric conditions boosted the signal strength of those stations.

5. bombela ◴[28 Jul 23 16:04 UTC] No.36908917[source]▶
Except here, there is static before the content appears on the channel. Which is not the same as stumbling upon an empty channel.

Very old TV's did not have memorized channels, and so you had to tune to find the next channel, which would give you a progression to static and back.

Then TV had a memory for the channel frequency. It would switch instantaneously the video. So fast that sometimes you could see the first frame in black and white. Then color info would come (color TV is atop of black and white and spread over frames if I recall). Then mono sound would come in. Then stereo (like color, the stereo signal is an augmentation). Still all of that faster than any modern technology.

Then came digital TVs (still receiving analog TV signal) which could have a second or two of digital lag during channel change, but it wouldn't display static, simply a blank (dark) screen.

replies(1): >>36909477 #
6. SoftTalker ◴[28 Jul 23 16:14 UTC] No.36909096[source]▶
Yes, in broadcast (over the air) TV, only every other channel was allocated in a given area. That's why most devices that connected to a TV (computers, VCRs, etc.) could use either channel 3 or channel 4 because one of the two would be unused.
replies(1): >>36912285 #
7. krapp ◴[28 Jul 23 16:26 UTC] No.36909290[source]▶
It's so weird watching the era you grew up in fade into oblivion then return as an aesthetic.
8. anthk ◴[28 Jul 23 16:36 UTC] No.36909477{3}[source]▶
By the 90s everyone in the Northerhn hemisphere got a decent TV with instant tuning. Once you tuned the channel and set it up to a button on the remote or the TV front panel, things went as fast as Linux switching TTY's todays. No joke.
replies(1): >>36912900 #
9. tgv ◴[28 Jul 23 16:41 UTC] No.36909548[source]▶
Do you think the TVs before that were digital or hydraulic? Or what does the world "analog" mean in this context?
replies(1): >>36912357 #
10. jojohack ◴[28 Jul 23 17:07 UTC] No.36909951[source]▶
Creator here. I add the static to mask the video buffering ( since each channel change triggers a video load ) I'm flattered though that you think of me as young. I very much was a child of the '80's :D
replies(1): >>36910766 #
11. adrianmonk ◴[28 Jul 23 17:45 UTC] No.36910485[source]▶
That depends on the type of TV! The old kind had a manual rotary switch, and you had to move through all intermediate channels regardless of whether a station was broadcasting there, so you could see static when switching.

For example, in my area, the main stations were at 4, 5, and 8. Switching from 5 to 4, I'd see no static because they're adjacent. Switching from 5 to 8, I'd see static while the knob was at 6 and 7.

The 60s, 70s, and 80s TV sets on the site are the style I'm talking about. The 90s and 2000s TVs aren't.

The best way to do it would be to use different transitions depending on the style of TV depicted. But the way they did it is not wrong for all analog TVs.

replies(1): >>36911191 #
12. capableweb ◴[28 Jul 23 18:03 UTC] No.36910766{3}[source]▶
You could add a "high bandwidth & low latency" mode, where when active, you load the current video + the next one. So when the user goes to the next channel, it's already playing but muted and not visible, and you start playing the next-next channel hidden again :)
13. xtracto ◴[28 Jul 23 18:33 UTC] No.36911191[source]▶
Ha! In the 80s I was the remote control. We had one of those TVs with rotary channel switch. And 7 year me had the important task of changing the channel whenever needed, and adjusting the antenna as well.
replies(2): >>36912725 #>>36912958 #
14. ThinkingGuy ◴[28 Jul 23 19:46 UTC] No.36912285{3}[source]▶
There were some exceptions, though, as the VHF TV channels aren't all contiguous. In North America, there's a gap between channels 4 and 5; and channels 6 and 7 are separated by the bands for several radio services (FM, aviation, amateur, and marine).

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/VHF_Usag...

replies(1): >>36912476 #
15. krapp ◴[28 Jul 23 19:52 UTC] No.36912357{3}[source]▶
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_transmission

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_television

replies(1): >>36918059 #
16. SoftTalker ◴[28 Jul 23 19:59 UTC] No.36912476{4}[source]▶
Hm, didn't know that. But I still remember the channels we had when I was a kid:

2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 13, and UHF 30.

I also remember that depending on the radio, you could sometimes pick up the audio for I think VHF channel 6 at the low end of the FM dial.

replies(2): >>36912746 #>>36912996 #
17. WalterBright ◴[28 Jul 23 20:19 UTC] No.36912725{3}[source]▶
The idea was to designate some hapless low status family member to hold the antenna at just the right angle to pick up the station.
18. ansible ◴[28 Jul 23 20:21 UTC] No.36912746{5}[source]▶
Yep, that was a thing with NTSC-M analog channel 6, which had the audio at 87.75MHz, just below the nominal bottom of the FM range at 88.1MHz. I used to listen to the 10 o'clock news that way.
19. jzb ◴[28 Jul 23 20:32 UTC] No.36912900{4}[source]▶
Yes, I remember well when in 1990 they went door to door handing out brand new TVs...

Ahem. In the 80s I remember struggling with a set my grandparents must have bought in the late 60s to try to watch TV. It was like holding a seance for sitcoms. I expect plenty of people were still watching TV in the 90s on sets sold in the 70s and 80s. Maybe not the majority, but I wouldn't assume "everyone" had the current goodness.

replies(1): >>36914697 #
20. jzb ◴[28 Jul 23 20:36 UTC] No.36912958{3}[source]▶
I was the family remote control for years. This often led to arguments because I'd stop on what I wanted to watch instead of what my parents wanted to watch. "I said turn to channel 5!" "But I want to watch 'The Hulk!'"

My teen complains about special effects in MCU shows sometimes. I'm like "I had to watch a bodybuilder painted green for superhero shows, and like it!" (RIP Bill Bixby...)

21. jzb ◴[28 Jul 23 20:39 UTC] No.36912996{5}[source]▶
ISTR we had 2,4,5,9,11, and 30 (UHF). Channels 2-5 were ABC, CBS, and NBC. Channel 9 was PBS, and 11 and 30 were local stations that weren't affiliated with any of the major networks.
22. anthk ◴[28 Jul 23 23:18 UTC] No.36914697{5}[source]▶
Even my grandma's TV from the 80's had instant buttons to switch between channels but no TV remote. And, yet, the tuning was on the spot. No delays. Zero. Literally.
23. tgv ◴[29 Jul 23 08:13 UTC] No.36918059{4}[source]▶
That doesn't explain a thing. The "static" came from weak signals or not tuning properly. Before digital TVs were a thing, analog TVs already had digital tuners, and suppressed the display while switching channels. Analog TVs are not synonymous with static while changing channel.