←back to thread

653 points thunderbong | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.221s | source
Show context
tivert ◴[] No.36911531[source]
One inaccuracy/anachronism: this simulation has a second of static between channel changes. Analog TVs were never like that. Channel changes were near instantaneous, and there was never any static unless you tuned to a dead channel.

All those pauses and waits are an artifact of later computerized/digital technology.

replies(3): >>36911616 #>>36912218 #>>36913075 #
dragonwriter ◴[] No.36911616[source]
> Analog TVs were never like that. Channel changes were near instantaneous, and there was never any static unless you tuned to a dead channel.

IIRC, it wasn’t uncommon for UHF dials to be continuous while VHF had precise stops and switched directly from channel to channel, so in UHF, as a practical matter, you'd have static between tuned channels, while that was not the case in VHF.

Its been a long time since I had a TV work a tuning dial, but that's what I recall.

replies(1): >>36912215 #
tivert ◴[] No.36912215[source]
> IIRC, it wasn’t uncommon for UHF dials to be continuous while VHF had precise stops and switched directly from channel to channel, so in UHF, as a practical matter, you'd have static between tuned channels, while that was not the case in VHF.

That must have been a pretty old or cheap TV. All the dial TVs I ever used had stops for all the channels, VHF and UHF. And even when I was a kid, pretty much all TVs didn't have dials, but some kind of digitally-controlled analog tuner.

I remember tuning from channel 2 to 60 or so in maybe about a quarter second or less. Definitely so fast I didn't really register it as a delay.

replies(2): >>36912528 #>>36912842 #
1. dragonwriter ◴[] No.36912528[source]
> That must have been a pretty old or cheap TV.

Well, they weren't all old when I used them (some were; TVs were expensive to replace so got kept a while.) Maybe the ones without UHF stops were, though, its been quite a while.

> And even when I was a kid, pretty much all TVs didn't have dials

Likely, you were a kid more recently than I was.