The Millennial Question

vienna · 12-31-16, 04:00 PM

Something probably unknown to those born in the 70s or 80s is NBC was owned by the RCA corporation, who, besides owning the TV network, manufactured and sold a wide range of electronic consumer products, among them, television sets. When color TV went into wide use, RCA had NBC (it kind of gets like alphabet soup) originate programming to highlight the benefits of the new color TVs, sold by RCA; therefore the network became an ongoing advertisement for the product of its parent company. One of the first major network shows to go color was "Bonanza". If you watch the old shows, Michael Landon wears a green corduroy jacket for most of the series; he hated the color and the jacket, but RCA insisted since it was a means of showcasing the new color TV sets...

Having a TV set in San Francisco was a challenge, in terms of reception; the city is a mass of hills and valleys and unless you had a clear line of sight to the transmitter, reception could be spotty at best; when color came along, it wasn't uncommon to see the colors on the screen bleed or shift...

You mention the adjustment controls on your monitor or set. One thing people in the early days of TV technology has to deal with was a host of various knobs and adjustments: vertical hold, horizontal hold, contrast, brightness, volume, channel, and, if you had a color TV, add on all the usual suspects: hue, separate adjustments for RGB, intensity and more. If your tweaks and adjustments didn't work out right, well, there's always the fallback of the sharp open hand whack to the side or top of the set case. Now, when you buy a set or monitor, you may have to make a few tweaks to taste, but, generally, you just plug it in and go. Another change is the longevity of sets; a set in the 50s and 60s was a bit of a major investment, so set repair was a thriving industry; I recall even supermarkets and other such stores had little kiosks where a person could buy replacement vacuum tubes, if you wanted to risk trying to repair a set yourself; now, if a set or monitor goes bad, you just chuck it and get a new one; its way less expensive than repairing it and, even if you wanted to, there are precious few places to do the repairs. For millennials, it is a disposable culture; something goes bad or wrong?...buy a new one...

<O>

12-31-16, 04:00 PM	#18
vienna Navy Seal Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Anywhere but the here & now... Posts: 7,718 Downloads: 85 Uploads: 0	Something probably unknown to those born in the 70s or 80s is NBC was owned by the RCA corporation, who, besides owning the TV network, manufactured and sold a wide range of electronic consumer products, among them, television sets. When color TV went into wide use, RCA had NBC (it kind of gets like alphabet soup) originate programming to highlight the benefits of the new color TVs, sold by RCA; therefore the network became an ongoing advertisement for the product of its parent company. One of the first major network shows to go color was "Bonanza". If you watch the old shows, Michael Landon wears a green corduroy jacket for most of the series; he hated the color and the jacket, but RCA insisted since it was a means of showcasing the new color TV sets... Having a TV set in San Francisco was a challenge, in terms of reception; the city is a mass of hills and valleys and unless you had a clear line of sight to the transmitter, reception could be spotty at best; when color came along, it wasn't uncommon to see the colors on the screen bleed or shift... You mention the adjustment controls on your monitor or set. One thing people in the early days of TV technology has to deal with was a host of various knobs and adjustments: vertical hold, horizontal hold, contrast, brightness, volume, channel, and, if you had a color TV, add on all the usual suspects: hue, separate adjustments for RGB, intensity and more. If your tweaks and adjustments didn't work out right, well, there's always the fallback of the sharp open hand whack to the side or top of the set case. Now, when you buy a set or monitor, you may have to make a few tweaks to taste, but, generally, you just plug it in and go. Another change is the longevity of sets; a set in the 50s and 60s was a bit of a major investment, so set repair was a thriving industry; I recall even supermarkets and other such stores had little kiosks where a person could buy replacement vacuum tubes, if you wanted to risk trying to repair a set yourself; now, if a set or monitor goes bad, you just chuck it and get a new one; its way less expensive than repairing it and, even if you wanted to, there are precious few places to do the repairs. For millennials, it is a disposable culture; something goes bad or wrong?...buy a new one... <O> __________________ __________________________________________________ __