Comment on Are you too young to remember these?
vrek@programming.dev 1 month ago
I’m “turn to channel 3” old…
will@piefed.zip 1 month ago
vrek@programming.dev 1 month ago
Yeah but I had a knock off brans
Bytemeister@lemmy.world 1 month ago
TVs had channels?
I’m old enough to remember Saturday morning cartoons, but seriously, it feels like TVs don’t really have channels anymore, and instead just have thousands of shitty streaming apps.
vrek@programming.dev 1 month ago
It’s been about 20 years since I watched cable/broadcast TV in my home. But yeah way back tvs didn’t have inputs for other devices, instead you had a box which you put in between the antenna or cable signal and your device which basically over wrote channel 3(why channel 3? I have no idea) with whatever your device was out putting. So if you wanted to play Nintendo you would change to channel 3 and see Mario or metroid.
Bytemeister@lemmy.world 1 month ago
It’s been a while since I’ve had to do a game system setup on an old TV, (like damn near 20 years) but I think you used channel 3 because it was a channel reserved for local communications, so there would never be “TV” on that channel. Your VCR connected to the TV with a coax cable, and if you wanted to have “TV” plugged in at the same time, you either needed a TV with multiple coax inputs (I think it was common to have 2, one for VCR, and one for satellite/aerial antenna) or a coax splitter. Early on, those RCA plugs weren’t built into a lot of TVs, so you needed the VCR to inject that signal onto coax for the TV. Lots (if not most/all) VCRs would let you switch the channel used in the settings, I think mainly to cover other regions where channel 3 was not standardized.
wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world 1 month ago
A local news station use(d? they are all digital now) channel 3, with both ota and cable. I remember using both 3 and (front) rca ‘input’ for my games.
vrek@programming.dev 1 month ago
I remember the coax cable but did not know about channel 3 being local communication. I thought it was just convention.
Thanks for teaching me.
SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
We forget how much TV was boring AF.
modus@lemmy.world 1 month ago
They still do if you use an antenna.
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Unless you were in Cleveland…then it was Channel 4.
vrek@programming.dev 1 month ago
Really? Interesting. We’re there other places or other channels like that? Like if you were in England or India did they do channel 3, channel 4, or something totally different?
Medic8eme@piefed.ca 1 month ago
Canada was either channel 3 or 4 depending on the device. Probably all American made then.
sik0fewl@piefed.ca 1 month ago
Was there a station that broadcast on channel 3? I remember TVs growing up often (always?) having support for both channels 3 and 4 as auxiliary inputs. Also, what happened to channels 1 and 2?
watson387@sopuli.xyz 1 month ago
Channel 2 is KDKA CBS in Pittsburgh.
sik0fewl@piefed.ca 1 month ago
Ah, ok. I’m misremembering. It’s only channel one that didn’t exist. Just looked it up and apparently the FCC reallocated it in 1948 because it was causing interference with another use.
Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world 1 month ago
But I just got comfortable!
vrek@programming.dev 1 month ago
Just be happy you don’t have to move the rabbit ears around till I get a good image
Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Anymore.
tresspass@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I’m gen z but just set up tvheadend after unsubscribing from any remaining streaming services. Learning there is free tv over the air was a shock to me
ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 1 month ago
The real age here is the “turn” part of the comment.
vrek@programming.dev 1 month ago
Wait current tvs don’t have a channel knob?
DrPop@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Sometimes I used channel 4 if the signal wasn’t working. Coaxials were shitty.
vrek@programming.dev 1 month ago
Which is worse? Coaxials or Co workers?
9tr6gyp3@lemmy.world 1 month ago
You could feel the static charge shift when changing channels
vrek@programming.dev 1 month ago
Yeah which explains my hair in those days