Comment on Are you too young to remember these?
vrek@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
I’m “turn to channel 3” old…
will@piefed.zip 3 weeks ago
vrek@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
Yeah but I had a knock off brans
Bytemeister@lemmy.world 3 weeks 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 3 weeks 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 3 weeks 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 3 weeks 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 3 weeks 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 3 weeks ago
We forget how much TV was boring AF.
modus@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
They still do if you use an antenna.
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Unless you were in Cleveland…then it was Channel 4.
vrek@programming.dev 3 weeks 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 3 weeks ago
Canada was either channel 3 or 4 depending on the device. Probably all American made then.
sik0fewl@piefed.ca 3 weeks 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 3 weeks ago
Channel 2 is KDKA CBS in Pittsburgh.
sik0fewl@piefed.ca 3 weeks 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 3 weeks ago
But I just got comfortable!
vrek@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
Just be happy you don’t have to move the rabbit ears around till I get a good image
Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Anymore.
tresspass@lemmy.world 3 weeks 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 3 weeks ago
The real age here is the “turn” part of the comment.
vrek@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
Wait current tvs don’t have a channel knob?
DrPop@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Sometimes I used channel 4 if the signal wasn’t working. Coaxials were shitty.
vrek@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
Which is worse? Coaxials or Co workers?
9tr6gyp3@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You could feel the static charge shift when changing channels
vrek@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
Yeah which explains my hair in those days