I always get a kick out of the posts where someone, getting a channel for free, complains that its not in HD.
I can only surmise these people were not alive in the 60's 70's or even the 80's.
Let me just say, be glad you get a steady picture. There used to be a phenomenon called snow and the dreaded vertical roll.
For those yungin's, let me tell you the story of what TV used to be like, and be glad you get some sort of steady
reliable picture and quit your complaining.
Back in the oldin' days there where no remote controls. You actually had to get up and walk to the TV,
yes can you believe it, get up and walk! There was a knob that you had to physically turn to change channels.
If you were lucky the knob was still intact. It was not uncommon in the old days to have a set of pliers handy because usually the plastic tuning knobs broke at some point, usually in a fight between siblings over Woody Woodpecker vs Felix the Cat. (Don't know who these guys are, look it up.)
They used to make TVs in America too. Hard to believe, I'm not fibbing. But that's a whole other story of why we don't make things here anymore.
Ok so you had to get up walk to the TV, use the pliers to get a good grip on the nub that once was the tuning knob.
Congratulations you have just changed the channel.
Wait, you cant sit down yet. Next there was a ritual called tuning in the rabbit ears.
This ritual usually consisted of standing on one leg or another, holding your free hand over your head in random positions while moving two antennae in all sorts of gyrations until a picture appeared. Great, a picture, go ahead and sit.
Not so fast, as soon as you sat, the picture disappeared! If you were lucky, two or three more trips to the TV, a few more gyrations, and if you held your mouth right, you got some sort of viewable picture.
I say viewable, that's where the phenomenon called snow mentioned earlier comes into play. If you could make out vague outlines of actors through the staticy haze, you called it good and went on watching the show.
But if someone moved around upstairs or an airplane flew overhead, no more beautiful fuzzy snowy picture to watch.
Far too often your beautiful snowy fuzzy picture was interrupted by the dreaded VERTICAL ROLL! Oh NO!
Curing this problem usually meant getting a flashlight out and going behind the TV. If you were lucky you had a model
where the vertical hold control stuck out of the back of the set and was "easily" accessible.
If you were not so lucky you had a set of non conductive tools designed especially for this task handy.
Non conductive because you had to stick them into a little hole in the back of the TV and hope you hit the potentiometer dead on with the blade of the tool in the correct position. If you used a conductive tool for this, death was a possible outcome. TV's used to have 12,000 volts inside.
Yes besides the pliers, there was a whole other set of tools needed just to watch TV, and the risk of possible death.
Darn, you saw that episode of The Flying Nun already. Shucks, you now have to get up and repeat the whole process over again for the next channel.
Your getting free TV, sit down, click your remote and be happy.
I can only surmise these people were not alive in the 60's 70's or even the 80's.
Let me just say, be glad you get a steady picture. There used to be a phenomenon called snow and the dreaded vertical roll.
For those yungin's, let me tell you the story of what TV used to be like, and be glad you get some sort of steady
reliable picture and quit your complaining.
Back in the oldin' days there where no remote controls. You actually had to get up and walk to the TV,
yes can you believe it, get up and walk! There was a knob that you had to physically turn to change channels.
If you were lucky the knob was still intact. It was not uncommon in the old days to have a set of pliers handy because usually the plastic tuning knobs broke at some point, usually in a fight between siblings over Woody Woodpecker vs Felix the Cat. (Don't know who these guys are, look it up.)
They used to make TVs in America too. Hard to believe, I'm not fibbing. But that's a whole other story of why we don't make things here anymore.
Ok so you had to get up walk to the TV, use the pliers to get a good grip on the nub that once was the tuning knob.
Congratulations you have just changed the channel.
Wait, you cant sit down yet. Next there was a ritual called tuning in the rabbit ears.
This ritual usually consisted of standing on one leg or another, holding your free hand over your head in random positions while moving two antennae in all sorts of gyrations until a picture appeared. Great, a picture, go ahead and sit.
Not so fast, as soon as you sat, the picture disappeared! If you were lucky, two or three more trips to the TV, a few more gyrations, and if you held your mouth right, you got some sort of viewable picture.
I say viewable, that's where the phenomenon called snow mentioned earlier comes into play. If you could make out vague outlines of actors through the staticy haze, you called it good and went on watching the show.
But if someone moved around upstairs or an airplane flew overhead, no more beautiful fuzzy snowy picture to watch.
Far too often your beautiful snowy fuzzy picture was interrupted by the dreaded VERTICAL ROLL! Oh NO!
Curing this problem usually meant getting a flashlight out and going behind the TV. If you were lucky you had a model
where the vertical hold control stuck out of the back of the set and was "easily" accessible.
If you were not so lucky you had a set of non conductive tools designed especially for this task handy.
Non conductive because you had to stick them into a little hole in the back of the TV and hope you hit the potentiometer dead on with the blade of the tool in the correct position. If you used a conductive tool for this, death was a possible outcome. TV's used to have 12,000 volts inside.
Yes besides the pliers, there was a whole other set of tools needed just to watch TV, and the risk of possible death.
Darn, you saw that episode of The Flying Nun already. Shucks, you now have to get up and repeat the whole process over again for the next channel.
Your getting free TV, sit down, click your remote and be happy.
Last edited:
