Do you miss old TV sets?

theatrically_inclined

theatrically_inclined

Dedicated Member
The first tv set I remember at home (mid-1960s) had two big knobs at the side just above the speaker grille. You manually tuned the channel to change programmes. '4' on the dial was BBC1, '8' was ITV (Midlands). That was easy to remember, BBC1 has '4' characters, Midlands has '8' characters - although ITV was channel 9 in our area, the knob provably wasn't calibrated. Can't remember what the BBC2 channel was.

Then we had the TV with 4 or 6 programmable buttons, sticking out like chapel hat pegs.
Then a similar set up with flat buttons.

I don't remember the first remote control tv we had, but it was easy, numbered buttons.

Today - first I have to guess which 'app' has the specific show I want to watch - or something to tempt me.
It then takes 12 button presses on the remote to get to select the app from the options, select live or on demand, pick a genre or channel, and eventually I see a programme. Except I've picked the wrong app, the show isn't on this app anymore - its on another somewhere ... I miss the old days!

I think I'll watch a DVD
 
Remember our first set was Rediffusion with the channel changer hard wired to the set and screwed on to the window sill so you had to get up to switch channels. I remember the sets with the stick out pegs which you could pull out and turn to tune the channel. I remember having that type for years and having bought one of the first consoles by Grandstand with paddle bat and Evil Knievel type jump over buses game, spending ages using a spare channel peg trying to tune the game in and delight when paddle bat appeared.

Recall getting access to first Colour set , a girl at school was hugely popular with us because she had one and we'd all crash at hers to watch Match of the Day on Saturday night , her mum was brilliant providing us with butties and crisps. Years later having not seen her in ages with going off to Uni we met up by sheer chance as we were both working in the same Cobol Programming team area , laughing out loud when recalling this story.
 
I remember our first colour TV. I was about 6 or so and it was amazing.
That day I and my 3 brothers became remote controls for the TV. I'm exaggerating of course although we were handy when the old man got in from work.
He always said please and thanks. He was a great dad. And then it shutdown at 11pm or what have and during the day too. TestCard time :21: :21:**>:

Simpler times and I'm going to argue I think saner times.
I remember Blamire in an episode saying something like "I don't like the way the world is going".
Imagine if he came back to this :fp::fp::fp:
 
Our first TV, ~1951, was a big square box with just a few knobs. Connected to an antenna on the roof. We lived in a rather narrow valley so picked up only one channel, WSYR out of Syracuse NY. The program selection was quite tame, except that my much younger sister recalls watching the movie The Lost Weekend when she was much too young for it. I didn't see that movie until I was in my 40s and even then it was terrifying! In my very early 20s I moved to town to be close to my job, there was TV cable available, and for years I had no TV.

Now I have a flat-screen in the living room and another in the bedroom, and use them almost exclusively to watch DVDs.
 
Like most folk around us members born in the 50's I do recall the same sets as mentioned as technology progressed, I believe most of the sets were rented, I do recall passing a shop in Bedford where they displayed some of the first colour tv's available, because colour was only on BBC2 at the time and BBC2 did not start until the evening all I got to see was a colour test card.
I think my family rented a set that had a slot meter attached to cover the rental cost, if you watched a lot of TV that week when the man called to empty it the might be a few shillings over the rental to come back into the house keeping.

When colour TV in homes became the norm, I worked at the Fire service at the time, I was surprised how many fires were caused by these sets, often the sets were close to curtains and the heat would set fire to them, some folk draped linen cloth's over the top which also caused fires, or flower vases which got knocked allowing water ingress and the set would go bang, it was a steep learning curve for the users on how to be aware of the dangers, a little like unattended chip pans and some electric blankets.
 
Marianna said:
To answer the original question, no, I don't miss the old TV sets. Now, for a lower price you can buy a set that will do much more.
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I realised
maltrab said:
Like most folk around us members born in the 50's I do recall the same sets as mentioned as technology progressed, I believe most of the sets were rented, I do recall passing a shop in Bedford where they displayed some of the first colour tv's available, because colour was only on BBC2 at the time and BBC2 did not start until the evening all I got to see was a colour test card.
I think my family rented a set that had a slot meter attached to cover the rental cost, if you watched a lot of TV that week when the man called to empty it the might be a few shillings over the rental to come back into the house keeping.

When colour TV in homes became the norm, I worked at the Fire service at the time, I was surprised how many fires were caused by these sets, often the sets were close to curtains and the heat would set fire to them, some folk draped linen cloth's over the top which also caused fires, or flower vases which got knocked allowing water ingress and the set would go bang, it was a steep learning curve for the users on how to be aware of the dangers, a little like unattended chip pans and some electric blankets.
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Brilliant post. Yes, yes and yes to the fires caused by valve tvs, chip pans and electric blankets. Veritable monkeys with machine guns. " what if we do this...BOOOOM" "Ahhhhh, that's a no then". :fp: :fp:
 
captain clutterbuck said:
As technology improved I remember buying a Casio mini colour TV with something like a two inch screen used it when I was at work during quiet periods on nightshift just showed how far things had progressed.
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I collected 2-3 of these a few years ago when I was getting interested in old technology. I still have them but most are in storage at the moment.
 
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