Back to watching black and white TV

[WinterDeere]

To me a Television is wasted time you can never get back, and we all have a limited amount of sand left in our hourglass.

I feel that way about most of the time I spend reading this forum, especially in reading the content of those few posters who repeatedly waste our time and space regurgitating the same politics, over and over. Yet... here I am.

 

[masseyrider]

Someone here said something about the violence in the old shows.
At least when someone got shot it was clean, maybe a trace of blood.
In the current shows you get closeups of the stabbing, shooting, burn... victims that only an emergency room doctor should see.
Too graphic for my taste.
Who here remembers when the tv cabinet was a piece of furniture competing with the couch for floor space.
And then a similar size stereo setup.
My old man was careful with a dollar (cheap). Him an Ma didn't get a color TV until black and whites were no longer available.
I bought my own color TV with money from my parttime job after school.
Sometimes Ma would watch a good movie on it to get the full affect.
When he finally broke down and bought a color TV he didn't want the remote.
Took a while to explain it wasn't an extra.
Once he got used to the remote you couldn't pry it out of his mitts.
Still watching, Barney Miller, Andy Griffith, Dragnet, Adam 12, WKRP...

 

[TimberFarm]

To me a Television is wasted time you can never get back, and we all have a limited amount of sand left in our hourglass.

I shot my TV back in 1979.... Never looked back.

Elvis was faster on the draw.

 

[sixdogs]

Black and white movies and TV require a much better quality of production effort, cinematography and script than color things. Watch an old B&W Perry Mason and you can see all sorts of character actions and interactions along with lots of meaningful script detail. Those things alone set up the show and the plot. Watch an early B&W Gunsmoke and then a later color show and there's no comparison.

Black and white movies told a tale of their own in a similar way. One that comes to mind is the bar scene from The Maltese Falcon. Watch it and there are many intriguing details in the background that weave the suspense and add detail to the characters.

I never used to think this way but now seek out the old B&W shows. It's even imaginable there will be a broad consumer renewal of interest in old B&W films that some new ones might be made.

Great thread.

 

[Oaktree]

Someone here said something about the violence in the old shows.
At least when someone got shot it was clean, maybe a trace of blood.
In the current shows you get closeups of the stabbing, shooting, burn... victims that only an emergency room doctor should see.
Too graphic for my taste.

Absolutely agree that we've gone too far in the other direction, not only in how graphic the injuries are, but the general creepiness of crimes on the cop shows. And the language, especially on the streaming-only shows. Way too many F-bombs for my taste.

You've gotta admit though that a lot of those old westerns were pretty hokey...people get shot or have a chair broken over their head with no visible injuries, never any dust, mud, manure in the streets, etc. and everybody's wearing clean clothes and are well bathed.

 

[bdhsfz6]

There's something to be said for those old B&W TV's (and color sets too) that used vacuum tubes. I used the same set for many many years until I finally replaced it with a big flat screen model. Now, I have to get a new one every year or so due to the frequent power surges and lightning strikes we get around here.

Those surge protectors, even the expensive ones, are useless. Unless I'm around to unplug it during a storm, it's usually toast.

 

[ponytug]

There's something to be said for those old B&W TV's (and color sets too) that used vacuum tubes. I used the same set for many many years until I finally replaced it with a big flat screen model. Now, I have to get a new one every year or so due to the frequent power surges and lightning strikes we get around here.

Those surge protectors, even the expensive ones, are useless. Unless I'm around to unplug it during a storm, it's usually toast.

Yes, old vacuum tube power supplies were more tolerant of voltage irregularities; they had to be. Still, I remember changing tubes that got blown by thunderstorms, but it was definitely a slightly user serviceable part, unlike an integrated circuit...

Have you tried putting the TVs on a surge protector strip, and flipping the switch on/off?

All the best,

Peter

 

[WinterDeere]

Yes, old vacuum tube power supplies were more tolerant of voltage irregularities; they had to be. Still, I remember changing tubes that got blown by thunderstorms, but it was definitely a slightly user serviceable part, unlike an integrated circuit...

Have you tried putting the TVs on a surge protector strip, and flipping the switch on/off?

All the best,

Peter

Surges, maybe. But not irregularities such as over/under voltage, etc. Today's television power supplies are more often wide-ranging input switching supplies, which can take anything from 90 to 264 VAC, and 50 or 60 Hz. No early television was rated to handle even 20% of that range.

What the older TV's may have had going for them was not the power supplies, but the simple mechanical mass of vacuum tube components, which can have thermal time constants 10x - 1000x longer than modern sub-micron gate length transistors. This has nothing to do with the power supplies, but may make them more tolerant of a fast transient spike.

 

[Jstpssng]

There's something to be said for those old B&W TV's (and color sets too) that used vacuum tubes. I used the same set for many many years until I finally replaced it with a big flat screen model. Now, I have to get a new one every year or so due to the frequent power surges and lightning strikes we get around here.

Those surge protectors, even the expensive ones, are useless. Unless I'm around to unplug it during a storm, it's usually toast.

We always unplugged our TV during thunderstorms. We also had a 150 foot AM radio tower in the back field, which made a great lightening rod.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Yes, old vacuum tube power supplies were more tolerant of voltage irregularities; they had to be. Still, I remember changing tubes that got blown by thunderstorms, but it was definitely a slightly user serviceable part, unlike an integrated circuit...

Have you tried putting the TVs on a surge protector strip, and flipping the switch on/off?

All the best,

Peter

Yes, I've tried switched surge protectors but lightning strikes just arc the contacts. Completely unplugging the equipment is the safest bet.