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Retro 5″ Black and White TV as a computer monitor – A tale of pointlessness

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Re: Retro 5″ Black and White TV as a computer monitor – A tale of pointlessness

#41

Post by digitalsushi »

yardie wrote: post #29
digitalsushi wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was 14, my dad got us dialup internet in 1994. At the ISP, I had never paid more attention in my life, and when we got home I rushed to install the tcp software and 'internet in a box' for windows 95. My dad got irate at how quickly I was moving through it and told me that he wouldn't help me fix it after I messed it up. When he came down an hour later and I was transfixed with the primordial web, he gave me a…

So many memories. I remember riding my bike to the local ISP's office to get my internet welcome packet. Because I wasn't going to wait 5-7 business days for it to arrive in the mail. It came complete with a dozen floppies for Mac and PC, account details, and the Internet Yellow Pages. Which is sitting on a shelf in my parents garage. At the dawn of the public internet there were no call centers or AOL discs. It was…

The memories indeed! We had a T1 and a pile of Livingston Portmaster 2e terminal servers, connected with a centrex hunt group to a single dialup phone number.

I learned a lot about people very quickly. As we got more popular, we started to get busy signals, because we couldn't grow our hardware fast enough - and then people learned how to do keepalives, so that they wouldn't get stuck offline on a busy signal. That was a race to the bottom. Sharing a physical resource like a phone port is a dark ages thing I am glad we no longer contend with.

We have it much, much better than we did back then.

But I'd still like to go on a time-vacation to enjoy the selection bias of the times - I'm glad we made the Internet easy enough for everyone to get online, but it would be neat to visit 25 years to visit the greener pastures of old.

Re: Retro 5″ Black and White TV as a computer monitor – A tale of pointlessness

#42

Post by anonymfus »

I think that this TV is from the 1990s, not from 1980s, because design screams it. Also there is no brand name anywhere, so the manufacturer is not proud of this cheap device, the front panel captions are screen printed, DC barrel connector has the modern polarity sign with a negative sleeve.

Re: Retro 5″ Black and White TV as a computer monitor – A tale of pointlessness

#43

Post by simias »

jerf wrote: post #35
simias wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I reluctantly discarded my last CRT a few years ago. They're not just heavy to move, they also take a lot of room on my desk and they generate a lot of heat. For a long time LCDs really couldn't compete with CRTs. They had bad resolutions, terrible viewing angles and terrible colors (and especially horrendous blacks). Resolution is (finally) no longer an issue, colors and viewing angles are still meh but steadily imp…

"Resolution is (finally) no longer an issue, colors and viewing angles are still meh but steadily improving." Are you buying good LCDs? There's a whole range of types: https://pcmonitors.info/articles/lcd-panel-types-explored/ The worst LCDs today are crap, but the best ones are going to be hard to tell apart from a CRT without putting it next to one. Since the only CRTs made today are high quality CRTs because there…

>Are you buying good LCDs? There's a whole range of types: https://pcmonitors.info/articles/lcd-panel-types-explored/ The worst LCDs today are crap, but the best ones are going to be hard to tell apart from a CRT without putting it next to one. Since the only CRTs made today are high quality CRTs because there's zero market for bad CRTs anymore (and only barely a market for CRTs at all), a modern CRT may still outclass the best LCD, but mostly because of the fact that if the CRT couldn't outclass the best LCD it wouldn't exist at all.

You're right, I should've been a bit more explicit, I was mainly comparing "average" CRTs from up to about 2005 (back when they were still relatively mainstream) from an average LCD monitor today. Not the top of the line but not the bargain bin either.

For a long time switching from CRT to a comparably-priced LCD was a massive downgrade. You had a lower resolution, ridiculous ghosting, bad colors, black levels that looked like the rising sun and a viewing angle on par with the angular diameter of Pluto.

Nowadays you can find relatively cheap 4k LCDs that perform decently. Sure the blacks aren't perfectly black and it's not good enough for any serious color-sensitive work but for coding and gaming it's good enough for me.

Re: Retro 5″ Black and White TV as a computer monitor – A tale of pointlessness

#44

Post by iamdead »

I know someone who converted one of these into a home-made terminal, so they could connect to the computer at school and work from home. They drilled a hole into the TV, added a socket for video input which bypassed the antenna/demodulator, and hooked it up to a home-made 8-bit computer. 32 columns!

Re: Retro 5″ Black and White TV as a computer monitor – A tale of pointlessness

#46

Post by thelazydogsback »

Sounds like I need to hook up my 2" Sinclair MTV1 or Seiko wrist TV watch, both of which have just been gathering dust. However, neither have any sort of input -- is there a USB or HDMI ultra low power VHF or UHF transmitter so I can go total Terry Gilliam in the house with multiple displays??

Re: Retro 5″ Black and White TV as a computer monitor – A tale of pointlessness

#47

Post by colmvp »

ahje wrote: post #12
katzgrau wrote: post #9

At about the age of 14 I somehow came into ownership of 5" black and white TV. I wasn't allowed to have a TV in my bedroom, but this thing probably looked useless to my parents so they didn't say anything. Little did they know, while they were at work, I went up into the attic and ran a coaxial cable from a splitter down into my room and into the back of the VCR, all neatly tucked behind my desk. I spliced an old mon…

He will. Kids try to find loop-holes in every single rule, and they will deliberately misinterpret everything you say in order to use it against you later on. :)

I don't have a kid, but I recall one of my nieces friends went to the kitchen. We turned around and asked if she needed anything and she said "oh I'm just getting some food for the group." We nodded and went back to our conversation. In the corner of my eye, I realized she was scrounging up chocolate/candy. I sort of shrugged and thought, well technically that is food.

Re: Retro 5″ Black and White TV as a computer monitor – A tale of pointlessness

#48

Post by yardie »

digitalsushi wrote: post #41
yardie wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So many memories. I remember riding my bike to the local ISP's office to get my internet welcome packet. Because I wasn't going to wait 5-7 business days for it to arrive in the mail. It came complete with a dozen floppies for Mac and PC, account details, and the Internet Yellow Pages. Which is sitting on a shelf in my parents garage. At the dawn of the public internet there were no call centers or AOL discs. It was…

The memories indeed! We had a T1 and a pile of Livingston Portmaster 2e terminal servers, connected with a centrex hunt group to a single dialup phone number. I learned a lot about people very quickly. As we got more popular, we started to get busy signals, because we couldn't grow our hardware fast enough - and then people learned how to do keepalives, so that they wouldn't get stuck offline on a busy signal. That w…

LOL. I was one of those keepalive hackers. Once I discovered newsgroups and IRC I'd leave the line up to download while I was at school. Downloading a single MP3 over 19.2kbps took the better part of a day.

Re: Retro 5″ Black and White TV as a computer monitor – A tale of pointlessness

#49

Post by LocalH »

whenchamenia wrote: post #7

I still use a CRT. Works great, no fuss. Its just heavy to move, which I don't do often. People comment on how rich the colors are. 85hz refresh solves the 'flicker' issue.

CRTs are unmatched for specific use cases. Retro consoles that predate HD support (and a few that can technically output HD like the PS2 are still better on a CRT), rhythm gaming (I play Clone Hero, which is an independent Guitar Hero-style engine, on a 120Hz CRT), and viewing SDTV content are three use cases where flat panel displays just cannot match all of the benefits that CRTs offer.

However, I still agree that for the majority of the public, flat-panel displays are probably better. They take up less room, generally provide a sharper and higher-resolution image, and they're more compatible with the most common video devices found in homes today (connnecting many devices to SD CRTs requires jumping through some hoops).

Re: Retro 5″ Black and White TV as a computer monitor – A tale of pointlessness

#50

Post by RHSeeger »

ahje wrote: post #12
katzgrau wrote: post #9

At about the age of 14 I somehow came into ownership of 5" black and white TV. I wasn't allowed to have a TV in my bedroom, but this thing probably looked useless to my parents so they didn't say anything. Little did they know, while they were at work, I went up into the attic and ran a coaxial cable from a splitter down into my room and into the back of the VCR, all neatly tucked behind my desk. I spliced an old mon…

He will. Kids try to find loop-holes in every single rule, and they will deliberately misinterpret everything you say in order to use it against you later on. :)

When my daughter asks me "Daddy, can you ", I usually reply with "Yes" and then leave it at that. Then should responds with "WILL you ", and I do it. I very clearly taught her the difference between can and will by doing so. And now she does the same thing to my wife. And I get in trouble for it. It's great.
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