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Television is 100 years old today

diamondgeezer.blogspot.com

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Re: Television is 100 years old today

#81

Post by joe_the_user »

jedberg wrote: post #2

This is interesting. John Logie Baird did in fact demonstrate something that looked like TV, but the technology was a dead end. Philo Farnsworth demonstrated a competing technology a few years later, but every TV today is based on his technology. So, who actually invented Television?

The thing is that "television" seemed like a thing but really it was a system that required a variety of connected, compatible parts, like the Internet.

Different pieces of what became TV existed in 1900, the challenge was putting them together. And that required a consensus among powerful players.

Re: Television is 100 years old today

#82

Post by tgtweak »

therein wrote: post #79
timonoko wrote: post #70

I saw TV first time in 1957. Finland had no TV transmitters, so programs came from Soviet Estonia. I distinctly remember watching romantic Russian film with a catching tune. Perhaps named "Moscow Lights"? How this is even possible that I remember all this, because I was 4 yrs old? Gemini knows: The Film: In the Days of the Spartakiad (1956/1957) The song "Moscow Nights" was originally written for a documentary film c…

I easily have many memories from age 4. I think I even remember the first time that I started forming memories. It was a few years before that, I had come out of my room and saw some toys I was playing with the night before. I realized they were at the same spot I left them, which made me realize the world had permanence and my awareness had continuity. I could leave things at a certain spot and they would be there t…

Definitely have some memories from 3 years old - some people claim earlier and I wouldn't doubt that, although it's very rare for memories before 2 to be recalled episodically.

Re: Television is 100 years old today

#84

Post by kazinator »

sosomoxie wrote: post #64

CRTs are peak steam punk technology. Analog, electric, kinda dangerous. Just totally mindblowing that we had these things in our living rooms shooting electric beams everywhere. I doubt it's environmentally friendly at all, but I'd love to see some new CRTs being made.

With CRTs, the environmental problem is the heavy metals: tons of lead in the glass screen, plus cadmium and whatnot. Supposedly there can be many pounds of lead in a large CRT.

Re: Television is 100 years old today

#85

Post by robotmachine »

JoeDaDude wrote: post #78

I don't care to start a debate about who first invented television when, but I remember hearing (conformed by wikipedia [1]) that Leon Theremin, inventor of the musical instrument named after him, demonstrated mechanical television at roughly the same time. [1]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Theremin

Funny you bring Leon Theremin up. I just showed a friend of mine The Thing[0] today.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)

Re: Television is 100 years old today

#87

Post by Avalaxy »

Does anyone here still have television? Ever since I moved out of my parents house (15 years ago), I never had a TV subscription. I did own a TV screen, but only to run apps like Netflix and Youtube. I'd rather have a simple monitor without the TV options to do so, but strangely that never existed or was too expensive.

Edit: to make it clear, I absolutely did not miss having TV for even a second in all of those years.

Re: Television is 100 years old today

#88

Post by 0PingWithJesus »

marcd35 wrote: post #65

funny story - I had a job recently that installed DirecTV setups for mostly retirement communities. On almost every service call, I'd show up and 95% of the time, without fail, they'd either be watching Fox News, CNN, or CNBC. It was quite depressing to see 24/7 news stations had completely consumed their lives and became the majority of topics of conversation while I was there. I eventually quit the job. I decided I…

Reminds me of Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" (1985), in which he argues that TV as a medium is fundamentally incapable of producing anything other than entertainment. So things like news, political discussion, or any other type of educational programming can only exist on TV as a nutrition-less pantomime of the real thing.

Re: Television is 100 years old today

#89

Post by gtoubassi »

jedberg wrote: post #2

This is interesting. John Logie Baird did in fact demonstrate something that looked like TV, but the technology was a dead end. Philo Farnsworth demonstrated a competing technology a few years later, but every TV today is based on his technology. So, who actually invented Television?

"The Last Lone Inventor: A Tale of Genius, Deceit, and the Birth of Television" is a great book detailing the Farnsworth journey.

Re: Television is 100 years old today

#90

Post by throwaway_20357 »

jedberg wrote: post #2

This is interesting. John Logie Baird did in fact demonstrate something that looked like TV, but the technology was a dead end. Philo Farnsworth demonstrated a competing technology a few years later, but every TV today is based on his technology. So, who actually invented Television?

Wasn't all this early TV experimentation based on Nipkow disks (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nipkow_disk)?
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