Tech with style

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moonshadow
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Tech with style

Post by moonshadow »

Jenn and I were talking a little at the supper table tonight. The subject got around to what we planned to do with the spare bedroom if/when Amber ever moves out. I had made plans to move our bed and dressers into the smaller bedroom and transform our larger bedroom into a type of "fun" room, complete with a pin ball machine, games, Jenn wants some exercise equipment too.

One thing I made clear was I DID NOT want one of these new modern gaudy tasteless flat panel television sets. I see them in every Walmart and upon entering Sams Club and Best Buys everywhere. These things are an abomination in terms of style. *spit!* Some are the size of an entire freaking wall. No thank you SIR! Give me an old 19" CRT in a corner any day....

I told her I'd like to get my hands on a vintage set, even if it's something like I had back when we lived in Bedford. I always liked the floor model television sets. They were not only TV sets, they became part of the furniture and decor of the room.
wendyw.jpg
I mean where do you set your VCR on a flat screen?

A proper television doesn't need a large tacky entertainment center... a properly designed set of craftsmanship stands fine on it's own....

Of course, all this said, we're rather getting away from TV culture anyway.

Something else about TV... I think we need to bring back sign-offs, at least on the network stations. I mean, who the hell really cares about watching infomercials at 3AM anyway....?

Then there is this gem I saw at a local antique store last weekend. Unfortunately, it had already been sold and was in the process of being shipped to Switzerland.
01052041.JPG
More signoffs from my childhood (way past my bedtime...)

WDBJ7 1988

WSET13 1989 --This one is kinda unique... James Taylor instead of "America the Beautiful".
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crfriend
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Re: Tech with style

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It only counts as a television set if the picture collapses into a single point of light in the centre of the screen when you turn the power off. Nothing else will do.

And don't make me get my camera out. I still have the first VCR I bought in 1982 (or thereabouts) and I'd likely give myself a hernia moving it to where I could get a reasonable shot -- and that's not the heaviest one I own.

You're right. We need more sign-offs. Let's start with a sign-on at 06:00 and a sign-off at 06:01. We need more test-pattern stations.

I'm TV-free these days, although I do have a 30" CRT device in my living-room (furnished apartment), but lack any source for it because it's an all-analogue machine and analogue broadcasts ceased in these here parts a good many years ago. I don't particularly miss it, either. I get my dose of evening "news" at my local on weekday afternoons and that's enough.

The publican at my weekend hangout proudly provided the Worcester rag to a pal of mine and myself this afternoon, and I casually said, "Thanks, I may need it in a few minutes in the men's room." which was greeted with a smirk and a chuckle. My pal asked whether I'd like the comics or the front page, to which I responded, "The comics, please" and when he handed me the funnies I said, "No, the other comics" and drove the point home. Sure enough, the front page (and the entire front section for that matter) was almost as comical as the "funny pages".

The Googie-styled TV is a classic, but where are you going to put a VCR (or anything else) atop it? (Not that VCRs existed at the time...)
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6ft3Aussie
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Re: Tech with style

Post by 6ft3Aussie »

A real TV is black and white, and uses valves, and has a crafted, polished wooden cabinet, not the plastic solid state characterless stuff of today. Oh the smell of the dust on the hot valves after the TV had been on for a while!
I remember the introduction of colour TV broadcasts (very vaguely) around 1974, although we did not have a colour TV until 1981.

On with sign-off broadcasts, this was what I remember on TV in New Zealand until the early to mid 1990s when TV went 24 hours.
The Goodnight Kiwi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL17M1k8ddY
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crfriend
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Re: Tech with style

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6ft3Aussie wrote:The Goodnight Kiwi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL17M1k8ddY
That is simply too cute for words! Awesome.

Here we'd usually get an image of The Flag waving in a breeze with The Star Spangled Banner playing on the audio, then either a test pattern or snow if they shut the transmitter off. Back in the days of monochrome TV, the test patterns were actually useful; nowadays they're colour-bars which are useless for setting anything other than the "tint" control. Such, I guess, is the price of "progress". I like the whimsical approach of New Zealand Television.
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Wonderful Electric
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Re: Tech with style

Post by Wonderful Electric »

That George jetson tv is freaking amazing. For my own home I would get a Samsung frame or Samsung serif tv, if I had the money for it. Might as well throw in those art rental services like Artcast too while I’m dreaming!

An interior designer once told me that television shows, movies, design magazines, and interior pictures for real estate always tries to hide the tv because it’s giant, ugly, and too distracting.
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crfriend
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Re: Tech with style

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Wonderful Electric wrote:An interior designer once told me that television shows, movies, design magazines, and interior pictures for real estate always tries to hide the tv because it’s giant, ugly, and too distracting.
The "George Jetson" set may be an exception to that rule, but, in general it's accurate. Proper cabinetry for television sets is about as extinct as the dodo bird. I don't mind tech for tech's sake, and for years my prime TV set was completely sans cabinet with everything right out in the open (valves and all -- including all the high-voltage bits). However, done "properly", a television should be as innocuous as a picture-frame. We're getting close now. The depth still needs to come down, but it's a lot better than the depth of the device being almost as deep as it was wide.
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kingfish
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Re: Tech with style

Post by kingfish »

crfriend wrote:However, done "properly", a television should be as innocuous as a picture-frame. We're getting close now. The depth still needs to come down, but it's a lot better than the depth of the device being almost as deep as it was wide.


I think it's closer than you think. The one I mounted to the wall above my treadmill (cheap 40-incher) protrudes off the wall a mere 4-1/2". I've seen wall mounted shadow boxes tastefully done that were bigger than that. Our big one (which is about the the size of one of my windows) is mounted to the chimney above a secondary (unused) fireplace. They don't dominate the room or sit like they're part of some shrine to the invention of the moving picture.
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