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A long while back, the FCC set a hard deadline of July 13th, 2021, for shutting down the last NTSC television transmitters and transitioning channels to being digital fully. The other day, the last of the NTSC transmitters were shut down with hardly anyone commenting, except Hackaday which noted:
A significant event in the history of technology happened yesterday, and it passed so quietly that we almost missed it. The last few remaining NTSC transmitters in the USA finally came off air, marking the end of over seven decades of continuous 525-line American analogue TV broadcasts. We've previously reported on the output of these channels, largely the so-called "FrankenFM" stations left over after the 2009 digital switchover whose sound carrier lay at the bottom of the FM dial as radio stations, and noted their impending demise. We've even reported on some of the intricacies of the NTSC system, but we've never taken a look at what will replace these last few FrankenFM stations.
NTSC has been the analog protocol used in the US for television since 1941, initially for black and white and then by 1953 / 1951 for color. NTSC was sent at a 3:4 aspect ratio with 525 lines per frame at 30 frames per second. PAL and SECAM were the other two analog standards and used in other parts of the world. Four competing standards for digital signals are in use so far. They are DVB-T, ATSC, ISDB-T, and DTMB. The US uses ATSC.
The US has been among the last countries to switch over to digital television transmissions. The FCC gave stations lots of lead time, several extensions, and multiple exit strategies, including the choice of shutting down the channel and ceasing operations permanently.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Tuesday July 20 2021, @04:32PM (1 child)
You're a character and we have much in common. The analog CRT will still look better with an HD converter. It's all about the horizontal resolution, and that varied- some TVs had better bandwidth. IIRC 4MHz was the spec, but that was on a falling slope, so it really varied. And the CRTs had varying numbers of pixels.
I don't have an HD converter, and really don't watch much TV, but it would be better. Maybe embarrassingly (but really not) I watch on a, I think it's a 14" CRT MaggotBox (Magnavox) I trash-picked 10ish years ago. Came without remote- I have a universal but only use it for video so I don't need nor use remote. It's remarkably good, clear, etc. The embarrassing part is I have may fairly large-screen LCD TVs, 32" - 46". I just don't watch enough to bother moving stuff around.
We may have had a similar blond one like you describe. Or I may have worked on one when I worked in TV repair in the late 80s during college. IIRC it had a 6x9 speaker? Or maybe just a big- 8 or 10"?
I have several VCRs- they work, ain't broke, not going to fix. As far as I can tell, I'd have to pay for digital storage. Even if I built something, I just don't need another thing to deal with. I have a box of VHS tapes I'll never watch. This one is a Panasonic- great unit. 4 head, HiFi, etc. I have others. My favorite was a Mitsubishi, which I still have, and I think it needs a head, which I'll probably never bother with.
On a shelf in my basement I still have a very small B&T tube TV. It's a kind of wedge-shaped case, maybe 8" or 10" screen. I don't remember the brand. When I was a kid, I'd watch stuff in bed when I wasn't supposed to. It easily hid under covers when my mom or dad would check in on me.
I've never heard of "Alice to Nowhere", but it sounds interesting. I'd digitize it, if for no other reason than the VCR could "eat" the tape. I had a small cheap plastic gear crack in one VCR and it caused the thing to not take-up, but I didn't know it. Went to eject, and it further trashed the already badly damaged tape. I normally wouldn't have cared much, but it was a 9 hour tape. I probably spliced it.
Anyway, you can get AtoD video converters cheap. I'd look at reviews. Canopus is a good semi-pro brand. I have a couple of high-end Aja things, but I've never used them. But I can if I ever care enough to digitize something.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Tuesday July 20 2021, @05:55PM
If we ever need a character reference, someone will surely attest that we are characters! :D
I remember those little wedge-shaped TVs, but never saw one that had more than about a 6" screen, and some were smaller. You could get 'em with a 12v doohickey to use with the cigarette lighter, the first TV for your car.
Without trotting back down to look, I think the antique TV has a 6x9 speaker, but the whole bottom of the front is that fancy brocade-like facing they used to make 'em look nice. It used to have a piece of rayon?? fabric across the back, but that got damaged/fell apart and is gone now. It had good sound compared to most of the era.
I don't even see a brand on the front of my little color CRT, and would require too many contortions to get to the back, but I vaguely recall it's a Sony, and that the picture (when last it was used) was really crisp. It never had a remote; no lazy people can watch it. ;)
Yeah, the risk of old tape and old VCR getting into a knock-down drag-out is why I'm not watching my old tapes, and next time they get run through it, it'll be to digitize 'em. I always bought pro-grade tape (had to trot clear down to Hollywood to the only place that sold it to the public) so that's probably in good shape, but wouldn't make any bets on the others. I'll probably just haul out the old PC with the TV capture card and figure out how to use that, as theoretically it should Just Work. Some year, real soon now!
Alice to Nowhere is one of those stories that doesn't seem like much, but manages to be captivating. The book is the same way. There is no official DVD (there is a very bad fragmentary digital rip floating around which I presume came from one of the DVD bootleggers that occasionally offer it), and apparently no one has pestered the studio into a proper release. -- That actually happened with Looker (I was among the ~18k who signed the petition, and it sold about the same number almost immediately -- apparently all of us were willing to put our money where our mouth was), and that perpetual worst-movie-you-can't-look-away-from, Hawk the Slayer.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.