TVs then vs TVs now

People now pretending that these box tvs were great is hilarious.

All I want is a dumb devices brand.

So sick of smart devices that don't need to be smart. The more unnecessary things something can do, the more it can break.

I wonder if we'll ever get reliable, long lived products ever again or if planned obsolescence has won forever.

This is your nostalgia talking. CRTs were absolutely awful. I think my family still had one of lying around in the mid aughts. It was heavy, ugly, big, with truly awful picture quality and sucks down on power. Even the cheap LCD TVs we upgraded to were so much better than that crap.

An automatic software update straight up corrupted my TV, I have to use it with no internet connection like God intended or it keeps trying to go back to the home menu for an error message. Factory reset and updates won't fix it either. It wouldn't even forget my wifi, I had to change the password to force it to disconnect.

The tech of CRTs seems almost futuristic to me. Bending electron beams with magnets to travel through a vacuum so they hit exotic materials at precisely the right locations seems much cooler than just miniaturizing LED arrays.

CRT sets weighed about 40 pounds, blurry picture, and cost as much as a mid range PC. Modern TVs are 5 pounds, cheaper than most phones, and have nice crisp picture. Smart TVs suck but so did the past. Nostalgia is a lie. Things are always bad, they don't get worse they just stay bad

Pro tip: Never connect your TV to the internet, just use it as a screen. Its easier to buy a new cromecast or Kodi Box when you need support for the latest streaming.

Also, hate how higher end features only come on screens over 55 or 60 inches. Have a small bedroom where 55 inches is just plain too big.

"To purée your boiled potatoes, this blender needs a valid email address and cell phone verification number, please update your personal information in the Settings option and try again."

(twenty minutes later, the bastards have your data and the boiled potatoes are still crammed inside the blender...)

"Error code prompt error general ### task failed successfully undefined command. FOR HOT SHINGLES IN [your street name] WAITING TO GET NAILED BY YOU [your name] CLICK ANYWHERE TO REGISTER NOW!"

I just never agreed to the terms of my smart TV because their privacy policy is horrid.

Been fine 3 or so years and counting.

But could your old CRT you bought with your own money display advertisements in it's menus? Hmm? HMMMM? Could it? See? Modern Television wins again!

Bro my TV straight up crashes sometimes And that is genuinely the most annoying concept ever

Hey man, 50 years ago we went to the store and bought new vacuum tubes when our TVs went pop and hiss – you couldn’t fix CRTs like that.

CRTs were witchcraft.

How does it even knows it needs update?

Old TVs could literally kill you when you try to take them up the stairs.

Nevermind that the static "snow" that you see is cosmic background radiation*

*well a part of it

Mmmmm.... Radiation.

the camo wall is from when I was a kid. I painted it with my dad, and even though it doesn't really fit me anymore, I don't want to paint over it because I liked doing it.

Edit: also no, the steam deck is not powering the monitor. I put it there because I liked the juxtaposition between the 90s CRT and 2023 OLED steam deck. It's an old 2200+ AMD sempron. Also yes I know it's a PC monitor, not a TV. It's still a CRT, hush.

Edit 2: after fighting with spoilers, I give up.

Do TVs actually refuse to work if you don't connect them to the internet?

i still don't understand why people buy smart TVs, just get a big monitor and connect it to a cheapo laptop

Televisions today are much cheaper than in the past.

Teletext, remember teletext?

Old TVs could also take a hit from a bowling ball without a problem, new ones can break if hit by a rubber band!

Old ones could also distort the image if you moved a strong magnet across the screen.

What exactly is that shape supposed to be under the modern tv?

just gonna say it, missed opportunity to put an ntsc filter doge and WIDE cheems on their respective screens.

blackbox

Nope. That's not the noun form. #millennialWordJoining strikes again!