Saturday 7 December 2013

Ode to the tee vee

Next week analog tv channels are closing down for good where I live, to be replaced by digital. They have already been shut down in NSW and some other states. I think Melbourne is one of the last to go.



It didn't really hit home to me until today when I came across this article - about an old tv collector who owns about 100 old televisions - in the morning paper, that this really is the (abrupt and sad) end of an era.



I've always wanted to buy an old television, I guess it has been on my 'To do someday' list for quite a while. And let's face it, if you own an old television it would be great to be able to use it. But now alas, that will not be possible. I have a soft spot for old televisions, like many other mid-century modern gadgets (radios, record players, cars etc.), because they really are just beautiful incarnations of design - they were designed to be beautiful. Whereas now most things seem to be designed for functionality, or to a sense of beauty that I do not understand. I certainly would not describe today's flat screen tv's as being beautiful.

But I think what really get's to me is the sense of finality. It is doubtful that analog will ever be brought back, because most people probably won't notice it's absence, and the one's who do, the nostalgics and collectors of this world, are drops in the ocean of new modernity. So this is it for the original tv. It is over.

In the article, Mr Lawson, the tv collector points out about one of his tvs that, ''It saw the very first TV broadcast, the parts are dated one month before that,'' - that it was in fact, probably bought to watch the first broadcast. And now it will also see it's last.




Goodbye old tee vee. You will be missed.

3 comments:

  1. Lizzy, the conversion happened several years ago here in California. We got a Digital-to-Analog converter box that installed easily and cost about $30 dollars. I suspected the whole change-over was to sell this new technology but now see it allowed local stations to expand their programming with simultaneous broadcasts from the same channel. Old tvs are not just worth collecting, they're still usable.

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    1. Hi Geo, oh that's good. I'll have to look into that - I think they might have mentioned something about a conversion system in the article but it went over my head. Very good to know that they are still usable!

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  2. Hi Geo, oh that's good. I'll have to look into that - I think they might have mentioned something about a conversion system in the article but it went over my head. Very good to know that they are still usable!

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