What are the purposes of a TV's parts Why might television sets have changed over time?

Answer 1

Originally, television sets were bulky and heavy. The back jutted out to accommodate a large picture tube that was in the shape of an ice cream cone (minus the ice cream). The front of the picture tube was flat where it met the screen, and tapered to a narrower round end. It was huge!

Inside, a transformer was wrapped with copper wire.

Also inside, glass tubes fit into a components board; these tubes lit up and got warm when the TV was turned on. These glass tubes could also fail--they were very expensive to replace (each came one to a small box and could run $10-20 dollars for 1). Glass tubes were NOT interchangeable; you had to replace using the same item number. Note: Glass tubes were also used in the first radios.

The picture tube, glass tubes / board, and connecting wires were housed in an outside shell, often made of wood or molded plastic. TVs were often floor models which were the size of 2 night stands, or nearly the size of a small desk!

A particle board covered the back of the tv, including the rounded end of the picture tube. It was important to keep the TV set at least 1 to 3 feet away from the wall or curtain in case it got too hot. Screws held the particle board to the back.

On one corner of the TV back (usually the left side), you would attach the tiny wires (2) for the TV antenna (also called "Rabbit ears"). The rabbit ears consisted of a base with 2 antennas above and attached to it (like a car antenna). Each pulled up; you could extend them to full length, about 18-24 inches. Holding the base in place with your hand, you could tip each antenna to the right, left, forward, or back until you got a clear picture. It could take quite a bit of effort to get the rabbit ears placed "just so" so the picture was clear. BUT often, if you moved your hand away, static or other problems started. Sometimes, a kid in the family stood to keep a hand on the antenna. Other people used aluminum foil or metal coat hanger attached to the antenna(s) to keep a good picture.

On the TV front were knobs, like drawer knobs. One was the On-Off. Another was vertical control; another was horizontal control. If the picture became distorted or started to roll up or down, you used those knobs to stop the movement. Another set of knobs controlled color (IF you had a color set). You could make people's faces green; trees red; sidewalks black; etc. but most often, you'd use those when the coloring was incorrect-- faces too purplish-red and so on. It took quite a bit of effort to meddle with these knobs to get a constant picture that was clear.

There were NO remotes. If you wanted to change the channel, you got up and did it.

We had 3 local stations up through 1970. Then, other broadcasters joined the line up, including subscription services like HBO.

Up through the 1960s, television stopped broadcasting at midnight every night. It resumed at 5:59 a.m. As stations and networks joined, TV began broadcasting at night.

As you can see, TV sets up through the 1970s were large, bulky, clunky, manual, difficult to use, and expensive to fix. They used an Analogue signal, not digital. Once we had artificial satellites, television could broadcast as digital signals. Digital bandwidths transfer sound and picture separately over two separate methods.

Slowly, this changed to small electronics components. We now have flat screen TV sets. No one even refers to TV as a "TV set" anymore. We use remotes to turn on/off and change channels. Today, a "basic cable" plan includes hundreds of channels! Programming runs 24-hours a day, 7 days a week. However, we lose ALL television when there is a cable outage--not so in pre-cable-tv days when you only lost 1 of the 3 primary channels.

Believe it or not, people still have/use 1980s-1990s "television sets". Not everyone likes flat screen TV. Also, not everyone likes HD TV or even cable.