I became strangely engrossed in the local cabelcast thing and was constantly afraid it was going to cut to something else! I had no idea there was (at one time) such a time and labor intensive process for the cable company to insert local/public access programming into the linear programming stream. I'm picturing staff having to go up there and hookup power and signal cables and huddle into a tiny plywood booth in all manner of weather in the name of getting the broadcast out. Wild.
15:36 I remember all those "one button" color stabilization gizmos of the 1970s; they were supposed to correct drift in the color burst pulse, a vulnerability in the NTSC system that was addressed in PAL with alternating phases, albeit at a price of reduced color resolution. I don't remember any of them working very well, with VIR seeming to have the most logic behind it. Unfortunately, from what I've heard, stations were very inconsistent in how and whether they used the VIR signal, so you couldn't really count on that system working. But, as the 1980s progressed and digital tuners based on standard chipsets took over, the problem seemed to wither away. Who knows what algorithms were buried in those chips; there could have been remnants of these 1970s technologies being activated when they worked. However they did it, the digitally tuned sets didn't have pictures that changed color as you walked across the room, even when using rabbit ear antennas. Now, we are spoiled by perfect digital pictures, even if most of the current content is crap.
I enjoyed watching this episode. I always had an interest working in radio and television and fortunately I found a job working in the Warranty Department for a large electronic company that made TVs, radios, microwaves, speakers and more, (I will not mention the company's name because I am not not there now due to staff cut-backs and lay-offs). During my years working there, I learned a lot about the production side as well as Customer Care. This episode brought me back good memories. Yes, those were the days :)
I remember an episode of Colombo where a Betamax was used to create an alibi for the murderer (you have to see the episode) . Anyway the murderer is showing off the video camera and Betamax to Colombo . Fascinated , he asks how much it goes for . $3000, not including the camera , of course
The TV in the thumbnail image is a Zenith 25DC56 or 25EC56 (1973-74 model year) Chromacolor II chassis in the Avanti cabinet model. Zenith made the Avanti (which was one of a few knockoffs of the RCA model G2000) cabinet for nearly a decade from the early 70's to early 80's and stuffed everything from hand wired mostly vacuum tube manual tuned chassis to Cable ready printed circuit board based System 3 sets with space phone. The Chromacolor II was probably the best quality of them all CRTs are damn near imortal, chassis sometimes have a few small issues that are easily fixed, but can easily go 40-50 years of daily use without failing. The video tape deck in the last minutes of the video is a Sony Color EIAJ deck....Probably a AV-5000 family deck. I've got that same Sony TV/Betamax combo console and it's rarer Zenith TV/Betamax combo console cousin.
Great video as always but that bit at the end was incredible. Never thought I'd see something like that in my life. It's wild seeing how these things were done before computers.
I remember in the late 70s maybe early 80s SNL had a parody commercial done like one of these with the most ridiculously over engineered television. It featured laser beam effects sending huge modular components into a cabinet cramming all manor of features like sound modules, picture modules, color control modules, etc.. I've only seen it that one time it broadcast but it was very slick and looked just like that Zenith System Three commercial.
I love Sleepcore. It's both comforting and disturbing. I remember many of these commercials and products... These TV commercials are incredible - today it's HD and flatness. Then it was adjusting colour and light via changing channels and well, drawing the curtains. 'Qua-sar.' Sears made the best buttered popcorn... Yes. I love Sleepcore. Say G'night Dick.
We had a Beta machine (not a Betamax), and I remember not being able to rent the tapes anymore. It was heartbreaking. But I also remember our astonishment at not needing to BE there in order to record things!!
@ 7:26 "You record what you want, and play it back when you want." And what do they show as the classic example of what you want? A parade with creepy giant bobbleheads!
We have poured our resources into making TVs and cars think, but divested from education so people are thinking less critically and with less nuance.. Horrible priorities.
@@pamelaearl7191 I saw an essay in the early '90s that said that whereas our people had become the most informed, they were far from being the _best_ informed.
