Were TV remotes a mistake?
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Were TV remotes a mistake? At least you couldn't lose buttons on the actual set. Or is that too retro tech even for Mastodon
@afewbugs I remember - my folks refused to have a TV which wasn’t very cool in the 70s - going round to my best mate. Remote controls must have existed coz he had half a fishing rod which he could press the buttons with to change channel between BBC 1, 2 and ITV. Each one had its own physical button. Because that was it: no other channels nor any others conceivable
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@afewbugs I remember - my folks refused to have a TV which wasn’t very cool in the 70s - going round to my best mate. Remote controls must have existed coz he had half a fishing rod which he could press the buttons with to change channel between BBC 1, 2 and ITV. Each one had its own physical button. Because that was it: no other channels nor any others conceivable
Not quite to the point, but when I was a mature student, I had a black and white telly until they turned the signal off (cheaper licence) I got it at a charity shop, and it had a DIAL to find the channels....
(this was post-year 2000, BTW. I was a true dinosaur.)
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@suearcher @JimmyB Yeah we had a TV without a remote well into the nineties, which is when I thought they were invented, so I wonder if my parents just lost it
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@suearcher @JimmyB Yeah we had a TV without a remote well into the nineties, which is when I thought they were invented, so I wonder if my parents just lost it
Now I'm wondering how long there was an overlap between the invention of the remote and TV's losing visible accessible buttons.
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Were TV remotes a mistake? At least you couldn't lose buttons on the actual set. Or is that too retro tech even for Mastodon
That kind of depends on the remote. Some, if not all, these days are absolute rubbish. I also however remember remotes that you could throw across the room and would still work. The kind you would smack because the batteries were going low, and somehow that fixed it for a bit.
But remotes with built-in microphones or screens even? Why? Apart from an accessibility standpoint for the microphone, why would you want a screen to control your screen?
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@suearcher @afewbugs yes! Good point. Don’t know. But my mate - aged maybe 10 - in 1980, called his old fishing rod the remote control. And I don’t think he invented the concept!
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Were TV remotes a mistake? At least you couldn't lose buttons on the actual set. Or is that too retro tech even for Mastodon
@afewbugs
I had a TV in the 90s with no remote and with a couple broken buttons. We only got about 4 channels, so having a few broken was no big deal.Looking back, it was wild. About 10 buttons, each with an analog dial for frequency. We also had a rotor on the outdoor antenna, so we could turn it to get better signal. You'd push the button on the TV and turn the dial to the channel's sticker, and it'd buzz while the antenna on the roof turned and the picture hopefully got clearer.
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@suearcher @afewbugs @JimmyB
My current TV has no physical buttons at all, you use the remote or app or home automation to turn it on & off. It's a couple years old, a TCL Roku. The next older TV had a few buttons, power + volume, one to switch input. -
@suearcher @JimmyB @afewbugs I had a black and white tv in my room at home when I was a college student and it came with me to uni. It also had a dial and I used a bamboo cane to reach it from my bed and turn the dial - the hollow end just fitted over the tapered end of the dial and as the dial was ridged the bamboo would grip it. Remote control
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@suearcher @JimmyB @afewbugs I had a black and white tv in my room at home when I was a college student and it came with me to uni. It also had a dial and I used a bamboo cane to reach it from my bed and turn the dial - the hollow end just fitted over the tapered end of the dial and as the dial was ridged the bamboo would grip it. Remote control
@afewbugs @helenclayton @suearcher beautiful!!! And - B&W - lower TV license fee!
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@suearcher @JimmyB @afewbugs I had a black and white tv in my room at home when I was a college student and it came with me to uni. It also had a dial and I used a bamboo cane to reach it from my bed and turn the dial - the hollow end just fitted over the tapered end of the dial and as the dial was ridged the bamboo would grip it. Remote control
@helenclayton @suearcher @JimmyB @afewbugs
In college, I had a large-ish color TV with a picture, and a small B&W TV that had sound. We'd turn them both on. Had to use a pair of pliers to turn the channel selector on the B&W TV.
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@suearcher @JimmyB @afewbugs I had a black and white tv in my room at home when I was a college student and it came with me to uni. It also had a dial and I used a bamboo cane to reach it from my bed and turn the dial - the hollow end just fitted over the tapered end of the dial and as the dial was ridged the bamboo would grip it. Remote control
@helenclayton @JimmyB @afewbugs
Brilliant! My dial was much bigger, an inch across, so I had to get up to twiddle it.
I did put stickers around it indicating where each channel was.
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@helenclayton @JimmyB @afewbugs
Brilliant! My dial was much bigger, an inch across, so I had to get up to twiddle it.
I did put stickers around it indicating where each channel was.
@suearcher @helenclayton @afewbugs all these students who had TV’s! Cue 4 Yorkshiremen…
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@afewbugs @helenclayton @suearcher beautiful!!! And - B&W - lower TV license fee!
@JimmyB @afewbugs @suearcher it was really small though so I did upgrade it to a colour version with an actual remote control.
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@helenclayton @suearcher @JimmyB @afewbugs
In college, I had a large-ish color TV with a picture, and a small B&W TV that had sound. We'd turn them both on. Had to use a pair of pliers to turn the channel selector on the B&W TV.
@unicorndeburgh @helenclayton @JimmyB @afewbugs
Isn't it wonderful the bodges we'll come up with (and put up with!).
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@suearcher @helenclayton @afewbugs all these students who had TV’s! Cue 4 Yorkshiremen…
@JimmyB @suearcher @afewbugs mine would have been via my dad and probably came with ‘university of Exeter’ written on them in yellow paint marker. I also don’t think you needed a tv licence if away from home at uni, covered by home licence. I may be imagining that.
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@JimmyB @suearcher @afewbugs mine would have been via my dad and probably came with ‘university of Exeter’ written on them in yellow paint marker. I also don’t think you needed a tv licence if away from home at uni, covered by home licence. I may be imagining that.
@helenclayton @JimmyB @suearcher no you definitely did, everyone in my hall at Durham University put them on the roof of the building when the license inspectors came round so they only got the ground floor
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@JimmyB @suearcher @afewbugs mine would have been via my dad and probably came with ‘university of Exeter’ written on them in yellow paint marker. I also don’t think you needed a tv licence if away from home at uni, covered by home licence. I may be imagining that.
@helenclayton @suearcher @afewbugs I’m remembering our halls in Camden (met my missus on the first day
) and I don’t think there was a TV? Don’t think anyone had one and I can’t remember a common room or anything? Seems impossible now! -
@suearcher @afewbugs @JimmyB
The secondhand TV, we recently got for Mum, has a small grid of seven buttons behind a bottom corner of the screen.The buttons worked but to navigate the menu the instructions require up/down, left/right, enter/back.
Took a fair bit of guess work and trail and error to tune and programme it when one button is for 'power' and the other six are all left/right rockers for channel selection, volume, menu, and source.
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@helenclayton @JimmyB @suearcher no you definitely did, everyone in my hall at Durham University put them on the roof of the building when the license inspectors came round so they only got the ground floor
@afewbugs @JimmyB @suearcher oh well I guess my parents sorted that out for me because I didn’t
