People born after 2000 have never seen the cosmic microwave background on their TV set.
People born after 2000 have never seen the cosmic microwave background on their TV set.
The static on old CRT TVs with rabbit ears was the cosmic microwave background. No one in the last 25 years has ever seen it.
Well, not really. The cosmic microwave background radiation was a tiny fraction of that noise. What everyone saw was mostly thermal noise generated by the amplifier circuit inside the TV.
Tube TV's remained in common service well into the 2010's. The changeover from analog to fully digital TV transmission did not happen until 2009, with many delays in between, and the government ultimately had to give away digital-to-analog tuner boxes because so many people still refused to let go of their old CRT's.
Millions of analog TV's are still languishing in basements and attics in perfect working order to this very day, still able to show you the cosmic background, if only anyone would dust them off or plug them in. Or in many retro gaming nerds' setups. I have one, and it'll show me static any time I ask. (I used it to make this gif, for instance.)
In fact, with no one transmitting analog television anymore (probably with some very low scale hobbyist exceptions), the cosmic background radiation is all they can show you now if you're not inputting video from some other device. Or unless you have one of those dopey models that detects a no-signal situation and shows a blue screen instead. Those are lame.
I bought a plasma in 2009 that would show static if I turned it to cable channels without cable plugged in. Plasmas were susceptible to burn in and since I would game a lot I could see health bars etc start to burn in after a while. Whenever that would happen I would turn it to the static screen - making each pixel flip from one end of the spectrum to the other rapidly like that would actually help remove the burn in.
Last time I thought about static I wondered why colour TV didn't show colour static.
Turns out the colour signal was on very specific frequencies, and if it wasn't present, it would assume it was a black and white signal and turn off the colour circuit.
Dude I was born after 2000 and this is firmly planted in my memories. Maybe people born after 2010 haven't but 2000?
"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." - William Gibson, Neuromancer
Gibson describes the static as metallic, silvery gray in an interview.
"The sky was the perfect untroubled blue of a television screen, tuned to a dead channel." - Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere
I remember the white static myself.
My family had several tvs that did this until around 2013
Say that to my three CRTs. I was born in 2003.
yeah i have
Born 2000, yes i have. So has my younger brother
The sky above the port was the colour of television, tuned to a dead channel...........
I think they call it "analog horror noise" now, along with vhs cassettes.
...
Feel the passage of time XD
Except for that most of it was not.
A lot of the noise on the screen (and speaker) was affected by radiation from nearby stuff.I'd think that nowadays, it would be even more so, with way more WiFi and mobile phone signals everywhere. Now sure, different frequencies mean they would affect less, but the cumulative effect would still be more than the CMBR.
Also, I have a flat-screen CRT at home.
I was born after 2000 (though not too long after) and this is actually one of my core memories. I think about the sounds of the static and the sound of the CRT turning off all the time.
Also, we had a really old tv in our basement till at least 2008 that had no remote, just knobs and I remember messsing with the “hue” dial all the time trying to figure out how it worked.
The only reason that tv worked so late is that we had a black box connected to the antenna which I later learned was converting the digital signal to analog for the TV.
Also, you’ve just reminded me that I remember the switch from analog to digital. Specifically, I remember watching Elmo talking with some adult on TV about the change. Now I really want to find that video. I think the guy was wearing a suit had short dark hair and glasses. I also think the background was pinkish purple. I want to know how accurate my memories from so long ago are. (I’ll add the link to the video in an edit if I can find it)
Edit: I cannot find the video :(
CRTs were fairly common until the early-mid 10s
I'd say born after 2008ish aren't likely to be familiar with them, except seeing the odd one in their grandparents bedroom
Many likely haven't seen a channel sign off for the night with a test pattern up til they come back on
DAE remember that movie White Noise? The climax was fucking horrifying and I have to admit that it haunted me for quite a while.
For better or worse, kids today probably won't get it.No one in the last 25 years has ever seen it.
People didn't just mass-destroy CRTs in 1999...
I bought an LCD TV in 2006 (a Sony Bravia that is still going strong) and that was earlier than most people I know switched
I was born in the 90s, my brothers were born in the early 2000s. We had a CRT into the early 2010s . Maybe people who weren't poor haven't seen real TV static but even then I doubt it. Hell, remember those god awful "flat screen" CRTs? My old station still had one of those that we used to watch TV on in 2018-19. It's probably still there lol
Our cable provider (my parents like cable TV) had analog channels even like 2 years ago, but they started encrypting everything which required purging the analog selection.
This sucks. At worst analog would be grainy, digital just keeps cutting out in worse conditions.
I wish there was also still analog OTA TV for this reason. Much easier to pick up usable signal.They haven't?
I have a TV from ~2010 that still gives me static when something isn't connected.
Well, if they had watched any HBO show, they kind of saw it !
I still see it sometimes when connecting my Steam Deck to my TV
Sixth and Seventh Generation video game consoles were still using scart/composite/component outputs for CRT up until their discontinuation in 2017 so I’m pretty sure a lot of kids would have had a CRT to game on as well was watch TV in their rooms.
Remember, kids typically get the hand me downs when the adults get new shiny.
I have actually, we had a big old crt tv way back when
As person born after 2000, I used to play a lot of games on them Wii and GameCube mainly. The image and responsiveness really felt different. I do kinda miss them
Maybe not directly on their TV set, but there are more than enough references to it in TV and film media that it's still known almost universally.
Everything from old beloved films to Modern period shows. Its literally an overused way to establish the narrative isnt taking place in the present.
You mean scrambled porn, right?
You can still hear it on the radio. Although most of the noise floor is probably man made.
If they ever watch Poltergeist they'll know it's the TV people trying to get out.
Dude Flatscreen HDTVs were expensive even in 2008, and cable actually got worse for higher price so most people were hooked into local broadcast.
Umm… I had a CRT until 2009 and even sold it to someone.
Was it just me or has anyone seen or make out patterns while staring at it? I sometimes found it amusing
I have seen this on a much newer TV last year. It didnt just disappear
or a new smaller tv sitting on top of the old, wood frame tv as a stand now
My mother had one of these. I got to use it as a hand-me-down as a teenager because my mother was abusive AF.
For clarity, the subject of the TV wasn't the abusive part. Her rationale of "I didn't have one when I was a kid so you don't get to have one while you're a kid" was. It didn't apply just to the TV.
You mean the attack of the ants?
I have an old mini tv(the kind that took C cell batteries) that can still pickup the good ol CMB!
uhhh, yes i have? I'm pretty sure some of my younger cousins have lol
