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The Future Is Retro
13 years ago
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I have seen the future, and it looks a lot like the past.
Cable TV rose to prominence in the 70's and 80's, when it provided a service you couldn't get elsewhere. Perfect TV reception, serving up an array of channels, far greater than anyone had ever seen before. Until cable came along, our area had access only to channels 3 (NBC), 6 (ABC) 10 (CBS), 12 (PBS) and four UHF stations (17,29,48,57)
But then there came cable TV, and with it you had a hundred choices including movies, and music. And as the VCR was still a fairly new concept to most people, cable TV was a goldmine of video. I have memories of my folks bunding us into the car and driving us over to my uncle's place, to watch Hangar 18. Everybody was so excited, because the idea that you could actually watch a recent movie at home was such a new, novel concept.
But, as they say, all good things must come to an end.
The VCR became a household name, and with it we saw the rise and bust of the videocassette rental market. Cable tv operators divided the country up into monopolies, and everything settled into a flabby, lazy, middle-of-the-road slump. No more expansion was possible, and no more great ideas came forward. everything was same-old, same-old for a long time. The cable companies started acting like the monopolies they were, cranking up prices, and lowering service quality. Forcing you to buy content that you didn't want, to get the stuff you did.
And then the internet happened.
And then so did digital HD.
And with those two things, the game changed.
I've been hearing it more and more from the people around me:
The cord is being cut. Cable TV is on the outs. The antenna is back.
With digital TV, you either get a perfect picture or no picture, there is no middle ground of snowy, half-signals flickering and waving like the background from a 70's pop performance. And it's beamed out into the air for free. And since the digital channels are more tightly packed into the available spectrum, (and I checked on this) locally you can get about fifty channels with an antenna. That includes the old 3,6,10,12,17,29,48 and 57 - and a ton more.
And it's all UHF. My tech geek friend clued me to that little tidbit. Even the "big three" broadcast networks are now sending out a UHF signal, because you need those higher frequencies to handle the digital stream.
And if you want movies, $80 gets you a Roku, with access to hulu plus, netflix, amazon streaming, etc....
The avenues for access to video have opened up, wide. And yet, the cable companies still act like they have a monopoly. The only thing that the cable companies still had going for them was perfect picture quality - And now, even that has been taken away from them. They keep on as if nothing had changed since the 80's, charging ridiculous prices, and delivering a substandard service. And that isn't doing them any favors. They are bleeding customers, who have been eager for alternatives for a long time.
Say hello to the alternatives.
We seem to have come full circle.
The future looks a lot like the past - the antenna, and UHF. They're both back.
Hand in hand, and marching onwards.
Far out.
Addendum:
You can find out here: http://www.tvfool.com/
what channels you can get, with what type of antenna.
Cable TV rose to prominence in the 70's and 80's, when it provided a service you couldn't get elsewhere. Perfect TV reception, serving up an array of channels, far greater than anyone had ever seen before. Until cable came along, our area had access only to channels 3 (NBC), 6 (ABC) 10 (CBS), 12 (PBS) and four UHF stations (17,29,48,57)
But then there came cable TV, and with it you had a hundred choices including movies, and music. And as the VCR was still a fairly new concept to most people, cable TV was a goldmine of video. I have memories of my folks bunding us into the car and driving us over to my uncle's place, to watch Hangar 18. Everybody was so excited, because the idea that you could actually watch a recent movie at home was such a new, novel concept.
But, as they say, all good things must come to an end.
The VCR became a household name, and with it we saw the rise and bust of the videocassette rental market. Cable tv operators divided the country up into monopolies, and everything settled into a flabby, lazy, middle-of-the-road slump. No more expansion was possible, and no more great ideas came forward. everything was same-old, same-old for a long time. The cable companies started acting like the monopolies they were, cranking up prices, and lowering service quality. Forcing you to buy content that you didn't want, to get the stuff you did.
And then the internet happened.
And then so did digital HD.
And with those two things, the game changed.
I've been hearing it more and more from the people around me:
The cord is being cut. Cable TV is on the outs. The antenna is back.
With digital TV, you either get a perfect picture or no picture, there is no middle ground of snowy, half-signals flickering and waving like the background from a 70's pop performance. And it's beamed out into the air for free. And since the digital channels are more tightly packed into the available spectrum, (and I checked on this) locally you can get about fifty channels with an antenna. That includes the old 3,6,10,12,17,29,48 and 57 - and a ton more.
And it's all UHF. My tech geek friend clued me to that little tidbit. Even the "big three" broadcast networks are now sending out a UHF signal, because you need those higher frequencies to handle the digital stream.
And if you want movies, $80 gets you a Roku, with access to hulu plus, netflix, amazon streaming, etc....
The avenues for access to video have opened up, wide. And yet, the cable companies still act like they have a monopoly. The only thing that the cable companies still had going for them was perfect picture quality - And now, even that has been taken away from them. They keep on as if nothing had changed since the 80's, charging ridiculous prices, and delivering a substandard service. And that isn't doing them any favors. They are bleeding customers, who have been eager for alternatives for a long time.
Say hello to the alternatives.
We seem to have come full circle.
The future looks a lot like the past - the antenna, and UHF. They're both back.
Hand in hand, and marching onwards.
Far out.
Addendum:
You can find out here: http://www.tvfool.com/
what channels you can get, with what type of antenna.
I worked out that I only regularly watch four american shows: Daily Show and Colbert. Mythbusters. Simpsons.
Those first two I can watch off their website for free. The other two I get auto-downloaded off torrents via RSS.
Everything else I watch is british. And the BBC has an on-demand video system which works over the web. Unfortunately it's UK-only, which seems really short-sighted.
I would buy a BBC tv license to get access to it, if I could.
You probably know this but in the UK you have to buy a TV license to watch live TV, a portion of this fee goes to the BBC and is what funds ALL of their programming as they are not allowed to have adverts [though can sell their shows on dvd and such.]
But digital broadcast will work fine.
Wasn't the very first system of writing done on a (clay) tablet with a stylus? Now we are all writing on "tablets" again!