Television has been an integral part of human life in a practical way from the late 1940's. I started to do some research on that subject in order to find out when the first TV arrived, but that turned into a serious rabbit hole that was unlikely to produce an answer that everyone liked. I did find some agreement by different sources that 1934 was the year that the Telefunken company introduced the first commercially manufactured electronic televisions with cathode ray tubes in Germany. As the technology transitioned to electronic circuits it was Sony that that has been credited with the first fully-transistorized solid-state 8-inch television set in 1960.
A 1960's era black and white television
I remember as a kid watching the 1969 Apollo 11 spaceflight and moon landing with the rest of our family, all huddled around a small black and white television perched on a little TV stand (like the one above). Actually, we probably just called those things stands until we started setting up little televisions on them. Either way, the enormity of that event was hampered by the small size of the screen and the low resolution of 480 dpi (dots per inch). I just remember it being fuzzy, much like a photo print of a small-sized film negative tended to be. But I also remember that, officially, said television was mine. Grandpa always entered his grandkids in raffles for various items and the entry he made in my name won the TV. Not that I got to put it in my bedroom and watch it all hours of the night. These were the days of family television which meant that everybody watched the same thing, and mom and dad did the choosing. There were times that all us kids could watch "The Brady Bunch" or something like that but it was still tough getting four kids to agree. Those knobs in the photo above? The bottom one gave us a dozen VHF channels (2-13) and then the one above it clicked through the numerous UHF channels. Few actually showed any picture. Remote control was when dad told you to change the channel. There was not a lot to choose from on those few channels. Television was not the all-consuming event of our lives like it has become. It would be decades until cable television brought hundreds of channels to choose from.
During my teen years my parents added a Magnavox console television system to their living room. The TV was in the middle with a record player and controls areas off to the sides. The photo below is similar to what they had, as I haven't found a photo with theirs in it yet. It probably weighed at least 300 pounds and I can't remember all the times we ended up moving it. When the television quit working I removed it for them and they set a portable TV in the space. They liked how it looked. It seemed that society was starting to put greater emphasis on the importance of the television instead of the record player.
The console TV era
When I started married life we now had to get our own television set as there were no spares available in our families. As I said before, there was usually just one per household. We purchased our first TV together from JCPenney's as they had everything in their stores at that time. It was a 19 inch color TV that cost us about $500 (remember that number as it will come up later) and it had those same two knobs along with the rabbit ear antennas. There were favorite shows we watched together in the living room where it occupied the space of honor where all seats could view it. When we got one of the first VCR's (also at JCPenney's) which cost us $1000 on sale, we would host get-together where friends would come and watch some of the latest movies on VHS tape that were rented for $5 at the video store. Oh, and don't forget to rewind the tape before you bring it back! (I realize this paragraph has a lot of words and concepts not in general use right now but just search the internet if you're interested in any of them.)
Our first color television set and VCR
A few years later I had a friend who was quite handy with wood projects (this was before I owned tools or knew how to use them) and he suggested we could build a television cabinet to enclose the TV and make it look like a small console. Apparently that poor little television just looked naked all alone up on that stand so I took him up on his offer. It was a custom job with routed edges and decorative cuts. It had a stand with a ball-bearing swivel base, hinged doors, and knobs. The whole project cost me about $50 give or take. I had that TV for many years, somewhere around eight or so, and I was quite proud of that project. It was a foreshadowing of things to come in my DIY journey.
Our 19 inch television in a hand-build cabinet
I remember having a Toshiba and a Magnavox television over the next few years, the Toshiba only lasting maybe three years or so. If I remember correctly our second television was somewhere around 25 inches (diagonally of course) but it wouldn't fit in this hand-built cabinet and I was sad. The third was about 27 inches and we were now in the era of remote controls which was great. There was probably one or two more of these kinds of televisions after that but life got busier and they didn't stand out as much. But after decades of the curved television tubes there was a shift to the flat tube set that came in even larger sizes. Somewhere along the way I got handed down to me one of those flat tube sets and it was a huge 32 inches in size. That was an instant hit for me as it was larger and more immersive in viewing. As you can see below the corners were squared off instead of rounded off and, though the screen was not perfectly flat, it was flatter than the original curved tubes. This one now was nearly a couple feet deep and nearly 200 pounds! You needed a good friend or two if you were to have any success in moving it.
"Huge" TV that weighed almost 200 pounds
I purchased the chest below to use as a TV cabinet and that 32 inch set fit in there perfectly. That way the ugly television (my wife has yet to find a "cute" one) could be hidden from sight when company came over. But there was a momentous shift taking place in the television world that changed all our perceptions of what it would be to watch television.
A bedroom armoire we used for a TV cabinet
I might interject right here with a mention of the projection screen television system. In no way were these things portable nor did they have great brightness and contrast. But since the cathode-ray tube (CRT) televisions were topping out at 40 inches there needed to be another way to get larger sized screen images. With this rear projection TV the lower section enclosed three RBG (red-green-blue) cylinders projecting their images on a mirror that then showed on the front screen. As you might imagine it was sometimes a nightmare to focus all three of these images together to form one correct image, plus there were keystone adjustments to be made. While most of those produced were the rear projection type, you could also find front projection models that put all the inner workings out in front of the screen. This might have explained why there were not so popular. The photo below is probably a screen of 65 or 75 inches but the entire unit weighed up to 500 pounds depending on the size. I had access to one of these in the late 1980's though it was a smaller unit. In the late 1990's I had a friend who owned a much larger one like the one below and it was quite the spectacle to watch. Thankfully I never had to move one.
Rear Projection Screen TV
They were called flat-screen televisions and they sounded the death-knell for the future of CRT and projection technology. The first ones to arrive were 40 inch models which picked up where the CRT televisions left off. These screens were perfectly flat and relatively thin and used plasma ionized display technology to make the images. The early models also had bulky frames around the screens and came on hefty pedestals. But they were still lighter at 25 pounds or so which made them easier to move and set up. Plasma screens were brighter and had more contrast than the LCD/LED models that followed and garnered a loyal following. I remember going into Sears and being amazed at the clarity and brightness of the screens, so much better than I was used to. Resolution jumped from 480 dpi to 720 dpi (or dots per inch vertically). Resolution was improved to 1080 dpi although both 720 and 1080 were considered HD or high definition. Normally 720 is referred to as HD and 1080 as full HD to differentiate the two as 1080 does have more pixels and produces higher definition. I had to have one of these.
Our first flat screen 46" Panasonic plasma television
My 50" Panasonic plasma TV
When I bought both of these plasmas the salesperson tried to sell me on an extended warranty should anything happen to the TV. Since these were so new and they cost a good amount of money, people were not sure of how long they would last. I was told by the salesperson that they might die at three years and I told them that would be a ridiculous item to sell. They wanted $500 for a five year warranty and I said no. When they asked what I would do if it broke within five years I said I would use the $500 I saved by not paying the warranty to buy a new TV. They did not think that was funny. No matter. We had each of these plasma televisions for about 11 years. In the meantime I continued to enjoy my own plasma, whether in another man room (on the second floor) with a couple computer systems, or in the man cave in the basement for quiet retreat. I never considered it a black hole.
Screens galore
Man cave getaway
My wife's TV screen died first since we bought it first and I hated to see it go. I had always been happy to have these Panasonic bright screens that seemed to be better than all the others. However, technology had been marching on and it turns out the new LED screens were even brighter and have more contrast than the plasma televisions. Who knew? So my son sent me info on another deal for an RCA 65 inch QLED 4K display television that cost.....$500! These 4K sets now had a resolution four times that of the standard 1080 resolution. Numerically they are 2160 dpi. She was not happy when she discovered how big this one was but she wouldn't trade it for my plasma when I offered. I think it's too small for the room and she thinks it's too big so I guess it's just right!
The 65 inch RCA QLED 4K Roku TV
I was still happy with my Panasonic plasma but I could see that my perceptions of the plasma being better than anything else were no longer correct. Six months after getting the RCA TV for my wife I found a deal I couldn't pass up, which was a 55 inch TCL model for just $200. I actually held off setting it up for four months because I thought the plasma was on its last legs, but eventually I just caved and switched it out for the new one. I gave the plasma away and hope it lasts a bit longer for them, but this new TCL QLED 4K HDR TV is so much better than the plasma, which surprised me a lot. And it was no longer the room heater like the plasma tended to be. I continue to be amazed at the high resolution detail and the bright screen real estate. And it came with another technology that the CRT did not have, which was internet connected apps which could be used to find content instead of paying for 500 cable channels you never watched. Cord cutting would soon become a common term.
The 55 inch TCL QLED 4K Google TV
If you go back to some of the first televisions as they came on the market you might find that they cost about $15.00 per square inch of television real estate. Taking my 55 inch model (above) as an example of newest technology you are looking at only $0.15 or 15 cents per square inch. That's 1% of the cost per square inch!
ChatGPT (AI) was asked how much a color television cost in the 1960's. The answer? "According to my sources, the average price of a color television in the 1960s was around $500. This was a significant investment at the time, and color televisions were considered a luxury item for many households. However, as technology advanced and production costs decreased, the price of color televisions dropped, making them more affordable for the average consumer." (from Quora.com at https://www.quora.com/How-much-did-a-colour-television-cost-in-the-1960s). That has seemed to be a popular price point for me. My first television purchase was the 19 inch color TV that cost $500. The two major purchases of plasma television were $500 each. The replacement RCA television was also $500. There were some other sets we had, like TV/VCR combos, that I'm sure were below that price threshold because they were very budget products, but at least four of my television sets came in around that price level. While many other items we buy today continue to go up in price (like automobiles) I find it interesting that a television purchase from 1980 and a purchase from 2022 cost the same, even though the technology changed immensely.
So maybe I'll be able to buy a bigger OLED TV someday for $500. OLED is probably the best screen technology on the market right now. If you think your LED screen looks really good, just take a look at an LG OLED the next time you're in Best Buy. You can't even imagine the difference. High end 55 inch OLED sets have come down to about $1500 so that's still a very significant sum. And if you're looking for the largest OLED set for your media room, right now that LG OLED 97M3 will set you back $30,000! (as of August 8, 2023 as reported by CNET here). Yikes!
I guess I'll just be happy with my $200 bargain.
Until next time,
Arktander
(aka David Andreasen)
