Thread: Tri-view TV?
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Old 12-30-2018, 11:46 PM
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Electronic M Electronic M is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Pewaukee/Delafield Wi
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jeffhs View Post
Forty-odd years ago, Popular Science magazine had an article on a TV called the "Showcase 70". This set was made in 1970 (hence the "70" in the name) and had four monochrome screens plus a large 21" color screen, with a remote that could switch the image from any one of those screens to the large one on a moment's notice; the set also had a digital channel readout, again rather unusual for a TV made in 1970. IIRC, the set was housed in a clear plastic cabinet, which I found unusual, although I guess it makes sense when one considers this was an experimental model.

I don't think the Showcase 70 was ever meant to be mass-produced, as it was simply a prototype that never made it past the developmental stage. However, it could have given other TV manufacturers (Sony, Nordmende, et al.) the idea to produce similar sets under their own branding.

I don't see the practicality of a set like this anyway, except perhaps for TV stations so that they could keep tabs on what the other stations/networks were showing at any given time during the stations' broadcast day (this TV is from the era when television stations would sign off for the night around one or two a. m. local time).

I can't see anyone actually owning a TV like this except for the novelty factor. I had a great-uncle (now long since deceased) who couldn't see the sense, either, in having a TV with more than one screen. He used to say "you can watch only one channel at a time", which makes sense. Even picture-in-picture (PIP) systems, which were popular before DTV and flat screen TVs and showed a small picture from a second channel in one corner of the main TV screen while another was being watched, were useful (IMHO) only for the novelty of them as, again, no one can watch more than one TV program at a time. The PIP functionality only worked when the TV was connected to a VCR with its own tuner.

BTW, no flat-screen TV I have ever seen has had PIP capability. I wonder if this would be possible with HD televisions, or is there some technical or other reason why PIP never caught on in the digital-TV era?
I always thought PIP was an interesting concept. I never used it bacuse I've always had more than one TV at my disposal...It is not rare for me to have multiple sets in a room and run more than one at a time* and often I'd tune them to different shows I wanted to watch at the same time (though if both were really good I'd record and watch one later). It is easy for me to watch multiple shows at once, but not to listen to them. 1-2 people talikng I can follow, but beyond that it just becomes background crowd noise...Hell until they shut off analog cable atleast one of my TV display rooms could display 6 different cable programs at once (though the breaker for that room would not support that for long)...That room can still sort of do that but I'd need to grab every cable box in the house or use the two boxes and fill in the gaps with OTA DTV boxes internet and recorded media.

I've always had good visual attention span for media multitasking....Hell I can put 2-3 VHS EP tapes 6-8 hours long in separate decks on high speed visual search fast forward simultaneously with the sets they are connected to clustered and pickout the show I want to find from the 3 rapidly moving images...Also I've probably written a books worth of posts on this forum while also watching TV.

*Another thing that is common is to watch the same show on two sets at once. The reasons being every set is a bit different and some excell on different image content and fill in for eachother, and also if one tube set craps out mid program on something I'm watching live (which has happened more than once) I can just switch it off and let the other set soldier on.
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Last edited by Electronic M; 12-30-2018 at 11:54 PM.
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