What does collecting old tv's mean to young people?

[NowhereMan 1966]

Originally Posted by kschrief

I'm a 25 year old Software Developer, born in 1991. I feel I'm within the last few years of the pre-internet generation. I got a small taste of what life was like before anyone and everyone could do just about anything with technology, and it was always interesting to me what people could and couldn't do before all the moderm miracles I grew up with (That some of the even younger people on here would laugh at me for calling miracles). As I started to really research the technologies available before I was born, I became more and more fascinated. Things that I took for granted as a basic necessity (Color TV, Cable TV, Video game consoles, etc) were being introduced as futuristic revolutions, and things that were obsolete and unnecessary (B&W TV, OTA Broadcasting) were all that most people had. And some people didn't even have that. And that was only 30 or so years before I was born. Go back another 10 years, and you were the talk of the neighborhood if you had a set at all!

After the novelty of "Ha, that TV's old" wore off, the technology itself is what fascinated me. What's the difference between transistors and tubes? What's different between analog and digital signals, despite being on the same frequencies? How can I convert one to the other? How can I get something from the 90s to play on a TV from the 80s? How can I get something that came out a week ago to play on that same TV? How can I set up a microtransmitter to bring portable units into the mix? Should I really hook up an Xbox 360 to a 1.5" Watchman? With each experiment, each more absurd than the last, I'm learning more and more about television and broadcasting technology both old and new. And with it has come the desire I see from just about everyone here to keep, restore, and preserve the older technologies. I've absolutely learned the roots of where everything we take for granted nowadays has come from, and I've gained a very deep respect for that.

I was born in 1966, I turn 50 next week. :p I've done a lot of the same things you did, one time I hooked up my Playstation to a 1969 Sony B&W TV, I can still play the games, but when it came to "chocobo breeding" in Final Fantasy VII, I had no idea what color chocobo I would get. BTW, FYI, "chocobos" are a staple in the Final Fantasy series, basically it looks like a cross between an ostrich and a chicken and people can ride them or use them to pull wagons. Most chocobos are yellow like a baby chick but in FF VII there are rare ones of other colors that can give them special abilities.