View Single Post
  #19  
Old 06-08-2014, 08:24 PM
Kamakiri's Avatar
Kamakiri Kamakiri is offline
Administrator
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Buffalo, New York
Posts: 5,109
Quote:
Originally Posted by kramden66 View Post
Siting closer would benefit for sure , this is why Jack Webb had so many close ups in the 50's Dragnet , he felt that even with 10" or 12" screen you still had a small picture so by doing close ups people could see the faces
Which is one fact that I hadn't really considered....the programming was geared towards sets of this type. Meaning, that there was only so many people or so much information on the screen at one time with studio adjusted contrast and lighting levels to make things appear clearer on smaller sets without having to be right on top of them.

Much of today's programming is of course geared towards HDTV, which can display as much as you can fit on the screen with perfect clarity. Not so sixty plus years ago.

Since my wife passed out in the living room tonight in front of our 46" HDTV, I shut the set off, put my 7" Motorola on the coffee table and watched Law and Order SVU. Perfect distance. Then she woke up and asked me to turn the big one on again

Interesting to think about though. We see all kinds of pictures of 10" and larger sets worked into a living room situation, but rarely if ever a 7".

Consider this too......perhaps they were used more for special programming (a movie) and pulled out for such things as a family treat, or they were made particularly to carry to friends' houses for larger get togethers or to watch a ball game with your buddies. I guess that would explain the logic of expensive (for the day) televisions being enclosed in suitcase designs.... the reason for which has always sort of eluded me.
__________________
"Restoring a tube TV is like going to war. A color one is like a land war in Asia."
Reply With Quote