The easy way to do it is get a VCR to go with the TV. VCRs hold up really well with age, better than top of the line cassette decks and you can often pick them up for $12 or so.
Man. This is so genial, exactly because you've gone the extra mile to make it look real.
I've seen similar projects, but using an LCD, or a remote, or that had a software menu with a remote, and this always rob the experience a bit. This is fantastic product, even if was not made to be sold, and it was one of thing.
It's been a while, but building this was an interesting experience.
At the time, it was pretty far outside my comfort zone and I had a looming deadline (dad's birthday). Writing the software to work "as I intended" turned out to be much harder than I'd expected, so I ended up hacking things and making single 8-hour long video for each channel (with some persistence, so on next boot it'd continue from where it was)
On the positive side, Dad loved it, and keeping the tuner (the channel dial) with some high resistance made the TV feel as if it was truly an original TV.
Unexpectedly, everybody loved the ads that I added! I think my family mostly felt nostalgic about them
I have two ancient TV's I desperately want to restore .. a Sony TV8-301, which was Sony's first successful consumer product, a truly beautiful relic of 50's/early-60's design ethos, which I found abandoned on the side of a country road in the Austrian countryside, and a black and red mini-TV that would look so great paired up with my Oric Atmos retro computer.
The Sony, in particular, would make an amazing terminal screen.
Trouble is, it is becoming harder and harder to find repair manuals for these.
If anyone knows of a community where these kinds of repairs are executed successfully, I'd love to hear about them. I've kept these things on my shelf for decades now, and I remain committed to their restoration. I'm pretty sure the tubes are still viable .. but maybe the capacitors aren't.
We were the last people in town to get a flat screen TV. In 2015. We still had a 27" Sony CRT TV. That thing was beautiful. It didn't bother me really until one day.
A young person about 10 years old came over "What's that thing hanging off the back of your TV?"
I got some nice parts out of that TV, and cracking the vacuum seal on the CRT was just so satisfying.
For sure, but I probably naively think that those who have the gumption to take the back off a TV would know this. As a kid, I used to play with an old TV by connecting the second anode lead to a 50 ft extension cord and walk around our damp basement zapping spiders with inch-long sparks. Fun times.
My worst shock was from an old tube shortwave receiver when reaching over it and learning that the antenna lead was hot by touching it.
When I was very young (~10yo), I was obsessed with taking apart any electronics I could get my hands in an attempt to figure out how it all worked.
Somehow I got my hands on a semi-functional CRT oscilloscope and of course took it apart. Within minutes of the initial disassembly, I accidentally discharged a large capacitor through my body. I still remember the blinding pain and passing out from literal shock. I'm lucky to be alive today. I gained a healthy fear of electricity that day.
Through the many years that followed I continued my trajectory in electronics, eventually designing and fabbing my own analog and digital circuits. Today I continue to be extremely careful whenever dealing with power circuitry. Always proceed with caution!
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[ 1.8 ms ] story [ 56.3 ms ] thread- https://x.com/FozzTexx/status/825358304515747840
- https://x.com/FozzTexx
At the time, it was pretty far outside my comfort zone and I had a looming deadline (dad's birthday). Writing the software to work "as I intended" turned out to be much harder than I'd expected, so I ended up hacking things and making single 8-hour long video for each channel (with some persistence, so on next boot it'd continue from where it was)
On the positive side, Dad loved it, and keeping the tuner (the channel dial) with some high resistance made the TV feel as if it was truly an original TV.
Unexpectedly, everybody loved the ads that I added! I think my family mostly felt nostalgic about them
The Sony, in particular, would make an amazing terminal screen.
Trouble is, it is becoming harder and harder to find repair manuals for these.
If anyone knows of a community where these kinds of repairs are executed successfully, I'd love to hear about them. I've kept these things on my shelf for decades now, and I remain committed to their restoration. I'm pretty sure the tubes are still viable .. but maybe the capacitors aren't.
A young person about 10 years old came over "What's that thing hanging off the back of your TV?"
I got some nice parts out of that TV, and cracking the vacuum seal on the CRT was just so satisfying.
Just touching the insides can kill you worst case and that can be days or longer after it was switched off. Sometimes the chassis itself is live.
This is not like fiddling inside a computer where you tend to be pretty safe.
So if you value your life, sure play with old televisions - without opening them.
My worst shock was from an old tube shortwave receiver when reaching over it and learning that the antenna lead was hot by touching it.
Somehow I got my hands on a semi-functional CRT oscilloscope and of course took it apart. Within minutes of the initial disassembly, I accidentally discharged a large capacitor through my body. I still remember the blinding pain and passing out from literal shock. I'm lucky to be alive today. I gained a healthy fear of electricity that day.
Through the many years that followed I continued my trajectory in electronics, eventually designing and fabbing my own analog and digital circuits. Today I continue to be extremely careful whenever dealing with power circuitry. Always proceed with caution!
It's on my back-burner list to make a portable projector that does this.
For a purely-online version, check out: https://exptv.org/ (warning: sometimes has nudity and stuff)