People born after 2000 have never seen the cosmic microwave background on their TV set.
The static on old CRT TVs with rabbit ears was the cosmic microwave background. No one in the last 25 years has ever seen it.
Well, not really. The cosmic microwave background radiation was a tiny fraction of that noise. What everyone saw was mostly thermal noise generated by the amplifier circuit inside the TV.
CRTs was in use well into the 2000s
Even before the 2000s they started showing a blue screen instead of static.
That wasn't just a digital or flat panel thing.
But of course old sets were around for a long time.
Yeah I was still using a CRT as recently as 2012. I think OP means analogue TVs.
Yeah you're right.
Technically, it's not about the display technology, but instead about the signal/tuner. More specifically if it's analog or digital. Some modern TVs still have analog or hybrid tuners for backwards compatibility and regions that still use analog, so they can display static. For instance, in Ukraine we finished the switch to digital TV only a couple of years ago. If your TV had no digital tuner (as was the case for many) you had to buy a DAC box. Retirees/pensioners got them for free, sponsored by the government.
Yeah, my youngest sibling has definitely seen CRTs. My niblings probably haven’t, though.
I thought they were teaching it in all the schools? /s
Do you think CRTs just magically disappeared after the turn of the millennium?
It actually was a pretty rapid switch where all the CRTs disappeared
Cheap led tvs were like 1/5 the cost of Analog TVs. The digital switch over really finished them off too.
Really it’s the size/price that did it though. My buddy paid I think $3k for a maybe 40” Trinitron in 99-2000. It probably weighed 200lbs. Looked amazing at the time but it was probably only months before big leds came out. Plasma might have been a thing then but we’re like $10k+
They lied to us. The real Y2K was the CRT rapture.
I think they're more likely to have been scrapped than other old tech.
They're bulky, and mine was too heavy to get out in the attic. I still have my ZX Spectrum and Amiga, but the CRT needed for lightgun games is long gone.
Well to be fair at some point most/all CRTs showed a blue screen instead of static. So it's possible someone born in 2000 never saw the snowy display.
As someone born in 2000, I've personally seen it and I think most people around me did. Maybe someone didn't, though.
No, I just couldn't remember exactly when. And as another commenter pointed out, what I should have said was analog TV's.
they have to watch HBO shows to compensate
Surely you mean the much worse "Max".
Logo still shows HBO for that intro though
Only the HBO shows on Max have the static. If you watch the garbage reality shows it isn’t there.
People born before 2000 think older technology just evaporated the minute the millenium ticked over.
It is entirely possible for people born after 2000 to have grown up with CRTs.
It is, but those late model CRTs often had a lot of digital circuitry that displayed a solid color on channels with nothing on them. Unless there was a much older CRT around, they never would have seen it.
Most of the CRTs are going to be older
By the way, the picture illustrating the post isn't actually displaying the real thing - the noise in it is too squarish and has no grey tones.
TV static in recent movies and shows that are set in the past almost always instantly pull me out of the narrative because no one seems to be able to get it right and some are just stunningly bad. It's usually very subtle, so much so that I'm not sure I could even describe what's wrong. Makes me feel old to notice it.
I think the problem is because CRT displays didn't have pixels so the uniform noise which is static was not only uniformely spread in distribution and intensity (i.e. greyscale level) but also had "dots" of all sizes.
Also another possible thing that's off is the speed at which the noise changes: was it the 25fps refresh rate of a CRT monitor, related to that rate but not necessarily at that rate or did the noise itself had more persistent and less persistent parts?
The noise is basically the product of radio waves at all frequencies with various intensities (though all low) with only the ones that could pass the bandpass filter of the TV tuner coming through (and being boosted up in intensitity by automatic gain control) and being painted along a phosphorous screen (hence no pixels) as the beam draw line by line the screen 25 times per second so to get that effect right you probably have to simulate it mathematically from a starting point of random radio noise and it can't be going through things with pixels (such as 3D textures) to be shown and probably requires some kind of procedural shader.
No one in the last 25 years has ever seen it.
I mean you can still find a CRT today and turn it on if you like, they're less common for sure, but they're still around if you're looking for one
Kids born after 2000 aren’t looking for one
Well that's a lie, I know an early 20 year old who's into retro games and has definitely been to an arcade with CRTs in the past year or so. It's not a stretch to imagine he's seen static on one
Dude I'd kill for the opportunity to get my hands on a half-decent CRT
You'd be surprised, some people born in the 2000s want them for the retro factor now
CRTs are popular with people who have retro games consoles.
They're surprisingly difficult to acquire though. Big, heavy and either very expensive or free.
I bought a plasma in 2009 that would show static if I turned it to cable channels without cable plugged in. Plasmas were susceptible to burn in and since I would game a lot I could see health bars etc start to burn in after a while. Whenever that would happen I would turn it to the static screen - making each pixel flip from one end of the spectrum to the other rapidly like that would actually help remove the burn in.
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel. - William Gibson, Neuromancer
One of the most beautiful opening lines to a novel.
If you remember that it was written in 1984, the color is obviously black and white static. If you don’t think about the year, you might be lead to believe it is blue.
Literally 1984
The opposite of a Bulwer-Lytton!
One of the most beautiful opening lines to a novel.
Abundantly clearly not.
This is it:
“It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."
Tube TV's remained in common service well into the 2010's. The changeover from analog to fully digital TV transmission did not happen until 2009, with many delays in between, and the government ultimately had to give away digital-to-analog tuner boxes because so many people still refused to let go of their old CRT's.
Millions of analog TV's are still languishing in basements and attics in perfect working order to this very day, still able to show you the cosmic background, if only anyone would dust them off or plug them in. Or in many retro gaming nerds' setups. I have one, and it'll show me static any time I ask. (I used it to make this gif, for instance.)
In fact, with no one transmitting analog television anymore (probably with some very low scale hobbyist exceptions), the cosmic background radiation is all they can show you now if you're not inputting video from some other device. Or unless you have one of those dopey models that detects a no-signal situation and shows a blue screen instead. Those are lame.
Amateur radio operators are indeed allowed to transmit analog NTSC television in the UHF band. It's most commonly done on the 70cm (440MHz) band, and a normal everyday 90's television is all you need to receive the signals. You'd tune to what would have been cable channels 57 through 61. The use cases for this have decreased in recent years; for example you used to see hams using amateur television to send video signals from RC aircraft or model rockets, now that's done with compressed digital video over something like Wi-Fi and doesn't require a license. But, it's still legal for hams to do.
I think my mom still uses the last CRT TV that I had. Gave it to her when I bought my first 720p HD TV, as the old CRT was better than her old TV. Later on I also gave her that HD TV but she still has the CRT too.
2001 here literally grew up with CRT static, you have your years a bit off there.
I was about to say, i think we had a CRT till about 2010. My grandma still has one upstairs so even my youngest cousins still grew up with it.
#CHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSH
Hair stands up
Last time I thought about static I wondered why colour TV didn't show colour static.
Turns out the colour signal was on very specific frequencies, and if it wasn't present, it would assume it was a black and white signal and turn off the colour circuit.
It really isn't though. It is thermal noise.
Random radio sources, but a small part of the signal is CMB. I wasn't sure what you even meant by thermal noise but I believe it's a phenomenon of flatscreens. I found something that said it was "similar to snow on analog TVs" - so apparently there's a difference.
Funnily, Google AI says, "In the 1940s, people could detect the CMB at home by tuning their TVs to channel 03 and measuring the remaining static after removing other sources. This allowed them to prove the Big Bang before scientists did." So they had that going for 'em, which is nice.
"Thermal Noise" is a phenomenon where everything makes EM noise, just from thermal energy.
If you were to put such a TV in a faraday cage, with an RF termination, you would see something similar. Because noise is inherently part of the circuitry and amplifiers.
Could it not be both?
My family had several tvs that did this until around 2013
Born 2000, yes i have. So has my younger brother
Dude I was born after 2000 and this is firmly planted in my memories. Maybe people born after 2010 haven't but 2000?
2002 here, we still had such a TV. For quite a while actually, since we never upgraded and just started using phones and computers instead. It became my console monitor.
Yeah OP full of shit. My three sons all born after 2000 have seen this. Hell my flat screen will show snow if I turn it to antenna and there nothing for single to pick up. Also I have console tv for our old gaming systems so they seen that as well
They also know how a vcr works and what a payphone is. We are not that far removed from that technology. Hell my middle son 17 has a record collection and cds. Also we have the cassette audiobook version of Stephen King Dolores Claiborne.
"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel." - William Gibson, Neuromancer
Gibson describes the static as metallic, silvery gray in an interview.
"The sky was the perfect untroubled blue of a television screen, tuned to a dead channel." - Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere
I remember the white static myself.
yeah i have
That's not background, that's a free channel that showcases a polar bear in a snowstorm.
The ant races
I think they call it "analog horror noise" now, along with vhs cassettes.
...
Feel the passage of time XD
The sky above the port was the colour of television, tuned to a dead channel...........
On a CRT? Sure, probably a lot haven't seen it. On a modern TV? Still possible for some - mine does this if I hit the channel button rather than volume accidentally.
No one in the last 25 years has ever seen it.
People didn't just mass-destroy CRTs in 1999...
I bought an LCD TV in 2006 (a Sony Bravia that is still going strong) and that was earlier than most people I know switched
Except for that most of it was not.
A lot of the noise on the screen (and speaker) was affected by radiation from nearby stuff.
I'd think that nowadays, it would be even more so, with way more WiFi and mobile phone signals everywhere. Now sure, different frequencies mean they would affect less, but the cumulative effect would still be more than the CMBR.
Also, I have a flat-screen CRT at home.
Cosmic microwave? Is that what you are calling "ants in a snowstorm" these days?
"War of the Ants", where I'm from (sweden).
Ask your friend which side is winning, say you're rooting for the black ants, then turn off the TV and claim victory.
ok Sweden wins this one
Ant races
Salt and pepper fighting.
CRTs were fairly common until the early-mid 10s
I'd say born after 2008ish aren't likely to be familiar with them, except seeing the odd one in their grandparents bedroom
Say that to my three CRTs. I was born in 2003.
My grandpa always just called it "The ant races"
I saw on 'how it's made' a conveyer belt of a bunch of apples and it reminded me of the TV static the way they all rolled around forming random structures like a crystal. From then on I always think of apples on a conveyerbelt when I see static.
Sixth and Seventh Generation video game consoles were still using scart/composite/component outputs for CRT up until their discontinuation in 2017 so I’m pretty sure a lot of kids would have had a CRT to game on as well was watch TV in their rooms.
Remember, kids typically get the hand me downs when the adults get new shiny.
They haven't?
I have a TV from ~2010 that still gives me static when something isn't connected.
Our cable provider (my parents like cable TV) had analog channels even like 2 years ago, but they started encrypting everything which required purging the analog selection.
This sucks. At worst analog would be grainy, digital just keeps cutting out in worse conditions.
I wish there was also still analog OTA TV for this reason. Much easier to pick up usable signal.
I was born in the 90s, my brothers were born in the early 2000s. We had a CRT into the early 2010s . Maybe people who weren't poor haven't seen real TV static but even then I doubt it. Hell, remember those god awful "flat screen" CRTs? My old station still had one of those that we used to watch TV on in 2018-19. It's probably still there lol
I actually liked the flat screen crts. I have a 1080p flatscreen crt and I love it. Can’t use it though because I’m scared my kids will get crushed by it.
When I was growing up the cat used to interact with the TV. It was on the floor for a while so it was fun.
Yep, my family had a CRT that we used until sometime around 2015.
I was born after 2000 (though not too long after) and this is actually one of my core memories. I think about the sounds of the static and the sound of the CRT turning off all the time.
Also, we had a really old tv in our basement till at least 2008 that had no remote, just knobs and I remember messsing with the “hue” dial all the time trying to figure out how it worked.
The only reason that tv worked so late is that we had a black box connected to the antenna which I later learned was converting the digital signal to analog for the TV.
Also, you’ve just reminded me that I remember the switch from analog to digital. Specifically, I remember watching Elmo talking with some adult on TV about the change. Now I really want to find that video. I think the guy was wearing a suit had short dark hair and glasses. I also think the background was pinkish purple. I want to know how accurate my memories from so long ago are. (I’ll add the link to the video in an edit if I can find it)
Edit: I cannot find the video :(
People born after 2000 can see it on their phones, much more clearly:
Opening line of Neuromancer doesn't make much sense any more "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
"The sky above the port was blue, with a grey rectangular box with writing saying 'No signal found.'"
Many likely haven't seen a channel sign off for the night with a test pattern up til they come back on
DAE remember that movie White Noise? The climax was fucking horrifying and I have to admit that it haunted me for quite a while.
For better or worse, kids today probably won't get it.
Is it worth scarring myself to know the context?
You can still hear it on the radio. Although most of the noise floor is probably man made.
Also, a lot of kids don't have the slightest idea of what the "save" icon in their apps represents. They just know it's the save icon because it's everywhere
To be fair though, many kids nowadays have never seen a save icon as autosave is now practically everywhere. For example take anything on an iPad or other touch device.
You mean the attack of the ants?
Movies depicting this haven't vanished from existence though
The trope of video/audio breaking down into static is an easy shorthand that is unlikely to be forgotten, probably even well after all the devices capable of doing so have long since been buried in the landfill.
It's especially hilarious in media depicting the far-flung future, where apparently all technologically advanced space men and their communications devices -- not to mention high powered central supercomputers and so on and so forth -- somehow still work over NTSC television signals. Even by the early 1980's it should have been entirely predictable that in "the future" anything like that would be digital, considering we already had widespread digital audio media (CD's), and digital video was already making inroads into the computing industry.
My mother had one of these. I got to use it as a hand-me-down as a teenager because my mother was abusive AF.
For clarity, the subject of the TV wasn't the abusive part. Her rationale of "I didn't have one when I was a kid so you don't get to have one while you're a kid" was. It didn't apply just to the TV.
Same lol. Only 3 channels until I was 12 or so and no internet in the house until I was 15 or 16.
I have an old mini tv(the kind that took C cell batteries) that can still pickup the good ol CMB!
or a new smaller tv sitting on top of the old, wood frame tv as a stand now
I have seen this on a much newer TV last year. It didnt just disappear
Maybe not directly on their TV set, but there are more than enough references to it in TV and film media that it's still known almost universally.
Everything from old beloved films to Modern period shows. Its literally an overused way to establish the narrative isnt taking place in the present.
I have actually, we had a big old crt tv way back when
As person born after 2000, I used to play a lot of games on them Wii and GameCube mainly. The image and responsiveness really felt different. I do kinda miss them
