Topic: Black & White Television

[GillE]

According to TV Licensing, more than 7,000 people in the UK still view television on old black & white TV sets.  I thought all television nowadays was broadcast digitally and that analogue broadcasts (which these old sets receive) have been switched off.   So how can people still be viewing TV in black & white?

[Simon]

Beats me, Gill.   

[davy51]

Probably by using an adapter
Some in the USA use them on older sets

[daveeb]

Probably by using an adapter
Some in the USA use them on older sets

Yes, I would imagine they will be using an old style digital STB that plugs into the aerial socket.

[Clive]

Our first colour TV was a 13" Sony back in 1971.

[daveeb]

Our first colour TV was a 13" Sony back in 1971.

You had colour in 1971  I had to wait another seven or eight years and even then there was an evens chance that the grass would be blue etc on any given day.

[Clive]

I was so deprived that I didn't have black and white until 1967.     We actually rented the 13" for five years at a cost of £5 a month.   But it was a fabulous picture and never went wrong.  There were no presets.  There was a tuning knob like a radio set but there were only three channels to worry about in those days anyway.

[Den]

Now I'm feeling very old. My parents bought our first TV (single channel) in about 1951-2. All the kids I knew would come to watch Kit Carson or Hopalong Cassidy at tea time.

The only problem was they would turn up wearing Cowboy hats and gun belts.

I had a friend just down the road and they had a black and white tv with a colour filter that you could put in front of the screen with a blue filter at the top and a green one at the bottom. Great for cowboy films in a field. 

[Clive]

I used to visit  a friend whose parents had a thick plastic magnifier over the screen to make the picture larger.  I think I saw Quatermass on it.

[daveeb]

I used to visit  a friend whose parents had a thick plastic magnifier over the screen to make the picture larger.  I think I saw Quatermass on it.

Hope you told him to get off it, they were quite fragile. Cheek of some people 

[Clive]

I would have been too scared in those days.    Quatermass was edge of the seat stuff.  A bit like Doctor Who.   

[Clive]

Anyway, the answer to Gill's question about how people with black and white sets can view TV when analogue has been switched off is that they connect a Freeview box to the TV.   

[davy51]

Now Im feeling old
Never saw a tv until I was 9 years old that was in 1961 it had a 5inch oval screen
We lived in an area that didn't get tv reception

[daveeb]

I would have been too scared in those days.    Quatermass was edge of the seat stuff.  A bit like Doctor Who.   

You're right, I really enjoy the Quatermass films even now, being in black and white just adds to the suspense.

[Clive]

Now Im feeling old
Never saw a tv until I was 9 years old that was in 1961 it had a 5inch oval screen
We lived in an area that didn't get tv reception

Then one day you woke up to find a TV transmitter in your back yard.  And then you realised that the only thing they show on TV is adverts.     I must admit I felt left out of it when all my school chums were singing "The Esso sign means happy motoring" and "You'll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth in Pepsodent".  Now I haven't a clue what the advert is trying to sell me.   

You're right, I really enjoy the Quatermass films even now, being in black and white just adds to the suspense.

My favourite horror film was the black and white Night of the Demon which is a stalwart of the Talking Pictures channel that is run from a garden shed by a father and his daughter.  It's one of the few "amateur" channels that makes money.