The analogue television is dead. All major high street retailers have now replaced the traditionally plump and curvy analogue telly with the slim (and supposedly sexy) flat screen.
UK’s retailers have finally run down their analogue TV stocks. There weren’t any on sale for the first time last month, so says Digital UK.
As the analogue signal is turned off region by region, it’s time to remember the box that brought it into our homes – the cathode ray tube telly, or CRT TV.
The corners are empty without CRT
When nine in ten UK homes have already gone digital (the rest will be forced to ‘upgrade’ by 2012), most of you have already forgotten your original TV.
Sure, you might have popped a Freeview box on your ageing bedroom set, but it’s likely your living room has now been graced by a skinny flat screen.
But what about the old CRT that John Logie Baird brought us 85 years ago? Without it, our living room corners are void of entertainment. Filling this corner with an anorexic flat screen leaves so much wasted space that you feel obliged to fill it with cables and long dead DVD players.
Our only alternative is to stare crooked-necked at a telly that’s been lovingly hung above the fireplace like a treasured family painting.
CRTs had numerous advantages
But our love affair with the flat screen will never be as rock solid as with the old CRT. Its annoying flicker seems to pale in comparison to the LCD’s dead pixels, or the Plasma’s burnt-in logos. And when it was caked in dust, unlike our sensitive flat screens, it could always take a good soaking.
Dave Holes from Which? Technology had these parting words for the CRT:
“They may have been fat and boxy, but a good CRT TV could deliver an excellent looking picture – it took flat panel models a long time to catch up. Also their boxiness meant there was ample room for decent speakers, unlike the tiny speakers in today’s flat panels – meaning sound quality can be thin and miserable compared with the plump TVs of yesteryear.”
As for analogue broadcasting itself – can you remember the joys of having just four channels (five if you were unlucky) to choose from? Now the overwhelming selection inevitably resorts to vegetating in front of nature programs, endless Simpsons episodes or numbing Neighbours repeats.
Farewell good old analogue CRT – your voluptuous curves always demanded our attention, and your death has left us in a world obsessed by ‘high-definition’ and ‘3D‘. It’ll never be the same without you.
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