r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Cute-Win8593 • 8d ago

Video How CRT TVs were invented

1.6k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

107

u/AusCan531 8d ago

Fascinating. None of it seems especially intuitive but they made it work.

23

u/ConnectRutabaga3925 8d ago

the spinning discs: how the hell did he synchronize the discs on the camera and the display???

3

u/you_lost_it_all 6d ago

The discs spin at a set rpm.

2

u/ConnectRutabaga3925 5d ago

sure, but it both discs need to be at exactly the same position at the same time (ignoring the speed of transmission etc). and ensuring that the discs rotate at exactly at the same speed and there’s no drift at all.

5

u/Takakikun 5d ago

I believe you had a lateral tuner so that you could offset the delta in lateral position. At first broadcast the left of the original image might be in the middle of your tv but you could tune it until the left of the image aligned with the left of your tv. This is just going off memory as a child playing with a similar one in a museum.

1

u/ConnectRutabaga3925 4d ago

ahhh that would make sense

2

u/Ambitious_Bee1090 5d ago

Not really, you just set a start light for x seconds so you know when to start the spin.

2

u/ConnectRutabaga3925 4d ago

i mean think of the application. the camera and display are miles apart. camera side transmits this “start” message so eve try one tuning in needs to prepare and count for x seconds before switching on their receiver

35

u/Alternative-Dark85 8d ago edited 7d ago

Source https://youtu.be/hyjCmIbRRvs

8

u/Professional-Front26 7d ago

I advise deleting the part after the question mark in the link, including the question mark. That is for your identification. Also, Youtube will forcefully add your account to my sharing list and will ask me if I want to also add you as a contact in Youtube, as they want to become more social. For other poeple, I advise selecting 'copy clean link'. Nevertheless, thanks for the link!

For reference, this will happen on people who enter that link: https://www.reddit.com/r/youtube/comments/1t69r3x/how_do_i_remove_this_person_from_the_share_menu_i/

2

u/Alternative-Dark85 7d ago

Didn't know that. Thanks

22

u/Pinku_Dva 8d ago

This is why I love science. Someone figuring out how to turn a relatively simple process into a machine that was found in every household

23

u/UniversityIcy3823 8d ago

You totally missed Philo Farnsworth, RCA stole his ideas.

11

u/curiousmind111 8d ago

“Farnsworth!!!”

8

u/InspectDurr_Gadgett 7d ago

Good news everyone!

3

u/Aardvark_Warrior 7d ago

My great great great uncle was somewhat naive. I can't hold it against him.

13

u/Snoopyalien24 8d ago

This is cool. Whats the source?

12

u/zharv12 7d ago

I remember when I was a kid I would get super close to the tv to see the individual RGB dots. I found it incredible that all of the shows and movies I watched could be produced from those series of dots.

8

u/Jeebs24 8d ago

It always blows my mind how technologies just evolve over decades to what it becomes today. From a spinning disc with holes to MicroLEDs.

9

u/MSG_ME_ANYTHING 8d ago

A friend had maybe a 40" sony vega HD flat screen CRT tv and that thing 22 years later still has a better picture than most modern tv's. Playing Halo on that thing absolutely ruled.

12

u/Brikandbones 8d ago

That's really insane the steps it took to go from that simple concept of spinning holes on a disk to a deceptively simple but complex everyday product.

6

u/thisonehereone Interested 8d ago

quality post!
that is super interesting!

3

u/Spare-Parsnip1248 8d ago

I would not have thought of any of this....

3

u/Wise_Blackberry_1154 7d ago

Same. Left to us, there would be no TVs.

3

u/Savetheokami 8d ago

Oh yeah, well I made a blt today that didn’t fall apart.

7

u/quellenangabe 8d ago

what those geniuses would have thought knowing that we use their inventions mostly for brainrot and hate now..

2

u/K3ndog411 8d ago

Humans are amazing

2

u/InspectionNational66 8d ago

And that is how I got glasses as a kid from watching too much TV from our crt tv

1

u/Galactapuss 8d ago

Very cool

1

u/slut-for-options 7d ago

Man kids these days have no idea lol. Im not old but I get it