memes

One advantage of modern TVs is how slim they are. It's so crazy to me now how much space those old TVs took up. You just had a big TV stand sticking out from the wall.

And if it breaks, it literally implodes.

Just in case anybody is stupid enough to believe this, there was nothing radioactive in old CRT-based TVs. And they sometimes had black cases but weren't a "black box".

They worked by bending a beam of electrons that hit phosphors in the screen, which is cool enough that saying stupid BS about "radioactive" is unnecessary.

I've never had a CRT TV that lasted more than ten years.

I think that's some major rose-colored-glasses thinking. They did break. A child with a magnet could also cause issues, at least on older ones (I say having been said child).

I will forever remember using the magnet that came with this old Klutz book near the TV in my parents' room when I was around 10 and noticing the rainbow pattern it made in the picture. And then, after further investigation and experimentation, noticing those colors stopped going away when I moved the magnet away. And then, never speaking a word of it. For, like, 40 years.

When Bill Burr's Netflix cartoon show put a similar bit in an episode it finally dawned on me that lots of kids must have messed up their parents' TVs with those magnet wands.

they will record you anyways and store the recordings and transcripts long enough that if a future owner of the TV ever connects it, it'll upload all that shit it's stored.

and they know what wifi networks and hardware addresses are nearby so those recordings will be associated with your location even if it uploads them from another physical location.

these things are all advanced wiretaps that should probably have their antennas permanently destroyed.

Fun fact: These TVs also had a self-defense system built in. One wring move with a screwdriver and they'd throw you across the room.

Modern smart TVs: data pls 👉👈😊😊😊

CRTs did break. And they did suffer from burning.

Just buy a non-smart modern TV, you won't need a replacement and it won't connect to the internet.

There was a time when CRT TVs were so cranky and reliably in need of service that your local drugstore had a rack of replacement tubes and even a tube-tester machine. You could pull a bunch of tubes from your set, test them at the store, and buy a replacement for whichever one was bad.

All I want is a brand new CRT that I can connect my PSOne to, so that I can play Point Blank 1-3 again.

"your TV needs to install an update, please connect to the internet", it says

how did it know it needed an update?

I am 60% sure I have seen this happen IRL