Re: Who remembers how bad analogue television was?

On 2/26/2025 9:52 PM, Sylvia Else wrote:

Leave aside the ghosting, which could largely be addressed by having a decent antenna.

Analog television had two distinct issues:  one was multipath problems
(bummer), the other was that you COULD eek a signal out of the ether,
even a bad one (contrast to digital which is essentially "all or nothing")

But my memory of a Philips Colour TV (1984ish) was that it had rubbish automatic gain control (AGC), and odd interactions between brightness and picture position.

My last set was a JVC AV2600US (IIRC):
    <https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/cj4AAOSwMKdksA8u/s-l1600.webp>
It was big and heavy, had funny "dumbo ears" -- but just kept on
running, year after year (I think I purchased it in the
early 80's and it lasted well into this millenium -- not bad for
a $1K investment!)

The AGC should have been based on the amplitude of the sync pulses, which was 30% of the total. I'm sure this could have been done, but my experience was that instead it was based on the average amplitude of the demodulated signal. A black image containing large white text, such as a title screen, would show a clear darkening to the sides of the text, while being decidedly grey over the rest of the screen.

I suspect a lot may have to do with the distribution and proximity of
"signal".  Most places in the US have a high degree of coverage;
when I lived in New England, I would pick up stations in Boston and
NYC (separated by ~200 miles).
Here (SoAZ), I have a tough time picking up the broadcasts from the
other side of town (the transmitters on THIS side of town are
within a dozen miles with a clear sight line -- as long as it isn't
raining)
OTOH, with each digital station carrying several "channels" of content,
there are 40 or 50 to choose from (all shit, of course).

I suspect this same poor AGC was responsible for a shift in the detection of the sync pulse such that the text would be moved to the right of its proper position, which could result in distortion of the letters as the average brightness varied line by line.
 In the early days of television, using thermionic valves, it was probably a miracle that these things worked at all, but surely in the transistor age, something better could have been provided.
 Were studio monitors any better, anyone know?