My TV

My television has evolved in amazing and wondrous ways over the past 50 years and is still continuing to change and grow.

Black and White
- As a kid in the 60's, I remember having and watching only black and white television

Color
- In the 70's As a teen we got a color console television

Cable
- Cable gave us much more choices including Music Television (MTV) and Cable News Network (CNN)

Laser Disk
- We got a large record (LP) size laser disk video player. There were only a few models and movies but video recorders were still basically reel to reel. (Not consumer friendly)

Video Cassette Recorder (VCR)
- Video tape saw the battle of the Beta Max (Sony) verses the VCR format.

Big Screen TV
- Large screen televisions and rear project screen consoles were big in the 90's

Digital Video Disk (DVD)
- After the advent of CDs the video form shortly became available and popular eventually replacing VCR

Tivo
- First commercial digital recorder. (Many of the innovations came from computer hobbyists)

Digital Television
- After floundering for many years the FCC finally set some standards and DTV took off.

High Definition
- Regular NTSC TV was about 704 dots x 480 lines. Higher Definition standardized on 1280 dots x 720 lines and 1920 dots by 1080 lines. (Computer pixels similar to television resolution)

Blue Ray
- I am still not sure this will succeed or go the way of Beta Max but Sony has created a High Definition DVD

Flat Screen Television
- Eliminating the original Cathode Ray (picture) Tube (CRT) using Plasma, LCD and LED instead

Internet
- Hulu - 2nd hand television on the web
- Playon - play hulu and other internet media on your TV through your Xbox or Playstation
- Netflix - Replaced Blockbuster stores with online downloadable movie rentals on your TV through our Xbox or Wii
- Amazon.com - buy your favorite movie or television show but Amazon keeps it online for you.

Future TV
- Will computer based television such as Microsoft's Media Center, Apple TV and the new Google TV finally eliminate traditional over the air TV and Cable? I hope so. My TV lets me watch what I want, when I want on what ever screen I have. (Flat Screen, PC or Hand Held Player like itouch). TV will be free (commercial based) for non first run content and buy or rent shows and movies.