4 ms·
Because the "web" as we know it today did not exist until the mid-90's. Before then, there were a bunch of companies trying to sell their own Interactive TV off
by jordanlev 9y ago
Because the "web" as we know it today did not exist until the mid-90's. Before then, there were a bunch of companies trying to sell their own Interactive TV offerings.
If you're interested in learning more about this era of internet history, I highly recommend this podcast: http://www.internethistorypodcast.com/ http://www.internethistorypodcast.com/
- jacobush 9y agoYep. "Set top box" was the buzz word at the time and an Amiga chipset based one as the "next big thing" was an entirely plausible thing to consider.
- sah2ed 9y agoIt was also called WebTV (later renamed to MSN TV). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSN_TV https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSN_TV
- mooreds 9y agoI remember testing a web app on that in the early 2000s!
- ryandrake 9y agoProbably everyone working in the WebTV / streaming video space back in the late '90s remembers that The Onion article: http://www.theonion.com/article/new-5000-multimedia-computer-system-downloads-real-1618 http://www.theonion.com/article/new-5000-multimedia-computer...
- ashark 9y agoIt still kinda rings true. Looking at CRT TVs the other day at a thrift shop, the picture wasn't nearly as bad as I remembered. Light static/snow was a much better degradation mode than with digital OTA TV, and if I were a heavy channel-surfer I'd probably be willing to trade HD picture quality for near-instant channel switching—delays on the modern digital tuners really suck. Not that you can anymore since the analog broadcasts are gone, but still. Between all that and stupid pwnable "smart" TVs that take half a minute to boot up while adding no value, things are sort of worse than they used to be, in TV land. Thanks, computers!
- kgwgk 9y agoThat's not from the early 90's.