6 ms·

I can't recall ever seeing an analogue TV display a flat blue screen - with no signal, they generally display black&white noise

gwbas1c 7y ago
The newer ones made in the late 1990s did.
DrStalker 7y ago
I can remember it, I think in setups where the TV signal was passed through a VCR (so it could be recorded) and then into the TV. If the VCR detected there was no useful signal it would output a blue image instead of static. Just showing raw static was much more common though.
namdnay 7y ago
This reminds me of the fact that younger generations have a completely different understanding of the first sentence of Neuromancer
Animats 7y ago
Not colored noise, amusingly. NTSC color TV is backwards compatible with NTSC black and white TV. Color comes in on a subcarrier of the TV signal, relative to the black and white signal, and is low bandwidth compared to the intensity signal. Because the color signal is optional, TV receivers had to have a detector for it to enable color. Noise didn't contain the "color burst" that identified the color signal, so noise showed as black and white noise, not colored confetti. At least until TV receivers acquired enough signal processing that no-signal produced a "No Signal" message, a blue screen, or a channel guide. Gibson has written that he has mixed feelings about that line. Great line, but dates the work.
tenebrisalietum 7y ago
In the early 90's, TV's started including low-resolution "Teletype" type chips (the kind you see overlay information on security cameras) that would generate menu text for volume control, etc. Frequently these TV's would have a "muting" mechanism - if you selected a channel without a signal, it would mute the audio and display a blue background instead of the underlying signal. When LCD TV's and HDTV started gaining traction the "No Signal" screen was often some text bouncing around in some manner.

gwbas1c 7y ago

The newer ones made in the late 1990s did.

DrStalker 7y ago

I can remember it, I think in setups where the TV signal was passed through a VCR (so it could be recorded) and then into the TV. If the VCR detected there was no useful signal it would output a blue image instead of static. Just showing raw static was much more common though.

namdnay 7y ago

This reminds me of the fact that younger generations have a completely different understanding of the first sentence of Neuromancer

Animats 7y ago

Not colored noise, amusingly. NTSC color TV is backwards compatible with NTSC black and white TV. Color comes in on a subcarrier of the TV signal, relative to the black and white signal, and is low bandwidth compared to the intensity signal. Because the color signal is optional, TV receivers had to have a detector for it to enable color. Noise didn't contain the "color burst" that identified the color signal, so noise showed as black and white noise, not colored confetti. At least until TV receivers acquired enough signal processing that no-signal produced a "No Signal" message, a blue screen, or a channel guide. Gibson has written that he has mixed feelings about that line. Great line, but dates the work.

tenebrisalietum 7y ago

In the early 90's, TV's started including low-resolution "Teletype" type chips (the kind you see overlay information on security cameras) that would generate menu text for volume control, etc. Frequently these TV's would have a "muting" mechanism - if you selected a channel without a signal, it would mute the audio and display a blue background instead of the underlying signal. When LCD TV's and HDTV started gaining traction the "No Signal" screen was often some text bouncing around in some manner.