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The clock was crucial to timed recordings, which were how people recorded TV programs when they weren't around for them before things like TIVO existed. Set a i
by corrral 4y ago
The clock was crucial to timed recordings, which were how people recorded TV programs when they weren't around for them before things like TIVO existed. Set a it to record when your program's supposed to start and for X duration, put a blank tape in, go to work, come home and find it's recorded that daytime program you didn't want to miss.
If you weren't going to use that feature, yeah, it was pointless and could have just stayed blank rather than blinking 12:00 or whatever.
- bombcar 4y agoInterestingly car radios have the same "how do you set the time" problem, and arguably a clock is more useful in a car anyway - but almost all of them set the time to 12:00 when they get power back. They don't blink. Which means that if you can't figure out how to set the time, you can just remember to disconnect the battery just before noon, and then reconnect it. The flashing clock on a VCR is actually an error message because if it lost power/lost time, it won't record correctly until you tell it what time it is. But if you have no timed recording setup, there's no need to report that error.