The denizens of this board know a lot about television -- its technology, programming, business practices, etc. -- because it is our passion. But the average Joe or Jane who just turns on the magic box to be entertained often has some incomplete, misunderstood, or just plain wrong notions about the medium.
One example concerns VCRs. They became widespread, and owners grooved on the ability to record programs in absentia for later viewing, or to record one program while watching another, yet with a very limited understanding of how the process works. Many users believed that the unit had to be connected to the TV not just for playback, but for recording. Some even believed that the TV must be on for the VCR to record a program.
This belief is not hard to understand, if you look at the closest related predecessor technology -- home audio tape recorders that were used to tape radio station broadcasts. You had an audio source (a stereo amp or tuner), feeding a tape recorder via line-level audio output (the ubiquitous RCA phono jacks and cables). In this case, yes, the source had to be both present and powered to make a recording.
But the VCR concept, with its self-contained RF tuner, was a different animal, yet many never caught on to the distinction. I had many conversations with such folks over the years, trying to get them to understand that a VCR was, basically, a TV receiver in and of itself (just lacking its own display screen), and could record just fine whether it was hooked to a TV or not, and whether said TV was on or off. One co-worker, whom I knew relied on OTA reception for his TV, became indignant and condescending about my explanation, and challenged me sarcastically. "Well, it it's not hooked to the TV, where does it get the picture -- out of thin air?" My smiling, triumphant cry of "YES!!!" just left him shaking his head, as befuddled as Costello was with Abbott's "Who's on first?" logic.....
Another example is the inability to distinguish between network, syndicated, and local shows. To the average layperson, channel X is "NBC," channel Y is "CBS," etc., regardless of what is actually being broadcast at any given time. This confusion became more common when cable began to bring into our homes channels that were uniform and homogenous (save for any time-zone shifts) across the country.
One young lady that worked for me when I lived in Tallahassee is a prime example. At the time, there were two NBC affiliates carried on cable: local WTWC, and Albany, Georgia's WALB. The latter was more or less "grandfathered" into the cable lineup because it had been the de facto NBC affiliate for so many years prior to WTWC's sign-on. (And they somehow eluded the normal requirements to "blackout" network programming to protect the local affiliate.) Confused this poor girl no end that there were two "NBCs" on her cable, but sometimes they had different shows on at the same time. I tried to explain the concept of network affiliation, the fact that the broadcast networks do not send out programming 24/7, and so forth, yet it was still a mystery to her why she would get Oprah on one and Sally on the other. My repeated explanation of the distinction between the two channels, that they were "separate and unequal" affiliates in different markets, etc., would only elicit her oft-sputtered protest ("But they're both NBC!!") and leave her scratching her head.
What are some other misguided, misunderstood, or just plain weird ideas that you have encountered about TV among the non-geek population?
One example concerns VCRs. They became widespread, and owners grooved on the ability to record programs in absentia for later viewing, or to record one program while watching another, yet with a very limited understanding of how the process works. Many users believed that the unit had to be connected to the TV not just for playback, but for recording. Some even believed that the TV must be on for the VCR to record a program.
This belief is not hard to understand, if you look at the closest related predecessor technology -- home audio tape recorders that were used to tape radio station broadcasts. You had an audio source (a stereo amp or tuner), feeding a tape recorder via line-level audio output (the ubiquitous RCA phono jacks and cables). In this case, yes, the source had to be both present and powered to make a recording.
But the VCR concept, with its self-contained RF tuner, was a different animal, yet many never caught on to the distinction. I had many conversations with such folks over the years, trying to get them to understand that a VCR was, basically, a TV receiver in and of itself (just lacking its own display screen), and could record just fine whether it was hooked to a TV or not, and whether said TV was on or off. One co-worker, whom I knew relied on OTA reception for his TV, became indignant and condescending about my explanation, and challenged me sarcastically. "Well, it it's not hooked to the TV, where does it get the picture -- out of thin air?" My smiling, triumphant cry of "YES!!!" just left him shaking his head, as befuddled as Costello was with Abbott's "Who's on first?" logic.....
Another example is the inability to distinguish between network, syndicated, and local shows. To the average layperson, channel X is "NBC," channel Y is "CBS," etc., regardless of what is actually being broadcast at any given time. This confusion became more common when cable began to bring into our homes channels that were uniform and homogenous (save for any time-zone shifts) across the country.
One young lady that worked for me when I lived in Tallahassee is a prime example. At the time, there were two NBC affiliates carried on cable: local WTWC, and Albany, Georgia's WALB. The latter was more or less "grandfathered" into the cable lineup because it had been the de facto NBC affiliate for so many years prior to WTWC's sign-on. (And they somehow eluded the normal requirements to "blackout" network programming to protect the local affiliate.) Confused this poor girl no end that there were two "NBCs" on her cable, but sometimes they had different shows on at the same time. I tried to explain the concept of network affiliation, the fact that the broadcast networks do not send out programming 24/7, and so forth, yet it was still a mystery to her why she would get Oprah on one and Sally on the other. My repeated explanation of the distinction between the two channels, that they were "separate and unequal" affiliates in different markets, etc., would only elicit her oft-sputtered protest ("But they're both NBC!!") and leave her scratching her head.
What are some other misguided, misunderstood, or just plain weird ideas that you have encountered about TV among the non-geek population?
