The static on old CRT TVs with rabbit ears was the cosmic microwave background. No one in the last 25 years has ever seen it.

  • DrownedRats@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    People born before 2000 think older technology just evaporated the minute the millenium ticked over.

  • bonn2@lemm.ee
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    7 days ago

    2001 here literally grew up with CRT static, you have your years a bit off there.

    • TwanHE@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      I was about to say, i think we had a CRT till about 2010. My grandma still has one upstairs so even my youngest cousins still grew up with it.

    • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      Random radio sources, but a small part of the signal is CMB. I wasn’t sure what you even meant by thermal noise but I believe it’s a phenomenon of flatscreens. I found something that said it was “similar to snow on analog TVs” - so apparently there’s a difference.

      Funnily, Google AI says, “In the 1940s, people could detect the CMB at home by tuning their TVs to channel 03 and measuring the remaining static after removing other sources. This allowed them to prove the Big Bang before scientists did.” So they had that going for 'em, which is nice.

      • piecat@lemmy.world
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        7 days ago

        “Thermal Noise” is a phenomenon where everything makes EM noise, just from thermal energy.

        If you were to put such a TV in a faraday cage, with an RF termination, you would see something similar. Because noise is inherently part of the circuitry and amplifiers.

  • mlg@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Dude Flatscreen HDTVs were expensive even in 2008, and cable actually got worse for higher price so most people were hooked into local broadcast.

  • Mr_Peartree@lemm.ee
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    7 days ago

    Umm… I had a CRT until 2009 and even sold it to someone.

    Was it just me or has anyone seen or make out patterns while staring at it? I sometimes found it amusing

  • biggerbogboy@sh.itjust.works
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    6 days ago

    2007er here, I grew up with a CRT as the TV in our second living room, I’d occasionally watch stuff like Bob the builder and others, but since it was all on analog tv, channels started displaying lots of static, pretty much only like 2 or 3 channels were working last I saw.

    Also we had that CRT TV until 2018, then chucked it in the store room, then threw it out in 2020, I kinda miss it, kinda don’t, idk.

  • apemint@lemmy.world
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    7 days ago

    Well, not really. The cosmic microwave background radiation was a tiny fraction of that noise. What everyone saw was mostly thermal noise generated by the amplifier circuit inside the TV.