Into the glittering future

My gigantic new suitcase modem. (iPhone photo by BobbaLew.)

“Sooner-or-later you’ll have no TV at all,” said the Spectrum techie.
“And why is that?” I asked.
“Spectrum is going digital. Soon you won’t be able to get TV without a Spectrum TV-box.”
“Spectrum” is my cable-TV; previously Time-Warner, or merged, or bought, whatever.
My Internet is also Spectrum, previously Time-Warner. I have cable Internet, not Dish, or whatever else it could be.
When my wife-and-I had this house built 28 years ago, there was no cable out front.
But I figgered there would be eventually, so I trenched a connection.
In a couple years the cable-guys were out front putting up cable.
I called the cable-company and asked them to hook us up.
Go back far enough and the first TV I ever saw was my grandparents’ giant RCA heating-unit. Its screen was an 8-inch tube that flickered. That was 1948. It was gigantic with its tiny screen — probably over 100 pounds. Inside were glowing red tubes — you dared not touch anything = harmful or fatal!
On it were Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Jimmy Durante, etc. My grandfather sang along to Bing Crosby, who he loved.
The first TV my family had was a black-and-white RCA console in 1949 with a circular picture-tube 12 inches in diameter.
Back then TV was over-the-air, and our stations were from Philadelphia — we had three — all national network (ABC, NBC, and CBS).
An antenna was on the back of our house; I remember its metal mounting tube howling in a hurricane.
My father, an employee of Texaco, had us watch “Texaco Star Theater” with Milton Berle.
Being hyper-religious and against smoking, he also turned down the sound during “Camel News Caravan” so we children didn’t hear the cigarette ads.
By the time my family moved to DE (1957), our TV was about done. When it finally failed, my father refused to replace it.
He loudly declared TV was Satan personified: degraded yooth boogying to the Devil’s music, rock-n-roll, on Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand” (Gasp).
I remember my 11th-grade English teacher being utterly flabbergasted when I reported I couldn’t watch “Julius Caesar.”
Before we moved, color-TV began. That was 1956 I think. It was so awful I never bought a color-TV until perhaps 35-40 years later.
I never watch TV anyway. Dreadfully boring!
I don’t think my wife-and-I bought a TV until the Watergate hearings. I remember vacationing at the south Jersey seashore, and never leaving our apartment while Senator-Sam wagged his craggy finger skyward at John Dean. (“Be ye not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap!”)
That was black-and-white from Sears.
I bought an antenna for out here in West Bloomfield to receive the three Rochester channels. I still have it, but it was never mounted. Cable-TV began in Rochester before we moved.
But no cable-TV in West Bloomfield until well after we moved.
In the ‘80s, color-TV became good enough for me to switch.
My first was a fairly large Sony Trinatron® with a 13-inch screen. I installed it on our dinner-table atop our Sony Betamax® VCR.
Soon Beta, supposedly the better format, went the way of all flesh; so I replaced it with a Sony VHS recorder. By then Sony was no longer made in Japan. (Remember when “Made in Japan” signified junk?)
I probably also went through a couple TVs, and now have the cheapest (smallest) flat-screen I could get, a “Dynex” from Best-Buy, I think their store-brand.
I now am on video-recorder number-three. 10-15 years ago things were recorded to DVR discs. Machines number-two and three are/were dubbers - dub my VHS tapes to disc.
I’ve never done it. Lack of time/motivation. Plus I can play video discs on this laptop. I’d rather, since it remembers where I stopped.
I also connected to Time-Warner’s Internet. My cable splits to feed both my TV and computer.
My monthly cable-bill was around $90. 20 MBps Internet and the cheapest most basic  TV = maybe 10 channels.
Spectrum said I qualified for 60 MBps, plus more channels — all for about $60 per month.
“Suppose I never watch TV, just the news?” I asked. “Can I increase my Internet speed yet remain basic TV?”
“Nope; has to be our package.”
Okay, increasing my Internet speed is worth the extra channels, especially for fewer bucks.
A Spectrum techie came to upgrade.
He installed their TV-box, plus a new modem (pictured).
Turns out that TV-box disabled my ancient (“ancient” at 10 years?) video-recorder. I no longer could record news.
“I wish I’d known that,” I said. “I mighta stayed put.”
What-to-do?
“I could reinstall our cable into yer old DVR machine. That would take you back to what you were doing. You could record the news.
So, I inadvertently got what I wanted: tripled Internet speed, still basic el-cheapo TV, all for $30 less.
So now I have their TV-box dormant on my table. And it produces much better TV than what I had.
Plus it advances me to “JunkyardTV,” etc.
The techie commented my ancient system would eventually vaporize. No more TV without their box.
If I wanted to record the news, I’d hafta switch to their fantabulous video-recorder; no discs, just a hard-drive.
“This here machine is about 10 years old,” I pointed. “When it fails, or if TV goes away first, I’ll upgrade to your box and fancy-dan disc-less recorder.”
So, into the glittering future.
Dr. Oz and Oprah via Spectrum = impressive, but droll and boring.
When our house was built I hard-wired a phone box into every room. Within two years, a single phone could transmit to your handset in another room, or perhaps outside.
Now I intend to dump my landline. 55 years ago, when I graduated high-school, who’da thunk?
I call my aunt in south Jersey, and it’s like right next door. That used to be long-distance, difficult to arrange, and extra cost.

(I’ve seen as high as 75.). (Screenshot by BobbaLew.)

What will TV be in a decade? is Spectrum doomed? My connection to the world outside is their cable. Satellites zoom around the planet — I could get my Internet via Dish®.
And Judge-Judy could be on this laptop; although no Judge-Judy for this kid.
Whatever, 60 MBps download speed, and TV as it was for the time being.
“The moving finger having writ, moves on,” I said to the techie as he left. It fell flat, of course.

• My beloved wife of over 44 years died of cancer April 17th, 2012. I miss her immensely. Best friend I ever had, and after my childhood I sure needed one. She actually liked me.
• I lived in south Jersey until I was 13, a suburb of Philadelphia.
• “Senator-Sam” is U.S. Senator Sam Ervin of NC. “Be ye not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap,” was Ervin’s rendering of Galations 6:7 in the King James Version, which reads “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
• “MBps” is megabytes-per-second. Computer information is stored in “bytes.”
• “The moving finger having writ, moves on,” is the BobbaLew rendering of  “The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on,” from Edward Fitzgerald’s translation of the poem “The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyam,” 1859.