How TV Has Changed Entertainment For The Better

It's easy to say that TV has become a mainstream form of entertainment ever since its easy availability to the public as early as the 1930s.

14:54 10 August 2019

Now, television is a common appliance that you can see in any house. It just feels weird if you ever go to someone’s house and you see no TV screen or even at least a monitor. The TV has morphed from simple broadcasting into a hybrid form of everything in between that is fit inside a screen. Let’s take a look at how TV has become the melting pot of entertainment.

TV Became An All-In-One Source of Entertainment

News, movies, sports, music, gaming and now the internet, the TV houses the best of all worlds. If you look at it, it’s the general form of everything you need in amusement. Even going to church is possible with the help of religious TV channels.

We all know that radio used to be big. It was the major source of entertainment until TV became a hit and was affordable for any person no matter the wealth status. 

TV and Movies

Before, the biggest dilemma of movie lovers was missing out on their anticipated flicks for reasons. Once it’s gone from the cinemas, it was gone for good. That was until laserdiscs became available in the late ’70s. Rentals became a thing where you can borrow one from a store that supplied a laserdisc copy of a movie you never watched. In the ’80s, we had the Betamax. In the 90s, the VHS. As what rentals used to say, “Be kind rewind.” It means once you finished watching a movie on VHS, you should rewind it back to the beginning so when another person borrows it, they don’t need to rewind it themselves. 

Also in the ’90s was HBO - a cable-based TV channel that lets you watch movies for free on a scheduled time. 

In the early 2000s, you have the VCD - a more compact and easier form of movie copy that is easier to navigate than the VHS. In the mid to late 2000s, the boom of DVDs began. DVDs were more advanced than VCDs as it only required one disc to play a whole movie. Additionally, it also includes an interactive main menu with some features included. The DVD soon improved and became Blu-Ray discs; capable of running movies at 1080p. 

Now, you have online streaming services such as Netflix, YouTube TV, and Amazon Prime. 

TV and Internet

When the internet began to take over the masses, a lot of people thought that TV was dead. Scared of the future, TV-based companies sought to merge the internet with television in order to appeal to the public while not looking so obsolete. Thus, the hybrid internet TV was born - a telly that lets you use the TV as a giant android device but with the capability of viewing up to 4K resolution. All you need is a reliable ISP and that was it. Speaking of ISP, some even have internet TV streaming services like DIRECTV.

TV and Gaming

And then, you have gaming. Without the TV, consoles would never exist. Atari, Nintendo, SEGA, Sony, Microsoft, they need the television in order to get the console working. Although now, you can use these on a gaming monitor. But for the general public, television is still the most reliable source of visuals for gaming. Some like Sony and Samsung have features to enhance your gaming experience.

TV in the Future

MTV may be dead while the internet thrives and more people are comfortable with gaming consoles for the television, it’s unknown how much more the small screen can do in the future. Will phones and monitors finally put the TV to rest? Maybe holographic viewing will become possible? We’ll never know. But for now, be thankful the TV supplies everything for your viewing and interactive pleasure that goes beyond watching your favorite series.