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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.
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this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2024
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That noise is horrible; why would someone simulate it rather than just show a blue screen?
I am doubting myself now after not being able to quickly find a verified source but I've worked with lots of smart TVs and seem to recall Samsung or LG models using this simulated effect. It would have had to have been simulated since there was no signal coming in, and I recall the pattern being noticably pseudo random.
As for why: I have no idea! Maybe just for user familiarity reasons, since a lot of people grew up with that kind of analog feedback that the antenna wasn't getting a signal.
Take what I said with a grain of salt, though, since like I said I wasn't able to quickly verify it. It's a vivid but ambiguous memory, though, since I also thought it was strange
This is exactly why. Preventing screen burn-in may be a tiny peripheral reason also, but providing a familiar experience to chronically myopic and cranky users (i.e. boomers) is probably the bigger one.
I found something about some recent-ish LG TVs having a default mode that shows static, but I couldn't find a clear answer on why, and the way to disable it is to enable "Cable DTV", which seems to suggest that it might actually be trying to get analogue signal by default...?