OT - For My Viewing Pleasure (Sparty Edition)

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March 4th, 2013 at 2:46 PM
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mgobaran
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Joined: 09/12/2012
MGoPoints: 471
OT - For My Viewing Pleasure (Sparty Edition)

So, my sister got a new tv and handed me down her old one. Like a 30 something inch LED? Idk. Either way, I am setting it up in my room, as fast as I can to watch the game. And I turn it on expecting a good picture right? Well I got crap cable in my room cause I had an ancient TV in my room before. I'm talking a TV with an actual back on it.

Anyways, I get this TV set up, cable plugged in, and turn on CBS. The picture is horrible. I could see yellow jerseys (so bright that I knew they had to be those alternates) and green and white guys running around. The picture was about as good as the border in Tetris for your Sega Genesis. Not to mention, it only took up about 19" of the TV, while the picture was outlined by black nothingness to the edges of the screen. The TV was never set up for cable, and used to have an HD box connected by and HDMI cord. Worse yet. I dont have a remote for it. And the TV doesn't have a menu button. So pretty much I am watching the worst basic cable ever, without an antenna, and no way to fix it.

I watched the entire 2nd half of the game through barely visable pixelated images. I am so grateful that the commentators for yesterday's game weren't crap, because without them, I probably wouldn't have known what the hell was going on. Let me tell you, watching "The Steal" live (on my TV), vs. the HD video posted above is a completely different experience. It was way too exciting not knowing exactly what was going on, as your eyes and brain tried to make real life images out of what was basically the scramble channels you used to catch soft-core adult films on.

To be honest, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would recommend this viewing experience to everyone to try at least once.

Have you ever had a viewing experience like this?

Is this how watching sports in the 80s was like?

What is the worst sports viewing experience you've ever had?

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March 4th, 2013 at 2:48 PM | (No subject) (Score:5 Normal)
Wolverine Devotee
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Joined: 06/29/2009
MGoPoints: -9994437

When the ADept sells special jerseys and gear, you'll see my picture next to the targeted customer crowd. A sheep.....but a Blue one.....

March 4th, 2013 at 2:50 PM | Dude... The game was on (Score:5 Normal)
denardogasm
Joined: 09/11/2011
MGoPoints: 1852

Dude... The game was on CBS.com for free.  You gotta get on the board more often.

"Michigan Defense" is dominating everything, in every aspect of life. That's a rough definition.

-Craig Roh 10/29/2011

March 4th, 2013 at 2:55 PM | Like I said, I kind of (Score:-1 Flamebait)
March 4th, 2013 at 2:53 PM | You have to remember, in the (Score:5 Normal)
DrunkOnHiggins
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Joined: 06/16/2011
MGoPoints: 678

You have to remember, in the 80s and 90s we didn't have HDTV to base the picture of off. Therefore if the game was on TV, that's all that mattered. It didn't matter that you were watching it on a 19" CRT.

My cabin up north still has basic cable and standard def TVs. Watching sports is almost unberable. Hockey is the worst, you might as well use gamecast.

"And if that doesn't wet your appetite, you're watching the wrong channel."

You can usually find me bumping some Reggae, hammered on Higgins Lake with the goon squad. #HALOL

Go Blue!

March 4th, 2013 at 5:11 PM | No, that wasn't all that mattered! (Score:2)
restive neb
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Joined: 04/06/2009
MGoPoints: 531

Even though we didn't have HDTV back then, there was a clear difference between good reception and bad reception.  For the 1989 Championship game, I was at a house without cable.  I tried my best to get good reception by adjusting the rabbit ears, but I was ultimately unsuccessful. I watched the whole game with an awful image -- there were two of everything.  Every player had a shadow.  On the positive side, you should have seen how many shots Glen Rice hit since there were two of him on the court!

March 4th, 2013 at 2:54 PM | I want to punch you in the face for asking "is (Score:5 Normal)
no joke its hoke
no joke its hoke's picture
Joined: 01/13/2011
MGoPoints: 2215

I want to punch you in the face for asking "is this what it was like to watch sports in the 80's?" Sorry,I just have a hard time getting old,I'm 34.

Vice.com

March 4th, 2013 at 2:59 PM | 34 (Score:5 Normal)
Njia
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Joined: 09/15/2009
MGoPoints: 6038

Whipper snapper

"If life is the road, then Ohio is simply a place to stop for gas." -- Scott Burgess, Detroit News, 9/16/2010
March 4th, 2013 at 2:59 PM | Where do I get in line?  I (Score:5 Normal)
APBlue
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Joined: 01/07/2011
MGoPoints: 1146

Where do I get in line?  I want to get in line (like in the movie Airplane) and punch that kid right in the face too.  Is that movie reference too old for that young fucker?  

Just like drunkonhiggins said, there wasn't any HDTV in the 80's, so there wasn't anything to compare it to.  All we knew is that was as good as it got.  Why do you think Fox came out with stupid shit like the glow puck?  

March 4th, 2013 at 3:28 PM | Next. (Score:5 Normal)
M-Wolverine
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Joined: 10/04/2009
MGoPoints: 38747

"I love him, he's a great coach, he's a great mentor, he's a great friend. He's every single thing you want a college coach to be, and he does it flawlessly." -David Molk

March 4th, 2013 at 3:42 PM | Thanks for the laugh, (Score:4 Normal)
APBlue
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Joined: 01/07/2011
MGoPoints: 1146

Thanks for the laugh, M-Wolverine.  The only thing funnier than the jive speaking brother with the pipewrench is the old lady with the pistol.  

That, my friends, is hilarious.  

March 4th, 2013 at 2:54 PM | You need an editor. (Score:5 Normal)
LongLiveBo
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Joined: 08/05/2009
MGoPoints: 1081

You need an editor.

The Team, The Team, The Team.

March 4th, 2013 at 2:57 PM | (No subject) (Score:5 Normal)
lbpeley
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Joined: 01/29/2009
MGoPoints: 1585

March 4th, 2013 at 2:59 PM | Sold my 2004 MSU ticket for (Score:3 Normal)
SAvoodoo
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Joined: 01/10/2010
MGoPoints: 3237

Sold my 2004 MSU ticket for 50$ and watched it from my dorm room, terrible choice made for a terrible reason (ex-gf).

 

March 4th, 2013 at 4:25 PM | Did you live in south quad? (Score:2 Normal)
Mgotri
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Joined: 03/04/2013
MGoPoints: 45

Did you live in south quad? You may have sold it to me.

March 4th, 2013 at 5:23 PM | I did live in south quad, 3rd (Score:2)
SAvoodoo
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Joined: 01/10/2010
MGoPoints: 3237

I did live in south quad, 3rd taylor. If I sold it to you I hope you enjoyed it :)

March 4th, 2013 at 9:51 PM | I'm fairly certain you did. (Score:2 Normal)
Mgotri
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Joined: 03/04/2013
MGoPoints: 45

I'm fairly certain you did. It served me well.

March 5th, 2013 at 8:26 AM | Glad to hear it, though now (Score:2)
SAvoodoo
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Joined: 01/10/2010
MGoPoints: 3237

Glad to hear it, though now I'm curious who this is because I don't remember who I sold it to haha.

March 4th, 2013 at 2:59 PM | What is this fancy (Score:2)
Buck Shaner
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Joined: 06/01/2011
MGoPoints: 70

"remote" contraption you speak of?

March 4th, 2013 at 3:03 PM | I'm 34.  TV was just fine in (Score:5 Normal)
Butterfield
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Joined: 01/15/2011
MGoPoints: 1941

Your story reminds me of my adolescence, trying to get the slightest glimpse of a recognizable boob on the scrambled soft porn channels.  You kids probably didn't even know premium content was "scrambled"....if you weren't willing to pay (or didn't want to have a porn movie show up on mom and dad's cable bill), cable operators everywhere threw kids a bone by allowing them to use their imagination. 

The swag is back. 

March 4th, 2013 at 3:39 PM | "threw kids a bone" (Score:2 Normal)
mgobaran
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Joined: 09/12/2012
MGoPoints: 471

...I see what you did there.

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March 4th, 2013 at 3:46 PM | ahhh...scrambled porn.   For (Score:5 Normal)
APBlue
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Joined: 01/07/2011
MGoPoints: 1146

ahhh...scrambled porn.  

For those of you who don't understand, do you see the boob???

March 4th, 2013 at 3:59 PM | I do!  But then again, I grew (Score:5 Normal)
Butterfield
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Joined: 01/15/2011
MGoPoints: 1941

I do!  But then again, I grew up on this stuff and know what to look for. 

Not only does this bring back memories, but it makes porn safe for work!

The swag is back. 

March 4th, 2013 at 5:29 PM | That moment... (Score:1)
WolveJD
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Joined: 09/08/2009
MGoPoints: 52

That moment when you realize you weren't the only one. 

-So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

March 4th, 2013 at 4:00 PM | and occasionally....... (Score:4 Normal)
Bosch
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Joined: 04/03/2009
MGoPoints: 4275

.......the picture would unscramble for 3 glorious seconds.

All right Lemmings. Bring the heat.

March 4th, 2013 at 4:53 PM | I believe (Score:3 Normal)
lbpeley
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Joined: 01/29/2009
MGoPoints: 1585

the sound came in though, did it not?

March 4th, 2013 at 5:06 PM | Yes, it most certainly did.  (Score:2)
Butterfield
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Joined: 01/15/2011
MGoPoints: 1941

Yes, it most certainly did.  To this day, I have the script to "Lady Chatterly's Lover" memorized although I've only seen it through the scramble. 

The swag is back. 

March 4th, 2013 at 6:24 PM | I don't know about the sound, (Score:4 Normal)
YakAttack
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Joined: 01/20/2009
MGoPoints: 10739

but I sure did!!!

http://semichigansports.com

March 4th, 2013 at 6:33 PM | ...and that's all (Score:2 Normal)
Unfiltered Manball
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Joined: 01/03/2013
MGoPoints: 108

the time I needed back then! 

Who am I kidding- that's all the time I need now!

" Listen... do you smell that? " 

- Dr. Ray Stantz / Ghostbusters

March 4th, 2013 at 8:49 PM | And if you adjusted te horizontal and vertical (Score:2)
M-Wolverine
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Joined: 10/04/2009
MGoPoints: 38747

And other picture knobs you could sometimes get it to tune in in fuzzy B&W, usually with the top of the picture at the bottom and the bottom on top like some Picasso porn. At least for a little while.

"I love him, he's a great coach, he's a great mentor, he's a great friend. He's every single thing you want a college coach to be, and he does it flawlessly." -David Molk

March 4th, 2013 at 3:04 PM | Um what (Score:2)
TheTruth41
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Joined: 10/07/2010
MGoPoints: 303

March 4th, 2013 at 3:13 PM | For your reference: (Score:2)
turtleboy
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Joined: 04/22/2011
MGoPoints: 3207

In the 80's a lot of people adjusted their crappy picture by moving the coat hanger around. Some of my friends still had hand-me-down black and white tvs. You got up and turned the chunky plastic dial with numbers painted on it to change channels. My one friend had a remote bigger than 2 stacked decks of cards that popped out of a slot in the tv housing. Nice tvs had a wood cabinet built around it. Only a couple people had cable, I was lucky my parents got it. My neighbors across the street had a beta player to tape games and rewatch them.

How many times have you been on the freeway and had someone fly by you at 100 mph then end up 2 cars ahead of you at the off ramp? What's the point? -Mark Harmon

March 4th, 2013 at 4:18 PM | Grew Up Similarly... (Score:2)
LSAClassOf2000
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Joined: 01/07/2011
MGoPoints: 8709

I  remember having to get the PBS and the CBC here in Metro Detroit by adjusting the VHF and UHF dials on an RCA 20-inch (a big deal, about 30 years ago, to have a 20-inch TV) in order to find those two stations.

For a time, we also had one of the early commercially available satellite TV setups too. It was simply easier to tell people that you were part of the SETI program, as the dish was that massive, rather than explain the system and how it worked.

To the OP's point, the sports viewing experience in the 1980s was rather that the sports were on at all, as many have mentioned. Even ESPN was not that vast back in the day, and Sportscenter, which for a few years looked like it was filmed in a basement in Bristol, was an overall more diverse, informative stroll through sports (they even covered sailing back in the day, I think).

"Funny isn't it, how naughty dentists always make that one fatal mistake."

Follow the random tweets of a Michigan alum - http://twitter.com/#!/LorneEC3

March 4th, 2013 at 4:36 PM | Remember when ESPN would show (Score:3 Normal)
APBlue
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Joined: 01/07/2011
MGoPoints: 1146

Remember when ESPN would show Australian Rules Football?  Those were the days.  Now we get 12 hours per day, per espn channel of idiot reporters arguing with one another.  I'd rather they show harness racing than that crap.  

March 4th, 2013 at 4:42 PM | Beta (Score:2)
Hail-Storm
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Joined: 06/07/2010
MGoPoints: 2382

My parents had a Beta hooked up to a 13" screen until about 2009 when they upgraded big. Still one of my favorite quotes from the Simpsons is when snake was steeling a VCR and quipped "Oh no! Beta"

Growing up in the 80s and 90s was great. Didn't have cable until my sophomore year and didn't get on the Internet until my freshman year in college in 98.

"Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest." -Mark Twain


 

March 4th, 2013 at 3:17 PM | (No subject) (Score:2)
TrppWlbrnID
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Joined: 10/29/2009
MGoPoints: 7875

2013 resolution - make it onto the 2014 favorite MGoPosters post, not ironically
March 4th, 2013 at 3:23 PM | I'm 53.  Back in the day our (Score:4 Normal)
mGrowOld
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Joined: 10/04/2010
MGoPoints: 13158

I'm 53.  Back in the day our TV reception was so bad we just played games on these with our transistor radio on......

 

 

 

March 4th, 2013 at 3:48 PM | Did your sister give you the (Score:1)
TWSWBC
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Joined: 01/27/2011
MGoPoints: 791

Did your sister give you the My Little Pony doll that's in your avatar too?

If I tell you it's Easter, you better start looking for eggs.

Some folks call it a sling blade, I call it a kaiser blade.

March 4th, 2013 at 3:57 PM | No. (Score:4 Normal)
mgobaran
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Joined: 09/12/2012
MGoPoints: 471

I challenged an ex-mod, and lost. Comes down this Friday.

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March 4th, 2013 at 4:26 PM | slap a block M (Score:2 Normal)
oldcityblue
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Joined: 04/07/2010
MGoPoints: 1410

on that puppy and go ahead and keep your pink pony avatar.

Actually, looking at it a little more closely, it might be awesome to have the block M under the front legs.... or stupid.

Better yet, block M your p.p. then pixalate the whole thing. Then it would make as much sense as your post.

 ...gotta love BiSB.

"He stood there like the house by the side of the road, and watched that one go by"

March 4th, 2013 at 4:31 PM | Trust this man. Cartoons with a block m are the (Score:5 Normal)
BlockM
BlockM's picture
Joined: 07/03/2008
MGoPoints: 25312

Trust this man. Cartoons with a block m are the coolest.

@pnbloem | Ultra-MGoBoard

March 4th, 2013 at 6:28 PM | (No subject) (Score:2)
YakAttack
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Joined: 01/20/2009
MGoPoints: 10739

http://semichigansports.com

March 4th, 2013 at 4:17 PM | Why you young little *$^)  (Score:3 Normal)
ReadYourGuard
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Joined: 08/21/2008
MGoPoints: 6189

Why you young little *$^)  *$^@(_   ))(*#RHOF_*@#$

THIS was the video game I got to play as a kid.

"the Spirit of Michigan...is based on a deathless loyalty to Michigan and all her ways....and a conviction that nowhere is there a better university, in any way, than this Michigan of ours" - Fielding Yost
March 4th, 2013 at 5:09 PM | Yep, you don't know jack (Score:1)
StephenRKass
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Joined: 07/15/2008
MGoPoints: 4202

Yep, you don't know jack. I remember watching the Olympics in Black & White in the 60's. Color TV in the 60's could be really, really awful. There were more than a few occasions when I ended up listening to Michigan games on the radio, because they weren't televised anywhere. Between ABC, ESPN, the Big10 Network, and occasionally NBC or CBS, I don't think they EVER have a time when games AREN'T available on some network.

"It does not matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up." Vince Lombardi

 

March 4th, 2013 at 6:19 PM | who here had (Score:2)
remodelguy
Joined: 02/09/2011
MGoPoints: 13

on (the movie station) or pass sports?  we had one of those huge dishes also....good times

March 4th, 2013 at 7:02 PM | Broken TV plus crappy reception (Score:2 Normal)
BlueMan80
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Joined: 01/21/2011
MGoPoints: 2374

I think it was my junior year (1978) when the Michigan-Ohio game actually was played on Thanksgiving weekend due to some oddities in the calendar that year.  Fortunately, the game was in Columbus, so going home for Thanksgiving wasn't a hardship.  I knew I was in for late 70s color console TV with rabbit ears no matter how I saw the game.

My mom informs me that the TV isn't working real well,  The picture "rolls".  Veritcal hold problems were a real issue back in the day.  The picture would scroll up every few seconds.  So, being a young engineering student, I pulled the tubes that looked like they could be having problems, took them down to Radio Shack, plugged them into the tube tester, and found 3 were marginal.  Bought 3 new tubes, went home and plugged everything back in and we were in business for the big game on Sat.  Now that's a 1970s TV experience at its finest!  I think I also adjusted the "focus" control on the TV, too.  The CRT guns would wander around on those good old RCAs and Zeniths.

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