In this blog post, we take an interesting look at the development of TV technology and its social significance, from mechanical televisions to smart TVs.
About 10 years ago, an animated series titled “Black Rubber Shoes” aired in South Korea and gained immense popularity. Set in a typical working-class family in 1970s South Korea, the series depicted the daily lives and emotions of people at the time through the eyes of a young elementary school boy named Ki-young, portraying them in a simple yet heartwarming manner. Even in South Korea, where the era depicted had already passed, this work evoked deep nostalgia and emotion in people who had not actually lived through that time. It also resonated across generations and national borders, reminding viewers of the early stages of industrialization that many countries experienced during their growth periods.
Three items that particularly stuck in the minds of many viewers of this animated series were bananas, ramen, and televisions. These three items are now ordinary consumer goods that can be easily purchased anywhere in the world, but in 1970s Korea, they were “rare items” and “symbols of wealth” that were not easily accessible. Just as imported fruits and appliances held special meaning in Eastern Europe during the Cold War, or in parts of Southeast Asia and Latin America during their early stages of development, these products in 1970s Korea carried symbolic value beyond their practical use.
At the time, bananas were expensive imported fruits that were hard to come by, and instant noodles were gaining traction as a new food culture in the rapidly changing modern society. Especially, TVs were a representative item that revealed a family’s economic status. Scenes where neighbors gathered around the TV in the home of a “well-off family” evoke a sense of alienation for Generation Y, who have never experienced that lifestyle. TV was so rare that it was considered a symbol of wealth, and schools even surveyed students to find out if their families owned a TV.
However, just as it is now common to find a TV in every home, TV has undergone remarkable growth, development, and popularization in Korea in just thirty to forty years. In the process, TV has become more than just an electronic device; it has established itself as a major medium that has greatly changed Korean society and lifestyle.
Although TVs began to be distributed in Korea in the 1960s, research and development on TVs had already been underway in the West. The origins of TV can be traced back to the Nippon Disk, developed by German inventor Paul Nippon in the 1880s. This device consisted of a circular metal plate with holes arranged in a spiral pattern, and it operated on the principle of converting electrical signals into images. When light containing the image of an object passed through the holes in the rotating metal plate, the light that passed through generated electricity in a selenium photodiode, thereby restoring the image. This metal plate played a significant role in the development of “mechanical television,” where the conversion of light into electricity and the restoration of electrical signals into images occurred simultaneously. However, mechanical television had the drawback of requiring the Nipkow disk to rotate over 600 times per minute to reproduce moving images, and its poor image quality eventually led it to be replaced by the later-developed “electronic television.”
Electronic television emerged in the late 1920s and dominated most households for nearly a century until the early 2000s, relying on the “cathode ray tube” as its core technology. The cathode ray tube is a special vacuum tube that converts electrical signals into visible images by adjusting the position and intensity of electron beams colliding with a fluorescent screen; it is also known as a cathode ray tube (CRT). The principle of the cathode ray tube is often compared to that of fireworks, and in fact, their scientific principles are very similar. In fireworks, heat is applied to specific atoms, causing them to absorb energy and accelerate the movement of electrons. As these electrons cool back to their original temperature, they release the energy in the form of light. In a CRT, accelerated electrons transfer their energy to phosphors made of compounds like sulfur or silicon, which then convert this energy into light to form an image on the screen. In other words, the only difference is whether the source of light is heat or a phosphor. With the introduction of the cathode ray tube, the mechanical movement required to reproduce images (such as the rotation of the Nipko disk) was eliminated, and it became possible to achieve image quality that surpassed that of conventional mechanical televisions.
When did the transition from black-and-white television to color television occur? While mechanical televisions are often considered “outdated” compared to electronic televisions and designed to display only black-and-white screens, the first color television was actually mechanical, not electronic. John Logie Baird, who invented the mechanical television, successfully transmitted color broadcasts using a mechanical television in 1928. By the 1940s in the United States, mechanical color televisions and electronic black-and-white televisions were in a fierce competition. At the time, electronic color televisions were still in the research phase. However, mechanical color television eventually lost its position to electronic color television due to several critical drawbacks. The most notable of these was the lack of backward compatibility. Mechanical color television required a separate special device to be attached to the TV to receive black-and-white broadcasts, which was a significant drawback at a time when color broadcasting had not yet established itself. People saw no need to give up watching black-and-white broadcasts or purchase expensive special devices just to watch a few color broadcasts. Additionally, mechanical color televisions lacked sufficient production facilities, and with the development and commercialization of color cathode-ray tubes, mechanical televisions eventually disappeared entirely.
Despite its widespread popularity for over a century, the cathode ray tube faced a threat to its existence with the emergence of flat-panel display TVs in the early 2000s. Flat-panel displays refer to video display devices that are thinner and lighter than traditional TVs or computer monitors, with LCD and PDP being the most commonly used types. LCD TVs use liquid crystals, which are materials that change their molecular arrangement in response to electrical signals, thereby creating specific directions. The basic operating principle involves arranging a polarizing filter, a color filter, a panel (a plate with liquid crystals arranged in a regular, dense pattern), and a backlight (rear illumination) in that order. Light is then emitted from the backlight toward the panel. As the light passes through each liquid crystal, it refracts in different patterns. The refracted light then passes through the polarizing filter and color filter, converting into pixels with different colors and brightness levels. PDP TVs are products that emit light using plasma (gas discharge). Plasma is a substance that is electrically neutral, formed when a gas is heated to extremely high temperatures or through electrical discharge, causing it to separate into electrons and atomic nuclei. The operating principle of a PDP TV involves injecting neon and argon gas between two thin glass plates, inducing discharge between electrodes mounted at the top and bottom, and using the ultraviolet light generated to cause self-emission, thereby reproducing the image. These two LCD TVs and PDP TVs have displaced CRT TVs and now dominate the majority of the TV market.
So far, we have focused on the “hardware” of TVs and provided detailed explanations, but defining exactly what a TV is remains a challenging task. In fact, we unconsciously define a TV as “a large machine placed in the living room that can display images,” and the author has also focused on the hardware to explain how the TV machine has evolved over time and how it operates. However, as the saying goes, “There is no more TV,” the roles that traditional TVs once performed are now easily handled by computers and smartphones, prompting us to reconsider what TV truly is. The dictionary definition of TV is an electrical communication method that transmits optical images of objects via waves and reproduces them on a receiving device. Alternatively, it refers to the device that receives these images. If we focus on the “electrical communication method” rather than the “receiving device,” this definition alone already includes DMB or broadcasts viewed on computers within the category of TV. If the TV hardware not only reproduces images but also performs functions such as internet access or communication, should these functions also be included in the category of TV? A representative example of this is the smart TV, which allows users to freely switch between three screens—TV, smartphone, and PC—to watch videos. Since it is not yet widely available, many view it as simply a TV with added smartphone and PC functions. However, in the not-too-distant future, if the distinction between computers, TVs, and other electronic devices becomes completely meaningless, the TV of that time will no longer be a device that merely reproduces images but a device that displays the information users desire across various fields such as broadcasting, communication, the internet, and gaming.
There is a saying that TV is no longer a “dumb box.” With the introduction of advanced technology, TV has indeed undergone remarkable functional development. In the past, TV was often criticized as a “dumb box” for passively delivering stimulating information to viewers. However, it is now transforming into a “smart box” by integrating with communication and internet technologies. Viewers are also changing from passive viewers who simply stare at the screen to active viewers who use TV to obtain information in various fields such as health and education. TV content is also becoming increasingly personalized, allowing users to freely choose programs that match their preferences and even receive customized information tailored to their needs. Additionally, TVs equipped with artificial intelligence have recently emerged, offering features that recognize viewers’ voices and actions and respond accordingly. While technological advancements have been made over a long period, functional developments have only begun to grow recently. Therefore, it is worth anticipating how TV will be developed to enhance the quality of people’s lives in the future.
As such, TVs have gone beyond being simple video reception devices to become the center of information and communication technology and an indispensable part of modern life. As TVs continue to evolve in the future, we will need to adjust our lives and ways of thinking accordingly. Looking back at the history of TV, we can see how rapidly and diversely it has evolved. Even as it continues to evolve today, TV may bring about another innovation through new functions and roles we have yet to imagine. Observing how TV will become even more deeply integrated into our lives amid these waves of change will be an intriguing endeavor.
