A Rightful Place for Elderly Technology

Ichi, Tadami, OCJC

Do you ever wonder why we all have to change our old televisions to new ones? Next month, all old televisions with cathode ray tubes will not be able to receive broadcast signals. The question is, what are the advantages of changing out these old televisions?

The advantages that digital TVs have are super high quality screens that enable people to participate, for example, in programs such as in TV quiz shows. If your digital TV is connected to the Internet, you can even surf the net on TV. Thanks to digital data broadcasting, we can also enjoy stationary pictures, graphs, and other information on TV programs.

It is said that a new age of computing is coming soon when we won't need to use PCs anymore. If this so, what, then, is the difference between analogue broadcasting and digital broadcasting?

The difference, we’re told, is in its frequency waves. Frequency is the number of waves that TVs receive to display pictures on its screen.

Very High Frequency, or VHF, has been used thus far to send pictures to the conventional TVs we used to watch a long time ago. The problem is that the atmosphere above our heads is over-crowded with VHF signals, especially because of their large mass, even though we can't detect them with our eyes directly.

The government is basically trying to render the crowded atmosphere un-crowded by switching Ultra High Frequency, or UHF signals.

If my explanation of the differences is still confusing, please imagine a bookshelf filled up with videotapes. If the bookshelf can contain only 10 videotapes, the bookshelf will be filled up sooner than putting DVDs in the bookshelf. For DVDs, they can be contained in the bookshelf twice or three times as many as videotapes. Changing from VHF to UHF is similar to this case.

With the limited capacities, frequency waves need to be more compact than they used to be. As these conventional TVs, Cathode Ray Tubes, need a lot of energy to display pictures on their screens, they can't even adapt to the new calls for energy reduction in this ecological age.

What I would like you to think about today is these old TVs that can't be used anymore and which are doomed to be thrown away. Japan is often said to be a country abundant in mechanical stuffs and is a complete consumer society.

However, I don't think that the government has any real plans for these old televisions. I believe one solution for these old televisions is to donate them to countries where analogue signals are still used. We wouldn’t be dumping but donating. Our used stuff helps people there and reduces our waste.

Another solution is that the government should fund a nationwide TV recycling program. In this way, nothing gets wasted. What do you think about these ideas? Do you have any drastic ideas for these old televisions that would give them a proper place?