[Nowhere Man]

As an example, DVDs were clearly a major step above VHS (except for not being rewritable), but Blu-Ray hasn’t done that well because it’s not as big an improvement.

DVDs will work on essentially any TV ever made (I saw a website where a guy was using one with a Dumont from 1948), plus any PC made in the last decade. Blu-Ray needs a 1080p HDTV to work properly (smaller sets are only 720p) and can’t be used in computers.

True, Blu-Ray drives need to be on computers to use them although IIRC, the Sony PS3 can pay Blu-Rays. I do have my Blu-Ray, got it last Christmas, hooked up to a 1982 Zenith. B-D I'm a member of the website, Video Karma, and there are many old TV enthusiasts that hook up DVD players to their old sets and run the old programs on them. One guy had a 1966 Zenith color TV running "Bonanza" using a DVD player.

I know Blu-Ray is hi-def, but I really don't care, as long as the movie or TV show has a good plot and story, it doesn't matter if I watch it in 1080p or the old 405 line British Marconi B&W system from 1936.

[Strk321]

Your Zenith would be a System 3, as that was the last new chassis they developed. Lucky Goldstar bought out Zenith after they went under in 1991 and continued making System 3s until about 1997 (with production moved to Mexico). They also sold some of their own sets with the Zenith name.

Anyway, this guy who had the Dumont (an RA-103 combo TV/FM radio) noted that the signal put out by DVD players is a bit of an overload on vacuum-tube electronics and produces an excessively bright picture with blooming.

You may also notice that today’s TV shows look terrible in black-and-white (poor contrast), as opposed to 1950s programming which was designed with that in mind and had high-contrast backgrounds.