Anyone who grew up in the CRT era of TVs remembers that you had to turn the channel to 3 before you turned on the VCR or game console. Otherwise, the picture would not work. Why was this so necessary?
Edit: woah this blew up while I wasn’t looking! Thanks for the replies!
In: Technology
When TVs were invented, it never occurred to the manufacturers that they could be used for anything besides broadcast content from regional television stations. That’s what they are set up for: VHF broadcast reception within several predefined channels.
When the first home video devices were invented (VCRs, computers, video games, etc) the only way for your television to recognize the signal was if the device in question created a signal identical to what the broadcast station would create.
Conveniently, most televisions had the ability to connect an external antenna in the back. All your device had to do was convert the desired composite video into an NTSC broadcast signal with appropriate levels, and feed it into an antenna cable, which you wired directly to your television.
The last step is telling your television where to find the signal. Most devices broadcast on either channel 3 or channel 4, and there was usually a switch on the back to choose.
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