THE
IMPORTANCE OF IMPROVING
THE DEPLORABLE QUALITY OF AMERICAN TELEVISION
@ I982 The Anstendig Institute
The low technical quality of
television in our country has been deplorable for so long, and the public has
become so used to it, that practically no one feels that anything can be done
about it. While the technical system used in America, compared to that of Europe, is inferior and limited in the quality
of picture it can achieve, it is capable of far better results than most people
put up with. Those people would want better results if they realized that bad
quality TV has an adverse effect on them. It is well known that any type of
eyestrain can cause many physical problems, such as headaches and exhaustion, that can be quite disabling. But other less
obviously noticeable effects of eyestrain can cause a large array of unpleasant
conditions that can degrade one's sense of well-being, or even make one ill.
Irregularities of rhythm, which can be mechanical (flicker, for example) or in
the program itself (rhythmically badly played music, erratic speech patterns of
a nervous actor or announcer, for example), also affect us by imposing
themselves on, and determining, our mental rhythms and the rhythms of our body.
TV viewing consists of three
basic aspects, each of which can be improved:
- The Picture Quality
Since the
brightness and contrast of the TV picture interact with the light in the
room, the first problem in improving picture quality is to adjust the room
lighting. It should be on the soft side and the room should be as evenly
lit as possible. Reduce the contrast between the TV and the room lighting
by keeping the room lighting just a bit darker than the TV picture. TV
viewing in a very dark or very bright room should be avoided for any
appreciable length of time or eyestrain will result. Care should be taken
that the light source is well out of one's line of vision and that it is
not reflected in any way on the screen. Indirect light is generally the
most satisfactory type of lighting.
After the room lighting has been adjusted, the quality of the TV picture
and reception should be very critically evaluated. If it is not
first-rate, adjust the contrast and brightness controls carefully to the
point where the picture has solid blacks, but is not harsh contrast. Do
not go beyond that point. Some back-and-forth adjusting of the controls
will be necessary. Once the contrast seems right, it is important to
adjust the brightness only to the point where the blacks are solid and no
longer gray. If you cannot get this to your liking (and you should be very
critical), check your antenna. In most cases, having an expert who is
familiar with the problems in your area adjust your system is well worth
the expense, and usually results in significant improvement, particularly
with antenna reception. In cities, especially those with tall buildings,
and in distant locations, there are many potential reception problems such
as ghost (double) images, overloading, etc., that can be easily eliminated
by a trained technician.
It is a fiction that cable TV quality is better than antenna reception.
There are currently just as many technical problems with cable reception,
many of them more difficult to solve. After proper adjustment, our
institute's antenna reception is better than much cable reception that we
have seen.
Beware of Automatic-Fine-Tuning devices. There are numerous TV sets and
video-cassette recorders with malfunctioning AFT devices. After one tunes
the set manually, these devices are supposed either to
lock into the already adjusted settings and keep them from
wandering or to correct the settings if they were not precise. The
defective devices do not lock into the most precise setting and actually
degrade the image quality if it was well adjusted manually. This is
particularly bad in an area with reception problems (ghosts,
flicker, etc.). If you have an Automatic-Fine-Tuning switch, first tune
the set precisely by hand. Then, while watching closely, have someone else
press the AFT button, allowing you to concentrate totally on the screen.
Because any auto-readjustment usually happens quite slowly, repeat the
procedure to be certain of what is happening. If the colors become more
diffused and softer, the fine-tuning is probably malfunctioning. If you
have picture noise or other reception problems, you may prefer this more
diffused setting, but the proper solution is to have your set adjusted to
eliminate the interference. Most of these problems can be easily
eliminated. For those with good reception, it would be best to tune the
set completely by hand. Most sets with a malfunctioning control, Sony's
for instance, can be readjusted to tune precisely for most stations, and
owners should ask to have that done. For technical reasons, it is
sometimes impossible to adjust the control to handle the first few
channels when the AFT functions correctly on the channels from channel 4
on up. But channel 2 is usually so strong that it does not need the
Automatic-Fine-Tuning.
- The Sound Quality
In order to realize how powerful a physical effect sound has on us, one
need only remember that, without the aid of words or pictures, music can
make us laugh or cry, lull us to sleep, make us amorous, shock or calm us,
or make it difficult for us to remain still. The sound quality of TV sets
is notoriously low, with very little that can be done about it. Recently,
TV sets have been brought out with better sound quality and anyone buying
a TV should look for one of them. One important way to help oneself, short of buying a new set, is judicious
adjustment of the volume: our ears hear the balance of the frequency range
differently at different volume levels. At loud volume levels, we are more
sensitive to some frequencies, and at low volume levels, we are more
sensitive to others. The ideal solution is to have a machine called an
equalizer that can alter the balance of the frequencies to each other--a
sort of elaborate tone control with which we can adjust the sound in
relation to the desired volume level. But few have such a machine and it is
seldom possible to hook one to a TV set's own sound system (the audio
output on most TV sets could be connected to a hi-fi, in which case one
could listen to the sound through the hi-fi system with an equalizer).
Most TV sets have some equalization to compensate somewhat for the
peculiarities of our hearing, but this obviously cannot compensate for a
wide range of volume levels and is chosen for what the manufacturer
considers to sound best at the most usual volume levels in an averagely
furnished room. There will usually be a particular volume level at which a
set will sound best and one should take pains to find out where it is.
If you like your TV sound loud, you will probably be disappointed: because
most people have to keep the volume down, especially in apartments, the
sound will probably have been adjusted to seem best at moderate levels. In
such a case, one would probably do well to listen at lower levels because,
whether one notices it or not, the irritation of unequalized sound causes
physical tension and prevents the body from relaxing into the flow of the
program. Fine emotional nuances are lost and what is left is coarsened and
degraded. It is always safer to keep the volume a little less loud than
one might immediately prefer because our hearing is more forgiving at
lower volume levels, and we also hear louder as we relax and settle down.
- The Quality of the Material Being Broadcast
The last consideration is the programs themselves. Actors, newscasters,
musicians, etc., are, like all the rest of us, essentially machines
functioning in various rhythms and projecting various emotional qualities
with their attendant rhythms and bodily tensions, which do not necessarily
have to be beneficial to us. As an example, if the actors in a show are
ill at ease, nervous, or generally uptight, they will put the viewer in
the same state. Prime examples of recordings that key one up and make one
nervous are some of the late Toscanini recordings: the old man evidently
had his moments when he so tyrannized the orchestra that everyone was
nervous and afraid of making mistakes. Experiments with playing tapes of
such recordings for long periods of time have invariably put the listeners
in a very unpleasantly edgy, physically keyed-up state that lasted for
quite a while afterwards, and the best way to calm them down was by
playing other fine music of a suitable character. There is nothing one can
do about this problem except to change channels, but recognizing the
problem is difficult because the effects come on slowly. The best way to
deal with this is to turn off anything one is not totally comfortable
with. We tend to be too forgiving on this score and will leave programs
on, even though we are uncomfortable with them, because we don't realize
that they have an effect on us. And don't make the mistake of believing
that so-called "fine" or high-class programs are any better:
Toscanini's performances were considered the finest.
If the public had not been so
trusting to begin with and had been less willing to put up with bad quality, we
would not be saddled with a second-rate color television system. Perhaps, when
the people learn that their whole sense of well-being can be adversely affected
by poor quality TV, they will make the necessary effort to get the best out of what
they have, and possibly even insist on a better system.*
* An attempt at introducing a new, better
TV system is presently being made by Sony Corporation, but it may already be
too late, since a better system demands a greater part of the available
wavelengths than the old system. Most wavelengths have already been assigned
and the remaining usable portion is hotly contested by other potential users. A
better system will also show up technical flaws and sloppiness in most
presently available film material, much of which is the result of the universal
problem that no focusing device currently on the market is accurate. This
problem is handled in depth, along with full description of the only focusing
device capable of focusing with focal-point-exact accuracy, in other papers of
The Anstendig Institute which are available free of charge upon request.
The Anstendig
Institute is a non-profit, tax-exempt, research institute that was founded
to investigate the vibrational influences in our lives and to pursue research
in the fields of sight and sound; to provide material designed to help the
public become aware of and understand vibrational influences; to instruct the
public in how to improve the quality of those influences in their lives; and to
provide the research and explanations that are necessary for an understanding
of how we see and hear.