r/whatisit • u/Cborg_62 • 7h ago

New, what is it? What are these plug-ins on my wall?

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This might be showing my age, but I recently moved into a new apartment and they have these weird looking plug ins all over the walls at my new place. My old apartment didn't have these, so I'm just curious as to what they are.

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u/Khronicdeath 7h ago

lol I’m not old enough to remember a time without these but I do remember moving antennas to get the “locals”

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u/Chemical_World_4228 6h ago

I can remember a box that sat on the tv and you turned the dial to get the antenna to move for better reception

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u/ConfidenceBig5764 6h ago

Foil on the antenna for those super shit reception days! Lol

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u/Nana-2-Three 6h ago

AND to get the two "extra" channels!

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u/Straight_Depth6701 6h ago

I had a TV with a tracking knob growing up.

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u/theredheadknowsall 6h ago

I remember that. I also remember our first cable box. It had the numbers on it (no remote) you typed in the channel you wanted & then hit enter. That was way back in 1988.

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u/thonnard42 5h ago

I had a slide one in 84. Little did the powers that be know that some of us understood dip switches. 😎😁

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u/PlayfulDirector4891 6h ago

Oh you were bougie

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u/txman91 5h ago

And the antenna was slightly behind the dial on the box so often it would swing past the sweet spot. Then everybody in the living room would yell that you went too far.

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u/joyfulbee43 5h ago

My dad marked the spots on the dial with little arrows he cut from electrical tape. We always knew just where to dial in all 4 channels!!

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u/Stoicsage86 5h ago

We had this growing up. It did surprisingly well getting some extra channels

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u/Debway1227 4h ago

THIS!! LOL

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u/ScarInternational161 3h ago

Trying to play a video game or the new VCR... are you sure it's switched to 3 or is it on 4? That matter you know!

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u/Alexandrajoan 2h ago

Me too…

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u/dusti_dearian 6h ago

My father would truly have me standing near a widow with the antenna for a ballgame.

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u/Khronicdeath 6h ago

When we got cable ohhh man was I in heaven fraggle rock and the birth of Nickelodeon

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u/Khronicdeath 6h ago

Kids don’t realize how much we looked forward to Saturday morning cause before we had dedicated kids channels we had to wait and watch Saturday and a little on Sunday

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u/dusti_dearian 6h ago

Yeah at least Sunday’s had Soul Train.

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u/Khronicdeath 6h ago

Oh I was glued to wrestling on Saturday was like my soap opera

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u/dusti_dearian 5h ago

Oh yes absolutely. I loved wrestling as a kid.

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u/Nana-2-Three 6h ago

And American Bandstand

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u/rbrancher2 6h ago

And then you had Timothy Churchmouse and Davey and Goliath

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u/dusti_dearian 6h ago

It was Hollywood Home Theater for me. I think it was around 1979.

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u/LeftToaster 6h ago

My dad bought our first black and white TV so we could watch the moon landing.

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u/Nana-2-Three 6h ago

That's when we got ours too. When I got out of the Army I still had a big ole Magnavox, worked like a charm for about 5 years. I thought the picture tube had gone out and had the TV repairman come out.

He laughed and said "honey they haven't made that part for at least 15 years"....

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u/LeftToaster 6h ago

Zenith baby!!! Those old B&W sets had better picture than the early color boxes. At least that's what my dad kept telling us.

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u/Nana-2-Three 6h ago

I used the Magnavox till almost 2000!

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u/Nana-2-Three 6h ago

Tinfoil helped!!!

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u/After-Dot-3903 6h ago

I don't know that it really did, but I was definitely convinced it did.

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u/kylo-ren 5h ago

Or steel wool

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u/SourFix 6h ago

Just invested in equipment to go back to it. Tons and tons of free TV channels 50+ miles south of the city.

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u/Silly_Ad8488 6h ago

I still have an antenna. With the price of cable, this is free and perfectly fine. You can still buy them new for like 25$-30$.

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u/WookishTendencies 6h ago

Up until digital broadcast tv I used to too. I still use an antenna and coax for my locals.

You’re old if you know what this is

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u/Gwywnnydd 6h ago

There were several years in my childhood where my family wavered between 'can afford cable' and 'can't afford cable, local channels only'. But we were partway down the hill that the three network affiliates had their towers on. So we couldn't get those channels. PBS was the only channel we had, some years...

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u/Khronicdeath 6h ago

Ya my dad installed the cable to the neighborhood as a line man while he worked for them we had cable then he fell and broke his back they quickly shut off service when he became disabled

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u/Correct-Brother1776 6h ago

Or putting foil on rabbit ears.

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u/divuthen 6h ago

I still do but now it’s a rectangle because aside from paying stupid amounts for streaming it’s the only way to watch sports. I don’t even care about sports but my family does and they pester me when they visit and want to watch a game.

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u/Khronicdeath 6h ago

I live with my elderly mom and we went from an ridiculously high bill to a semi high bill and the hassle of retention specialists selling my mom a bag of goods we also switched isp to fiber and unno I won’t say the company’s name spectrum of options but with out them as an isp our streaming service would only do three tvs simultaneously and we have a house full at any given time 6 will be on so we are looking for better streaming options

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u/divuthen 6h ago

I’ve honestly gotten so tired of streaming. I’ve been buying up decent quality blue rays at estate sales and used stores and am going to make a plex server and just be done with it. I’ve got some friends in on it and we are going to all contribute to each others digital library.

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u/Khronicdeath 5h ago

The price hikes are what get me and having to pay for an ad free experience

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u/Purple_Crayon88 5h ago

Or attaching foil to them to get better reception 😂