mediaarchaeologylab

mediaarchaeologylab, 10 months ago

translated from a Russian site about historical sound and video cards:

The modern computer is undoubtedly a very multifunctional device, but it still lacks one historically important detail. We are talking about such a seemingly simple thing as a radio. Today, a great variety of electronic devices are equipped with radios: telephones, alarm clocks, stereos, even refrigerators. An ordinary home PC clearly looks deprived against their background.

The FM tuner Aztech FM Radio is called upon to eliminate this injustice . It was introduced in the summer of 1995, that is, one hundred years after the invention of the first radio receivers by Marconi and Popov. Unlike the 1895 radio, this tuner is very compact. It is designed as an ISA expansion card and is based on an AM/FM receiver chip from Philips. After installing the tuner in the computer, connecting the antenna to it and connecting the line output to the input of the sound card, the user can enjoy his favorite radio stations from the familiar Windows operating system.

mediaarchaeologylab, 10 months ago

@europlus totally! some of the motorola ones might have an FM tuner? they all should, though. how much more space could it take?

mediaarchaeologylab, 10 months ago

it's got controls on the side for focus and also to make it either project on a wall (which does not work great) or show the image on the screen (which works ok)

mediaarchaeologylab, 10 months ago

and, of course, you advance the movie by hand with a hand crank

mediaarchaeologylab, 10 months ago

NGL one of the best parts might be that it has built in cord storage? always a really A+ feature

mediaarchaeologylab, 10 months ago

also the transformer is made by COILS, INC which totally feels fake

mediaarchaeologylab, 10 months ago

the movies are 8mm loops housed in little cartridges. the red wheel connects to that hand crank, and the light inside the device shines through the window, bounces against the mirror and reflects out through the film onto another mirror which either bounces the image onto the screen or the wall. there's a lot of light bouncing going on, honestly, which leads to the resulting image being a little dim. you get about 30 seconds of worth of movie on the loop, but that lasts for more or less time depending on how fast you crank

frame of film showing through the end of the cartridge
window showing the bounce mirror and part of the film loop

mediaarchaeologylab, 10 months ago

when we open it up, you can see there's almost nothing to it. light source, simple mechanism for advancing the film, mirrors (at 45 degree angles, of course!), little frosted plastic screen.

inside base of unit, with light source, projection prism, and power switch
inside of crank, showing bumps for catching the film advance wheel on the cartridge

mediaarchaeologylab, 10 months ago

the nature of the thing makes it a little difficult to show it working (recording basically directly into a light source is always a little tough) but here's a little video of Pinocchio coming to life, complete with the really satisfying clicky sounds of the crank

close up of the Fisher Price movie viewer screen, showing the scene from the original Disney Pinocchio movie where Pinocchio is dusted with fairy dust and comes to life

mediaarchaeologylab, 10 months ago

has... this always been what DVD stands for?

mediaarchaeologylab, 10 months ago

it's alive! (yes we're watching DS9 while we catalog)

mediaarchaeologylab, 10 months ago

we need a copy of this book more than ever now https://archive.org/details/makeitwithpunchedcards1971