alt Hacker NewsI've sometimes wondered how things would have been different if the TV pioneers had went with circular CRTs instead of rounded rectangles.
Circles would have had a couple of advantages. First, I believe they would have been easier to make. From what I've read rectangles have more stress at the corners. Rounding the corners reduces that but it is still more than circles have. With circles they could have more easily made bigger CRTs.
Second, there is no aspect ratio thus avoiding the whole problem of picking an aspect ratio.
Electronically the signals to the XY deflectors to scan a spiral out from the center (or in from the edge if you prefer) on a circle are as easy to make as the signals to to scan in horizontal lines on a rectangle.
As far as I can tell that would have been fine up until we got computers and wanted to use TV CRTs as computer displays. I can't imagine how to build a bitmapped interface for such a CRT that would not be a complete nightmare to deal with.
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Picture tubes started round, and then became rectangular:
https://www.earlytelevision.org/prewar_crts.html
They didn't really have the problem of picking an aspect ratio because motion pictures existed and that was already 4:3
Reminds me of how every single piece of paper on Battlestar Galactica has the corners cut off. Somewhere in their timeline paper became 8 sided, and it's just as odd as our 4 side paper and rectangular TVs
Regarding aspect ratio, I'd bet they would have explored oval shapes before long.
Circles don’t pack together well. And they need a different solution for standing up.
I would guess that even at the time a circular viewport would have seemed a bit weird and so rectangular was preferred. After all, theater stages, most windows, photographs and books - all common place - aren’t circular either.