I'm slowly settling into using my new TV. It runs at 1366x768, so, sadly, it's not as big as my 1920x1200 laptop monitor, but it's good enough. I needed a TV, it has a tuner, 2 component, S-Video/Composite combination, 1 DVI (pleasant surprise when I brought it home), 1 HDMI and 1 VGA.

1 component is currently being used with the Xbox and PlayStation 2. You really can't see a major difference from S-Video to Component, but Composite to Component is definitely an upgrade. The S-Video connection is being used with the SNES and GameCube. The NES and Pong will use the coaxial tuner, probably. The NES can use Composite, though, but that's tied up with S-Video. The second set of Component connectors is reserved for the Wii, which will arrive Wednesday.

One thing I've always had trouble with is crowding people around my laptop to watch a movie. My room is relatively small, so we can't all literally gather around the laptop. You can see the screen, but it's very angle sensitive (more so than a TV) and it gets difficult. Well, I finally broke down and ordered a DVI cable from Radio Shack. It was on sale for 23 bucks. 9 foot cable, dual-link. Woohoo! I just bought that today, so it should be here sometime next week. That's fine, I'm in no hurry.

While we were in town to see Casino Royale, I stopped by the Radio Shack store and picked up a cable that changes a 3mm stereo headphone jack to two RCA plugs. It was only 6 feet long, so I bought a 20 foot extension cable. (Geez, 20 feet... But that was the smallest they had and it was cheap.) So now the computer will actually use the TV as a speaker when it's using the TV as a second monitor. I tried it out today, but it didn't work... I'm not too happy about it, but I think it's not working because there's no video signal. When there's no video signal, it says there's no input and the screen is blank. So I'm thinking it just didn't activate the audio because there's no video. I'll get to check it when the DVI cable comes...

Actually... Maybe I can fake it out. I'll use Xbox video and the laptop audio! Hold on... (Aren't you excited? You're witnessing a real time development as you're reading!)

Success! My theory was correct. I have PlayStation video running on the TV with laptop audio playing through the speakers. Ahh, sweet victory. How's this for set up: I'm running laptop music through the TV, which is playing the music out loud. I have RCA audio cables running from the TV to my desktop computer, to which I have my headphones plugged in and am listening to the music there, too. This stuff is so fun. Forget computer repair, I just need to work in an audio/video department. I don't actually make the audio or video, but I set everything up so people can hear it!

Anyway... Can you tell I'm killing time for Wednesday?