Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

The change over to digital broadcasting has been written to death. It is coming, congress has just voted not to delay it so it will happen on schedule. The myth that cable and satellite are not affected is just that, a myth. Comcast has already shifted some very important channels to all digital. (Cartoon network being a grandchild important channel) Comcast states they will be gradually changing all of their analog output to digital. What does that specifically mean to all of us cable users. It means you must have a digital tuner to get those channels that are currently digital and those they will be changing. So like all of the “over the air” folks, you will need a converter box so it is just plain old crap that if you have cable you won’t be affected by the change to digital. Comcast offers two free digital adapters to those who currently have a digital converter box. Caution, the digital adapter is not the same as the digital converter box, it is a stupid cousin. The digital adapt...

I guess there are folks out there with more time on their hands than I have and I’m retired. My favorite TV shows are Two and Half Men , Chuck , Boston Legal and the jury is still out on Amanda Tapping’s new show, Sanctuary . Once I have them on my TIVO I have a heck of a time, just keeping up with them. I am aware there are lots of movies On Demand on Comcast. We have started many of them and have actually found two we enjoyed. Now if you eliminate sports, I’m watching the Steelers as I write this, you might have more viewing time available. If so you may want to watch movies. How do you get your movies? Well my buddies at Diamond Case Design have the most complete and intelligent overview I have found on how to get movies to your home. Note I do not say to your home entertainment center as DCD does because many of us do not have a “home entertainment center”. Someday when my tube tv’s die I will replace them, in the meantime if I have to see High Def I will visit one of my kids. ...

Once again I am going to refer to Diamond Case Designs and once again I will reiterate I am not being paid one dime by DCD nor am I in any way financially connected to Diamond Case Designs. I do find their newsletters and their information center really interesting which may indicate that I need to get a life or maybe not. As you may know, infrared remotes depend on line of sight to function. While babysitting my grandchildren I noticed that I had to open the cabinet under the big screen to use the remote. I thought at the time how inconvenient and it definitely impacts the whole reason for having the components out of sight. How could I use an infrared remote through the wooden door? I happened on the infrared repeaters at the Diamond Case Information center and realized I didn’t have to reinvent the wheel. To begin place a sensing receiver somewhere in line of sight. There is a table top receiving eye and a tear drop style receiving eye. From my perspective, the tear drop style is wa...