Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

We saw Angels and Demons, very good movie, do not expect to lie back leisurely and watch, it is an edge of your seat kind of movie. Afterward the couple we were with suggested dinner and we ended up on an outdoor patio shouting over the unnecessarily loud music and the most definitely loud children nearby. Ger proceeded to tell me how much trouble he had hooking up his new TV and then hooking digital converter boxes to his old TVs. It was far more trouble that it should have been. I treated him to the story of my hooking up my new TV. Since I have the DVD burner/player, TIVO, external speakers with subwoofer, cable box and computer all hooked to the TV the wires and the small holes they were supposed to go through in the cabinet provided the first difficulties. After taming the wire snarl I proceeded to set up the new cable box. My old cable box would not do high definition and since that was one of the reasons I got a new TV I called Comcast to find out how to get the new box. First p...

Discovering I could get high def through the Internet was truly a treat. I had no idea. I added a EVGA GeForce 6200 256MB 64-bit DDR AGP-8X DVI/VGA/TV Out Video Card to my TV attached computer. (See my blog on the Toshiba 40” LCD.) I got the card at Buy.com for a whopping $39.99 including shipping. That was way cheaper than many 128mb video cards I found. The card interfaced easily, the software on the CD loaded and gave me all the options I needed. My TV computer is an old P4-3ghz running XP. It only had 512mb of RAM so I goosed up the RAM to 1.5gb by adding a Kingston Technologies 1GB DDR SDRAM Desktop Memory (KVR400/1GR). This is a PC2700, 184pin, DDR memory stick running at 400mhz but downward compatible to 333 and lower. I popped it in and fired up the CPU and it worked as advertised. Now my TV computer had the specifications to attach it to my new Toshiba LCD and pull down High Def from the Internet. I got a Link Depot Cable 6 Hdmi Male To Dvi-D Male for $3.57 plus shipping &...

You ever want to hook your computer up to your TV? If you have a Tivo and a network it is a piece of cake. Download the Tivo server software onto your computer and you can then see all your graphics files and music files on the Tivo. This is particularly good for showing off your digital photos on a much bigger screen. Conversely, you can save Tivo shows on your computer hard drive and if you want, you can burn them to DVDs. However this does require a Tivo or similar DVR. If you have no Tivo and you want to: n View your digital photos on your large screen TVs n Listen to your music through your home stereo system n View videos stuck on your hard drive on your big screen n Do basic web surfing in your living room or TV room n Show off presentations to family, friends, or co-workers. Our friends at Diamond Case Designs have a very good article in their Home Theater Information Center that gives step by step instructions in “HOW TO” connect your PC and TV. Again, we have no financial...