TVs

[chuckro]

I now have a bigger TV, courtesy of ecmyers. Big thanks go to xannoside, who rented the Zipcar and helped me lug the thing here from Manhattan. After futzing around with it a bit, we were able to get it to recognize the cable channels by hooking it through a VCR. ("We hacked the TV.")

Of course, three hours later, I remembered that Comcast is cancelling half my channels if I don't "upgrade", and I never watch live TV anyway, so I called them and cancelled cable service, retaining only internet. (I can buy a new DVD set each month for the $40 I was dropping on cable I never watched. Seems a fair trade.)

We also went on an adventure to try to get the cables necessary to hook my netbook into the TV so I can watch downloaded or streamed videos on it. That failed, so I ordered them from Amazon instead. We'll see if this plan works.

Amd finally: This means I now own 3 TVs: The new 27" one, the old 20" TV/VCR combo, and the 20" we'd gotten in a contest drawing several years ago and barely used. I've decided we don't need to keep the latter one, given that we've barely used it in the time we'd have two TVs. Anyone want it? Free to a good home if you'll come take it away.

Comments

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

Uh, you shouldn't have to "hack" the TV to get it to recognize your cable channels, but I guess it's now a moot point! Most people have a cable box and just tune it to channel 3.

Also, FYI, cables are pretty cheap through Newegg.com and there's no tax.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

I don't have a cable box (cable is hooked through the building's system), and I think that was the problem. I'd care more if I actually watched more TV.

As far as I can tell in terms of cables and TV-out, it's really dependent on what your video card supports. The one in my netbook _appears_ to support TV-Out, just not Macrovision encryption (which doesn't matter because it doesn't have a DVD player). We shall see.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I got that notice from Comcast too--it was extremely confusing. But once I looked at what they meant by the "basic" package, which they were dropping channels from, that package was really just the network channels. So I guess I don't have "basic." Danged if I could figure out what package I do have, though. I guess I'll see if any of my channels disappear, but it didn't look like they were going to.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

The list they sent me included every channel I might consider watching, except that I don't actually ever watch any of them. Which is why I decided the easest way to deal with it was not giving more money to bleeping Comcast.