Web Setup
The Problem
So let me get you caught up. After a recent trip to St. Louis to visit The Sheahan family they hooked us on the TV show Lost. So we left there with Season 1 and Season 2 on DVD. We get back and watch those and then we get Season 3 on DVD. So now we have a problem. Season 4 has already started but isn’t completed. Of course we could start watching Season 4 now but that we would miss about 8 episodes and if you have ever watched the show you would now that you would be totally confused as to what is going on. So living in the digital age I goto ABC.COM and I can get caught up by watching the missing shows on the internet. Well that’s great for me but part of the fun is watching the show with my family. And I will be honest with you the idea of all four of us sitting in my office watching TV on the monitor really didn’t seem like a good idea to me.
The Solution
So being a guy that loves technology I decided there has to be a better way for us to view. Here’s what I came up with. I connected my MacBook Pro to a Vizio 37” flat screen TV using a DVI to HDMI cable. By doing that I was able to use the Vizio as a second monitor. Then I just launch the web browser and pulled up the site. Choose the HD streaming option and change the screen to full screen. Also I used a wireless Logitech mouse for the times I had to click on a button after viewing a commercial.
The Result
Overall I have to say that viewing the actual episode was fine. I really didn’t notice any stuttering in playback. I was impressed with the watching the show experience. As far as navigating I couldn’t do that from the couch I had to get closer to the TV to see what was on the screen. This could just be because of the monitor resolution I was using and. Another issue that I had an issue with is once I was done is I couldn’t figure out how to quit out of the ABC viewer when I was finished without quitting out of all the browser. Again this might be because of my monitor setting and I might not have seen the whole window or I may have just been user error.
The Question
Now that I have tried this I really think I can take this a step further. I would like to have the ability to surf the internet from my couch using my TV as a monitor. I have thought about building a Media PC for a few years. And I have hooked up computers to my stereo so I can listen to my MP3 library on a good speakers. Now I will say this about a year ago a switched from Windows to Mac so if I have to buy any new hardware I would prefer to buy a mac. If anybody has some ideas on how to do a nice setup in my living room please leave a comment. One more thing my TV that I would like to do this on is a Mitsubishi 57” rear projection TV. It does display up to 1080i but I do not have any HDMI inputs on the TV. The best I have is composite video.
Don’t worry not every post will be technical. I was just impressed at the viewing experience and wanted to share. If you have any questions or want me to get any deeper into explanations but don’t want to post a comment you can always E-mail me at mike@janovicfamily.com