TV Time

So, it's been a while since I last posted, but in my defense, these have been by far the busiest weeks of the year for me at work, and I've been spending a lot of my free time exploring my new TV. It's not the snazziest, top-of-the-line behemoth I could have gotten. No, I was sensible, did lots of research and settled on a nice mid-range set. It's a 32", 780p LCD TV. If you know what that means, or care about more bells and whistles, comment and I will answer more, but since most of you probably don't know and don't care, I will leave it at that.

The one feature I wanted to highlight is that fact that it has an input port solely reserved for computers. Unfortunately, it's a VGA (15-pin) input (a somewhat outdated technology), not the best for streaming digital video, etc. My laptop has a DVI (29 pin) output port. Thankfully, my computer did come with a DVI-VGA converter, but I still had to buy a VGA cable to hook it into the TV. I ordered one, and it came last week. The result:



Having purchased a 10' cable, I can place my computer under my coffee table, run the cord along the floor and into the TV, and watch programs on Hulu with comfort. The quality is actually very good, at least from my viewing distance. However, to get sound, I would have had to buy another cable and adapter to have sound output from the TV, so instead I bought some computer speakers on sale for $5 at Target, and simply listen to sound from the computer using them. It's not the classiest setup, but it suits me. Lately, the flavors of the month for me have been "Andy Barker, P.I." a comedy starring Andy Richter as a mild-mannered accountant-come private investigator, co-starring Tony Hale of "Arrested Development" that lasted only 6 episodes; and "Kitchen Nightmares," a show where enfant terrible and uber-chef Gordon Ramsay visits struggling restaurants in America and turns them around in a week (it's disingenuously edited and probably mostly scripted) but it's still hilarious.

In other TV news, apparently AMC is planning on running a 6-episode miniseries beginning this Sunday that is essentially an updated version of the 1960's cult sci-fi classic "The Prisoner." This version stars Jim Caviezel, a favorite just sub-star-level actor of mine, most famous for playing Jesus in Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," as the central character No. 6; and Sir Ian Mckellen as his nemesis, No. 2. Some other details have been modernized. Read all about it here in the NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/arts/television/11prisoner.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss