Productivity & Time Management Training, Speaking, Consulting

Catch Up with Part 1 here (background)

Catch Up with Part 2 here (researching & purchasing all the components)

Whew! So hooking everything up wasn’t so hard, actually, although the sound gave us some trouble.   First we connected the mini-DVI converter to the HDMI cable (images in part 2).  Then the computer from the mini-DVI port to the HDMI connection on the back of the television.

Here’s where we ran into trouble with the sound: we had the wrong audio cable.  I don’t actually understand why, but no matter which of the red & white connections we tried on the back of the TV, from the “headphone out” jack on the Mac mini, we couldn’t get sound.  After too long, we realized we needed a cable with a headset jack on both ends.  One end into the “headset out” on the Mac mini and the other into the “headset in” plug on the back of the TV.  Finally, sound from the computer out of the TV speakers!  But we also have surround sound so then we needed a cable that had the “Y” red & white connections on both ends.  So, one set of red & white plugs into the “out” section (near the cable connection) on the TV, and one set into the receiver for the surround sound.  Now, sound from the computer coming out of EITHER the television speakers OR the surround sound system.  Success!

Now, the Mac Mini doesn’t come with a keyboard or a mouse, and we certainly could have bought them, but they are expensive and I didn’t really want a keyboard & mouse in my living room.  In one of the articles I listed yesterday, we learned about a free software called Teleport (free), and we installed it on both of our MacBooks.  It actually works quite well to allow us to control the Mac Mini with the keyboard or trackpad on either of our MacBooks.  I recommend it.  I also just learned about Mobile Air Mouse Pro for iPhone which apparently will allow me to do the same thing from my iPhone, instead of having to use one of the MacBooks.  Here’s a review from someone at MacWorld doing exactly this.  I’m excited to try it.  The only remaining problem is that the icons and words on the 40” TV screen look very tiny and are difficult to see from the couch.  I just discovered these instructions and I’m hoping that they help.

With the antenna and tuner we’re getting all the major network channels: ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and PBS.  All of these seem to come in well without any adjustments to the antenna (we just have it sitting on top of the entertainment center, and it’s in the interior of the house, not near a window).  We also get the CW, however we realized that we did need to adjust the antenna to get this to come in better, but with a few corrections it now seems to come in just fine.

The Eye TV software plus a subscription to the online TV Guide (inside the Eye TV software, free year one, then $19.95/year) allows us to view what’s on, and record shows to watch later.  However, we can only record ONE show at a time, and I haven’t seen a warning that tells me when I’ve got two shows set to record that conflict.  It seems to just pick one, and we’ve missed a couple of recordings due to this.  However, the network websites run many full episodes online for a period of time.  Also, we CAN watch a recorded show while a live one is recording.

We cancelled cable (Yay! Savings of $88/month) and have been using this set-up for about 2 weeks now, and we’re still getting used to it but it’s a surprisingly small adjustment.

The next item on my agenda is to look into software that I believe will aggregate video and music from the web and stored on my hard drive and allow me to browse and select it for viewing/listening all from one place.  I have learned of two:  Boxee and Plex.  I read this review that concluded that Plex was better, so I downloaded that.  However, there is no user guide, everything is a video and the software is not intuitive.  So I have not taken the time to watch the videos yet and so I haven’t figured out how to use it, so that subtracts points from Plex in my book.  So far it seems to be no trouble to go to a website (Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, or a network site) to find whatever shows I want, but I do think it would be convenient to view my choices in one place.

I would love to hear any comments/feedback you have on this whole experience, if you’ve done it, or if you’re planning to try it.  Thanks for reading, and I hope you have found it helpful!

Catch up with Part 1 here)

We forged ahead with the laptop repair, and luckily, Best Buy ended up solving the initial dilemmas for us.  When the laptop came back for the 4th time still broken, they agreed to honor the terms of the Black Tie Warranty and replace the computer.  I opted to take the value in a Best Buy gift card, and this was enough to purchase a Mac Mini (we decided on the lower-end $599 version), plus about half the cost of a new TV.

Now, buying a new TV presented a challenge in itself because I didn’t know anything about the new technology: 720p or 1080p? 60hz or 120hz? LCD or Plasma?  What brand is best?  After looking on Consumer Reports, speaking with the very helpful Home Theater staff at Best Buy, and measuring the space in the house where the TV was going, we decided on a 60hz, 1080p, Toshiba LCD HDTV.  Here are the reasons in a nutshell:

• we were told that a plasma TV presents a far superior picture, however plasmas start at 42” and we were confined to a 40” or smaller due to the spot we were planning on putting it.
• almost all of the 37” & 40” TV’s were 1080p
• we were told that you most notice the benefits of of 120hz if you are planning to use the TV primarily to watch sports and play video games.  We weren’t doing much of either of these, and looking at the 60hz side-by-side with the 120hz in the store, we saw no difference, even when sports was on.

So, the computer and home theater staff at Best Buy were very helpful and we were told that we would need an audio cable to run from the Mac Mini’s headset jack into the television, plus an HDMI cable to connect the TV to the computer.  Also, the Mac Mini has a Mini-DVI port so we needed an HDMI to Mini-DVI converter.  (We learned later that this was the WRONG audio cable – see Conclusion).

Best Buy had only the HDMI cables, and they were very expensive, between $50 and $120.  I didn’t know which one to buy so I launched Safari on my iPhone in the store and discovered this article on CNET which said that expensive HDMI cables are a rip-off and you shouldn’t pay more than $10 for one, so I knew we weren’t going to buy them there.  Other Apple converters were $29.99 at Best Buy, and I’ve paid that price at least 4 times (for use with various MacBooks), but they didn’t have the one I needed so I then I went to Google on my iPhone to find the converter.  I landed at an Amazon page that offered the converter AND a 6 ft. HDMI cable for $9.97 (yes, $9.97.  I think what I saved in just this one instance almost covers the cost of my iPhone.)

So, we were taking the computer and the new TV home but would have to wait to hook it up until we received the cable and the converter.  At this point I also did some research on USB tuners for Mac and most sites pointed me to the Elgato Eye TV Hybrid, and in reading about this I became convinced that since digital channels are free over the air, our tuner would better pick up what was available if we got an antenna to amplify the signal.  So included in my Amazon order was also a digital antenna and the Elgato tuner.  This was not an insignificant investment as the total cost of my Amazon order was almost $200.  And I learned that shopping around for antennas pays off too because I almost ordered it from another site for more than $75, and found that Amazon was offering the same one for $36.

I’m not actually sure if I really needed the antenna, and I’m also not sure if the audio cable I got is the best way to get sound from the computer to the television.  But I will find out, because finally all the orders came in (it only took a week with standard shipping) and I’m now ready to move on to the next phase of my Adventure in Dumping Cable…trying to get it all hooked up and working.  Stay tuned for Part 3!