TV Upgrade

Got the new TV last night ... well, it's not so much a TV as a giant computer screen.

It's a 37" Sharp LCD/TFT display. It will do 1280x768 resolution, and can also do a side-by-side screen from different input sources (computer, tv, dvd, etc).

So far so good -- I've connected my laptop to it, and it's just awesome to be able to compute from across the living room.

A note to anyone who is trying to get the full widescreen resolution from their video card: In my case, the laptop has a Radeon video card in it. The only way I could figure out how to run in 1280x768 was to download Rage3dTweak in order to enable some "hidden" resolutions the card could do. Install the software, enable 1280x768, reboot, then select 1280x768 in the display control panel. Once I did that, I had to manually set the TV to 1280x768 mode and everything was golden.

Also, running the "Auto Setup" menu option on the TV under where the computer signal sync options are set made a HUGE difference in the quality of the picture.

Future Enhancements:

• Today: Get an ART CleanBox, which connects unbalanced RCA to balanced XLR devices. Since I'm using the Mackie monitors, I may as well hook them up balanced. Also, the Echo Mia has balanced outs, so i can have as good a signal as possibly going into the receiver with the CleanBox.
• Put a whole computer behind/under it so that I don't have to dock/undock the laptop every day.
• Put the Echo Mia soundcard in the computer, to do Reason and other audio stuff nicely
• Put a video capture card in the computer, preferably a hi-def model. Initially i can use this to have a "tv window" while using the computer, maybe later to be used as a computer-based PVR. Consumerism? What's that?