Life can be complicated.
This past weekend my air conditioning AND my dvd player died. Within the span of 4 hours.
Possible reasons:
1. Power Surge. Maybe. Things haven’t been quite right since Hurricane Ike dropped by for a visit last September (2008). The phone line for my dsl needed replacement.
However, the surge suppresor built into our electric box remains intact (the light would have turned red if something had happened electrically).
2. Retrograde Pluto transiting my 2nd House (Values & Possessions: The second house and its occupants tell us about the material circumstances, the acquisitive urge and how we deal with possessions and material means.)
The disappointment was crushing- we were looking at being hot and unconfortable AND we would be unable to watch the DVDs received in the mail: Ricky Gervais: Out Of England and OSS 117: Le Caire Nid d’Espions .
I survived the boredom of Hurricane Ike watching bootleg dvds of The Middleman. I had no intention of allowing some wicked cosmic interference thwart my plans on this particular weekend. Unlike Ike, this time we had power. We were able to plug in my 22 in Acer AL2216W (Max Resolution 1680 x 1050; Max Sync Rate (V x H) 76 Hz x 82 kHz; Image Aspect Ratio16:10) monitor to the laptop using a single link DVI to VGA adapter. We then plugged JBL Duet speakers into the headphone plug on the laptop and we were good to go. We didn’t suffer too much.
I decided that I no longer want a dvd player. I don’t see the advantage at this time. This particular LG dvd player is less than 6 months old. It was purchased to replace the Coby dvd player we loved. We had found the unlock codes for that particular model Coby so we were region-free- able to watch movies unreleased in the USA. Roof damage caused by Ike claimed that lovely hard-working and VERY cheap dvd player as a casualty. We mourned.
For this LG to have died after less than 6 months leaves me speechless on the subject.
I am planning to use my laptop as my dvd player until I decide that some technological DVD advance makes it imperative that I purchase a new one. I just have to figure out which connection and adapter I need to make this happen.
First, I have to determine what connections are available to me and what are the advantages and disadvantages of each. This is a small overview of what connections are available to connect a Monitor or TV to a computer. Below each image is the Wikipedia link to information page to each.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HD15
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Interface
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_video
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini_dvi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hdmi
There are more BUT these are the ones that are directly related to my variables. I did not include references to mini-HDMI.
My Apple PowerBook G4 1GHz Laptop (Part #: M9008LL/A) has an s-Video and DVI-I (integrated, digital & analog) dual link.
Our Norcent PT-4246HD 42" Plasma TV has the following specs:
Aspect Ratio: 16:9
Resolution: 1024×768
Formats: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i
Ports: 1 x RF Antenna-in
Ports: 1 x Composite Video In Rear
Ports: 1 x Composite Video In Side
Ports: 1 x Composite Audio/Video Out
Ports: 2 x
Ports: 1 x S-Video In Rear
Ports: 1 x S-Video In Side
Ports: 1 x HDMI-HDCP Digital A/V In
Ports: Audio In
Ports: 1 x 15-pin D-Sub (HD-15) VGA-in
Ports: 4 x Stereo Audio Line In
Ports: SPDIF Audio Out
Ports: RS-232
Ports: Headphone Jack
If I can avoid using sVideo or componentVideo, I will. We spent a couple of years watching this plasma TV using these connections and didn’t notice the difference until we got the LG dvd player with an HDMI out. Then we realized what we had been missing.
I was also going to the HD15 VGA connection- while I already have everything I would need to make that happen, I wasn’t too impressed with the quality fo the video we were getting on the 22in monitor . I didn’t realize that there was also a s-Video connection on the back of the monitor and I wonder, even though sVideo is considered poor quality, if I would have had better luck with that. My main concern is whether the laptop can push that much data… am i just being paranoid?
Today I plan to order a female HDMI to male Dual Link DVI adapter. I will update this post with a comparison sVideo v. HDMI.
Cables Unlimited ADP-3780 DVI-D Male to HDMI Female Adapter
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