Adding to the Gadget Collection

Over the last year I've read about more and more media content becoming available over the internet. Whether it be old, new, free, paid, high definition, or standard definition there's a lot out there. Sources include iTunes, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Joost, and many of the TV networks.

I had mixed results with Media Center PC's in the past. In 2005 I was interested in cable TV through the PC but there were no HDTV cable card tuner cards for PC's. In addition the Gateway PC I was using could not connect to the DVI connector on the TV and I had to fall back to component. I knew that the picture was degraded because the Comcast cable box connected directly to the TV's DVI port and displayed a beautiful hi-res picture. I used the Windows Media Center for several years but was busting for a better HDTV solution.

When they came on the scene in 2007 I grabbed a Tivo HD and have never looked back. It's a great machine that keeps many hours of stored HDTV shows ready for viewing at my family's whim. And it plays music from iTunes over a home theater sound system via a digital audio connection. It even displays my pictures from iPhoto right over the network. In addition I can watch streaming video from YouTube, Amazon, and now Netflix. But what about all the junk that I can't watch via the Tivo? I need more hardware.

So about a month ago I had the idea to build a media center around a Mac. The first thing I did to check the feasability was to connect my MacBook to the DVI connector on the HDTV and Voila - a nice hi-res renedering of my desktop! This had a lot more potential than my old Windows Media Center configuration.

I considered the expense for a while and decided to pull the trigger on a Mac Mini ($585). After upgrading the memory($28) from 1GB to 2GB I gave it a place of honor between the stereo and the TV and started connecting cables. Great picture on the TV but there was an overscan problem. That is the TV only displayed about 90% of the image from the computer. Hmm... Never had this problem on a Mac before. They've always been just plug and play with any chosen monitor. But I knew from Windows that there were great drivers and auxillary programs that let you adjust the video ten ways to Sunday. Nope, not on a Mac.

There is a program called DisplayConfigX($12) for the Mac that lets you add new resolutions to the list of available ones in the System Preferences pane but I spent a lot of time reading about the effect of such adjustments as horizontal front porch and vertical back porch followed by hours of trial and error only to emerge with a right sized TV image that vibrated up and down. As a last ditch effort I sent an email to the developer asking what I could do about the picture that moved up and down BUT it is 2 weeks hence I have still not heard back. I am not that patient!

A couple days after sending the email I began to seriously consider a flat panel TV. I thought that at 1080p resolution it had to be compatible with the Mac. If not I could always fall back to good ole VGA. Yeah, yeah, VGA is analog but I've seen some great looking VGA monitors. Guided by Consumer Reports and other research on the web, I decided to purchase a Samsung PN50A550 ($1,486 delivered) from butterflyphoto.com. A few days later the delivery men brought it upstairs, unboxed it, looked it over with me and said, "Please sign our voucher indicating that there was no damage in delivery." I did. I swapped the new TV for my old one. Plugged in the cables and... Holy Shit, still an overscan problem regardless of what resolution was selected in System Preferences. After bouncing around for a while I found that the TV has a video setting called 'just scan'. They should have called it 'perfect fit' because the computer image fits perfectly. The only downside is that if you try to watch the Tivo with the TV in the just scan mode you'll see the carrier modulation at the top of the screen and to get rid of that the TV's picture mode needs to be switched from just scan to 16:9.

That night, as I was watching the TV, I saw a vertical bar of distortion on the left side of the screen about .5" to .75" wide. It was faint and only visible in certain scenes with particular colors and brightness. So I called ButterflyPhoto who directed me to Samsung warrenty repairs. I was not pleased but have learned that the easiest way to resolve these situations is to follow their guidance and, if it's not resolved their way, then you can bitch and moan about how you followed their instructions and it's still broken. The Samsung rep seemed to think that this was SOP and agreed to send a tech to the apartment. It has been 6 days since my conversation with Samsung and the tech never showed up or called. I've not gone ballistic because the bar seems to have magically disappeared.