The biggest part of this puzzle is getting the TV to be a computer monitor as well as a TV. To do this, you have to be able to run a video and audio cable from the PC to the TV. Older sets only have a coaxial connection in for cable, but the new LCD HD TV’s, should have places to not only hook in the DVD, VHS (yes I still have mine – I still have my original vinyl records too, that I’m recording over to digital, that’s another article), X-box etc. They should also have an audio L/R out so you can connect it to your existing stereo or surround sound system.

Desktop PC to Flat screen TV

2. Audio out from the PC. This is almost universally the green mini jack plug from the audio card. The Bravia does have a mini jack in for audio below the VGA, so getting a mini cable long enough to work was what I tried first. While this worked and gave me sound out of the TV speakers, it did not translate the signal to the audio out jacks (3.). I like to run the audio into my older stereo (you know, receiver, big speakers) and the TV speakers by them selves are pretty weak. The next thing I tried was using a pair of regular desktop PC speakers and just setting them on either side of the TV. This worked pretty well and my wireless keyboard had a volume control on it, but I still wanted the sound from my big speakers. Then I found what I needed: a mini to RCA splitter cable. This let me hook the PC right into the stereo receiver, beautiful sound for my movies.

3. Audio out from the TV. Normally I would have this running into the VCR or AUX L/R in on the stereo, but that’s where I hooked up the PC… So I moved this over to the tape monitor in – works like a charm. (Yes I still have my vinyl, but I did finally get rid of my cassettes during my last move.)

Another problem arose – what if I have a show I like to watch that is NOT being offered online? Sadly, there are still quite a few of these. The most obvious solution is just to watch it live – but having that DVR really spoiled me. I don’t want to wake up at 8:30am on Sun. to watch Sunday Morning. I want to wake up whenever and watch it then. So, for $70 (you can spend more if you want) I got a TV tuner. Specifically for me a Win TV-HVR-850 Hybrid Video Recorder. These are very cool devices. You can get them as internal cards, or as USB external. I chose USB, just for simplicity. You plug the device into a USB slot on the PC, then plug your coax cable (you’ll need a 3 way splitter if you have a cable modem as well) into the other end. Install the software and this little device goes out and finds your available TV stations, just like when you first hook up your TV or cable box.

It came with several pieces of software that were a bit confusing at first. One program allows you to watch live TV off of the PC. Another one give you an account for a web based TV guide which gives you the ability to pick a program and say RECORD. This record request goes to a 3rd program where I can set it up to be a recurring recording if I want. The recorded shows are stored on your PC (about 2Gb per hour), so now I have my own personal DVR (PVR) again, but I’m not paying a monthly fee for the privilege.

This has an added advantage for my clients as well. If one of them gets publicity on a news show, I can record it with just a couple of clicks. Then I have a digital file that is easy to edit and post to their site. Very cool.

I knew that most broadcast TV was going online for streaming video viewing within 24 hrs of broadcast, but I didn’t want to watch TV in my office chair, I wanted to watch it in the living room in my comfy chair on a big screen. I am not a sports fan but I am a movie fanatic and I worried about how I would replace TCM and the Encore movie stations. I figured I would just get a Netflix subscription and live with DVD’s.

I thought about replacing my 10 year old 27″ Sony with an LCD that would have the capability to hook up to a PC. That way I would still be able to watch TV, slash my Comcast bill and I could give the old set to my daughter in college. Then the old Sony heard me talking about this and died a week later. The universe was trying to tell me something.

My daughter missed out on getting the old one, but I did get a new 32″ Sony Bravia for around $600. I’m sure this is true for most of the new LCD HDTV’s, but this one has the hook-ups I needed for my existing DVD and VHS players, a side hook-up for my son’s X-box and most importantly, a VGA cable port so that I could connect a PC to it and treat the TV like a monitor.

A little background here – I do web design for a living, have done PC tech support for years and have a teenage son living with me who is a burgeoning game developer. We both have laptops for mobility, desktops for serious work and there is an extra desktop for back-up. Originally this extra desktop was the original family computer an 8 year old Dell. This machine had had it’s RAM and video card upgraded, but not it’s processor. My thinking was that the Internet streaming video was mostly dependent on the speed I was getting at any given moment from the cable modem and so a newer PC was not really necessary.

So, I spent an afternoon behind the TV and since the PC was in the office on the other side of the wall, I spent some time with a paddle bit as well making a hole big enough for the VGA cable. (If my landlord Frank is reading this – that was the afternoon you called making sure I wasn’t killing anyone, and yes, I cleaned up everything and put a nice cover on both sides of the hole.) The TV is in the corner on a stand with wheels. I’ve set up and had to move more equipment over the years than most – I like to hide cables when possible, but it’s key not to tie everything down and always be able to have access to things. When the Comcast guy showed up to pick up the cable box, he was extremely happy to see me just pull out the stand so he had ready access. He was then happy to test my coax cable (I had some older pieces that needed replacement) and make sure I had the best hook up possible. But I’m jumping ahead of my story.

So, I got everything set up and then spent the evening with my son with one of us trying to run the mouse from the other room to get the resolution set up correctly and get to a web page. Another trip to the computer store later and I came back with a wireless keyboard and mouse as well as a 6′ mini jack cable so I could run the sound to the TV.

Then the big moment, could I watch TV satisfactorily from my PC? We got it to the CBS.com site and looked for CSI. CBS required a quick download for it’s player (all of the stations use different players and they all did this) and then we got the most recent episode. Overall, the quality was very good and I was happy. Over the next week, I went to all the major broadcast sites, (NBC, ABC, TNT, FOX etc) downloaded their players and I was in business. The quality of the players and their control varies, ABC being the current winner. CBS was until they started showing the sponsor logo below. They all have issues with resolution getting pixelated occasionally and freezing. I think both of these are related to how busy the internet signal is at the time.

Then I got the trial subscription to Netflix. I discovered that about a third of their very extensive library is available for instant download viewing – very cool. Now I can watch a large selection of movies and TV series when I want and not have to wait for the DVD. On the downside the resolution and jerkiness of the picture was bad, really bad, so I called their tech support.

The support guy was very nice and not from India. He then told me that I was sort of a test case for them. Netflix had recently decided to change their player to Microsoft’s Silverlight. Unfortunately, this player is heavily dependent on the processor (my 8year old one was just not up to it) and not on video card (which had been upgraded for my gaming son). Silverlight requires a 2GHz processor or better. Bummer, the picture on this PC was just not going to be acceptable. I hooked it up to my new workstation PC to test and it was much better, but I needed this machine for work and was not willing to have to be constantly changing the video cable out. Time to retire the 8 year old machine.

I did need to replace it, but not with a $1500 machine. I was able to get a lower end Dell for $400. 2Gb of RAM, a 250Gb hard drive for my backups and most importantly a dual 2.2GHz processor. Not a powerhouse machine, but I don’t need to do heavy graphics work with multiple programs open on it either. I just need it to be storage and handle all the video players.

Now all the streaming stuff from Netflix is great. For under $20 a month I have access to practically anything I want, including all those Showtime series that I never had before. On top of that, because I have the 3 DVD at a time subscription, that also means that at any given time, 3 computers can be streaming video from my account. That means that my daughter and son can access my account from any PC and watch a movie. They can pick anything that is instant streaming from their PC’s, or using their Xbox, watch whatever is on the instant queue on a television. My son does this in his bedroom down the hall, but will continue to be able to do this when he goes off to college next year. My daughter does this from across town.

The paradigm has shifted. I no longer ask “what’s on?” Now it’s “what do I want to watch now?”

It’s true, I spent about $1000 to make all this happen and you’re thinking why? Where are all the savings? After I got all this working and was satisfied, I finally called Comcast. I canceled the “extended basic” package and went down to the basic basic broadcast stations and had them come pick up the DVR. Naturally I’m still paying for the cable modem for Internet access. My $147 bill is now $60 a month. Over the course of a year that’s a $1044 savings. (Even with the new Netflix subscription, it’s still over $800 in savings.) I just paid for the new flat screen TV and the new computer. Next year I’m a grand ahead. Not bad, not bad at all.