The PC TV connection

 
By Stacy April 12, 2006



As the television content on the web increases, so does the hardware used to enjoy it. I recently read an article about wiring your PC or Mac to a TV to enhance the viewing experience. I don't know about you but there are times when the 15 inch screen doesn't do the video justice. There would be nothing cooler than 48 inch Wonder Woman, which thanks to new television technology and IN2TV would be possible.

I used to have an old Mac that I would hook up to a TV now and then, but the audio was always kind of funny. I would love to try that again with the new media based computers or a flat screen TV. This article gives a run down of the test and advice on hooking up your computer to a TV. Three of my favorite sites are used for the test IN2TV, MTV's Overdrive, and Comedy Central's Motherload.

.... To test the experience both ways - watching Internet video offerings on a TV and browsing the Web using the TV as a monitor - we used a Hewlett-Packard Digital Entertainment Center PC and a Mac Mini from Apple Computer. Both worked pretty well for viewing video, but Web browsing was tedious and a strain on the eyes.

.... if video on the Web has come of age, more basic Web tasks are not ready for prime time - yet. And even video offerings are a mixed bag - some are crystal clear on a TV screen, with robust, detailed images. Others are cramped, with poor visual quality.

I wonder if this will cause even greater combining of the television and the computer. Already there are media center PC's and huge monitors. But will it cause the renewal of the often failed TV web browsing market?