Sorting Out My TV

We have had our plasma TV for several years now and there have been some incredible improvements since we first purchased it. Now people create entertainment suites and have all sorts of things connected to their TV, a media player, a DVD player, an amplifier, Pay TV etc. New TV's come with heaps of connections but three years ago you only got one connector for high quality video. The best connector nowadays is HDMI which wasn't even invented when we got our TV. Our TV has a single connector called DVI . You can see a male DVI plug in the picture below at the near end of the adapter.

I am currently playing around with using adapters and switches to be able to connect several of my entertainment pieces to the best quality video connection I can.

There is a website called DealExtreme which has all sorts of interesting electrical connectors and items for sale. I will buy 2 HDMI to DVI Adapters (like in the picture left). This will allow me to use the one DVI connector at the rear of the TV and convert it to HDMI.

The second DVI to HDMI adapter will go on my Set Top Box which only has a DVI connection. Our TV is so old, the digital tuner is not built in like every TV you buy today.

In our local electrical store each adapter costs about $17, but from DealExtreme they are about $3.50 each with free postage.

Then I will buy a HDMI switch. The switch has 3 inputs and one output. It comes with a remote control which will switch between the inputs through to the one output to the TV. In my situation I will have one input for my media player (watching movies I have downloaded from the internet) another input for our Free To Air TV and the final input if we decide to upgrade our Pay TV service to High Definition. The new Pay TV boxes are expected to have a HDMI connection at the back.

And finally I will need to buy a couple of HDMI leads to connect the pieces to the HDMI switch box. I had one lead and an adapter delivered today and temporarily connected the Media Player to the TV. The resultant picture was certainly much sharper and clearer.

All up it will cost me about $55 to set it all up and have the best picture possible.

It is 32 degrees today with a very strong south westerly blowing in from Central Australia. I have given up using the leaf rake to clear stuff off the surface of the pool. I do it once then 10 minutes later it is a mess again. The wind is expected to drop tomorrow and we will have another 30 degree day. The pool is still a bit on the cool side!