Saturday Night Pre-Lab
Saturday, 11 February 2012 21:25![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dr_phil_physicsTime To Return To Middle Earth
Not a hard decision, since there was little on TV tonight, but we decided to put on The Two Towers [Extended Edition] in order to prepare for Friday night's Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King with the Grand Rapids Symphony (DW).
Nothing Is Ever Simple Anymore
A good plan, but thwarted by the installation of our new TV two weeks ago (DW). We'd moved all the cables, but hadn't had a chance to check out the DVD player. Of course, its a pre-HDTV analog player, so what would the image look like?
Good news is the image is acceptable. The TV has decided to give us only one video mode, so its full-width but I think the aspect ratio is a bit too wide. I hate off aspect ratios. But the image is large and sharp.
Except... no sound.
Great. Mrs. Dr. Phil rechecked the cables into the TV. I dug out the manual. Then I turned on the stereo -- we rigged an audio line from the DVD player long ago, especially as the DVD player also does audio CDs. No sound either.
Here's the problem -- is this one issue or two? The amplifier in the stereo is from 1981 and it intermittently has issues. Wouldn't play sound from the VCR, though the VCR is working with the TV. But that shouldn't affect the DVD-TV connection. Mrs. Dr. Phil reached back and felt all the connections -- all there. We put in an audio CD into the old CD player and the tray kept popping out again and wouldn't even try to read a disk.
Arrrrgh! Entropy! Damn thee to hell! A third component not working.
Eventually we tried an audio CD in the DVD player -- and suddenly it worked. I don't know if we did anything or the TV finally recognized the audio line. Everything is computerized these days, so nothing is as simple as plugging it in or turning a switch. Somewhere I have a SF story where this starship is out of control because there are no manual controls anymore. We're reaching that point today and I fear it's a lesson we'll learn over and over again.(evil grin)
We're up to meeting of the hobbits Merry and Pippin with Treebeard now. It only took us an hour to get the movie started. Thankfully, though, it hasn't cost us any money today.
Dr. Phil
Not a hard decision, since there was little on TV tonight, but we decided to put on The Two Towers [Extended Edition] in order to prepare for Friday night's Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King with the Grand Rapids Symphony (DW).
Nothing Is Ever Simple Anymore
A good plan, but thwarted by the installation of our new TV two weeks ago (DW). We'd moved all the cables, but hadn't had a chance to check out the DVD player. Of course, its a pre-HDTV analog player, so what would the image look like?
Good news is the image is acceptable. The TV has decided to give us only one video mode, so its full-width but I think the aspect ratio is a bit too wide. I hate off aspect ratios. But the image is large and sharp.
Except... no sound.
Great. Mrs. Dr. Phil rechecked the cables into the TV. I dug out the manual. Then I turned on the stereo -- we rigged an audio line from the DVD player long ago, especially as the DVD player also does audio CDs. No sound either.
Here's the problem -- is this one issue or two? The amplifier in the stereo is from 1981 and it intermittently has issues. Wouldn't play sound from the VCR, though the VCR is working with the TV. But that shouldn't affect the DVD-TV connection. Mrs. Dr. Phil reached back and felt all the connections -- all there. We put in an audio CD into the old CD player and the tray kept popping out again and wouldn't even try to read a disk.
Arrrrgh! Entropy! Damn thee to hell! A third component not working.
Eventually we tried an audio CD in the DVD player -- and suddenly it worked. I don't know if we did anything or the TV finally recognized the audio line. Everything is computerized these days, so nothing is as simple as plugging it in or turning a switch. Somewhere I have a SF story where this starship is out of control because there are no manual controls anymore. We're reaching that point today and I fear it's a lesson we'll learn over and over again.(evil grin)
We're up to meeting of the hobbits Merry and Pippin with Treebeard now. It only took us an hour to get the movie started. Thankfully, though, it hasn't cost us any money today.
Dr. Phil
