Flat screen TVs as monitors on the computer...

After I moved the 30-inch flat screen TV down off the top of the 6-feet-high stereo equipment rack I built when I moved in here 17 years ago, and hooked it up on this computer as a really big monitor ( It's a lot like my first look at CinemaScope...) I found myself frequently looking up toward that old location, expecting to see the TV there. So I got onto Future Shop's website, and checked out their latest batch of flat screen TVs, with particular attention to ones that also have a VGA input and a Stereo Sound input, for possible use as a PC monitor. 

Interesting Discovery: Only their cheapest (and smallest) flat screen has all those extras you need for using it as a computer monitor. Their others, all bigger and much more expensive, do not have what it takes to hook up your computer and use the TV as its monitor. And their cheapest one is a 32-inch for $200.00 plus taxes and etc., and the one I just bought is now back in the usual location on top of the stereo rack, where I can see it easily from my bed across the room. 

"How does it work?" you ask.... - Very nicely, thanks. I have its sound output coming out on the connection to the wireless headphones transmitter/charger,
and when not plugged into that, I plug it into another cable which puts the TV sound into an old Yamaha Stereo, with a choice of four speakers. That sounds a lot better than the built-in speakers inside the TV set. They aren't bad either, but they can't compete with a set of Electrohome and a set of Akai speakers on the old Yamaha Stereo. They just don't make them like this any more. 

And those speakers have their own story. The two Electrohome ones came from the Langley and District Hospital Auxiliary's retail outlet called 'The Penny Pincher' out in Langley, and cost me a whole two bucks each. And the pair of Akai speakers, each two feet high by 11 inches wide, came from the Big Blue Bins downstairs on P1 of our parking garage. Someone left them beside the bins one day, and I couldn't resist finding out what, if anything, was wrong with them. Turned out, there was nothing wrong with them that a little dusting and polishing wouldn't cure. So all those speakers got hooked up to Old Yamaha, to see how that would compare to my main setup of Technics stereo with honeycomb speakers. The Technics still has more punch, but the Yamaha has a wonderfully mellow sound that is ideal for relaxed listening. It's nice to have choices.