How To: Watch Hulu on a Big Screen and Ditch Your Cable Bill

When I first made the foray into the weird, wild, and wacky seemingly otherworldy dimension known as the webbernets back in 1998, the online experience mainly consisted of checking e-mail, posting to USENET and messageboards, and browsing a handful of sites. Taking in video content wasn’t hard to come by, but it certainly didn’t have the ease of access that is available today; there was no YouTube and many of us nerds were still rocking 56K modems.

But nowadays you’d actually have to actively not want to see video in order to not find it–it’s everywhere. YouTube knocked down the door, but Hulu took online video to the next level by allowing entertainment-seekers to legally watch network and cable programming with only a minimal number of commercials. Hulu has evolved so much that we recommend that the free service can be used in lieu of paying for pricey cable, but we recognize that laptop displays (which typically fall be between 10 inches and 17 inches depending on if you have a netbook or desktop replacement) can be a bit on the small size. Therefore, we’ll show you how to export the free Hulu content to a big screen, so you can ditch cable altogether.

CHECK OUT A TV OR MONITOR
Flat-screen LCD TVs have become one of the most sought-after electronics products due to their relative light weight, small footprint, and crisp pictures. If you already own one of these tubes, all you need to do to export the Hulu image on your Mac or PC to it, is to buy VGA or HDMI cables. Most flatscreens will have a VGA or HDMI port, but we suggest to check to see which ports you have on your TV before you proceed in order to get the best picture.

VGA AND HDMI DEFINED
All laptops have a VGA cable (which you can find for under $2 here), the defacto external A/V connection for notebooks. It can display a maximum resolution of 640 x 480 pixels, which is on par (if not better than) YouTube video clips. Just for comparison’s sake, DVD resolution is typically 720 x 480, so VGA is of slightly lesser quality. Consider it the “standard-def” of video connections.

HDMI (priced at under $5 here) doesn’t have the across-the-board notebook penetration as VGA, but it’s not uncommon. It’s capable of displaying up to the much cherished 1080p resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels) for the best picture currently available. Consider it the “hi-def” of video connections.

CONNECT THE CABLES AND EXPORT VIDEO TO TV
Using these cables are as simple as connecting one end to your PC and the other to your TV. Power on your computer, and you should receive a prompt to use the TV as an external monitor, do so and sit back and relax as your favorite shows play on the big screen. If not, select Start>Control Panel>Display>Settings. Select the video to show on the external display.

CHANGE TV DISPLAY SETTINGS
By defualt, your televsion is set to recieve A/V signals from your antenna or cable box. Using your remote, change the disply setting to “VGA”, “HDMI, or “PC Input” in order to ready your flat panel for the computer feed.

CHANGE COMPUTER DISPLAY SETTINGS
If you want to close your laptop so it wont look as conspicuous as it sits in your entertainment center, poking around in its power settings will prevent it from going to sleep/shutting off when you lower the top. Simply click Start>Control Panel>Power Settings to view a list of options. Under the heading “When Lid Is Closed” select “Do Nothing.”

There ya go – -30 Rock, House, and other gems are now on your TV and you didn’t have to pay an overpriced cable bill to receive ‘em. But what it you don’t have a flat screen TV? A large monitor is the answer, which can be far more wallet-friendly a purchase than a LCD TV. We’ll tackle that topic in an upcoming post in our continuing series of how to spread multimedia joy through the home on the cheap.

[Ed Note: Mac notebooks use mini-DVI and Displayport. You'd need the appropriate adapters to hook them up to a TV]

Acer Aspire One: A Wallet-Friendly Netbook For The Budget-Conscious

When I was just a young’un in the mid ‘80s, I was a precocious tyke. If there was trouble to be found, I had an extraordinary sense that enabled me to sniff it out, by either performing daredevil stunts (such as bus or train surfing) or total landing into it by accident (I’ve broken more than my fair share of windows playing baseball with the crew).

Oft times, my parental would give me a valuable life lesson in lieu of a good ol’ fashioned strapping, which would involve stimulating moral lessons that, even as a pre-teen, I somehow got. These lessons were often direct and to the point (Mama Wilson wasn’t one for fluff), but on odd occasions she provided examples of the appropriate course of action by demonstrating what not to do. Which is exactly what I’m to do here.

I cover the consumer electronics space in one of my other gigs, and I consider myself fairly knowledgeable in the field. So when dear Mama Wilson, the sage of my childhood, performed a major, major purchasing blunder, I was shocked and appalled. This 50+ year old woman, who does nothing PC related other than checking her AOL Mail, bought a PC that cost over $2,500. $2,500 just to forward me photos of puppies frolicking in meadows. That just wasn’t right.

After a small chastisement, I realized that it wasn’t her fault entirely; she was probably a victim of an upsell by a blue shirt. Still, the idea of my mom owning a machine that video editors or hardcore gamers would drool over was more than a little bit hilarious—and quite a bit of overkill for her needs.

This rather long (but hopefully insightful) intro was crafted to demonstrate that blind purchases where one doesn’t analyze the usefulness of a product, and cost you big bucks. Mama Wilson could have made due with a netbook, a low-cost, lightweight mini-notebook designed for anywhere web access. We’ve touched upon netbooks in previous post, but never delved into their fruits. Consider that oversight rectified as we’re going to take a look at the new $349 10-inch Acer Aspire One. I know what you’re probably thinking—a PC under $400 has to be crap, right? Slow down, cowpoke. The Acer Aspire One is a kickin’ little netbook, and show we’ll show you why the vast majority of PC users in the hunt for a new computer need some of this slickness in their lives. The Acer Aspire One doesn’t have the mind-blowing specs of other computers, but chances are the “meager” specs are all that you need. Let’s break it down.

Design: For a computer that’s remarkably cheap, the Acer Aspire One is a pretty sharp looking device. It comes in four colors (black, white, red, blue), and features nice touches like a brushed metal palmrest, glossy bezel that surrounds the 10-inch display, and sweet-looking tear-drop shaped Acer logo built into the hinge. In other words it’s full of pimposity. The 10.1-inch display is very bright, and you even get a webcam for videochatting with buds. The touchpad is a bit small, but its no dealbreaker.

1.6-GHz Intel Atom processor: Without getting all uber-nerdy on you, I’ll say that the CPU powering the Acer Aspire One is more than sufficient for working in documents, checking out photos, and blaring tunes from your music folder without any lag our hiccups. Plus, with many applications living on the web instead of on your PC, all you need is a decent Wi-Fi connection to check out the YouTubes, the Gmails, and the Slackers. In short, you have enough horsepower in the engine to handle your typical day to day computing tasks.

1GB of RAM: The majority of new PCs run Windows Vists, which is a notorious resource hog, but the Acer Aspire One is powered by Windows XP, a far lighter operating system that can run smoothly on 1GB of RAM. You can expect smooth performance while working and playing.

160GB Hard Drive: Although the Acer Aspire One has a $349 price tag, it comes packed with chunky 160GB hard drive, which is more than enough real estate for photos, music, video, docs, and other files (that’s more storage than on my 60Gb Mac Mini desktop). Considering that most users won’t be editing HD clips or gaming on the device (it does, after all, have only a 10 inch display and a fairly pedestrian graphics card), you’ll have plenty of space for your goodies.

6-Cell Battery: Included with purchase is a 6-cell battery, which provided over 5 hours of juice with the power management settings positioned for maximum battery efficiency, and with the screen dimmed (with the screen at its brightest, we saw 4.5 hours of endurance).

So is the Acer Aspire One worth the coin? You betcha. It’s lightweight (2.8 pounds), attractive, and gives users access to the Web, which, in the modern PC age, is pretty much all that’s needed for a more than satisfying computing experience. It doesn’t feature a CD or DVD drive, but in the era of Amazon MP3, Hulu, and software downloads, you can get virtually anything you need as soon as you connect to the Web. In short, the Acer Aspire One is pound for pound one of the best bang for your buck netbooks on the planet.

8 Fun Recession-Proof Activities

The recession is in full swing. The stock market is staggering. In these tough financial times, penny-pinching is en vogue, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have some fun to meter the grim forecasts. We’ve rounded up some of our favorite low-cost activities that are sure to bring a few smiles and take the pressure off the wallet or pocketbook.

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Cancel that Cable! Save Hundreds with Hulu

A few years ago, I decided to cut out the overpriced advertising circus that is cable TV. It was way too expensive, as I was living in the Lower East Side (where I also paid way too much for a bedroom), and made less than $40K–besides, most of the shows were crap anyway. I’ve been pretty happy since, although there are definitely times when I just want to come home and veg out to thirty minutes of mindless sitcom. Sometimes a DVD just doesn’t cut it. Read more