New TV freaking GET. And… well, maybe this is because I haven’t watched TV in awhile, but I think this one actually looks better than my old set. The colors are a lot stronger, for one thing!

Also, Samsung has ditched the 8-bit bootup jingles. This would be kind of boo (even though it’s a fluff feature) but what has replaced it makes up for the lack of the pseudo-Konami sound. :D It’s this pretty little bumper, as if to say “good morning, how do you want to TV it up today?” The OSD is now in full color; selecting the source video is reminiscent of the Xbox 360.

I’m not too fond of the remote, though… but that’s a non-issue since I’m reconfiguring this Harmony remote (which I originally looted to replace the Slingcatcher remote that I thought had been lost) to use in its place. :P

I’m sure my PS3 and Wii are going to want to patch too, but Yggdrasil gets first dibs so he can fix up his antivirus and such. Speaking of which, I found out why he stopped letting me tap in via LogMeIn; he had no head, therefore there was no desktop to go TO. Ha ha ha… should have been obvious, right? I mean, I could tap in while the TV was off, but I guess he can tell when the monitor/TV is dead. Nowhere to output to, so he just idled in blank mode. (Yet he could still operate Hamachi and host files on the LAN… weird!)

What will get the honor of being the first thing watched on my TV? NSFW. Yes… a not-TV show on a TV. Well, the proper term is IPTV… oh, you get the idea! :P TWiT Live as a whole outputs video in very nice quality, though, and if you were to fullscreen it on an actual TV, it’s pretty indistinguishable from a SDTV channel. :)

It’s June 1. Today my awesome new TV gets here, and there shall be much happiness because this means Yggdrasil gets his head back, and I can use my PS3 and Wii again. :D :D :D

In the meantime, join me in a bit of WTF in the form of Ghostbusters Pachinko:

On one hand, how badass does this look? I wish this was an actual video game as opposed to a video-enhanced pachinko machine. It’d be pretty freaking awesome on the Wii! (Similarly, this is giving me major flashbacks of Luigi’s Mansion.)
On the other hand… epic, EPIC FAIL for omitting Winston. Dude. He was AWESOME. :( And yet this just pretends he never existed.
I don’t want to jump to the “racefail” card off the bat, but… yeah, WTF Japan? o_O

No more holding out for deals on TVs… it looks like the prices are as good as they will get (also, Yggdrasil won’t let me tap in via LogMeIn OR Windows Remote Desktop anymore, clearly he does not enjoy going headless on the long-term) so I’ll be ordering this Samsung today to finally replace the old-and-busted brick that’s been sitting in my room for the past month and a half. It’s got all the HDMI and Component ports I need (and, of course, the all-important VGA port so Yggdrasil can play too). And because it’s Amazon, this also means free shipping and no sales tax.

This is good. I’ve been able to hold off because of Slingbox and such piping through to Blastoise, but it will be nice to have my media center back in working order– my busted TV not only grounded Yggdrasil, but also made my Wii and PS3 unusable too. I mean, I could have transfered my FF13 save files to the other PS3 downstairs… wait a minute, no I couldn’t, not while headless. Blah!

So, yeah. New TV get, as fast as it can get shipped here. Also? Kestine needs to stop prying my glasses off with his tail. :P

So I think my TV is borked.
It’s not turning on, neither via remote or directly pushing the button. I’ll try unplugging and plugging it back in but I’m not holding my breath. There’s power going in, since the red standby light is on… the thing just won’t boot.

Hardcore BOOOO. I’ve never had a TV die this quickly! I got it nearly 2 years ago, and the TV I had before that lasted me 10 years. >_>;;;

Well, it’s not like I need a TV in my main bedroom. Yggdrasil can function without it (since he is a server after all and designed to operate “headless”), and my cable box is mostly outputting via Slingbox anyway. However, my PS3 and Wii kinda need a display of some kind to be of any use… right?

Oddly enough, this prompts a revisit of the capture box idea. Previously I was going to loot one of these Happauge HD-PVRs as I thought it was the cheapest means of capturing HD video… except OH HI, AVER MEDIA, that’s a nice HDMI-enabled card you have there! And you’re under $100, awesome!

(there is, of course, the small problem of my Wii being capped at component video and thus cannot do HDMI without some expensive-yet-unstable third-party adapter. Thank you, Nintendo, for taking your obstinate “hurr durr we’re going to half-ass your new-fangled HD and internets” stance. >_>)

…aw, smoo. I don’t know, really. I’ll probably end up getting a new TV all the same, as while Yggdrasil is a server first, he is also the ultimate media player and mmm, HD. *Homer drool* And he’d likely be the one getting that HDMI card too– for one thing, I could redirect my PS3 into Yggdrasil as part his whole King of Media thing. o_o

But I’ll wait a bit before I get the TV. They tend to go on sale around major sporting events for obvious reasons. I imagine Super Bowl triggers the bigger price drops but that’s already passed… hm… what would be the next major sports event that would cause the likes of Best Buy to fall all over themselves to sell TVs? Oh, there’s also May and June when all the stores do their hokey-but-in-this-case-beneficial “Grads and Dads” sales, surely TVs would be part of that… >_>;

Hell, I’d even entertained the option of replacing my TV with an iPad, of all things… >_>;</a>

As someone who has zero interest in football (but nonetheless braved the nonsense of Football Night in America to fulfill my role as olberfanns‘ self-appointed screencapper), once again it is time for the next best thing to THE GAME… Puppy Bowl!

Now, I’m a crazy cat lady, and surely you’ve heard me kvetch about those evil wiggly bulldogs downstairs… but that doesn’t take away from the cuteness of romping puppies. Of course, there is kitty halftime (squeh!). This year, Animal Planet’s introducing two new acts: bunny cheerleaders and hamster commentators on a blimp. I’m guessing the latter is meant to replace Harry Kalas, the dood who previously called for Puppy Bowl until last year.

Pizza Hut gets to provide the munchies this time. I think I’ll go for the original All-American boneless wings this time. (I’m such a wimp– wings are like Yoshi Crack, but most of their menu is far too spicy for me, even the mild stuff. So far it’s been just garlic parmesan.)

In the meantime… I think I’ma wireframe the villains version of the previous art post. Yes, kids, I’m going to draw TERRORISTS.