Thanks For The View

Here I am going on about the video projector, without giving thanks to the men who made it possible for me to appreciate it. Dr. Mark Hughes and Dr. Brad Shingleton.

I am indebted to Dr. Hughes in particular. My admiration and appreciation of him are without limit. Hughes saved the vision in my left eye, after a retinal detachment eight years ago. I still see him every six to eight months, and he will most likely be performing a procedure on my right eye this year.

Before Hughes, a doctor in Worcester, Massachusetts botched a surgery to repair the detached retina. Immediately after the surgery I knew it hadn’t worked, yet he sent me home. A week later I found Dr. Hughes through my boss, whose wife worked at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.

Zooming In

Why have a 4:3 screen for a 16:9 front video projector? Because you can zoom in to make 4:3 material B-I-G, that’s why. Here are a couple of photos of the Panasonic PT-AX200U picture, zoomed in to fill the screen, taken from the couch. The image is about 75 inches diagonal. This Superman TV show is on DVD…

The Adventures of Superman

… and this spectacular image of Paulette Goddard’s breathtaking face is from a FiOS recording of “Modern Times.”

Paulette Goddard

Moments of Morty Gunty on PBS

PBS is running a series called Pioneers of Televison. It’s not necessarily about the first TV personalities, but performers who broke new ground in their own time. One of them is Carl Reiner, who had pitched a pilot called “Head of the Family,” featuring Morty Gunty originating the role of Buddy Sorel, later done by Morey Amsterdam in The Dick Van Dyke Show; who, frankly, I thought was too old for the part. It was fun to see a few moments of Morty Gunty on PBS tonight.

[flv:/Video/2008/JAN/TVPioneers.flv 400 300]

If you take a look at this past post, you will see that Morty’s daughter Sheryl has added a comment. I’m very pleased that Sheryl found my Web site, and I hope she spotted her late father on TV this week.

Pratt Porch Project – P.S.

I’ll get back to posting something of interest once I’ve returned to work and have shaken off the holiday brain fog. But first, here are a couple of pictures of the remodeled porch as it looks now, after painting and the addition of some furniture. We’re still looking for a coffee table and side table.

If you click to look at the full-size picture with the TV, you’ll see it has an old-fashioned rabbit ear antenna. On February 17, 2009, analog broadcast television in the United States will cease. Long before then I plan to have a FiOS set top box installed. Or I could run a coaxial cable to the porch myself and use the analog signal provided over FiOS to watch the same local stations the antenna receives. I suppose it’s possible Verizon will shut off the analog service, although they’re under no requirement to do that.

P.S. According to this item, cable TV companies will keep their analog signals for local stations until 2012.

The Video Of Music

The video projector is addicting, and I’m watching too much TV! Last night it was the NE Patriots game — and I’m not even a football fan. Tonight, ABC is showing The Sound of Music in HD. I added a back light to give a sense of how it looks. Not huge by projection standards, but just right for the room, which isn’t as dark as the camera makes it seem after adjusting the exposure for the bright screen.

The Sound of Music on HDTV

Angela CartwrightHey, look who it is! Angela Cartwright, whose name came up in this past post. When I was a kid, besides the huge crush on Angela that I’ve already admitted having from when she was on Lost In Space with Bill Mumy, I thought it was funny that her name was the same as the fictional Cartwrights on Bonanza.

Angela Cartwright