Necro time!  :P

my favorite podcasts are Dan Carlin's Hardcore History and Common Sense with Dan Carlin.

A HUGE thumbs up to Dan Carlin. I've always found history terribly boring but Hardcore History has ignited my curiosity, Dan is a great story-teller.

I'm becoming a bit of a political junkie as I age and I find his Common Sense podcast (which focuses on current affairs) even more fascinating. Dan tends to be more libertarian than not but wherever you place yourself on the political spectrum, there's a good chance he'll make you rethink or atleast question yourself on a few issues. Common Sense is a must listen! Can't recommend it enough.

Select episodes of both podcasts are available free on iTunes (older episodes can be purchased on his site dancarlin.com )

PS: I was listening to one of his much older episodes where Dan laments why the US president can't be a non-partisan, financially independent & upstanding citizen... say someone like Bill Cosby! But don't hold that against him.  ;D

They're on Youtube too:
Common Sense #295 - Trumping the Playbook (talking about the first GOP debate)

Update:

The pigtail switch did not work

I then got this powered switch, which does work:
"Kinivo 301BN Premium 3 port High speed HDMI switch with IR wireless remote and AC Power adapter"


It didn't work right away, the signal didn't pass through the old HDMI cable. I had to upgrade my HDMI cable to:
"BlueRigger High Speed HDMI Cable with Ethernet - CL3 Rated for In-wall Installation - Supports 3D and Audio Return",


It's not necessary to manually switch to a null output (the device doesn't even allow it) or to power off the device when I'm using the TV for something other than mirroring the computer, the switch took care of the handshake problem and works flawlessly, no drop in video quality either. 

Thanks again to everyone who chimed in.

Edit: It just occurred to me that I hadn't tried using just the upgraded cable, without the switch. It f***** works! There's no need for the switch at all, upgrading the cable was all that was required. lol

Shades, the mac worked just fine with the previous TV, same settings, same cable.

Swapping the devices would require me to buy two separate adapters - one HDMI to DVI (or VGA) and a Thunderbolt to HDMI, doesn't really seem worth it.

What I ended up doing was getting an HDCP compliant 3-1 switch, it's arriving in a couple of days.

An explanation from someone who replied on another forum:

The solution for some with handshake issues was to stick a little box between the Mac and HDTV or AVR that retains the correct EDID information, fooling the Mac into thinking it still is actively connected to the display. The Gefen HDMI Detective was a popular model, here's one at Amazon that might work:

http://www.amazon.com/ConnectPRO-TMD...6Y/ref=sr_1_1?

I ordered a generic pigtail switch (before I read that reply) and not the item mentioned above. If it solves the problem, great. If not, I could use the switch to change to a null output when I'm not mirroring. If that fails too (like the box not allowing me to switch to a null output when there's a live one present) I could just manually plug the cable in and out of the switch rather than the TV or mac, till a better solution comes along.

Replacing the cable seems like the next viable option. And it's also been suggested that I put an Apple TV as an intermediary.

Thanks for the input, Shades and mouser.  :up: