get server time on the client side in javascript / jquery

Question

I want to use, on the client side, dates as they are on the server side.
for example- if the current time on the server side is '2011-09-21 15:00:00', I want to be able to get a javascript Date object with that value ('15:00:00'), even if the client is in a different time zone.
what i've tried so far:
suppose the server time is '15:00:00' and client time is '17:00:00', The Date object I get on the client side always contains '16:00:00', for some reason.
here's what i've tried:
1. sending a .net DateTime object to the client (it gets serialized as "Date\\12345...\\" ), and on the client side converting it to a Date object:

function parseServerDate(strDate) {
    return new Date(parseInt(strDate.substr(6)));
}

OR converting the .net DateTime object into a UTC number:

    // returns the number of milliseconds since Jan 1, 1970 (useful for converting C# dates to JS dates)
    public static double UnixTicks(this DateTime dateTime)
    {
        DateTime epoch = new DateTime(1970, 1, 1);
        DateTime d2 = dateTime.ToUniversalTime();
        TimeSpan ts = new TimeSpan(d2.Ticks - epoch.Ticks);
        return ts.TotalMilliseconds;
    }

and then creating a new Date object:
new Date(milliseconds) or new Date().setTime(milliseconds) , both of which produced the same result as above.

should I maybe send the server's timezone offset as well, and handle the difference in the client side?
What's the best way to go about it?

Answer 1

If it's about display, why do you need a Date object client-side? Why not simply have the server send the datetime as string and let the client display it as is?