ErkkilaDotOrg

Hope page is still messed up, I know! Working on getting weather information into the banner. I’ll post a link to the project when i finish sometime in 2011. Behaps these snazy humidity graphs will help pass the time.

First impression of Gracenote service with the new Sony 400 disk blu-ray changer… “How the FUCK could you not have the new “Last Starfighter 25th Anniversary Edition” blu-ray in your database =/.

And finally, my impression of 37 …. it was a lot like 36.

We picked up a speaker to share stuff via bluetooth from the laptops, still working through a few interface rough spots but it works for the most part. One rough spot was the volume..

solution is a script to up/down the volume using an AVRCP bluez(4+) python binding script.

Look here’s one! ;)

http://pee.erkkila.org/btv.py

Our new plasma showed up early! The Stereo Shop said it would take a week, but the guy left me an email on Wednesday afternoon so of course we had to go get it. We settled on the Panasonic TH-50PZ850U…decided against the Pioneers since they’re selling off their plasma business to Panasonic, and decided that the tv having ethernet is pretty cool (for firmware updates and such), even if we don’t use the youtube and picasa features. We were a little bit torn about the Pioneers since they support DLNA, but oh well, maybe it’ll be more established next time we upgrade. Since we are switching up to blu-ray and needed everything to be 1080p, that meant a new receiver as well (so that we can switch HDMI)…this time we went up a level to the Denon 4308ci (our last was a 3803). We were going to wait for Black Friday on the blu-ray, but the Stereo Shop offered us their black friday price on the Sony BDP-S350, which we were going to get anyway, for $199 (I think we could’ve gotten it for $179 from Sears or K-Mart on Friday, but figured why not). He tried to sell us Monster HDMI cables too but we came to our senses, there. The TV had to be unboxed to fit in the Subaru and it was like Tetris trying to fit the receiver and blu ray boxes in there too.

OK, I ALMOST came to my senses about HDMI. We had ordered HDMI cables online for like $5 each but they are being shipped ground from California. This was fine when we thought the TV wouldn’t be here until next week. But the sight of a blu-ray player sitting there on the shelf was bugging the hell out of me. In the interests of marital harmony, Paul suggested we go buy 2 cables from Wal-Mart…the minimum we’d need to hook it into the receiver and hook the receiver to the TV. $60 for impatient geekdom. But man, Wall*E and Nightmare Before Christmas looked and sounded great…when we finally figured out how to get the blu ray player to pass through the audio as bitstream (had something to do with the bd live or additional content audio setting; we had it on ‘Mix’ and we needed ‘Direct’).

The other thing was, the TV came with a stand but not bolts for other mounts (we have a low A/V shelf with pole mount)…had to go to Lowe’s to get them.

So now we’re just waiting for HDMI cables so I can eliminate component/optical for the cable box and one DVD jukebox, which frees up enough component connectors on the Denon that I can finally eliminate the manual switchboxes…yay. Next up, new motherboard and/or video card for Mooby so we can hook that up HDMI as well.

This is the first time we bought A/V equipment where everything had an ethernet jack. First thing we did with all three was get firmware updates. Can’t wait to see how the Sony blu-ray jukebox will turn out–will we finally get a complete disc title listing without having to type them all in?

Finished painting. Now if only we could find someone who does blown-in foam insulation and who would actually call back. None of the interior work can start til we get that done.

Unfortunately, we lost Squeak last Friday to unknown causes. She had been under the weather for a few weeks; tried mite dusting, yogurt, and keeping her in a quite spot, but to no avail. I had been just about to start getting her broody to raise the chicks we have coming in 2 weeks. I’m hoping we can get the silkies to do it instead; otherwise it will be heat lamps and the kiddie pool again.

We ordered a new tractor today, a Kubota L5740, a mid-size one. No cab, because we will be attaching a backhoe. Also ordered a front bucket and a 6′ bush hog (larger won’t fit through the woods). 0% financing, although it’s a bit disconcerting taking on debt again, especially as it cost way more than our car. Rather than paying it off fast, we’ll probably make payments and put extra in a high interest savings account every month.

Yet another sign we are hicks. Rusty pickup truck, riding mower, commercial mower, tractor, chickens, guns, and having gone to the emergency room with a chicken-related injury. And we once used an old toilet as a planter in the yard. Window air conditioners (not our fault–no basement, no duct work). OK, not the Subaru. And the fact that our new chicken coop is nicer than most third-world human housing. Not the servers and vanity domains, or the complicated a/v setup. Tacky lawn kitsch…could go either way. But here’s the thing. My boss has a barky dog and he got an anonymous letter from a neighbor in his mailbox about it. Here, nobody can either hear or see whatever annoying or eccentric thing we chose to do. I can no longer even fathom living somewhere where we’d be in a position to annoy neighbors, nor do I want to.

Dude, I can’t wait to drive that tractor around. Seriously.

Also, check out the Squidbillies art! Deerbait and Moon #1.

-epe

See this article about the recent DRM problems they’ve been having. If you’ve got one of the 20 or so defective titles (of which I haven’t seen a list but it includes at least Stranger than Fiction, Casino Royale, The Holiday, and The Pursuit of Happyness), you can call 800.860.2878 and they will take your name, phone number, address, and UPC off the box and will send you a replacement disc.

Glad we didn’t send the player back. I feel certain we would’ve gotten stuck with the shipping fee and gotten absolutely nothing useful done to the player.

Sony, you and your ARccOS suck. Sure, you’re replacing discs. Maybe if you weren’t so anal retentive you wouldn’t be having this problem to begin with. It doesn’t prevent illegitimate use, just pisses off the people who actually bought the damn movie for their own use.

Bravo to EMI for releasing DRM-free music. Now if Apple would sell it in a lossless format, I’d probably even start using iTunes!

We’ve had 2 interesting failures with our new dvd player, and recent dvd releases.

Sony DVP-CX995V + “Stranger Than Fiction” == “Reading -> power off”

Sony DVP-CX895V + “Stranger Than Fiction” == “Plays”

(for 2 different disks, one from amazon, one from netflix, a Sony pictures release…)

Sony DVP -CX995V + “The Holiday” == “Reading ->power off”

Sony DVP-CX895V + “The Holiday” == “Plays”

(Also a sony pictures release…)

The DVP-CX995V also has this annoying quirk, whereby if you turn it on, it turns it self off every other time ;). It didn’t bother me at first, but now… it’s irritating.

We’ve been Wii’ed! My mom got me one for my birthday (Thursday) but decided to give it to me today so we could start playing!

She got it at the Target store in Victor (Eastview)…she was in line before 7am and was 16th; they got 33 (?)  in and were sold out before the store opened at 8. Fortunately, they handed out tickets at 7 and told them they could leave and come back–it was in the teens this morning.

My mom rocks. :) She also got us Zelda to go with Sports.

My dad got an article into a UK video publication recently (he’s an HD consultant and recently worked on Collateral and the Miami Vice movie). Here’s his IMDB page and his consulting website.

So, we finally gave up on the Philips RC9800i remote. The Pronto line was just so much better, more configurable, easier to use…about all the 9800 had going for it was the color display. Things that were annoying abou it:

• you couldn’t pick which buttons you wanted displayed on the screens nor where they were displayed, nor the labels on them (except for a very few ‘user’ buttons on each remote). Even the buttons you didn’t program were left on the display to go ‘ding’ if you hit them.
• you had no control over what macro keys would appear on any given ‘watch’ remote. For example, although the ‘Watch DVD’ screen included the aspect button from the TV remote, the one for watching replay or cable tv did not. So, if you wanted to change the aspect ratio of the tv, you’d have to go to the main screen, pick individual remote, pick the remote, scroll through the screens, and find the key. On the Pronto, I always had a hard key dedicated to this function for all the remotes.
• No control at all over the functions of any of the hard keys
• Long pauses and lock-ups
• You could only scroll through device screens in one direction, meaning a LOT of screens to flip through in some cases (not to mention the annoying program guide which I never used)

In other words, it was meant for ‘ease of use’ in setting it up (wizards but no ProntoEdit), but very little configurability and ease of use for power users.
I’m going to give the old remote to my parents; their setup is less complicated and might not cause them as many issues with the remote. My dad might like it; he used to work for Philips (video cameras).
I ended up picking up a Philips TSU3500 Pronto. It’s one step up from the old TSU3000 we had. I would’ve loved a 7500 but didn’t feel like spending 6-700 hundred dollars for it; the color’s just not worth double the cost for me. Another nice thing about this choice: I had saved our old 3000 config file and was able to save it as a 3500 file and write it to the remote without having to do any new programming! I might pretty it up this weekend a bit, but it works now.

Looks as if the Tivo Series 3 won’t have TivoToGo after all. That makes it almost infinitely less likely I’ll buy it…while I’d love a better interface than the piece of shit Scientific Atlanda 8300HD offered by Time Warner, I’m not willing to pay $800, a monthly fee, cable card fees, *and still* not be able to get my content off it.

By the way, Time Warner, you suck, too: “As of January 2006, any new digital services added will NOT be available with a CableCard.” That includes new channels such as Universal HD.

More on DRM.

Philips RC9800i:

things we like:

• color screen
• when it’s working, keys respond rather quickly

things we don’t like:

• think seems to lock up or freeze quite a bit. I’m rebooting it far more than I’d like
• battery consumption seems high. One evening of using it and it needs recharging
• when programming, you only get about 8 programmable keys. This, on an LCD-type remote, seems ridiculous; why can’t I at least change labels on existing keys? And why, if you don’t program certain keys, does it leave them on the display (so if you try hitting them you get a little ‘donk’ noise). After a few Pronto remotes, it’s incredibly disappointing not being able to program the screens exactly how I’d want to
• On the ‘watch’ screen, if you have more than one of the same kind of device, it’s not obvious which key to hit for which device (and of course you can’t relabel them) unless you’ve memorized the order
• the sideways form factor–Paul hates not being able to get at the soft screen and hard keys using one hand
• The ‘combined’ screens when using ‘watch’ do not always have the keys I want, such as the aspect ratio key for the TV. They’ve decided I only need this key when watching DVD, but I need it for the DVRs as well.
• No control over programming the hard keys–they can only be used for vol, menu, etc.
• I still haven’t figured out how the ‘double click’ on the menu keys are of any use since you can’t program them to do anything
• It’s cumbersome switching back to individual remote controls when the combined remote is useless (as with aspect key when not watching dvd). Paul hates this especially.
• The programming can be cumbersome. I would prefer a PC-based solution.

Cool but who cares?

• Program guide. That’s why I have DVR’s
• wireless stuff for playing MP3’s or looking at pictures. Useless for me as most of our stuff is on linux servers.

Finally got the Philips RC9800i all programmed. Good: it’s in color, not bad interface, price, wireless stuff (I guess, seems pretty useless for me). Meh: Not very configurable (no PC software to edit every last button/screen as in Pronto series); the only user editable keys are 8 user defined ones for each device; very limited hard keys (only the ones you define for menu up/down/left/right/ok, mute, volume, channel); no way to mix keys from different devices on one screen or assign them to a hard key (biggest problem one for me is the ‘aspect’ button for TV); locks up sometimes; device icons are listed as very generic ‘PVR’, ‘DVD’ etc so if you have more than one you have to remember what order they’re in; it displays keys on the remote even if they have no code assigned to them; no way to move around or delete keys from the display. I like being able to set up remotes exactly as I like; this doesn’t quite fit the bill but I guess it’ll work for now. I do like the form factor and UI, and it seems pretty responsive.

A CableCard HD Tuner card. Meh: Windows only (probably due to the CableCard requirements).

ReplayTV PC Edition. Meh: no HD support yet. Windows only, even for streaming.

HDTivo (standalone; series 3). Meh: no more lifetime service fees. Isn’t it weird how they announced this right after Replay exited the set-top business?

Blu-ray/HDDVD. Meh: why did there have to be two? And the whole thing about possibly limiting resolution on component outputs (thus screwing us early HD monitor adopters).
I used to be an early adopter. Lately I’m feeling like I’d be a schmuck to buy into any of these half-assed technologies.

Looks as if our Philips Pronto TSU3000 remote has finally cratered. We made it about two and a half years this time (we had a Pronto Neo before that, and I think yet another Pronto before that). The third button from left (under LCD), which we usually used for the Replay’s skip 30 seconds button, became stuck down permanently (bubble underneath crushed), which probably is causing a permanent interrupt condition keeping the touch screen from working. I’ve ordered a new Philips RC9800I from buy.com since it’s color and less than $300 (unlike their other color remotes, one of which doesn’t even have hard arrow/select keys). Yay, the smell of new electronics.

Does anyone else hear ‘Zoysia Grass’ and think ‘Zoidberg Grass’? We’re also going to try to plant bamboo in the woods, hoping that’ll be more invasive than all the other invasive, crappy, clingy stuff in there.

There’s a garter snake hanging out in front of the barn all the time. Ever since the garage door opener broke, we’ve had a bungee cord attached under the door so we can open it from outside (no handle). We think the snake’s trying to have sex with it.