Lawrence "The Dreamer" Chen's Blog

Today, I came home late from work...and found sitting on my doorstep that FedEx has left the TiVo HD DVR there. Odd, when I ordered the Cox HD DVR, they wouldn't do that...and even though I waited at home all day by the front door, they claim that I wasn't there to make the delivery (ignoring that it was the first K-State football home game of the season...or perhaps the real reason?)

Anyways....I just moved the box aside, since I intend to hook it up digitally and not knowing how quickly the woot order would ship, I had put off buying DVI and/or HDMI cables. Though I had a good idea of what would be needed, since the TV is DVI and the TiVO HD is HDMI. What I hadn't worked out full is placement of it and my Zektor DVI switcher. Or what pieces of tech that have an input on my TV need to move onto the DVI switcher, because I'm out of digital audio inputs on my receiver.

The plan is that I'll likely move my Momitsu V880N to using DVI. The OTA HD tuner will probably be retired as a result of the TiVo HD DVR (and not because it only sees one station and poorly)....but that digital audio output had already been bumped. Since unlike my setup in Columbus with TimeWarner, I have both an HD tuner and an HD DVR from Cox. Not ready to retire the HD tuner from my mix...but perhaps some day it'll go.

I suppose the only outstanding issue I haven't figured out is whether I need open return path for the TiVo's cable connection. I have a 4 way and an 8 way splitter....the 8 way has no return path and is off of one of the 4 way splitter outputs. I have my cable modem, Cox HD Tuner and Cox HD DVR on the other 3 outputs of the 4 way. 7 of the 8 outputs are my ReplayTV...the 8th has floated around a bit depending on what gadget I wanted to try....on the HDTV for using its internal tuner, a DVD recorder that I had to see if TVGuide data was available, the OTA receiver to see if I could do clear QAM....

Now that I think of it, I probably should've checked Amazon.com for an upgrade of the 4-way splitter...I think the next up is an 6-way (want to minimize the split loss at that 'tier'). But, I once again used Amazon Prime to order a bunch of DVI/DVI and HDMI/DVI and Toslink cables....discovered that the 3.99 upgrade to 1 day service is per item, not per shipment or order. In retrospect I might have scaled down the size of the order to just what I needed to get the TiVo HD going, and leave the rest for free 2 day service. But, I guess I'm not thinking clearly right now

Initial setup will be a weekend project, not sure how it'll go on getting the Cablecards.

As the impending start of the new fall season, I noticed that my OTA HDTV tuner wasn't getting a signal for some reason..... At first, because it was like 2am, I thought maybe it was because WIBW-HD was off the air. But, since it wasn't working this morning, I started to fiddle with the antenna. The Terk HDTVlp had served me well last fall thru spring....and there just hadn't been anything worth watching during the summer, so I don't know when it stopped working. Though WIBW-HD did go off air in the spring....apparently it had taken a lightning hit. So I hadn't paid much attention to it during the summer.

But, now there's lots of new shows to check out, and I not enough HD recording capabilities to keep up. So I need the ReplayTV with OTA HDTV tuner to supplement my recording capabilities again. I still plan to get the HTMac, but now I'm waiting for Leopard to come out before buying my first Mac. (though there might still be another computer in the future...so I can run Momitsu's V880N's MMC software somewhere closer and with more storage...).

Anyways...I suspect the condo's new building outside my livingroom window is doing more than just blocking my view.... Turning it to off to the side a bit, I could some signal...but not enough for a stable picture. Probably just a narrow slit between buildings.... So I switched to the Terk HDTVa to see if I can get more directionality on receiving a usable signal.

It seems to be working now....

Meanwhile, I saw the Tivo HD was being carried by the local Best Buy...wonder if that means if I can actually get Cable Cards around here? Though I'm wondering when they'll be more than just Tivo with CableCards. Would like to keep my fleet of ReplayTVs going for as long as possible....

Well, I didn't want to wake up this morning...I was sore, my throat hurt, there was a productive cough, and it is kind of gloomy out. But, I wanted to check clocks at home and at work to see what changed and didn't change.

The first computer that should've updated, but didn't was my SuSE 9.3 Linux box. I had updated the zoneinfo files for DST....however, I didn't notice that the link between /etc/localtime and /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Central had gotten severed. So the machine was still running using the old zoneinfo definition. But, zdump -v US/Central wasn't gonna tell me this.

I then check the other main computers at home and moved on to other devices. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my radio controlled clock, which I try to set all my other clocks against, was showing the correct time. I had been holding off on looking at another one of these clocks, guess it is safe to get one.

Then I check the VoIP phones....the Uniden has a local clock, so I had up date it. I drew a blank on what my Vonage number was...guess it has been a long time since I had to call it or give it out. It read an hour ahead, I guess it is still stuck on sending Eastern Time. Guess the still go by the timezone for the areacode of the number associated with it, rather than the timezone in my account profile. That's annoying.

Broadvoice doesn't seem to have updated for DST

I then updated the important clock...the clock on my coffee maker and put on coffee, and then back off to updating other clocks around home. It was also good to see that my Palm Tungsten T had updated....though hotsync'ng is a problem. DST change always seems to reset everything in my calendar...and this time was worse than usual. I blame Microsoft Outlook. Though I did run the timezone tool, though it was a bit weird...since Outlook is not my default mail client...its my calendar and contact tool. I suppose I should do something about this setup....especially since I have too many different calendars now. Plus, I haven't figured out where I'm at in my PDA replacement project. The Palm Tungsten T is pretty much only calendaring for me now....anyhoo.... The DST change also causes the backupbuddy to backup everything fresh again...which makes the first sync really long and painful.

The Blackberry sync seemed to have issues...but it was problem me trying to do it while the Palm sync was still going on. It worked fine later.

But, it was off to check my ReplayTVs and other HT devices if they had the correct time. All the ReplayTVs had the correct time, I was surprised to see that my Momitsu V880N was also right....and it was good that the Cox HD DVR was also right, because when I looked at it last night...the guide was wrong. But, the lack of new programming for the first few days might seem intentional

As usual, since I was here...I checked the lamp timer on my Samsung HLN4365W1....5255 hours. Had noticed that it seems to be having more trouble turning on that usual, but it is still working. Hopefully the spare bulb I have works, when that time comes. OTOH, I see that 50" units are now thin enough that they should fit into my stand....and 1080p might be nice. Though I'll probably wait until the spare bulb is spent....by then they should perfect LED based RPTVs Plus I might be willing to update my furniture to allow an even bigger screen

I'm sure I've missed other clocks (at home)....but I think I'm done.

Wonder if I want to wander out and see if the outside world is right....namely it has been over a week since I've done groceries....

Hmmm, the server time for this blog is off my an hour....guess I'll have to do it manually?

Look at all the empty spots....what will I fill them with....

Back on June 19/20, I blogged that I was staying up over night because I had an early AM flight and decided to just stay up for it.

I found it incredibly difficult to do...and after a while, I seemed to run out of stuff to do online to keep myself occupied. So, I threw in some TV watching to help pass the time.

Well, now I'm trying to do it again....

Only, I'm finding it even harder to do...because I have no cable TV yet, and no broadband. I'm alternating between using my old AT&T BusinessNet dialup account and my BB7100t as a GPRS modem.

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Yesterday I bought one of these from Best Buy. I had been on the fence for getting one for a while, since floppy drives are starting to get scare and CDs aren't practical. And, there'll be times where using the Internet be an option, either.

But, it came down to size for price and convenience. I have an iPod Shuffle, and I do have most of it set aside for space...but I never actually use it for data, because it isn't all that practical. I don't like the music part of it that much and having to deal with a cap that I can lose reduces my desire to actually carry it around.

During my recent trip, I got to thinking that there should be some way to better synchronize the data for RoboForm between my computers. And, read about GoodSync and later the Pass2Go product. Seemed the way to go with this might be a USB Flash Key, and possibly one with U3. Even though U3 isn't Mac, but then RoboForm isn't available for the Mac yet and I don't currently own one yet. But, I'm contemplating one to replace my old laptop....inaddition to the HTmac, I've been talking about building

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While, it has been much nicer working my Momitsu V880N since I JP1'd the old URC8910 that I had to control it. It hasn't been perfect. The biggest issue being the crummy directional arrow disc and the select button.

Knowing the Momitsu V880N, this is something that gets a workout in normal use....especially since I use mine to watch media files from my PC more than I use it to watch DVDs.

But, I happened to have been browsing in Best Buy a while back, and spotted a newer URC8910 that had done away with the disc control and had separate buttons, like my URC6131. But, I wasn't sure I wanted for fork out just for that....

Later I came back to it again, but still couldn't rationalize in my mind to get it.....

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Thinking things over some more, and noting that there was an SA8300 DVR code available....I decided to mess around with my JP1'd URC8910.

Key changes....

SAT now controls my Samsung SIR-T351's....it shouldn't because I have two and there's not enough separation now using this remote.

CBL now controls my SA8300HD DVR

I moved the receiver code to RCVR/AMP, because...I replaced the ReplayTV codes where I can control things from a single button.

And, the VCR is this key. I could've mapped a different keymove to select which unit is set, but I used the AUX device mode and the numeric keypad as the unit selector.

I'll still probably use the URC6131 for regular ReplayTV operation, because I'm more used to its layout and I like the arrow keys on it better.

Though I did customize the ReplayTV keymap on the URC8910 to be somewhat similar. Also while I was at it, I loaded a custom Samsung HLN DLP TV code...which gives me extra things like P.Mode, S.Mode, DNIE, Aspect controls...which weren't present under the builtin code. Though I had to still tweak things a bit, because other definitions were wrong....(for discrete inputs).

I also don't know if I'll use the DVR setting that often....guess it depends on if the layout grows on me.

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Link: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7064662#post7064662

I had this extra remote (URC-8910) from when I was first playing around with JP1 and multiple ReplayTVs....before I settled on really liking a URC-6131 for the task of controlling my 7 ReplayTVs and TV/Receiver.

Opting to use the Momitsu V880N's poor remote for when I needed to control that. When I first heard that V880N upgrade was available for JP1'ng remotes, I thought about trying to use the extra remote for this (not wanting to mess with what is working on my URC-6131).

But, I read up on the procedure and started downloading all the bits and pieces I needed, and then I got distracted and forgot all about it.....until now.

Well, I did some quick fiddling and it doesn't look like I can create a URC-6131 like setup with the addition of the DVD player....not enough room for all the keymoves etc. Now there is a ReplayTV setup that could in theory control many ReplayTVs from a single device button, but I decided that it wasn't important to try that at this point, and just left out my ReplayTVs from this remote.

All, I really need is the TV/Receiver setup I had on the URC-6131 and the addition of the Momitsu V880N.

Unfortunately, I can't seem to recreate the TV/Receiver setup I had before. I was able to get the keymoves to do discrete input selection on my Samsung HLN4365W1, just like I had on the URC-6131. But, I can't get the discrete input selection for my Receiver to work the same way.

In the end, I got the mappings to work by:

1. Realizing I had assigned my Receiver to a device button, so I could use VPT instead of Key Move to work 'volume' from other devices (the DVD mode).
2. Loading an upgrade for the Sony STR-DE935 (I have the STR-DE835) and looking at the codes of the keys I wanted and trying them. I first tried EFC, but that didn't work...so I had to do Hex Cmds, which did work. The Hex Cmds in turn reveal a different EFC value.....

Now to watch something on my Momitsu V880N

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Link: http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=2&id=34141

Good news...they are going to air the series in the US.

Maybe I don't need to add Canada as somewhere I'll consider moving to...to find work.

Unfortunately, SciFi is a standard cable channel here....so it'll be hazzy analog 4:3. I was kind of hoping to get the DVDs (eventually) so I can enjoy new Doctor Who's that fill my entire screen.

Wonder if SciFi will run season two in sync with either the BBC or CBC?

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