Lawrence "The Dreamer" Chen's Blog

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....

When I got out of the shower this morning....I guess I was in there a lot longer than I thought. I found it was after 8am.

Remembering that when I had email customer support regarding an order for blank checks I made last month, that I hadn't received. The response was to call them and then asked me to fill out a survey on the helpfulness of their response.

Well, since I was home during the window (I haven't yet gotten around to trying the now working phone in my cubicle at work )....I called and all they did was look up the info confirm my address and offer to send me another book of checks. Hopefully these will materialize, etc.

Meanwhile, I since I was hope and using the phone....I thought I would give Cox a call, since it had been more than 24 hours since they promised that I would get a response within 24 hours. (digging through my email backlog....1000+ of manually filtered emails [meaning spam and date sensitive material, removed]) I saw that I had previously gotten a response email from them, also promising a response within 24 hours....but no actual response (since that's among the date sensitive stuff I look for, though not so much the received receipt...)

Anyways....after getting a hold of a person...I had to keep repeating that I wanted an HD-DVR and not to take anyway any of the stuff I'm already paying them for. Finally, he accepted that I really did want to add an HD-DVR to my current subscription and not remove stuff.

And, not because I had threatened to do so in a previous blog entry. He didn't seem to understand why a single guy with a single TV could possibly want to watch so much stuff. Though I'm starting to wonder if I can still watch all this stuff. But, I suppose if I spent less time at work or doing work from home....I would be able to resume my habit.

Plus the new fall season is starting to pile on....

Read more »

I have cable TV and broadband again!

Had to use my own modem, rather than the free one....the installer didn't have my details for what I had ordered, and therefore didn't have that equipment. But, better to get service....and he did land a HD converter (and I had that SB5101 laying around).

Now I'm just waiting for a DPH-540 to appear, so I can do phone....

Sure hope the current pattern holds and Calgary takes it in the 7th.....

Turns out that game 6 is on TV....just the guide says "To Be Announced" at the start, followed by a bunch of stuff that I don't know...and probably won't air as a result

And, I was thinking that I shouldn't sleep in again.....

Read more »

Not sure which to attribute this discovery to....but the other day (Saturday night) I was doing one of the rare times of watching live TV.

I was watching my Calgary Flames on TV.....

I decided to use the SA8300HD DVR to do the live TV viewing of this, rather than task the ReplayTV that was already recording it or one of the other boxes....largely because I was already switched to the DVR for other HD viewing I had been doing at the time, and then decided to switch to viewing the game in progress.

I thought that the normal output of grey pillars was what I'll have to live with, even though there's no fear of burn in on the display and it is distracting against the black border of the screen.

But, I decided to hit change the aspect of the display on both the HLN4365W1 and the SA8300HD so get the black pillars. I'm sure I'll remember to switch it back....

Pages: 1 · 2

Link: http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=1181488&trkid=189530&strkid=5296964_1_0

I had previously seen this on DVD, but when I turned on my DVR today....it was playing, so I found myself watching it. To the point where I looked at my schedule to see if I had to ax some other recordings to make sure I wouldn't get interrupted.

Apparently "Joey" didn't make the cut again...so it was missing my from my guide, but "Scrubs" would get in the way....so that got the ax. I wasn't going to touch "NCIS" or "The Unit".

This time around, I'm rating this 5 stars.

Over on NetFlix, I had rated the DVD only 4 stars. I don't think it is because it is in HD, but just something about watching it again and how I seem to connect differently with it (perhaps something about my circumstances....)

Link: http://lawrence.chen-online.net/index.php?title=verbatim_dvd_r_dl_10_pack&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#trackbacks

Good News. The Verbatim DVD+R DL's work great.

I have burned 3, one for each of the first 3 seasons of "Strange Days at Blake Holsey High". And, they are all playable. I didn't actually watch all the episodes...I only looked to see that I could load the menus and then play an episode near the beginning and near the end.

I just used a regular DVD-R for burning Conclusions

Read more »

Link: http://www.verbatim.com/DoubleLayer/

Well, while I was over a the mall picking up a prescription....I decided to check out what is out there in Verbatim DVD DL media.

My usual preference is DVD-R, though DVD+R seems more widely available. I wasn't sure if I was going to buy, it was more to see how much. Though I want to burn those images for "Strange Days at Blake Holsey High" that I've been working on. Namely because I've run out of space to have both images and the raw input data on my system....actually, I can't get to working on "Conclusions" until I address my space problem.

First I checked Walmart, because that's where my prescription refill was waiting at, they had the 3pk for $11.88.

I then walked over to Best Buy, and then decided to go past them and check out OfficeMax first.

In OfficeMax I spotted that they had the 10pk for $19.99 after instant rebate. Well, for that price, I couldn't pass on it....so I snapped it up and that concluded my shopping trip.

Now to burn Season's 1, 2 and 3 to DVDs and try them out....wonder if there's a marathon in my future. Kind of bad, since I have purchased DVDs that need watching (namely the Firefly TV DVDs, and then the Serenity movie DVD....)