Home Entertainment Center

  I received a couple of TP-Link Kasa smart plugs a couple of days ago. The reason for the addition is top remove the visible plug strip and plug hub from the floor in front of the system. There is a wall outlet behind the system. I plugged both smart plugs into that outlet. I then plugged the power strip into one, and the plug hub into the other. The smart plugs are coonnected throughwi-fi to my smart phone Kasa app. I canturn them both on or off from my iPhone. I should explain what a plug hub is. Many devices, such as a USB hub or external hard drive have small trandsformers in the wall plug housing. they're often referred to as 'wall warts.', and they often take up the space of twoor three standard plugs. The plug hub is round and contains five plugs designed for 'wall warts'. All my transformer wall plugs fit on the hub and make for the most efficient use of power wiring devices. All other devices have standard plugs and fit on the power strip.

 Some time ago, I purchased a used Hauppauge WinTV television dongle for my laptop. Until recently, the thing worked well. The FCC required WJHL-TV undergo a frequency reassignment. I couldn't get the new station on the device and contacted the company. The agent suggested I go into the Advanced settings and delete the stations database, then rebuild the base. That worked. However, today, and to a lesser degree, in recent days, I've been unable to receive some other local stations. WCYB-TV in Bristol, TN is one. Currently, my station list is: 11.n (where n = 1, 2, and 3 for three stations total) 39.n Previously, the list was: 5.n, 11.n, 19.n, 36.n, 39.n, and 64.n Perhaps my device has ceased to function properly. I've been wanting to upgrade to a newer model. I may do that in the near future. I can get the local and national news, and that's the primary reason for having the device. My oled tv, on the other hand receives all channels without problems. Perhaps the antenn...

 The LG oled TV has apps available for use with the TV. For those who are uninformed, when you buysome blu-ray disks, there is what is called a 'digital key' included on a piece of paper. This key will allow you to access copies of the videos online from particiating services. I purchased Game of Thrones 1080p and Independence Day 4K/UHD which have keys included. I added the GoT keys to my Apple iTunes account. This allows me to download 720p versions to my laptop. I opened accounts at Vudu and MoviesAnytime and linked my Apple account. I added the Independence Day 4K/UHD to the latter accounts and can now watch the videos on the LG 55" oled TV. Be careful, though. I purchased a 4K blueray on one of the auction websites and got ripped off. The ad included a digital key. When I got the item, I noticed the image on the website did not match the box I received. There was a digital key, but the key would not work. The services mentioned were no help. I think they knew what I l...

 A couple of months ago, I had two drives go out. The first was the 4TB WD  Passbook Ultra. Two subdirectories containing over four hundred videos, disappeared. The second was my archive drive. The drive contains all of my work since the late '90s. Beginning in the late 90's, I started burning what I considered worthy data, to CDs. Later, when CDs had been replaced by DVDs, I copied all my CDs to DVDs. Most recently, several months ago, I decided to use hard drives as a storage medium. I copied all my DVDs to a hard drive and destroyed the DVDs, except for the ones with videos and operating systems. I have since discovered M-disks. These are supposed to be good for hundreds of years where other mediums lose data after a decade or so at most. This does not include the possibility of surface scratches. Those hazards still remain. But without physical damage the disks should last indefinately. These disks are expensive, but will be my choice for archiving historical data. I moane...

Some time ago, when VCRs were still the recording device of choice, there was a court case ruling (1984)  that decided consumers had the right to record broadcasts/streams to which they had legal access. The idea was to allow consumers to record now and watch later. My own interpretation is that I have the right to make back-up coies of evrything digital I own, including images, documents, software, and movies. In that vein, I've decided to examine the possibility of recording streams from online services to which I subscribe. There are methods which work in limited cases but require manual decryption of the stream. I'm examining a hardware method which may not require any extra processing of the stream. This involves the use of a LAN switch with port mirroring. More on that later. Currently, there are several apps that download from popular streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+. The apps usually require an annual fee for premium service (read full resolution)...

Recently, I've tried using my USB storage strategy for watching/streaming movies to my Smart-TV. I discovered several things. A Western Digital My Passport 4Tb external hard drive does is at risk when connected directly to the TV using a USB port. The drive is best used at the router. The router has a couple of USB ports for external storage units. Most recently, the drive lost two subdirectories containg many videos. Fortunately, the directories returned after sitting, disconnected from anything for a couple of days. I'm off grid and turn off all devices every night. The TV is intended to remain connected to power 24/7. I did a disconnect using the TV screen software removal option. However, I left the drive in place without actually disconnecting. When I turned everything off and powered on the following day, error messages popped up and two subdirectories were listed as files instead of directories. Previously, I had the 4Tb drive connected to the router but had probl...

Last night and this morning, I installed the compression drivers for my Altec Lansing Valencia loudspeakers. Several months ago, I bought a pair to replace the drivers I damaged years ago. I have delayed installation until a convenient time. What with the pandemic, the time is most convenient and not likely to get anymore so. I removed cheap Chinese replacements I installed last year. I look forward to richer midtones.

Many movie disk purchases include an alpha-numerical key for digital downloads of that movie. Go to a site that accepts such keys, enter the key and you will be able to watch that movie, using online streaming, and without your disk. The best known, Ultraviolet, closed recently but a new one, MoviesAnywhere has opened. Vudu also accepts digital keys. I have discovered a way to make my purchased collection available to the TV. A while back, I purchased a 4K UHD blu-ray copy of the movie Independence Day (1996). I think that is one of the movies, that I like, that will improve on a 4K screen. Some movies are better suited for 4K UHD than others. I had also, previously, purchased the full Game of Thrones series on blu-ray discs. Neither of my blu-ray players supports 4K UHD disks. This was frustrating to say the least. Now, several months later, after some web reading, I managed to find a round-about way. Currently, several of the online movie/TV-series clouds have allowed us...

This is the system I have currently: LG 55" SmartTV 4k HDMI (wall mounted) Legacy VHS recorder/player and laptop dongle with app. ALtec LAnsing Valencia speakers bi-amped and run with: Pioneer VSX-42 500 watt AVR The Valencia crossover filters have been remade into four filters, placed in a custom box. One each, for the horns and woofers. A B&O RX-12 turntable with ESP RIAA filter, custom boxed, with B&O #4 equivalent cartridge-needle. The Valencia speaker horn compression drivers have been replaced with inexpensive Chinese knock-offs. A set of MidWest Speaker after market replacements are in stock. A repair kit for the original set is also stocked. Polk Audio sub-woofer Sennheiser headphones Dr Dre Beats earbuds Pioneer Blu-ray recorder/player for laptop Samsung stand-alone Blu-ray player Six hard drives; 5x1TB and 1x4TB for a total of 9 TB of data storage Channel Master antenna signal amplifier. Antenna signal splitter Asus x510UA laptop w'i5 8th G...

The LG SmartTV has an operating system installed, just like a personal computer. The one on my laptop is Windows 10 Pro. I also have one of the many 'flavors' of Linux installed inside the Windows operating system. The one on my Apple cell phone is iOS. The one on my Raspberry Pi is 'Raspbian Buster', before that, 'Raspbian Stretch' was resident. The one on the TV is WebOS. That operating system is used by LG for many devices. I also have an LG washing machine with wifi capability using that operating system. The system was made open source some time ago. That means, interested people can contribute to the evolution of the software, or make a spin-off of the own. I'm considering the options available using a custom build of the software. I hope to make saving video data for future viewing opssible. Some LG models have/had a recorder on board. My model does not. The Sony Betamax law lets people make copies of electonic media for which they have leg...

Recently, I installed a USB hub. This lets me run all my external USB hard drives through the hub, THEN into my oled TV. Prior to this, there were some problems with the drives. The source of the problems were the power required by the drives and the status of the drives after powering down. Sometimes, on powering up, the TV would give messages regarding plugging and unplugging external devices. Eventually, this became a major nuisance. The hub requires a separate power supply, so I purchased one that requires a separate power source, thus solving the power issue. This also frees up some of the oled TV's USB ports for other uses/devices since the hub uses only one. I moved the 4TB WD Passport hard drive to my router. That drive contains no 4K videos, so no degradation of the video will occur, as is the case with 4K UHD movies. That drive is presented s a separate input on the inputs list, using LG's SmartShare software.Despite the 4k drag issue, I placed the drive contain...