USB hub installed


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 containing 4K movies with aspect ratio issues on the router also. These I can run from my laptop using the VLC player and the adjustable aspect rario control.

My laptop can project onto the LG SmartTV screen using LG's SmartShare app and wifi, or connect using a HDMI cable, directly to an HDMI port on the TV. As I mentioned previously, LG's aspect ratio control leaves something to be desired for the knowledgeable and experienced user.
I may make a DAR aspect ratio conversion of some of the problem videos if a feasible method can be found. The SAR is a metadata change only. A DAR conversion alters the entire file/movie but can take a day to perform on a single movie.

An alternative is to use the new Raspberry Pi 4 as a media center and attach that drive, and possibly, others, to the RPi4. VLC is downloadable for the RPi4 operating system, a form of Debian Linux.
The Kodi Home Entertainment Media app is also available for the RPi. The RPi has a mini-HDMI connector that can be used with the SmartTV by using a Mini-HDMI /HDMI cable.

At this point, all my movies are accessible and watchable, on the LG SmartTV.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Drive rack, ventilation and wiring.

 My drives have a new rack to hold them. Hot glue and square wood dowels provided the materials with which to build the rack. I used zip ties and a small computer fan attached to the end of the rack to provide cooling air ventilation for the drives. This will increase the lifetime of the drives. Previously the were stacked on top of each other and became noticeably warm during use. The wiring really was bad. Too many cables/wires held together with zip ties. I added a surge protected outlet strip of a newer, more sophisticated design. I rearranged the system wiring to minimize the number of outlet strips and the disarrayed wires. Two strips were screwed to the wall. One was removed. The circular strip was moved from the entertainment center to a work table beside the other two strips and combined with them to supply all devices attached to the system. The strip removed replaced the circular strip in the entertainment system.  Overall, the current setup works better. Both syste...
Read more

Philips Hue lights Updated

 Philips Hue lights are known for the ability to program brightness, saturation, and hue using software. Most people use one or more cellphone apps to control their Hue lights. I've a history in computrer science and electronic technology and engineering, so took this up as a new interest. WiFi control of light bulbs' colors has interested me ever since I read aboout the topic some years ago. There happened to be seven Hue bulbs available from one eBay seller and for a reaosnable fee, approximately $20. A bridge device is used to communicate with the bulbs, so I waited for a good deal on eBay and got one. Philips has evolved a developer community and resources for those who want to explore the possibilities in lamp light control. The user joins the communnity and gets a temporary API key, formerly referred to as a 'username', good for one session. Then a browser or app, can be used to send commands to the bulbs. There are other avenues of communication. Python libraries...
Read more

Jellyfin media server

 The owner of Emby has blocked my using the WebOS access method of using Emby. I discovered the method and posted on the product's forum. That software is no longer my media server and has been removed from my computers. I replaced Emby with Jellyfin. Jellyfin is the evolved Emby open sourced. Emby was originally open source (and free) but was privatized and monetized by the creator. Many considered that move unethical.  The last open source version became the basis for Jellyfin,  easily competitive with Emby and almost, if not equally, well known. I've been using Jellyfin for about a year, perhaps more. The software has issues but is in constant development but is very useful in the current state, version 10.8.5.
Read more