The Current State of the Entertainment System January 5, 2022

 





The current state of the entertainment system.




Elements:===========================================================


LG oled Smart-TV, 55-inch

Pioneer VSX-1023 AVR (Audio Video Receiver)

B&O RX-2 turntable w/ Soundsmith replacement phono cartridge, RIAA compensation box

Alesis MEQ-230 30 band Equalizer

Altec Valencia speaker cabinets w/ fixed, external cross-over filters for bi-amp use

Polk Audio 50w Subwoofer

Samsung blu-ray player - This has been removed and will eventually be replaced by a newer model that will play UHD 4k discs. The existing unit does not play UHD. 

Hauppage Win-TV computer television receiver dongle and 

RCA antenna for local television signals, with Channel Master antenna signal booster

Sennheiser headphones

Panasonic VHS VCR

EasyCap VCR tape digitiser

A Netflix subscription

Latest addition:


Raspberry Pi 4B/2gb SoC (computer System On a Card) with 

miniDLNA software to connect 3000 video files on eight hard drives, to the TV via WiFi.

A Belkin USB hub and an Amazon Basics USB hub are used to connect the eight hard drives to the system. Two more drives are attached to the router's USB inputs for a total of ten drives and 12.5tb of drive space.

A generic mini wireless keyboard similar to the Rii and iPazzPort models. The keyboard acts as a remote for the TV and a secondary keyboard for the PC.


Principles:===========================================================

The television receives video from DLNA networking software in my home network. I can browse the contents of remote drives attached to the router or attached to the Raspberry Pi. The audio of the TV goes to the AVR hence the speaker cabinets for Surround Sound distribution and playback. The input of the AVR can be switched to the B&O turntable (phono) or AM/FM radio via a radio antenna. If needed, I can play blu-ray disks on the player also connected to the TV via HDMI. The TV has a built in TV receiver that allows me to watch local stations via the antenna and signal booster. I have some VHS tapes I can digitize using the VCR and digitiser, if I need to. The TV has WiFi and LAN connections to the network. This allows me to watch Netflix. The mini keyboard makes some tasks on the TV easier. Typing in text data using the LG remote is tedious and time consuming. The mini keyboard is a two-handed device, comparable to the old Blackberrys.


Finally: ===========================================================

This system drew on my knowledge and skills as an Electronics Engineering Technician and lay computer scientist. A lot of hard work was involved and a lot of research. Some times trial and error were the only option to solve problems. Persistence and enthusiasm and curiosity played no small part.This was done on a small budget. Subsequently, finding equipment and sources with affordable prices was a valuable skill that I can use elsewhere.


The Future:===========================================================

One possible option to add would be an audio digitiser for recording audio to a laptop. The last time I recorded audio was from a turntable and the Sounblaster audio card in my Pentium III desktop computer. I used a Radio Shack stereo microphone as input to record some organ compositions I played on my Hammond H182 (Super B3).




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