Now (or at some point, at least) It's Gonna Get Serious

... of course it will be in a fun & geeked out way. We now have two multimedia powerhouses connected to our "Home Theater," in the TiVo HD and XBOX 360, with the capability to add back the HTPC at some point as well. Both devices can stream audio and video from the our network and the internet. I'm determined to find some cool stuff to do with them.

I've been watching NAS (Network Attached Storage) trends for a long time, and there are some very compelling devices out there that are friendly to both the XBOX and TiVo, which can feed them with pictures, audio, and video. We've got lots of pictures and music already, and could conceivably be downloading TV content (instead of paying the cable company so we can record it on the TiVo) from the web.

As home networking options gain new features and speed, we'll be looking for the proper direction to go to replace our router and add a NAS box of some sort. Our current router, as steadfast and trusty as it may be, can be overwhelmed at times by the number of bandwidth hogs currently connected to it. We will need to step up to Gigabit speeds to make it through all the cross-streaming mess, and a finalized high-speed wireless standard would be nice as well. Using a stand-alone NAS should bring power savings over simply running an HTPC all the time, and keep the overall packaging smaller and easier to handle.

After reading an article on CNET about a family who dropped their satellite TV to save money, we're going to be examining some similar options. Most of the TV we watch that isn't broadcast over the airwaves is available for download or streaming. The first trick is determining what we can receive with a terrestrial antenna. If we can kick Comcast cable TV to the curb, we'll be golden!

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The Latest Craze at Home: STORM CHASING!!

Editor's note: This may turn into a multi-blog discussion as plans evolve. Please check in at Autogotistical Carpinions for more of the vehicle oriented discussions in the future.

One of the latest TV thrillers gripping the heart-strings of each occupant in our house of late has been Storm Chasers on Discovery. So far, the show has been very illuminating, and is doing a good job of recruiting. Allie and I are having some semi-serious discussions about making a pilgrimage or two down toward Tornado Alley (ooooh! good nickname for the whirl-winded-wife!!).

As I have discussed before, I have a thirst for gadgets, and I haven't had nearly as many as I would like in the recent past. Trouncing tornadoes might be just what I need to quench that desire for a time. The other part helping that along would be designing and building our own RADAR system for the chase vehicle. After seeing the DOW on Storm Chasers, I know there is LOTS of room for improvement, and I have it: End-Fire RADAR Arrays. I've worked a bit with phased arrays, and end-fire arrays aren't much different for this type of use. The advantage we would have over the DOW is that we could build it on much smaller vehicles. What I would like is to have a kit of eight arrays to attach to any vehicle, but only requiring a minimum of 4. The software controlling the RADAR would be able to change it's usage of the arrays based upon their positioning on the vehicle, allowing you use almost any vehicle you want!

More to come later!!

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Comcast DVR Kicked to the Curb. TiVo HD has arrived!!

It was inevitable, really. We were trying to hold out as long as possible, but our Comcast supplied DVR finally had to go. It had been generally misbehaving on a regular basis for a long time, taking way too long to respond to commands from the remote control. After blatantly missing an American Idol episode, we knew it's time was up. I called Comcast and the person I spoke to was very sympathetic and suggested I take the DVR directly to the local office to get the trade-in faster. After hanging up the phone (how much longer will that phrase be used?), it was decided that we would replace the malfunctioning box in two days.

On that day, I had an idea. There had been some sales on TiVo HDs of late at our local mini-sized Best Buys. Why not pick up a CableCARD or two instead of a replacement DVR (which still won't be able to keep from recording the same episodes of A Daily Show with John Stewart and The Colbert Report 4 times a day!!) and buy a TiVo to solve our DVR problems?

So we got our second Tivo.

And we love it, just like we did our first one before we lost reception on our DirecTiVo.

We are still breaking ourselves in, trying to get the accustomed to the new features, but it really is nice. Thanks, TiVo. It's good to be home!

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HTPC Dreams

While looking for something to do, and worrying about all the holiday shows and movies that were piling up on our DVR, I decided to bring my desktop computer down to the living room and see what I could do about connecting it to our home theater. I swapped out the older video card (Geforce 6600LE) for a newer model, a Geforce 7600GS, in the hopes of playing a few games at the TV's full resolution via DVI. The motherboard has optical digital audio output and firewire built in, so I can send Dolby Digital Live to the audio receiver and capture the transport stream from the DVR for temporary storage.

With a little tweaking I was up and running, playing Half Life 2 @ 1920x1080, and getting really scared at how immersive the game could be. Wow! I really loved playing it at my desk, but it was nothing like this. I'm literally too scared to play for more than a half hour at a time.

I was able to find instructions and software to capture programs from the DVR and save, view, or burn them to DVD from the HTPC. This is pretty cool in a time when there are so many good shows in HD and our DVR has a relatively small hard disk. While playing shows on the DVR to record them on the PC, I was able to watch the un-aired episodes of Vanished in near-HD quality by pointing my browser to the show's M*Space page. By dropping the display resolution to 1280x720, and expanding the streaming video in the browser, it almost filled the screen.

One of my reasons for wanting a home theater PC is to more easily control our television. One of its weaknesses is that it has no discreet remote-control command to switch it the second HDMI/DVI input. All other inputs can either be selected by their own code, or by toggling through each one in succession. The other weakness is that it ignores anything you tell it to do while it is switching between inputs, which takes a few seconds (we'll call it 4) to do.

The "exciting" new bit about having the PC nearby is that have been able to experiment with the serial port on the TV's back panel. I managed to find a program that would allow me to send commands to the TV, by manually constructing the words required for the TV to pay attention. I was able to send commands to switch between a number of inputs. Just about every function available from the remote control can be duplicated through the RS-232 interface. My Pioneer receiver has serial control, too. I have found a few references to controlling Pioneer components, and that will be the next challenge.

I am starting to see the Infra-Red Light at the End of the Tunnel. My goal is to have a small "not-quite-a-PC" appliance sitting in the entertainment center that can be connected to most of the devices there, that would receive a specific set of commands from my remote for which it responds by changing the TV and receiver's inputs, and be the main interface to the entertainment center's UPS. Until I have that device, I can use the HTPC for the same job, and develop the device using the HTPC. An interesting possibility would be to put the "intelligent" bits into the wireless router (a Linksys WRT54G currently running DD-WRT software) and connect an Ethernet accessed serial controller of some sort to it.


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Heroes Alert!!!
On Monday night, January 22nd, during a commercial break on Deal or No Deal, there will be a sneak preview of a new and previously unknown Hero. I can't wait!
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It All Falls Together

All of the equipment and associated hardware are here. Most everything that can be is set up on or in the TV stand has been. Here’s the list of equipment, starting from the top:

Television: JVC HD61FH96 $3200
DVD Player: Samsung HD850 $150
Amplifier: Pioneer VSX-815-S $250
DVR: Motorola DCT6412 (Comcast Cable service with Microsoft Software) $10/mo.
Front Speakers/Subwoofer: KLH MP06HT $80
Rear Speakers: Pioneer XW-HT1 $90
TV Stand: South Shore Furniture City Life Classic $215
DVD Storage: Atlantic Oskar Multimedia Storage System $90
Primary Remote Control: URC-8811 $25
Backup Remote Control: URC-6131n $14

All I can say is WOW!!! It has certainly been worth the wait. I love the fact that we were able to build such a great home theater for relatively little money. We’ve been waiting FOREVER for the TV stand to arrive and everything just fits together great now. While I know that the up-conversion process done by the Samsung is not the best possible, it still looks damn fine, and I’m not sure I’ve ever sat and watched cable TV (in this case Discovery HD) for this long without even caring what I was watching. I have always tried not to be too overt of a snooty bastard because I know everyone has their own combination of finance/comfort level & A/V knowledge. Unfortunately, what we have here is a great way to start feeling uncomfortable with sub-par material. Each component has the ability to transparently pass hidden nastiness on to the audience. There are very few shows I can stand to watch in standard definition any more, let alone “zoomed in” to fill the screen. Some of the animated shows are alright, but there are others that already look borderline bad. Two of my favorite shows: The Daily Show with John Stewart, and The Colbert Report can be painful to watch. These shows look like crap on our TV, but the humor (and truthiness) keeps me coming back. We had some friends over a few nights back and someone wanted to watch the Mariners game on Fox Sports. I barely remembered where that channel was, and then immediately regretted it. The picture was just not right. On the other hand, I can honestly say you haven’t lived until you have watched sports in HD. The NBA playoffs, The World Cup, and Baseball on INHD are gorgeous and I never tire of them. From what I’ve heard, we are lucky to have a “local” TV station that broadcasts their news in HD. How come they don’t all do it yet?

While I’m complaining, I need to let TNT-HD have it. They usually have something good on, but you can’t always to tell what you will be getting. Sometimes the movie or TV show are in genuine Hi-Def, and it is wonderful indeed. The bad part is what happens when they don’t get to show a movie in it’s widescreen form. They have to do the same trick my TV does to fill the 16:9 screen with a narrow 4:3 image. While I will say that they do a visibly better job than my TV can (not that it is bad by any means) at stretching the image. What I don’t like is that when they do it, I can’t undo the distortion they add when they stretch the picture. Further, their show listings all say they are in HD, when clearly they are not. I don’t know if anyone else has seen this, but there have been numerous occasions when watching Alias where the voices (and probably everything else) are audibly lower in frequency than they should be. This can get rather distracting. I hope they can get all this fixed. :^)

Anyway, I’ve got links and lots of humble advice for anyone needing help finding the right equipment for their own home theater. I stand by all of the components we have, but know there are others that can be a better fit for other folks. My TV decision was a combination of upkeep price ($200 replacement bulbs really is GOOD), ability to match with a really nice (but still CHEAP) TV stand, and my wife’s desire for “the best picture we can get”. I think we did a good job.

It's all here... for now.

Well now it is getting to be rather fun. I've got all the new audio toys hooked up for the time being. It sounds great! The speaker set is more than I could have hoped for, and the wireless speakers do everything I need them to quite well. The receiver has such a depth of flexibility that I don't know where to begin describing it. The best part is that it is still easy to use with a minimum of fuss.

There are 4 functions it needs after setup for maximum enjoyability: Power, Source Selection, Volume Control, and Midnight Mode (for late night movie viewing when the kids are asleep). Our URC-6131 universal remote can handle everything but the Midnight Mode part. It would have to be reprogrammed via JP1 interface for it to work right, but we are gonna try to replace our former "best remote" instead: the URC-8811. Better button spacing, backlighting, more devices, JP1 headers installed, learning... The best hope for the 6131 will be backup. Bye-bye!!


Anyway, the sound system is great. The receiver has been calibrated (through automated means no less!), and sounds great no matter what I feed it. The DVD player and Comcast STB are both connected via S-Video and SP-DIF coax. The reciever sets itself for whatever surround mode is appropriate and all I need to do is set the volume. Me likey!!! When the HDTV come into the picture, I hope to use both HDMI inputs for the same type of components to directly connect to the TV and pass the audio from the TV to the receiver. We'll see where it goes once the DVR picture becomes clearer in the next year.

Home Theater Shopping...

Ever since my wonderful, movie-fanatic, lovely, electronics-friendly, awesome wife told me she thought we should get a nice HDTV and new home theater components, I've been running around like crazy trying to find out how to get the most bang for my buck. What the heck is happening here?

We are pretty much replacing everything. About the only thing that might be reused is my old 8" powered sub which resides in the back of our current A/V nook under the stairs. I don't remember the brand. I got it for $40 from Onsale.com about 7 years ago, to complement my soon to be replaced equipment. It has all aged well, with the possible exception of our DVD player that we had to get when my wife-to-be tried to give me some line about how she thought it would be easier to watch DVDs by using a DVD player rather than my highly customized, but not easy to use computer. We got a JVC DVD player, and it has had little hiccups every once in a while, but not bad until we got our latest DVD, Madagascar. That moved up the replacement date for the DVD player as well.

So as of now, we are watching the new DVD player (Samsung DVD-HD850), and we have ordered the receiver (Pioneer VSX-815S), a set of speakers home theater speakers (KLH MP06HT), and a wireless rear speaker contraption (Pioneer XW-HT1) so we don't have to run wires too far, because I am rather lazy like that.

All we have to worry about in a few months will be the TV and stand. I'm looking at any 1080p RPTV and an appropriately nice stand to hold four components. Within a year, I hope to be rid of the "Evil Comcast STB" and back in the welcoming arms of a cable card ready TIVO, or some other PC-based HD PVR.