Something Random
- Thread starter ddrueding
- Start date
Stereodude
Not really a
Well, I seem to be the only one complaining about it online, so I must be really picky or something.
Stereodude
Not really a
I have it plugged directly into the back of my "4K" capable Denon receiver.
Stereodude
Not really a
I have not. FWIW the people on the Kodi forum say the FireTV Stick 4K has better picture quality than the Shield. The low price ($25 during Prime Day) and feature set had me starting there since I got it mainly for Prime Video playback (this is my first foray into streaming).
However, it looks like if I turn up the Cinemotion setting to Medium on my Sony TV and leave the FireTV Stick 4K to output 2160p60 it works fine. The TV removes the 3:2 cadence judder recovering p24 content from the p60 stream and it ends up looking the same as if the FireTV Stick 4K outputs 2160p24 (less the dropped/repeated frames). My Sony UBP-X700 also plays back Prime Video content fine at 2160p24 via the internal app, but it lacks Dolby Vision and Atmos support with Prime Video (it has both for UHD-BD). My Sony Z9D TV reportedly works fine for UHD w/ Dolby Vision on Prime Video with the internal app (I didn't personally try it), but it also lacks Atmos support.
Currently Prime Video only has 2 shows with Atmos and 3 with Dolby Vision, but the number is likely to go up. Most of the content is just HDR10 w/ DD+. So I have playback options for the vast majority of the content. For a very small subset of their content I have only one, but it seems I have an acceptable solution now.
Last edited:
I haven't followed any of the Kodi forum discussions and haven't tried a FireTV stick 4K to compare the video quality. Was their finding that the video quality is better in every app or just specific ones? Sounds like even with it's better picture quality it skips/stutters/dropped frames so it doesn't sound like better better picture quality to me. How is the FireTV for audio passthrough to a receiver/pre-pro? The Nvidia Shield passes through everything to my receiver so far...however I haven't tried Atoms/DTS:X so I can't compare that capability yet. That was one of my motivations to consider the Shield when viewing my mkv containerized movies with their original sound tracks. I wanted it to pass everything through. My Roku does not do that well.
Did you mean the Sony UBP-X700 or is their a D variant of that player? How is it for UHD disc viewing?
Did you mean the Sony UBP-X700 or is their a D variant of that player? How is it for UHD disc viewing?
Stereodude
Not really a
The FireTV Stick 4K wouldn't be my choice for Kodi usage. I only got it for Prime Video. I'm not running Kodi on it nor do I have any plan to. I might try it just to see if Kodi has the same frame drop/repeat issue though. It can't do passthrough for any of the lossless video codecs. You can decode them to LPCM, but that kills of object based audio. Apparently I'm one of the only people to either have the dropped/repeated frame issue or one of the only to notice it with the FireTV Stick 4K. I posted on a few forums (got no confirmation of the issue) and did searching and found no one talking about it.
I just use my Windows 8.1 HTPC with MPC-HC +madVR for most file playback and I don't use Kodi on it. It can play back pretty much any file and HDR10 playback works fine. It has no HDR10+ support (my TV doesn't support it anyhow) and no Dolby Vision support though. HDR10 UHDp60 playback is a little weird as well since HDMI 2.0 only has enough bandwidth for 8-bit RGB at 60Hz. It works, but something is being lost along the way (how visible that is another matter). Of course pretty much the only HDR UHDp60 content are demo clips / stuff on YouTube aside from Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk. Frankly, I use the discs for BD and UHD-BD. I don't have my libary ripped into any format sitting on a server. My video file playback is nearly all stuff HDTV I've recorded OTA from the antenna in the attic.
I only use Kodi for music playback. Currently on a hacked HP Chromebox running LibreELEC (Kodi). I'd like to move to a fanless unit. I've tried several SBC's (RPi 3 & Odroid C2) but always end up unhappy with the performance compared to the Chromebox. I bought a RPi4 to play with out of curiosity, but I don't really expect better results (I don't have the right HDMI cable or power adapter for it yet). The fanless ECS Liva Z2 is finally available for sale in the US 1.5 years after it was first introduced. That's my next serious replacement candidate for the Chromebox. Given that it's x86 based and it looks like the Gemini Lake CPU has similar performance to what's in the Chromebox I expect I will finally have success with it when I pull the trigger.
Yes, typo. It works fine. It has Dolby Vision support for UHD discs. It's a little clunky in that you have to turn on Dolby Vision output manually in the menu. Then it stays on all the time whether what you're playing has DV or not (so the TV stays in DV mode). So basically you have to manually control it on a per disc basis. You can play back non DV HDR UHD discs in that mode without hurting anything, but SDR content gets messed up. Its file support is wonky. The biggest one of note is that it doesn't support TrueHD in MKV. It has some others that I don't remember off hand. I didn't buy it for file playback, so it's of no real concern to me. It does play downloaded UHD demo clips very nicely (as long as they meet the limitations of the player) from a USB stick, even UHDp60 ones.
Currently there is no box or solution that will do everything (ignoring streaming). Nothing will play back Dolby Vision UHD-BD rips in mkv or mp4 with lossless audio. The hacked firmware Oppos (discontinued) or M9702 clone are the closest. They will play back UHD-BD DV rips in folders (with menus) and BD rips in folders (with menus). They play back pretty much everything else in .mkv or mp4. However, I currently can't bring myself to spend $400 on a M9702. They're not really designed to be network players, more local storage. SMB support is problematic, my understanding is that they only support SMB 1.0 which MS has turned off in the OS for security reasons. NFS reportedly works better, but I don't have an appliance NAS with NFS and my prior attempt to make a NFS server work on my Windows 10 Pro "server" in the basement failed miserably.
sedrosken
Florida Man
That last bit reminds me, maybe I should look into NFS. My stuff can all make use of SMB shares but performance over the wireless on my laptop is utterly abysmal at roughly 600KB/s r/w. Only slightly faster than what I've got coming down my pipe to the rest of the world these days. My PPro machine literally has double the I/O performance -- granted, it's wired, but that's still pathetic.
And yes, SMB 1.0 is turned off by default, but you can re-enable it. I did so for the PPro machine so it could access my software archive easily without needing to sneakernet it over. Yes, it's a security risk, but so is having it connected to the network at all, and I mostly trust anything connected to the home LAN.
And yes, SMB 1.0 is turned off by default, but you can re-enable it. I did so for the PPro machine so it could access my software archive easily without needing to sneakernet it over. Yes, it's a security risk, but so is having it connected to the network at all, and I mostly trust anything connected to the home LAN.
Last edited:
sedrosken
Florida Man
I found an Intel 7260AC card on Ebay that has a Lenovo FRU number that's confirmed working with the whitelist on the X140e, so hopefully that gets here sooner rather than later. It turns out that I can blame my mediocre-to-awful network performance on the Broadcom BCM43228 that's currently in there. Not only is it a pain because it needs 3rd-party firmware on most Linux distros, but it's also really flaky and slow to boot. Even under Windows. Go figure. That'll be fixed soon enough.
sedrosken
Florida Man
Card arrived yesterday and it utterly destroys the old Broadcom card on all fronts. 9.2MB/s throughput over SMB compared with the machine's previous 600K/s max, it's rock steady instead of the Broadcom's wildly inconsistent performance and stability, and it barely sips power by comparison. I got roughly an extra hour's worth of battery life just from swapping the WLAN cards. I still don't think it's completely saturating the 100mbps link between my main and the router, but it's still a massive improvement and by my estimate more than a good enough result for the $25 I spent on the upgrade. I was concerned initially when it didn't work at all -- I thought perhaps the report that its FRU number does get past the whitelist was wrong, intentionally or not -- but apparently Debian even needs non-free firmwares for cards covered by iwlwifi. I wasn't expecting that. Still, just a quick and relatively painless matter of connecting to ethernet to fetch firmware-iwlwifi and then rebuilding my initramfs and rebooting. I technically could have just unloaded and reloaded the module but I wanted to be certain it'd be alright after a reboot as well.
Stereodude
Not really a
Why do you take those calls?Why do some people wait until the car battery is dead before buying a new one and then they call you?
Stereodude
Not really a
They run the hospital or have power of attorney over you?
sedrosken
Florida Man
Well, RE: SCSI, I played with a AHA-2940U2 OEM that I flashed to a 2940U2W with the unofficial 3.10 BIOS, and it was a pain and a half trying to get it working with a 146.8GB SCA drive. I ended up ditching the idea entirely, after having sunk a not-insignificant amount of money into it. That was... infuriating.
But then, I managed to get NT4 to install onto the SD card... see, the phase of setup that hung was the initial first boot and the conversion of the initial FAT16 partition to NTFS before continuing with setup. NTFS always was rather janky on NT4 now that I think about it. I got around it by using a single FAT16 partition for booting both DOS 7.1 and NT4, and then installing the FastFat32 driver to see the rest of the drive as a big FAT32 partition for both DOS and NT use. But then... I had trouble with my ISA SCSI adapter not liking being enabled at the same time as my video driver. That sucked to deal with. I eventually ironed it out by moving it to IRQ11 which apparently was somehow free. Whatever works I guess. And it does give a tangible benefit -- I can just about hit the 30fps mark in Quake III Arena now if I optimize my settings just right. And for a machine that technically probably isn't supposed to be able to run it at all, I'll take that. I had tried 2000 as well, and was impressed at how well it ran in general, but taking a 33% hit to my framerates (the NT5.x drivers for the Banshee are... lacking to understate dramatically) wasn't my bag so I ended up going back.
On one hand I'm surprised at what I'm able to coax to run -- my janky DX5/6 "hack" works surprisingly well and I have Worms Armageddon and even Age of Empires II working. That's a game that hung before the menu on 98, even. On the other... some stuff didn't like to run that I wasn't expecting. Asheron's Call's Dark Majesty-era client, that I use with the server emulator UAS2, wouldn't even launch. I forgot it needed DX6.1, and my version seems to only pose as 6.0. It's a shame really. There was no real reason MS couldn't have ported DX5 and newer to NT4, the fact that the NT5 beta's DX5 works on it is proof enough of that. My guess was that at the time MS really wanted to push 9x for gaming and NT for serious workloads, even though functionally NT was the superior product.
Marae Lassel reminded me just how slow a pre-Pentium system could be. 95 is kind of a dog on it, but once it loads up it's fine. I have an Intel PCMCIA NIC for it coming in the mail, the 3C-589 it had already doesn't have the appropriate dongle and apparently 3Com used loads of different designs for them in that era so there's no one dongle I can buy that'll work. This Intel card was NIB and was still cheaper than any of the listings I saw for the dongle for the 3Com card, so no regrets I guess. PC speaker sound is charming but I do plan on finding a OPL3LPT and CVX4 for it eventually as well.
Glenden Wood, on the other hand, surprised me with just how snappy it could be. XP on a PIII-S wasn't something I was expecting to like, especially given the 815EP chipset's 512MB RAM limit, but once I let the post-installation tasks settle down it's actually completely usable, even with the latest updates. I'm very impressed. At the desktop I have around 400MB RAM free. I don't remember SP3 being this light.
But then, I managed to get NT4 to install onto the SD card... see, the phase of setup that hung was the initial first boot and the conversion of the initial FAT16 partition to NTFS before continuing with setup. NTFS always was rather janky on NT4 now that I think about it. I got around it by using a single FAT16 partition for booting both DOS 7.1 and NT4, and then installing the FastFat32 driver to see the rest of the drive as a big FAT32 partition for both DOS and NT use. But then... I had trouble with my ISA SCSI adapter not liking being enabled at the same time as my video driver. That sucked to deal with. I eventually ironed it out by moving it to IRQ11 which apparently was somehow free. Whatever works I guess. And it does give a tangible benefit -- I can just about hit the 30fps mark in Quake III Arena now if I optimize my settings just right. And for a machine that technically probably isn't supposed to be able to run it at all, I'll take that. I had tried 2000 as well, and was impressed at how well it ran in general, but taking a 33% hit to my framerates (the NT5.x drivers for the Banshee are... lacking to understate dramatically) wasn't my bag so I ended up going back.
On one hand I'm surprised at what I'm able to coax to run -- my janky DX5/6 "hack" works surprisingly well and I have Worms Armageddon and even Age of Empires II working. That's a game that hung before the menu on 98, even. On the other... some stuff didn't like to run that I wasn't expecting. Asheron's Call's Dark Majesty-era client, that I use with the server emulator UAS2, wouldn't even launch. I forgot it needed DX6.1, and my version seems to only pose as 6.0. It's a shame really. There was no real reason MS couldn't have ported DX5 and newer to NT4, the fact that the NT5 beta's DX5 works on it is proof enough of that. My guess was that at the time MS really wanted to push 9x for gaming and NT for serious workloads, even though functionally NT was the superior product.
Marae Lassel reminded me just how slow a pre-Pentium system could be. 95 is kind of a dog on it, but once it loads up it's fine. I have an Intel PCMCIA NIC for it coming in the mail, the 3C-589 it had already doesn't have the appropriate dongle and apparently 3Com used loads of different designs for them in that era so there's no one dongle I can buy that'll work. This Intel card was NIB and was still cheaper than any of the listings I saw for the dongle for the 3Com card, so no regrets I guess. PC speaker sound is charming but I do plan on finding a OPL3LPT and CVX4 for it eventually as well.
Glenden Wood, on the other hand, surprised me with just how snappy it could be. XP on a PIII-S wasn't something I was expecting to like, especially given the 815EP chipset's 512MB RAM limit, but once I let the post-installation tasks settle down it's actually completely usable, even with the latest updates. I'm very impressed. At the desktop I have around 400MB RAM free. I don't remember SP3 being this light.
Stereodude
Not really a
Thanks for reminding me why I don't miss the challenges of computing from 20 years ago.
I've been making some progress on my home theater project. I ended up framing in a large swinging door that holds the projector screen. There is a wheel on the bottom right that allows it to open fairly easily. The screen in my pictures is just a $3 drop cloth wrapped around the real frame. I haven't yet put up the real screen yet. I'm waiting until all the painting is finished. I fished all the wire in the ceiling to the eight speakers in both the ceiling and walls. I also installed a receptacle in the ceiling for the projector along with pulling a fiber HDMI cable. Still plenty more to do for mounting speakers and doing wall acoustic treatments but it's coming along.
Stereodude
Not really a
Looks like you're making good progress. Are you going to paint the ceiling a darker color?
Stereodude
Not really a
Black velvet is even better than black paint.
I was looking into something like that or the black foam acoustic type panels if they were thin enough. Black velvet would probably look cleaner.
Have you found any specific brand or type of acoustic panels for the walls/corners you prefer for acoustically treating a room?
Have you found any specific brand or type of acoustic panels for the walls/corners you prefer for acoustically treating a room?
Stereodude
Not really a
I bought the panels I put up in my great room from Acoustimac
Canvas probably is a better surface for painting on.Or you can paint on black velvet.
Stereodude
Not really a
So I have video from two of my security cameras showing the package Amazon delivered to my house yesterday blowing away in the wind. The wind lifted it, carried it off the porch, then down and across the driveway, and then down the sidewalk toward other houses. The white padded envelope sure moves like it's empty and couldn't have the 8oz thing I bought from Amazon in it.
When I went looking for it this morning I couldn't find it.
When I went looking for it this morning I couldn't find it.
Stereodude
Not really a
I sort of cut the cord today. I'm now internet only from the local cable monopoly.
Makes sense these days. Now there are so many streaming services to pay monthly for and they are all making islands of their content to hook you in. I took the 2-year package deal and haven't yet watched anything from the TV service nor have I connected a landline phone. I'm lucky my town has a choice which makes it nice. That was one of the reasons I wanted to live here.
Stereodude
Not really a
I didn't watch a single thing on cable in several months. I decided it was time to stop paying for it. The few shows I was watching I can buy on Blu-ray as seasons for way less than what I was paying for cable TV. I'll save ~$85-90 a month. The only streaming service I have at the moment is Amazon Prime. I currently don't plan to get any others.
I was on a legacy plan getting 80Mbit/sec for $50. Now I have 200Mbit/sec for $65.99 a month. That's the slowest package they offer and I couldn't keep what I had.
Part of the package I got through Verizon included 12 months of Netflix credit at their highest tier. When I applied it for the regular tier I subscribe to, I think it almost gave me 1.5 years of their service which was nice. The only other one I have is also Amazon prime which I don't use much. I recently watched The Boys and found it to be a worthy series. I don't watch a ton outside of those except for Star Trek Discovery which needs CBS all-access which I won't pay for.
I replaced the cable and phone with the internet Fibres. The speed is faster and I don't have all the cable problems with interference when running the secure shredders. My smaller shredder has a better cut pattern, but really makes the video blocky. The Fibre system is not affected by electric noise. There are some differences in the sports content and packages between Fibre and cable, but that probably varies regionally.
From what I understand the Netflix and Amazon are not much overlapping and some users have both. I looked at the Amazon content and it was not of much interest. Is Netflix much better? What else is there anyway?
From what I understand the Netflix and Amazon are not much overlapping and some users have both. I looked at the Amazon content and it was not of much interest. Is Netflix much better? What else is there anyway?
Stereodude
Not really a
I started watching Bosch. I'm looking forward to The Expanse and Mr. Robot. Both of those I had been watching on cable. The former is now an Amazon exclusive. The latter is still on USA, but also Amazon. I enjoyed Jack Ryan as well.
You watch TV while you're shredding?
Being as tech savvy as you are I'm kind of surprised you just now "cut-the-cord."
May "triple-play" from Cox was $287/month for cable-TV (2 HD boxes, 1 w/DVR) + Landline phone + 150/10 mb/s internet. Dumped cable and phone, bill now $98/month. I should have dumped cable way earlier. Save about $120/month net, after added cost of Netflix, Hulu (no ads) and YTTV. Actually will be $150 month savings once I drop YTTV and get cheaper replacement.
My internet is nearly 50% pricier than yours and a bit slower. So your $66/month isn't too bad really. My bandwidth cap is 1024 GB/month. $10 for 50 GB overage "fee." Usage 450-900 GB/month with avg around 650 GB/month. One heavy TV user, one very light TV user, one internet user.
What is your bandwidth cap? Overage fees? You should be fine unless you have some ridiculously low 250 GB/month cap.
Streaming services. If you want local channels, ABC/CBS/NBC/local channels, etc you have "Hulu Live-TV" or YouTube TV. Hulu has a crap interface, YTTV has good "live-tv," but crap VOD service. I'm dumping YTTV soon as their VOD is crap. I just don't watch the locals enough to make it worth my $50/month. I looking at Sling (blue) or Philo to replace YTTV, which will save me another $30/month.
sedrosken
Florida Man
When I eventually move out my plan is to not really bother with communications beyond an internet connection and a cheap cell phone plan. Said internet connection will likely be the fastest thing in the area, which is where I expect the expense to come... After some 6 years of living with 3mbps (actually now 5mbps) download speeds I'm just so done with the idea of anything less than the absolute best I can get my grubby hands on.
Stereodude
Not really a
My coworker thinks my internet is overpriced. His local cable company is quite a bit cheaper for equivalent service. Of course he has two local cable companies to choose from. I only have the one that negotiated a monopoly with the "city" I live in.
There is no BW cap, so no overage fees either.
I have an antenna for the locals. The picture quality is better that way too. Another coworker has some sketchy IPTV service. It's like $10 a month and he gets like 1000+ channels.