tastewar pointed out this video, about DVD reissues of TV series that squeeze more than two hours of video onto single-layer discs.
The first disc in the 5-disc Kolchak: The Night Stalker DVD set I bought is about 7.5 GB. So, it’s a double-layer disc, and I’m assuming all of them are. The video quality really is quite good, considering the source material.
There is one tiny technical quirk that can show up, especially when credits are overlayed on the screen. You’ll never see it, unless your player supports 24 frames per second on DVDs. If it does, you can almost certainly disable it.
My oil burning furnace in 2006, when it was less than ten years old
Here it is again, the heating season. Keeping the house warm from October-April costs up to $5000/year, when including year-round hot water and the service contract. Now that the furnace is almost thirty years old, I am worrying not only about the replacement cost, but whether or not to get another oil burner.
There is no gas service on the street. The all-season porch has eight feet of electric baseboard heat along one wall. That thing by itself can kick up the wintertime electric bill by almost $200/month. I can imagine how much it would cost heating the entire house electrically.
I’m not convinced that heat pumps will do the job in winter, without supplemental electric heating elements. The house has forced hot water heat, so there is no ductwork. Which means each room would need an unsightly, wall-mounted fixture.
Ye Olde Commonwealth of Massachusetts is determined to see old oil-fired furnaces replaced with heat pumps. But when the air temperature is freezing or below, where will the heat come from for the transfer? Going underground is an option.
My utility is Eversource. Not very far from here, in Framingham, Eversource has a geothermal pilot program.
Since canceling Fios TV and the Verizon DVR I had downstairs, I cling tenaciously to broadcast TV and the TiVo DVR on the porch. Anyone who has used a $30 Roku or Fire TV stick on a good broadband Internet service knows why cable television is doomed. The end of free broadcast TV may come sooner than that.
The first wave of cord-cutters thought of antenna TV as complementing Internet streaming. ATSC 3.0, aka NextGen TV, was supposed to ensure local network affiliates and independent stations would carry on as the primary outlets for news and sports programming.
An important technical feature of ATSC 3.0 is improved signal quality, thanks to OFDM modulation. 8VSB modulation in ATSC 1.0 is susceptible to reception interference, especially on the UHF band, which is favored over VHF frequencies for digital broadcasting.
NextGen TV offers more than improved signal quality. Broadcasters see it as a way to be exactly like streaming stations, except carried over the medium of the free public airwaves. Channels can be encrypted and, therefore, no longer be free.
The transition from ATSC 1.0 to 3.0 has been bungled by the FCC to such an extent, I won’t be surprised if some stations resort to turning off their transmitters to become broadband streaming services. That would open up over-the-air frequencies for the cellular networks to exploit. Lon offers more details about this than you probably want to know.
When will ATSC 1.0 broadcasting end? It’s a question that takes me to the actual point of this post. TiVo is out of the DVR hardware business.
I’d been hoping TiVo was waiting for the ATSC 3.0 confusion to be cleared up before announcing a new OTA DVR. Now I’m wondering if my TiVo OTA Roamio will stop getting programming guide updates before the hardware dies, or before the end of ATSC 1.0.
My aging Squeezebox Touch audio streamer in the living room fell off the network. Unlike my experiences with past troubles, it refused to recover, so I gave up and bought a WiiM Pro Plus.
Then, of course, when I checked the Touch again, it jumped right back on the network. A hardware problem, undoubtedly.
The long, agonized death slide of my cherished, now perished, Logitech Squeezebox Touch is over. After numerous successful efforts to keep it working online, after almost fifteen years it finally decided to fall off the network once and for all. For those who have working units, the Touch continues to be as good as anything available today, excepting for its selection of applications compared to newer products.
I was prepared for the Touch’s demise, having pre-selected a replacement that’s compatible with Lyrion. It’s the WiiM Pro (pronounced “whim”). Amazon caught me with a $22 off deal on the Plus version, and guaranteed next day delivery, on Sunday. So, less than 24 hours after laying the Touch to rest, streaming music had returned to the living room.
Here’s Amir with a technical review (of a unit he received for free):
The WiiM also replaces a couple other gadgets; a Google Chromecast Audio “puck” and a Topping DAC. They didn’t need replacing, but I like the simplicity of the new setup.
Unlike the very classy and solidly built Touch, the WiiM case is a cheap, plain, black plastic box. So, I’m keeping it out of sight in the cabinet. That reduces WiFi reception a bit, but the signal is still “very good,” so not enough to be a problem.
Here’s Darko with a more subjective review (of a unit I assume was provided gratis), including a comparison with the Touch:
Due to a combination of laziness and concern that I could do something to break them beyond repair, I haven’t gotten around to working on my non-functional LaserDisc players.
With that in mind, I’ve been waiting for this guy to tackle a broken LaserDisc player. Which he has now successfully done.
My Pioneer players are dedicated, single-side LD units, models LD-838D and LD-V8000. So, with any luck, they’ll be easier to figure out than that model.
