Travis Pettijohn: Blog

About two weeks ago, I gutted my Media Center box and rebuilt it so that I could take advantage of optical HD media now that the format war is over.

New components:

• Motherboard: EVGA NF77 with nForce 630i and a GeForce 7150 GPU built-in. Onboard HDMI with HDCP* plus optical and coax digital out/in (respectively). Supports RAID 0/1/0+1/5.
• CPU: Intel Q6600 (Quad Core 2.4GHz).
• RAM: 4GB DDR2, 800.
• PSU: Rosewill 400W. (I needed a 24-pin and 8-pin power connectors for this new motherboard. I was sad to introduce a fan, but the one big 12cm fan is silent for all intents and purposes. Plus, the way the heat sink lies right up against it means better CPU cooling, too. I am very happy, though I didn't think I'd be.)
• Optical Media: LG Blu-ray/HD DVD ROM plus DVD/CD/RW, SATA.

Reused components:

• Hard drives: 2x160GB hard drives in RAID-0/Stripe for 320GB storage.
• Heat sink: Silverstone NT01V2. I still love this thing, and was ecstatic that it was still compatible!
• Case: Silverstone LC10 in Silver. I still love the VFD in front showing me media information. It makes it look like a real theater component, not just a hokey home-built computer.

Overall: very happy, A+ system. The motherboard/CPU combo is my best yet, and it takes about 33% CPU to play a Blu-ray title (with all four cores humming). All of the Media Center functionality moves better, too (like pulling up the guide and filtering by category, which used to strain the system, is instantaneous now). I subscribed to Netflix to, as a friend said, "have some pretties on my TV." Between Netflix and the HDHomeRun, I (finally!) have more HD content than I can consume, even with just local channels over Clear-QAM. 

HDCP

*I have to point out the importance of HDCP (if you're considering Blu-ray on Vista, take note): without it, Vista downgrades the video quality over digital outputs (like DVI or HDMI) to 480i/p. The intent is so that you can't rip a pure digital, HD, unencrypted stream of video from the wire and pirate movies. HDCP keeps the content encrypted from the source (disk/network) through the Vista video stack, out the video card and over the wire, where it's finally decrypted by the TV just in time to be displayed. This is called Protected Media Path. Further reading. If you want to play Blu-ray (or future HD formats from Hollywood), make sure your video card and display/TV support HDCP. (HD titles you download in XviD/MKV/etc aren't affected by this since they're not encrypted.)

Last night I installed a new HDHomeRun. It's a unique device, a network-attached ATSC and QAM HDTV tuner. Setup was a little kludgey (some steps about making sure that the call letters that it detects match up with Zap2It's listings, and you have to ignore a warning from Vista that you're using digital cable listings when you "don't" have digital cable), but wasn't too bad. After that, it was smooth sailing. And now—AT LAST—I have HD content in my Vista Media Center again. I'm SO HAPPY!!

This scene in The Simpson's made me laugh so damn hard. Episode setup: After Bart convinces all his friends not to go to Nelsons birthday party, Marge forces him to attend. After the party, Bart becomes Nelsons new best friend and under Nelsons protection no one dares to mess with Bart. Theres only drawback to his newfound friend/bodyguard he can no longer pal around with Milhouse.

Homer is driving Bart to the party. "Dad, don't make me go! I'll give you a backrub!"
"Ohhhh, your elbow's like an angel's kiss. But you still have to go!"
"Why?"
"Son," [laughing], "we all have to do things we don't want to! Like, have jobs and families and responsibilities and" [turning angry], "having to be Mr. Funny all the time! You think I wouldn't rather be living nude in the forest, like some ancient Pagan, just dancing around playing the pan flute!" [tone returns normal] "And here we are."

Can anyone recommend some good video editing software so that I can cut that clip out?

This is how she ended an email she sent last night:

How do you feel about the Blu thing?
Love,
Mom

She has some little tidbit of tech news and decides to bounce it off me. So cute.

I looked up an address on Google Maps and noticed that the bridge over the River at Wabash was under construction, so I wikipedia'd the bridge's name, Irv Kupcinet Bridge. The first result: Perfect Strangers (TV series). In that article, I learned that the opening shot is of them going under the bridge in question. I also learned that Family Matters was actually a spinoff from Perfect Strangers: the mom, Harriette Winslow, worked in the elevator. Wow. Who knew?

Now if only I could find out about that bridge being under construction. :)

Engadget has a scoop on the DirecTV tuner for Media Center. The best news is that it doesn't appear to have the OEM certification restrictions like CableCard.

I was looking at my cable bill today, which included a price list for all of their services. I noticed a section about HDTV and it said that HD broadcast channels were available with the bare minimum package that I had. I had been living with just basic cable (25 channels) since I cannot get over-the-air reception where I live (too dense with buildings).

So I plugged the cable into my HD tuner card in my PC, ran a channel scan on the OEM software that came with my FusionHDTV 5 tuner card, and lo and behold, I had HDTV. All the locals, coming in with perfect clarity at 720p. Unreal. How long have I been missing that?

Unfortunately, back in Vista Media Center, I cannot tune these unencrypted QAM channels, despite the fact that the card can actually tune them. Apparently another tuner does it (search his blog for QAM for more info), but it's an unreliable hack. If another card does it reliably, it is quite likely that I'll upgrade.

I went to a taping of Conan today. I know it sounds cliche, but the studio is REALLY small. Anyway, before the show, one of Conan's writers came out to warm up the crowd; after that, Conan came out to warm us up. I was in the second row, on the aisle, so a prime spot for Conan Interaction. He came out and shook hands with 6 or 8 people in the first 2 rows, and I thought to myself, Sweet, I got to shake Conan's hand! He singled another guy out, made some joke about how tall he was, and then asked the crowd if we thought the two of them should hug. After the applause, they hugged. Then Conan pointed at me and said that the tall guy and I should hug. I popped up out of my seat, excited to be picked out, and I hugged the guy, then awkwaydly half-sat down because I didn't know what to do. Then Conan joked that the other guy was lingering for more...and I sure was eager to hug him. I tried to say something to Conan about how if I hugged him, and he hugged Conan, it was like I was hugging Conan. Then Conan said that the three of us should hug...and then we did. I hugged Conan! Awesome :-)

If you're not watching 30 Rock on NBC, you're missing out. It's smart, good comedy. Alec Baldwin is a brilliant straight man. Tracy Morgan is just plain hilarious. Tracy trying to say, "The mentee has become the mentor" came out as, "the manatee has become the mento!" Hilarious stuff, folks.

I guess it's a celebrity week for me. I was at Elephant & Castle last night. After a few rounds, I tried talking to this random girl. She told me she worked at Fox News and then I realized that the guy she was sitting next to was Mark Suppelsa. So I got a picture. She didn't like being included in the shot, so she quickly exited the frame. Too bad.

I was in choir in high school with Leslie Hunt, who's a finalist on this season's American Idol. It's a show I don't normally watch, but this season, I think I'll have to. This is about the closest I've ever been to knowing a celebrity. That makes me famous, too, right? :)

Check out this video clip from Scarborough Country. Good times. The study claims that the host of the fake news show is a danger to American democracy because he makes voters more cynical and thus less likely to vote.

My new favorite RSS feed.

At the risk of turning this blog into an Arrested Development fan page, I have to comment on a subtlety from Friday's finale (which Fox billed as a season finale, despite it being a series finale): Gob's puppet Franklin was wearing a shirt that read, "George Bush doesn't care about Black Puppets." Man, that cracked me up! Farewell, Bluths.

Arrested Development sure is a great show. Too bad it's cancelled. I must have hit the rewind button ten times during tonight's episode. So many absurd moments. Bob Loblaw Law Blog. Hehe.

Volume three of the Family Guy DVDs was released today; I just picked it up. The episodes are amazingly recent. The most recent episode was originally aired on 9/25/2005, just three months ago. Nice!!

My Philips 37PF7320A/37 display has a USB port. I figured you could use it to browse pictures or whatever--it didn't matter to me because I have a PC plugged into it. I finally took some time to tweak the picture (MCE includes some videos to help you find good adjustments) and read the manual. It turns out you can upgrade the Flash ROM of the TV. Sweet. Download it to a thumb drive and plug it in. I was two realeases out of date. Nice.

If you watch Arrested Development, no doubt you're aware that the number of episodes this season was cut from 22 to 18, a sign that the show may not be renewed for next year. Enter SaveOurBluths.com, a website devoted to keeping the show on the air.

Via simplegeek.com.

Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy (the funniest TV show ever), is bringing a new cartoon to Fox: American Dad. I can't wait!