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Cobolers, you only drink tea
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I was thinking that before that FORTRAN through your mind.
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I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave
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Dalek Dave wrote: I'd prefer something with a little ALGOL in it.
Does that help remove the Lisp?
_________________________
John Andrew Holmes "It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others."
Shhhhh.... I am not really here. I am a figment of your imagination.... I am still in my cave so this must be an illusion....
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I am also about to -leave my lab, -view the next soccer game.
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As much as I'm sure you're suffering, in this part of the world it's just passed 10 in the morning and it's already 30C outside, with 65% humidity naturally. The A/C on this side of the building gets a bit iffy above 32, a sweaty afternoon awaits.
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Steven J Jowett wrote: ... I think I may need to do some maintenance work in the server room
pick your office here... it's either 92 or 62, or 78 depending on luck of the draw. 
_________________________
John Andrew Holmes "It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others."
Shhhhh.... I am not really here. I am a figment of your imagination.... I am still in my cave so this must be an illusion....
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Thanks very much to everyone who offered insights into ripping DVDs, players, etc. For any of you who are thinking about this adventure in the near future, here’s how my little story played out. It had a happy ending thanks in large part to all the advice I got here, so perhaps yours will as well.
This is a long read, so if you’re not interested in this sort of thing it’ll simply rob your life of otherwise productive minutes. 
After the latest exploding bulb incident, I decided to replace my 73” projector TV with a 65” plasma, a Panasonic Viera P65V10. While I haven’t yet figured out the ultimate fate of the now retired (and $300 bulb-less) projector and screen, I’m quite happy with the TV. All the connections you’d expect including Internet (more on that in a moment), good picture, and passed the toaster test.
I recently dropped my $125 a month Dish satellite TV service in favor of a $20 a month, 2 DVDs out at a time Netflix plan, largely motivated by their streaming service and the fact that I wasn’t using 230 of the 250 channels I was paying for. Netflix streaming quality isn’t HD, but it’s close enough for rock & roll as it’s just something to keep me entertained when I eat dinner.
Current configuration is an XP based PC with a moderately decent video card going VGA into the TV. For reasons I didn’t feel like debugging, HDMI didn’t look as good as VGA (some ghosting, etc.) on a smaller flat screen I tested with, so I just went with the VGA. Netflix runs full screen on the 65”, and even with their streaming quality it’s better than the quality I was getting with projector / Dish setup, so I’m happy enough.
The suggestions for AnyDVD as a tool to help in ripping were well founded. Used the trial version a bit and will be buying a copy from them. Followed JSOP’s strategy of just using their rip to iso image in the task bar as I prefer quality to disk space. A quick & easy solution.
Next up, I went with the recommendations of VLC for the media player and am very happy with it. It’s much more robust than Windows Media Player. The ease of cycling through aspect ratio & cropping modes makes it quick & easy to get the best screen, hotkeys are configurable and in general it’s very full featured.
The one thing I was missing in the move to a computer based video system was the ease of a remote control. I originally tried a wireless keyboard and mouse. I found it irritating to have to reach over to a table and mouse around, do qwerty typing, etc. just to watch TV and had the same reservations about DVDs. Consequently, I searched around to find a new keyboard with an integrated touch pad that might be easier to use in this context. Found this Addesso, and it rocks:
Addesso Wireless Slim Touch Keyboard[^]
Tiger Direct is now showing it out of stock, but of course they’re not the only option. It’s 8 ½ x 11 (roughly iPad sized), extremely thin, and light. Between the undocumented keyboard shortcuts on Netflix and the ability to map navigation keys in VLC to convenient, easy to find in the dark locations on the keyboard, it serves very nicely as a remote replacement. And has the advantage of a full qwerty keyboard – no more typing alphanumeric with a remote’s number pad.
I had been considering buying a dedicated media player box for streaming the DVDs just so I’d have a remote. The reviews aren’t great on any of them, and now with the VLC / Adesso combination, it’s a few hundred bucks I don’t need to spend. In a similar manner, there are boxes like Roku, etc. to do the same for Netflix, also no longer needed.
As for the Viera TV, they have a “Veira Cast” system that uses the Internet connection to provide video. Mostly the screen is filled with blank boxes or “coming soon” as I suspect this is brand new for them. YouTube, some weather & a few other things are currently supported, I suspect it’ll grow over the next year. It wasn’t a factor in my purchase, as I don’t trust companies to have Internet based content available in any long term scenario as they may scrap the system for something new, etc. Along those lines, however, I’ll be keeping an eye on Google TV to see what they come up with, but that’s just geek curiosity more than anything else.
So, with this new environment I now have Internet video, local DVDs & any other local video all available on the network so that it’s viewable on any computer / laptop, the 73” screen in the recording studio, or the plasma in the media room. The cost will be the hundred bucks or so US that I’ll pay for the AnyDVD software and the $89 I spent on the keyboard.
I’m sure I can find things that are pesky about a computer based setup such as this, but overall I find it an excellent and inexpensive solution (not counting the TV, of course, but I assume you already have one of those).
Thanks again to everyone who shared their experiences & war stories on this stuff. It saved me a helluva lot of trail & error, probably some expense, and certainly a bucket or two of profanities. Hope your experience will be equally painless.
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Christopher Duncan wrote: I had been considering buying a dedicated media player box for streaming the DVDs just so I’d have a remote. The reviews aren’t great on any of them, and now with the VLC / Adesso combination, it’s a few hundred bucks I don’t need to spend. In a similar manner, there are boxes like Roku, etc. to do the same for Netflix, also no longer needed.
IF you do decide to go this route, you can get media center remotes without buying a whole HTPC. I assume that VLC would have support for them as well.
3x12=36
2x12=24
1x12=12
0x12=18
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HIP[^] is a handy tool if you want to use an IR remote to control multiple programs... the UI and configuration are not the easiest to use, but onces it's set up it works quite well...
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Bookmarked!
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The next thing you will be wanting (providing you do not already have one of course) is a NAS of massive Proportions (2-10TB) to store all the DVD and Bluray ISO's you will be making. But this will only be needed once you have expended all other space on your existing setup.
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Eventually, I'm sure. I already have various 1TB drives scattered across half a dozen machines on the network. I don't buy DVDs that often (and I only rip what I buy) so it'll be a while before I have to worry about it.
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For those who have no time, summary->
"Thanks for recommendation.
Chris's new equipment/software:
- TV with a 65” plasma, a Panasonic Viera P65V10
- XP based PC with a moderately decent video card going VGA into the TV.
- AnyDVD as a tool to help in ripping
- VLC for the media player
- keyboard/touchpad : Addesso Wireless Slim Touch Keyboard[^]
Thanks again for recommendation."
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My way's more fun.
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 That's what my nephew replies every time I show him "how to do it correctly".
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The HDMI ghosting you mention, could you send me a picture of this?
A small part of the screen would be fine so I could look at the detail.
A number of people have mentioned this but I've never seen it and want to udnerstand the cause.
Thanks.
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Absolutely. It may be a day or two when I have time to play with it, but I'll shoot you something when I do.
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Christopher Duncan wrote: It may be a day or two when I have time to play with it, but I'll shoot you something when I do.
There's something just so very, very wrong with that entire sentence ...
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You just don't know where to start!
------------------------------------
I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave
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You're a bad, bad man, Doug.
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Me??? Bad?!?!?!
Yea. Ok.
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Christopher Duncan wrote: Absolutely. It may be a day or two when I have time to play with it, but I'll shoot you something when I do.
send me a copy of the same image when ever you have it ready. All my computers are HDMI right now. Also the video card model and driver version if you don't mind.
_________________________
John Andrew Holmes "It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others."
Shhhhh.... I am not really here. I am a figment of your imagination.... I am still in my cave so this must be an illusion....
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Can't get hdmi to come up at all now and have decided to ditch it for a better quality video card - this one was pretty cheap.
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As an alternative he could send you the plasma screen.
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