On The Improve

I still have some aches and pains but I am much improved this morning enabling me to get back on the bike and complete a 12.5k bike ride.  I found the exercise helped to overcome some of the stiffness and soreness I had from the tumble from the bike a couple of days earlier.

Not a lot of news at all this morning.  The sun is out but there is a lazy southerly wind out there which blows straight through you rather than around you!  It was long sleeves on the bike ride this morning and a pool temp of around 19° was quite below my minimum temp for a swim.

Most of the TV watching is now done via the Android Box.  I had read a review somewhere that the TV series 'Criminal Minds' rated quite highly.  Neither of us had ever seen an episode so we felt we should give it a try out.

Via Kodi and some of the addons that come with it, it is possible to search out a TV series, navigate to a particular website and play any particular episode from that website onto your TV via the internet.  It is like a poor man's Netflix!

The quality of the file is usually quite reasonable and more than watchable.  We will do that again!

So you can either watch a TV Show episode you have already downloaded or an episode which is stored on the web.

The new Android Box plays HEVC files, a new format which is smaller in size but better in quality.  The picture above shows a few of the formats of one particular TV Episode available to download.  The numbers 720p or 480p refer to the quality of the file, 720p being a better standard.

The numbers 265 or 264 refer to the type of file.  264 files are usually either mp4 or matroska.  Xvid usually refers to the old .avi format.  The 183MB section refers to how large the file is to download.  Obviously the smaller the file, the quicker it is to download especially if using no cost download options like I do.

The 720p files are the 'better' quality files.  So you can see from the example the better quality HEVC file is actually smaller than the lesser quality 480p 264 file in the files created by a group known as RMTeam.

The problem is very few media players can currently play HEVC files.  My WDTV Media Player can't play them but the new Android TV box can!

Still no call regarding the old car just yet but we will sit and wait.  I am now guessing there was a problem getting the radiator hose and one had to be couriered in.