I Continue To Play

We have a few showers about today, drizzle mainly and pretty cool to boot.  I received $100 for sorting out the computer I set up the other day.  Needless to say I had a trip to the Home Brew shop today where I discovered another $50 had been left on my 'tab' there for me.  I also grabbed 3 x 16GB USB drive for $27 available from the post office.  This is a pretty good deal I reckon and those USB sticks are always handy to have.

The learning curve I have been undertaking with the new Android TV Box is huge at the moment.

It appears the Android Box doesn't like my Yamaha Amplifier.  Sometimes it registers as there being a sound track and other times it doesn't.  So I have reconfigured things to 'bypass' the problem.

Usually all connected devices I have (Pay TV, Media Player etc) connect to the Amp via HDMI leads.  The connected devices include the Media Player I have been using for years, The Pay TV Box and the new DVD Player, all connected by individual HDMI leads to the amplifier which in turn sends the audio to the surround speakers and the video to the TV screen on the TV's connection HDMI 2. The Amp has the ability to take up to 4 different devices.  It all works nicely .... usually!

The sound from Free to Air TV comes via an optical cable from the TV back to Amp so when we are watching FTA TV the video goes direct to the screen and the audio passes to back from the TV set to the Amp and plays out through the speakers.  The TV's own sound is set to 'mute' so all audio is controlled via the Amplifier.

Originally I had the Android TV Box connected to the Amp via a HDMI lead but I had the resultant audio issues, namely 60% of the time it didn't work!

The TV itself has several HDMI inputs.  Up until recently I was just using just the 1 input on the TV, HDMI 2 from the Amplifier to take all my connected devices.  So what I have now done is disconnect the Android TV Box from the Amp and connected it directly to the TV on the TV's HDMI 1 connection.  Now the audio comes from the Android TV Box to the TV which then uses the same optical cable the TV does to return the sound to the Amplifier and in turn out through the surround speakers.

The TV has no problem at all accessing the audio from the Android Box and then passing it on to the Amplifier.  The only hassle is the TV sound quality is 'ordinary' so the audio we are getting is stereo.  90% of the stuff we watch on the Android TV Box is in stereo, it is the remaining 10% of shows with great sound we cannot access.

It appears the sound issue is one being experienced by many buyers of this box (and other brand boxes).  The technicians have been hard at work trying to improve the problem and sooner or later (hopefully) there will be an 'update' which will fix the problem.

Currently we are watching a series streamed over the Android TV Box called "Hand of God".  We are enjoying it very much.  It tells of a Judge's son who has committed suicide and is in a coma.  The Judge has suffered a bit of a breakdown and though still working, he now believes he is "God" and is wielding his power in a Godlike manner to try to get his son out of the coma.  The son has been diagnosed as 'brain dead' and only remains alive because of life support machinery.

The Judge wants his son to snap out of the coma and is prepared to use his judicial powers to ensure the life support machinery isn't turned off despite the wishes of most of his family.

Meanwhile he is having people killed as he tries to solve what he suspects is a murder!

New Toy Arrives

The weather continues to be absolutely perfect with tops around 25° each day.  Overnight it gets down to 11° or thereabouts so the doona has gone into summer hiding and we now sleep under a sheet and a quilt.

The meeting went off well on Monday night but as usual this meant a busy time for me that night running the show and a busy next morning putting a comprehensive report on the website.  But all of that was done satisfactorily.

Then it was to reformat Brian's old desktop computer for a mate who does the BeCA Newsletter.  That was all completed around midday on Tuesday and I headed home to relax.  With such a busy morning I gave the bike ride a big miss.

So I rocked home before 1pm ready for lunch and there was my Android TV Box delivered from China.  It had taken almost 7 weeks to be shipped and delivered.

I copied many of the settings from the Kodi version on my desktop over to the new Android TV Box.  This didn't work as well as I had hoped it would with around 90% of the features working OK but the remaining 10% not working full stop! That took care of Tuesday!

So after a bike ride this morning (Weds) I decided to go back to square 1 and do the setup all over again.  Around 2 hours later with several hiccups everything on the Android TV box seems to be running OK.  I am 90% happy with it, but for $70 it was a great deal.

There are a few idiosyncrasies to come to grips with but I think all will be fine in the long run.

The photo above shows the setup.  The unit itself is the small black box on the left just under the TV Screen.  Beside it is an add on drive with a few movies etc on it.  I don't think I am going to need that in the long run.

Then there is a wireless mouse which can be used to control the box or you can use the small wireless keyboard with a built in mouse pad to control the on screen pointer just as you have on your computer. This keyboard works perfectly.

At this stage I reckon I have done pretty well with it.  It has been heavy work sorting it out though.

The idiosyncrasies include the box finds video files better on hard drives attached to other devices than the hard drive attached to it.  The attached hard drive does not show on my PC as a 'network' drive, therefore is inaccessible from any other device on the network.

You need to manually press a button at the back of the box to start it up.  Sometimes (depending on what order you do things) there isn't any sound through the speakers or our headphones.  But this is easily overcome.

If I turn the Android box and everything off using my all in one remote control, the TV turns off then turns back on again!  But if I turn the box off first using the 'icon button' on the screen, then turn everything else off with the remote control, all closes down perfectly!

It plays all my Movie and TV Show files.  There is one newer format of file I avoid but this little gadget plays those files fine!

All in all I am very pleased!

Absolutely Glorious

What an absolutely glorious day we have today, if a little on the breezy side.  Hardly a cloud in the sky and the mid afternoon temp around 25°.  Just delightful.

Not a lot has happened from the last post.  Our older friends Brian and Edna from over the road are packing away getting ready to move around 400 metres to a much smaller home.  We get offers of furniture etc but we have no where to put any of it.

I even knocked back a small office chair today which would have been handy if ever I have someone around and showing them some PC stuff.

But that won't happen as for 99% of the time it would just sit there taking up space!

The home and away footy season finished over the weekend with my team having a great win over one of the finalists.  But this is all too late as my team hasn't made the finals.  Trish's team had a good win and finished the season third overall on the ladder.  She is happy about that!

The footy finals begin next weekend.

Another brew went on this morning so bottle washing and a bottling will follow over the next 6 or 7 days.

I managed a couple of bike rides the last few days as time and weather permits.  The weather hasn't had any impact on my ability to ride the last week or so.

Computer Club was unusually quiet on Saturday which gave plenty of time to chat with others.

I have a meeting to 'chair' tonight.  It is a Public Meeting so there will be plenty of people there to listen to our speakers.

I am back over to Brian and Edna's later to dismantle the 'old' computer which has been sold to a friend of mine whose PC recently just stopped working!

And friends Russell and Irene have arrived back in Melbourne after around 3 months on the road in their caravan enjoying the warmer weather in our part of the world.  It is something like 13° in Melbourne this afternoon!

Same old, same old ......

It's Thursday

There is very little if any new 'news'.  Our good neighbours at the end of the court (Brian and Edna) have had their house on the market for some time.  They have recently sold so are in the midst of downsizing from  5 bedroom house to a small 3 bedroom terrace place.

The photo is taken from the Real Estate Agent's website.

We are assured it is much larger inside than this photo indicates.  It has been described as surprisingly roomy inside.

There is a lot of tossing stuff away or just getting rid of it at minimal cost for them at the moment.

Brian has become a techno convert despite being in his 80's.  I keep them up to speed with movies, TV Series etc and he has become a big fan of Netflix.

His PC is over 4 years old now so they have decided to downsize it as well to a laptop. Yesterday he had an i5 standard specced laptop delivered for a little over $500 which is a pretty good deal.  At this very moment it is updating to Windows 10.

I will transfer all the stuff over from the desk top PC to the new laptop over the next few days for him.

We have just had a rain change come through which turned out to be a bit of a fizzer.  We only managed a couple of mls in the gauge and there may not be any more to follow.

Days have been in the mid 20's and very comfortable.

We just finished watching a BBC Crime series called "The Missing" which was very enjoyable.  Keep your eye out for it.

My Android TV box has arrived in Brisbane so I am guessing delivery will be tomorrow at the earliest but more likely early next week.

Russell and Irene continue to head back to their Drouin home in their caravan.  They have arrived in Griffith where they will spend a few days.  Russ was glowing in his reports of Griffith in relation to local produce from the wineries there.

Into The New Week

We are into a new week and friends Russell and Irene have packed up the van and are well and truly on their way back home to Melbourne.  Usually they aim for fewer k's than what they did yesterday when they did around 500k's in the one day from Caloundra through to Goondiwindi.

They are due back at their Drouin home on the weekend.

Friday night we had them around for an evening meal.  It was a big night!  I felt OK on Saturday for Computer Club, probably just a little below 100%.

The Curry Bowl on Saturday night with Russell and Irene was excellent, much better than watching my team try to play footy the night before.  The season is over for them now with no chance of making the finals.

Trish's team had another good win and are firmly planted in the top four and ready for the footy finals.

We didn't see our friends on Sunday as they wanted time to fully prepare for their big drive on Monday.  We understood fully their point of view.

Trish headed off to a Quilt Show while I bottled the latest brew before turning on the footy on TV.

Monday was quite a computer day.  I helped a couple of people out, mainly through trial and error but I think we ended up with two reasonably satisfied customers.

I was back on the bike Monday and again this morning.  It is magpie 'nesting' time and they can become quite protective of their young by swooping those travelling anywhere near their 'territory'.

We had some rain over the weekend, mainly Saturday night into Sunday.  I tipped just over 30mls out of the gauge mid morning Sunday.