Time to plan the next Austin meet (September 2002) (1 Viewer)

[Rodney McNeel]

Hi there I've been getting notices from my provider (EV1) for a while now informing me that they deleted messages from various sources infected with that virus. Nobody I know, but sometimes from austin.rr.com and sometimes from other isp's. I ran virus checkers and downloaded removers specifically for that virus...but none apparently ever made it past ev1.
I would like a movie watching meet as well as the technical meets too. Anyoine out there familiar with jp1? a connector in some remotes and can be added to others to program your remote far beyond it's current potential. I've got a lot of info...just chicken to open up my RCA-RCU810 and solder in the connector. Do a search for jp1 and be amazed at what you can train your remote to do!
By the way...Anyone want an OLD 1974'ish coffee table type projection screen tv? It doesn't work now...not sure what's wrong but I suspect one of the three color tubes is busted. It has a 72inch separate screen that might be good for something. Watched many a football game with my brothers LARGER than life while it lasted...but now I have to clean out garage to make room for other projects. It can be had for the low low price of FREE to anyone who can come pick it up with a truck. Has to be soon though as we are working on clearing out the garage. email me offlist if anyone is interested. [email protected]

 

[Greg Risley]

It was I. The wife open an email file she received and didn't know who it was from and opened Pandoras(Kimberly's) Box. She of course told me about it right away (3 hrs later) So I have spent the better part of the day trying to get rid of this bug.
Sorry about any problems it caused guys. My 6 year old will now supervise the wife when she uses the computer.

Greg

 

[Colin Dunn]

Greg -

Tell Kimberly you're going to Fry's "to get Norton AntiVirus," and snag a few DVDs as your reward for a successful bug hunt...

 

[Greg Risley]

Hey Collin I already went to CompUSA and got Norton AntiVirus, but they didn't have a good selection of dvds so I picked up the game Soldier of Fortune 2. Because I really need to vent some energy after this mess.
Are you going to Nils tomorrow? I will be a little late, but I really want to check out a PS2 on a projector.
Later
Greg

 

[mike_decock]

Hi all! I didn't know a new thread was started until Colin sent out an e-mail today. I'm looking forward to another meet, whatever it is.

My conclusions were that it was easy to tell that the Art was better in every respect, but at $110 each the Wave's are a tremendous value. If you are interested in trying tubes this is a cheap way to dabble with them.

That was a fun afternoon. I'll be happy to bring them along to the next meet if someone has some relatively tube-friendly speakers.

Scott: I upgraded the binding posts and rolled in some different tubes (busted one of them while upgrading the binding posts). I haven't noticed any big difference in the tubes but the seem to have a little more bass. While I had it apart I had a chance to tighten everything down so the transformers don't wiggle anymore.

-Mike...

 

[Jonathan DA]

Well, the "let's hang Jonathan's projector from the ceiling" mini-meet ended about an hour ago, and I have to say it was a resounding success. I'd like to thank everyone who came over to help, you guys have fist dibs on move night as soon the Miniplex is presentable. Scott, thanks much for your paint work on the walls. Hank, great work on the design of the mount. Nils, thanks for the Plastex and Avia disc. Mark, yeah well, thanks for coming over anyway Just kidding, mucho thanks for helping me paint the ceiling and walls on Saturday. And thanks to everyone for lifting that 150 lb. monster up to the ceiling. But the man of the hour is Frederick, who spent a few hours up in my attic in 150+ degree heat getting the mount into place and running the video cable, and still had energy to square up the pj and tighten the bolts while we held it up. I owe you one.
Jonathan

 

[Frederick_Falk]

Jonathan,
Thanks for the kind words, but call me crazy, I do enjoy doing things like that for other people. I am looking forward to opening night at the new "mini-plex" when it is all done. Let me know if there is anything else I can do for you to help "get it off the ground" so to speak.
A big thank you to Nils for allowing me to come over and watch LOTR on his HT system. It is progressing along quite nicely and I really enjoyed seeing the movie on a "big screen" without having to go to the local "Mega-Plex Theater".

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

Jonathan,
Glad to help, and if you need to borrow a brush cutter for the back yard...
Now the question is who will finish their PLAS-TEX screen first... you or Colin? Either way, can't wait to see both of your systems and will gladly help however I can.
Fredrick,
Now that you've seen it, wouldn't you agree LOTR is a pretty lousy movie, and the DVD is horrible, what a complete waste of 3 hours. Oh yeah, 12 hours (as I have "forced" myself to watch LOTR 4 times (so far...)
Seriously though, if any of you haven't seen this movie or DVD, don't walk - run to the video store! While I would be surprised if any of you didn't like the movie, the quality of the DVD alone makes it a worthy addition to anyone's DVD collection. (I know, the Director's Cut will be out in November, but Peter Jackson has already made it clear that this DVDs will not share the same features and for some, having the original film is equally important or more so than having an extended version)
Colin, we missed your hammering skills on Saturday...
When you are ready to mount that screen, I'm sure Hank will gladly lend you that precision made staple gun of his - at least once he finds a willing priest to perform an exorcisim.
BTW: I Just added a few new releases to the ol' DVD collection (Link Removed & Link Removed Collector's Editions, and Link Removed Unrated Version). If any of you are interested in seeing one or more of these, I'll be planning on watching them this week. I'll post the times and dates on the Austin Movie Nights! thread, but if you have any preferences, you might want to post your requests.

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

With all the DIY projects we have been doing lately in the group, I thought maybe a dedicated thread for them would be a wise idea.
Austin DIY HT Projects Page
This could be the place for anyone interested in sharing their DIY experiences, asking for advice on DIY projects, and requesting or offering help to members with DIY projects.

 

[Rodney McNeel]

Quick question for a friend:
Can stand alone TIVO unit control Time Warner digital cable boxes via serial port connection? If so, which model of cable box?
He has a first generation Phillips Tivo box. Information on internet indicates that although all cable boxes have serial ports, few actually work.
My friend is local to Austin and asked me to pick your brains on this subject. Any knowledge on this?
Thanks in advance for any and all input.
Rodney D.

 

[Colin Dunn]

Rodney -

I don't have an answer to your question, but hopefully someone else will. And has your acquaintance been to an Austin HTF meet yet???

---

Everyone -

Let's decide on a day for the meet. I recommend either September 14 or 21 (both are Saturdays).

Anyone want to host?

And the topic? Some ideas that have been proposed include home theater PCs, room treatments, or just watching movies.

 

[Nils Luehrmann]

I am very interested in an HTPC meet, but what ever you all decide is fine with me.

 

[Greg Risley]

I could bring the pc I am trying to change over to a htpc but I don't know much about tweeking it. So the people in the know could help out. There is nothing on it right now that needs to be saved since I just installed the new harddrive (which I think I partioned wrong or something or other). So if we wanted to take it apart and rebuild it I wouldn't mind.
Here are the specs so far.
AMD Athlon 1.2Mhz Pro.
80 gig HD 5400rpm
192MB 133Mhz SDRAM
32MB ATI Radeon AGP Graphics with S-video and DVI out.
Phillips CD-r 8x/4x/32x
Hercules Game Surround Fortissimo II sound card with optical digital out.

If you can think of something else I might need for it to help make it a HTPC let me know. I think I need to quiet it down for the theater so any ideas.
I have an older dvd drive in it now that is a little grlitchy so I might pull the good creative 12x dvd out this coputer, and swap them.

I don't know if my vote counts for much but the 14th would be easier for me to attend.

Greg

 

[Jonathan DA]

I'm game for either date and can bring my HTPC to the meet. I would still like to compare stand alone dvd to HTPC. And we can also compare audio quality of Greg's HTPC with digital out to his Acurus compared to my HTPC's software DD decoding and analog outs. Based on the results of our last pre/pro comparison I'm very curious to find out what, if any, difference there is in sound quality.

 

[Colin Dunn]

There's a thread over in After Hours that mentions Austin in the subject line. There were some people posting there who I haven't seen at an Austin HTF meet, so I provided a link over to this thread. Hopefully, that will entice a few new people to come to the next meet.

And by the way, with this post, I finally broke through the 1,000-post barrier. It took since October 1998 for me to get there. Wish I had the spare time that some people have, to rack up 5,000+ posts in a year...

 

[Chris Markey]

Hey guys,

I have the bug for a new projector and would love to go to the next meet. Put me on your list Colin. Nils was kind enough to find me lurking on the AVSForum and directed me over here. I am interested in building a new box dedicated to HTPC too. I am not very handy, but have a lot of tools that make me look like I am, and can bring if needed.

Thanks,

Chris

 

[Frederick_Falk]

Welcome to the group, Chris. We could have used you Sunday before last as we hung Jonathan's projector in his new HT room and that puppy weighted in at around 160 pounds. He is also putting together a HTPC and will be using his new projector with a screen on horizontal hinges (he will be able to pull it up parallel to the ceiling so it will be out of the way when not in use) that should be something to see once he gets done with everything. We are trying to put together a meet in September but so far no one has stepped forward to sponsor it. Stay tuned to this thread for further developments. And again, welcome to the group.

 

[Jonathan DA]

All right, that's it; I'm throwing down the gauntlet. I check this thread every day hoping to see more activity and I get nothing, NOTHING I TELL YOU!!!!! The way I see it most of the responses have been agreeable to some kind of HTPC event, so here's the deal:

The next meet is going to be an HTPC vs standalone DVD player contest featuring my HTPC against Mark's Panny RP62 with Farooooooooja processing. We're gonna do it on the 14th, cuz I'm tired of waiting. So there!

Now, where's it gonna be? The way I see it, we have a few options, my place, Mark's, Greg's, Colin's, and maybe Nils. Anyone else have a front projector that I'm leaving out who might be willing to host? I hesitate to say Nils cuz of his baby, wouldn't want to upset the little one with a bunch of uncouth HTFers hanging around.

My place: No guarantee my convergence will be primo by the 14th. I can only fit 7 people at a time into the theater. The extras can hang out in the control room with the HTPC, play pool, or listen to a second system in the bedroom (I can put up some acoustic treatments so it isn't so bright). Also, Mark's DVD player doesn't stand a chance against my HTPC on a CRT without a line scaler. And it will have to be an evening meet since my room doesn't have total light control.

Mark, Greg, Colin, Nils, what about your places?

 

[Frederick_Falk]

Speaking for others: Greg and Nils HT rooms are about the same size as Jonathan's, and I have yet to see Mark's (hint, hint). However, Colin's HT room (which is quite large) would probably be the best as far as room size goes (saying that without ever having seen Mark's). How about it Colin; are you up to hosting another meet? What about we start off at Frank's house with a little DIY project and then go to Colin's place for the shootout?

The 14th is fine by me. I will be in Volente that morning but I would be available anytime after lunch.

 

[Colin Dunn]

I could host a meet, but would have to go for the 21st rather than the 14th (not enough time between now and the 14th to get my place cleaned up & presentable).