timdine

An interesting solution I've read about and considered is NFC tags in the cases. Keep the media out and on display, but use some smart home integrations to scan a hidden tag in the cases to kick off the streaming of an album, or movie. Seems like a fun way to have a bit of the best of both worlds.

This came out at a convenient time for me. I've been using various Chromecast devices for a little while and they're fine. They've worked well enough I haven't turned on my HTPC in quite a while. We recently had several day power and internet outages... I'm ready for this, I have unraid and jellyfin servers, a great home network (and prefer wired connections), and a large generator. Unfortunately my Chromecasts failed me. Doesn't matter what else you've got, they require an internet connection which makes them useless in this situation. So what is even the point! (The HTPC is dead, long live the HTPC). I wasn't paying attention to any other android TV devices assuming they're all garbage. Have I been missing out? What I'd like is to be able to cast to a device like this, passing through to my Home Theatre receiver with surround sound, etc. Currently I'm running no 4k, no HDR (3D TV is still going strong). I'm looking at some of the devices in the video, and the android TV lists, but being in Canada the costs of the decent ones doesn't seem to be far off of a mini PC or even an over priced RPi4. I'm running smart home stuff, so WIFI traffic gets a little crowded and I'd rather have things wired. So missing out, or if you don't want an AppleTV do you just forget it and build a small HTPC?

Scrapyard Wars proposal Local Multiplayer Beat Sabre Build I have a Rift, I wanted third lighthouse for it but instead found a WHOLE rift on marketplace for $100 instead of a lighthouse for $60. So now I have two rifts... Most of the use of my rift has been when people come over playing beat sabre and while one person is playing the rest of us are on the couch watching what they're seeing on the TV with the music playing on the stereo. Build a system / systems that let two people play beat sabre at the same time, need to be able show that on the TV (bonus if you can see both perspectives), and it must connect to a home theatre for big audio. Will you build one system with virtualization or two physical boxes. Will one user use a standalone quest headset or not? Format suggestion: Don't do it as one block of time. Announce the challenge ahead of time to the teams, allow the budget and some time so people can order some parts online through ebay (to allow for some more exotic builds). Make the actual system builds and "Beat" off (beat down?) happen all together at once. Points awarded on Can two people play beat sabre in the same location at the same time Original MSRP of hardware vs price paid (biggest difference wins) Some general usability points somehow Must be able to be played at a reasonable framerate because you'll need to use it to... Head to head beat sabre challenge at the end between the teams head to head between teams, or maybe two people on your team get a combined score higher than the other team

I've continued to have a good experience with my HTPC. I use it with a cordless keyboard/touchpad combo though. I use the HTPC connected to my home theatre because with the right applications I can get the best resolution, colour calibration (with display profile setup with a colorimeter), and direct audio decoding by the receiver. So much of that stuff is obscured with the other devices. I am using chromecasts (several gen 2 and a 4k) for convenience on other screens. I've run into one issue with the chromecast ecosystem though. During a few recent power outages, and with internet down, I've been unable to cast to my chromecasts even though my LAN is working and my Jellyfin server is running. For that reason I'm looking for some chromecast alternatives myself. Aside from that they've been decent.

I've got a Cisco POE switch and have thought about this without getting too deep yet with only a couple ebay POE to USB adapters. I'm going to need to check out Texas POE. I can see how USB would be handy for lots of people, but as I was watching this video I started to wonder if they'd just reinvented POE+ and it's automatic negotiation up to 48V.

I've got an issue with a windows storage space that has started showing up as unformatted now. The data seems to still be there and I can see some of it with a couple tools. I've posted on the level1techs forum too but thought I'd see if anyone here may have an idea as well. https://forum.level1techs.com/t/storage-spaces-issue-showing-unformatted-recover-data/187671?u=timdine

Some 3D couch gaming on a tv would still be interesting to see. A way to integrate the discussion on the WAN show of emulating Nintendo games and having a video featuring them could be using the Dolphin emulator to output SBS 3D playing Mario Kart Wii. I've given this a try and from memory it looked great with a few graphical glitches.

I'm starting to make a little progress. I'm planning on getting a pair of Dell H310 HBA cards and a 1000+ watt power supply. Is there a suggestion of if a pair of matching HBA cards is better, or is there a good reason to mix them. In case a problem hits one, it won't impact both. Maybe easier to troubleshoot if they're not showing up the same in the console?

Budget (including currency): <$1000CAD for Motherboard, cpu, ram, power supply, SATA card(s) Country: Canada Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: UnRAID, Plex, Windows VM (gaming pc for a nearby sim rig with Dirt 2, AC, Project Cars 2 and a steam link), possibly some other small VM if I retire my Pi Home Assistant or create a NVR. Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): This is being built to FINALLY partially replace functionality in my current 'NAS' / HTPC. It'll probably continue to live as a HTPC without doing double duty as a PLEX and File Server. The old PC isn't giving up any parts, it's EVGA 1000watt power supply is probably the only thing that could carry over. It's got an old xeon and DDR2 running windows 8.1. I think I want to build an UnRAID server with a VM for Windows. I haven't sorted out the plex hosting yet. I've already purchased a Rosewill 4U case to hold a set of 15 HDD drives, maybe a couple SSD. I've also already got most of the drives that'll be used, they're mostly shucked 8TB drives with a few larger ones in there for good measure. The mixed drives and the ability to add some more is why I think I want UnRAID. I think I can put a couple drives in, copy data from the current server / storage spaces, then put those servers in the unraid and repeat until all drives are in the server. I don't yet have a cpu, ram, motherboard, ram, or power supply. For PLEX I'm not sure if I want to push for a bigger CPU or get some solder of 'older' GPU for some encoding. There won't be that many users at once, two, probably no 4k for a while. NAS is the priority with components for plex encoding or gaming GPU could be added later. I've been looking at a I5 10400, 32GB RAM with room for more, 1000 Watt power supply, some sort of Asrock board, and one or two 10 SATA port PCIE cards.

In shopping for a second hand enclosure for a bunch of disks is that the key? If you find any enclosure that supports >2 it'll support anything greater than two? If it says it'll support 4TB, 6Tb, etc it'll support 8, 12, 16TB? Or is that too simplified of a perspective?

Does something like this appear that it'd fit? https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:134230

I've been working on a few rally in car videos lately. If you are interested in rally check them out, they're something I enjoy working on after the rallies are complete. It gives me a chance to get in some video editing practice, although it is pretty tricky to come out with any reasonable video while you're focused on co-driving. The latest video I put together is this one. I'm co-driving in a Mini Cooper S. https://youtu.be/5QcJKfQLrvs

That hasn't been posted in here yet has it?

I believe this particular thread is to see what sort of crazy contraptions people come up with for home storage. While the massive rack mounts are impressive and I'm totally jealous of them, I personally like to flip through and examine a lot of the odd ones where people come up with unique solutions to stretch what is possible.

I've just moved into a new house so obviously I need to setup the network before I bother to get my clothes unpacked and the kitchen setup. I've been investigating the various solutions and can't decide what I need. I've been investigating some of the consumer solutions like the Netgear Orbi and the TP-Link mesh systems. I'm not confident that I'm not missing something. I looked into the Ubiquity solutions a bit because I looked after a small office network with their gear, but I never had to do much with it as I took it over after it was installed. I'm looking at mostly wireless solutions as the house only has one coax jack on each floor never mind being wired for Ethernet. I'd like to be able to feed wireless to three floors (two story and a basement) and then the complicating part is I'd like to be able to get a network connection out to the garage. The garage is 200' from the house, I'd prefer not to run a cable and dig a trench. Ideally I'd like to be able to vpn into the system and access anywhere on the network. I may want to add a number of devices like IP cameras that'd be accessible anywhere as well. Is this even in the realm of consumer hardware or does it need the step to commercial gear? Do I just need to wire up a few Linksys Routers with custom firmware and directional antenna? Any guides I should check out specifically?

I have a ROG GL752VW which I'd like to replace. I did buy a rift a while ago which lives at a friends place because the 960M in my laptop suffers from the HDMI not found issues that I later learned while troubleshooting is typical of laptops trying to work with the rift. The laptop works well for everything else I do with it, but I want some more VR in my life. Are there some good sub $2000CAD laptops out there that would be a good replacement. I'd like to keep the full keyboard with number pad and more importantly a 17" screen, battery life is irrelevant. I'm only ever unplugged if I'm moving from one location to another. Is that not a reasonable budget and I should keep my laptop and pickup a desktop to go along with it? Should I just buy a vive, all my issues go away with my current laptop. How do I know that a given laptop won't have the internal design of the integrated and dedicated GPU that prevents the Rift from even attempting to work? Aside from googling the specific model and seeing if someone has already made it work. I'd be open to finding a second hand laptop if I knew I could avoid having the same problems.

I'd never noticed this with my shucked drives, but all the newer ones are Seagates. I've just brought home a WD drive and now I'll know what to do if that happens.

http://timdine.ca/linstore/rankings.html Some change at the top, and I got bumped out of the top 30. I don't think I'm ok with that. Time for an upgrade, or at least an expansion...

A processor on a co-workers desk. It's an IBM watercooled processor from a long gone server. Banana for scale... Big handle for inserting it, the water port is on the left side of the last photo. It has a metal plug inserted.

Updated the repo with systems up to now. I'll generate some new lists from that.

How do you have the externals hooked up? You're not running 231TB of USB drives are you?

Broken link on the first page, Floatplane.

Are there any users here who are using a Freedom360 Rig using an array of GoPro cameras whose brain I could pick about your workflows? I'm curious mostly about 360 photography, but I've been doing some investigating about mixing in some streaming using HDMI capture dongles.

That does seem like a much more straight forward solution. Prevent issues with the GoPro locking up by just removing the problem. I could then still use an external mic on the GoPro to capture a channel of ambient sound. It does assume I'm not going to have the same issues with the audio recorder and the inputs, but I can position that so I can see what's happening with it since it doesn't have to be in a specific location in the car. I could set it to run for several hours if I got a recorder with enough space, I tend to use the wireless remote to start and stop the cameras since there is a lot going on. I'll take a look at those brands. Is there anywhere on here that goes through and reviews some of these? I'd be looking for the ability to capture a long time, input of audio, and external power / replaceable batteries over high quality or built in mics.

I've been using my GoPro Hero 2 cameras for a few years to capture in car video during stage rally events. One of the features of the video capture is I plug the mic jack of the camera into a car intercom to capture audio between the driver and co driver. I move the system between different vehicles since I codrive for different people, but therefore have little control over the intercom itself. Sometimes I find that when the car is started while the GoPro is plugged into the intercom it'll cause the GoPro to lock up and I need to pull the battery to get it to work again. The GoPro uses battery power, but the intercom is connected to the car's power system in different ways depending on the car. I'm assuming I'm getting some sort of voltage coming up the 3.5mm plug causing the GoPro to freak out. Is there anything I can do with the camera or put inline between the camera and the intercom that could help prevent this? It's never fun to get to the end of a stage and realize you've missed something exciting. Sample For Attention Another because theyre fun!