Since my cousin's family was coming over to visit, I thought they might want to play Fibbage (or I wanted to play Fibbage with them), so I hauled out my Fire TV which I hadn't touched for months.
To my horror, I had left the batteries in the remote. Luckily I didn't see any leakage, but I took them out and cleaned them and put it back. For both remotes.
It was a pleasant surprise to see that the Fire TV boot up fine and recognize the remote.
All was well until I noticed the remote behaving sluggishly at times. It's having trouble with the cursor right key. Sometimes it responds, sometimes it doesn't respond. Usually if I press it down hard for a brief amount of time it responds. So this seems like a hardware issue with the remote. Or maybe there's a piece of dirt in there messing up the connection.
I was going to call tech support to see if I could get (another) replacement. This is a replacement already. Or is it the second replacement? But it seemed to be getting better as it started responding with less pressure.
I decided to try to open up the remote. There are four screws you can access which I manged to unscrew with a small screwdriver. But after I removed the screws, I couldn't figure out how to pry open the case. Maybe there's a hidden screw or two somewhere. Never mind. I didn't want to make it worse anyway.
In the meantime, I had paired the Fire Stick remote to it. I must have paired it earlier, but I guess it forgot. Or maybe the unit had been sitting so long that it lost all the settings. It seemed to work fine with the Fire Stick remote, though of course no voice. (I had a little fun asking Alexa with the voice remote.)
So other than that it works pretty well. I especially like the captions on hulu which are customizable. I prefer the Netflix captions on the Apple TV and the Roku, but it's mostly tolerable. ESPN seems to buffer more often and die more quickly than on the other devices.
Fibbage worked mostly OK, but had trouble on my cousin's daughters phone connecting to my router. When she connected to her own wi-fi, it was better.
Another plus for the Fire TV, is that it now supports CBS All Access even though it was supposed to work only on the new Fire TV, so apparently the system software got updated. CBS All Access seemed to work mostly OK, though the captions were a little larger than I like. Or too small, since the size is customizable. The other noticeable new app was Playstation Vue but I think my internet service is too slow to run it properly. I don't know, I never tried. And I see Disney Movies Anywhere, but since I have only one movie on it so far, I never installed it.
The next day I got invited to their place, so I was thinking to bring the Fire TV stick. So let's hook that up. Unlike the Fire TV, it didn't find the remote automatically. After a restart, I tried pressing down the home button and it finally got recognized. Then I had to connect the network.
I noticed PlayStation Vue was on the app list, but no CBS All Access. That's a major minus.
And I noticed Hulu was behaving oddly. I had noticed some strange non-responsive behavior for Hulu on the Fire TV also, but I uninstalled it and removed it from Cloud and installed it again, and it worked OK after that. I tried that on the Fire TV stick, but it's still behaving oddly.
It seems to be lagging one key press behind. So I had a heck of a time logging in. Once in, the screen went blank and when I managed to get something on the screen I didn't know what was going on due to the keypress lag. Apparently other people were having problems with the Hulu app, but these reviews were months and years ago, so you would think they would have fixed these issues. I don't remember having these problems running the first time I used the Fire Stick. Since I use Hulu and CBS as two of my main apps, I guess I won't be using the Fire TV stick any more. $25 down the drain. Well not totally, as I can use the remote instead of the (already replaced twice) Fire TV voice remote. This doesn't say much for the quality of Amazon's products.
Let's try this to try to get Hulu working correctly. Clear data, clear cache. Try again. Nope still a keypress behind. Clear data, clear cache, uninstall, unplug Fire TV. Plug back in. Reinstall Hulu. Nope, same problem.
OK let's check for system update. There's one available. Uninstall Hulu again and remove from cloud. Update system. It says it'll take about 10 minutes. Wait. Optimizing system and applications.
OK got a new screen saying there's a new section called My Videos and Alexa is available on the Fire TV. Checking the system it says it's Fire OS 5.0.5. But going to system update, it says an update (5.0.5.1) is available. Shall I update. Well, let me see how Hulu is now.
Hey, let's try to pair the voice remote. It didn't work the first time. But after a couple tries it worked. And the voice feature works on the Fire TV. And CBS All Access appears! OK, things are looking up a bit.
Hulu? Yay it works now! Change caption text color to white, change font to monospace sans serif. I'm all set. OK, I guess I just needed to update the system software. I'll leave the 5.0.5.1 for later since it's working now.
*** 5/18/16
finally decided to call Amazon support about my remote control problem (click on Help, Device Support, then the Contact Us button on the left, sign in with your password, What Can We Help You with: Fire and Kindle, select my Fire TV, issue details: I'm having trouble with my remote or game controller, additional details: my remote is not responding, then scroll down and click on phone, right after that my phone rang).
A nice woman with an Indian accent talked me through the normal troubleshooting procedures. Did you change the battery? Did you try holding the home button down? Etc. So clearly she didn't understand the problem. After answering that I had tried all of the above, I got put on hold while she tried to look up my account. My "problem" is that I didn't buy the Fire TV online but rather from the local Best Buy, so they couldn't find my purchase online. I think she further discussed my problem with her supervisor and they might have seen all my recent purchases from Amazon. After more waiting, they finally decided to give me a courtesy credit of $29.95 so I could buy a new remote. So I wouldn't even have to return the old one.
Good deal! But since my voice remote still mostly works (it's just annoying that I have to press hard on the right cursor sometimes) I might wind up using the courtesy credit for something else. Or I could just buy a non voice remote for $14.99 and have $15 left over. I don't really use the voice that often, though it's kind of cool I guess. I guess that's how Amazon keeps their customers. So thumbs up to Amazon.com for their customer service.
Saturday, April 23, 2016
Friday, April 15, 2016
2 hours a month?
Netflix is scheduled to release
its next earnings report on Monday after closing bell, and investors
are anxious to find out how the streaming video giant’s growth is
trending. Data from a third party indicates that almost 100 million
people used Netflix at least once last month, giving it a net reach of
39.2% in the U.S. The company is trouncing Hulu, which has a reach of
only 11.13% last month.
However, it seems that viewers break up their viewing into very small chunks and, on average, spend less than 2 hours a month watching Netflix.
Verto Analytics found that last month, 97.3 million people used Netflix at least once just in the U.S. alone. On a daily basis, 13.2 million Americans watch the company’s service, and based on this number, Verto assigns a “Stickiness Factor” of 14%. The firm pegs Hulu’s stickiness at 13%. Verto computes its “stickiness factor” by comparing “daily users with monthly users to reflect the active, loyal, and engaged part of the audience. The higher the stickiness, the bigger the share of daily users versus the monthly users is.”
One metric we found particularly interesting is that Verto said the average Netflix user supposedly spends only 1.8 hours per month watching videos on it, with the average session lasting only 11 minutes. The firm emphasizes that a single movie might be watched over multiple sessions, but it seems like these numbers are extremely small, particularly when “binge watching” TV shows is supposed to be so common.
Verto reports that the PC is still the device that’s used the most often to access Netflix’s service as 68.6 million users logged on using a PC. In second place was the smartphone with 24.3 million, while 21.7 million people used tablets to watch Netflix.
Although tablets were in third place in terms of the number of people using them to watch the service, the average time spent per tablet user is higher than it is for the other two devices. The average tablet user watches 3.2 hours of TV per month, compared to smartphone users’ 2 hours and less than 1 hour for PC users. This could be why the overall time spent is skewed to the low side, but still, the numbers seem small.
Verto also found that men and women like Netflix just about equally, with viewership consisting of 48% men and 52% women. The firm notes that this is pretty close to the overall distribution of online users as women are 51.6% of online users. In terms of generations, 34% of Millennials, 24% are Generation X, 31% are Baby Boomers, and 11% are Silents.
However, it seems that viewers break up their viewing into very small chunks and, on average, spend less than 2 hours a month watching Netflix.
Verto Analytics found that last month, 97.3 million people used Netflix at least once just in the U.S. alone. On a daily basis, 13.2 million Americans watch the company’s service, and based on this number, Verto assigns a “Stickiness Factor” of 14%. The firm pegs Hulu’s stickiness at 13%. Verto computes its “stickiness factor” by comparing “daily users with monthly users to reflect the active, loyal, and engaged part of the audience. The higher the stickiness, the bigger the share of daily users versus the monthly users is.”
One metric we found particularly interesting is that Verto said the average Netflix user supposedly spends only 1.8 hours per month watching videos on it, with the average session lasting only 11 minutes. The firm emphasizes that a single movie might be watched over multiple sessions, but it seems like these numbers are extremely small, particularly when “binge watching” TV shows is supposed to be so common.
Verto reports that the PC is still the device that’s used the most often to access Netflix’s service as 68.6 million users logged on using a PC. In second place was the smartphone with 24.3 million, while 21.7 million people used tablets to watch Netflix.
Although tablets were in third place in terms of the number of people using them to watch the service, the average time spent per tablet user is higher than it is for the other two devices. The average tablet user watches 3.2 hours of TV per month, compared to smartphone users’ 2 hours and less than 1 hour for PC users. This could be why the overall time spent is skewed to the low side, but still, the numbers seem small.
Verto also found that men and women like Netflix just about equally, with viewership consisting of 48% men and 52% women. The firm notes that this is pretty close to the overall distribution of online users as women are 51.6% of online users. In terms of generations, 34% of Millennials, 24% are Generation X, 31% are Baby Boomers, and 11% are Silents.
Wednesday, April 06, 2016
Hawaiian Electric supports EV
Hawaiian Electric Co. is pushing for more electric vehicles to build
the utility’s customer base and make way for additional rooftop solar.
“Hawaii should be the EV capital of the world,” said Alan Oshima, HECO president and CEO, in an editorial board meeting with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Tuesday. The high price of gasoline in the islands and the short distances, especially on Oahu, make Hawaii an ideal location for the expansion of electric vehicles.
HECO is working to increase EV adoption by installing electric vehicle charging stations and partnering with the city to add electric buses. Oshima said HECO is also in talks with the military to get more electric vehicles and charging stations on Hawaii bases.
HECO’s campaign for more EV adoption comes amid a rapid growth in sales of electric cars, albeit from a small base. In February there were 4,209 registered electric vehicles in the state, up 26 percent from a year ago.
More than 100 Hawaii residents lined up at a Tesla Motors office in Waipahu last week and paid $1,000 to reserve the company’s latest electric car. The Tesla Model 3 sedan, which will be available late 2017, starts at $35,000 before state and federal incentives.
“Telsa’s launch of the Model 3 validates that things are changing,” said Richard Wallsgrove, program director at Blue Planet Foundation. “I really feel like we’re at an inflection point.”
HECO predicts there will be 388,500 electric vehicles on Hawaii’s roads by 2045. There are about 1 million vehicles registered in Hawaii.
Increased use of EVs gives electrical utilities a new market and could help replace lost demand due to rooftop solar and greater energy efficiency.
“Hawaii should be the EV capital of the world,” said Alan Oshima, HECO president and CEO, in an editorial board meeting with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Tuesday. The high price of gasoline in the islands and the short distances, especially on Oahu, make Hawaii an ideal location for the expansion of electric vehicles.
HECO is working to increase EV adoption by installing electric vehicle charging stations and partnering with the city to add electric buses. Oshima said HECO is also in talks with the military to get more electric vehicles and charging stations on Hawaii bases.
HECO’s campaign for more EV adoption comes amid a rapid growth in sales of electric cars, albeit from a small base. In February there were 4,209 registered electric vehicles in the state, up 26 percent from a year ago.
More than 100 Hawaii residents lined up at a Tesla Motors office in Waipahu last week and paid $1,000 to reserve the company’s latest electric car. The Tesla Model 3 sedan, which will be available late 2017, starts at $35,000 before state and federal incentives.
“Telsa’s launch of the Model 3 validates that things are changing,” said Richard Wallsgrove, program director at Blue Planet Foundation. “I really feel like we’re at an inflection point.”
HECO predicts there will be 388,500 electric vehicles on Hawaii’s roads by 2045. There are about 1 million vehicles registered in Hawaii.
Increased use of EVs gives electrical utilities a new market and could help replace lost demand due to rooftop solar and greater energy efficiency.
Tuesday, April 05, 2016
NFL on Twitter
New York (AFP) - Twitter has scored a deal to live-stream Thursday night National Football League games, the NFL announced -- a move that helps the social media group connect with new audiences.
The streaming rights had been hotly contested, with Amazon, Verizon and others reportedly in the running to help the NFL reach viewers outside the normal broadcast channels.
The NFL said in a statement Tuesday that Twitter would stream the 10 Thursday Night Football games, which would also be available on broadcast networks and the league's own NFL Network.
"This fall Thursday Night Football will be streamed live @twitter so fans will see more of this," NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in his first tweet since September 2014.
"Twitter is where live events unfold and is the right partner for the NFL as we take the latest step in serving fans around the world live NFL football," he said in a statement.
"There is a massive amount of NFL-related conversation happening on Twitter during our games and tapping into that audience, in addition to our viewers on broadcast and cable, will ensure Thursday Night Football is seen on an unprecedented number of platforms this season."
Terms of the deal were not announced, but the NFL said the agreement will provide "additional reach" for its advertising partners.
The news website Re/code, citing unnamed sources, said Twitter would pay under $10 million under the deal, less than some rival bids.
View galleryThe NFL said in a statement Tuesday that Twitter would …
The NFL said in a statement Tuesday that Twitter would stream the 10 Thursday Night Football games, …
The report said Twitter will be rebroadcasting the CBS and NBC feeds of the games, and will have the rights to sell only a small portion of the ads associated with each game.
- Transforming the experience -
The NFL statement said Twitter would provide free streaming without authentication worldwide to registered and non-registered users using Twitter on mobile phones, tablets, PCs and connected TVs.
Twitter will also provide game highlights and pre-game streaming using the Periscope application from players and teams.
Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey said in the statement that "this is about transforming the fan experience with football. People watch NFL games with Twitter today. Now they'll be able to watch right on Twitter Thursday nights."
He also tweeted: "My dad is going to love this."
The deal is a major coup for Twitter, which has seen its user base stagnate and has been looking for ways to reach more users for conversations on live events.
Jan Dawson, analyst at Jackdaw Research, said the deal opens up new revenue possibilities for Twitter.
"It gives them their first real opportunity to cross-sell these different types of ads and break into television advertising for the first time," Dawson said in a research note.
"So far, Twitter has been used almost entirely for people to talk about live events being broadcast on other platforms, which has meant it hasn't been able to benefit as directly as some other players from those live events, even if massive numbers of tweets were sent and even shown on television."
For the NFL, the deal is seen as the first step in moving outside the traditional broadcast system and will help the sports league reach "cord cutters" without a cable or satellite subscription.
Twitter's base of monthly active users remained stuck at 320 million at the end of 2015. While that is a big accomplishment, Twitter has failed to keep pace with fast-growing rivals and to expand beyond its base.
The troubles have forced Twitter to bring back co-founder Dorsey as chief executive, but that has not stemmed rumors about a possible buyout or merger.
The move signals a growing trend away from the traditional broadcast and cable television operations to Internet platforms like Netflix and Amazon.
While these platforms have lacked lived sports, that appears to be changing. Some major sporting events like the Super Bowl and NCAA basketball have been streamed, and last year the NFL joined with Yahoo in streaming its first regular-season game.
Sunday, April 03, 2016
DisneyMoviesAnywhere
Since I have the Collector's Edition of Avengers Age of Ultron that included a digital HD code, I was faced with how to redeem it. You can do it without registration or via DisneyMoviesAnywhere.
The choices in the past came mainly to iTunes, Amazon Video, and Vudu. In some cases, you could get the movie both on iTunes and Vudu. If I had a choice, I would probably go with Amazon. However the downside would be it's not available on my Apple TV (except via AirPlay). If I wanted to use Apple TV, I would go with iTunes, but that's not available on my Roku. Both Amazon and Vudu are available on the Roku. And then was this new choice. DisneyMoviesAnywhere. I wasn't familiar with that. But I didn't see a DisneyMoviesAnywhere app on my Apple TV, though I vaguely recalled it might be on the Roku (it is).
So initially, I chose nothing.
But then I read with DisneyMoviesAnywhere, you can link the account to iTunes. So then I could have the movie on both the Roku and the Apple TV (which is what I use most of the time these days).
OK create an account, enter the code. Cool it's on there (on the website).
OK, let's try link it to iTunes. Go to DisneyMoviesAnywhere, Settings, Account, choose iTunes, connect account. It's supposed to go to iTunes. But instead it went to a page to download iTunes even though I already had iTunes installed (on my Vista laptop).
OK, let's just go to iTunes and see if I can figure out to connect the account there. But iTunes kept crashing. OK. let's reinstall iTunes. Download and run the setup. Say Windows 7 required.
OK, let's try download the version for Windows Vista 32-bit. Downloaded but didn't have time to install it. Off to visit mom at CCOH.
OK, let's try on the Windows 10 laptop. iTunes not installed. Download it.
In the meantime, let's connect DisneyMoviesAnywhere with my Amazon Video account. OK, that worked easily enough.
Install iTunes, try connecting the accounts. Nope, still goes to the page asking to download iTunes. What gives? Ah, I see that people are having problems connecting while on Chrome. Switch to Firefox. OK, that worked!
OK, let's try it out.
Yep, it's on Amazon. Cool, I can see it both on my iPad and my Roku. I see it says with Bonus Features, but there's no menu option to view the special features. But I notice the movie length is longer than it's supposed to be, so maybe the bonus features are just tacked on the end.
Install DisneyMoviesAnywhere app on Roku. Yep it's there. And there's a menu option to access the bonus features.
Connect my Vudu account. It's there too. But don't see any bonus features.
Go home and try it on iTunes on my Apple TV. There it is. There's an option for the bonus features, but don't see the feature "Connecting The Universe" (which is advertised in the insert). Evidently that feature is only available only through the Disney app.
As far as I know, the DisneyMoviesAnywhere app is not yet available for the Apple TV (even the new one), so the only way to watch that feature on an Apple TV would be via AirPlay.
Checking iTunes, I see the special features from the Blu-ray are there, but I don't see the audio commentary. In fact, I don't even see it on the DisneyMoviesAnywhere website. How about the DisneyMoviesAnywhere app on the Roku? Nope, not there either. Apparently it's only available on the Blu-ray. (This site says the commentary is available on digital HD but not on DVD. Still don't see it digital HD though. This site confirms it.)
So to have access to everything, you need both the Blu-ray and the DisneyMovieAnywhere access.
Digitial is almost, but not quite there yet.
The choices in the past came mainly to iTunes, Amazon Video, and Vudu. In some cases, you could get the movie both on iTunes and Vudu. If I had a choice, I would probably go with Amazon. However the downside would be it's not available on my Apple TV (except via AirPlay). If I wanted to use Apple TV, I would go with iTunes, but that's not available on my Roku. Both Amazon and Vudu are available on the Roku. And then was this new choice. DisneyMoviesAnywhere. I wasn't familiar with that. But I didn't see a DisneyMoviesAnywhere app on my Apple TV, though I vaguely recalled it might be on the Roku (it is).
So initially, I chose nothing.
But then I read with DisneyMoviesAnywhere, you can link the account to iTunes. So then I could have the movie on both the Roku and the Apple TV (which is what I use most of the time these days).
OK create an account, enter the code. Cool it's on there (on the website).
OK, let's try link it to iTunes. Go to DisneyMoviesAnywhere, Settings, Account, choose iTunes, connect account. It's supposed to go to iTunes. But instead it went to a page to download iTunes even though I already had iTunes installed (on my Vista laptop).
OK, let's just go to iTunes and see if I can figure out to connect the account there. But iTunes kept crashing. OK. let's reinstall iTunes. Download and run the setup. Say Windows 7 required.
OK, let's try download the version for Windows Vista 32-bit. Downloaded but didn't have time to install it. Off to visit mom at CCOH.
OK, let's try on the Windows 10 laptop. iTunes not installed. Download it.
In the meantime, let's connect DisneyMoviesAnywhere with my Amazon Video account. OK, that worked easily enough.
Install iTunes, try connecting the accounts. Nope, still goes to the page asking to download iTunes. What gives? Ah, I see that people are having problems connecting while on Chrome. Switch to Firefox. OK, that worked!
OK, let's try it out.
Yep, it's on Amazon. Cool, I can see it both on my iPad and my Roku. I see it says with Bonus Features, but there's no menu option to view the special features. But I notice the movie length is longer than it's supposed to be, so maybe the bonus features are just tacked on the end.
Install DisneyMoviesAnywhere app on Roku. Yep it's there. And there's a menu option to access the bonus features.
Connect my Vudu account. It's there too. But don't see any bonus features.
Go home and try it on iTunes on my Apple TV. There it is. There's an option for the bonus features, but don't see the feature "Connecting The Universe" (which is advertised in the insert). Evidently that feature is only available only through the Disney app.
As far as I know, the DisneyMoviesAnywhere app is not yet available for the Apple TV (even the new one), so the only way to watch that feature on an Apple TV would be via AirPlay.
Checking iTunes, I see the special features from the Blu-ray are there, but I don't see the audio commentary. In fact, I don't even see it on the DisneyMoviesAnywhere website. How about the DisneyMoviesAnywhere app on the Roku? Nope, not there either. Apparently it's only available on the Blu-ray. (This site says the commentary is available on digital HD but not on DVD. Still don't see it digital HD though. This site confirms it.)
So to have access to everything, you need both the Blu-ray and the DisneyMovieAnywhere access.
Digitial is almost, but not quite there yet.
Thursday, March 17, 2016
car makers accelerating to automatic braking
The National Highway Safety Transportation Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) announced today that 20 automakers have agreed to make automatic emergency braking (AEB) standard by September 1st, 2022, representing "more than 99 percent" of the US auto market.
NHTSA has long praised automatic braking systems as a safety win,
but the technology has only recently started rolling out on a wide
scale. Using forward-looking sensors, automatic braking can slow or stop
a vehicle that senses it's at risk of colliding with a car, pedestrian,
or other object ahead of it, even when the driver takes no action. Like
many high-tech systems, automatic braking first started showing up on
luxury vehicles over a decade ago before trickling down to the
mainstream; nowadays, it isn't difficult to find a sub-$40,000 car that
has it, but the agreement is intended to ensure that automakers stay on
the path.
Automatic braking, like lane keeping and dynamic cruise control, is
considered a precursor to fully autonomous vehicles. And actually, you
can go back even further than these high-tech features: technologies
that we take for granted these days — like stability control and
anti-lock brakes — paved the way for computer-controlled cars, and some
of these long-established safety technologies are already mandated by
NHTSA.
Saturday, March 05, 2016
clean up your Facebook account
NEW YORK (AP) — Got hundreds of Facebook friends you hardly know?
Now is a good time to do some digital cleanup, while the year is still fresh. Review your security and privacy settings, and make sure those casual acquaintances you met at a bar eons ago aren't still getting the most intimate details of your life. Get rid of games and apps that might have latched onto your account years ago, but that you no longer use.
Here are six cleanup tips:
SECURE YOUR ACCOUNT
You've doubtless heard you should have a strong password. It's especially important for email and social-networking accounts because so much of your digital life revolves around them. Plus, many other services let you log on using your Facebook account, so if that gets compromised, so will your other accounts.
Because passwords are tough to manage, it's best not to rely solely on them. Turn on what Facebook calls Login Approvals. It's in the account settings under "Security." After you do so, you're asked for confirmation — entering a special number sent to your phone — when signing on from a new device.
Unless you switch devices often, this is something you set up once and forget about. And no one else can log in with your password unless they also have your phone and that special number.
REVIEW YOUR PRIVACY SETTINGS
Facebook offers a series of quick privacy "shortcuts." On desktops and laptops, look for the small padlock on the upper right corner of the browser. On Apple and Android devices, access shortcuts through the menu — the three horizontal bars.
The key shortcut is "Who can see my stuff ?" See whether you've been inadvertently broadcasting your musings to the entire Facebook community. You'll probably want to at least limit sharing to "Friends" rather than "Public," though you can customize that further to exclude certain individuals or groups — such as co-workers, acquaintances or grandparents. When sharing, remember that less is more.
While you're at it, check "Timeline and Tagging" in your account settings from a PC or mobile. You can insist on approving posts that people tag you in. Note that this is limited to what appears on your personal timeline; if Mary tags you in a post, Mary's friends will still see it regardless of your settings. That includes friends you may have in common with her.
If you're on a desktop or laptop, Facebook has a Privacy Checkup tool to review your settings. Look for that padlock. This tool is coming soon to mobile.
MAKE YOUR FRIENDS LESS FRIENDLY
Purge friends you're no longer in touch with. If you think "unfriending" is too mean, add them to an "Acquaintances" or "Restricted" list instead. "Acquaintances" means they won't show up in your news feed as often, though they'll still have full access to any posts you distribute to your friends. "Restricted" means they'll only see posts you mark as public. Either is effectively a way to unfriend someone without dropping any clues you've done so.
You can also create custom lists, such as "college friends" or "family." This is great for oversharing with those who'll appreciate it, while not annoying everyone else you know and putting yourself in danger of becoming an "acquaintance" yourself. You can create lists on a traditional PC by hitting "More" next to "Friends" to the left of your news feed. Individuals can be in multiple groups. Capabilities are limited on mobile devices, although changes you make on the PC will appear on your phone or tablet.
WATCH THOSE APPS
Perhaps someone invited you to play a game a few years ago. You tried it a few weeks and moved on, yet the app is still getting access to your data. Or perhaps you've used Facebook to log onto a service you no longer use, such as one to track the 2014 Winter Olympics. It's time to sign out. If you're not sure you still use it, drop it anyway. You can always sign on again.
The Privacy Checkup tool on PCs will review apps for you automatically. On mobile devices, look for "Apps" in the account settings (not "Apps" in the main menu).
A related option is the Security Checkup tool. It's an easy way to log out of Facebook on devices you rarely use. You can also enable alerts when someone tries to sign on from a new device or browser. To run this, go to http://Facebook.com/securitycheckup on a PC. On the Android app, you can search for "security checkup" in the Help Center. On iPhones and iPads, you'll have to find the options individually in the account settings under "Security."
CONTROL YOUR DATA
You can exert some influence over whose posts you see more or less often by going to "News Feeds Preferences." The setting is on the top right on browsers and Android apps and on the lower right on iPhones. Here, you can select friends who'll always show up on top, or hide someone's posts completely.
Finally, if you're worried about data usage, you can stop videos in your news feeds from playing automatically. On Android, go to "Autoplay" in the "App Settings." On iPhones, it's in the account settings under "Videos and Photos."
PLAN AHEAD
Two settings might eliminate grief later in life ... or death.
In the security settings, you can designate certain friends as trusted contacts. They'll have power to help you if you get locked out of your account for some reason. You can also designate a "Legacy Contact" — a family member or close friend who'd serve as your administrator should you, um, make your last status update (as in, ever). They won't be able to post on your behalf or see your messages, but they'll be able to respond to new friend requests and take a few additional actions on your deceased behalf.
Now is a good time to do some digital cleanup, while the year is still fresh. Review your security and privacy settings, and make sure those casual acquaintances you met at a bar eons ago aren't still getting the most intimate details of your life. Get rid of games and apps that might have latched onto your account years ago, but that you no longer use.
Here are six cleanup tips:
SECURE YOUR ACCOUNT
You've doubtless heard you should have a strong password. It's especially important for email and social-networking accounts because so much of your digital life revolves around them. Plus, many other services let you log on using your Facebook account, so if that gets compromised, so will your other accounts.
Because passwords are tough to manage, it's best not to rely solely on them. Turn on what Facebook calls Login Approvals. It's in the account settings under "Security." After you do so, you're asked for confirmation — entering a special number sent to your phone — when signing on from a new device.
Unless you switch devices often, this is something you set up once and forget about. And no one else can log in with your password unless they also have your phone and that special number.
REVIEW YOUR PRIVACY SETTINGS
Facebook offers a series of quick privacy "shortcuts." On desktops and laptops, look for the small padlock on the upper right corner of the browser. On Apple and Android devices, access shortcuts through the menu — the three horizontal bars.
The key shortcut is "Who can see my stuff ?" See whether you've been inadvertently broadcasting your musings to the entire Facebook community. You'll probably want to at least limit sharing to "Friends" rather than "Public," though you can customize that further to exclude certain individuals or groups — such as co-workers, acquaintances or grandparents. When sharing, remember that less is more.
While you're at it, check "Timeline and Tagging" in your account settings from a PC or mobile. You can insist on approving posts that people tag you in. Note that this is limited to what appears on your personal timeline; if Mary tags you in a post, Mary's friends will still see it regardless of your settings. That includes friends you may have in common with her.
If you're on a desktop or laptop, Facebook has a Privacy Checkup tool to review your settings. Look for that padlock. This tool is coming soon to mobile.
MAKE YOUR FRIENDS LESS FRIENDLY
Purge friends you're no longer in touch with. If you think "unfriending" is too mean, add them to an "Acquaintances" or "Restricted" list instead. "Acquaintances" means they won't show up in your news feed as often, though they'll still have full access to any posts you distribute to your friends. "Restricted" means they'll only see posts you mark as public. Either is effectively a way to unfriend someone without dropping any clues you've done so.
You can also create custom lists, such as "college friends" or "family." This is great for oversharing with those who'll appreciate it, while not annoying everyone else you know and putting yourself in danger of becoming an "acquaintance" yourself. You can create lists on a traditional PC by hitting "More" next to "Friends" to the left of your news feed. Individuals can be in multiple groups. Capabilities are limited on mobile devices, although changes you make on the PC will appear on your phone or tablet.
WATCH THOSE APPS
Perhaps someone invited you to play a game a few years ago. You tried it a few weeks and moved on, yet the app is still getting access to your data. Or perhaps you've used Facebook to log onto a service you no longer use, such as one to track the 2014 Winter Olympics. It's time to sign out. If you're not sure you still use it, drop it anyway. You can always sign on again.
The Privacy Checkup tool on PCs will review apps for you automatically. On mobile devices, look for "Apps" in the account settings (not "Apps" in the main menu).
A related option is the Security Checkup tool. It's an easy way to log out of Facebook on devices you rarely use. You can also enable alerts when someone tries to sign on from a new device or browser. To run this, go to http://Facebook.com/securitycheckup on a PC. On the Android app, you can search for "security checkup" in the Help Center. On iPhones and iPads, you'll have to find the options individually in the account settings under "Security."
CONTROL YOUR DATA
You can exert some influence over whose posts you see more or less often by going to "News Feeds Preferences." The setting is on the top right on browsers and Android apps and on the lower right on iPhones. Here, you can select friends who'll always show up on top, or hide someone's posts completely.
Finally, if you're worried about data usage, you can stop videos in your news feeds from playing automatically. On Android, go to "Autoplay" in the "App Settings." On iPhones, it's in the account settings under "Videos and Photos."
PLAN AHEAD
Two settings might eliminate grief later in life ... or death.
In the security settings, you can designate certain friends as trusted contacts. They'll have power to help you if you get locked out of your account for some reason. You can also designate a "Legacy Contact" — a family member or close friend who'd serve as your administrator should you, um, make your last status update (as in, ever). They won't be able to post on your behalf or see your messages, but they'll be able to respond to new friend requests and take a few additional actions on your deceased behalf.
Monday, February 01, 2016
Bill Gates on Richard Feyman
Thirty years ago I went on vacation and fell for Richard Feynman.
A friend and I were planning a trip together and wanted to mix a little learning in with our relaxation. We looked at a local university’s film collection, saw that they had one of his lectures on physics, and checked it out. We loved it so much that we ended up watching it twice. Feynman had this amazing knack for making physics clear and fun at the same time. I immediately went looking for more of his talks, and I’ve been a big fan ever since. Years later I bought the rights to those lectures and worked with Microsoft to get them posted online for free.
In 1965, Feynman shared a Nobel Prize for work on particle physics. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of that honor, the California Institute of Technology—where he taught for many years before his death in 1988—asked for some thoughts about what made him so special. Here’s the video I sent:
In that video, I especially love the way Feynman explains how fire works. He takes such obvious delight in knowledge—you can see his face light up. And he makes it so clear that anyone can understand it.
In that sense, Feynman has a lot in common with all the amazing teachers I’ve met in schools across the country. You walk into their classroom and immediately feel the energy—the way they engage their students—and their passion for whatever subject they’re teaching.
-- Bill Gates, 1/27/16
A friend and I were planning a trip together and wanted to mix a little learning in with our relaxation. We looked at a local university’s film collection, saw that they had one of his lectures on physics, and checked it out. We loved it so much that we ended up watching it twice. Feynman had this amazing knack for making physics clear and fun at the same time. I immediately went looking for more of his talks, and I’ve been a big fan ever since. Years later I bought the rights to those lectures and worked with Microsoft to get them posted online for free.
In 1965, Feynman shared a Nobel Prize for work on particle physics. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of that honor, the California Institute of Technology—where he taught for many years before his death in 1988—asked for some thoughts about what made him so special. Here’s the video I sent:
In that video, I especially love the way Feynman explains how fire works. He takes such obvious delight in knowledge—you can see his face light up. And he makes it so clear that anyone can understand it.
In that sense, Feynman has a lot in common with all the amazing teachers I’ve met in schools across the country. You walk into their classroom and immediately feel the energy—the way they engage their students—and their passion for whatever subject they’re teaching.
-- Bill Gates, 1/27/16
Friday, January 22, 2016
Planet Nine
Caltech researchers have found evidence of a giant planet tracing a bizarre, highly elongated orbit in the outer solar system. The object, which the researchers have nicknamed Planet Nine, has a mass about 10 times that of Earth and orbits about 20 times farther from the sun on average than does Neptune (which orbits the sun at an average distance of 2.8 billion miles). In fact, it would take this new planet between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make just one full orbit around the sun.
The researchers, Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown, discovered the planet's existence through mathematical modeling and computer simulations but have not yet observed the object directly.
"This would be a real ninth planet," says Brown, the Richard and Barbara Rosenberg Professor of Planetary Astronomy. "There have only been two true planets discovered since ancient times, and this would be a third. It's a pretty substantial chunk of our solar system that's still out there to be found, which is pretty exciting."
Brown notes that the putative ninth planet--at 5,000 times the mass of Pluto--is sufficiently large that there should be no debate about whether it is a true planet. Unlike the class of smaller objects now known as dwarf planets, Planet Nine gravitationally dominates its neighborhood of the solar system. In fact, it dominates a region larger than any of the other known planets--a fact that Brown says makes it "the most planet-y of the planets in the whole solar system."
The researchers, Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown, discovered the planet's existence through mathematical modeling and computer simulations but have not yet observed the object directly.
"This would be a real ninth planet," says Brown, the Richard and Barbara Rosenberg Professor of Planetary Astronomy. "There have only been two true planets discovered since ancient times, and this would be a third. It's a pretty substantial chunk of our solar system that's still out there to be found, which is pretty exciting."
Brown notes that the putative ninth planet--at 5,000 times the mass of Pluto--is sufficiently large that there should be no debate about whether it is a true planet. Unlike the class of smaller objects now known as dwarf planets, Planet Nine gravitationally dominates its neighborhood of the solar system. In fact, it dominates a region larger than any of the other known planets--a fact that Brown says makes it "the most planet-y of the planets in the whole solar system."
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Seabin
Andrew Turton and Pete Ceglinski have a dream: to rid the ocean of all litter. While this might seem like an insurmountable goal, they’re taking it head-on.
They’ve created something called the Seabin, which is to be placed in harbors, yacht clubs, and other marinas where the water is relatively still. With the power of a pump, water flows into the contraption, taking debris and pollutants with it. The solid trash is caught in a mesh basket, while the water flows back into the ocean, but not before passing through a purifying filter.
While it might seem like a Seabin scattered here and there throughout the world wouldn’t make a huge difference, every little bit counts. When you see how much garbage just one bin can collect, you’ll become more conscious of how much garbage is out there, and we’ll hopefully work harder to change our ways. It really is incredible how horribly we treat the oceans and other bodies of water, which take up 71 percent of the planet we live on.
The hope is that the plastic collected in Seabins will go toward creating more Seabins, which will then collect more pollution… and so on and so forth.
They’ve created something called the Seabin, which is to be placed in harbors, yacht clubs, and other marinas where the water is relatively still. With the power of a pump, water flows into the contraption, taking debris and pollutants with it. The solid trash is caught in a mesh basket, while the water flows back into the ocean, but not before passing through a purifying filter.
While it might seem like a Seabin scattered here and there throughout the world wouldn’t make a huge difference, every little bit counts. When you see how much garbage just one bin can collect, you’ll become more conscious of how much garbage is out there, and we’ll hopefully work harder to change our ways. It really is incredible how horribly we treat the oceans and other bodies of water, which take up 71 percent of the planet we live on.
The hope is that the plastic collected in Seabins will go toward creating more Seabins, which will then collect more pollution… and so on and so forth.
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
The Story of SmugMug
Ever the proud father, Chris MacAskill screens 20-year-old home movies of his sons -- Ben singing about a stegosaurus, Mark getting a mohawk -- on his laptop.
"This is the negative of working with family members," a red-faced Mark, now 26, says before retreating to his cubicle.
Meet the MacAskills, Silicon Valley's version of the Waltons: seven members of a close-knit clan, ranging in age from 23 to 63, who run SmugMug Inc., which helps families share their own Kodak moments online. They are holding their own against photography services on the Internet run by corporate giants even though they have never taken a dime from outside investors.
They started on a shoestring budget in 2002, not moving into real offices in Mountain View, Calif., until April. Before that, the MacAskills and their employees set up shop in the five-bedroom home of Chris and his wife, Toni. Engineers bunked two to a bedroom. Blow dryers and vacuums routinely blew circuit breakers. Barking yellow Labrador retrievers chased tennis balls up and down the stairs.
Toni, the SmugMug matriarch, referees family squabbles. When things get out of hand she sometimes jokes that she'll send everyone to their rooms for a time out.
The MacAskills deftly blend business and family -- a radical concept in the youth-obsessed Internet industry, which admits adults, particularly of the gray-haired variety, only reluctantly.
The company now employs 28 people -- all MacAskills, family friends and SmugMug customers they hired -- in five countries. The MacAskills have signed up more than 100,000 paying subscribers despite mounting competition from free services, in part by emphasizing their family-friendly approach. They post their own family photos and home videos on the website, spend countless hours chatting up their users in the company's online forum and send lively customer service e-mails such as "Who loves you, baby?"
They also reward customer loyalty. Two years ago, when SmugMug raised its prices, it grandfathered in all its current customers. Every year, SmugMug organizes "shootouts" for its customers: roving expeditions to national parks with expert instruction on how to get the perfect shot.
And once, as payment for photo services, the MacAskills accepted livestock.
That personal touch has won over customers, some of whom traveled from as far away as Boston to attend SmugMug's recent fifth-anniversary party, where they dressed up in colorful costumes courtesy of SmugMug and mugged for the camera. Others have been so taken with the company that they quit their jobs to work there.
" Google went to great lengths to create a dorm atmosphere," said Don MacAskill, the 30-year-old chief executive and "chief geek." "We work in earnest to create a family atmosphere."
-- Honolulu Star Advertiser, January 12, 2008 [from Cheryl's stack, yeah, I know it's now 12/30/15]
"This is the negative of working with family members," a red-faced Mark, now 26, says before retreating to his cubicle.
Meet the MacAskills, Silicon Valley's version of the Waltons: seven members of a close-knit clan, ranging in age from 23 to 63, who run SmugMug Inc., which helps families share their own Kodak moments online. They are holding their own against photography services on the Internet run by corporate giants even though they have never taken a dime from outside investors.
They started on a shoestring budget in 2002, not moving into real offices in Mountain View, Calif., until April. Before that, the MacAskills and their employees set up shop in the five-bedroom home of Chris and his wife, Toni. Engineers bunked two to a bedroom. Blow dryers and vacuums routinely blew circuit breakers. Barking yellow Labrador retrievers chased tennis balls up and down the stairs.
Toni, the SmugMug matriarch, referees family squabbles. When things get out of hand she sometimes jokes that she'll send everyone to their rooms for a time out.
The MacAskills deftly blend business and family -- a radical concept in the youth-obsessed Internet industry, which admits adults, particularly of the gray-haired variety, only reluctantly.
The company now employs 28 people -- all MacAskills, family friends and SmugMug customers they hired -- in five countries. The MacAskills have signed up more than 100,000 paying subscribers despite mounting competition from free services, in part by emphasizing their family-friendly approach. They post their own family photos and home videos on the website, spend countless hours chatting up their users in the company's online forum and send lively customer service e-mails such as "Who loves you, baby?"
They also reward customer loyalty. Two years ago, when SmugMug raised its prices, it grandfathered in all its current customers. Every year, SmugMug organizes "shootouts" for its customers: roving expeditions to national parks with expert instruction on how to get the perfect shot.
And once, as payment for photo services, the MacAskills accepted livestock.
That personal touch has won over customers, some of whom traveled from as far away as Boston to attend SmugMug's recent fifth-anniversary party, where they dressed up in colorful costumes courtesy of SmugMug and mugged for the camera. Others have been so taken with the company that they quit their jobs to work there.
" Google went to great lengths to create a dorm atmosphere," said Don MacAskill, the 30-year-old chief executive and "chief geek." "We work in earnest to create a family atmosphere."
-- Honolulu Star Advertiser, January 12, 2008 [from Cheryl's stack, yeah, I know it's now 12/30/15]
Thursday, December 24, 2015
Fire TV Stick
Got my Fire TV Stick in the mail yesterday. Couldn't resist the Black Friday price of $25. I figured I wanted to get a backup remote for my Fire TV anyway (which is $15), so I would be paying only $10 for the Fire TV. [Should have bought the $35 Fire tablet too. Why? Because it was $35!]
OK, how to open it?
There's two small tabs to pull out on the side of the box. After that you can slide the box out from the sleeve.
Now for the dreaded remote control. There are reports that it's really hard to open to put in/take out the batteries. Let's see.
The box has two layers. The top layer is the Fire TV stick and the remote. Removing the top layer, I see the instruction manual. Under the instruction manual is a usb cable (for plugging into the power adapter, a USB extender, the batteries, and the power adapter.
First let me see how hard it is to remove the remote cover. First take it out of the plastic wrapper. I assume you gotta press down and slide it off. Not so easy. But I did it after a few seconds. The trick is to push down more vertically than horizontally. Knowing that, it's pretty easy.
back later...
... that evening ... OK, let's set it up.
Unplug the Apple TV, pull out the USB cable from the TV
Put the batteries in the remote.
Plug the power adapter in the extension cord
Plug the Fire TV USB cable into the power adapter
Plug the Fire TV Stick in the HDMI port on the TV
Plug the other end of the USB cable into the Fire TV Stick
Turn on the TV
Press the [play] button to start
OK press the play button
[OK I guess the remote got recognized cause it went to the next page]
Choose your language: English (United States)
Connect to your network
CyberHiNet
Enter password: **********
Connect
Connection successful
checking for updates
successfully registered
[they already registered the device to my account]
Yes, continue as **** *****
checking network speed
goes to the intro video [modified for the Fire TV stick vs. the Fire TV]
enable / don't enable parental controls
then it goes to the familiar Fire TV interface
The Fire TV Stick interface looks the same as the Fire TV interface except for the voice search
*** [12/25/15]
Test out Hulu by watching the Goldbergs. Didn't notice much stutter if any. Don't know if that's the Stick or the internet connection (which finally got cleared up on Saturday after like four weeks of the phone being down).
***
Netflix works OK too.
But doesn't appear that the CBS app runs on it. Apparently it does run on the Fire TV Stick with voice remote. I didn't think there was any difference between the Fire TV Stick with voice remote and without voice remote. It kind of doesn't make sense to me. Well, maybe they'll upgrade it later?
WatchESPN runs even without authentication. But maybe it's because I'm on Hawaiiantelcom internet.
OK, how to open it?
There's two small tabs to pull out on the side of the box. After that you can slide the box out from the sleeve.
Now for the dreaded remote control. There are reports that it's really hard to open to put in/take out the batteries. Let's see.
The box has two layers. The top layer is the Fire TV stick and the remote. Removing the top layer, I see the instruction manual. Under the instruction manual is a usb cable (for plugging into the power adapter, a USB extender, the batteries, and the power adapter.
First let me see how hard it is to remove the remote cover. First take it out of the plastic wrapper. I assume you gotta press down and slide it off. Not so easy. But I did it after a few seconds. The trick is to push down more vertically than horizontally. Knowing that, it's pretty easy.
back later...
... that evening ... OK, let's set it up.
Unplug the Apple TV, pull out the USB cable from the TV
Put the batteries in the remote.
Plug the power adapter in the extension cord
Plug the Fire TV USB cable into the power adapter
Plug the Fire TV Stick in the HDMI port on the TV
Plug the other end of the USB cable into the Fire TV Stick
Turn on the TV
Press the [play] button to start
OK press the play button
[OK I guess the remote got recognized cause it went to the next page]
Choose your language: English (United States)
Connect to your network
CyberHiNet
Enter password: **********
Connect
Connection successful
checking for updates
successfully registered
[they already registered the device to my account]
Yes, continue as **** *****
checking network speed
goes to the intro video [modified for the Fire TV stick vs. the Fire TV]
enable / don't enable parental controls
then it goes to the familiar Fire TV interface
The Fire TV Stick interface looks the same as the Fire TV interface except for the voice search
*** [12/25/15]
Test out Hulu by watching the Goldbergs. Didn't notice much stutter if any. Don't know if that's the Stick or the internet connection (which finally got cleared up on Saturday after like four weeks of the phone being down).
***
Netflix works OK too.
But doesn't appear that the CBS app runs on it. Apparently it does run on the Fire TV Stick with voice remote. I didn't think there was any difference between the Fire TV Stick with voice remote and without voice remote. It kind of doesn't make sense to me. Well, maybe they'll upgrade it later?
WatchESPN runs even without authentication. But maybe it's because I'm on Hawaiiantelcom internet.
football without cable?
For the first time since ESPN took over the college football championship and most bowl games, cord cutters will now be able to legally watch most bowl games this year. With Sling TV offering a legal option to watch 38 of this year’s 40 bowl games, cord cutters can sit back and really enjoy their college football.
Even the playoff games and national championship game will be on ESPN this year, making this the first time cord cutters have legal access to watch the college football playoffs and national championship game.
CBS will carry The Hyundai Sun Bowl national over the air for free. FOX will be carrying the Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl free on Fox in the home markets for each team.
This means between Sling TV and free over-the-air television every college football bowl game, playoff, and the national championship game will be available for cord cutters to legally watch.
This is a huge turning point for cord cutters. For years sports was the number one reason people kept paying for cable even when they wanted to leave.
***
What about the NFL? Most games are carried live over the air on Fox, CBS, or NBC. The Monday night games are on ESPN. The odd games out are the Thursday night games on NFL Network. Plus that one game in Europe that was carried by Yahoo.
What about the NBA? Most games are either on ESPN (or ABC) or TNT. So Sling TV covers that. The exception are the games on NBA TV. And of course you can subscribe to NBA League Pass for the vast majority of the other games (except for the teams blacked out in your area). Here, that would mean the Lakers games, the Clippers games, and the Kings games. The Lakers are carried on TWCSports available on Oceanic and HawaiianTelcom. The Clippers are carried on Prime Ticket which is carried on Oceanic but not HawaiianTelcom. The Kings games are not available in Hawaii as far as I know. (The DirecTV sales guy at Costco told me you can watch those games on their sports package, but I don't think he knew what he was talking about.) So you would still need cable to watch most of the Lakers and Clippers games. I'm wondering though if you could use your Hawaiiantelcom credentials on the FoxSports app and watch the Clippers that way.
Looking up the DirecTV sports pack. According to this, you can get Prime Ticket as well as CSN Bay Area which covers the Golden State Warriors and San Francisco Giants (whose games are normally blacked out in Hawaii). So this might (or might not) be wrong.
Even the playoff games and national championship game will be on ESPN this year, making this the first time cord cutters have legal access to watch the college football playoffs and national championship game.
CBS will carry The Hyundai Sun Bowl national over the air for free. FOX will be carrying the Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl free on Fox in the home markets for each team.
This means between Sling TV and free over-the-air television every college football bowl game, playoff, and the national championship game will be available for cord cutters to legally watch.
This is a huge turning point for cord cutters. For years sports was the number one reason people kept paying for cable even when they wanted to leave.
***
What about the NFL? Most games are carried live over the air on Fox, CBS, or NBC. The Monday night games are on ESPN. The odd games out are the Thursday night games on NFL Network. Plus that one game in Europe that was carried by Yahoo.
What about the NBA? Most games are either on ESPN (or ABC) or TNT. So Sling TV covers that. The exception are the games on NBA TV. And of course you can subscribe to NBA League Pass for the vast majority of the other games (except for the teams blacked out in your area). Here, that would mean the Lakers games, the Clippers games, and the Kings games. The Lakers are carried on TWCSports available on Oceanic and HawaiianTelcom. The Clippers are carried on Prime Ticket which is carried on Oceanic but not HawaiianTelcom. The Kings games are not available in Hawaii as far as I know. (The DirecTV sales guy at Costco told me you can watch those games on their sports package, but I don't think he knew what he was talking about.) So you would still need cable to watch most of the Lakers and Clippers games. I'm wondering though if you could use your Hawaiiantelcom credentials on the FoxSports app and watch the Clippers that way.
Looking up the DirecTV sports pack. According to this, you can get Prime Ticket as well as CSN Bay Area which covers the Golden State Warriors and San Francisco Giants (whose games are normally blacked out in Hawaii). So this might (or might not) be wrong.
Monday, December 14, 2015
Windows 10
My HP laptop finally got approved for the upgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 10. Here's my log of 12/9/15.
took hp laptop home
upgrade to Windows 10
start download, upgrade later 1:13 PM
immediately went to Windows update
installing upgrade 15 of 17
connect back to CyberHiNet
wth, upgrade now
starting download
goes to Windows update
checking for updates
after a while...
downloading Windows 10
checking requirements
at 4:27 p.m. 43% complete
at 5:30 p.m. 72.6% complete 2613.7 MB
at 6:55 p.m. preparing for installation
7:46 Great, we'll get the upgrade start
decline / accept
(well, I didn't come all this way to decline, so)
choose accept
preparing for the upgrade
your upgrade is ready to install
schedule it for later / start the upgrade now
start'em
restarting
configuring update for Windows 10
0% complete
do not turn off your computer 7:51 pm
come back home at midnight
Welcome to Windows 10!
Mike Ching
Next
Let's get connected
pick a network and go online to finish setting up the device
CyberHiNet
Use Express Settings
Meet Cortana
Use Cortana
New apps for the New Windows:
Photos Microsoft Edge
Grovve Music Movies & TV
Finalizing your settings
We've updated your PC
All your files are exactly where you left them
don't see the network icon
reboot
see airplane icon and no background
force background, no slideshow? [found it later]
having problems connecting to internet
reboot
ok better
*** 12/14/15
seems to be working OK so far
took hp laptop home
upgrade to Windows 10
start download, upgrade later 1:13 PM
immediately went to Windows update
installing upgrade 15 of 17
connect back to CyberHiNet
wth, upgrade now
starting download
goes to Windows update
checking for updates
after a while...
downloading Windows 10
checking requirements
at 4:27 p.m. 43% complete
at 5:30 p.m. 72.6% complete 2613.7 MB
at 6:55 p.m. preparing for installation
7:46 Great, we'll get the upgrade start
decline / accept
(well, I didn't come all this way to decline, so)
choose accept
preparing for the upgrade
your upgrade is ready to install
schedule it for later / start the upgrade now
start'em
restarting
configuring update for Windows 10
0% complete
do not turn off your computer 7:51 pm
come back home at midnight
Welcome to Windows 10!
Mike Ching
Next
Let's get connected
pick a network and go online to finish setting up the device
CyberHiNet
Use Express Settings
Meet Cortana
Use Cortana
New apps for the New Windows:
Photos Microsoft Edge
Grovve Music Movies & TV
Finalizing your settings
We've updated your PC
All your files are exactly where you left them
don't see the network icon
reboot
see airplane icon and no background
force background, no slideshow? [found it later]
having problems connecting to internet
reboot
ok better
*** 12/14/15
seems to be working OK so far
Wednesday, December 02, 2015
streaming search engines
[11/23/14] Hollywood’s industry body organization, the Motion Picture
Association of America (MPAA), has launched a platform designed to
highlight the ease of finding and viewing content legally online.
WhereToWatch, along with a number of alternatives like CanIStreamIt, provides an easy way to find out if the movie or TV show you want to view is available to stream or purchase (download) online. Using it is easy, you can just search for a specific title or peruse by show/movie by categories including ‘Most Popular’, ‘Coming Soon’ and ‘Now Playing’.
[the other popular one is yidio.com]
*** [9/2/15]
A couple more are Justwatch.com and Findable.TV (from the wikipedia entry streaming aggregaters, which oddly doesn't mention WhereToWatch).
*** [12/2/15]
Let me make my own chart, since I've been having a little problem finding what's where and how accurate each engine is. The engine that I started with was canistream.it, followed by yidio. Lately I've been using justwatch and findable. And I guess I'll throw in wheretowatch.
My first test is Netflix, which everybody should be able to find. The test is Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes which has been carried by Netflix for a long time but they recently dropped season 1. Let's see if anybody noticed.
Canistream.it: doesn't show it as available on Netflix. Fail.
yidio: still shows season 1 available on Netflix.
justwatch: shows season 1 available on Netflix
findable.tv: correctly shows season 2 available and season 1 non available. Plus they show all the episodes availability without having to click on each individual episode.
wheretowatch doesn't even show Netflix, which eliminates it from being a serious candidate. I guess it's telling you where you can buy the show.
So the winner here is findable.tv with 2 points. yidio and justwatch get 1 point. canistream.it gets zero. And wheretowatch is not even worth mentioning now.
Let's go to Hulu. How about The Goldberg's which now has all the seasons available. Canistream.it doesn't show any season available. Fail again. Apparently the site is no longer being updated. I wonder if it even knows about Goldfinger which was added a month or two ago? Not available for streaming. That eliminates canistream.it as a candidate even worth looking at.
Yidio correctly identifies The Goldbergs as well as Goldfinger.
Justwatch says 3 seasons available on hulu+ and 2 seasons on hulu. But doesn't break down the individual episodes. (Well if you click on the title, you get to the individual episodes.) It finds Goldfinger on Hulu+ and Epix. findable.tv is correct again and lists each individual episode's availability for the season without having to click further. It finds Goldfinger as available on Hulu+ and available for rental/purchase on Amazon, Vudu, iTunes.
I'll give findable.tv a 2 and the others a 1.
Next is Crackle. Let's see. Beverly Hills Ninja is on. Yidio found it. Justwatch found it. Findable disappointingly doesn't cover it. How about the Crackle original: The Art of More? Yidio finds it, but justwatch doesn't. Apparently JustWatch doesn't find TV shows on Crackle very well. I'll give Yidio a 2, Justwatch a 1, and Findable a 0.
Next test is HBO. Game of Thrones is the obvious show. On yidio, I notice the search brings up the series and the individual episodes. Too bad I don't see any obvious order in which the episodes are listed. Anyway it finds it. How about a movie? How about The Theory of Everything? Yidio finds it on HBO Go and HBO Now. Justwatch finds Game of Thrones on HBO Now with a link to it and a link to the episodes if you click on the series title. They don't cover HBO Go. It also finds Theory of Everything on HBO Now. Findable.tv nicely lists the Game of Thrones episodes individually and find The Theory of Everything on HBO Go. I'll give everybody 1 point here.
Next is Showtime. Homeland is the show here. Yidio shows it available on both Showtime and Hulu, but you need a subscription to Showtime on Hulu to watch it on Hulu. Justwatch shows it available on showtime with a link to Showtime.com (which is different from Showtime Anytime which is offered "free" to cable subscribers). Findable doesn't cover Showtime. How about a movie? Let's see. Dragonheart. Yidio doesn't find it. JustWatch finds it. So I'll give Yidio a 1, Justwatch a 2 and Findable a 0.
How about FX Now? Fargo? Yidio finds it on FX (for cable subscribers), but doesn't find it on Hulu. Justwatch oddly says there's 2 season on Hulu and 1 season on Hulu+. Findable.tv finds it on Hulu. How about a movie? White House Down. Yidio sees it on Xfinity. JustWatch shows it only available for rent or buy. Findable also. I kind of want to give everybody a zero here, since none of them explicitly cover the FX Now app, but I'll give everybody a 1.
Finally CBS All Access. Supergirl. Yidio shows it available for free on CBS, but not the episodes available on CBS All Access. JustWatch shows it available only on Amazon. Findable.tv shows it available for free with ads and for subs (i.e. All Access). So I'll give yidio a 1, justwatch a 0, findable.tv a 2 here.
I forgot Amazon Prime, since it's not explicitly on my Apple TV. iCarly. Yidio shows the first three seasons available on Amazon Prime, but you have to scroll down and click on the episode to see if it's available. JustWatch doesn't show it available on Amazon, let alone Amazon Prime. Findable shows the first three seasons as availabe for Amazon Prime. And the later seasons available for purchase on Amazon and iTunes. Man in the High Castle? Yidio finds it. JustWatch finds it. Findable.tv oddly only lists the pilot episode without showing availability. I'll chalk that down as an anomaly. How about a movie? Ex Machina. Yidio finds it. Justwatch finds it. Findable finds it. I'll give everybody a 1.
WhereToWatch, along with a number of alternatives like CanIStreamIt, provides an easy way to find out if the movie or TV show you want to view is available to stream or purchase (download) online. Using it is easy, you can just search for a specific title or peruse by show/movie by categories including ‘Most Popular’, ‘Coming Soon’ and ‘Now Playing’.
[the other popular one is yidio.com]
*** [9/2/15]
A couple more are Justwatch.com and Findable.TV (from the wikipedia entry streaming aggregaters, which oddly doesn't mention WhereToWatch).
*** [12/2/15]
Let me make my own chart, since I've been having a little problem finding what's where and how accurate each engine is. The engine that I started with was canistream.it, followed by yidio. Lately I've been using justwatch and findable. And I guess I'll throw in wheretowatch.
My first test is Netflix, which everybody should be able to find. The test is Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes which has been carried by Netflix for a long time but they recently dropped season 1. Let's see if anybody noticed.
Canistream.it: doesn't show it as available on Netflix. Fail.
yidio: still shows season 1 available on Netflix.
justwatch: shows season 1 available on Netflix
findable.tv: correctly shows season 2 available and season 1 non available. Plus they show all the episodes availability without having to click on each individual episode.
wheretowatch doesn't even show Netflix, which eliminates it from being a serious candidate. I guess it's telling you where you can buy the show.
So the winner here is findable.tv with 2 points. yidio and justwatch get 1 point. canistream.it gets zero. And wheretowatch is not even worth mentioning now.
Let's go to Hulu. How about The Goldberg's which now has all the seasons available. Canistream.it doesn't show any season available. Fail again. Apparently the site is no longer being updated. I wonder if it even knows about Goldfinger which was added a month or two ago? Not available for streaming. That eliminates canistream.it as a candidate even worth looking at.
Yidio correctly identifies The Goldbergs as well as Goldfinger.
Justwatch says 3 seasons available on hulu+ and 2 seasons on hulu. But doesn't break down the individual episodes. (Well if you click on the title, you get to the individual episodes.) It finds Goldfinger on Hulu+ and Epix. findable.tv is correct again and lists each individual episode's availability for the season without having to click further. It finds Goldfinger as available on Hulu+ and available for rental/purchase on Amazon, Vudu, iTunes.
I'll give findable.tv a 2 and the others a 1.
Next is Crackle. Let's see. Beverly Hills Ninja is on. Yidio found it. Justwatch found it. Findable disappointingly doesn't cover it. How about the Crackle original: The Art of More? Yidio finds it, but justwatch doesn't. Apparently JustWatch doesn't find TV shows on Crackle very well. I'll give Yidio a 2, Justwatch a 1, and Findable a 0.
Next test is HBO. Game of Thrones is the obvious show. On yidio, I notice the search brings up the series and the individual episodes. Too bad I don't see any obvious order in which the episodes are listed. Anyway it finds it. How about a movie? How about The Theory of Everything? Yidio finds it on HBO Go and HBO Now. Justwatch finds Game of Thrones on HBO Now with a link to it and a link to the episodes if you click on the series title. They don't cover HBO Go. It also finds Theory of Everything on HBO Now. Findable.tv nicely lists the Game of Thrones episodes individually and find The Theory of Everything on HBO Go. I'll give everybody 1 point here.
Next is Showtime. Homeland is the show here. Yidio shows it available on both Showtime and Hulu, but you need a subscription to Showtime on Hulu to watch it on Hulu. Justwatch shows it available on showtime with a link to Showtime.com (which is different from Showtime Anytime which is offered "free" to cable subscribers). Findable doesn't cover Showtime. How about a movie? Let's see. Dragonheart. Yidio doesn't find it. JustWatch finds it. So I'll give Yidio a 1, Justwatch a 2 and Findable a 0.
How about FX Now? Fargo? Yidio finds it on FX (for cable subscribers), but doesn't find it on Hulu. Justwatch oddly says there's 2 season on Hulu and 1 season on Hulu+. Findable.tv finds it on Hulu. How about a movie? White House Down. Yidio sees it on Xfinity. JustWatch shows it only available for rent or buy. Findable also. I kind of want to give everybody a zero here, since none of them explicitly cover the FX Now app, but I'll give everybody a 1.
Finally CBS All Access. Supergirl. Yidio shows it available for free on CBS, but not the episodes available on CBS All Access. JustWatch shows it available only on Amazon. Findable.tv shows it available for free with ads and for subs (i.e. All Access). So I'll give yidio a 1, justwatch a 0, findable.tv a 2 here.
I forgot Amazon Prime, since it's not explicitly on my Apple TV. iCarly. Yidio shows the first three seasons available on Amazon Prime, but you have to scroll down and click on the episode to see if it's available. JustWatch doesn't show it available on Amazon, let alone Amazon Prime. Findable shows the first three seasons as availabe for Amazon Prime. And the later seasons available for purchase on Amazon and iTunes. Man in the High Castle? Yidio finds it. JustWatch finds it. Findable.tv oddly only lists the pilot episode without showing availability. I'll chalk that down as an anomaly. How about a movie? Ex Machina. Yidio finds it. Justwatch finds it. Findable finds it. I'll give everybody a 1.
To sum up, I like Findable.tv the best, especially the way it displays the TV series episodes, but it doesn't cover Crackle or Showtime. If I want to check Crackle, I should check yidio. And if I want to check Showtime, I should check JustWatch. Disappointingly none of them cover everything. And none of them really cover FX Now. Yidio comes closest to covering everything, but is not always accurate.
Next, maybe I'll check some of the services mentioned in this article. Hmm. And now canistream.it seems to be working better.
Gowatchit found Dragonheart on Showtime. But it's apparently only for movies.
[12/3/15] Set up the Roku. It finds shows on Crackle and HBO and CBS All Access, but not Showtime.
[12/4/15] Another plus for yidio and findable, they find shows on The History Channel, but not justwatch.
yidio justwatch findable
Netflix 1 1 2
Hulu 1 1 2
Crackle 2 1 0
HBO 1 1 1
Showtime 1 2 0
FX Now 1 1 1
CBS All Access 1 0 2
Amazon Prime 1 1 1
History Channel 1 0 1
Next, maybe I'll check some of the services mentioned in this article. Hmm. And now canistream.it seems to be working better.
Gowatchit found Dragonheart on Showtime. But it's apparently only for movies.
[12/3/15] Set up the Roku. It finds shows on Crackle and HBO and CBS All Access, but not Showtime.
[12/4/15] Another plus for yidio and findable, they find shows on The History Channel, but not justwatch.
yidio justwatch findable
Netflix 1 1 2
Hulu 1 1 2
Crackle 2 1 0
HBO 1 1 1
Showtime 1 2 0
FX Now 1 1 1
CBS All Access 1 0 2
Amazon Prime 1 1 1
History Channel 1 0 1
redeeming UltraViolet and Digital Copy
After two years, I finally decided to try to redeem the ultraviolet copy of Star Trek: Into Darkness. I probably wouldn't have bothered, but I recently purchased Furious 7 and I went around to see if I had any other movies with Digital Copy and this was one of them. (The insert said "code may not be valid after 9/10/15" but I figured I'd try anyway.)
The insert suggested two ways to redeem the movie. One was at paramountmovies.com. The other was ultraviolet.flixster.com/paramount. But for some reason, I want to paramountdigitalcopy.com/startrekintodarkness (which was the instructions for Digital Copy, not UltraViolet) where I was asked to select media type. The choices were Apple iTunes or UltraViolet. I selected UltraViolet which gave me four options: Paramount, Vudu, Flixster, CinemaNow. I chose Vudu and found the section to redeem it. And the code worked. The movie showed up in Vudu.
The problem with choosing that option (I now know) is that if you do it that way, the movie goes into your Vudu library but not automatically in your UltraViolet library. So now Star Trek: Into Darkness shows up in vudu, but not on Flixster. [And I prefer the subtitles on the Flixster app on my Roku vs. the subtitles on the Vudu app.] That's my second movie on Vudu, but not UltraViolet (and Flixster). The first one was Linsanity, but that had a code for specifically for vudu, not an UltraViolet code. I also have a few free first TV episodes on Vudu (Player, Dr. Ken, Going Deep), that are not on Flixster as well.
I think if I had chose one of the other options, it would have gone into my UltraViolet library from which vudu could pull it in. I don't know for sure, because when I tried to redeem it at paramount (and other places) it said code already used.
[12/2/15 pm - Wait a minute. Checking Flixster on the Roku at my mom's place in the evening, I see Star Trek: Into Darkness is now listed. I guess it does transfer after all, but takes a little while. Checking Flixster on my PC, I see it there too. How about paramountmovies.com? It's there too. And NCIS: New Orleans pilot plays here, though for some reason, playback is unavailable on Flixster on the PC (and in fact, TV shows don't even show up on the Flixster app on the Roku).]
Pressing on, I next tried Digital Copy. I went to iTunes on my PC to redeem it and it gave me the option to download it. Not wanting to wait a couple of hours (or whatever) on my slow internet connection, I skipped.
Then I saw you could redeem it on your iPad (apparently without downloading). So I went to the iTunes store on my iPad, went to movies, scrolled down and saw redeem and entered the code. And the movie showed up in purchased.
Then I checked on my Apple TV and sure enough it's there too. The problem is that it'll take over 2 hours to download before I can play it. Don't know why you have to wait for it to download on the AppleTV when it plays almost immediately on the Roku.
***
OK, I see another one. X-Men: First Class is a Blue-Ray + Digital Copy. Also bought two years ago (Black Friday) and still unopened. OK, I guess it's time.
It actually comes with a Digital Copy DVD. No UltraViolet option that I can see. And there are two options. The second option is requires a network-connected Blu-ray player which I don't have, which leaves option one.
1) insert DIGITAL COPY DISC into your Mac or PC's DVD.
2) click on TRANSFER DIGITAL COPY
you can transfer a digital copy of this movie to your computer where it can be watched or transferred to other portable media devices.
Choose iTunes below if you have an iPod or iPhone, or Windows Media Player if you have a PlaysForSure compatible portable media device.
What is PlaysForSure? Introduced by Microsoft in 2004. CNet wrote an obituary in 2007.
3) Click either iTunes or Windows Media Format
iTunes it is. Click on Transfer To iTunes.
4) Follow the simple on-screen instructions then enter the the unique activation code from this insert to redeem your Digital Copy. Once you have redeemed your Digital Copy, you can watch the movie on your computer and/or transfer it to an iTunes-or Window Media-compatible device.
iTunes is launched and I'm asked to Enter Code. OK, type in the code and click on Redeem.
Sign in to redeem your code.
Accessing iTunes Store...
Your code has been successfully redeemed. Your movie is now transferring.
Once the transfer is complete, you can enjoy your movie right on your computer
Oh boy, I think it's copying the whole movie from the DVD to the computer hard drive. I guess this could take a while.
In the meantime while I'm waiting, I checked my video app on my iPad and I see both movies appear on my iPad, but I'm afraid to play it because I don't have any room to download it.
No notification that it finished transferring, but I don't see any DVD activity and the hard drive light is only lightly flickering. So maybe it's done. Let's try to play the movie in iTunes on the computer.
There it is, but don't see Star Trek: Into Darkness. It plays, so I guess it worked. I see I can even stream it via AirPlay to the AppleTV.
... In the meantime, Star Trek: Into Darkness is almost ready to play on the Apple TV. 4 minutes to go... Make that 10 minutes.
Playing X-Men: First Class on the PC via iTunes. At the bottom says 1 movie, 2 hours, 12 minutes, 1.79 GB. I wonder what happens if I log on to iTunes on another computer?
And now Star Trek: Into Darkness finally starts playing on the Apple TV. Exit out to menu. Now see X-Men: First Class in the purchased section. Let's try playing. Hey it started playing rather quickly! (Surprisingly.) Maybe because it's not in HD like Star Trek: Into Darkness (don't know if it is or not)? But still you would think it would take a few minutes to buffer before playing.
Playing with the subtitles, I see there are options for English (United States) and English CC. I think the words are probably the same, but the fonts are slightly different. I prefer the former. There's also Auto, French, Spanish.
Hey, I see another insert where I can "access your 10 free x-men marvel digital comics"
The insert suggested two ways to redeem the movie. One was at paramountmovies.com. The other was ultraviolet.flixster.com/paramount. But for some reason, I want to paramountdigitalcopy.com/startrekintodarkness (which was the instructions for Digital Copy, not UltraViolet) where I was asked to select media type. The choices were Apple iTunes or UltraViolet. I selected UltraViolet which gave me four options: Paramount, Vudu, Flixster, CinemaNow. I chose Vudu and found the section to redeem it. And the code worked. The movie showed up in Vudu.
The problem with choosing that option (I now know) is that if you do it that way, the movie goes into your Vudu library but not automatically in your UltraViolet library. So now Star Trek: Into Darkness shows up in vudu, but not on Flixster. [And I prefer the subtitles on the Flixster app on my Roku vs. the subtitles on the Vudu app.] That's my second movie on Vudu, but not UltraViolet (and Flixster). The first one was Linsanity, but that had a code for specifically for vudu, not an UltraViolet code. I also have a few free first TV episodes on Vudu (Player, Dr. Ken, Going Deep), that are not on Flixster as well.
I think if I had chose one of the other options, it would have gone into my UltraViolet library from which vudu could pull it in. I don't know for sure, because when I tried to redeem it at paramount (and other places) it said code already used.
[12/2/15 pm - Wait a minute. Checking Flixster on the Roku at my mom's place in the evening, I see Star Trek: Into Darkness is now listed. I guess it does transfer after all, but takes a little while. Checking Flixster on my PC, I see it there too. How about paramountmovies.com? It's there too. And NCIS: New Orleans pilot plays here, though for some reason, playback is unavailable on Flixster on the PC (and in fact, TV shows don't even show up on the Flixster app on the Roku).]
Pressing on, I next tried Digital Copy. I went to iTunes on my PC to redeem it and it gave me the option to download it. Not wanting to wait a couple of hours (or whatever) on my slow internet connection, I skipped.
Then I saw you could redeem it on your iPad (apparently without downloading). So I went to the iTunes store on my iPad, went to movies, scrolled down and saw redeem and entered the code. And the movie showed up in purchased.
Then I checked on my Apple TV and sure enough it's there too. The problem is that it'll take over 2 hours to download before I can play it. Don't know why you have to wait for it to download on the AppleTV when it plays almost immediately on the Roku.
***
OK, I see another one. X-Men: First Class is a Blue-Ray + Digital Copy. Also bought two years ago (Black Friday) and still unopened. OK, I guess it's time.
It actually comes with a Digital Copy DVD. No UltraViolet option that I can see. And there are two options. The second option is requires a network-connected Blu-ray player which I don't have, which leaves option one.
1) insert DIGITAL COPY DISC into your Mac or PC's DVD.
2) click on TRANSFER DIGITAL COPY
you can transfer a digital copy of this movie to your computer where it can be watched or transferred to other portable media devices.
Choose iTunes below if you have an iPod or iPhone, or Windows Media Player if you have a PlaysForSure compatible portable media device.
What is PlaysForSure? Introduced by Microsoft in 2004. CNet wrote an obituary in 2007.
3) Click either iTunes or Windows Media Format
iTunes it is. Click on Transfer To iTunes.
4) Follow the simple on-screen instructions then enter the the unique activation code from this insert to redeem your Digital Copy. Once you have redeemed your Digital Copy, you can watch the movie on your computer and/or transfer it to an iTunes-or Window Media-compatible device.
iTunes is launched and I'm asked to Enter Code. OK, type in the code and click on Redeem.
Sign in to redeem your code.
Accessing iTunes Store...
Your code has been successfully redeemed. Your movie is now transferring.
Once the transfer is complete, you can enjoy your movie right on your computer
Oh boy, I think it's copying the whole movie from the DVD to the computer hard drive. I guess this could take a while.
In the meantime while I'm waiting, I checked my video app on my iPad and I see both movies appear on my iPad, but I'm afraid to play it because I don't have any room to download it.
No notification that it finished transferring, but I don't see any DVD activity and the hard drive light is only lightly flickering. So maybe it's done. Let's try to play the movie in iTunes on the computer.
There it is, but don't see Star Trek: Into Darkness. It plays, so I guess it worked. I see I can even stream it via AirPlay to the AppleTV.
... In the meantime, Star Trek: Into Darkness is almost ready to play on the Apple TV. 4 minutes to go... Make that 10 minutes.
Playing X-Men: First Class on the PC via iTunes. At the bottom says 1 movie, 2 hours, 12 minutes, 1.79 GB. I wonder what happens if I log on to iTunes on another computer?
And now Star Trek: Into Darkness finally starts playing on the Apple TV. Exit out to menu. Now see X-Men: First Class in the purchased section. Let's try playing. Hey it started playing rather quickly! (Surprisingly.) Maybe because it's not in HD like Star Trek: Into Darkness (don't know if it is or not)? But still you would think it would take a few minutes to buffer before playing.
Playing with the subtitles, I see there are options for English (United States) and English CC. I think the words are probably the same, but the fonts are slightly different. I prefer the former. There's also Auto, French, Spanish.
Hey, I see another insert where I can "access your 10 free x-men marvel digital comics"
go to marvel.com/xmenbluray
get a server error on chrome and a blank screen on firefox.
I guess this offer expired.
[12/3/15] OK, let's try the Furious 7 again (after I exchanged it, but the DVD still didn't play in my Sony Blu-ray player).
go to universaldigitalcopy.com
enter the code
select an Ultraviolet Retailer (Universal, Flixster, Vudu, CinemaNow)
You may also add a digital version (only 1 choice which looks like iTunes to me though they don't label it).
Click Flixster this time and click Digital Version. I thought it would be one or the other, but you can click both without turning off the other.
Continue.
Flixster may share my personal information and content redemption information with NBCUniversal Media LLC and its affiliates for marketing purposes, including sending updates and special offers.
I'll uncheck this. Click Complete Redemption.
OK, I see it on Flixster.
Then I go back to Universalhidef.com (Flixster had opened a new tab). I think this for the iTunes copy.
Your email address and redemption code entitle you to other exciting features coming soon from Universal Studios. Enter them here and we'll send you a message when benefits become available.
Hey, why not? I'll put in my email address but not my gender or birthdate. And leave checked "Yes, sign me up for Special Updates, Sneak Peeks & Exclusive Offers from Universal Studios.
Click Redeem.
Nope, they're insisting on my gender and birthdate. Forget it then. Uncheck the offer. Nah, put it in. Click Redeem.
Complete Your Digital Redemption. Click on Launch iTunes to open iTunes and redeem your movie. If prompted, enter your redemption code and click redeem. Download and enjoy your Digital Movie.
I think I might be able to just enter the code in the iTunes Store on my iPad, but I'll follow the instructions for once.
Click on "Launch iTunes".
I thought it would launch the iTunes program but it went to the website. Let me try enter it in my iPad.
Go to iTunes Store. Click on Movies. Ah I see the problem, my internet went out again (only showing local).
OK, try again. It tkes to the download iTunes page. It says Tunes 12.3.1 for Windows 7 or later. I wonder if Apple only supports Windows 7 and up now.
Let me launch iTunes and see what version I have. 12.1.2.27 (on Vista).
Let's see. Click on Movies in iTunes. And I see a link that says Redeem on the right side. Enter your gift card or download code. Enter code and click the Redeem button.
Would you like to download this movie now? Download or Later. Click Later.
Your code has been successfully redeemed. You can enjoy your movie on your computer or on the go with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. You can also buy or rent thousands of great movies, including the latest releases, on the iTunes Store.
OK, click My Movies. Don't see it. Only see X-Men First Class.
Check my iPad. OK, I see it in Purchases along with X-Men: First Class and Star Trek: Into Darkness.
Check the AppleTV. There it is! Let's see how long it'll take to play.. 4 hours and 15 minutes 8)
Check Vudu. Furious 7 is there. No waiting this time..
Oh wait, I have to go to the iTunes Store section of iTunes to see My TV Shows. There they are. And there's Furious 7 and Star Trek: Into Darkness. They're in the "not in my library" section. Maybe because I have to download them. OK, now I see them all in the All section. Furious 7 and Star Trek: Into Darkness have a cloud icon with a down arrow on it. Which I assume they need to be downloaded from the cloud. Not sure how to do that. Well, I don't know if I would want to download an HD movie on my computer since it really doesn't have that much space on the hard drive. Maybe on my laptop.
Lemme see. I guess I have to click on the cloud icon.
Try that. This movie cannot be played in HD on this computer. Would you like to download the SD version of this movie instead? Nah. Cancel. I'll just watch on the AppleTV.
Don't even know why iTunes has to download instead of just streaming. I guess they're not as smart as Netflix. Or maybe it's my system. I could try take my Apple TV down to mom's or Donna's place I guess.
Hooked up my Roku. The ultraviolet movies also show up in my mgo library. Cool.
[12/3/15] OK, let's try the Furious 7 again (after I exchanged it, but the DVD still didn't play in my Sony Blu-ray player).
go to universaldigitalcopy.com
enter the code
select an Ultraviolet Retailer (Universal, Flixster, Vudu, CinemaNow)
You may also add a digital version (only 1 choice which looks like iTunes to me though they don't label it).
Click Flixster this time and click Digital Version. I thought it would be one or the other, but you can click both without turning off the other.
Continue.
Flixster may share my personal information and content redemption information with NBCUniversal Media LLC and its affiliates for marketing purposes, including sending updates and special offers.
I'll uncheck this. Click Complete Redemption.
OK, I see it on Flixster.
Then I go back to Universalhidef.com (Flixster had opened a new tab). I think this for the iTunes copy.
Your email address and redemption code entitle you to other exciting features coming soon from Universal Studios. Enter them here and we'll send you a message when benefits become available.
Hey, why not? I'll put in my email address but not my gender or birthdate. And leave checked "Yes, sign me up for Special Updates, Sneak Peeks & Exclusive Offers from Universal Studios.
Click Redeem.
Nope, they're insisting on my gender and birthdate. Forget it then. Uncheck the offer. Nah, put it in. Click Redeem.
Complete Your Digital Redemption. Click on Launch iTunes to open iTunes and redeem your movie. If prompted, enter your redemption code and click redeem. Download and enjoy your Digital Movie.
I think I might be able to just enter the code in the iTunes Store on my iPad, but I'll follow the instructions for once.
Click on "Launch iTunes".
I thought it would launch the iTunes program but it went to the website. Let me try enter it in my iPad.
Go to iTunes Store. Click on Movies. Ah I see the problem, my internet went out again (only showing local).
OK, try again. It tkes to the download iTunes page. It says Tunes 12.3.1 for Windows 7 or later. I wonder if Apple only supports Windows 7 and up now.
Let me launch iTunes and see what version I have. 12.1.2.27 (on Vista).
Let's see. Click on Movies in iTunes. And I see a link that says Redeem on the right side. Enter your gift card or download code. Enter code and click the Redeem button.
Would you like to download this movie now? Download or Later. Click Later.
Your code has been successfully redeemed. You can enjoy your movie on your computer or on the go with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. You can also buy or rent thousands of great movies, including the latest releases, on the iTunes Store.
OK, click My Movies. Don't see it. Only see X-Men First Class.
Check my iPad. OK, I see it in Purchases along with X-Men: First Class and Star Trek: Into Darkness.
Check the AppleTV. There it is! Let's see how long it'll take to play.. 4 hours and 15 minutes 8)
Check Vudu. Furious 7 is there. No waiting this time..
Oh wait, I have to go to the iTunes Store section of iTunes to see My TV Shows. There they are. And there's Furious 7 and Star Trek: Into Darkness. They're in the "not in my library" section. Maybe because I have to download them. OK, now I see them all in the All section. Furious 7 and Star Trek: Into Darkness have a cloud icon with a down arrow on it. Which I assume they need to be downloaded from the cloud. Not sure how to do that. Well, I don't know if I would want to download an HD movie on my computer since it really doesn't have that much space on the hard drive. Maybe on my laptop.
Lemme see. I guess I have to click on the cloud icon.
Try that. This movie cannot be played in HD on this computer. Would you like to download the SD version of this movie instead? Nah. Cancel. I'll just watch on the AppleTV.
Don't even know why iTunes has to download instead of just streaming. I guess they're not as smart as Netflix. Or maybe it's my system. I could try take my Apple TV down to mom's or Donna's place I guess.
Hooked up my Roku. The ultraviolet movies also show up in my mgo library. Cool.
Tuesday, December 01, 2015
Zuckerberg to give away 99% of his facebook stock
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
just had a baby girl named Max, and to honor the occasion he's giving
away a massive portion of his wealth.
The tech leader took to the social network Tuesday to announce the birth of his first child and the formation of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative,
which he said will "join people across the world to advance human
potential and promote equality for all children in the next generation."
The announcement was framed as a letter written by Zuckerberg and wife, Priscilla Chan, to their new baby girl.
"For your generation to live in a better world, there
is so much more our generation can do," Zuckerberg wrote. "Today your
mother and I are committing to spend our lives doing our small part to
help solve these challenges."
According to the Facebook head, the Chan Zuckerberg
Initiative will focus on "personalized learning, curing disease,
connecting people and building strong communities."
Zuckerberg and Chan will donate nearly all of their Facebook stock to the cause.
"We will give 99% of our Facebook shares -- currently about $45 billion -- during our lives to advance this mission," he wrote. "We know this is a small contribution compared to all the resources and talents of those already working on these issues. But we want to do what we can, working alongside many others."
According to an SEC filing, Zuckerberg owns 419 million Facebook shares. At Tuesday's closing price of $107.12, Zuckerberg’s pledge to give away 99 percent of these shares to his newly formed initiative is worth $44.3 billion. Zuckerberg will keep $449 million worth of shares of the company he founded, along with a majority of Facebook's B shares, which provide voting rights in the company.
As Business Insider noted, Mark Zuckerberg signed the Giving Pledge in 2010, which meant he committed more than half of his wealth to philanthropy or charity. The Giving Pledge was started by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett -- which is suitable given that Zuckerberg has said that Gates was his hero growing up.
Sunday, November 29, 2015
solar battery storage
Companies
are lining up to offer battery-storage options to Hawaii customers that
own solar panel systems — a move regulators and clean-energy advocates
are hailing as a way to help the state reach its 100 percent renewable
energy goal.
The need
for such energy-storing technology was sewn into different regulatory
orders and utility proposals when the state Public Utilities Commission
announced it would limit the number of new residential and commercial
projects allowed to export solar energy to the grid, but continue to
allow solar panel systems that stored excess energy in batteries.
Clean-energy organizations and solar energy companies said batteries
used with time-of-use rates could provide an incentive for homeowners to
continue adopting rooftop solar panels, but the cost of such batteries
is still out of reach for most.
“Battery
storage is going to become important, especially as we move forward,”
PUC Chairman Randy Iwase said. “Especially given the fact that the grid
today is reaching near saturation.”
In
October the PUC ended the net energy metering (NEM) program that credits
solar panel owners for the excess energy their photovoltaic systems
send to the grid. The PUC is replacing NEM with a program that gives new
solar panel owners a slower return on their investments. New solar
panel owners who choose to send their excess energy to the grid will be
credited 15.07 cents per kilowatt-hour. This new program has a limit of
approximately 4,000 homes.
After
that limit is reached, customers still will be able to add solar panels
to their houses but will not be able to send power to the grid.
The
current program that credits solar owners for the excess energy they
send to the grid will enable them to recoup their investment in six to
eight years. A solar panel system connected to a battery has an eight-
to 12-year payback period. A customer using a battery is eligible for a
30 percent federal tax credit if it is used with PV panels. There is no
state tax credit for batteries.
“It’s not quite ready for prime time, essentially,” said Colin Yost, principal at RevoluSun.
The list
of energy companies working to provide energy storage solutions includes
San Jose, Calif.-based JuiceBox Energy; San Francisco-based Sunverge
Energy; Pittsburgh-based Aquion Energy; Honolulu-based Blue Planet
Energy; San Mateo, Calif.-based Tesla; and Honolulu-based E-Gear LLC.
Saturday, November 28, 2015
Digital HD
I picked up a copy of Furious 7 (Black Friday sale at Best Buy), partly because it had Digital HD and I wanted to see how it worked.
The back of the case said DIGITAL HD with ULTRAVIOLET. WATCH IT ANYWHERE! also includes Watch on iTunes.
How does it work?
There's an insert in the case with a 12-digit code.
The first step is to go to UniversalDigitalCopy.com. (Actually I typed this in wrong at first and went to a rogue site that warned me that I was infected by a virus. Don't do that.)
First step is to enter code
Second step is to Select Retailer
You can select one of these four UltraViolet retailers:
Universal, Flixster, Vudu, CinemaNow
Roku supports both Flixster and Vudu, but I like Flixster better because I like the Roku interface better. Flixster is also supported by the Fire TV, but it doesn't look like it supports captions. So since Flixster is apparently the only supported by Fire TV, I guess I'll go with Flixster.
You also get the option to add a digital version. I assume this is for iTunes. I really have a bigt need for the iTunes version since I can watch it on BluRay, so maybe I'll see if I can give it to somebody else to watch on their iPad.
So I'll stop now and come back later.
***
Later that day. Testing the Blu-Ray and DVD. The Blu-Ray works but for some reason, the DVD doesn't play on my Sony Blu-Ray player. It plays on my laptop and my Toshiba DVD-recorder, so the DVD is probably OK. And the Sony Blu-Ray player does play other DVDs. So don't know what's wrong.
*** [12/1/15]
Swapped the Furious 7 at Best Buy. Try the new DVD. "Cannot operate this disc" when I first put it in. Then "Cannot playback this disc" when I try again. So it's some kind of strange interaction between the DVD and the Sony Blu-ray player (BDP-S360). Sorry Best Buy, hopefully they don't toss the one I exchanged.
[see this link for my experiences redeeming the Digital HD]
The back of the case said DIGITAL HD with ULTRAVIOLET. WATCH IT ANYWHERE! also includes Watch on iTunes.
How does it work?
There's an insert in the case with a 12-digit code.
The first step is to go to UniversalDigitalCopy.com. (Actually I typed this in wrong at first and went to a rogue site that warned me that I was infected by a virus. Don't do that.)
First step is to enter code
Second step is to Select Retailer
You can select one of these four UltraViolet retailers:
Universal, Flixster, Vudu, CinemaNow
Roku supports both Flixster and Vudu, but I like Flixster better because I like the Roku interface better. Flixster is also supported by the Fire TV, but it doesn't look like it supports captions. So since Flixster is apparently the only supported by Fire TV, I guess I'll go with Flixster.
You also get the option to add a digital version. I assume this is for iTunes. I really have a bigt need for the iTunes version since I can watch it on BluRay, so maybe I'll see if I can give it to somebody else to watch on their iPad.
So I'll stop now and come back later.
***
Later that day. Testing the Blu-Ray and DVD. The Blu-Ray works but for some reason, the DVD doesn't play on my Sony Blu-Ray player. It plays on my laptop and my Toshiba DVD-recorder, so the DVD is probably OK. And the Sony Blu-Ray player does play other DVDs. So don't know what's wrong.
*** [12/1/15]
Swapped the Furious 7 at Best Buy. Try the new DVD. "Cannot operate this disc" when I first put it in. Then "Cannot playback this disc" when I try again. So it's some kind of strange interaction between the DVD and the Sony Blu-ray player (BDP-S360). Sorry Best Buy, hopefully they don't toss the one I exchanged.
[see this link for my experiences redeeming the Digital HD]
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Li-Fi
saw this on the local news (KFVE), so I looked it up....
Expect to hear a whole lot more about Li-Fi - a wireless technology that transmits high-speed data using visible light communication (VLC) - in the coming months. With scientists achieving speeds of 224 gigabits per second in the lab using Li-Fi earlier this year, the potential for this technology to change everything about the way we use the Internet is huge.
And now, scientists have taken Li-Fi out of the lab for the first time, trialling it in offices and industrial environments in Tallinn, Estonia, reporting that they can achieve data transmission at 1 GB per second - that's 100 times faster than current average Wi-Fi speeds.
Li-Fi was invented by Harald Haas from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland back in 2011, when he demonstrated for the first time that by flickering the light from a single LED, he could transmit far more data than a cellular tower. Think back to that lab-based record of 224 gigabits per second - that's 18 movies of 1.5 GB each being downloaded every single second.
The technology uses Visible Light Communication (VLC), a medium that uses visible light between 400 and 800 terahertz (THz). It works basically like an incredibly advanced form of Morse code - just like switching a torch on and off according to a certain pattern can relay a secret message, flicking an LED on and off at extreme speeds can be used to write and transmit things in binary code.
And while you might be worried about how all that flickering in an office environment would drive you crazy, don’t worry - we’re talking LEDs that can be switched on and off at speeds imperceptible to the naked eye.
Expect to hear a whole lot more about Li-Fi - a wireless technology that transmits high-speed data using visible light communication (VLC) - in the coming months. With scientists achieving speeds of 224 gigabits per second in the lab using Li-Fi earlier this year, the potential for this technology to change everything about the way we use the Internet is huge.
And now, scientists have taken Li-Fi out of the lab for the first time, trialling it in offices and industrial environments in Tallinn, Estonia, reporting that they can achieve data transmission at 1 GB per second - that's 100 times faster than current average Wi-Fi speeds.
Li-Fi was invented by Harald Haas from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland back in 2011, when he demonstrated for the first time that by flickering the light from a single LED, he could transmit far more data than a cellular tower. Think back to that lab-based record of 224 gigabits per second - that's 18 movies of 1.5 GB each being downloaded every single second.
The technology uses Visible Light Communication (VLC), a medium that uses visible light between 400 and 800 terahertz (THz). It works basically like an incredibly advanced form of Morse code - just like switching a torch on and off according to a certain pattern can relay a secret message, flicking an LED on and off at extreme speeds can be used to write and transmit things in binary code.
And while you might be worried about how all that flickering in an office environment would drive you crazy, don’t worry - we’re talking LEDs that can be switched on and off at speeds imperceptible to the naked eye.
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Philips SRP5107/27 universal remote control
[11/12/15] I was doing fine with my OneForAll remote which was programmed to control the TV, the Apple TV, the Sony Blu-Ray player, and the Roku. But then a little over a week ago, some of the buttons stopped working. Oddly after a while, it started working again. Then stopped working again.
I was going to get another OneForAll remote, but looked up universal remotes for Roku and came across the Philips SRP107/27. And bought one on ebay for only $5.99.
Well it arrived today. No batteries. No problem, I found a set of batteries in a bag for an Oceanic remote that I didn't use (the batteries I didn't use, the remote I used). (Actually I found two sets, but the first bag was so old that the batteries are corroded.)
Pop in the batteries. Test if it works. Nope, not pre-programmed for the Panasonic (I assume it's pre-programmed for a Philips TV.)
Let's set it up. Go to page 6 of the included manual.
Press and hold the TV button for five seconds. The red setup button at the top blinks and stays lit.
Look up the 4-digit code. There's a quick start guide with the code 2153 for Panasonic. Light blinks twice after keying in the code.
Press and hold the power button. Release it as soon as TV turns off. OK, the TV turned off.
Let's see if it works now. OK seems to work.
Press the TV button twice. The red light blinks twice then turns off.
Checking some of the buttons on the Philips remote. I don't see a button for Format (which changes the aspect ratio). And Favorite which display favorite channels. And Sub Menu where you can setup the favorite channels.
Let's see if I can learn those buttons.
OK, let's see if I can program the Guide button as Favorite. Page 13. Select the desired device button (TV). Red light blinks. Hold down the Learn button and the button I want to learn (Guide) for five seconds. Red light blinks and stays on. Press and hold the Favorite button on the original remote. The red setup light blinks twice and goes off.
Cool, that works. Now I have to decide which buttons to use for FORMAT and sub-menu. I think I'll use the yellow-dash button for SUB MENU and the blue-dash button for FORMAT.
[The dash button not functioning on the Philips in TV mode, so I'll learn it from the Panasonic remote.]
[I'll also map the green button on the Philips to the yellow button on the Panasonic so I can delete while editing captions. And the red button to the green button so I can change case for captions.]
[11/14/15 - problem when manually editing the programmed channels. Red pages up and green pages down. But I changed those to yellow and red for editing captions. And I changed the yellow to SUB MENU and blue for FORMAT. So now red on the Philips pages down, but I can't page up. No biggie. The other problem is exiting the edit. Pressing exit aborts the whole process instead of going to the top menu. On the Panasonic, the Return button is used. So I'll map the Philips Exit to the Panasonic Return. It's in the same place on the remote anyway. I rarely (never) use the actual exit button on the Panasonic anyway.
On the Panasonic the order of the color buttons are R, G, B, Y. On the Philips, the order is Y, B, R, G. Y is used for Sub Menu, B is used for Format, R is used for G (changing case), G is used for Y (deleting when editing). Confused enough?]
[11/14/15 - on the redo, I left the Y,B,R,G buttons alone. Mapped the L1 button as the Sub Menu button. And the 3D button as the Format button.]
Anyway it works! Very cool. And easier to program than the One For All. Now we'll see how long it lasts. Hopefully longer than the One For All (which lasted only a year).
OK how about the Apple TV? The quick start guide doesn't include a code for the Apple TV. I guess I could learn it, but there's supposed to be a code somewhere.
I found a more complete manual online. Let's see. There's a code for Apple: 0172.
Let's use the CBL button for the Apple TV. Press and hold until setup light blinks. Key in 0172. Press and hold the Power button until device switches off. The thing is that that the Apple TV doesn't switch off, so how do I know when to release it? Anyway I pressed the power for about a second then released.
Test it. That didn't work. OK. Let's try a shorter time. Nope, let's try the AUX button.
Pressed the power button and saw the Apple TV blink. So there's some kind of response. The menu button works. Exit button does something too. The forward and rewind buttons are the left and right. The play button is the Select button. Where's the up and down? Press more buttons. The channel up and down are also the left and right. The INFO button is also the Menu button. The stop and pause buttons are also the Select button. I guess that's something, but not very functional with no up and down buttons.
Let's learn the Apple TV remote then.
OK, easy enough. Learned the Apple TV remote in CBL mode. Only seven buttons to learn. Up, down, left, right, select, menu, play/pause. And most people probably don't use the play/pause as you can play/pause using the select button. Maybe it's more useful when used with a Mac.
[11/14/15 - on the redo, I see there is a use for the play/pause button. If you hold down the OK key at the main menu, you get the message to press the play/pause button for more options. Then if you do that, you have the option to hide the item from the menu.]
[11/1/16 - I had to restore settings on the Apple TV since it got locked up in the Computer Settings screen when it first started up. And I lost the SAT mode. Funny when I learned the Apple TV remote, the long press on the Menu button doesn't jump all the out to the menu. So I guess I'll use have the Apple TV relearn the keys again from the Philips remote. For some reason can't learn the page forward key to skip ahead, so I'll use the record button for now.]
OK, so far so good.
Now for the hard part. The Roku, since my original Roku remote is no longer functioning.
Let's use the AUX button. Press for five seconds until red light blinks. Key in code 2407. Press power button for various amounts of time. Don't see any response from the Roku.
OK, let's try learn it. Put the batteries in the original Roku remote. Still broken. Put the batteries back in the One For All. Still not completely working. The buttons not working (when you press it, nothing lights up) are: TV, Guide, right. The other keys learned fine, but it's fairly useless if you have have a non-functioning right key.
I guess I'll wait to see if the One For All spontaneously starts working again. It did before, but I'm not holding my breath. Either that or I'll buy a generic Roku remote. In the meantime, I guess I can use the iPad app if I need to.
OK, let's try the Sony Blu Ray player now. Sony code is 2679.
That worked eventually. For some reason the DVD button didn't respond at first when trying to get into program mode.
The main thing not working is there is no audio button (which changes the language track on the DVD/Blu-Ray if there is one) on the Philips. No biggie. But I decided to program the mute button as the audio button. The mute button was still working on the TV while in DVD mode, so to mute I would have to just turn down the volume or switch to TV mode and press mute. The Sony blu-ray remote signal is now weak. I have to put the remote close to the player and point it at the right place to make it work. So I was pleased that the Philips was able to learn it.
[Some buttons I want to re-program. The Info button brings up the options menu. I'll change it to learn Display. And I'll map the GUIDE button to the Options menu. For some reason the Input button is mapped to the options menu. I think I'll map it to the TV input button. Well, that worked but is of limited value as I still have to switch to TV mode to use the arrow keys on the Input menu. I'll map INPUT to the TIME button instead.]
[On the redo, I mapped the 3D button as the audio button since it's on the same row as the subtitle button. Interestingly the L1/Inst Replay button works to skip back 10 seconds even though that button isn't on the original remote. And I don't what the Exit button on the Philips does. It keeps saying Operation Prohibited. Maybe it's the Top Menu button? If so I think I have the MENU button as the Pop Up Menu, the GUIDE button as the Options Menu, and the Exit button as the Top Menu button. Nope. Testing it out on my Matrix Blu Ray playing the movie. Then I press Top Menu on the original remote, it says operation currently prohibited. When I press exit on the Philips, it does nothing.]
[9/14/21 - Now I notice there is a replay button on the original Sony RMT-B104A remote. And an advance button too. So I'll program the L1 button for Replay and the L2 button for Advance and the Prev Ch button for Audio. For some reason, the other Philips remote (the one with 3D button) is not working when I try to program it. I'll reset it to Sony code 2679 and see how far I get with it. OK, now I can program the Prev Ch button to be Audio. The L1 and 3D buttons don't do anything and can't seem to program them. OK, I'll leave well enough along for now. At least one of the remotes is working.]
Noticed the remote has a pretty good range as I can control the TV / players while sitting at the computer at the other end of the room.
Last would be my Toshiba DVD-recorder. But since I'm not using it now, I guess I'll fiddle with it later.
[As you might have predicted, I couldn't resist. Let's try the Toshiba DVD-recorder.] Put in the batteries into the replacement Anderic RMC 10339. The second button at the top, between the power and open/close starts blinking. The remote is on the blink :( When did I buy this thing? In February. The damn thing lasted 9 months. Wait, it settled down and the light stop blinking. Maybe there's some life in this baby yet.
OK, the code for Toshiba is 3021. Nope. The Apex TV turned off, but not the DVD recorder. OK, finally it took. Had to hold down the button about 40 seconds.
It mostly works. But I don't see a button for eject. And no setup button. And while the Anderic is now (mostly) working, the setup button is no longer working. And that's the main reason I bought the Anderic because I could get the other buttons working on the One For All remotes.
Let's see. Apparently there's a one-year warranty.
Just when I was about the contact them, the setup button starts working. WTH? I guess I'm not complaining.
OK, quickly map the SETUP button to the Philips GUIDE button, before it is lost again.
Another oddity is that the page forward and page back buttons are mapped to forward and back. While the rewind and fast forward buttons are mapped to skip back and skip ahead. I'll learn to reverse that.
For some strange reason, I can't program the page back button to skip back. But I can program it to rewind. Strange. How about using the channel up and channel down button? I can program channel up to skip forward, but can't program the channel down to skip back. Another strange quirk.
Wait, somehow I got it. I noticed that when it didn't work, the red light would stay lit. So maybe I was programming a macro or something? So I saved the current setting by pressing the DVR button twice. Then did a fresh learn. I dunno. As long as it's working now.
Also programmed the red button to act as the open/close button.
I remember there was actually an eject button on the Sony Blu-Ray even though it's not on the remote. Let me see that still works on the One For All. Nope don't see an eject on the One For All. I think it was on that Sony remote that I gave to Donna. (yeah)
[11/14/15 - On the redo, I mapped the (-) to eject and the 3D/Advance to skip ahead 30 seconds. I'll leave the skip forward/back and rewind/fast forward buttons alone for now. Couldn't leave well enough along and tried to swap the skip buttons with the rewind/fast forward buttons. For some reason, it's refusing to learn the skip back button from the Anderic.]
[11/14/15 - Wait, I was programming the DVD button instead of the DVR button. For some reason, I was able to learn the skip back button, but was having problems learning the skip forward button. But after a number of tries, it finally took. I better quit while I'm ahead.]
***
All in all, I'll give this a thumbs up as a learning remote, especially for the price.
*** [11/14/15]
Yeah, it was only a matter time, but I figured I might as well add the Apex TV to Philips remote. After all, it has seven function buttons and I was only using five. I think I'll use the SAT button for the Apex. No code in the quick start guide. Look it up in the manual that I found online. The code is 3691.
Tried it. Help power button down for at least a minutes. Didn't work. Let's try the code for Apex Digital which is 0172. Nope. How about 3021 which was the Toshiba code but I remember it turned off the TV. Nope.
OK let's use learn mode. Was going OK, but for some reason couldn't learn the 1 and 3 keys.
Let's try the TV mode. Try code 3021 (which I thought was the Apex, but was the Toshiba). The TV turned off. And the volume and channel buttons worked. But not the setup and arrow keys.
Let's try code 3691 in TV mode. That worked similarly. Power button works. Volume and channel works. But not the menu or arrow keys.
Maybe it ran out of memory. Let's try reset the remote (section 3.5 of manual). I thought it might reset just the particular device, but apparently it reset everything.
Square one. But at least I wrote everything down.
For now, I'll forget about the Apex TV since I hardly watch TV anyway and use the TV function for the Panasonic.
[Actually tried the CBL button from the Apex and that didn't work either.]
Redo.
*** [4/22/16]
bought another Philips remote on ebay for my mom's new TV at Aiea. Can't really use it yet because the TV hasn't been mounted yet. Hopefully the TV will be mounted soon so I can test it out. Because if it doesn't work within two weeks than I'll return it. Maybe I should take the TV home and set it up at my house. Actually that's not a bad idea.
Anyway. I wanted to try out the remote anyway, so I tested it on my Panasonic TV at home. The included manual is a little different than the previous one as it actually contains the list of codes.
OK press and hold the TV button. The light blinks. Enter the code 2153. OK, that seemed to work. But volume works. Channel up/down works. But then the cursor pad also changes the volume and channel.instead of navigating the menu. Strange.
Then I notice that this is not the model SRP5107/27 but SRP5107WM/17. The remote looks virtually the same, but the 3D button at the bottom is now labelled L2. Apparently this new remote is the older model. Luckily this is a learning remote, so I was able to teach the keys from the old remote to the new remote. I guess it'll be OK.
Looking further for the model number on the remote, you can check the label inside the battery case. The old remote model is SRP5107/27 3D UP DB1 followed the number 3139 238 21262. The new remote model is SRP5107/27 UP followed by the number 3139 238 21261. OK I guess maybe it wasn't false advertising. But odd that the manual has a different number. I'm guessing it's the same electronics in the remote but maybe an older software flash. I suppose one advantage is that I can tell apart the remotes by checking whether the third button on the bottom says 3D or L2. Another advantage is that if one remote doesn't work, maybe the other one would since they're not 100% identical.
Whatever, it was only $5.99..
*** [5/17/16]
OK, got it to work with the Insignia Roku TV at my mom's new place. Just used the code for the Insignia TV and everything seemed to work. Even the replay key worked, which isn't on the Insignia remote.
But decided to add the sleep button which isn't on the Philips remote, but on the Insignia remote. Learned/programmed the red record button as the sleep button (that's what I used for my Philips remote at home for my Panasonic TV). Also decided to program the Guide button as the Home button. And the Menu button as the Back button since that's how they're physically arranged on the Insignia remote. (The default was the Menu button as the Home button and the Exit button as the Back button.) I left the exit button as the back button.
*** [9/9/16]
Brought the second Philips remote home about a month ago, but wasn't using it. I actually took it to Gung Gung Wong's house to troubleshoot their TV remote problems. Sure enough, their Vizio remote was partially broken. I programmed the Philips for their Vizio TV and Go DVD/VCR player, but wound up leaving an old RCA remote instead.
Anyway, decided to use it on the Apex TV in the back. Unlike the first remote, the Apex seemed to take fine on the first crack.
Next was the Toshiba DVD-R. Once again, the Anderic remote was on the blink (the second light on the top row starts blinking and the remote isn't functional. Pressing the up volume button sometimes stops it and it works for one key press). I got thrown off because when programming it and waiting for the device to turn off, the TV turned off and I released the power button. But what you have to do is ignore the TV and look at the DVD-recorder to see if the front display goes off. Then you release the power button.
So that worked. Mostly. Still needed to learn the setup button. And reverse the fast forward/rewind buttons with the skip forward/skip back buttons. Luckily it was able to learn from the first Philips remote, so I wouldn't have to rely on the flaky Anderic.
Now for the Roku. Looking at my programming efforts above, I'll just learn it from the replacement Roku remote. OK, that went well. Just had to learn twelve buttons: back, home, left, right, up, down, OK, instant replay, * (asterisk), back, forward, play.
And now my Anderic seems to have settled down and the setup key is working.
*** [12/25/16]
Brought home Donna and Alvin's Toshiba TV. They were getting rid of it because the sound went out. And got Cheryl's TV to replace it.
Hooked it up to the Sony receiver that I got from Sue (which she got from Howard) years ago. After a little fiddling around (hooked up the Roku and the DVD-R audio to the Video and CD inputs). It more or less works, though the sound doesn't seem completely balanced. And I have to manually press the buttons on the Sony.
So I took home the Philips (the new one) I had taken to Aiea. (I had brought it there to see if I could adjust the small TV that BJ was using to play his XBox games. We had used it for the PlayStation, but the screen was zoomed so we couldn't see the bottom of the maze. Anyway, I think it worked, but was never able to try it out because we never hooked up the Playstation to it again.)
So I programmed the Philips remote for the Toshiba TV. The only think I customized (so far) is the sleep button which I learned from the original remote. [OK, I have now learned the L2 button as the PIC SIZE button.]
The DVD-R button still works on the Toshiba DVD recorder. But trying out that generic remote I bought, I see that the play button doesn't work. Good thing I have the two Philips programmed, so I don't really need that glitchy remote (I'd say it's not very good quality).
Then I decided to see if I could program the Sony receiver. It used to have a remote, but it stopped working years ago. I think I tossed it because I don't see it anymore. I put in the Sony code. Pressed the power button and somewhat amazingly it turned off. So now I can power on/off the Sony. Luckily, because just before that I had trouble turning it on with the power button. Unfortunately that's the only thing that I think it's working. I would have liked to have the volume control work too. But I'll take it.
I used the AUX button for the Sony receiver. So I programmed the CBL button for the Roku. I believe it had been used for the Apple TV. But the Apple TV also was programmed (or learned) with the SAT button. So the only button left unused is the HD button.
Hmm. I wonder if I can program the Toshiba remote to control the Toshiba DVD-R player. Maybe it works out of the box? Apparently not, since it doesn't have DVD labelled on the Mode Select switch. Just TV, CABLE/SAT, AUX1, AUX2.
Looking at page 23 of the Toshiba manual I downloaded, it says to use AUX2 for the DVD player. Nope, power button doesn't work. OK, let's try put in the codes.
Hold down recall button and enter the code. The codes for Toshiba DVD player are 000, 013, 076, 077, 078. Nope, none of them work. Which is odd since it's a Toshiba product.
I wonder if it works at all? Let's try it on the Sony Blu-ray player using the Sony DVD codes. Nope, nothing.
[12/26/16] I like the Philips remote, but today it's giving me problems. I'm programming the old Philips CBL button to work on the Roku (it has been on AUX). So I learned it from the replacement Roku remote.
Then I tried to program the AUX for the Sony receiver. It didn't take. But I learned it from the new Philips remote.
Then I tried to program the HD button for the Toshiba TV. That didn't work either. I was beginning the suspect that the auto-program function is no longer working on the old Philips remote. I tried to auto-program the TV button for the Toshiba, but that didn't take either. Thankfully, it didn't wipe out the Panasonic TV settings.
To check if I was doing something wrong, I programmed the Toshiba TV again with the new Philips remote and it worked.
But then I tried to test the new remote on the Sony Blu-ray player. Nothing. OK, let's auto-program it. And that didn't work either. Not sure what gives.
Hmm. Tried again and the Sony Blu-ray player went off. So I guess it worked this time.
Then tried to program the HD button of the newer remote for the Panasonic TV. Nope. Then to see if the code worked, I tried programming the TV button. Yep, that worked.
OK, now to reprogram it back to the Toshiba TV. I better leave well enough alone -- for now..
I was going to get another OneForAll remote, but looked up universal remotes for Roku and came across the Philips SRP107/27. And bought one on ebay for only $5.99.
Well it arrived today. No batteries. No problem, I found a set of batteries in a bag for an Oceanic remote that I didn't use (the batteries I didn't use, the remote I used). (Actually I found two sets, but the first bag was so old that the batteries are corroded.)
Pop in the batteries. Test if it works. Nope, not pre-programmed for the Panasonic (I assume it's pre-programmed for a Philips TV.)
Let's set it up. Go to page 6 of the included manual.
Press and hold the TV button for five seconds. The red setup button at the top blinks and stays lit.
Look up the 4-digit code. There's a quick start guide with the code 2153 for Panasonic. Light blinks twice after keying in the code.
Press and hold the power button. Release it as soon as TV turns off. OK, the TV turned off.
Let's see if it works now. OK seems to work.
Press the TV button twice. The red light blinks twice then turns off.
Checking some of the buttons on the Philips remote. I don't see a button for Format (which changes the aspect ratio). And Favorite which display favorite channels. And Sub Menu where you can setup the favorite channels.
Let's see if I can learn those buttons.
OK, let's see if I can program the Guide button as Favorite. Page 13. Select the desired device button (TV). Red light blinks. Hold down the Learn button and the button I want to learn (Guide) for five seconds. Red light blinks and stays on. Press and hold the Favorite button on the original remote. The red setup light blinks twice and goes off.
Cool, that works. Now I have to decide which buttons to use for FORMAT and sub-menu. I think I'll use the yellow-dash button for SUB MENU and the blue-dash button for FORMAT.
[The dash button not functioning on the Philips in TV mode, so I'll learn it from the Panasonic remote.]
[I'll also map the green button on the Philips to the yellow button on the Panasonic so I can delete while editing captions. And the red button to the green button so I can change case for captions.]
[11/14/15 - problem when manually editing the programmed channels. Red pages up and green pages down. But I changed those to yellow and red for editing captions. And I changed the yellow to SUB MENU and blue for FORMAT. So now red on the Philips pages down, but I can't page up. No biggie. The other problem is exiting the edit. Pressing exit aborts the whole process instead of going to the top menu. On the Panasonic, the Return button is used. So I'll map the Philips Exit to the Panasonic Return. It's in the same place on the remote anyway. I rarely (never) use the actual exit button on the Panasonic anyway.
On the Panasonic the order of the color buttons are R, G, B, Y. On the Philips, the order is Y, B, R, G. Y is used for Sub Menu, B is used for Format, R is used for G (changing case), G is used for Y (deleting when editing). Confused enough?]
[11/14/15 - on the redo, I left the Y,B,R,G buttons alone. Mapped the L1 button as the Sub Menu button. And the 3D button as the Format button.]
Anyway it works! Very cool. And easier to program than the One For All. Now we'll see how long it lasts. Hopefully longer than the One For All (which lasted only a year).
OK how about the Apple TV? The quick start guide doesn't include a code for the Apple TV. I guess I could learn it, but there's supposed to be a code somewhere.
I found a more complete manual online. Let's see. There's a code for Apple: 0172.
Let's use the CBL button for the Apple TV. Press and hold until setup light blinks. Key in 0172. Press and hold the Power button until device switches off. The thing is that that the Apple TV doesn't switch off, so how do I know when to release it? Anyway I pressed the power for about a second then released.
Test it. That didn't work. OK. Let's try a shorter time. Nope, let's try the AUX button.
Pressed the power button and saw the Apple TV blink. So there's some kind of response. The menu button works. Exit button does something too. The forward and rewind buttons are the left and right. The play button is the Select button. Where's the up and down? Press more buttons. The channel up and down are also the left and right. The INFO button is also the Menu button. The stop and pause buttons are also the Select button. I guess that's something, but not very functional with no up and down buttons.
Let's learn the Apple TV remote then.
OK, easy enough. Learned the Apple TV remote in CBL mode. Only seven buttons to learn. Up, down, left, right, select, menu, play/pause. And most people probably don't use the play/pause as you can play/pause using the select button. Maybe it's more useful when used with a Mac.
[11/14/15 - on the redo, I see there is a use for the play/pause button. If you hold down the OK key at the main menu, you get the message to press the play/pause button for more options. Then if you do that, you have the option to hide the item from the menu.]
[11/1/16 - I had to restore settings on the Apple TV since it got locked up in the Computer Settings screen when it first started up. And I lost the SAT mode. Funny when I learned the Apple TV remote, the long press on the Menu button doesn't jump all the out to the menu. So I guess I'll use have the Apple TV relearn the keys again from the Philips remote. For some reason can't learn the page forward key to skip ahead, so I'll use the record button for now.]
OK, so far so good.
Now for the hard part. The Roku, since my original Roku remote is no longer functioning.
Let's use the AUX button. Press for five seconds until red light blinks. Key in code 2407. Press power button for various amounts of time. Don't see any response from the Roku.
OK, let's try learn it. Put the batteries in the original Roku remote. Still broken. Put the batteries back in the One For All. Still not completely working. The buttons not working (when you press it, nothing lights up) are: TV, Guide, right. The other keys learned fine, but it's fairly useless if you have have a non-functioning right key.
I guess I'll wait to see if the One For All spontaneously starts working again. It did before, but I'm not holding my breath. Either that or I'll buy a generic Roku remote. In the meantime, I guess I can use the iPad app if I need to.
OK, let's try the Sony Blu Ray player now. Sony code is 2679.
That worked eventually. For some reason the DVD button didn't respond at first when trying to get into program mode.
The main thing not working is there is no audio button (which changes the language track on the DVD/Blu-Ray if there is one) on the Philips. No biggie. But I decided to program the mute button as the audio button. The mute button was still working on the TV while in DVD mode, so to mute I would have to just turn down the volume or switch to TV mode and press mute. The Sony blu-ray remote signal is now weak. I have to put the remote close to the player and point it at the right place to make it work. So I was pleased that the Philips was able to learn it.
[Some buttons I want to re-program. The Info button brings up the options menu. I'll change it to learn Display. And I'll map the GUIDE button to the Options menu. For some reason the Input button is mapped to the options menu. I think I'll map it to the TV input button. Well, that worked but is of limited value as I still have to switch to TV mode to use the arrow keys on the Input menu. I'll map INPUT to the TIME button instead.]
[On the redo, I mapped the 3D button as the audio button since it's on the same row as the subtitle button. Interestingly the L1/Inst Replay button works to skip back 10 seconds even though that button isn't on the original remote. And I don't what the Exit button on the Philips does. It keeps saying Operation Prohibited. Maybe it's the Top Menu button? If so I think I have the MENU button as the Pop Up Menu, the GUIDE button as the Options Menu, and the Exit button as the Top Menu button. Nope. Testing it out on my Matrix Blu Ray playing the movie. Then I press Top Menu on the original remote, it says operation currently prohibited. When I press exit on the Philips, it does nothing.]
[9/14/21 - Now I notice there is a replay button on the original Sony RMT-B104A remote. And an advance button too. So I'll program the L1 button for Replay and the L2 button for Advance and the Prev Ch button for Audio. For some reason, the other Philips remote (the one with 3D button) is not working when I try to program it. I'll reset it to Sony code 2679 and see how far I get with it. OK, now I can program the Prev Ch button to be Audio. The L1 and 3D buttons don't do anything and can't seem to program them. OK, I'll leave well enough along for now. At least one of the remotes is working.]
Noticed the remote has a pretty good range as I can control the TV / players while sitting at the computer at the other end of the room.
Last would be my Toshiba DVD-recorder. But since I'm not using it now, I guess I'll fiddle with it later.
[As you might have predicted, I couldn't resist. Let's try the Toshiba DVD-recorder.] Put in the batteries into the replacement Anderic RMC 10339. The second button at the top, between the power and open/close starts blinking. The remote is on the blink :( When did I buy this thing? In February. The damn thing lasted 9 months. Wait, it settled down and the light stop blinking. Maybe there's some life in this baby yet.
OK, the code for Toshiba is 3021. Nope. The Apex TV turned off, but not the DVD recorder. OK, finally it took. Had to hold down the button about 40 seconds.
It mostly works. But I don't see a button for eject. And no setup button. And while the Anderic is now (mostly) working, the setup button is no longer working. And that's the main reason I bought the Anderic because I could get the other buttons working on the One For All remotes.
Let's see. Apparently there's a one-year warranty.
Just when I was about the contact them, the setup button starts working. WTH? I guess I'm not complaining.
OK, quickly map the SETUP button to the Philips GUIDE button, before it is lost again.
Another oddity is that the page forward and page back buttons are mapped to forward and back. While the rewind and fast forward buttons are mapped to skip back and skip ahead. I'll learn to reverse that.
For some strange reason, I can't program the page back button to skip back. But I can program it to rewind. Strange. How about using the channel up and channel down button? I can program channel up to skip forward, but can't program the channel down to skip back. Another strange quirk.
Wait, somehow I got it. I noticed that when it didn't work, the red light would stay lit. So maybe I was programming a macro or something? So I saved the current setting by pressing the DVR button twice. Then did a fresh learn. I dunno. As long as it's working now.
Also programmed the red button to act as the open/close button.
I remember there was actually an eject button on the Sony Blu-Ray even though it's not on the remote. Let me see that still works on the One For All. Nope don't see an eject on the One For All. I think it was on that Sony remote that I gave to Donna. (yeah)
[11/14/15 - On the redo, I mapped the (-) to eject and the 3D/Advance to skip ahead 30 seconds. I'll leave the skip forward/back and rewind/fast forward buttons alone for now. Couldn't leave well enough along and tried to swap the skip buttons with the rewind/fast forward buttons. For some reason, it's refusing to learn the skip back button from the Anderic.]
[11/14/15 - Wait, I was programming the DVD button instead of the DVR button. For some reason, I was able to learn the skip back button, but was having problems learning the skip forward button. But after a number of tries, it finally took. I better quit while I'm ahead.]
***
All in all, I'll give this a thumbs up as a learning remote, especially for the price.
*** [11/14/15]
Yeah, it was only a matter time, but I figured I might as well add the Apex TV to Philips remote. After all, it has seven function buttons and I was only using five. I think I'll use the SAT button for the Apex. No code in the quick start guide. Look it up in the manual that I found online. The code is 3691.
Tried it. Help power button down for at least a minutes. Didn't work. Let's try the code for Apex Digital which is 0172. Nope. How about 3021 which was the Toshiba code but I remember it turned off the TV. Nope.
OK let's use learn mode. Was going OK, but for some reason couldn't learn the 1 and 3 keys.
Let's try the TV mode. Try code 3021 (which I thought was the Apex, but was the Toshiba). The TV turned off. And the volume and channel buttons worked. But not the setup and arrow keys.
Let's try code 3691 in TV mode. That worked similarly. Power button works. Volume and channel works. But not the menu or arrow keys.
Maybe it ran out of memory. Let's try reset the remote (section 3.5 of manual). I thought it might reset just the particular device, but apparently it reset everything.
Square one. But at least I wrote everything down.
For now, I'll forget about the Apex TV since I hardly watch TV anyway and use the TV function for the Panasonic.
[Actually tried the CBL button from the Apex and that didn't work either.]
Redo.
*** [4/22/16]
bought another Philips remote on ebay for my mom's new TV at Aiea. Can't really use it yet because the TV hasn't been mounted yet. Hopefully the TV will be mounted soon so I can test it out. Because if it doesn't work within two weeks than I'll return it. Maybe I should take the TV home and set it up at my house. Actually that's not a bad idea.
Anyway. I wanted to try out the remote anyway, so I tested it on my Panasonic TV at home. The included manual is a little different than the previous one as it actually contains the list of codes.
OK press and hold the TV button. The light blinks. Enter the code 2153. OK, that seemed to work. But volume works. Channel up/down works. But then the cursor pad also changes the volume and channel.instead of navigating the menu. Strange.
Then I notice that this is not the model SRP5107/27 but SRP5107WM/17. The remote looks virtually the same, but the 3D button at the bottom is now labelled L2. Apparently this new remote is the older model. Luckily this is a learning remote, so I was able to teach the keys from the old remote to the new remote. I guess it'll be OK.
Looking further for the model number on the remote, you can check the label inside the battery case. The old remote model is SRP5107/27 3D UP DB1 followed the number 3139 238 21262. The new remote model is SRP5107/27 UP followed by the number 3139 238 21261. OK I guess maybe it wasn't false advertising. But odd that the manual has a different number. I'm guessing it's the same electronics in the remote but maybe an older software flash. I suppose one advantage is that I can tell apart the remotes by checking whether the third button on the bottom says 3D or L2. Another advantage is that if one remote doesn't work, maybe the other one would since they're not 100% identical.
Whatever, it was only $5.99..
*** [5/17/16]
OK, got it to work with the Insignia Roku TV at my mom's new place. Just used the code for the Insignia TV and everything seemed to work. Even the replay key worked, which isn't on the Insignia remote.
But decided to add the sleep button which isn't on the Philips remote, but on the Insignia remote. Learned/programmed the red record button as the sleep button (that's what I used for my Philips remote at home for my Panasonic TV). Also decided to program the Guide button as the Home button. And the Menu button as the Back button since that's how they're physically arranged on the Insignia remote. (The default was the Menu button as the Home button and the Exit button as the Back button.) I left the exit button as the back button.
*** [9/9/16]
Brought the second Philips remote home about a month ago, but wasn't using it. I actually took it to Gung Gung Wong's house to troubleshoot their TV remote problems. Sure enough, their Vizio remote was partially broken. I programmed the Philips for their Vizio TV and Go DVD/VCR player, but wound up leaving an old RCA remote instead.
Anyway, decided to use it on the Apex TV in the back. Unlike the first remote, the Apex seemed to take fine on the first crack.
Next was the Toshiba DVD-R. Once again, the Anderic remote was on the blink (the second light on the top row starts blinking and the remote isn't functional. Pressing the up volume button sometimes stops it and it works for one key press). I got thrown off because when programming it and waiting for the device to turn off, the TV turned off and I released the power button. But what you have to do is ignore the TV and look at the DVD-recorder to see if the front display goes off. Then you release the power button.
So that worked. Mostly. Still needed to learn the setup button. And reverse the fast forward/rewind buttons with the skip forward/skip back buttons. Luckily it was able to learn from the first Philips remote, so I wouldn't have to rely on the flaky Anderic.
Now for the Roku. Looking at my programming efforts above, I'll just learn it from the replacement Roku remote. OK, that went well. Just had to learn twelve buttons: back, home, left, right, up, down, OK, instant replay, * (asterisk), back, forward, play.
And now my Anderic seems to have settled down and the setup key is working.
*** [12/25/16]
Brought home Donna and Alvin's Toshiba TV. They were getting rid of it because the sound went out. And got Cheryl's TV to replace it.
Hooked it up to the Sony receiver that I got from Sue (which she got from Howard) years ago. After a little fiddling around (hooked up the Roku and the DVD-R audio to the Video and CD inputs). It more or less works, though the sound doesn't seem completely balanced. And I have to manually press the buttons on the Sony.
So I took home the Philips (the new one) I had taken to Aiea. (I had brought it there to see if I could adjust the small TV that BJ was using to play his XBox games. We had used it for the PlayStation, but the screen was zoomed so we couldn't see the bottom of the maze. Anyway, I think it worked, but was never able to try it out because we never hooked up the Playstation to it again.)
So I programmed the Philips remote for the Toshiba TV. The only think I customized (so far) is the sleep button which I learned from the original remote. [OK, I have now learned the L2 button as the PIC SIZE button.]
The DVD-R button still works on the Toshiba DVD recorder. But trying out that generic remote I bought, I see that the play button doesn't work. Good thing I have the two Philips programmed, so I don't really need that glitchy remote (I'd say it's not very good quality).
Then I decided to see if I could program the Sony receiver. It used to have a remote, but it stopped working years ago. I think I tossed it because I don't see it anymore. I put in the Sony code. Pressed the power button and somewhat amazingly it turned off. So now I can power on/off the Sony. Luckily, because just before that I had trouble turning it on with the power button. Unfortunately that's the only thing that I think it's working. I would have liked to have the volume control work too. But I'll take it.
I used the AUX button for the Sony receiver. So I programmed the CBL button for the Roku. I believe it had been used for the Apple TV. But the Apple TV also was programmed (or learned) with the SAT button. So the only button left unused is the HD button.
Hmm. I wonder if I can program the Toshiba remote to control the Toshiba DVD-R player. Maybe it works out of the box? Apparently not, since it doesn't have DVD labelled on the Mode Select switch. Just TV, CABLE/SAT, AUX1, AUX2.
Looking at page 23 of the Toshiba manual I downloaded, it says to use AUX2 for the DVD player. Nope, power button doesn't work. OK, let's try put in the codes.
Hold down recall button and enter the code. The codes for Toshiba DVD player are 000, 013, 076, 077, 078. Nope, none of them work. Which is odd since it's a Toshiba product.
I wonder if it works at all? Let's try it on the Sony Blu-ray player using the Sony DVD codes. Nope, nothing.
[12/26/16] I like the Philips remote, but today it's giving me problems. I'm programming the old Philips CBL button to work on the Roku (it has been on AUX). So I learned it from the replacement Roku remote.
Then I tried to program the AUX for the Sony receiver. It didn't take. But I learned it from the new Philips remote.
Then I tried to program the HD button for the Toshiba TV. That didn't work either. I was beginning the suspect that the auto-program function is no longer working on the old Philips remote. I tried to auto-program the TV button for the Toshiba, but that didn't take either. Thankfully, it didn't wipe out the Panasonic TV settings.
To check if I was doing something wrong, I programmed the Toshiba TV again with the new Philips remote and it worked.
But then I tried to test the new remote on the Sony Blu-ray player. Nothing. OK, let's auto-program it. And that didn't work either. Not sure what gives.
Hmm. Tried again and the Sony Blu-ray player went off. So I guess it worked this time.
Then tried to program the HD button of the newer remote for the Panasonic TV. Nope. Then to see if the code worked, I tried programming the TV button. Yep, that worked.
OK, now to reprogram it back to the Toshiba TV. I better leave well enough alone -- for now..
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)