Re: electrical deaths

On 12/2/2024 6:11 AM, Carlos E.R. wrote:

I rescued a box that records OTA broadcasts onto disk.  So, there is no
other entity involved in the transaction.  No one knows what we are watching,
when we skip commercials, etc.

 Sure, but over here most of the channels that broadcast over the air are not interesting. And the signal suffers some interruptions or interference.

Oh, so the "provider" I mentioned is NOT the "public broadcasters" but,
rather, some "cable service".  That would be the same, here.
And, most OTA broadcasts, here, are shite, as well.  But, the local
news and some late night talk shows (comedians) are worth watching
(especially if you can select which PARTS you will be watching)

You might want to check the Silicon Dust offerings.  No idea as to their
international capabilities.  But, I've designed them into my current
project.  The goal being to eliminate "real" TVs and just push pixels
down the wire to "displays".  as such, any display becomes a TV (or
movie screen or baby monitor/nanny cam or...)

 MythTV is very powerful, but in the past I had trouble making Digital TV cards work with Linux

The SD offerings are stand-alone boxes; typically two (optimized now, to one)
antenna/cable input and a network connection.  (I think once you get above
4? tuners, they add network interfaces just because HD content -- for multiple
concurrent broadcasts -- can quickly consume bandwidth of a single interface)

I'll watch "Despicable Me 4" (which will probably be a disappointment),
"The Wild Robot" (which will probably disappoint -- for different reasons),
"Deadpool & Wolverine" (which will likely be silly brain rot) and "IF"
(which may well be entertaining) next week.  Beyond that, it is hard to
predict when the reservations queued before mine will be filled.
>

I don't think there are DVD libraries here. I should ask.

>
Sadly, I suspect the local library is used primarily for DVDs and
public computer access.  The librarian gets very excited when I
submit a request for some technical paper or text that they will
have to find in some other (out of state) library.  They always wonder
about the particular *content*.  I guess it makes them feel "needed"?

 Quite :-)

<shrug>  I am happy that *I* don't have to chase down the references.
Apparently, it costs them something on the order of $75 to chase down
a single reference.  Should I feel "guilty"?
What is most annoying is that "technical papers" will typically be
FAXed to them.  Why not just send a PDF and let me retrieve it
electronically (via my on-line account)?  In addition to the degraded
copy quality, it means I have to scan and OCR the document myself!  :<