Assassins

[KILROY]

Why wouldn't you want to re-watch a movie every now or then?

I don't have cable or satellite, just a plain old digital double figure 8 antennae, and sometimes what they show on the air doesn't interest me, so I pop-in a movie to watch, but it get's tiresome sometimes just to start viewing through the list, so it's easier to just copy them to some type of chip after sorting them out to what type of movie it is. So all I have to do is just type in the title name or what theme of movie I'm in the mood for. Kind of like when you listen to music, you put in what you feel like listening to. I already took all my music CD's and converted them to MP3 formats, and sold the CD's to a friend of mine who owns a used music store in which he sells, trades, or buys any type of used music media that the market still has a want for. The only thing he doesn't deal with are reel-to-reels, cassette's, and 8 tracks, but believe it or not, he still has a market for LP records. This other common friend that we both know, owns a company that sells the equipment that plays the music media, and has this LP turntable that can play back a record and make it sound like a CD, but it's not cheap, and the only people I've seen who has purchased it are financially well off.

The hard copy on DVD is just for a back-up in case something happens to the movies on the chip. The chip will eventually go out, in which I'll have to copy them again onto another chip, which is why I don't use one quite so big.

Sorting these out is also creating more room, in which I don't have to keep all these VHS tapes in two China Cabinets and a bunch of storage cabinets. I can now use these for something else, or sell them if I decide not to keep them.

[perrinoia]

You make some good points.

I've seen Office Space, Space Balls, and Idiocracy so many times I can practically recite their entire scripts.

Everytime I meet someone who hasn't seen one of them, I demand that they watch it with me. LOL.

One big SSD that fits the whole collection would make browsing the whole collection easier, but you're absolutely right about the longevity ofsuch a device. Redundancy is important as none of these firms of media last forever. Even DVDs get scratched and start to skip.

If I were building a collection like that, I'd probably buy a bulk quantity of thumb drives and plug them directly into my TV for my viewing pleasure.

At the moment, I use a flat panel DTV antennae or an Amazon Fire Stick connected to a Verizon Wireless hotspot to stream content.

Thre are pros and cons to this that balance each other out. For instance, not enough channels to find anything entertaining live, thus I turn to Netflix, Prime, and Hulu until Verizon throttles my data.

The lack of viewable content means I don't watch TV enough to drain my boat's batteries. In fact, if I only watch TV around lunch time, my 80W solar panel can actually keep up with my power consumption.

[KILROY]

I've seen Office Space, Space Balls, and Idiocracy so many times I can practically recite their entire scripts.

Everytime I meet someone who hasn't seen one of them, I demand that they watch it with me. LOL.

LOL...I hear you on that.

I actually started doing just that, plugging into my TV to stream off the RAM sticks, but after doing it sooo many times, it wore out the USB drive on the TV. Luckily, I know how to repair electrical boards and swapped the USB plug, but decided to not do it anymore. Didn't want to replace my 65-inch TV.

I decided to buy a multi-plug USB bank and just plug in all the RAM sticks into it. That way I don't have to plug and unplug multiple times, and I can buy multiple banks and just plug them into each other and keep plugging in RAM sticks, hard drives, or SSD's, and if one USB port goes out, I still many more I can use, until I decide to swap the bad port.

I also stream Netflix and HBO GO, but after watching everything they host, you get tired of seeing the same thing over and over, until they add new show's to their venue.

As for your power consumption, I hear you on that. Take it easy, it's better to be able to use things of more necessity, than use things that can limit you. I was once in your situation on limited power use, and turned to reading books to stay away from the tube and computer usage. It actually worked out pretty well, until I found myself having my own personal library. I still have it. Turned one bedroom into a library. That's another thing I'm looking at starting on next after I finish with all these movies. Going through and cleaning up that room.

[perrinoia]

I want an e-reader for that purpose. No space for a library on my 32 foot sailboat. Also, books and moisture don't work well together. But I can't find a decent e-reader with an e-ink display, that is also water resistant.

I don't need it to be submersible, but I do need it to survive 100% humidity and condensation.

When you talk about USB hubs, were you referring specifically to plugging hubs into your TV?

It didn't even occur to me that TV's would be able to address more than one USB device at a time. Do the hubs require their own power supply or does your TV supply enough power for passive hubs?

My TV works on either 12V DC or 110V AC, but the USB port in the TV doesn't seem to be powered when running off 12V DC.

[KILROY]

When you talk about USB hubs, were you referring specifically to plugging hubs into your TV?

Oh no, sorry. Thought I mentioned before, the hub's would be plugged into a home built server plugged into my home network. I don't even use the plug-ins on the TV, except for an external Xbox 360 Limited, Panasonic DMR-EZ485V (VHS/DVD-RAM/DVD-R/DVD-RW/+R/+RW Recording/DV IN/SD Card/USB & Digital Tuner), Apple TV. Plug-in and forget.

Never tried to plug in a hub into the USB of the TV. I don't even know if it would work, but I do have a one from Gear Head that is a 4 port that is either powered off a 3.5mm jack (5V DC) or a mini-usb plug. Think I'll play around with it this weekend and see if it works.

I don't even use an expensive speaker setup for the TV. It's a Logitech 5.1 setup that I bought on sale for $89 that I put through Realtek HD Audio Manager and the original Sound Blaster Cinema, using a gamming MSI Laptop for the sound processing and preamp. Actually sounds really good, if you didn't see the setup, you'd guess it was a Bose setup.

Hmm...that reader your talking about, never thought about that, sounds interesting. You just gave me a way to resolve that room. I can scan copy all the books and digitize them, then either sell them, to re-gain what I spent, or donate them and take a write off. Thanks for the input!

EDIT: BTW...anyone interested in a 65-inch LED Smart TV, with SEARS starting to close down stores going out of business they are offering one for $797!

EDIT 2: Had to look up the Model: LG 65UJ6200

EDIT 3: If 65-inch is too big, you can pick-up a LG 55" CLASS 2160P 4K ULTRA HD SMART LED TV at Target for $500!

[perrinoia]

That's their "going out of business" sale price?
No wonder they're going out of business.
Amazon is kicking their ass.

How's the tv+USB hub test going? The only USB hub I have in my boat is a number pad with 2 USB ports, but it doesn't have its it's own power supply, so I'm like 60% sure it won't work. Would be funny if it did work though, and could change the channels or something.

Scanning books is a crap ton of work unless you have a robot that can turn pages and scan quickly. Very time consuming, and definitely not worth the effort if there is already a digital copy in existence (even if it's not free).

I've heard that libraries offer e-books now, which I assume expire somehow... maybe you can only check out 3 at a time or something. I haven't been to a library in decades, so I don't really remember how they work, even for hard copies.

[KILROY]

Yeah, the multi USB thing didn't work off the TV.

I took the time to buy these, so I'll take the time to scan them to digitize them. Some I know for a fact won't be available digitally, due to them being hard back encyclopedias as far back at the 1930's.

As for the library thing, I'm not sure on that either, haven't been since around 1991.

[perrinoia]

Darn. I was pretty sure TVs wouldn't recognize USB hubs, but had my fingers crossed.