bryan Posted November 25, 2009 Report Share Posted November 25, 2009 A quarter cup of Everclear and 3/4 cup of eggnog, 25# turkey on the KK. and Media Com "Easy listening" in the back ground. Yes "Life is Good" Let the “Guru Roll†Cook it all today so the misses can also enjoy the family tomorrow. Maybe she will say "Life is Good" It is a good feeling to know that I am cooking with friends today. How many KK are lit up today. This is 1. Don't make your presence most obvious by your absence. Lets have a Million Dollar KK Cookout sign in. Happy Thanks Giving to the Komodo-Kamado Forum and especially you Dennis. for now back to the nog, Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mguerra Posted November 25, 2009 Report Share Posted November 25, 2009 Yes CS, you got me stoked to go out and do a bonus bird this afternoon, in addition to tomorrow's main Apple Brined/ Pecan Smoked beauty. Life IS good. And KK is a big part of that. Say, what is that Media Com you reference? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syzygies Posted November 25, 2009 Report Share Posted November 25, 2009 Everclear 151 or 190? I blinked at your quantities, but that nice stiff drink is the same as half a bottle of 12% or 15% wine, standard fare for anyone in training. I've taken to measuring hard liquor with a tablespoon. I've always got plenty around in easy reach, and easier to dial in cruising altitude. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bryan Posted November 25, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 25, 2009 Re: Yes Say' date=' what is that Media Com you reference?[/quote'] It's a competitor of Direct TV which also has a chn of "Easy Listening" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mguerra Posted November 25, 2009 Report Share Posted November 25, 2009 ok Gotcha. Found it on the web. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bryan Posted November 25, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 25, 2009 "Syzygies "Everclear 151 or 190? 190. Not sold in FL. I buy by the case when I go to TX every year. I went through that spoon era. Now I'm 73 and don't care. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firemonkey Posted November 25, 2009 Report Share Posted November 25, 2009 HA...I just turned 40 and dont care either! Maybe its part of the Florida lifestyle? Since you mentioned MediaCom, I have to offer up some kudos for the sirius\XM channels on Directv. I love sitting out by the grill with some good music flowing along with the spirits. Though, I never make far enough down the lineup to easy listening. I go with Classic Rewind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bryan Posted November 25, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 25, 2009 Since you mentioned MediaCom, I have to offer up some kudos for the sirius\XM channels on Directv. I love sitting out by the grill with some good music flowing along with the spirits. Though, I never make far enough down the lineup to easy listening. I go with Classic Rewind. I agree with you, but alas I live with my son for now. Oh well "Music is as Music Does" Throw on a turkey and check the nog. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fetzervalve Posted November 27, 2009 Report Share Posted November 27, 2009 Since you mentioned MediaCom, I have to offer up some kudos for the sirius\XM channels on Directv. I love sitting out by the grill with some good music flowing along with the spirits. Though, I never make far enough down the lineup to easy listening. I go with Classic Rewind. Any Sonos fans around? I've had mine for a few months and it is awesome, perhaps my best tech purchase since TiVo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mguerra Posted November 28, 2009 Report Share Posted November 28, 2009 dropouts I am sorely tempted to try Sonos. The cost is pretty steep, however. With iTunes, a computer with a wireless card and some $89. Airport Express units, you can transmit music all over the house to any powered speakers, for a fraction of the price. Imperfectly, I might add. The worst problem with Air Tunes is audio dropouts, this has occurred with both my old and new iMacs and several different Airport Extreme base stations. So it's probably not a bad wireless card, or router. It's quite maddening. Fetz, I take it you do not have intermittent audio dropouts with Sonos? Sonos is also quite a bit more flexible and powerful than a computer and some Airport Express units. Might be worth the price of admission. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fetzervalve Posted November 28, 2009 Report Share Posted November 28, 2009 I have never had any drop-outs. Each Zone Player is a repeater for the Sonos mesh network, so every time you add a zone you make a stronger network. I'm not very familiar with the Apple system, but I pretty sure you can only play one source at a time, is that right? The iPhone/iPod Touch controller app (free) really reduces the cost of entry (if you happen to already own one!) It has also been one of a very few tech products that was really plug-n-play, it just works. They also just released a Zone Player with built in speakers that is slightly less expensive and very versatile. Check your local Best Buy, they were taking Sonos out of the BB stores and just having it in the Magnolia stores a while back, you may find a few pieces at a good discount, that's how I got started. Someone did a comparison here; http://l00pback.wordpress.com/2009/07/1 ... mote-apps/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mguerra Posted November 28, 2009 Report Share Posted November 28, 2009 Apple/ Sonos With the Apple system, you can only listen to one source at a time, over the entire network. So Sonos is superior in that you can listen to any source in any room. With Apple, up until recently, you could only control the music at the computer itself, but at least now there is an iPhone app that lets you use the iPhone as a remote. Still, the audio dropouts are so frustrating, I may pop for the Sonos. It gets nothing but stellar reviews. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amphoran Posted November 28, 2009 Report Share Posted November 28, 2009 I use an HP Windows home server, and use old computers equipped with a good sound (and/or video) card to play media in static locations, and laptops can suck from it via the wireless router. I use Media Center as the player in all locations. Can simultaneously stream full bandwidth audio (NO MP3!!) to a half dozen locations without breathing hard, and HD video to the tv. All my CDs are on it, and am slowly moving all the DVDs to it as well. Its amazing how much MORE of your collection you listen to when its all available at the touch of a finger. The system as I've got it set up doesn't have a remote, but it could be. It is easy to use a laptop as a control for the static computer that does the playing, using remote desktop. The playing computer in the living room setup is a fanless passively cooled unit that is silent. If I was setting up today, I'd investigate the appliances that are available, but most of them seem to be designed for MP3 files and lack audio clarity. That to me was one of the big advantages of Media Center, it handles several lossless compression formats easily. I primarily use .ape. Music on! Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyboy Posted November 29, 2009 Report Share Posted November 29, 2009 Mike, How do you load DVD's? I have media center on my laptop. Is there pirate software to get around copyright laws? I tried copying DVD's to my laptop but could never get them to play..... I used to have all my music CDs and movie DVDs in a jukebox player. Although slow, was cool until it broke. Now I want a server type solution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdbower Posted November 29, 2009 Report Share Posted November 29, 2009 Mike' date=' How do you load DVD's? I have media center on my laptop. Is there pirate software to get around copyright laws[/quote'] I use DVDFab DVD-to-Mobile to do this. It exists in a legal grey area, as long as you copy your own DVDs (not rentals) for your own use it fits into a decent "fair-use" argument but obviously copyright law is rather fluid so use it at your own risk. A server-based solution is great, I use my XBox 360 to playback my DVDs and music stored on a centralized server. You can also look into Orb which puts a local program that lets you stream to any device on the Interwebs - great for streaming to a laptop when you travel or to a smart phone like a Blackberry/Droid or to a not-so-smart phone like an iPhone I also like PlayOn for streaming Hulu but that's another one of those grey area things... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syzygies Posted November 29, 2009 Report Share Posted November 29, 2009 Handbrake There's also Handbrake, cross-platform but very popular on the Mac. Requires a helper program to do the wet work, but they give good instructions on this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amphoran Posted November 29, 2009 Report Share Posted November 29, 2009 There are a variety of programs that allow you to copy your DVDs, both commercial and underground. The commercial ones will easily copy non-scrambled DVDs, but cannot include the "de-CSS" portion. There are a lot of utilities that do that. The simplest one I've come across is called DVD43, and it simply runs as a service on a windows computer, and de-scrambles any dvd you put in the drive. You can then access the content and put it on the hard disk. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnyboy Posted November 30, 2009 Report Share Posted November 30, 2009 Wow! I see I have some work/playing to do. Great info, thanks guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThreeDJ16 Posted November 30, 2009 Report Share Posted November 30, 2009 A server-based solution is great, I use my XBox 360 to playback my DVDs and music stored on a centralized server. JD, are you using Tversity or PS3 Media server for streaming to your xbox? If not, I highly recommend either of them. Though the PS3 Media Server handles x264 high def content way easier. And either of them stream almost all video/audio/pic formats out there to the PS3 and/or Xbox 360. To me, they are much better than using media center (since it drastically reduces the formats/containers you can use on your media). Plus they are both free. http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/ http://tversity.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jdbower Posted November 30, 2009 Report Share Posted November 30, 2009 JD' date=' are you using Tversity or PS3 Media server for streaming to your xbox?[/quote'] I used TVersity a bit before my computer crashed, now I tend to use PlayOn's local file streaming just for simplicity. To be honest, I haven't played with PlayOn to see if my WMV files are in 5.1 or not. Since I pretty much just have my legitimate DVDs that I've converted myself I'm OK with WMV format WMP requires, but if PlayOn starts acting up with Hulu again I may reinstall TVersity - TVersity's Hulu support is pretty poor quality, but seems to be a bit more reliable than PlayOn. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
