Media Center Master

Well, now my simple fetcher has matured into a full-blown meta-data fetching machine.



Check it out at MediaCenterMaster.com. Enjoy!

My MediaBrowser fetcher

I've really fallen in love with Windows 7's Media Center as a replacement for iMEDIAN HD (software that came with my iMON remote, built by Soundgraph). And in using it, and the MediaBrowser extension, I've played with several metadata content fetchers to organize my collection. I do have over 1,100+ movies and another 4,000+ TV episodes.

Rather than spend months building all my metadata by hand, I used what are known as content fetchers that automate the task. Unsatisfied with the few out there that got me half-way there, I built my own. Here's the first version:



You can download it here and follow the discussion forum thread for it here. Enjoy!

Projector

Here's a crappy video of me playing with my projector, hooked up with my Xbox 360. The game is Mass Effect (duh) and is being shown at 720p HD at 102" wide straight to my living room wall (the wall is 216" wide). This was shot at about 10:00 AM on December 28, 2008 with very noticeable daylight bleed through the blinds. We fixed this later on by making some black curtains. I'll take another video once I have everything set up the way I want (need new furniture, better home theater arrangement, clips of the Wii, etc.)



Video: Optima HD65 projector (NewEgg)
Audio: Onkyo HT-S3100 5.1 home theater system (NewEgg)
Consoles: Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii
Broadcast Signal: None (no satellite, cable, or antenna currently in use)
Video Content: Popcorn Hour A-110

No shit!

Anyone else feel the same way?  :D

Even hotter...

I one-upped myself not a day later... with the right circumstances -- mostly green lights and no one persisitently up my ass, I managed to get home at 64.7 MPG.  At one point a few miles from home , I had 67.1 and even took a picture (stopped briefly at a light) at 66.6, but it didn't get saved on my phone.  Bummer.  I do tend to get a better MPG just before I get home, going over those last few hills with 50-55 mph speed zones just kills.

I dunno if I'll be able to break the 70 MPG barrier without doing something dangerous or illegal; or driving 4 mph everywhere, which isn't worth my time, but I'm pretty damned happy with my new record for now.

61 MPG baby

Awww yea, check out this 61 MPG trip I got yesterday on my way home from work (actually I hit 61.7, but didn't have an opportunity to take a picture at peak).

(P.S. I always drive safely, legally, and without pissing off other drivers.)

I do love my Hybrid.  :)

Now featuring: Pete?

Hello there, world.

Yes, that's right -- I'm finally on blogspot.  This is more of a test post to make sure it's integrating into my website properly and all that fun stuff.  I'll write more later.  I promise, I really will.  :D

It's true

Time for some new wheels

I love my 1998 Honda Civic, I really do.  But it's time for it to go.  In the year I've owned it, I've probably put $3,000 into repairs, including new shocks, timing belts, electrical (sensors), and more.  The check engine light has been on the past 1,500 miles and sometimes goes off if I put the fuel cleaner additive stuff in the tank.  I suspect the fuel injectors are dirty, but it may be early transmission failure too and I don't want to shell out bucks for an 11-year-old car.

So with my average mileage of 17,000 (7,500 of which are just commuting to/from work), I decided to go green and get something easy at the pump.  I wanted a Toyota Prius at first, but after doing a little homework here and there, I saw how a lot of people didn't like their dash/layout, making it more awkward to drive.  It was also more costly and a larger vehicle.  I also didn't want a Smart Car .. or.. half a car.  Whatever they're called

So after some shopping around, I found a nice used 2008 Honda Civic Hybrid (the guy had to sell it back to the dealership because he was moving back to China.. it had 3,840 miles when I bought it, barely used) and snatched it up.  I absolutely adore the thing.

It's rated 45 MPG highway/40 MPG city.  Finding a place to put my GPS was kind of a pain because of the sloped windshield, but I finally settled in the far bottom/right corner and it works out okay.  I also decided to leave my new car stereo I bought in the old car -- I couldn't put it in the new one with the Hybrid's dash design and it'd be a pain to take out anyway.

New 12.1MP digital camera

I've been wanting a new digital camera for a while.  I have a 3.3 MP Kodak camera that's a few years that Tina gave me.  It's alright, not the highest quality pictures but it's slow and uses really old memory standards.  It doesn't take good indoor pictures or videos at all.  I do have a Canon digital camcorder, but it's not practical to bring around evrywhere, plus it uses tape recordable media, not electronic (like flash memory).  My Helio phone has a 2.0 MP built in camera and video recorder, but it records at 640x480 (poorly) @ 12 FPS (frames per second).

So... I got myself a shiny new digital camera that will last me for many o' year, the Kodak EasyShare Z1275.  It's a 12.1 megapixel camera (4011x3011 resolution pictures) with 5X optical and 5X digital zoom.  It has a ton of goodies (like image stabilization, etc.), but what it does that also really caught my attention was it takes full HDTV quality movies:  1280x720 @ 30 FPS (1080i HD).  Wowzers.