It’s not an alert nor error log file if it is encoded in XML format!!!!!
Oracle’s 11G listener drops xml rather than plain text log files, yet their engineers will ask you to go find the plain text logs which are now hidden in a new trace directory…. eye roll.
Tagged oracle, text is still king, xmlOh who cares, it’s pretty darned funny.
Tagged commercials, televisionThere is a second special election for all of Fairfax County to elect a new Chairman of the Board of Supervisors. This one is scheduled for February 3rd, and turnout should be a little better. According to the Fairfax county board of elections, the ballot will look like:
So it appears that the DishPVR 508 can play Dolby Digital (AC-3) just fine when the channel and programming have it (nearly all HBO programming, several networks); but if you capture a show with Dolby Digital encoding, the encoding is lost as the PVR function only captures stereo…. unless I am doing something wrong.
Update: So apparently I am doing something wrong, all the old advertising brochures emphatically state that Dolby Digital is recorded on the PVR when the source programming is in Dolby Digital. I will have to keep testing.
So I had a lot of fun over the past several days researching possible upgrades to our old surround sound receiver. It has been an educational week or so, and in the process I completely gutted our two entertainment center stacks of gear; vacuumed out the cubby holes where everything was, wiping it all down, and reconnecting those things we still want.
I will post a list of stuff we are giving away and/or selling in a bit (DVD player, CD player, Laserdiscs).
One huge win is that the picture is vastly better on both televisions now that I have used proper cables and removed old VHS decks from the loop (who knew they were so damned noisy?). A second huge win is that I never realized that I had our receiver hooked up incorrectly, and we’ve never heard Dolby Digital (aka: AC-3) surround sound properly before… and wow. I was wrong. It sounds much better than I previously supposed, and importantly, if properly encoded the voice track is vastly easier to hear than I previously thought. I hate that on so many movies and shows in stereo mode I cannot hear the dialogue because the music/gunshots/jet engines are so damned loud. True 5.1 surround (either Dolby Digital or DTS), hooked up properly actually helps a lot with this problem.
Let me restate: the same old DVDs that have been annoying the hell out of me because I can’t hear the dialogue are once again thrilling because the AC-3 encoding is finally working on my surround sound receiver! I can hear the dialogue again.
Sadly, our old receiver can only decode Dolby Digital (AC-3). It does not handle DTS, nor any of the newer encodings. Additionally, the old receiver only has two digital inputs (one optical, one coaxial) and my DVD player and DISH receiver are both optical outputs… so I only get one or the other; and have to re-connect cables to change that. Time for a switch or a new receiver (which is what spurred this whole research project to begin with).
I looked at brand new receivers… which differ from the receivers I was familiar with the last time I went shopping. In the early 1990s, no one bothered to connect video to a receiver. You simply used it for audio; and the video went into your television directly (less noise, better cabling types). Now that has dramatically changed. Modern receivers handle video very well, sometimes even better than your television set.
Having said that, your video will never be better than the weakest link in the chain from your signal source (DVD player, Cable receiver, whatever) all the way to the screen. Since my TV is old, but working beautifully (and so NOT getting replaced soon), the new receiver’s extra special HDMI up-scaling features are meaningless to me.
Additionally, new receivers are just beginning to get a fabulous new feature: dynamic volume control (called by slightly different names from different makers) will dampen the sudden onslaught of annoyingly loud noise when commercials interrupt your favorite shows. This feature is so new, it is only on some of the receivers (most Denon, some newest Onkyo and Yamaha) and it is likely to get revised a little before everyone has to have it. So there is good reason to wait a year or two before buying a new receiver.
No receiver that I can find will decode AAC 5.1 (used for discrete surround sound on streaming media). This is very important to me because I suspect more and more movie rentals will be on demand over the internet, and AC-3 and DTS do NOT lend themselves to streaming very efficiently. I think I will buy a new receiver when they can handle AAC 5.1 as well as Dolby Digital, DTS, Dolby TrueHD, and DTS-HD Master Audio. That way I can play DVDs, Blue-ray discs, and stream videos with whatever set top box ends up winning the marketplace for movie rentals on demand and internet content. Both AppleTV and Netflix are pioneering very interesting efforts in this area.
I am also completely uninterested in Blue-ray at this time. In a year or two I may change my mind, but right now it is too expensive, too proprietary, and too hyped up in marketing noise. It also encourages two new surround sound standards (TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio) that will replace DTS and AC-3, but are expensive right now. Waiting will let those decoders get into more and more affordable receivers. So the features of a new TV and new HDMI receiver with fancy HD video processing are mostly lost on me.
Good news, I can shop craig’s list and ebay for cheap receivers from the last few years to get more digital input ports and to get DTS decoding (a lot of my existing DVDs are DTS) as well as AC-3 (that I have now). My hearing impaired friends will love listening to DTS and AC-3 DVDs we have now once we get the vintage 2000-2005 receiver installed for relatively little money.
Tagged audio, HDTV, Music, receiver, videoThis is for all those audio/video geeks out there; I am perplexed by connectivity options for our audio and video gear, and have been overwhelmed by options. I think we may need a new receiver….
We mostly watch a DISH Network Dish DVR 508 that has S-Video, Composite video, RCA Stereo, and TOSLINK (optical for Dolby Digital and PCM Stereo) connectors on the back.
We regularly watch DVDs on our Panasonic DMR-ES35V dual VHS/DVD-RW that has Component video, Firewire, S-Video, Composite video, RCA Stereo, and SPDIF optical port (for Dolby Digital and DTS depending on the DVD or VHS tape).
I have an old Pioneer CLD-D703 LaserDisc/LaserVision player with S-Video, composite video, RCA Stereo, Coaxial digital audio and optical digital audio (DTS can come out both on some laserdiscs).
I regularly watch my AppleTV with HDMI and component video output, RCA Stereo (for stereo and Dolby Pro Logic) , and TOSLINK optical (for DTS).
We listen to an Airport Express with RCA Stereo cable converted from the 3.5mm mini-jack to listen to AirTunes over ethernet from music server.
My very old Denon AVR-3200 receiver sounds fabulous for music, and decodes Dolby Digital as well as Dolby Pro Logic, but it only has three digital audio inputs: TOSLINK, Coaxial, and AC-3 over RF via Coaxial. Since none of my components delivers AC-3 over RF – I suspect I only have two digital audio inputs… and the receiver does NOT do DTS decoding (which is becoming more and more common on DVDs and Lasers).
I suspect I am in the market for a new receiver unless there are external DTS decoders with multiple TOSLINK connections… are there?
So – I think I need a receiver that decodes DTS, Dolby Digital, and Dolby Pro Logic (pretty much all of them do), and that also has at least three (3) optical TOSLINK inputs on the back and an additional Coaxial input. The shocker is that these appear to be rare… many of them have 2 optical inputs and 3-4 coaxial inputs… but the ones with 3 or more optical inputs are both rare and expensive….
Am I missing something?
How good is audio quality when carried over the HDMI cable? I might be able to hook up the AppleTV through an HDMI cable and trim the need for optical ports down to two optical ports; but only if HDMI audio quality is good and DTS encoding can be passed over the HDMI cable. Anyone know? If so, that dramatically improves the selection of moderately priced receivers.
Another option is to chuck out the VHS/DVD deck and replace it with a better unit with coaxial digital output or HDMI or both… The Panasonic has been reliable, but it was cheap and probably has very limited audio/video quality.
It is also somewhat likely that we will either upgrade our DISH DVR to a newer unit (probably still without HD programming – DISH wants too much money for HD programming), but one that might have coaxial digital audio outputs… or replace DISH with a Comcast Digital Cable DVR (assuming they have a good one) and HD programming (which probably means HDMI cable and possibly Coaxial digital audio).
Looking forward three years, we might possibly have 2-3 HDMI inputs, 2-4 coaxial digital inputs, and 1-2 optical inputs.
I’d love some feed back from audiophile/videophile geeks on which receiver is a good value and still meets our needs.
Update: So, a little more reading, and friendly tips from friends (Thanks Scott and Bruce) I have learned that HDMI cables can and do carry DTS and AC-3 digital surround audio from DVD players and AppleTV to Receivers; though you must be careful to get a good receiver that can decode DTS/AC-3 from an HDMI port. HDMI 1.3 can also carry DTS-HD and TrueHD encodings (nice to have for future devices).
That bit of good news means I can find any receiver that has at least four digital audio inputs, but the mix can be the far more common and affordable: one or more HDMI, two or more optical, and 1 or more coaxial. This vastly improves the list of receivers that will work…. ah choices… too many choices. At least they are cheaper ones.
Tagged audio, home theatre, videoWe had a fantastic Winter Gather with La Belle Compagnie warming and filling the house. We’ve used all the bedrooms before, but I can’t recall when we had need for more like we did this time. Planning was done for the Spring public shows (Military Through the Ages, Marching Through Time, and International Congress on Medieval Studies). Fittings were done for several newer members. Portrayal discussion and research happened. Old SCA garb was given away and medieval books we had duplicates of were taken. The project to organize and remove junk from the house is beginning to pay off with more space for guests and faster time to find things people are looking for. Sword play and wrestling moves were practiced and tried out by those studying medieval combat. The food was fantastic, and I had lots of help with dishes and cleaning this weekend.
| Erci wanted to get an office beta fish, so we visited Petco and snagged a beta, some more fish for my freshwater tank, supplies, and a new cat tree for the family room. It’s a bit fancier than the one Bailey and Maia have been used to, and we thought perhaps Maia would like the extra height.
She certainly does like the top, though she feels cornered by Bailey if he stares at her from the lower levels or the base of the tree. Bailey likes the middle level and he especially likes to defend it with gentle claws and teeth in a rough game of king of the cat tree. |
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So La Belle is half-way through it’s annual Winter Gathering at my house and we made an excellent discovery. La Grange Meritage, 2005, is fantastic. We are a large group this year (18 adults and several children) and the two bottles we had on hand were not enough. Yum!
It is a bloody good thing that the winery is only about two miles from our house.
Battlestar Galactica’s new season starts this Friday, January 16th.
Fringe’s new season starts next Tuesday, January 20th.
Heroes resumes it’s current season on February 2nd.
Dollhouse makes it’s debut on February 13th.
I love the writing for this listing:
craigslist.org/nva/fuo/991160393.html
Damn – some fool had the ad removed, here is the text for the fun of it:
What a shame – I will grab the text from the buffer on my browser – it’s just a funny ad for a loveseat…
I cannot confirm, but it is widely believed that the reddish-burgandy, Mallard green, deep-ocean blue, and yellow-gold striped fabric that adorns this masterpiece was woven of Milwaukee Brewers legend Robin Yount’s chest hair (and some speculate pubes, but that’s gay). Its unique coloration means that it can blend in equally well in your garage, vineyard, or pyramid. Personally, I “utilized†it in the back of a conversion van for a while. Worked like magic. Or the roofies worked like magic. Whatever.
This piece comes with two fresh-ass throw pillows that will visually dazzle your guests if you have them over for a dinner party (weak), or will physically dazzle the smalls of their backs or buttocks if you have them over for a totally righteous orgy (awesome) or Mandingo party (ehnotsomuch).
As for the seat cushions, they are made of seductively-scented foam and conform to your very ass by telepathy. Ladies, I can guarantee you that these cushions will really impress your modestly-endowed boyfriend with a crew cut and a few ironic tats and puka-shell necklace who lies to you about having a job while he’s actually out in the streets of Dupont on weeknights giving sans-lube wristies for a chunk of change for that gift certificate to Claire’s that he got you so you could get your cartilage or belly-button pierced or whatever it is you kids do these days.
What has four strong legs, is very rare and soft, but will totally fuck your shit up? Two-fold answer. A saber-tooth tiger, and this sick piece. Owning this bad mofo is like having the Natural History Museum and a tanning bed (!) right inside your very own home. So if you really want to get your swerve on, come pick this up in Rosslyn. If you come during the day, bring sunglasses or at least a pirate patch and a strong penchant for squinting, because its glory is blinding in sunlight. If you come at night, bring a sword and a suit of armor because in moonlight it turns into a wolf.
