Wednesday, November 14, 2012

The Biggest XBMC Secret

 Did you just install XBMC?  Were you not completely wooed by the basic offerings available in the official XBMC plugin repository?  Then you may need to go unofficial.  This is one of those do at your own risk posts. It may be for you, it may not.

If nothing else, this is fun to try from an experimentation point of view. It kind of reminds me of the old days of the big ugly satellite dish.  You can spin that thing around and tune in stuff you did not even know existed.  Including back-haul feeds from sporting events and things that would make me blush....


I personally love all of the offerings in the official XBMC repository.  It is enough for me because I don't really watch that much TV.  I am too busy writing blog posts and trying to save the world from myself. When one is in the mood to sit in front of the TV for days on end one should go to the Navi-X plugin.

Navi-X is what I like to call a super scraper.  When you install it, it is located under the programs menu option in XBMC.  Go to search Navi-X.  Type in a movie you want to see.  Let's say you want to see the 1970's Woody Allen classic Bananas.  Yep, you got it, it is out there, along with about any other movie you would want to see.  (For you die hard Bananas fans, it is also available free on Amazon.com Prime streaming.) Isn't technology amazing? Now this probably is fed from Russia or some other country that does not care about the movie laws of the world, so expect issues, if not now, eventually there will be issues.

It is not just about movies, there are old TV episodes, cartoons, or just about anything else you can think of in this super scraper.  Do some creative searching and see what you come up with.

You can figure out all of this stuff and how to get other plugins for  XBMC at www.xbmchub.com.  Need a quick primer on how to install XBMC and Linux?  Check out a previous post here.

If you like this post and think it would be valuable to someone you know, please share it on the social network of your choice for me, okay? All you have to do is click one of the buttons below. Then add me to your Google+ circles. Thanks --Rick

http://gplus.to/rickbolt
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Wednesday, November 7, 2012

The DIY HDTV Antenna

 I have an old HD Tube TV in the garage that someone gave me.  I mounted it up high in the corner and plugged a store bought antenna in and the reception was horrible!!!!  Now I am only about  20 miles from the metro area, so my local channels should come in much better than that.

So to the interwebz I went!  I found some plans for a DIY DB8 antenna made from wood, screws, wire, and a balun (coax transformer).  I had all of this material lying around the Geek's Garage, so I decided to give it a try.

I set about building it on a rainy Friday evening while watching my son's high school football game on TV.  Luckily the store bought antenna picked this channel up.  It is much warmer and dryer in the Geek's Garage and a great place to spend a Friday evening.  Well, it is warmer and dryer than a high school football field in October.

The layout is pretty simple.  The full diagram with measurements is shown here.  Print this out for future reference. This thing is a monster! Be sure to be as precise as possible with your measurements.  It took me about an hour to build and I really took my time it was very easy.



As I said, this thing is pretty big.  Be careful not to bump the wires around when moving it. I hoisted up to the attic and hooked it up to the TV.  At first, I was disappinted, no signal.  I then played around with the placement.  I found out it is very directional.  Once I had it facing the metro area (I am Northeast, so I pointed it Southeast), it picked up all of the channels very nicely.  I was impressed with the signal stregth of all of the local channels.  I would defineitely recommend building one of these yourself.  You can save money and have fun building it!


If you like this post and think it would be valuable to someone you know, please share it on the social network of your choice for me, okay? All you have to do is click one of the buttons below. Then add me to your Google+ circles. Thanks

 --Rick
http://gplus.to/rickbolt

 Roku.com - The Affordable On Demand Player! Click here! - 30-day Money Back Guarantee

Friday, November 2, 2012

Inspection Passed!

The Geek's Garage is good enough for the city! All wiring and final inspections are complete!  Time to get the game on with some organization.  After the organization, the projects will flow.


I have been researching the Apple TV box.  This looks promising.  One jailbreak and install of XBMC and this could be the ultimate TV device to help me get rid of cable!  More to come soon...