Month: September 2009

Well, That's Interesting

I bought the Samsung HTIB today and when I got it home it talked to the TV just fine. I can now turn on the surround sound system, leave it on, set it to D-IN and the TV remote controls the volume…apparently this is a standard function of the HDMI interface and each manufacturer calls it something different.

On a slightly different note, when I reset the TV to factory defaults the other day, I let it auto tune in all the channels it could find. It found some digital channels along with the regular ones. Most of the channels come back as “scrambled” and show nothing, but the music channels, they come in just fine. I wonder if Atlantic Broadband knows this?

Changed the Emperor’s oil and rotated his tires today. While I had the back wheels off I relubed the slider pins on the discs brakes. I had been getting a slight moaning sound when backing up right after coming to a stop. The right rear top pin was getting kind of rusty, but it cleaned up good, so I hope i won’t be sounding like I’m running over cats anymore. Oh, and the back pads were getting real thin, gonna have to replace them sooner than I thought.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 382

Three Weeks Ago

Three weeks ago lightning struck near our house and fried the TV and surround sound system (plus some other stuff) and within a couple of hours we had made a trip to Sears and bought a new flat panel TV and a home theater setup. They had a sweet deal on a Panasonic SC PT760 HTIB, so we opted for a Panasonic TC L32C12 TV so that they would talk to each other and there would only have to be one remote on the coffee table.

Because we were in such a hurry, it was nearing closing time, that it wasn’t ’til we got home that we realized they hadn’t given us the remote for the HTIB & one of the rear speakers. We went back on Sunday and collected a remote and the speaker. When we got home and I started setting up the surround sound, I noticed that the remote they gave me was not the same as the picture in the owners manual. It had most of the buttons, some in different spots, but it didn’t have other crucial ones. Because it was Sunday, Sears closed early, so the right remote would have to wait until Monday.

On Monday I took back the wrong remote only to be handed another Panasonic Home Theater remote that was not the correct one either, but it did have more buttons, so I took it hoping that it might work out. Didn’t.

Called the store on Tuesday and they said they’d order me one. At no cost. Shipped to me. At least the latest remote allowed me to set up the Viera Link on the surround sound unit so it and the TV would talk through the HDMI cable. Success. I could turn on the surround sound amp, turn off the TV speakers, pipe the audio from the TV into the amp and the TV remote made the volume go up and down with the hutch doors closed on the surround sound system. It worked for about 2 hours. The remote no longer controlled the volume. I checked the settings and it looked like it should be working, but it wasn’t. I decided to wait on the correct remote before trying again.

Fast forward to late last week and the correct remote arrived at the house. Reread the instructions in both the TV and the HTIB, reset both units to factory defaults and ran the set ups. The displays read like I had both boxes set to use the Viera Link, but the TV remote would not control the HTIB volume. I swear it did work the once.

Thinking maybe it was the cheap $20 HDMI cable, I bought a $40 version with gold plated ends. Didn’t help.

I was now almost positive it wasn’t the cable. (I mean I could have bought two bad cables, but what were the odds that two different cables from two different stores made by two different companies would both be no good? So did the TV’s Viera Link chip stop working or was it something in the HTIB?) My money is now on the surround sound system being the culprit.

Now if I could find a local store with another Panasonic HTIB I would buy it and try it to see if that fixes the problem. This is not as easy as one would think. Choices in Aiken for electronics is very limited. There is Walmart, Target & Sears. Neither Walmart nor Target carry Panasonic surround sound systems. All Sears has left in stock is the $400 SC-PT770. Best Buy in Augusta has the next model down, SC-PT760, for $300, so we drove over there this morning.

We didn’t see the $300 one on display, only the more expensive one, so when a sales guy shows up I ask about the SC-PT760. He says, “I don’t think we have those, let me check.” Off he goes. We wander around a bit. We stand and wait. We shuffle our feet. We wander some more. We stand around some. We give up and walk out. Silly us for thinking the sign out front that said – No Interest on Anything in the Store – meant on your Best Buy credit card….

This afternoon I dismantled the Panasonic HTIB and returned it (and the $40 cable) to Sears. We are keeping the TV. For now.

Because my birthday is in September and I gave Donna a hang dog look, plus she is thoroughly disgusted with me and this whole surround sound mess, she upped the budget a couple hundred bucks and the current plan is to pick up the low level Samsung HT-Z320 at Wally World and order a slightly larger TV that will just squeeze inside the hutch, the Samsung LN37B530. When the Samsung shows up we will take the Panasonic back to Sears…

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 382

Covey of Cachers

I mean that not in a avian way, but in a Deadhead or Phish Followers way. These are a few of ingredients that were stirring around in my subconscious leading to last night’s final dream:

  1. Attending the June CSRA Geocachers meeting where there were 60-70 people.
  2. Reading the logs of caches where it seems like some folks travel in packs from 6 to 12 or more and do big quantities of finds in a day.
  3. A brief conversation with a cache owner when I returned his banished from SCDNR land ammo can.
  4. A short scene from the last movie we watched, Invisible Circus.
  5. I ate too much junk from the Ryan’s Mega Bar the night before.
  6. Waking a 4AM to go to the bathroom, thus leaving enough time to get back into deep REM sleep before…
  7. …being jolted awake mid dream so the last snippets were fresh in my brain.

We were out caching on a South Carolina back road and had just logged a find. Donna was sitting in the car planning our next destination and I was walking the short distance into the woods to replace the ammo can. Donna shouted, with a slight bit of alarm in her voice, "Brian!" I hastily tossed some pine straw over the cache and started out of the woods. I can see what caused her state. There parked on the other side of the road from where we were was a bus that looked like it came from a scene in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. And out of the bus piled dozens of people aged from 8 to 80 in odd dress that looked like it was borrowed from J.F. Sebastian's manufactured companions in Blade Runner. There was juggling, a unicycle rider, tambourine playing, etc. As I got closer I recognized the faces, they belonged to geocachers from the local Club. Just as I was crossing the street to introduce myself to one of these characters with a Cyrano de Bergerac nose when the alarm went off.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 380

Dining Out

Last night we went to dinner at Outback because we had received a coupon in the mail to buy one Special Summer Adventures entrée for $9.95 and get the second one free. I added a Coke to drink (actually required for the coupon to be valid) and we split a Caesar’s Salad. Total with tip $19.

Tonight we went out to dinner at Ryan’s for the MMC’s monthly meeting. We had a coupon to buy one Mega Bar (AKA: Stupefying Buffet) and get the second free. I added a sweet tea and our total with tip came to $14.43.

With the food and overall dining experience, the Outback dinner out was worth $35, the Ryan’s meal was barely worth $10.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 380

Step 3

Busy SkyStep 3 in repairing my Garmin Venture HC was to call Technical Support. But first, for funzies, I decided to try and load the software using my work computer, as expected it didn’t work, so I dialed the 1-800 number for Garmin. There I was thrown into the voice mail pit of despair. The last email I received said I needed to talk to the Software Support Team. Well, as you can guess, there is no option for Software Support even after trying two separate branches of the hollow tree of hope. The third time through I opted for the next available Technical Support Representative.

After not too long a wait a nice young man answered and wanted nothing to do with the trouble ticket I had from my email steps and made me explain the whole story all over again. When I go to the part about being elevated to Software Support and he put me on hold and set up a transfer to the appropriate desk. Shortly I was transferred directly to a nice young woman with a hint of Indian accent.

I quickly explained how the unit was acting, she had me try the three finger start up that would reset the unit to its default settings. I once again got the same blink and fade out as before. After that she went ahead and set up my RMA.

This afternoon I set in motion the Venture’s trip back to Kansas, not via hot air balloon or clicking together my ruby slippers, but by FedEx ground. Now we wait.

Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 378

Technical Support Song & Dance

Step 2 is possibly blame it on something besides the GPSr. (emphasis mine)

This can be caused by a few separate issues and will cause the unit to not update. If the USB cable is bad, being connected to anywhere but directly to the back of the computer, and incompatible USB core driver system on the computer itself. These, or the device is just not operating properly. I would recommend calling in to our software team from this point. We will need to check some advanced settings on the computer to see what could be causing this.

I’ve tried it directly from the PC on the desktop and the laptop. Tomorrow before I call the Software Team I will try it on my work PC. Odds are heavily in favor of the unit being bad, but I’ll dance the dance so I can get this fixed under warranty.

Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 378