coops

With twin Peaks returned... decided to rewatch from the start with the wife.

Bloody marvellous....

14 minutes ago, Flustered said:

 

Now I am having trouble finding a really good tube downloader that includes merging srt files automatically.

'Jubler' on a Mac is my subtitle fixing app for minor time shifting - and can merge srt files easily, just select all in one file and copy paste to the second open file and save.

There's other good sources for tv etc, apart from torrents... rummage around with google - it's a bit of a fight club style 'first rule is not to speak of' blah blah thing but it'll pop up sooner or later.

Bangkok General is much more convenient for me. Rama IX hospital is good too i've heard.

Don't think you'll go 'wrong' with any of them - but there may be some specialists at certain hospitals who are more highly reagrded of course.

With work, i've had BUPA and Cigna insurance and both have been trouble free and immediate coverage (no need to pay and bother with claiming back).

Bangkok General just off Petchburi Rd is very good.

Bumrungrad and Samitivej are two other well known and regarded ones.

Forgot to mention an oldie but very, very goodie indeed...

There's been many recent excellent UK police/detective style shows ( Broadchurch, Line of Duty, Happy Valley ....) but it remnded me of the old Helen Mirren one...

And you can get Blu-ray versions now, so will introduce the wifey to the original and one and only... Prime Suspect.

Jamestown is ...ok. Entertaining but hardly great...

Recommend Silicon Valley - season 4 anout to end. 'tis very amusing indeeed, don't be put off by the IT nerd aspect of it.

Preacher is about to start season 2 - it's a slow burner that i ended up enjoying, and not only because of Ruth Negga.... mercy.

Has anyone mentioned 'The Handmaids Tale'?

or 'Making of a Murderer'....

Our AIS fibre on the 100/10 package, tests at 100+\- and 10 to 11 up, so as specified to a Bangkok server using Ookla...

A google fibre test from my ipad gave a very decent speed to Atlanta, USA of 51.8 / 9.6.

I'd be giving True a call about it... as we did before when we were on True... but happily ditched them for AIS

Recently seen last season of Line of Duty - excellent... and it keeps remidning me to start rewatching 'This is England' - aaah, Vicky McClure... speaking of old crushes, from the X Files days, make sure you see Gillian Anderson in 'The Fall'.

'Luther' is good, but for another uk policey show... there may be no better than 'Happy Valley'.

And watch the more over the top fun that is 'Peaky Blinders'.....

but definitely do NOT bother with the movie 'High Rise' - you can see/listen to the best bit on youtube by searching for 'Portishead SOS' - surely the best Abba cover ever.

Emmie's off Rama IX down soi 49 is an option, open from 8am - it's opposite 'A ramen' which is open 24hrs a day (!).

All day food - the breakfast side looks good - had some lunch there and good coffee.

Their 'website' is only facebook p1sh unfortunately and not a proper website...

https://www.facebook.com/Emmiesbkk/

for any cyclist out there:-

After cycling around Nong Bon lake then Baan Chang is great - ( for the 'american' breakfast you'll probably want to specify your bacon as crispy unless you like the underdone style...)

https://goo.gl/maps/iy2Rr7Qq6W32

or from the Skylane, once it reopens, Bike Terminal is very good food/breakfast/beer and a bike shoppe

https://goo.gl/maps/4XGdCLpyd8q

You can get some from Wishbeer.com - I've had beer delivered form them in the past, and got a couple of Trippel Karmeliet glasses also....

https://www.wishbeer.com/en/947-beer-glass

Most downloads don't come with external subtitles - and if they do they might be under another folder once the download is complete snd unrar'd/unzipped. Are the subtitles under a sub folder called 'english subs' etc? Any even half decent media player should cope with subtitles just fine if the actual subtitle file(s) is named the same as the movie file ( note - you can also add a language identifier to the subtitle... so for a movie called 'movie.mkv' the english srt subtitle should be named 'movie.en.srt' )

An actual subtitle file will end with an extension of .srt, or .idx & .sub, or .ssa - the most common are srt or the sub/idx type.

Mostly they'll be included in the movie container if it's .mkv or .m4v format, and can be extracted.

You can check by going to opensubtitles.org and downloading the subtitle for your movie - it'll usually download the subtitle file as zip file, so unzip it & rename the srt to 'yourmoviename.srt' or 'yourmoviename.en.srt' etc.

Make sure subtitle file & movie file are directly under the same folder - so the subtitle is NOT under a separate sub folder.

I don't rely on Kodi for live streaming - but use Minix xmbc (kodi fork) to play media - tv or movies... and having watched an epsiode of Blacklist on AXN for a change on True the other day...  not sure how shorting shares works in Thailand... but a short play on True Vision would seem sensible.

I remember when True were NOT ALLOWED adverts... now adverts, and the ridiculous tv screen space 'stealing' by slapping  an AXN etc etc channel symbol on yoru screen... with the tv show name next to it, just to add insult ... and then slap 'truevisions' on the screen for good measure. No control over subtitles - size or position or on/off.... cable tv is surely dying.

AIS could move in with their app and channels and demolish True utterly... 

Do it right first tme though (whether you do it or et soemone else to do it for you) ... and make sure you rip them to a LOSSLESS format first -  Apple lossless or FLAC.

These lossless formats do what is sounds like - they will be about a third or os of the full cd wav format.. but can be rewritten back to a CD at the FULL, EXACT same data.... whereas mp3 etc is lossy, and once lost that accuracy is forever lost.

Once you have all your music in FLAC you can run a decent encoder at that flac folder containing all your cd's and let it run overnight or howver long to encode everything to mp3 for your phone if you need even smaller file sizes... but you will still have the original cd data in digital, lossless, format.

XLD on Macs is ourstanding and free.

( try a few cds first to ensure your file nameing and folder nameing  and cover art is as you want it, and also any compilation albums...)

There is, understandably, some confusion about Andoird and Android TV... and what if any is the difference... and whether many boxes even describe themsleves properly...

https://androidtv.news/2016/07/android-tv-versus-android-smart-tv-boxes/

"Android TV was announced in 2014, and as such was originally based on Android Lollipop (5.0). The TV team has been keeping up with stock Android development. Android TV can also run on Android Marshmallow (6.0) and Nougat (7.0). If this set-top box is running a version lower than that, it is not Android TV. 

...It has a special interface and services that are designed specifically for a TV"

So, as you can see - an older android box running android version 4.whatever, is NOT an Android TV box ( like my older Minix x8-h). These older boxes may well be able to sign in and run AIS Play app because the app sees them as being a tablet/phone and NOT an android tv box which is not supported. A giveaway is the interagce for the AIS Play app - it is only usable with an air mouse ie as if using a touch device like tablet/phone and NOT a standard TV d pad remote.

A 'true' Android TV box like Minix U1/U9 does not offer any sign in for the app as it is not recognized as a tablet/phone...

AIS could produce a Android TV app that would work on nvidia shileds etc, minix u1 etc, but would be a TV version app... as mentioned google casting to an android tv box is an alternative... 

Actually, imsuspect it's the x8-8h running on an olde android version that allows you to sign in - the older android doesn't differenttiate to an Android tv box.. whereas my U1 will refuse a sign in - i ought to fre up my old x8-h ( non plus) to confirm it...

have just switched to AIS fibre from True and am also trying out the Playbox and AIS tv service...

The AiS play app installs fine on my Minix U1 , launches fine... but all channels are locked and going to the settings and a sign in option... that simply spits out "Network is invalid, only AIS nobile allowed" - sadly, this app isn't designed for a set top tv box ( and d pad controls don't work either, have to use air mouse to select...).

shame - as the AIS playbox is so basic... it doesn't even support a 5gHz wifi connection.

ps outstanding service from AIS though - phoned them Friday afternoon, they confirmed they have free connections in my area, and they phoned back Saturday morning to confirm nstallation on Sunday. Sunday morning, they're at the house at 8am ready - all done in a couple of hours or so.

They do recommend ethernet to their Playbox ( not least due to the box not even supporting 5gHz, which is hopeless... I stream 1080p from a NAS drive to Xmbc or Plex on a Minix U1 over 5gHz with no issues).

the installation guys are going to get back to us with a price for an ethernet cable install ( independent install from AIS) as it will be useful to have anyway.

The 10/100 cable is great - no need for my Asus wifi router to use vpn anymore ( as oppsoed to True cable). AIS do supply a wifi router, but our Asus is better, so simply plugged that into the AIS cable router and our wifi was good to go.

On 20/03/2017 at 5:36 PM, Dagnabbit said:

..... but it's a bit more practical for a cyclist........

Just get a tow bar ball hitch fitted and buy a Thule hitch mounted rack. Thule can fit a ball hitch also, but best to ask manufacturer to install official one if possible.

Change car later on - no problem. The Thule rack will last decades... easy on / easy off and access to boot when mounted as it can tip forward. No arseing about takeing wheels off and on your bike or any other faff.

Use a VPN.

I run a VPN on my Synology NAS for all internet connections.

Without it torrents are throttled (True cable).

With VPN, no problem.

Use a VPN.

The older way, to be avoided, was to output via optical to the soundbar from the TV.

The modern way is the soundbar has multiple hdmi inputs ( for input from your cable box, tv box, laptop etc) and usually an optical input also for hi-fi Sonos or other audio hifi to Soundbar. The Soundbar then has one hdmi output to the TV.

SooKee - you sound like a kindred Plex spirit... what could be so good... yet turns out to be a never ending unstable run-around...

If you're running off a NAS, Emby might be worth a look - and if Synology, then the Synology video station server plays to a Minix or android box and use MX player with no problems at all... except for... wait for it... the Synology Android app has a built in limit (why? why?) of 100 series and i think it's 1000 movies, any more it won't display them all... oh, the humanity. I put in a bug ticket about it and got a reply that they know  and they 'may' fix it... but not definite... what the......?

Here's a decent review of the U9 :-

http://www.cnx-software.com/2017/02/24/review-of-minix-neo-u9-h-media-hub-a3-air-mouse-part-1-specs-unboxing-and-teardown/

I hvae had the Miniix X8-h for some time - and recently got a Minix U1... and I would definitely recommend Minix for android TV boxes.

Note - when I first got the X8-h the ethernet connection was actually slower than the wi-fi... amongst other issues - BUT and this is a huge but in the Android box world, they do SUPPORT their boxes. The problems were fixed and it was quickly a very good box indeed - sadly Plex don't do an equally good job with their updates....

The U1 is very good, and supports hevc h265 - and recently got a new firmware update also.

From the U9 review you can see that right NOW it may not be much better ( or even a little worse) in terms of video playback quality - this is due to the S9122 amlogic mentioned... and is why the U9 has been delayed so long... and much longer than other brands who just threw out a s912 box anyway and let their customers suffer... I'd be confident that in 6 months time after some updates it will reach its potential.

There's a shop in Fortune Town that stocks the TV boxes, Minix among them - got my U1 there and they shoudl have the U9 soon or now?

Plex could be marvellous - but they don't properly support external players in their own client apps, which leads to codec issues, subtitle issues etc etc none of which are due to my Minix box which can happily play them... an older Plex 3rd party client called 'Serenity' ( which hasn't been updated for a year? or longer? ) does a BETTER job of actually playing the video - which is or should be the primary focus... Serenity can use MX player as the external player ( just add the ac3/dts codec to MX player, free) and it then happily plays EVERY codec i've got and with their srt subtitles, no issues at all.

There is also an official 'Plex for Kodi' addon for Kodi v17 which is again better than the usual Plex Android client @sigh@

I'm close to ditching Plex to be honest - as I can use my NAS Synology Video Station server and its android app which again plays using MX player - thus fault free.... ( and note the Minix does not require NY transcoding form the server)

as mentioned, get a tow hitch fitted and a Thule rack for it. There are ball hitch versions for 2, 3 and 4 bikes.

Easy on/off rack and bikes - and easy access to your boot even when the bikes are mounted.

Or Jet Computer at Fortune Town - they have Synology and QNAP NAS ( amongst others) and a range of suitable hard drives. WD Red at up to 6Tb last visit ( 8Tb is now available in USA).

I had one 6Tb drive fail, and it was replaced under warranty by them within a week ( I believe if it fails within the first week or? it will be replaced immediately - mine failed after several months.)

The Minix U1 i mentioned runs Kodi 17 perfectly - uninstall the pre loaded v16, then install kodi 17 from google play.

I used a powerline ethernet for my previous x8-h, but have disconnected it - the wifi with the U1 and my Asus ac88u is much faster ( especially as i use the 5ghz band just for the android box).