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 Post Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2016 1:50 pm 
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Nice set up Jay. I have 3x24 inch (ASUS VS248) monitors on my desk. I also have my 55 inch Samsung Smart TV attached to my video card. I use Accell products to attach my monitors and TV using HDMI cables to my graphics card. My ASUS monitors don't have built in audio. I use PowerDVD to play my Blu-ray movies to my Samsung TV.

http://www.accellcables.com/


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 Post Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2016 2:07 pm 
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Nice Terry! And I can tell how much you hate the NHL... :mrgreen:

One thing is driving me nuts on my setup. The 32" sits just about 1/4 inch higher than the 42". I will have to actually measure and get some pads to put under the 42" to make them even.

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 Post Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2016 2:52 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
But Acadia we use our systems for different things. ... What size is your TV? ;)


You've got to be kidding!?!? Our TV is 55" but we REFUSE to connect it to anything other than our cable. Sorry, GG and I are too old fashioned, just want "simple" cable on our TV.

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 Post Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2016 3:04 pm 
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That's just where we differ Acadia. ;) My 42" monitor IS my TV. It is quite OK to differ. If people didn't differ there would only be one way for everything and I think that would be rather boring. :)

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 Post Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2016 3:20 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
Nice Terry! And I can tell how much you hate the NHL... :mrgreen:

One thing is driving me nuts on my setup. The 32" sits just about 1/4 inch higher than the 42". I will have to actually measure and get some pads to put under the 42" to make them even.

Nothing like having a little OCD. haha! I had to do the same thing on my desk top since I only had a dual monitor stand. I currently have a book under the 3rd monitor that equals out the height with the other two.

I'm a fan of our local NHL franchise the Detroit Red Wings. I like hockey and it gets me through the winter months in Michigan.

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 Post Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2016 3:25 pm 
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I'm pretty strictly NFL with a little MLB thrown in. I never really got in to hockey but would watch before basketball!

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 Post Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2016 3:42 pm 
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Acadia wrote:
You've got to be kidding!?!? Our TV is 55" but we REFUSE to connect it to anything other than our cable. Sorry, GG and I are too old fashioned, just want "simple" cable on our TV.

Acadia


Acadia I have my movies stored on internal drives as .mkv files. PowerDVD plays them through my home theater receiver and onto the 55" TV screen along with the Dolby 5.0 sound through surround speakers. It's like having a Blu-ray player connected to the TV. It works great. That's just me and my setup.

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 Post Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2016 3:44 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
I'm pretty strictly NFL with a little MLB thrown in. I never really got in to hockey but would watch before basketball!

One thing is for sure, high definition has really improved watching sports and of course our favorite movies.

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 Post Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2016 3:47 pm 
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I do the same with movies Terry but I don't convert to MKV, I leave them in DVD format on an internal 4 TB drive. My current library, including music videos, is 514 videos.

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 Post Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2016 5:41 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
I'm pretty strictly NFL with a little MLB thrown in. I never really got in to hockey but would watch before basketball!


Ha! Never watched the Celtics in their prime, eh? I should probably say their last prime - the Larry Byrd/Kevin McHale days. Great game!

And I must say that watching Michael Jordan and Scotty Pippin was always spectacular.

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 Post Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2016 12:33 am 
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Patty you couldn't help but see the Celtics on CBS on a Sunday afternoon. Dave Stockton and Tom Heinsohn used to be the announcers for the NBA game on CBS. Heinsohn was such a homer for the Celtics it was nauseating. Bird, McHale and Parrish were true competitors and champions. I still like hockey better than hoops.

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 Post Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2016 1:59 am 
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Nope, never saw the Celtics in their prime on a regular basis but I did see them when I couldn't avoid. :mrgreen: Shoot, the Cavs won it all this year and I'm from outside of Cleveland yet I did not watch a single game.

Now as to the NFL I will have the Cleveland Browns on through NFL Gamepass radio, Red Zone on one monitor and usually a full game on the other monitor. Actually, if I got another cable box, I could re-mount an older PCI TV tuner and also have picture in picture through my Hauppauge software as both the PCI card and my current USB tuner are both Hauppauge.

Now we get a little kinkier with the audio... While my Hauppauge software will not allow a choice to pick which audio device to use it DOES offer the option to use SPDIF. It just so happens that it seems that Newegg.com happens to offer a cable for ~$12.00 to patch SPDIF to Digital Optical. I am using one Digital Optical port on the sound system for my 42" screen but the sound system happens to have two Digital Optical inputs. Using both Digital Optical inputs and the analog input I would still have one open but I have no idea as to what it actually is yet. It is called Coaxial Digital Optical. The port looks like an RCA plug but I have not yet researched. Still it gives me yet another audio option with a single button press on a clicker to access.

LOL! By now everyone knows that I built my desktop as a media system even though I now use it as my main system seldom using my laptop. I have a pretty killer video with my Sapphire AMD Radeon R9 380 series 4 GB card. When I got the card I was still running Win 7 on the system and the Win 7 experience index was fine with the lowest score being 7.3. Sure I would like it to be 7.9 on everything but the 7.3 is caused by my processor. An Intel I5 gives a 7.2 on my laptop so I am in good company. I don't know if I'm going to bother upgrading the rest of my system as mentioned in another thread. The only reason that I have to upgrade the rest of the system would be to go from SATA 2 to SATA 3. I just do not know if that is a good enough reason to upgrade. Of course it would be nice to have my drives working at their potential of SATA 3 but it really does not matter as my system drive is an SSD and makes up the difference as to operation. Yes an upgrade would make my video encodings take less time but probabably not by a large factor. The time factor does not even matter much as to the video encoding. It isn't like I sit there watching it do its thing. I start the re-encoding process and then go on with normal business.

WOW! I don't believe that I'm going to make the following statement... Even when I was getting Microsoft MPVP awards my goal was always stated as to building my ultimate system. Even with just having SATA 2 I think that I have achieved that goal. Yes going with a new mother board with SATA 3 would improve drive performance but the fact that my video card steps in automatically to help with video encoding by giving any free time on the video to the same I compensate for the slight lack of the processsor and SATA level. Even if I decide that I MUST have SATA 3 I can add a PCI-e card to give me that drive performand for a small cost. Such things are just tweaking.

LOL! I'm melting... I'm melting said the wicked witch of the west in the Wizard of OZ. Sigh, now I have to come up with a new goal as I think that I have finally built my 'perfect' system.

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 Post Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2016 2:07 pm 
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Terri - Ah yes, Robert Parish, The Chief. My favorite center.

I moved from Boston to Portland in 1986, home of the Portland Jailblazers. LOL Thought they were a bunch of thugs. I was right, and it continued that way for several years and I lost my interest in basketball. I don't think they are thugs anymore, think they got rid of those guys - but now they are just losers. Portland has a loser mentality. It's sad but true.

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 Post Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2016 3:31 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
Sigh, now I have to come up with a new goal as I think that I have finally built my 'perfect' system.

Virtual Reality is lurking with your name on it :twisted:


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 Post Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2016 6:19 pm 
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Doddie wrote:
jaylach wrote:
Sigh, now I have to come up with a new goal as I think that I have finally built my 'perfect' system.

Virtual Reality is lurking with your name on it :twisted:

I wish but it will never happen. I can't even use 3D glasses let alone a virtual visor. At least I don't think that a virtual visor would work. Problem is that I'm blind in one eye so these things tend not to work with me.

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 Post Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2016 8:55 am 
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MacDuffie wrote:
Terri (Terry)- Ah yes, Robert Parish, The Chief. My favorite center.

I moved from Boston to Portland in 1986, home of the Portland Jailblazers. LOL Thought they were a bunch of thugs. I was right, and it continued that way for several years and I lost my interest in basketball. I don't think they are thugs anymore, think they got rid of those guys - but now they are just losers. Portland has a loser mentality. It's sad but true.

The Pistons did take Rasheed Wallace of your hands and won a championship with him.

After growing up in the Detroit area, with Red Wing hockey, I would have a hard time living in the Northwest of our great country. The closest NHL team is the Vancouver Canucks :tdown: until the new Las Vegas team gets established. Patty did you ever watch the Bruins play. They were very good in the 70's and early 80's. They have been good again in the last 10 years too. The game is so much faster now then back before the year 2000. The players really fly.

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 Post Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2016 1:01 pm 
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EEERRR ... Is this thread about computers or sports?? :oops2:

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 Post Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2016 1:20 pm 
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Acadia wrote:
EEERRR ... Is this thread about computers or sports?? :oops2:

Acadia

I guess this thread shows the diversity of having a good, powerful machine or two in the house to be able to do what ever "you" want with it. Whether you use it for home office and business, to edit and enhance new or old photos, watch movies or just play games it's all about having the right machine for your needs. Oh and it's about sports too! :rofl2:

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 Post Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2016 2:14 pm 
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jaylach wrote:
I wish but it will never happen. I can't even use 3D glasses let alone a virtual visor. At least I don't think that a virtual visor would work. Problem is that I'm blind in one eye so these things tend not to work with me.

I didn't know that about your eye but never say never :)

I don't claim to know anything about VR but after a very quick search I found at least two posts/threads that claim all is not lost for those with one eye, at least where the Oculus Rift is involved...
Quote:
A few weeks back, I received an email from a reader who was blind in one eye and wanted to know how the Oculus Rift would work for him. I thought it was an interesting question but honestly didn't know the answer, so I put it to the back of my mind. Then this last weekend I went in for Lasik surgery. It didn't go well.

Simply put, the surgery was a failure and while the doctor is hopeful that I will make a full recovery in the coming months, I have been effectively blind in my right eye for the past few days. So in an attempt to turn something horrible into something useful to others, I decided to see what Oculus Rift is like for those with only one functioning eye...
Read the rest here:
http://kotaku.com/playing-occulus-rift- ... 1074765790

On the Oculus Forums:
How well does the Oculus work for a person who is blind in one eye?
https://forums.oculus.com/community/dis ... in-one-eye

If you ever get the chance to demo an Oculus Rift, grab it :)


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 Post Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2016 9:54 pm 
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Interesting reads Doddie, thanks.

LOL! Living in Sheridan Wyoming, a town with a population of around 17,000, I doubt that I'll have the chance to demo Oculus Rift. But then again there is always Billings Montana about 45 minutes away. I think that they have a Best Buy. Plus Billings has the draw of my never having been there. ;) I probably won't go but am taking 12 days off work late September-early October... ya never know... ;)

The links that you posted make sense. VR really isn't any different than the real world as to vision. I just would not be able to see things as for to the right as one with two eyes. It isn't like 3D where each eye is being shown a different image. Still $600.00 for a base unit is a bit overboard but a year ago I was considering spending $800-$1000 on a drone. LOL! It IS nice being totally debt free. :mrgreen:

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 Post Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2016 10:50 am 
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Ritzter13 wrote:
The Pistons did take Rasheed Wallace of your hands and won a championship with him.

After growing up in the Detroit area, with Red Wing hockey, I would have a hard time living in the Northwest of our great country. The closest NHL team is the Vancouver Canucks :tdown: until the new Las Vegas team gets established. Patty did you ever watch the Bruins play...


Re Rasheed - Yes, and good riddance! LOL
Living in the Pacific NW is very easy, Terry. Weather is mild, not a lot of catastrophic natural events. An occasional earthquake, generally mild. No ticks, almost no rabies, no snakes to speak of... just an easy environment to live in. (If you can put up with the communistas. LOL)

Basketball was the only sport I ever got into, Terry. That was just because the Celtics were so great in those days, and my husband was very into basketball and did a good job of explaining the game to me. After leaving Boston I never got into watching other sports. Except the Olympic ice skaters. ;) (Think Torville and Dean.)

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 Post Posted: Mon Aug 01, 2016 10:51 am 
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Acadia wrote:
EEERRR ... Is this thread about computers or sports?? :oops2:

Acadia

Who cares? :lol:

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 Post Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2016 12:37 am 
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Go ahead and keep talking sports, monitors and VM here but this will likely be my last post as to the dual monitors unless there is other feedback to which to respond.

My female 1/8" to two male RCA plugs adaptor was waiting for me when I got off work. Everything is proven as to using dual audio sources and all works well. Right now I have the output from my 42" monitor going to one of the optical inputs on my Yamaha sound system. Output from the built in audio on my system is going to the analog (RCA plugs) inputs on the Yamaha.

Only read further if you want to know how I will implement the dual audio...

1) I will set the default audio to be the optical audio connection from the 42" display to the Yamaha system. I will also set, on the software side, for Media Player and Medial Player Classic Home Cinema to use the signal from the optical audio output of the HDTV regardless of the default sound source for the system. This will be my normal main audio source.

2) So why set the players away from the default audio? Mainly due to the NFL. (LOL! Had to bring some sports in to the mix... ;) ) When watching the NFL I will I will change the default audio to the sound card. Why would this make a difference? I am a Cleveland Brows fan and use NFL Game Pass to listen to the live radio broadcasts of their games. I also have a TV tuner on this system connected to my cable box through which I watch NFL Red Zone which covers every game being played live. With one click of my remote I will be able to switch audio sources without ever having to go to the Control Panel Sound Applet. I need one more audio cable to go from SPDIF out on my sound card to an input on the Yamaha system but have already proven that this method will work.

3) I can even go further during the NFL season and re-mount a PCI TV tuner I have that still works well and add a second cable box. This would allow me to throw a game to each monitor or do picture in picture on one monitor. I am under no contract and can add another cable box for the NFL season and just return it after the season ends. Actually, with the way this small town works, I would probably not even need to return the second box but rather just have it turned off.

4) Of course my Yamaha sound system is not a true surround sound system but sounds totally great. The thing has 8 main speakers to handle the main sound channels with a combined wattage much higher than I can use in my apartment. It also has dual 30 watt bass speakers for a total of 60 watts. Along with that are the two bottom projected sub-woofers each being 30 watts for a combined 60 watt sub-woofer. Thank goodness that the thing has separate volume controls for the main audio and the sub-woofers as going to a level of 4 on the subs will vibrate the floor.

5) For just about forever I have been working toward building the 'perfect' media system. I built my first when an AMD K6 550 MHz. processor was REALLY fast. LOL! I actually used multiple adaptors to get the 1/8" output of the sound card to co-axial cable that I ran through the crawl space of the house to reverse the adaptors to be able to connect to the RCA inputs of a VCR that I used as an A/V router so to speak. The output from the VCR would then connect to the 5000 watt surround sound I had at the time. Since, at the time, I had an old style 37" CRT type TV you could hardly read a word of test on the screen but movies, audio and games displayed perfectly. I was a bit ahead of the curve. The system was even gave audio outside I'm my back yard where I had a fire pit. We would sit outside listening to tunes with a fire. I actually made a fair amount of money building such systems for clients when I had my computer business in Florida.

6) Since I can't really think of anything more to do as to media, other than going with virtual reality, I think that I have my perfect media system at last. It has taken me over 20 years to get there but my current system is proof that I reached my goal.

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 Post Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2016 9:59 am 
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MacDuffie wrote:
Who cares? :lol:

Actually, I must confess Patty, that I have always admired the way you allow threads to go off topic without reining in the rings. Thru the years I have learned too much from off topic threads. :happy62:
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 Post Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2016 12:51 pm 
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Thank you, and that's true, Acadia. So have I (learned from off-topic posts). You know it is more like real human interaction when things go off like that. The only time Jay and I interfere is when a second technical subject is introduced and we want it to have its own thread and title. Even then we just quietly split the threads. ;)

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