Time  Nick      Message
17:12 pdurbin   I need to figure out a better audio/video setup at home. Many requirements from loved ones. :)
18:20 bene      heh
18:21 bene      plex+roku for the video works great
18:22 bene      and if you're ios users, then airport express or apple tvs for the audio and video is also a good combo
18:30 hydrajump apple tv + beamer app is awesome :D
18:31 pdurbin   hmm. so not chromecast?
18:32 bene      i suppose it depends on where your media is coming from
18:33 bene      i.e. net streams or local storage
18:33 pdurbin   the requirements seem to state that all media from everywhere should be supported. and no complexity, please
18:34 pdurbin   "not like at our friends' house"
18:34 bene      heh
18:34 pdurbin   we know what we hate
18:34 bene      are you ios or android or a mix?
18:36 pdurbin   all android
18:36 bene      so maybe chromecast makes more sense then
18:36 bene      i'm less familiar with it
18:37 bene      AFAICT everything is occasionally flaky and doesn't work
18:38 bene      i bought a logitech harmony remote control
18:38 bene      that cut down on a lot of the complexity
18:38 bene      since you can program multiple devices to do the right thing with the press of a single button
18:38 bene      and it's RF, so no aiming the remote at the TV for 15 seconds while all the IR commands are sent
18:39 bene      which helps prevent the splitbrain issue where the receiver is on and the tv is not since someone moved the remote away too quickly
19:27 pdurbin   sorry, wandered away to shovel. yeah, that harmony thing sounds nice if you don't have to worry about line of sight
19:28 pdurbin   right now we're getting by with an old projector (no composite, no HDMI) but maybe it's time to buy a new one or a TV
19:33 pdurbin   ok, ok, here's a picture of how bad it is:
19:33 pdurbin   Confessing the sorry state of my audio/video situation to #crimsonfu at… - https://plus.google.com/+PhilipDurbin/posts/YEBib9JKRDC
19:35 pdurbin   I sort of lashed the old projector upside down to a shelf on the wall with some yellow twine that happened to be in reach maybe six months ago. :)
19:36 pdurbin   ok ok, maybe it's been over a year
19:37 pdurbin   when we want to watch netflix on the projector I bring my laptop over and plug it in. (and to the stereo). at least I don't have to reboot into Windows these days.
19:45 pdurbin   bene: I'm looking at https://plex.tv for the first time
19:46 pdurbin   I've definitely heard good things about roku.
19:54 bene      plex is slick if you have a computer with a bunch of media on it
19:55 bene      i have a linux box in the basement with a few TB of stuff
19:56 bene      i'm trying to get the joypad set up working properly on retropie today
19:56 pdurbin   the thinking in this house seems to be that a laptop is desired that can stream to a big screen and nice speakers. the laptop should have a dvd drive. bluray has not yet been specified as a requirement
19:57 pdurbin   bene: did you check out the picture? ^^
19:57 bene      i did
19:57 * pdurbin hangs head in shame
19:57 bene      i saw some controllers on the shelf which is why i brought up the retropie thing
19:57 bene      mine is cleaner because i got yelled at a lot :-)
19:58 bene      the boys monopolize the tv anyway
19:58 bene      i mostly watch stuff on my ipad and anna uses her laptop
19:58 pdurbin   yeah. we might play some mario kart double dash in a bit. I finally got my hands on a memory stick so now we should be able to unlock the special cup
20:07 pdurbin   I'll watch a whole movie on my phone sometimes.
20:09 pdurbin   part of the thought is that the big screen could be used to look at family pictures too