Violin sound.

[Retired]

Hi,

Oh dear rob what a terrible start with Giganet I hope it improves once you finally get online with them.

I've tried everything I could think of to clear the tracks continually playing and it's possible I might have succeeded at last; it's been very strange indeed I think it was on automatic play for some reason; my life is just normally strange with things having minds of their own; I tried right clicking but no way of shutting it down it just kept playing; I went into settings and kicked a few around; next problem is to transfer both tracks to memory stick; everything is taking forever these days.

Thanks Raymond; I had absolutely no problem playing both tracks using Firefox the problem was no way of stopping them repeating over and over; I've owned and used a computer for over 23 years so this was totally new to me but I'm not in the least surprised.

I've also sorted out the DVD encryption too; I've bought a new DVD player from Argos today complete with cable so I don't need to copy to memory stick saving lots of hassle; it should arrive tomorrow; £33.93 in total so now I'm all set up to raiding charity shops for cheap DVDs. Keep the silly problems coming my life wouldn't be the same without them; tomorrow will be another new problem; I wonder what it will be.

We're supposed to be in 7 hours of heavy rain by now according to the Met office this morning but so far only a few drops that didn't even wet the patio; I dashed around like an idiot this morning trying to get everything done before the rain arrived, GRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[TalismanRich]

Colin, Like Raymond, I use Firefox, and just right clicking on the attachments gives me the option to save the file. If I just click on the file, it opens up a web player in a new windows. Closing the tab will close the player.

I don't know what you use for transferring DVDs to memory, but I've had lots of luck with Handbrake to convert DVDs to MPEG4 format. I also have an old program called DVD Decrypter which will allow you to copy the disk to hard drive in the original VOB format. So far, I've only run into a few movies that wouldn't copy, DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons.

I have 145 movies on my network hard drive, plus all the Big Bang Theory seasons, WKRP in Cincinnati, and about 50 concerts. It has come in handy a few times.

 

[rob aylestone]

It came on at seven last night. Everything migrated, bar a few things that are not compatible with the router, but cameras, alarms, Alexas, doorbells and network drives seem happy. Oddly my upload speed on wired connections is higher than down load which is actually good for what I do, WiFi about the same. the nas drive is going mad as it backs up three weeks worth of video files from the office. It does seem that as soon as giganet gave the problem. To a real technical person he got it sorted. They have asked trustpilot to consider deleting my post? I didn’t know that was possible. For fairness I have edited in a postscript to my trustpilot review, but everything in is is factual, so the warning from trust pilot that they may delete it is concerning.

 

[Slouching Raymond]

I've bought a new DVD player from Argos today complete with cable so I don't need to copy to memory stick saving lots of hassle; it should arrive tomorrow; £33.93 in total so now I'm all set up to raiding charity shops for cheap DVDs.

DVDs can be quirky, especially scratched ones.
I first bought a little DVD player with a 9" screen, which turned its nose up at some disks.
Then I bought a regular player, but that froze on some disks.
So then I bought an LG BlueRay player, which performs best , and plays the disks that froze on the previous player.
Sometimes though, the BlueRay turns its nose up at the odd disk, which had played previously. At that point, I try it on the previous player successfully.
I chucked the player with the screen, but the later two are both connected to my TV.

Oddly my upload speed on wired connections is higher than down load which is actually good for what I do, WiFi about the same.

Same here. Could be because they have capacity, but not many customers yet.

 

[Retired]

Hi,

What a terrible morning; I still had the tracks playing and it took ages to finally stop them; on the screen they played on there wasn't a toolbar letting me close the tab; yesterday I tried lots of things this morning I messed my computer up but I eventually found somewhere saying close tab so I clicked on it; I've never had this happen in the last 23 years and don't know why the tracks were repeating but then my computer at times has a mind of its own; I couldn't find anywhere showing it was repeating; I went into Task Manager and nothing was playing; it was weird to say the least and took up a lot of my time and patience; I can now click on each track to play and close it without problems but it's typical of my luck.

Just as I posted my last message on the forum last night I received an email from eBay stating there could be a fault on the blender I bought a short while ago quoting a number saying get in touch with the seller? I'd bought the blender from Curry's; no doubt it's because I browsed eBay before buying from Curry's but these silly problems just won't leave me alone; I've just composed an email and this popped up;

Having got my computer sorted this morning I thought I'd take my frustration out on the stumps up the garden; I got 15 minutes into it having dragged a big stump across the slope to put it behind the top garden hut when down came the rain; back indoors Argos had delivered the DVD player and cable so an easy job which is rare for me; when I bought the player yesterday it stated also bought with the player an HDMI cable at almost £9 so I bought both; I honestly could scream at my luck the DVD player is connected by a smart to HDMI so another cable is now bought awaiting delivery; I'm not returning the wrong cable because if I do the next electronic bit of kit will require one of these.

Thanks for the information TalismanRich; much appreciated but problem at last fully sorted; I'm now awaiting the next problem. I use the program on the computer which I've used for many years for copying CD/DVDs never having a problem but now the DVD's are encrypted preventing copying but it's no longer a problem once I get the DVD player running. Yes I too am on Firefox. I'm going to have a look at "Handbrake" you kindly mentioned. Before the clam,p down on pirate websites I must have copied over a thousand movies/TV series to DVD but these because of age were in AVI file format so ages ago I dumped most of them including the full set of "Dallas".

What good news at last rob; I'm pleased you're up and running with Giganet at last and hope any future niggles are tiny; you'll be delighted as I am to be sorted. Why should you amend a Trust Pilot review after all Trust Pilot is there for sharing true and honest information which you supplied in good faith; yes by all means update but leave the original as it is; I'm expecting VM contacting me with their usual questionnaire but this time I'll explain in full the the many months of suffering we've endured due to their poor customer service and virtual impossibility of speaking to anyone at VM by landline; I left two bad but polite reports but this time I'll add our service is brilliant once again. The service was so bad after two technicians failed to resolve the problem we were about to move to BT when VM contacted me by email offering to send the third technician out; we'd been without TV for a week.

Thanks Raymond; years ago we had a Blu Ray DVD player until as you rightly say these start to behave strangely; we dumped it; this new cheap Bush player is worth a try assuming I can ever connect it up; a lot of technology though for little cost.

I'm finally settling down having had such a bad day so far.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Retired]

Hi,

No stump work today because I don't own a snorkel; it's been heavy rain all day the kind of rain that soaks and it's also dark so I'm grounded.

I've enjoyed a violin practice this morning and will enjoy another violin practice this evening; no problems now with Virgin Media much to our relief.; I received the usual questionnaire from VM this morning and have kissed and made up; the service appears to be back to normal. I hope both you Raymond and rob are happy with your new Giganet service.

I can't settle and relax with this tree stump job hanging over me I'll be glad when all six are out then perhaps I can spend a lot more time in the studio.

I downloaded "Handbrake" yesterday TalismanRich and set it off converting a movie; at first I thought this is quick; the pointer shot halfway along the bar in no time at all but then stopped it was going to take an hour to complete so I cancelled it; do you have the paid version of Handbrake? These "Free" sites are free until downloaded then as soon as are used up pops the request to update to being paid for.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[rob aylestone]

To convert big video files always takes a long time unless you have a mega speedy PC, and even then, they do a lot of thinking! Handbrake doesn't give me any popups - I doubt I would have paid for it as I only use it for one video source that uses the avi wrapper in an odd way Premiere Pro does not like - so all the files from the little camera - 1080 .avi files play on the windows player, but not in Premiere. It's not a particularly friendly bit of software too, unless you know what you're doing.

 

[TalismanRich]

Colin, There is only one version of Handbrake. It's free, opensource software,

Yes, it does take a fair amount of time to convert videos, as Rob said. I usually just set up the computer to convert the video, then go off and do something else, like fix breakfast, cut the grass, watch TV, or maybe dig out a tree stump! Come back an hour or 2 later and everything is sitting there finished up. I especially like that I can convert individual episodes from a TV show's DVD to flash drive.

Even when I have edited videos in Cyberlink Powerdirector, rendering the video files will take quite a long time, and that's paid video editing software. Video just take time.

Another free video program that I use is VLC. It's also open source and available for mulitple platforms. it will convert some file types, but it's not any faster or easier than Handbrake.

 

[Retired]

Hi,

Thanks rob; yes big video files do take a lot of time to convert but I've got a lot of them and want to buy more from charity shops; my computer plays avi without problem and our TV will play some of these but reject most; it would take forever to to convert the DVDs I already have hence rather than mess around I bought the DVD player but as stated now am waiting for the correct scart cable to arrive; now VM is up and running again we can resume wearing YouTube out. I so wish cables could be standardized.

I also over many years have tried CAD free websites but struggled to draw a straight line to length and usually gave up in the end. One of my projects needed a full set of 45 change gears which is a long story but eventually I found;

https://www.emachineshop.com/free-download/

EMS is totally free and virus free I've had it for years; here's the result;

I'm downright stubborn this particular project being exceptionally difficult me needing to learn CAD and how to cut cast iron gears on my lathe but I have yet to fail because I never quit once I start something. I've also done 3D drawings but can't find the pictures.

Thanks for the information TalismanRich;

Here's what I meant regarding paying with Freemake. I've still got Freemake on my computer and it's just upgraded to the latest version. I've had VLC many years finding it excellent.

With more rain forecast for this afternoon I was up the mountain by 9:30 this morning intending to winch one of the big stumps across the garden before the rain arrived. I've had a 2,500Lb winch for years and got everything set up but found this winch was incredibly hard work whilst trying to remain standing upright on the wet slope; the stump had broken free but it proved very hard work so rather than struggle on I decided to try out my brand new 4 ton winch; once again I got this all set up with the ropes ready to start winching but I couldn't get this new winch to work at all; I struggled and struggled for ages but it simply refused to work; being a mechanical engineer used to all kinds of winches something was obviously very wrong; I'd struggled further having cut a low branch off a huge tree which was annoying as were nearby bushes; I finally gave in being too tired to go further.

With the winch now in my hands I could fully inspect it only to find my bad luck still remains constantly with me; the winch is transit damaged jamming it from turning; it's been dropped with tremendous force pushing part of its bottom plate into the gears also the wire rope is fouling the automatic spool feed; it's now in the workshop where I'm about to wander down to in order to strip it and do repairs.

Will I ever get peace to spend time in the studio; all I want out of life is to play my violins but every time I try something torments me; I'm going to concentrate on this stump removal job because I'm totally fed up of it and time I put it to bed; 2 stumps out four yet to go; I'm sorry my posts are off topic I can only dream of getting on topic and putting into action all the suggestions and information I've kindly been given; please bear with me because I'll not quit however hard or difficult it gets.

This afternoon was planned for violin practice. GRRRR.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[TAE]

For a New York minute I worked with a tree guy back when I was a young man. Here in Cali we use stump grinders to rid our selves of stumps. We can grind a stump down into the ground in about an hour and though the roots are below the stump is gone....I know you guys have something like the Big Box stores Home Depot and Lowes in the UK ..You can rent the stump grinder for a day and take out a bunch of stumps and end the winching and digging torture....
These are available in the UK and there are bigger ones but this one is pretty portable and will do the job.

 

[TAE]

Bigger ones go much faster watch this bad boy take out a 36" stump in 10 minutes...beastly

 

[Slouching Raymond]

Scart cables are yesteryear. It is all HDMI now.

 

[Retired]

Hi,

Many thanks TAE for taking the time to post these interesting videos and also for your suggestion; much appreciated.

Our rear garden is so steep it's difficult to stand upright in; just dragging the petrol mower or petrol rotavator to the top gives an excellent workout before even trying to use them; the pictures don't show just how steep it is because I angled the camera from our kitchen window and when wet it's treacherous.

Your suggestion of a stump grinder I'd agree with and consider it but imagine the sheer hassle trying to get it up the steps then try to operate it on the slope; it would be dangerous. I seriously considered spending around £7,000 for a mini digger but the only way to get it into the garden would be from the top lane which runs parallel with our garden wall; it would need a crane to lift it the 8' to clear the wall with the fence above then again highly dangerous on such a steep site. I'd also considered spending £1,000 for mini digger hire but nothing is easy on our site hence I'm forever faced with so much hard work which still hasn't let up all the 35 years living here

I'm being very awkward because I want to also get all the roots out allowing the rotavator to be used; I can power the rotavator uphill then freewheel back down but the roots need to come out; I'm creating a third wildflower meadow.

I've repaired the new winch; I used a heavy hammer and short length of shafting to punch the bottom plate clear of the gears but then found the winch still refused to turn due to a very jammed wire rope so in the end removed the drum to free everything then reassemble; it's working fine now but these problems keep tormenting me and has robbed me of yet another day; to add insult to injury where's the forecast rain; not a single drop this afternoon although yesterday the rain never let up; If I didn't moan I think I'd be depressed.

Winch bottom plate damaged.

Winch rope jammed solid needing drum removing to free and then align it.

Normally I'd completely strip the winch but this time fed up of constant problems I simply punched the base plate clear of the gears; not pretty but it worked; when I opened the box I just thought the base plate was as designed unaware the winch had suffered transit damage. I'll remove the stumps and roots the hard way after all I'd only be playing my violins having nothing better to do; I wonder what the next big heavy job is going to be once the stumps and roots are out?

I'm currently too tired to play my violins my shoulder hurts so much but I did manage two short practices yesterday. Another wasted day today running just to standstill.

Thanks Raymond; yes I agree and is why Argos recommended buying the HDMI cable which doesn't fit this Bush DVD player but then what do I expect with my luck? I dumped lots of cables at our local recycling site years ago which sums up my luck.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[TalismanRich]

I don't think I've ever seen a device with a Scart connector in the US. IT was either RCA composite or component, S-Video, or HDMI. Most of my DVDs had component video and HDMI. Blu-Ray are HDMI only so you can't capture the video with a recording device.

Colin, I agree! Trying to get a stump grinder up that hill would be a major issue. It would probably be too wide to even go up the steps, unless it was very small. It's a pity you can't come down from the back of the property.

I've seen a lot of trees being removed lately, as we had 80MPH winds back on March 3 and it was taking out trees left and right. At one point nearly 100,000 people in the metro area were without power. It took 5 days to get everyone back online.

Some were HUGE trees. This one wasn't far from my home. Another tree down the street from my ex-wife had a tree land on top of a car. Luckily the person wasn't crushed and was able to get out of the car.

Todau, my golf group had 2 tee times at 10am. By noon, we were getting steady 25MPH winds with gusts as high as 50. It was hard to even stand a few times. That's the second Saturday in a row that we've had extremely high winds, and the third time in March. Hopefully April will be a bit more calm!

 

[Retired]

Hi,

Thanks TalismanRich; I was very surprised to find our new DVD player needed a scart cable; it's only a cheap player but even so such things are usually up to date not from the dark ages; I'll see how it behaves when I finally get it working and report back.

Thanks for the picture; I feel very sorry indeed for the home owner especially if the insurance company behaves the way our insurance company LV behaved last August when our two roomed rear extension suffered subsidence damage. There are many videos on YouTube showing such damage but caused by owners of chainsaws. We too suffer extremely high winds living here on the steep exposed valley side in fact exposed to all extremes of weather; wonderful panoramic views though.

View from near top of our mountain; it's hard work just getting to the top and remaining standing upright.

Here's a better view of the garden top showing the new fence I erected and the top meadow I created; the 4" x 4" fence posts were 12' long; the mesh fence above the wall is 4' and the wall at least 4' tall varying a bit across the garden. Getting any heavy machinery into the garden would require a crane but then please see how steep the garden is; neighbours built a new house at the top of the adjoining garden using a huge digger to dig into the hillside allowing downstairs bedrooms and the waste dug out was used to level the front garden but this required an 8' tall retaining wall to be built. Nothing is easy here; I'm now creating a similar wildflower meadow to the middle of the garden where I removed the six very tall trees hence I'm now removing the stumps but it's incredibly hard work. When I started to dig the fence post holes typical of my luck to find a solid stone ledge this ledge exactly 3' thick; not to give in I bought a big concrete breaker and it was so heavy I had to drag it up the garden on a sack cart; "Easy" and me are not good companions.

On Friday night I went to bed feeling very well indeed; yesterday morning I felt very ill with severe pain to my left shoulder and neck area unable to understand why; all day yesterday I felt ill but ended up with more problems as I tackled the stumps again finding the new 4 ton winch jammed solid which I repaired; aches and pains I usually ignore but I was hurting; last night in bed was horrible with even more severe pain; I was clock watching until 5:22 when I finally fell asleep; I was very worried indeed with this intense pain wondering if I'd ever feel right again. Getting up this morning suddenly a lot of the pain has gone so I'm feeling much better so much so I think I'll try playing my violins today; I daren't tackle the stumps again just yet thinking a days rest will be beneficial; this is so unusual for me because ever since leaving school 60 years ago I've always been very active indeed mostly in heavy jobs.

I just feel so utterly frustrated; every time I want to play my violins something gets in the way and still it goes on; whilst in so much pain last night our landline phone rang at 2 o'clock then rang off; life torments me to the limit living here but it's home to us although I think someone has put a curse on it because we can't break free of bad luck.

All I want to do is to get the stumps out and create the new meadow; I don't mind in the least hard work because I'm used to it but the problems still keep coming. I hope I'm not a moaner but this is our life living here and it never changes. I felt so unwell last night I couldn't settle at all so knocked off at 9 o'clock having baked a batch of ginger cookies; sitting hurt so much I had to do something.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Retired]

Hi,

Why do I want to learn to play a violin when everything is against it. On Sunday I did try to play my violins but only 15 minutes in the morning and again I tried for another 15 minutes in the afternoon before my shoulder & neck pain became unbearable; strangely I can drag heavy tree stumps across the steep garden then down to behind the garden hut using a winch but I can't hold a violin because it's on my shoulder; it's all driving me absolutely mad.

I can't get the new Bush DVD player working; all connected correctly into the HDMI socket and TV set to HDMI; I tried both sockets the TV and also the spare HDMI on the CCTV splitter; the DVD lights up and the tray moves in and out but sounds quite rough but it's not communicating with the TV; this morning I've just found another HDMI socket underneath the TV but access was so poor the new hybrid cable connector fell apart; I've had enough of this bad luck the DVD player is going to be recycled; I can't even be bothered to return it I'm just sick of the thing it being cheap with old fashioned scart connection. I'll buy a more expensive DVD player one made this century with up to date HDMI connection not scart; I live and learn and for the £22 involved I'll not lose any sleep over it.

Yesterday morning I was out early dragging the big stump across the garden using the winch; by dinner time I'd got it across ready to then be pulled down the garden; I was running on empty being so tired out I came indoors and immediately I sat down to get my breath the landline phone rang; I picked up in my office and stated my name to hear a voice say "Goodbye" I really enjoyed and appreciated this. Seated again this time the door bell rang; no we don;'t want solar panels on our roof thank you all we want on our roof is the chimney; I said have a nice day and let him go in peace.

After dinner fully charged again I dragged the stump down to the garden hut by which time I'd had more than enough for one day.

Two removed now out of the way behind the garden hut; Very heavy work indeed but it's better than being a cabbage watching rubbish TV all day and night.

Two big holes but roots to get out first; I'm about to start on these; the garden's starting to look like we've got giant gophers loose.

This morning there's no email and the TV took ages to get fired up; there's no let up at all to the constant daily hassle all the while I dream of getting into the studio. It's frosty and cold today but I'll not give up; I'm now going to concentrate on this heavy stump job because whilst I'm doing it there's no peace at all with violin playing; I'm sick of so many things daily winding the big key up in my back; because I'm not on top form I'll tackle removing tree roots from the six stumps it should be lighter work than removing the stumps which I'll do later when I don't hurt so much.

Sorry for the continuous long moaning since starting this thread but I'm struggling so hard to make any progress; I've declared all out war on the stumps and roots so I might disappear for a while in order to at least complete one job before it's Christmas again.

It's not quite all bad news; I've got neighbours cats Aspros & Gemma for company

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Slouching Raymond]

I think your DVD player was too cheap.
I have several HDMI sockets on the back of my TV, parallell to the screen, plus an odd one pointing straight out of the middle of the back of the TV, which can accommodate
a conditional access card interface.
You have to be careful to select the right HDMI TV input.
Perhaps you have a HDMI input on your computer sreen. This might be handy for testing the DVD player.

You're not alone in facing frustration today. I've been trying to install a new (to me) version of Linux on my previously Win 7 computer.
It turned its nose up at the 4Gig of ram, so I went out and bought 16Gig of ram for it.
Eventually got the Linux installed, but when I try to download and install Gimp, or any other software, it tells me I don't have authority. It doesn't tell me how I get authority,
even though I am the Administrator.
I will have to go through the installing loop again, and again, till I get it right.

Good looking stumps, by the way, Colin.

 

[TalismanRich]

Raymond, what version of Linux are you using? I just put Mint on an old machine that had Win7. It installed with 2GB. I had ordered an extra 8GB but it hadn't arrived, yet and I didn't want to wait. I've also installed Win 98 and OS/2 Warp on it in VirtualBox. So far, VirtualBox isn't as solid as a real machine. It's now up to 10GB and has a 512GB SSD. It runs really well for stuff like browsing, and LibreOffice flies! Not enough RAM to run DaVinci resolve. I did fire up Ardour, but I would probably stick with Reaper.

Next project is to update an old XP Dell so that I can run a few of those old games that I used to play that won't work with Win10. I have another 512GB SSD that I will use to clone the original drive.

 

[TalismanRich]

Colin, Good luck with the rest of the stumps.
I mentioned my golf group played in the high winds on Saturday. We finished about 2:15. Yesterday we were finishing our round, and on the 17th fairway this greeted us. One of the course workers said it happened about 3pm on Saturday afternoon. YIKES! The root at the base of the tree is about 4 ft. Its weird that the two trees fell in opposite directions.

 

[Slouching Raymond]

Raymond, what version of Linux are you using?

I went to gnu.org, which lists a few distributions, and their attributes. I'll probably try a few. The one I picked is called PureOs.
It says it requires 4GB to install, which I had, but some of it was stolen for graphics.
As it tried to unpack all the 1000+ components, 'Failed to unpack Error ****' messages zoomed up the screen, one after the other.
It did however install, and I could even browse in firefox on it, but all the software packages didn't make it.
My old Suse Linux DVD is quite happy with 4GB, or even 2GB.
This is the same pc which my Win 7 license expired on. At least I acquired the max 16GB before DDR3 rams go completely out of fashion.
With the improved ram, it installed ok, but there are problems, which I have just posted on a PureOs forum. I'll see what comes of that.