[Techno-Chat]: TV Tuners Revisited

[Dane Trethowan]

Hi everyone,
As other list members may remember I bought a Silicondust TV Tuner a little 
while ago but have only now found the time to get the unit up and running.
Silicondust specialise in TV tuners and several models are mode.
Mine is the 4 tuner version so 4 FTA TV programmes can be viewed at once, 3 
recorded at once whilst another is viewed and so on.
The tuner is straight forward enough, just a small 4 inch square box with 3 
connectors.
One connector for your TV aerial, another for the DC power supply and the 
remainder is a LAN connector so the Tuner can connect to your Home network.
Connection to the Home Network is the key here as the tuner is designed to 
stream around the house via the network.
That means you can use Apps on your devices to call up a programme to watch at 
any time.
For example I use VLC on my Android and IOS devices to select a channel to view.
So that’s the very basics but what if you want to go further and actually view 
a programme guide and schedule recordings from there/ That can be done though 
it took me a little while to find an accessible way of doing this but I 
persisted and with the help of Google I’ve found a useable and accessible 
solution.
Unfortunately the software that Silicondust bundles with their TV tuners is 
extremely grotty and even reviewers suggest a third party alternative.
One of these alternatives just happens to be the Plex Media Server with a Plex 
Pass which I already have.
Setting up Plex to recognise the Silicondust TV Tuner was easier than I 
expected.
All I had to do was select PVR from the settings menu and I was guided through 
the setup thanks to a wizard in the HTML interface.
The wizard detected the connected tuner and even did the channel scanning after 
I had specified my location and world region.
Plex then gave me a choice of local tV Programe guides for my region and then 
commenced the download of the guide which took a little time.
The guide is presented in the HTML interface though manipulating the guide may 
take some getting used to depending on how the guide is actually presented on 
screen.
Recording is a snap, just press the Record button next to the programme you 
wish to schedule.
A dialogue box then pops up so you may choose to record a series or just that 
one particular episode etc.
You can choose where the recordings are stored and they can go anywhere 
including NAS storage drives if you would prefer.
So that’s as far as I’ve gone with the Silicondust tuner and I’ll write more as 
I discover.
Apple TV users may also be in luck as there is an App/Subscription TV guide 
service called Channels which uses an Apple TV App.
I don’t as yet have an Apple TV so I have no idea just how useable this App 
would be.
Now that I know the Channels App is available I’m more tempted than ever to 
shell out on an Apple TV and and see what results I can get with the Channels 
and other Apps.--

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[Techno-Chat]: Shure NV88 IOS Microphone Review

[Dane Trethowan]

The NV88 microphone from Shure is designed to work with IOS devices.
This microphone is of extremely high quality both in build and sound as you 
will hear in the below review if you follow the sample links.
https://larryjordan.com/articles/product-review-shure-mv88-digital-microphone/ 

[Techno-Chat]: Google Home Max

[Dane Trethowan]

Hi,
I’ve had the Google Home Max since last Thursday so plenty of time to explore 
what this device offers.
I think the best way to describe a Google Home Max in size is to compare it to 
a kitchen toaster so its going to take up a little more room the the Home 
itself.
The speaker is a fairly heavy and well built unit which for me adds to the 
excitement.
You can mount the Max either lying down or standing up on its end.
If lying down the speaker is in stereo mode but when standing up is in mono 
mode and the surface controls change.
By surface controls I mean you can slide your finger left to right to adjust 
playback volume or tap once to pause and again to resume.
On the back of the speaker are an aux-in jack, your mains power in connection 
and a USB C port.
I’m told that a dongle can be connected to the port to allow a LAN connection 
though various forums I’ve visited to try and find out more have reported 
problems with this method of connecting the Max to your network.
Setup of the Max is through the Google Home App either on Android or IOS.
So once the Max was all set to go it was time to do som testing with the Max in 
my kitchen on top of my fridge.
My Kitchen echos a little so listening to any music in that area has always 
been an annoyance for me.
I wondered how the auto tuning function of the Max would handle this or even if 
the tuning would take into account the slight echo of the room, the Max 
documentation says the auto tuning is supposed to take the acoustic environment 
in which the Max is placed into account and calibrate thus.
No indication is given as to the calibration made but I can tell you that if 
you have a room with some echo or ambience issues which affect your hearing 
then the Google Home Max does indeed seem to make adjustments accordingly or 
perhaps the Max just sounds good anyway, we’ll never really know for sure given 
the lack of indication as to what the Google Home Max does.
The Max has 4 units, 2 tweeters and 2 woofers all of which put out some 
impressive punch.
The stereo separation isn’t as good as what you’ll find in the B A5 and the 
B A7 but then again those 2 units are both more expensive than the Google 
Home Max.
If you’re looking at purchasing a Voice Assistant then this is the best I’ve 
seen to date without a doubt.
Google have obviously spent a bit of time making sure that volumes aren’t too 
out of balance, by that I mean being able to hear the Google TTS and the 
content you’re listening to at roughly the same volume.
--

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[Techno-Chat]: Shure NV51 Product review

[Dane Trethowan]

Hi!
I don’t mind telling you all that the Shure NV88 microphone I bought recently 
has impressed me very much, so much that I’ve been looking around for something 
from Shure that is compatible with Android devices.
Whilst I haven’t found an exact match I have found something a little bigger 
which will fill another role in my recording needs.
The NV51 as you’ll see from the review linked to here is a small portable 
desktop microphone compatible with multiple platforms including IOS, Android, 
Windows and Mac.
Concerns were voiced here regarding monitoring headphone output on an iPhone 
without a headphone socket, this problem has been addressed as the NV51 has a 
built-in headphones output.
The only thing that could be a problem is the touch panel the NV51 has so I’m 
wondering if the Shure Mative App for IOS and Android can bypass these? IFF not 
then perhaps I can label the panel with tiny dots and learn what the buttons do.
As far as I can gather they allow for selecting presets - music, flat, speech 
and so on -.
Anyway enjoy the review which has plenty of samples and comments.

https://larryjordan.com/articles/product-review-shure-mv51-desk-microphone/ 

RE: [Techno-Chat]: Roberts Concerto 2 DAB/FM, CD player, SD/USB Player & Cassette Recorder

[Roger Firman]

Dear Gordon,

Always interested.

Roger.

-Original Message-
From: Gordon Smith [mailto:gor...@mac-access.net] 
Sent: 25 December 2018 21:13
To: Techno-Chat ... Technology Enthusiasm! 
Subject: [Techno-Chat]: Roberts Concerto 2 DAB/FM, CD player, SD/USB Player & 
Cassette Recorder

Good Yuletide to you, one and all. I trust your Christmas celebrations went 
well.

I’ve been playing around with the Roberts Concerto 2 multimedia device for 
quite some time now, and wondered whether anybody else on list would find a 
comprehensive but objective review of the device of value?

If yes, I shall compile one and either upload it to this group, or post it on 
our BLOG.


--

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Re: [Techno-Chat]: Roberts Concerto 2 DAB/FM, CD player, SD/USB Player & Cassette Recorder

[Dane Trethowan]

I don’t know of the particular device myself but I would remind everyone that 
Roberts devices these days are marketed around the world as Sangean so others 
may find the same under the Sangean name and a different model number.


> On 26 Dec 2018, at 8:12 am, Gordon Smith  wrote:
> 
> Good Yuletide to you, one and all. I trust your Christmas celebrations went 
> well.
> 
> I’ve been playing around with the Roberts Concerto 2 multimedia device for 
> quite some time now, and wondered whether anybody else on list would find a 
> comprehensive but objective review of the device of value?
> 
> If yes, I shall compile one and either upload it to this group, or post it on 
> our BLOG.
> 

--

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[Techno-Chat]: Roberts Concerto 2 DAB/FM, CD player, SD/USB Player & Cassette Recorder

[Gordon Smith]

Good Yuletide to you, one and all. I trust your Christmas celebrations went 
well.

I’ve been playing around with the Roberts Concerto 2 multimedia device for 
quite some time now, and wondered whether anybody else on list would find a 
comprehensive but objective review of the device of value?

If yes, I shall compile one and either upload it to this group, or post it on 
our BLOG.



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