RIP-Felix

Is it just me, or does it always seem to be Florida it when something bad happens? Not to make joke of what happened, but it seems like Florida would be a nice place to live if not for the crazies, ignorant, [insert political rival], hurricanes, strippers on billboards, toll roads, gators (animal or athlete). Oh and zombies (err, Bath salt druggies)! Florida is racking up quite the rep.

What did I just see? Reminds me of starcraft.

I decided to just create another user account. I'm thinking it would be interesting to create Genra specific accounts and only watch shows in that genra, so you get all that netflix has to offer in each.

You calling my psycho? Mountain out of a mole hill? Sure, but that's my MO!

I could easily see the book expand into a trilogy. I've given some thought to what kind of crisis could necessitate the use of the BIG RED BUTTON. It has to be something that puts the lives of those who use the OASIS in danger, not just the neglect of society, letting things decay in real life. I'm writing some fan fiction exposing one possability. It has to do with the potential danger of hacking immersion rigs and Haptic suits. It involves the origin story of Sorento, as written by Andy Wier in Lacero. It also requires that sorento plays an underground role. I like my idea for a story so much, that I'm afraid Cline's sequel won't be as good. But that's the case when you write your own anything. You make what you like. It's if other people like it that matters.

https://bgr.com/2016/02/10/netflix-ratings-what-they-mean-how-they-work/ My problem with this is that my list of suggested movies, TV, and "because you watched" have all funneled down to things I don't want to see. I assumed it was all Netflix has to offer. But my dad's profile has stuff in it I would like to watch and My profile doesn't even show it at all unless I type search for it. If I go to movies and scroll all the way through them, I never see it at all. It thinks I'm not interested based on the category Netflix binned me into. I'm not a statistical category! I have categorically diverse tastes! I would like to have a shuffle button. An option that says: "Hey, you seem to think I want to see a bunch of stuff I don't and keep putting it in front of me. Stop that and give me something new." This is the limitation of software trying to present us with products we might like based off what we buy, watch, or websites we visit. Eventually it thinks it has us figured out, and doesn't realize it is just presenting us with crap other people like.

Just because it hits your bottom line and threatens your job, doesn't make it stealing! Screw anyone who uses terminology as weapons against average people trying to protect themselves against shyster admen. Next they'll tell me I have to let them into my home to give me their pitch. Sure you have the right to knock on my door, as well we should have the right to knock on our neighbors door, but I have the right to decline to open it or allow you in. I can also politely ask them to go away. How is adblocking any different? They invade my home through my computer screen, I should be able to tell them off with software.

I don't really see the movie becoming a franchise, but I guess that depends on where Cline takes the sequel. Or perhaps the movie departed from the book's cannon sufficiently for a movie franchise to divert completely into it's own thing. I suppose it's possible, but I doubt it. IDK, did everyone love the movie that much? I kinda like it, but it's not something I need a sequel for, not like the book.

Have you seen sites that nag you about disabling your adblocker? I get it, they want ad revenue. But I don't want ads, hence the blocker. As intrusive as ads can be, the nag screen is even more intrusive. Does anyone know of an adblocker nag notification blocker? This isn't really a serious question, but who knows. Maybe it's a thing.

I'm glad I decided to cut the cord. The sharks are circling and Comcrap is bleeding in the water. Now I can sit back and watch TV stream into the future, and laugh as Americas most hated company gets torn apart. Good thing too, because Monopolies are bad umkay!

La de da...Oh don't mind me master. I'm just creeping up behind you while you're perched precariously on the edge of that precipice...

I just replaced my Busted CRT with a Sony Trintron KV-24FS120. My dad had one sitting around with very little use. So it's pretty much new. I fits perfectly in my entertainment center. To celebrate, I put in a copy of the original star wars trilogy on VHS, unadulterated by CGI or inserted blaster fire to make it look like Han fired second. It was cathartic. Is it just me or did speakers on CRTs sound better? It has more bass than my flat screen does. I guess there's more room to hide a sub in there. It has component input as well as the requisite composite and RF. Has anyone tried a HDMI to YPbPr/component converter like this? I'm thinking It would come in handy for any HDMI device, like my HTPC, X-box (original with the pound HDMI cable), Dreamcast (also with the pound cable), and etc. Especially the X-Box needs this, as the official component cables are expensive and the knockoff ones don't work (I tried them and they flicker/have artifacts). The pound cables work great on my HDTV, but I wonder if the adapter could convert that back to component to get around the issue. This would be a nice way to connect multiple HD sources to the single YPbPr input on the CRT, since I could use an IR HDMI switcher I could control with my remote. It's only $18, so It might be worth it. I hope to soon ultraHDMI mod my N64 too. Pluging it into the YPbPr input would be a great way to soften the pixelated look after deblur removes the antialising. No scanline effect needed! Anyway, you can see where I'm going with this. Just feed the TV the highest quality signal possible to begin with and let the CRT do it's magic. EDIT: I just bought the adapter. So I'll test it out and see. If it doesn't work then I can always return it. Amazon is cool like that.

What you rockin for graphics?

My negative opinion on the film has softened. I did pick up a copy. My second viewing was more balanced. There is still much that the movie has to offer ("IT'S FU$KING CHUCKY!"). My impression in the theater was reactionary (to the deviation from the book), which was not fair. Many people I've spoken with say they liked the movie. My mom said she liked the movie, then I made her read the book and she agreed it's way better. Now, I did try my best to manage expectations, but I couldn't control my disappointment to the complete departure from the key/gate challenges. I'll concede they needed challenges that were more favorable cinematography. Having the gate right there at the key was disappointing, but it had to be done for time. In retrospect, this isn't as big of a deal as I felt it was at first. There was no way they could follow the book even remotely close in a 2 hour time frame. As packed as the movies was, with important things just glossed over, it's 2:20 as it is. A Mini series at least, but probably a full fledged HBO quality 13 episode series would be required to do the book justice. The fact they were able to remain true to the basic plot and capture the nostalgia is all the more amazing. Still: Cline himself worked with the writers to make the movie and Steven Spielberg directed it. I have to deal with the fact that Cline gave the Okay and one of the best Directors ever did his best to do it justice. It's pretty good if you throw what you know about the book out the window and forget about consistency. I do enjoy it on it's own right. So I guess it goes into the Jurassic Park category of books/movies that are good on their own right, but have no interconsistancy. So be it.

Awesome, thanks! I just jumped on that. I was looking at these a week ago to get some decent games for my steam link, didn't pull the trigger because I didn't want to pay that much (like $20 for each pack). All 4 you don't know jack volumes, jackbox party packs 1-3, Fibbage xl, drawful 2 and quiplash for $12? CHA...CHANG...A...LANG!!! Couldn't have been an easier decision.

I bet a 'CRT emulator' is plausible. Shaders and scanline overlays kinda do that anyway, and most people are satisfied with the result, but they don't really use the LCD pixels to actually emulate the way a CRT worked, they just apply overlays, blur, and etc on top of the LCD image. I wonder why this hasn't been done? Seems like it could be a 'run it before' program that converts everything onscreen to a CRT look of your choosing, using commands like -PVM_BVM, -Slot_mask, -DOT_mask, -Aperature_grille, -B_W, and etc).

I just stumbled across this. It requires more beefy system requirements to run, so Raspberry pi or my NES classic may not handle it well, but a PC should handle it fine. http://emulation.gametechwiki.com/index.php/CRT-Royale It's the settings that matter here. You can set the mask type, Gamma, Contrast, Halation, Diffusion, bloom, beam, convergence and more, to get the CRT look right. On a real CRT, if the signal contained no red in that spot, the phosphor would remain black (with perhaps a bit of bloom and halation from excitation of adjacent phosphors). Overlays and shaders just place a grid over the LCD, but don't actively change the color/brightness of the LCD to match this function. I wonder if someone has made a CRT emulator that averages the RGB color value of all the pixels that fall within the shadow mask overlay (you would just have to define the area based on the display's current resolution), then display the RGB equivalent for each phosphor. If the red for that area averaged 123, it would display the red LED's within the red phosphor of the mask's overlay at a brightness of 123. The same respectively for the Green and Blue phosphor. Combined, they would equal the total RGB color combination the screen is outputting in that small area. Multiply this effect according to the mask type and scale it to fit the screen such that it would equal 480p. Man I wish I could code. I could sell that shit!

How a CRT works: How a Color TV works: How a Sony Trinitron Works: So, these are the most common types of phosphor arrangements on a color CRT. These are what you need to try and simulate with an overlay or shader to emulate a CRT: I've been working on some designs that are starting to look pretty good, but I'm not happy with them yet. Still, working on it...

My grandparents died this year and my anut doesn't want theit CRT. It's effing huge! Its at least 300lbs, and has been running like a champ forever. Id want it, but...it's so ridiculously big/heavy. BTW: why would anyone post a video about a tv left on the street? To each their own, but that seems like a random thing to "report about." It is a KV-27TS29 made in 1993 (so we got 25years out of it). I really like keeping one around for my Atari 2600, N64, NES/SNES, genesis and PS1. I also like hooking my miniNES raspberry pi (NEStalgia) to it via av out, it has a more authentic look and feel. I've thought about getting a framemeister and the appropriate RGB cables, but I prefer the authentic look to sharp pixels. Besides, I can get that with emulation. What I haven't been able to get, like the OP said, is a convincing overlay or shader to reproduce the CRT look. There really is no substitute for a good CRT. I have been thinking of getting a PVM or BVM, but I want something larger than most of the ones I've seen. I'll probably just stick with a SD CRT anyway, since that's how I remember seeing the games anyway. I wish there was a manufacturer out there that made CRT for retro gaming. Someday perhaps they'll bring it back, if they can still remember how to make them that it. Some serious engineering went into them and analog is trickier than digital. For that matter, they need to bring back analog dynamic equalizers for us audiophiles. I need a knob to dial it in just right. Digital sucks!

My Sony Trinitron died recently. It worked just fine for my retro console needs, then I went to fire it up a couple weeks back and...nothing. I'm bummed and more than a little concerned I can't easily find a replacement. Shipping costs are steep for these heavy, awkward, and fragile fossils. I tried googling how to fix it myself, but CRT TV repair videos seem to be dominated by speakers of foreign languages. On topic, I have been trying to create a few overlays for retroarch to get scanlines to look more like the phosphors on a 240p SD CRT and a PVM/BVM. It's for my NES classic, but the problem I've run into is that I can only overlay 720p images. From what I've gathered 240p means ~240 hotizonal scanlines. I have to have a scanline every 3 pixels (720/3= 240) if I'm limited to a 720p png. If you look at a PVM you can see it looks like the phosphors are more than four times taller than they are wide: So the best I can do with 720p is make a rectangle 1x2px with a scanline above and below. If I half the number of scanlines, I can double the height of the rectangle and it looks pretty good, but the scanlines are to far apart and I only have 120. It doesn't like up with the upscaled image on screen. I'd need a higher resolution to display enough pixels for a convincing PVM/BVM effect. SD CRT at 720p is tricky too. From my testing I found that the simple 1 scanline every 3 pixels without vertical lines gives the most acceptable illusion of scanlines, although not being accurate. This issue arises because we're trying to fit analog ovular phosphors into square digital pixels. Resolution is a limiting factor. It takes something like 5-6 times the digital resolition to fake the analog picture. I don't really know what I'm talking about. I'm guessing as I go, but that's the issue I'm having making a convincing overlay. I'm not sure if a shader could do a better job,

Oh yeah, I do like that! I don't much care for the price tag.

I like the cabs, not so much the hardware. If the hardware could be hacked to run retroarch and MAME, then it's a steal at $300-400. Otherwise it's a legit cab for a gut job. Throw an i-pac in the CP, an LCD in the bezel, and a PC in there somewhere. It might be a good place to start if you don't want to design the cab yourself. The materials for my cab cost more than this does. The PC could be, but MAME doesn't require beefy specs for most games. Could possibly come in under $500 all said and done. I might have gone this path if it were available then.

Nice work. Super clean on the outside. I like the wear on the case. It says "I'm meant to be played with, not displayed in a glass case". I like the 3D printed mounts for the modkit components. I too have found this is an excellent use for my 3D printer. I'm sorry to hear you have been struggling. Just an FYI, I had a serious anxiety attack returning to work last December after the holiday break. All the symptoms of a heart attack, but It was just anxiety. I've never had such a physical manifestation of emotion before. I also struggle with depression. That was a life altering experience that kicked started my will to reclaim some joy. I started exercising and eating better. I started going back to the mountains to ski, something I hadn't done in ten years. I've tried to get out of the house as much as possible and immerse myself in social situations. While it's not as fun to do these things alone, the anxiety is less and the depression is too, but it's a constant battle. Actually I've been stuck indoors too long over the last five weeks and I'm starting to feel my anxiety meter rise (while driving is usually the first indicator). I think I'll plan a day trip or two to some local state parks in the next couple of weeks to balance. Long drives to unfamiliar places is great exposure therapy. It's empowering. The only way out is through.

Have you guys seen these? Sweet!!! The battery charges using a 3.5mm jack in the cord hole (micro usb for the mega drive), which doubles as an indicator LED. They're compatible with the receivers too. Super slick and original look. Just replace the PCB in your shell, and done. I hope they are going to make a genesis version and a genesis/MD dongle. The MD kit is sold out. It's probably the most enticing to me, but I did just pick up the SNESC and NESC kits. The MD controller will be great for mame on my GameEX rig. I'll have to get one later. Since I have a NES and SNES classic, I can convert their useless wired controllers! They're 1st party reproductions. They'll be like nintendo should have done to begin with. Man I love 8Bitdo!