2017 Projects, update and 2018 outlook

I have not posted in this blog for many months and in this posting I want to share updates to prior posts as well as outlook for next year.

You may want to read the older blogs mentioned in this update

Home Automation for 2018

Yearly, I write and share with friends suggestions on “new technology” to adapt in the coming year. I share this in January, when IBM posts their top 5 new technology of the coming year.  I have shared technologies like, many years ago the keurig coffee single cup brewer, which I replaced with the Saecco espresso machine, helping to save the planet from landfills of empty Kcups.

For 2018, I suggest that you look at home automation, powered by voice command Alexa Echo speaker boxes.  I have already installed three Alexa echo dots in the house to control wifi connected lamps, switchable outlets etc. 10 years ago I started using programmable timers some built in to switches to control outdoor and garden lights, or timers to turn on and off strategic indoor lights, good deterents for bad guys, night table lamps are wireless remote controlled.  I have replace a few with Alexa controlled outlets that can turn-off and-on on selected time or thru voice command. For example, the lights in the new home theater “Cinema Antoine” are voice command controlled, see below.

This year the number of devices the Iot (Internet of Things) that are connected to my wireless network surpassed 30 devices and growing…read my blog on IoT.

2017 Solar Total Eclipse form Rigby, Idaho

My wife and I drove to Rigby Idaho for the eclipse on August 21. See my blog on planning for the eclipse.I will continue to shoot astronomy events but no eclipses are in the short term horizon. In 2018 it will be more of solar and lunar images.

Together with some members of the Las Vegas Astronomy Society we witnessed the awesome astronomical event. Here are a few pictures captured on my cameras- 1) at Totality- see the orange prominence and irregular edges of the moon, 2)at partial eclipse and 3) the cameras I used- Canon 5D2 with 400 mm lens, Canon 7D with 200 mm and Sony A7R with 17-40 mm for wide field view: The featured image is the classic “diamond ring” or “solitaire”, shot when the sun was peeking from the shadows, a few seconds after totality.

 

Cord Cutting, Home Theater

In January, I cut the cord and installed an outside antenna. This year I saved more than $1300 on TV cable subscriptions. The savings continue to 2018 and following years, even more will be saved, if Cox increases their TV subscription rates.

I watch TV off the air broadcast and streaming on Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Sling, CBS Access, Pluto. I have purchased two Roku TV, installed one Roku stick, and two Amazon firesticks, and for the home theater an HDTV Tuner. For The Filipinos Channel we use on demand iptv box/subscriptions. To record broadcast TV I use a Tivo Roamio box. Read my three part blog posted early this year.

To stream to 10 tvs in the house, I upgraded the router wifi, the modem and internet subscriptions. I will continue in 2018 to give updates on the cord cutting project.

I also installed a 120 inch projection home theater in the casita, a separate room with bathroom by the courtyard of the house. The Onkyo 5.1 dolby sytem drives 5 Elac speakers. The room has powered leather reclining setas, a beverage refrigerator, microwave and pop corn machine. The lights are controlled by Alexa. I call this theater Cinema Antoine. Afew iPhone snapshots: 1) the door to the cinema 2) an art wall of analog vinyl albums of soundtracks, I will be rotating the display from my vinyl collection 3) Barbara Streisand soundtrack albums 4) the home theater viewing HDTV tuner feed, showing two of the Alexa controlled lamps, subwoofer, center and front Elac speakers and snack corner 5) watching trailer of The Last Jedi.

 

Evolution of my Travel Cameras

I decided to get the latest Leica M10 announced in January but because of high demand there was a six months backlog, I got my M10 June 30, 2017 and have been enjoying the high image quality from this camera. I took the camera to our travels to Italy, Meditarrenean and Aegean seas. An iphone snapshot of the new Leica M10 two film Leicas an M3 and IIIF with the two Sonys and Two Canons.

Read my blog on evolution of my travel cameras.

For 2018, expect see more Leica image postings as I try to improve my “fine arts” photography with this iconic camera.

 Sample Leica M10 images- St Peter’s Basilica night strollers and flying doves, Colloseo, Siena, Windmills of Mykonos and Oai Santorini. The Sony A7R was the backup camera.

In Rome, I participated in the annual Leica One Challenge and won third best with this image of guards at the Pantheon.

A few street photography

Cord Cutting: Part 2-Saving money and better TV viewing

In Part 2, I list the data streaming services and hardware for better TV viewing  when you  cut the cord.

So Much TV

Americans in 2016, watched about 5 hours and few minutes of TV everyday: four hours of live TV, 30 minutes from DVR’s. The total is 20 minutes less than 2014.

People over 50 watched the most TV, about 50 hours per week while those younger than 25 less 2 hours per week, 48 hours/week.

50% of Americans have subscription services like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu. This number equals the DVR’s in the homes.

Cutting the cord, may save you TV viewing time and enhance the programs to watch.

Better TV Watching experience after cutting the cord

I decided to cut the cord to

• Save money paid to the Cable TV companies
• Stop watching many of the cable channels specially biased fake news channels, both Fox and CNN, forget MSNBC 😦
• Enjoy more binge watching Netflix, Amazon Prime original and select shows.

After cutting the cord, aside from saving money, I realized the following added benefits.

• Digital TV on-the-air signals of major Networks are better quality than cable company feed.
• I found other on- the-air stations, hidden in the clutter of many cable channels, that offer good programming of old shows and movies. Even another PBS channel showing travel, arts and cooking, while the day time PBS has children shows.
• With iptv from TFC (The Filipino Channel) we watch HDTV signals of teleserye without commercials and on-demand, even earlier than the on-the-air feed from the cable company. Without commercials and station id’s with teleserye,variety shows and news, we saved more than an hour per day.
• I binge watched more of the original series from Netflix and Amazon Prime.
• We don’t miss the DVR because of on-demand streaming both free and for a fee.

Streaming Subscriptions:

The following are the services to subscribe, two of these i already subscribed even while with cable Tv services.

• Netflix
• Amazon Prime
• Hulu- on demand TV shows and movies, albeit some are old seasons and episodes.
• Sling – I subscribed to test for one month and got a free Ruku, but will stop subscriptions as I don’t need the extra channels offered. Some of you may like to use sling , review the channels offered like CNN, HGTV, AMC, FX in the three subscription levels.
• Free data streaming to watch missed air episodes On Demand, except for ABC and PBS on the go which are free to add, the other networks   like NBC, Discovery on the go, may require signing on using a cable service password, (which a friend may share with you) or a monthly fee for CBS on demand.
• Direct TV – offers only streaming subscriptions, no need to have satellite hook up. I don’t have any experience

Hardware to stream– Smart TV, Smart Phones and Notebook mirroring, WiFi BluRay boxes,  R0ku, Amazon Firestick TV and Apple TV

There are many ways to stream video into your TV

• Smart TV– Samsung streaming services with their built-in apps are limited, and adding new apps, but to go around the limitation I am using Ruku and Amazon Firestick. Sony Bravia Android TV has more ability to stream with more apps available.  The wifi Bluray boxes also have small list of apps.
• A Samsung smartphone or note pads, can easily mirror the shows on a Samsung TV. The Samsung TV and Android TV can connect to notebooks, laptops via wifi device connections or wired HDMI cables.
• Roku- a very small $30 device that connects via wifi to stream videos and HDMI to the TV. Good range of apps and streaming channels including connection to Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Sling and many cable channels. I received free with a month subscriptions to sling $25/month.
• Amazon Firestick TV- $49 with Alexa voice control, similar to Roku with addition hack to install more apps. I will receive tomorrow, so much demand for this gear that Amazon delivery is more than 10 days.
• Apple TV using airplay is nice for a home like ours with many Apple gadgets.

Roku,  small efficient and plenty of apps.