Random household issues -- questions asked and answered here

It should arrive today. If I have time I'll try it out -- plug it in and insert it between the two ethernet cables. I'm pretty sure what I have now is two male-to-male cables and a female-to-female adapter to connnect them together; if one of them is a male-to-female extension then I'll need another male-to-male to plug it into the switch. All those connections, I hope I don't get a ton of noise.

For the downstairs TV, I completely forgot to tell the electrician about HDMI. And he can't make HDMI cables (he can crimp coax and RJ45 connectors and has the cable, but not HDMI; so I'll have to supply those.

I found a wallplate on Amazon that has a coax, cat-6 and 4 x HDMI. That's perfect for the top side. If I can't get to them in time I'm pretty sure I'll be able to replace whatever wallplate they put up with this one and then patch the cables in. For the bottom-end (components) all I need is 4xHDMI and therer's a wallplate for that, too.

This will be my third wall-TV and I think I'm beginning to get the hang of it. What the builder did (using bilt-in vac tubing for conduits) is nearly criminal. There's absolutely no need to run cable through the basement. The two wallplates on amazon, plus 4 x 10' HDMI (you don't need more than 10 to connect from above fireplace to corner of the room) plus 10' cat-6 is about $60 total. That's definitely more than the several pieces of tubing they called cable conduits but it's infinitely more useful.

Good luck Walter. Reading your tech posts sometimes makes my brain hurt.

So Amazon is now using Canada Post? I didn't see a package when I got home and figured they missed delivery. But later I checked my order status and it said "delivered". Finally found it in the mail. But it's too late to try anything now. Games are on.

Maybe should have said the games are afeet.

The switch worked like a charm. But I threw out my box of loose cables where I had a few short cat-6s. I managed with what I had left but I'll have to get more once we fix the PS3 or get a PS4.

By the way, of anyone is planning on some renos, Costco has ceiling LED pot lights on sale, $8 for a pack of 2. That's $26 off.

Also they now have the Haier 50" 4K tv for $400. When I was shopping they only had the larger ones, otherwise I probably would have saved $350 and bought that one instead. Might get that one for the bedroom when the 55" moves down to the basement.

It's still nearly $2K for an OLED, and I also haven't seen any in 50".

Just saw that the M50-E1 is $648 at Walmart.ca, although it says "limited quantities". That's $100 less than the best price I could find between Black Friday and Boxing Week last year.

Weber or Napoleon? For $550 I can get the Weber Spirit II e210 or Napoleon Triumph 325. Both have to main burners (enough for me) but the Napoleon also had a side burner. Gotta think that if you get a side burner for the same price then maybe the grill isn't as good.

Or I can step up to a Genesis for an extra $150 and they throw in the iGrill Bluetooth cooking thermometer module (they claim it's worth $139).

I dunno about these fancy gas BBQs anymore...I've had a Weber Performer charcoal grill and a Weber Smoky Mountain smoker for years now. They've held up extremely well given the total lack of maintenance and cleaning I perform.

So I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Weber, assuming their gas grills are just as good.

Yeah, I'm definitely leaving that way, too.

Buuut, Napoleon is a Canadian company. What if the higher price is only because of trade tariffs she does not reflect relative value?

Maybe I should wait for Donald and Justin to make up.

Canadian Appliance Source will sell me the Napoleon for $510. Too bad they don't carry Weber.

Too lazy to look up the Rogers/Bell thread, but I'm finally switching back. Last Rogers bill went from $202 to $350. Agent tried to tell me that it's because my 2 years were up, but I noticed some changes (my home phone had a $10 international plan tacked on that I never had before) and, in any case, I don't buy that excuse. I'll be down to $138.85 plus taxes with Bell, roughly what I originally signed up for with Rogers 2+ years ago (but with a better pvr, faster internet and better wifi - hopefully).

Maybe by the time this deal is done I'll finally have the "God-box" I've been trying to find that will do all the streaming apps, OTA pvr, web site streaming all with one interface.

wprager wrote:Too lazy to look up the Rogers/Bell thread, but I'm finally switching back. Last Rogers bill went from $202 to $350. Agent tried to tell me that it's because my 2 years were up, but I noticed some changes (my home phone had a $10 international plan tacked on that I never had before) and, in any case, I don't buy that excuse. I'll be down to $138.85 plus taxes with Bell, roughly what I originally signed up for with Rogers 2+ years ago (but with a better pvr, faster internet and better wifi - hopefully).

Maybe by the time this deal is done I'll finally have the "God-box" I've been trying to find that will do all the streaming apps, OTA pvr, web site streaming all with one interface.

You know your "God Box" is just a PC connected to your TV.

It's not that simple. The WAF is the biggest hurdle.

A TiVo would be nearly perfect. A single interface to handle cable, streaming services, OTA, with pvr capabilities. No switching inputs, a single remote, find the content across all the services or your own hard drive with the same unified interface.

But TiVo doesn't do web, so forget about streaming shows from HGTV.ca. And I'm pretty sure there is no CraveTV app.

I assume your wife knows how to operate a computer?

Yes and no.

When she's on the exercise bike she doesn't want to "work". That's why it has to be a single user interface.

Anyone with Bell who had their WiFi extender pods? Guy is installing right now and the modem/router has to go in the basement. So my concern is streaming Netflix upstairs in the second floor. "No problem", the guy says, "we'll just plug one of these pods right next to the TV".

Everything I've read and from my own experience and common sense makes me think this is wrong. If the signal is weak for the tv it will also be weak for the pod. Unless it has a better receiver than the tv box (very likely for the Apple TV 3 but probably not the Roku stick).

What I've read before is you place the extender half way between the router and your device.

Another thing I read is the extender signal and original signal will use the same channel do you could also make the situation worse if the original signal is still decent. That goes counter to what my experience is with the D-Link extender. It creates a completely new network (different name and security) so, yes, it *could* use the same channel but not likely, as it would pick one that's not already in use.

Anyhow, the installer is not very experienced and I think he's just repeating what he's been taught. I don't want to come across as a condescending jerk but that may be too late.