« Work, Code Jam, Python, TV | Main | Busy Day, ContentID »
Re-arranged the Game Room
By Derek | September 29, 2019
A good Sunday. (29th)
Re-arranged a bunch of stuff in the Game Room today. Moved a couple of consoles that use only wired controllers to the TV stand that’s under our wall hanging TV, so they are closer to the center of the room.
That also gave me space on the electronics tower to bring in my XBox One, which has languished in my office just hooked up to a 24” monitor for some time now.
While I was reprogramming the Harmony remote to add the XBOne, I noticed an optimization I could make with all my previous activities. So, I spent a bit of time optimizing those. The bummer about the new Harmony method, at least through the app, is that it syncs to the Harmony Hub and the to the remote for _every change_. That makes two 10 second changes take nearly 3 minutes. I have nine activities. ? It took me quite a bit longer than I expected it to.
The first optimization had to do with turning on my receiver before the TV. Somehow, that makes things works more smoothly.
The second optimization was setting the power options for each device. There are a couple of ways to manage the OFF state for devices, the default is off when not using. Unfortunately, if you accidentally switch activities, or someone else does, the device you were using goes off. Not too terrible if you’re just watching Plex on the AppleTV, you just pick up where you left off. If, however, you’re on a game on a game console — well, you can see the trouble.
So, now, all devices are set to essentially stay on if they’ve been turned on UNTIL the power off function is sent via the remote. This also works well, for instance, if you fire up the XBox and want It to stay on to download a new game, while you switch over to the AppleTV to watch a quick episode of something, while waiting for the download to finish.
When you’re done in the game room, press OFF via the remote and _all_ the devices that are on turn off. Super nice.
After that, I did my daily exercise, which I’m getting back into, I forgot yesterday… and then we took off for a drive.
Hadn’t done that for a while. It was fun. I drove with Jill and our younger son to Austin, just to drive. Before my back got really bad, we used to do this once a month or so. It gives us time to just sit and talk, as a family. Good news is, IH-35 wasn’t actually too bad. There was a tad bit of traffic heading into New Braunfels, but it was mostly steady all the way out to South Austin and back.
Worked on a new website for a friend tonight when we got back. It’s WordPress, but nothing to show off yet.
Topics: Apple, Auto, Entertainment, Family, Games, Health, Home Improvement, Me, Microsoft, Movies, Technology, TV | No Comments »
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.