Boot-up
Google’s apps to help the hard of hearing [Ted, Jim, Martin]. Unfortunately (and as I clarified at the meeting) – it’s not possible for me to check every link for accuracy or relevance. All I can do is point you in possible directions. I will only make recommendations when I actually use the software, or hardware, that I write or talk about. Thus it’s unfortunate that Ted wasn’t able to test the apps referred to in this piece from the previous meeting. One because it wasn’t in Google’s Play Store, the other because it required a more recent Android device than the one he had. Such is life! Martin however brought in some information that I found on the Internet as well, and I’m pleased to be able to provide the link here.
Jim, has also installed Live Transcribe on his Android device and states that it works surprisingly well …
Mesh networks [Paul]. Paul was so impressed in the process of doing his research he even ate his own dog food and purchased a system. He’s going to discuss it, and other ways of improving your home WiFi in the session he’s going to lead on March 28th.
Any other member issues?
Well … David Hughes’ impassioned plea for guidance on buying TV systems, was met with much agreement so I’m going to do a session on that next time, as well as a bit more on websites – following on from todays’ session.
Jim thought I’d not explained a couple of things particularly well last time, in particular I perhaps didn’t distinguish clearly enough the difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web. This is almost the same problem as distinguishing between a Search Engine and Google, or as I think you all know now – the difference between a Browser and Google. Such is their dominance of the use of the Internet. So as Jim has stated in his Comment under the notes of the last meeting – the Internet is just a wire, or a radio signal; it’s the medium of communication; it’s essentially hardware. However it’s useless without applications to run on it, and there’s a plethora of those, as you well know! These applications need protocols to transmit the information across the physical medium, ie the Internet. The most ubiquitous application is the World Wide Web which has made use of a number of protocols in its development, but which now is almost universally using HTML (with programming add-ons such as Javascript, Ruby on Rails, etc etc – don’t worry about these!).
I was negligent in not showing you what an HTML representation of the webpage looked like – I just showed you the Mark-up created by the application I was using – WordPress – an intermediate stage in creating the HTML. To rectify that, here’s an extract of HTML from the same page I showed you …
… we’ll pick-up the story later on!
News
Best Android Apps on the Google Play Store
The world of USB changes to follow Apple’s lead – USB-C and Lightning
There’s another browser that doesn’t get mentioned a lot, but it’s been around for quite a while – Opera – here’s some tips and tricks, and here’s some more.
Response from Google to Australian government’s thoughts on restricting their default browser use of their search engine in Chrome browser.
Zuckerburg (Facebook) plans to create a ‘privacy-focussed’ world.
Adobe is finally killing Shockwave.
What Google knows about you.
Save the Web – help Tim Berners-Lee.
Digital TV
I think it’s going to be best if we leave this as a discussion session, with each and all of you chipping-in and sharing experiences. I will lead-off with a few comments – some provocative maybe, and some guidance – hopefully not provocative! Then I’ll leave you with a plethora of articles and links which I researched for the last time I did this session about 12 months ago.
What size of TV do you need?
What is Smart TV?
Do you need a Smart TV?
Freeview or FreeSat?
Is the built-in Smart TV provided the best way forward?
Do you need a TV at all, or could you just use your laptop/tablet instead?
What do you need, do you really, really need?
My notes from the last time I did this session …
You don’t need a Smart TV – OK
A couple of weeks ago I shared a link in our Flipboard magazine [NB you need a Flipboard account which you can create from this link – http://flip.it/3.ybs4] to a post which suggested that you don’t need Smart TVs …
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/buy-roku-not-smart-tv/
… and this article is even more troubled by Smart TVs and even suggests you should switch off their functionality because they might be spying on you …
https://www.howtogeek.com/176392/smart-tvs-are-stupid-why-you-dont-really-want-a-smart-tv/
In preparing this session, I came across this article from The Guardian from last year …
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2016/sep/08/can-i-still-buy-a-dumb-tv
… admittedly there are not many!! You can be assured however, if you go for one of these you won’t be buying something (Smart) that’s not better provided by a standalone set-top box from your Telecomms provider (Virgin, BT, etc etc), or the new range of add-on boxes which I’ll discuss later.
So we’ll start with the three Free-to-Air services
FreeView – https://www.freeview.co.uk/
FreeSat – https://freesat.co.uk/
YouView – https://www.youview.com/ – but not available from Virgin.
All of these offer multiple channels and for the first two you might find your TV already has a tuner which supports one, or the other, or even both! Since their original launch these services when bought with a set-top box have other services added including recording and playback, and streaming of Internet content, eg Netflix.
Streaming services
The new one on the block so-to-speak is NowTV which starts with the offer of streaming Sky Channels without the need for a subscription, but for only a little more in cost can also add the FreeView channels, and more.
Here’s a comparison of the NowTV offers – http://www.nowtv.com/best-tv-boxes – click through from Devices Tab to see their boxes rather than just sticks.
And it comes with some really attractive introductory offers (which I’ve taken advantage of)
But that’s not all, NowTV also comes as an app to add to other platforms as well, as we’ll see a little later, and just note that the Now TV devices are “powered by Roku” – that’s a name we’ll come back to!
What are the alternatives to a NowTV box?
Here are some reviews of media streamers that are worth reading …
http://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/gadgets-tech/tv-entertainment/best-tv-streaming-boxes-sticks-reviews-sky-sports-netflix-apple-amazon-fire-google-chromecast-a7185261.html
http://www.techradar.com/news/television/best-streaming-video-player-1275853
http://www.techadvisor.co.uk/test-centre/digital-home/16-best-media-streamers-2017-uk-best-media-streamers-you-can-buy-3580569/
… and then there is …
Amazon Firestick
Google Chromecast but maybe not the Chromecast Ultra ???
… and if you choose Apple TV (4th generation) you can load Apps onto it to tailor your viewing options, including the NoWTV app, which also allows you to watch on up to four devices …
… the list of devices supported by NowTV is quite impressive …
http://www.nowtv.com/devices
You want to record and playback as well as watch?
These reviews are a good place to start …
https://www.whathifi.com/best-buys/digital-tv-boxes/best-digital-tv-boxes
https://www.cordbusters.co.uk/best-freeview-boxes-recorders-tv-2017/
Ending with this …
http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/tvs-entertainment/1405950/best-freeview-box-2017-the-best-set-top-boxes-for-viewing-and-recording
… which bring us back to NowTV boxes again, which are built on the Roku platform …
https://www.roku.com/en-gb/index
… and which should benefit from everything Roku do in the future.
What other alternatives are there to watching streamed digital content on your TV?
Well the most obvious one is to use your PC/Mac as the TV and use software on the PC/Mac to record Free-to-Air content. You will need a digital tuner for the PC/Mac to get the content. The best known company in this area is Hauppage and you can see a list of their products here …
http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/site/products/prods.html
There are other companies in this field but I can only vouch for Hauppage. I once installed a card in my Windows PC, and I still use a USB Tuner with my MacBook Pro to watch TV.
Postscript. The DIY streaming solution – Plex server
I’ve known about Plex for quite a long time but have never done anything about it. I’ve used iTunes essentially as a media server built around a MacMini that sits under the TV with all content that I can record from Get iPlayer Automator and my media that I’ve digitised including my CD collection, as well as the streamed versions downloaded from iTunes/Amazon.
I hate iTunes with a vengeance. I spend countless hours sorting it out – admittedly I do have a rather complex way of sharing my iTunes media and libraries but I also just know there must be better way. Perhaps, now’s the time to try Plex.
So I set about a project to install Plex on the MacMini (which I’ve just upgraded with a new SSD drive, an extra 4Gb of RAM and an install of the latest MacOS – High Sierra. Here are a few links to show you my direction of travel.
Plex now lets you stream and record live TV—if you have an antenna and tuner
How it works
Working with my Apple TV and Sonos
And I’ve signed-up for a lifetime subscription to Premium services so that I can …
Record free-to-air content … I’ll let you know how it goes!!
I forgot to mention new display technologies from LG/Sony/Panasonic called OLED, and Samsung – QLED. This article explains what these are.
https://www.howtogeek.com/327047/whats-the-difference-between-oled-and-samsungs-qled-tvs/
I also didn’t touch upon curved screens, nor 3D. I’ll leave those up to you!
Other links (useful if you have an online Which? account)
http://www.which.co.uk/reviews/internet-tv-boxes/article/recommendations/which-best-buy-internet-tv-boxes
http://www.which.co.uk/reviews/pvrs-and-set-top-boxes/article/recommendations/which-best-buy-pvrs-and-set-top-boxes
Some more links to make you think and help your choices … maybe!
Best TVs of 2019 ????
Watching Sky TV without signing-up to a long-term subscription service
If you’ve got a Mac you can download programmes from ITV Hub and BBC iPlayer and keep them forever using Get iPlayer Automator
Then there’s TVCatchUp – watching TV “on the go”
OLED, QLED, 4K, Curve-screen and more – notes from the last time I did this topic, here and here (two different links).
Postscript …
And now (with a Roku device) you can also use Apple’s Airplay. as well as control it with your Amazon Echo (if you have one) …
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/control-roku-using-amazon-echo/
Getting into the Web
Creating a website, the easiest way possible, using WordPress – Getting started tutorials.
Let’s setup a website in WordPress, that you can all play with. We’ll call it CFU3APlaySite, I’ll create a single user (who will be an administrator – so you’ll have all the powers to do anything and everything with the site – even delete it!) called DIHU3A, with the password Ca3rdyddU3A – that should be familiar. Let’s set it up and import some content from the old Google+ Community – which has now been imported into this site (hurrah!!!!).
Your mission (should you choose to accept it) … create a website in WordPress for four weeks time!
A replacement for iTunes?
This post starts from this paragraph in an earlier post on my personal blog …
“How might I integrate my digital music in a better way than I was currently doing it via the Apple TV, and iTunes on the MacMini? The answer … a Sonos Connect system with RCA output to the Marantz amp connected to the iTunes Media folder and a copy of the iTunes Library hosted on a USB-3 disk connected to an AirPort Extreme router. [The master iTunes Library is shared (using Dropbox) around the other 3 Macs in the house – a brilliant solution to avoid maintaining different iTunes Libraries.] I can now listen to the digital music in all three rooms. Of course, now I have a Sonos Connect, I can stream to other Sonos Play speakers … but that’s for another day, which may actually come sooner rather than later.”
… which formed the subject of my discussion with the Cardiff U3A Digital Group on the 4th January. But I digress … what is the problem with iTunes?
iTunes was introduced shortly after the first iPods as the way/means by which you could store/search for your music on your brand-new revolutionary personal digital music device. And there you have the problem almost defined in a nutshell. It was “enhanced” to add other media to it – video, TV, film, podcasts; and you could synchronise your device to a computer so that the database work could be done on a more friendly device; and with the introduction of the iTunes Store – the focus has switched to selling music and storing it in Apple’s iCloud. But it’s huge problem is that it’s old, and it’s personal – tied and linked to single portable devices. You have more than one device – you have to synchronise them separately unless you rely on playing from iCloud – and the options here are very confusing; you have more than one playlist – you have to copy them to different devices; you want to have all your media in one place – you have to make sure you have your iTunes settings correct otherwise you’ll never know where the media your playing is actually stored.
So the link in the quote above provides an ingenious solution if you want to create a shared iTunes Library when you have more than one device you want to reference a single iTunes Library from. It really does work, and I’ve used this solution for a few words, and until recently I had little trouble from using this method, using my MacMini as the main computer for doing the sync’ing with my iPhone etc. However, after that episode I began to think there must be a better way.
I really didn’t want to use Spotify because that would only serve me music, and in any case most of the music I wanted to listen to, I already had and had transferred from CD to digital.
I researched whether I needed to buy more hardware, decided I didn’t, and opted to install Plex on my MacMini, with the media stored on an external USB-Disk. Doing this meant that I could continue using iTunes as well as the Plex Media Server as it looks at the same disk and media folders. And the advantages?
Well the most remarkable is that after purchasing a Plex Pass (the server itself is free) I can access any of my purchased and stored media – films, videos, music, photographs – from anywhere – wherever I am, on any device I have installed the Plex player app – including my Apple TV. It can operate over wired, WiFi and cell connections (if enabled). Isn’t that amazing? Plex is also moving towards streaming its own, or licenced content and offering a LiveTV service. Please read the Wikipedia article for more information.
It really is very easy to setup!