O.T. Macrium

Mark Twain wrote:
I just measured my TV and the screen 21 inches
diagonally, 17 inches wide and 12 3/4 high. The
TV itself is 24 1/4 inches wide, 15 3/4 inches
high,

I don't seem to be able to find any Sony's in this
range. Everyone is making bigger and bigger TV's
now. So what am I to do?

Robert

IMO, go to a place that sells TV's (big box store or electronics store)
and compare pictures. Nothing beats comparing pictures in the store.
When you find one or two that you like then see what kind of output jacks
are on them and get a jack compatible DVD player.
Your old DVD's will play just fine and you will like the backlit LCD
TV better than your old CRT.
It's a bit of a drive but there is a Microcenter in Tustin and a Fry's in Anaheim.
Walmarts are in just about every town in USA and Canada.

I was just going to suggest the same thing *L*
Funny you should mention Anaheim, because that's
where I grew up but it's a hour and a half drive
from where I live now.

I actually thought of Sears,. but I can check out
Walmart as well and I'll let you know what I find.

Given that I'm restricted in size because of my
entertainment center I'm wondering about the 1080
resolution and the DVD matching it,... but I guess
I'll find out all that when I'm looking to match them
up.

Robert

Mark Twain wrote:
I know all of this is way off topic but I appreciate
your guidance.

I didn't close my Verizon account they switched
all their customers to Frontier and I didn't have
Internet access for 3 months because they did this.

Oh I know the TV is fried,.. it won't turn on or the
DVD player but other parts of my stereo do turn on.
In passing, my refrigerator also took a hit and has
to be replaced. This guy sure did a number on me.

I've seen the HDMI which means I also have to have
a DVD player with HDMI connections but wouldn't that
render all my regular non HD DVD's useless? If so, then
they need to replace all my DVD's as well.

I do like Sony TV's at least they use to be the best
but I'm having trouble finding anything. Here's one I
found.

https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&ke...l_2q2z8nmtbj_e

this was my DVD player:

https://www.google.com/search?q=sony...WfX-GEUAA2GhM:

I don't run my TV through speakers, I just use
the speakers in the TV itself.

So if I understand you I have to match a TV with
HDMI connection with a player with HDMI connections,
correct?

Thanks,
Robert


Your player was pretty nice.

It had component, composite video and svideo (4 pin DIN).

The component is YPrPb and it's the "high quality" output of your
player. Every bit as good as HDMI. The composite and S-video
are put on the back of your DVD player, for "easy" connection
to cheap TV sets, or to a VCR for recording.

I would expect to find HDMI on a modern player, with at least
composite for those cheap TV sets people might use. The composite
input on my TVs are basically unusable (black restoration problem
with signal level), so for me composite is worse than using RF
antenna NTSC channel 3.

The Wegs apparently came in different sizes. The cabinet
doesn't look too deep. I thought at one time, Sony made
a picture tube, with a "hockey stick neck" to make shortened
cabinets, but i don't know if they made those very large. The
one I remember was a miniature TV the size of an old fashioned
calculator.

Sony XA21M61 Wega 21″ CRT Television
Sony XJ29M50 Wega 29″ CRT Television

One of those Wegas has RF, S-Video, composite, the other is missing S-Video.
That means, as standards go, the wires don't allow sending a very
high quality signal. Your player with the component connectors on it,
that would have been a better method if the TV supported it.

Now, your TV set is probably 4:3, whereas modern display devices
are 16:9 (suited to DVDs). That means todays screens are wider.
You should really be given a set with a larger diagonal, because
a 21" 16:9 would look "puny" when you're looking at it. Maybe
we could look for a 32" TN or so. As it happens (lucky guess),
that's about all that's available anyway. The smaller stuff is
actually too small to match your Wega.

Newegg calls these LED TVs now. LCD TV seems to be a rather
less popular title.

I picked this one, just to get some dimensions.

NEC E326 32" LED Backlit Display with Integrated ATSC/NTSC Tuner $370

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0JC-0017-000C2

The bezel is pretty thin. The chassis is:

16.70" x 28.60" x 3.00"

What I'd want, is for the display height to be the same as
your existing Wega, so it "feels the same". That's one reason
for guessing that I'd start at 32" for a match.

Contrast Ratio (Typical) 1400:1
Frame Rate 60Hz
Viewing Angle 176°(H)/176°(V) === IPS or PV, not a TN, this is good :-)
Panel S-IPS === It's one of the many flavors of IPS...
The color doesn't shift when you move your head.

Connectivity

Input Type D-sub (VGA 15-pin)
HDMI-In x 3,
Component (Y, Cb/Pb, Cr/Pr) (3 RCA connectors)
USB Port Yes
Audio Ports
SPDIF TOSLink out
Stereo Mini-Jack In

http://www.necdisplay.com/p/large-screen-displays/e326

User manual:

http://www.necdisplay.com/documents/...rManual_EN.pdf

"NTSC Standard, ATSC Standard (8-VSB, Clear-QAM)"

So it doesn't support cable TV ? That would be 64-QAM or 256-QAM
and need a cable card or something.

E326 HDMI ports (digital inputs)

http://cdn.cnetcontent.com/7b/c4/7bc...e725ebec2b.jpg

USB, 3 HDMI, RS232 (control port?)

E326 analog inputs

http://cdn.cnetcontent.com/56/51/565...c23c27943a.jpg

SPDIF Out (TOSLink, red LED over dental fiber optic cable)
YPbPr component video, L&R audio in
Antenna connector
VGA in, audio 1/8" in (from a PC, native res. unknown)

Some TV VGA ports, like if the TV was 1920x1080, the VGA
port does 1440x900 and doesn't run native. The manual doesn't say
what this one does on VGA in.

NEC just doesn't seem to be very good at listing specs
that count.

Anyway, that's an example of "looking one over".

There's only one review on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/NEC-E326-Comm.../dp/B01N6RK911

And I didn't even see mention of a TV remote with it. There
is one, but I can't find a picture. That's all part
of a TV purchase experience (some remotes suck).

The reviewer here mentions his TV came with no stand! And
another site in Europe lists the TV as "no feet". Hilarious.
Even though the promotional pictures show a stand of some sort.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...ial_grade.html

I tried searching for "box contents" but I don't
really think the retailers have access to the info,
and of course *nobody* opens a box to look...

https://www.insight.com/en_US/buy/pr...2-LED-display/

That's an example of a TV used for signage. It has a
lot of nice properties, but "documentation" is not
one of them. The manual is way too short.

The USB port can be used for media playback. The last
site showed me that tidbit.

As for the notion of using a VESA plate to hold up a
display, I have two monitors here, and the second
monitor is using a VESA plate. I bought two L-shaped
pieces of metal at Home Depot, and use those for a VESA
plate, and clamp the two L-brackets to my AV rack. The
rack hasn't fallen over yet - but the monitor in
question is pretty tiny. When mounting monitors that
way, you have to remember that children have been injured
by falling TV sets, so if using the VESA method, you
can't just pop a few screws into plastic insets into
some gyprock and "call it done". That's not good enough.
You have to be absolutely sure it's anchored in a stud.

*******

Going to a local store, at least you could size up TV sets.
I think a 32" would be close, and a 40" or so might be
a bit too wide (take up too much shelf or table space).

There are lots of tiny details to check.

Paul

I connected the WD external HD again
with the same results. I went into file
explorer and it doesn't show it but
the 8500 recognized the USB connection.

http://i68.tinypic.com/2mnr8ua.jpg

I don't know exactly what you mean by
simple tests to see if the OS is happy
with partition? Do you mean chkdsk?

It's been a very long time since I ran
a chkdsk. I go to the command prompt and
type chkdsk right? Do you want me to do
that on the 8500?

I do remember about the backup drive
online/offline but at present its not even
showing it's in file explorer.

Robert

Mark Twain wrote:
I connected the WD external HD again
with the same results. I went into file
explorer and it doesn't show it but
the 8500 recognized the USB connection.

http://i68.tinypic.com/2mnr8ua.jpg

I don't know exactly what you mean by
simple tests to see if the OS is happy
with partition? Do you mean chkdsk?

It's been a very long time since I ran
a chkdsk. I go to the command prompt and
type chkdsk right? Do you want me to do
that on the 8500?

I do remember about the backup drive
online/offline but at present its not even
showing it's in file explorer.

Robert

You check Disk Management first...

If it's Online, *then* you check File Explorer.

It will not show in File Explorer, if it's Offline.

Paul

As I said the dimensions of the WEGA are
24 3/4 inches x 15 3/4 inches with a 21 inch
diagonal screen.

There's no way I could fit a 32 inch TV into
my entertainment center. It just wouldn't
fit. 'If' I could 1/3 would be hanging out one
side with a wood post from the entertainment
center cutting across the screen. So am I screwed?
or maybe I have to buy a used one off eBay?

All the sets you showed have so many features
I don't need and I can barely follow the
specifications and which are good? All I know
is to look for HDMI connects on both the TV and
the DVD player.

They really sell TV's without stands?! That sure
is weird. As I stated my TV is in an entertainment
center and frankly, there isn't enough space to mount
a TV on the wall either.

In passing, I don't watch cable,.. haven't for 20
years,.. I prefer my DVD's, I get the news online
and television hasn't had anything worthwhile in
years.

Thanks very much for explaining all of this and your
great links. It sure is confusing though,.. I never
knew there was so much into buying a TV

Robert

Also, I'll call Frontier customer service
tomorrow and see how much a new modem
will cost. Even though I have a working
modem, I'd like to have another backup.

If I had not had this one I wouldn't be
online now.

Robert

I followed your instructions:

http://i65.tinypic.com/vsi2b4.jpg

http://i64.tinypic.com/2jak8x0.jpg

http://i65.tinypic.com/11aia75.jpg

http://i65.tinypic.com/3344278.jpg

http://i66.tinypic.com/e7bceu.jpg

http://i68.tinypic.com/o6ber8.jpg

http://i66.tinypic.com/k0r28y.jpg

http://i65.tinypic.com/vgocck.jpg

I had to go into my Admin account to change
from offline to online but every time I go
on my Admin Account then return to the User
Account, the pages are re-sized smaller and
I have to open them up again to normal size.
Why does it do that?

Thanks,
Robert

Thanks, I did like my DVD player and
was sorry to see it fried along with
my TV and everything else.

I agree about having a larger diagonal but
the outside dimensions remain are still
pretty small compared to what they offer
now. It seems they only make large and larger
TV's without thinking that some people just don't
have that kind of space.

Robert

running my Mrimg backup on the
8500 and everything look normal.


Robert

Mark Twain wrote:
Also, I'll call Frontier customer service
tomorrow and see how much a new modem
will cost. Even though I have a working
modem, I'd like to have another backup.

If I had not had this one I wouldn't be
online now.

Robert


If you're paying a rental charge for the burned-up
one, see if it's still "on the books" with Frontier.
They may offer to replace it, if you're paying rent
on it already. I might have been paying $3 a month
for my first modem (there was no BYOM option back
in those days), and the last two were purchased
modems (so nobody to talk to about it, just
buy and install myself). I returned the rental one,
like a good boy, and there was no charge on my
final bill with them. Now, it's a lot easier to
BYOM and buy one at the store and use it.

Even my VOIP phone was like that, I could buy the device
myself. But first, I had to figure out how to program it.
If you purchased it from the ISP (no rental), you paid
the same price, but it was already programmed.

The ISP still likes to rent VDSL2 equipment, and I think
that's just as much of a scam as ADSL was originally. The
gear needs a truck roll (install in garage or basement,
line needs proper termination or something), but it all seems
to be a "bit too much ceremony" to me.

*******

Another way to watch DVDs, is via the computer. You could
connect a second monitor

https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Ultrasha.../dp/B000UVDONY

to the computer, and play DVDs on that from the computer. But it
means the computer noise will be present while the video content plays.
You could use whatever audio solution (new speakers) you get for the
computer for that as well.

The monitor in the example, is a 1600x1200 monitor. I picked one, to try
to fit the "square hole" in your AV center. It is exactly the wrong
solution for DVDs, as 16:9 content would need to be
letterboxed one way or another, so that a circle looked like
a circle on the screen. You wouldn't want extremely tall skinny
people on the screen, nor would you want everyone to look like
Roseanne. So while I picked a monitor with roughly the right shape,
it still doesn't optimize the active area the movie would "like" to
take up.

If you do "zoom" mode for the DVD, that chops off the sides of the
video, so only the person dead center in the screen is seen. And details
off to the size, you'll miss those.

There is plenty of content which was originally 4:3, and
that stands a chance of viewing better.

that particular monitor doesn't have an HDMI connector, only DVI,
and if you did have a DVD player, you'd need to use an HDMI to DVI
passive adapter cable to make the connection. The player may or may
not like the resolution options the monitor offered. But with DVD player
software, you might be able to play commercial titles via your desktop.

The other solution would have been slightly more seamless, and
more in line with "replacing like with like". Replacing a DVD player
with a DVD player. Replacing a TV set with a (sorta) TV set (without
legs :-) ). But I understand the space issue. I *could* fit a 32 inch
monitor on my table, but there'd be practical issues with fitting
it to my AV rack. And I might not have just the "correct wall surface"
handy, to give proper viewing while hanging the monitor/device with
a VESA plate.

*******

Another kind of viewing device, is a projector. But that really
isn't all that practical. In my opinion, projectors are a bit
washed out looking, compared to the alternatives. You could use an
entire wall in the room as a "screen", for example. That's just
"not very nice" :-)

And I don't think the current generation of VR glasses would suit
for movie viewing. The resolution probably isn't that good.

Paul

Mark Twain wrote:
I followed your instructions:

http://i65.tinypic.com/vsi2b4.jpg

http://i64.tinypic.com/2jak8x0.jpg

http://i65.tinypic.com/11aia75.jpg

http://i65.tinypic.com/3344278.jpg

http://i66.tinypic.com/e7bceu.jpg

http://i68.tinypic.com/o6ber8.jpg

http://i66.tinypic.com/k0r28y.jpg

http://i65.tinypic.com/vgocck.jpg

I had to go into my Admin account to change
from offline to online but every time I go
on my Admin Account then return to the User
Account, the pages are re-sized smaller and
I have to open them up again to normal size.
Why does it do that?

Thanks,
Robert

The "free space" on that partition is rather small.
Macrium could end up deleting an old backup to
make room for a new backup.

The CHKDSK says it put some things in the "found" folder.
You could try looking at the top level for something like that.
If the files are small, and there aren't many of them, I generally
don't waste time looking at the files. But if something has gone
missing, you may want to revisit that collection of fragments.

*******

Your display control panel in Windows, not only does it
have a resolution setting (like, matching the native monitor
resolution), it also has a scale factor. On my PC here, my display
is set at 125%, so things "look big enough". At 100% (the Windows 8
setting right now), my desktop looks too small.

If your admin account isn't matching on those settings, it could
make things look different while you're in the admin account. But
your unelevated user account should behave normally when you
come back (as far as I know).

https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/wi...g-dpi-scaling/

So that article focuses on the scale factor, while
the following one is "nearby" as a sub-menu and it focuses
on setting the PC to the native resolution of the monitor.
(Make PC 1920x1080 if monitor is 1920x1080.)

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/set-sc...ount-windows-7

Paul

No, the modems were bought outright from
Verizon, not rented since I don't use cable.

Watching DVD's on the computer is not an option
because of my disabilities. I can stay online for
awhile but not to relax or watch movies. That's
why I had the TV and VCR. Also there's already
the 780 monitor and there just isn't room for
another.


I would prefer to go with replacing the DVD with a
DVD and replacing a TV with a TV. There is a space
I could put it on the wall to the left of the entertainment
center but then everything would be sewed to the left and
I have a piece of art already there that would fit nowhere
else. In addition, I would have a big empty space in my
entertainment center where the TV use to be.

I'll go to the stores tomorrow and see what I can find.

This guy sure screwed me.

Robert

I saw the limited free space as well but I
thought that was a 'normal' function of the
backups, to delete old ones as new ones were
created?

Exactly what am I looking for in the 'found folder?

Here's my screen resolution:

http://i64.tinypic.com/282p0ub.jpg

I completed my mrimg backup for the 8500:

http://i65.tinypic.com/2niog3c.jpg

Thanks,
Robert

Mark Twain wrote:
I saw the limited free space as well but I
thought that was a 'normal' function of the
backups, to delete old ones as new ones were
created?

Exactly what am I looking for in the 'found folder?

Here's my screen resolution:

http://i64.tinypic.com/282p0ub.jpg

I completed my mrimg backup for the 8500:

http://i65.tinypic.com/2niog3c.jpg

Thanks,
Robert


I just wanted to make sure you were aware that
Macrium will be in "delete to make space mode".
There's nothing wrong with that, as long as you're
happy with the results (not losing a valuable
older backup or something).

*******

Beside the screen resolution, there is a separate
tab for the display magnification. Maybe one of your
accounts uses a different setting for that, than the
other ?

Paul