The living room PC is complete

Friday night, at 10:30pm of course, I decided to finally take the time to install the new video card in the PC connected to the HDTV in the living room. (See this post as to why.) So, new graphics card in hand I read the directions and opened up the case. Inserting the card into the slot was the easy part. The hard part was connecting the digital audio cable to the SPDIF input on the motherboard. This was needed since I was going to be using the HDMI out on the card to connect to my receiver and therefore the TV. (The HDMI cable gives me both full 1080p video and up to 7.1 digital audio so that of course was the best option.) The SPDIF cable had a single plug to connect to the video card and two wires, one orange (audio) and one black (ground) to connect to pins on the motherboard. And there was the snag, I had no idea where the SPDIF pins were on the motherboard. So, off to the Internets…

I was able to find specs for my motherboard. All of which said that there was SPDIF inputs but nothing said where it was located. Finally on the Gateway site I was able to dig up an image of the pins.

Great, this confirms they exist but don’t tell me where they’re located. I poked around a bit and eventually found the pins, along the bottom edge of the motherboard hiding under some power cables and behind the modem board. So, just to find them I had to unplug said power cable and remove said modem card just to be able to see the darn pins, let alone connect wired to them.

Ah, but then the next problem: which pins are which? Oh, and notice that there are actually three pins and I’ve got two wires. Back to the Internets…

I was able to find a post by someone in a similar situation and he said that the audio cable needed to connect to pin 1, and ground to pin four. Not that he said, nor does the image or motherboard specify which pin is which. And, of course, the directions for the video card say that if you connect the pins wrong you might fry the card. Nice.

Hop on to chat and contact Gateway support. I get through quickly but they can’t/won’t help since I’ve got a refurbished machine. Please call this other number. That other number is only staffed M-F 9am-5pm. No help there.

So, I guess. Pin one must be on the left and pin four on the right. Made sense. Connected everything, and turned it all on, fingers crossed.

The computer booted and I had video at 640x480. (On an 1080p HDTV remember.) Install the drivers, update the drivers, reboot a few times and I’ve got full 1080p. And no audio.

Pull cards and cables and swap the orange and black wires. Boot. No audio. Shutdown, try orange on the second pin, black on the fourth. Boot. Still no sound. Hmmm….

Back to the Internets and I find some others in a similar situation. Whoops! I’ve now technically got two sound cards in my computer: One on the motherboard and one on the new card. Check Window’s sound setting and set the new card as the default audio device. Yea! I’ve now got sound!

So, let’s test a Blu-Ray disc to make sure I’ve fixed the original problem, dealing with the HDCP problem. Well, that problem was solved but I had no audio while playing Blu-Ray discs. Since I know Windows isn’t the problem any more I figured it might be the Blu-Ray player software. I found its audio settings screen and say that I needed to tell it to output the audio via SPDIF. Set that, clicked OK, and my sound works in full digital surround.

Total time: 2 hours. Results: Priceless.

Home network update

First I’d like to thank all of those that assisted me in helping with my switch problem. Turns out, it wasn’t the switch at all, it just seemed like it at the time. The real problem with the DSL resetting is our DSL service. A tech was her on Saturday and did determine it was them and not us. For now, they’ve moved us down from our normal 6MB/sec connection to a 3MB/sec one and that seems to have stabilized things. However, my torrents are now downloading at a snail’s pace. (You’d think that it wouldn’t be noticeable but it sure as hell is.)

As for the living room setup, there’s a few snags. Snag one is the need for a USB-to-Ethernet adapter for the Wii. (Since the Wii WiFi will only support the worthless WEP security which I will not run on my network. Besides, that’s why we put the CAT-6 in the walls.) It’s been ordered and should arrive this week. Once that’s here, the Wii will be online.

The other snag is related to F***ing DRM. The HDMI cable from the computer to the HDTV is giving us a crystal clear 1080p signal and it looks amazing. The plan was to install a Blu-Ray drive in the computer and move the Sony standalone Blu-Ray player to the bedroom. Well, the Blu-Ray player is installed but the new HDTV “supports” (read “has”) HDCP (High Definition Content Protection, i.e. DRM) and the video card in the computer doesn’t “support” HDCP. Therefore the drive will not play a Blu-Ray disc as long as the computer is connected to my HDTV.

The solution is to get a new graphics card that “supports” HDCP. There’s another $60 I’m going to have to shell out just to make it do what it’s supposed to do. (If someone wants to recommend a different card for less than $100 I’m all ears. All I know is this is the cheapest one that’s on the “list of supported cards” from the creators of the Blu-Ray playing software installed on the computer.)

Herein lies the problem with DRM. It keeps honest people honest. I’m just trying to play the content I legally purchased and my equipment won’t let me. Yeah, great way to make your customers happy.

DRM image CC BY-SA Alfredo Daniel Rezinovsky.

Lovely Charts

I’ve been playing with Lovely Charts this morning. For those interested, here’s a network diagram of my home network. (I just wish there was a TV icon to attach to the “TV” laptop.)

Of houses, taxes and congress

Yesterday I paid my taxes. Paid as in, I owed the feds $3050. This was the first year I've ever owed money. It's my fault, yet I'm not unhappy as it could have been much worse, $51,000 worse. Here's the story including a little bit on my confusion and my thanks to congress and the president. (There's a first!)

There were several significant financial events that occurred in my life in 2007. The first was my acceptance of a new job that involved a 20% reduction in my salary. The second, my decision to pretty much emptied my TIAA-CREF account in order to eliminate 3/4ths of my credit card debt. (Yes, it was high. No, I've not added to it at all in the past two years.) The third was the dumping of my Aurora, CO house in the form of a "deed in lieu of foreclosure" deal with my mortgage lender. It's the disposition of that loan where my confusion sets in.

As a result of giving up the house I was "forgiven" approximately $167,000 of debt. As the law stands, forgiven debt is considered taxable income. It was explained to me this way: If someone loans me a million dollars and two weeks later the loaner decides that I only have to pay half of it it back, I'm left with $500,000 of income which is therefore taxable. This, I understand. I've just made a half a million dollars.

In my case I gave the house back to the bank, they stopped my payments. Please show me what money I've made. I've nothing to show for it. Why should I have to pay taxes on money I don't have? The taxes on $167,000? $51,000! Nice. I couldn't pay my mortgage, how in Hell am I going to pay the taxes on the mortgage I no longer have? (BTW: I bought the house in 1998 for $106,000 and the bank recently resold it for $92,000. Lovely housing market we have here.)

Well, congress (and the president I guess since he would have had to sign the legislation) to the rescue with the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007. Basically, if you lost a house to foreclosure (mine counts) in 2007 and the forgiven debt was less than $2,000,000 (mine counts again) then you are officially forgiven the owed taxes. YIPPIE! I can't tell you how good it felt to watch that red $54,000 in Turbo Tax shrink to $3050 once I figured out the right box to check in the forms.

At the state level, Colorado is giving me back $49 and Nebraska is giving me back a more than $1800. So, in the end I'm only out about $1200. Considering how bad it could have been, I can't really complain.

Of houses, taxes and congress

Yesterday I paid my taxes. Paid as in, I owed the feds $3050. This was the first year I've ever owed money. It's my fault, yet I'm not unhappy as it could have been much worse, $51,000 worse. Here's the story including a little bit on my confusion and my thanks to congress and the president. (There's a first!)

There were several significant financial events that occurred in my life in 2007. The first was my acceptance of a new job that involved a 20% reduction in my salary. The second, my decision to pretty much emptied my TIAA-CREF account in order to eliminate 3/4ths of my credit card debt. (Yes, it was high. No, I've not added to it at all in the past two years.) The third was the dumping of my Aurora, CO house in the form of a "deed in lieu of foreclosure" deal with my mortgage lender. It's the disposition of that loan where my confusion sets in.

As a result of giving up the house I was "forgiven" approximately $167,000 of debt. As the law stands, forgiven debt is considered taxable income. It was explained to me this way: If someone loans me a million dollars and two weeks later the loaner decides that I only have to pay half of it it back, I'm left with $500,000 of income which is therefore taxable. This, I understand. I've just made a half a million dollars.

In my case I gave the house back to the bank, they stopped my payments. Please show me what money I've made. I've nothing to show for it. Why should I have to pay taxes on money I don't have? The taxes on $167,000? $51,000! Nice. I couldn't pay my mortgage, how in Hell am I going to pay the taxes on the mortgage I no longer have? (BTW: I bought the house in 1998 for $106,000 and the bank recently resold it for $92,000. Lovely housing market we have here.)

Well, congress (and the president I guess since he would have had to sign the legislation) to the rescue with the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act of 2007. Basically, if you lost a house to foreclosure (mine counts) in 2007 and the forgiven debt was less than $2,000,000 (mine counts again) then you are officially forgiven the owed taxes. YIPPIE! I can't tell you how good it felt to watch that red $54,000 in Turbo Tax shrink to $3050 once I figured out the right box to check in the forms.

At the state level, Colorado is giving me back $49 and Nebraska is giving me back a more than $1800. So, in the end I'm only out about $1200. Considering how bad it could have been, I can't really complain.

Sunsets in my back yard

I still can't believe the sunsets that I get to watch out my back yard most nights...

I feel ethical again

Yes folks, the 6MB/sec DSL line is up and running and the (WPA secured) WiFi works throughout the house. (I'm blogging from my living room sofa right now.) I no longer have to mooch off the weak yet open signal from the neighbors.