QAM MCE Missing Channels

Well, Media Center is not perfect. You'll find that by default it'll scan and detect 9-13 channels. The remaining channels can be found via "Edit Channel Listing". From there you can map the digital cable number to the appropriate Electronic Program Guide.

If you need some help mapping out the QAM channels found in MCE, use this listing: [link].

Check out your local TV listings to translate what some of those TV channel codes mean. Yahoo! has a decent service for this: [link].

Overclocking - now that's a value proposition!

Well, I must confess. The main reason why I bought a Q6600 Intel 2.4Ghz quad proc was to overclock it. It's why I deliberately bought a chip with an FSB of 1066Mhz and a motherboard that can easily go up to 1333Mhz. Overclocking is definitely not for the faint of heart.

Attempt 1:
1. Enter the BIOS [Del].
2. Go into M.I.T. Motherboard Intelligent Tweaker.
3. M..I.T settings:

• a. FSB - Memory Clock Mode [Linked]
• b. FSB (QDR) = 1333
• c. Leave everything else as is.

4. Reboot - witness a blank screen. *panic*.
5. Frantically find the CMOS reset jumper on the motherboard, clear the CMOS and hope for the best.
6. Checksum Errors! *more panic*.

Luckily the GA-E7AUM-DS2H comes with a nifty feature called Q-Flash. Flash the BIOS without the need to boot into MS-DOS or any OS. *Remember to Q-Flash, the storage device must be formated as FAT/FAT32. NTFS is a no-go.

Attempt 2:
7. Download the latest GA-E7AUM-DS2H BIOS.
8. Boot up with a trusty USB flash drive (formatted as FAT32) with the binaries on the stick:

• E7AUMD2H.F2
• FLASHSPI.EXE

9. Post Boot screen (after the beep). Hit [End] and enter Q-Flash.
10. Re-flash the bios from the corrupted F1 to a brand new F2. [link]
11. Boot *oh joyous day* it worked!
12. M.I.T Settings:

• a. FSB - Memory Clock Mode [Unlinked]
• b. FSB (QDR) = 1333Mhz
• c. Memory (DDR) Mhz = 667Mhz
• d. CPU Clock Ratio = 9x

13. Boot - presto quad core 3.0Ghz!

*follow-up* with your standard suite of stress tests: including prime 95, 3dmark etc.

Nifty Netflix on Media Center

Nothing short but pure awesome for the little plug-in for Media Center. (Which works great on 7MC).

MCE Plug-in by Anthony Park:
http://www.anpark.com/software.aspx

Manage your queue, and "Watch Now"!

Windows 7 and Media Center

To be completely honest, after assembling the PC (motherboard, CPU, RAM, Wireless network, HDD and DVDRW) the installation was a breeze!

Steps followed:
1. Assemble PC from components.
2. Boot from Win7 Beta Build 7000 ISO downloaded from [link].
3. Go thru the setup wizard.

After installing the OS:
4. Install first TV tuner - ATI HDTV Wonder.
5. Boot into Win7 and Install the Windows XP drivers from [link].
6. Setup 7MC with a single analog tuner, get thru the EPG and TV channel scans.

After installing the ATI HDTV Wonder as an analog tuner:
7. Install the Hauppauge HVR 2250.
8. Download and Install the Beta Drivers from Hauppauge [link].
9. In 7MC, manually configure the TV Tuner Cards:
Setup ATI HDTV Wonder as an Analog Tuner.
Setup the Hauppauage HVR 2250 as two Clear QAM Digital Cable Tuner.
Scan for channels (may take up to 15-20min)
10. Start to record and watch HDTV with two tuners!

Windows 7 and Media Center (7MC)

Let's see how smooth it is from zero to record...

The Setup:
Intel Q6600
GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H 9400
1TB HITACHI
4GB Corsair DDR2 800
HAUPPAUGE HVR-2250
ATI HDTV Wonder (obsolete) w/ KRAM drivers

TV - Samsung LCD over d-sub 15.
Win7 Build 7000 Beta release

Let's go Clear QAM!

Bleep

Randomness... just want front page to clear one day.

Random [Link] [link][link]

Yakima!

Dear Blog…
Anyway, it’s been a while since I blogged about anything – I thought I should blog about my trip to Yakima. It’s a quaint little town 2hrs or so east of Seattle. I would describe it as “Small Town”, “Friendly”, and “With Character”. Just a hop away from the I-90 corridor, down I-82 and just past Selah, you’ll arrive to Yakima, WA.
The nouveau downtown-core is clearly welcoming to those out-of-towners stopping by. It’s fairly apparent that Yakima was one of those American towns that benefited from some agricultural development and the almighty railroad. There’s even a tribute to it – a mall composed of railcars.
I had some time to kill, so I decided to venture off and attempt to catch a glimpse of Yakmia-ites in their natural habitat. “All-America” and “The Palm Springs of Washington” are sprinkled all over town. I guess All-American these days means – there’s at least one Walmart, half a dozen McDonalds, Starbucks, xxx corporate retail-America in this county and classic Americana cuisine to be enjoyed by all.
Being from Seattle, Walmarts are somewhat foreign to me – as the sentiment is anti-K-Mart, Target, Walmart in the urban canyons, but rampantly available in the greater suburban sprawl. It’s keen to see how spoiled I am with free WiFi at any chic-boutique espresso joints available just around the corner in most neighborhoods. It’s been a struggle to find a free-WiFi spot here.
All-in-all, this hospitable town has greeted me with warmth, kindness presented in a gentle demeanor. Yakima is a chill-ax place to just poke your nose in.

Mini Essays of Office Life

Oh blog, how it's been a long long long while. I figure I'll come back to you with interesting tid bis of non-work-specific office culture. Hopefully, I can effectively share what I know about various off situational experiences through a few short essays.

Let's start with Monday inertia - otherwise known as the "Case of the Monday's" as fondly coined by "Office Space". Seriously though, why is this so universally experienced in office culture. Perhaps, a big part of it has to deal with the fffFFabulous weekend of doing nothing, or having done EVERYTHING but work. Or maybe, it's because work sends you deep into a pit of work related analysis, email replies, deadlines to meet, meetings to attend. Whatever it is, it certainly doesn't feel good to have to wake up (reasonably) early in the morning and get back into "gear".

Here's what my morning routine kind of looks like:
1) The wake-up, get-up, get ready routine.
2) The coffee ritual - preparing oneself to get ready to read a bunch of emails, requests, and issues with your favorite caffeinated beverage.
3) (If you've read material from Stephan Covey, or have just become an efficient/effective office worker) You start prioritizing/planning out the day. I really got to get X and Y and Z done before this so and so time.
4) The plunge - time to get things done.

It's really tough for me to break out of this routine - but every now and then, I have to remind myself that it's really the excitement of meeting or surpassing "Goals" - both personal or vocational related.

ALRIGHT, Let me experiment what I can do to make my next coming Monday more exciting - and less dreadful.

Update update! More Internet TV

Alright.. It has truly been a while since my last post. I think I'll just warm up to posting again for 2008. The last couple of years have been really good to consumers wanting TV over the Internet. I just came across www.veoh.com which seems to be a nice aggregate front end for www.hulu.com and various TV network web streams (yet another tv portal).

It's easy to use youtube-esque interface is inviting to use - however, the interface is already creeping with in your subtle online banner ads, flashing and animating, tending to distract the content watcher from the "Premium Content".

I can't wait to see what's in store for this year! With the writer's strike finally over, will this become an incentive for TV networks to pump out new episodes 'till early summer? I hope so - I certainly did not get enough Heroes, House, Nip/Tuck, Lost, ... TV for 2007.