Month: August 2010

This is the third in a series of articles on my trials and travails about living the cable-free life. The first part dealt with moving to Apple’s AppleTV platform by way of MythTV and Tivo.  In part two talked about the reasons why I moved from an AppleTV to a Mac Mini-based HTCP setup. This article will focus on the software I am running to make all of this palatable along with a few hardware and OS tips thrown in for good measure.

I am going to start out with a few hardware and OS items, because these will be important in deciding where to go with the software.

Video Output

As I noted in part two, I purchased an Apple Mac Mini 2.26GHz (Late 2009) to replace the 40GB AppleTV. This particular model has two video output options:

• Mini-DVI
• Mini DisplayPort

This allows for easy conversion to S-Video, DVI, or VGA.  In the box you receive an adapter that will allow you to connect directly to a DVI-D (dual link or single link) cable or port.  Unfortunately the adapter does not allow you to connect a DVI-D cable.  If you want to use the Mini DisplayPort output (instead of or in addition to the Mini-DVI port) you will need to buy an additional adapter.  Apple sells several different ones to accomplish different goals:

For some reason, while Apple sells an adapter to allow for conversion to VGA from Mini DisplayPort they do not sell one to convert to S-VIDEO or composite video, in fact it doesn’t appear that anyone does.  If that is your goal, then you will need to daisy chain the Apple Mini-DVI to Video Adapter adapter to the included Mini-DVI adapter.

If you want to connect the Mac Mini directly to an HDMI component then you will need to buy either a Mini-DVI to HDMI adapter, Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter, or add a DVI-D to HDMI adapter to the included Mini-DVI to DVI adapter.  Initially I was using a Belkin DVI-D to HDMI adapter, however I have since moved to using a single piece Mini DisplayPort to HDMI cable from monoprice.

Audio Output

When it comes to audio output from the Mini, your choices are a lot simpler, at least in the beginning.  The Mac Mini supports two audio output options from a combined port:

• standard stereo analog via a 1/8″ inch (3.5mm) cable
• S/PDIF format optical via a mini-toslink adapter or cable to a toslink input

Most people won’t have any issues, however in my case I had a problem where my receiver disabled the digital input jack when I connected the Mini to HDMI on the receiver (either by using a Mini DisplayPort to HDMI cable, or when running through the Mini-DVI/DVI-D HDMI adapter/HDMI cable combo).  Here’s what I got from Sony on this one:

This issue can occur with an Audio/Video (A/V) receiver that has HDMI® Active Intelligence. HDMI communicates with all of the HDMI-connected devices and requires authentication (a.k.a. handshake) from each device. Since the DVI jack on the TV is not HDMI, authentication cannot occur and may cause the A/V receiver to not produce any audio.

In my case I ended up connecting the digital audio to the receiver and the video to the second HDMI input on my television.

One possible solution to this would be to purchase an adapter that will take the Mini DisplayPort video signal and combine it with the digital audio signal to a single HDMI output.  Both monoprice and Kanex make an adapter to accomplish this.  Kanex also makes an adapter that will take analog audio and add it into a combined signal.  I have yet to actually purchase either and test it, however I will be doing so in the future.

Software Choices

Back in the good old days I was using a MythTV setup and I really liked the interface (up to a point anyway, it wasn’t near as polished as some of the commercial options, but at that point I was gung-ho on opensource movement).  After moving to the AppleTV, I became spoiled by the polish that I was seeing with the Apple interface as well as the Boxee project.  After settling on the hardware choice of the Mac Mini, I then began looking for a suitable software product.  Now I know several folks that use iTunes, Safari and FrontRow to handle most of this, however I wanted an all-in-one solution as much as possible.  I settled on using Plex.  This is a Mac OS centric fork of the XBMC project, so it may look familiar to some of you out there (Hey Joe Newton!).

The Plex application is quite similar to Boxee in that it maintains the XBMC application structure.  There is a developer SDK available and you can easily write small apps to fill the holes in the ether.  For instance, there is a rather nice application for viewing the TED Talks.

Unfortunately there are still somethings that a standalone application does better.  I prefer the Hulu Desktop application, especially since Hulu goes out of their way to shun all third-party integration into their ecosystem.  I also prefer using the NetFlix web interface over the Plex app.  There are just some pieces to the integration that doesn’t function to my satisfaction.  Also, to listen to my SACD and Digital Audio content, I am forced to use iTunes.  This is due to a bug in the way that audio content is handled with respect to the frequency settings for digital audio in Plex.  According to the developers this will be fixed in the release of version 0.9.

Getting Your Content

Here is one area where we are still at the mercy of the content creators and providers.  If all the content you watch is ripped from legally purchased dvds and cds then you should have no problems, since Plex has been able to handle every format I have thrown at it.  If you buy or rent video content from the iTunes store, then you are going to have to use FrontRow or iTunes, since the video content (unlike the music) is still encapsulated with DRM encryption.  If you are in search of current tv show episodes, then your best bet is going to be to use Safari and watch the shows through the browser or to use Hulu (which is even better now that Hulu Plus has come into being).

Controlling the HTPC

When it comes to controlling your media center, most people expect that they will be able to use the ubiquitous remote control that we all seem to have so many of these days.  Some of use still remember when you had to get up and physically change the channel on the television (seems like a quaint notion nowadays).  Then we progressed to having wired remote controls, then on to infrared remotes, then to RF remotes that can work through walls!  Well, I have a Logitech Harmony 550 remote that is programmable and can control all of my components.  I can setup macros (or activities, as Logitech calls them) to do certain things, like go from tv watching mode into listening to the turntable mode (yeah, I still own a turntable and LPs).  One of the nice things about the Mac Mini (like the AppleTV) is that it has a built-in infrared port, so that I can control Plex using my Harmony.  Plex comes with built-in support for either the Apple Remote or the Logitech Harmony.

As for browsing the web, I still use a keyboard and mouse.  Thankfully Apple makes this easy with their built-in bluetooth support.  Currently I am using the new Apple wireless keyboard and a Might Mouse.  At some point I plan on trying out the Logitech PS3 keyboard, since it has a built-in trackpad for cursor control.

Final Thoughts

Having been cable free for almost two years now, I can definitely say that it was a journey worth taking.  Not only have a I reduced the financial costs associated with watching media, I also pay more attention to exactly what I am watching.  Since my media storage is not infinite, I have to care more about what I keep and what I don’t.  With the advent of NetFlix instant streaming, Hulu, and the prevalence of companies like ESPN, CBS and others that allow you to watch current content over the web, the storage burden has been lessened, but it is still something to keep in mind.

The main problem with this solution is for content that hasn’t made it to the new media generation.  Many of the media providers still have the idea that cable is king and that they need to charge outrageous prices in order to maintain the monopoly.  What they should be doing is allowing us access to the content, no matter how we want to watch it.  One example of the bone-headed thinking out there is the way that Hulu has handled the interaction with systems like Plex and Boxee.  The claim is that the content owners (NBC, ABC, CBS, etc.) have directed them to attempt to block usage that will conflict with standard transmission methods, such as cable and satellite.  What they don’t seem to understand is that the way in which I watch the content is less important than if I watch it at all.  On Hulu the content is ad-supported.  On the ABC website, the content is ad-supported.  I don’t think that it should really matter where the ads are seen, as long as they are, but apparently this is not the belief of the big-wigs in the boardrooms.

References

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This weekend I spent a large chunk of time setting up Plex Media Center for OS X on my shiny new Mac Mini.  When I left for work this morning, after two weeks off, I expected to get to the office and fire up iTunes to listen to my music from home using Simplify Media like normal.

Everything was working fine, if a bit slower than I expected, for the first hour or so, then unexpectedly Simplify Media simply quit working.  Restarting the application didn’t help.  Restarting iTunes didn’t help.  Restarting the computer didn’t help.  No matter what I did Simplify Media decided to be stuck in the initializing mode.

After toying with somethings on my iMac at home after work, I realized what was different in the setup than before Christmas break.  The difference was that I am now running the Plex Media Server (PMS) component of Plex on the iMac to server the iTunes library up to the media center Mac Mini in the living room.  After stopping PMS and restarting Simplify Media everything worked fine.  With Simplify Media stopped and PMS restarted Plex was working fine.

After looking into the preferences of Simplify Media, I noticed the ability to turn off Simplify Media for the local network.  After checking that box and restarting both PMS and Simplify Media everything is green again in the Simplify Media land.

I am not quite sure why they are conflicting.  A comment in a post on elan’s Plex blog clued me into checking the Plex UPnP code to make sure it was disabled.  I looked into that and I definitely have it disabled.

Update (2010-1-6) – According to the Simplify Media blog page, they are having network problems in their data center.

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Many newspapers around the country have embraced what many people have referred to as the Information Age. The current era has also been referred to as the Connected Age:

The Information Age is the age of the knowledge worker. The Connected Age is the age of the web worker. Knowledge workers create and manage information, massaging it into intangible knowledge goods. Web workers create and manage relationships across knowledge goods, hardware, and people.

– From the Information Age to the Connected Age, GigOm

In the beginning this was done merely by having a website where you could view additional content that was unavailable in the print editions due to editorial constraints, be they size, content, or otherwise. The newspaper website was also seen as a source for additional advertising revenue, which has been the profit mechanism for most newspapers.

Then as the Internet become more common place, newspapers and magazines started to produce content solely for the online editions.

As the trend towards regular access to the Internet continued, it became clear that a certain segment of the market had ceased to read the print editions, indeed, many young people never started reading the newspaper in print at all. It was also clear that for the newspapers to keep up with the social and economic trend that they would have to shift their attitudes to the distribution of the news to match the reader.

This is particularly noteable with the Atlanta-Journal Constitution (AJC). In February of 2007, the AJC decided to cut a large number of jobs, offer buyouts to many other employees, and drastically reduce the distribution area for the print editions. This was done to ostensibly adjust to the new ways that news is being viewed today:

The changes come as the Atlanta paper, like other newspapers, adjusts to major shifts in news consumption and advertising spending on the Internet.

– Ga.’s Largest Newspaper Offers Buyouts, cbsnews.com

While I agree that shifting attitudes towards the distribution of news and the way it is being consumed does require some changes, I wonder if the online format is really better.

I like being connected to the news, even more I like being connected in general. I carry a smartphone that checks my corporate e-mail every 15 minutes, I carry a pager and I use text messaging for alerts and to keep in touch with my friends. I have an account on most of the major instant message services and I even have a blog. In fact I would say that I am one of the more connected and online people in my social group.

Despite all of this, I worry that there are some points of value that are being overlooked as we make the headlong rush to placing everything online. From a journalistic standpoint the content may be the same, and yes, online newspapers often give new opportunities for engaging advertisements that just can’t be put into a print edition. What I find missing is the other value that comes from a print newspaper.

When I go to the barbershop on Saturdays, I often have to sit and wait. What do I do with this free time? Do I pick up my smartphone and surf the Internet? Do I check my e-mail? No, I sit there patiently in my chair and read that morning’s paper. Occassionally I will engage in conversation with the other people in the shop, especially when there has been something interesting going on, such as UGA beating the University of Florida. Can you easily sit in you chair in the barbershop and read the online edition of the AJC? Maybe in your barbershop, but definitely not in mine.

But beyond the value of the feel of the newsprint in your hand, there are what could be referred to as value-added services that we derive from a print edition:

• the older papers can serve as packing material for shipping gifts
• they can be used as kindling to light a fire
• they can be used to put down on a table or other surface to protect it from paint
• they can be folded into hats and boats to entertain your friends children (or your own)

None of the above can easily be done with the online edition of a newspaper, unless of course you are willing to print it out first.

Is an online newspaper really better? Post a comment and let us know your opinion.

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In my previous post in this series, I laid out my reasons for dropping my monthly cable subscription and my initial choice of the AppleTV as the instrument for maintaining a reasonable method for my viewing entertainment.

One of the main reasons behind the choice of the AppleTV was the fact that it supported 5.1 digital surround sound through the HDMI cable output. This made it a snap to connect the device to my Sony STR-DG820 receiver which was connected to my LCD television and 5.1 speaker setup. Another compelling reason for this choice was the simplicity with which I would be able to connect my iTunes library containing rips of all of my cd and dvd collection to my home entertainment system.

However, from the first I read with great interest the various accounts of successful hacks that had been applied to the AppleTV to expand it use beyond those set forth by Apple.  I was most interested in the ability to install a browser (Firefox, Safar, WebKit, etc.) and the chance to use Boxee and/or XBMC.

Initially I was drawn to the opensource atvusb-creator project, if for no other reason than the fact that it was free.  Of course, the geeky aspects to such a project were no small source of fun, as well.  However, I ended up using the ATVFlash product in the end since it tied all the various pieces and parts so nicely into a polished interface.  The ATVFlash project incorporated many of the opensource projects that allow AppleTV users to have access to external harddrives, keyboards, mice, non-Apple content providers, not to mention the ability to run Boxee, XBMC, Firefox and a host of other programs.

Along with other intrepid users I rapidly began finding ways to enhance the software with iPhone based remotes for the non-Apple programs.  Using a VNC server I was able to connect my iPhone to the AppleTV to control the mouse and keyboard inputs when browsing.  Later, ATVFlash provided the same level of access with the Mobile Air Mouse client/server architecture.  I could even install iStatPro on the device to monitor the bandwidth and process usage.

As I delved deeper into the process of using other online providers of content, such as Hulu, I began to realize that the hardware upon which the AppleTV was based limited the amount of usability that one could gain outside of the sandbox that Apple had seen fit to build.  The Boxee project was excellent at giving me access to a multitude of content choices, Hulu, TED, CW, Pandora, last.fm, and many others.  ATVFlash gave me the ability to play content types that were foreign to the AppleTV, such as avi, wmv, and mkv, not to mention the ease of installing Firefox and Flash so that I could watch NBC, FOX and ESPN360.com.

The one thing that these software projects could not do was to give the AppleTV the power to crisply deliver fullscreen Flash content to my LCD or to allow me to play Netflix movies.  There is only just so much that one can accomplish solely through software upgrades, after all.

As I contemplated these shortcomings, I realized that I needed to upgrade my hardware yet again.  The choice then became what platform do I use.  Did I move back to a Linux platform, move to Windows with MediaCenter edition (or even Windows 7), or stick with my beloved Mac platform?

As I stated in my first entry on this subject, my friend Justin was successfully using a hackintosh with the Plex project as an upgrade to his own AppleTV.  After watching the results, I settled on Plex as my software delivery system, yet I could not for various reasons bring myself to go the route of the hackintosh.  As I was unlikely to ever go back to being a complete Windows user again, and since all of the games that I wanted to play were either available for the Mac OS or could easily be played in a VMWare container, I saw nothing to compel me towards anything other than genuine Apple hardware, except possibly price.

With this in mind, I purchased a 2009 2.26GHz Mac Mini at the Apple Store at Lenox Square Mall in Atlanta this past December, where not a year past I had picked up my AppleTV.

My next post in this series will detail some of the software setup that I am currently using as well as some tips for getting the most out of your own Mac Mini home theater setup.

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The Gypsy Violin
by Munda

The compelling violin lures With an irresistible yearn Dance, dance, please dance for me

I can no longer adjourn!

Ethereal notes float from its strings Caressing like a lover’s hand Sensual music, Angel’s touch

Leading the way to wonderland

Embracing with utter delight Craving, beckoning me Tempting my lonely heart

Dance, dance on my melody!

Faster, faster the music escapes Without compassion to body or soul Seducer of lonely hearts

Until dancing is my only goal

Faces gyrate while I dance on passion
Flashes of fire in the corner of my eyes

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When You Are Old
by William Butler Yeats

When you are old and gray and full of sleep And nodding by the fire, take down this book, And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace, And loved your beauty with love false or true; But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,

And loved the sorrows of your changing face.

And bending down beside the glowing bars, Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled And paced upon the mountains overhead,

And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

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Who is She?
by Gabriel Rosenstock

Who is this goddess of yours? Who is she?

‘Pure fantasy, I wager.’

‘Is she not clear to you?’
‘No, she is not.’

‘Clearer than day is she
‘ clearer than night …’

‘Not clear to me …’

‘Day in night is she
‘ night in day …’

‘I see her not …’

‘Look inside yourself!’

‘Difficult …’

‘Then look at her frost

covering the grass.’

ref. url: Who is She? In English and Gaelic

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Music
by Walter de la Mare

When music sounds, gone is the earth I know, And all her lovely things even lovelier grow; Her flowers in vision flame, her forest trees

Lift burdened branches, stilled with ecstasies.

When music sounds, out of the water rise Naiads whose beauty dims my waking eyes, Rapt in strange dreams burns each enchanted face,

With solemn echoing stirs their dwelling-place.

When music sounds, all that I was I am Ere to this haunt of brooding dust I came; And from Time’s woods break into distant song

The swift-winged hours, as I hasten along.

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Today is the birthday of Lord Byron, an English poet born in 1788 in Scotland. He was born George Gordon Noel.

His first success was the poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage written in 1812, which is based around his journeys from England to the eastern Mediterranean.

Check out today’s daily poem for another of his more recognizable poems, She Walks in Beauty.

This particular poem is one of my favorites, and it was featured in the television series Beauty and the Beast that ran on the CBS network in the US from 1987 until 1990.

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This is part one of a short series of articles detailing the process I went through to restore a friend’s table pc after her hard drive dies due to a head crash. Background

My friend has a Gateway CX210X Convertible Notebook. This model uses a SATA internal drive. Her drive died sometime last Friday afternoon […]

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In the application selection process for 10.5, the X11 maintainers elected not to include Xnest. While most users will probably not need this, since you can export X11 application through a SSH connection, sometimes it is quite handy to have the entire gui session available from a remote server.

I use this when managing some of my […]

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Now that Mac OS X has almost been out for a week, there are a lot of articles coming out concerning the security features and their effectiveness, or lack thereof:

OS X Leopard Firewall Flawed Do not go Back to My Mac Leopard with chinks in its armor

A Roundup of Leopard Security Features

Some people are pointing out some […]

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So I have spent the last several days playing with the latest release of Mac OS X 10.5 codenamed Leopard.
Over the next few weeks I will be posting new articles relating to some steps I have found that may make your switch more enjoyable.

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Like many people, I went out into the great choas known as Black Friday after a deal. In my case I was focused on obtaining an Olevia 237T 37″ LCD television being sold at Target for the low, low price of $549.00.

After getting it home and plugging it all into my MythTV system, I ran into […]

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In order to get the updates for Ubuntu to take MythTV to 0.20.2 you need to add the following to your /etc/apt/sources.list file: deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ edgy-proposed main restricted universe multiverse deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ edgy-proposed main restricted universe multiverse After doing this run the following commands: sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade

In addition to the MythTV updates a few other things should […]

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For those who don’t know, Zap2It Labs stopped offering free channel data for the community. A paid for solution Schedules Direct has stepped up to the plate with a fairly inexpensive solution. In order to use it you need to update your MythTV installation. The 0.20.2 release of MythTV supports SD.

Gentlemen, start your updates, because at […]

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One of the annoyances I have discovered with MythTV and Fedora Core is the inability to eject the optical drive in a default install of MythTV.

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After recently upgrading my MythTV system, I set to editing the metadata for my video collection.

Everything worked fine when editing through the regular interface, but when attempting to edit the data through the MythWeb interface, I noticed that entries where the title started with double-quotes, the field in the edit screen was empty.

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Last week my friend Lindsay and I were making the rounds of the various thrift stores and used furniture stores in Valdosta.  It is quite interesting to see what people get rid of and to think of ways to use some of it.
At one of the thrift shops we found three VSU glasses.  One of […]

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I just got finished reading Stealing MySpace by Julia Angwin.  In it there was this great conversation about the firing of Ross Levinshohn by Peter Chernin, the soon-to-be former COO of News Corps.  Here it is: “You’re not happy, are you?” Chernin said. “No, I’m not,” Levinsohn agreed. “This isn’t working out, is it?” Chernin said.

“No, it’s not,” […]

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Lately there has been a lot of flack going on over the Early Termination Fee (ETF) system that the major cellular carriers use to encourage consumers to abide by the length of the contract that they have signed.
Apparently a lot of people are upset that the various cellular carriers are wanting to charge a fee […]

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So the USGS has almost completed the survey of the Bakken Formation. Estimates on the amount of oil contained in the shale formation range from 900 billion to 200 billion barrels. A poster on Slashdot said that “Such a reserve would go a long way toward securing US energy independence.”

What exactly is energy independence? […]

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While watching Shark tonight I saw a commercial for the new Dyson root 6 handheld vacuum cleaner.  The commercial was pretty cool.  It showed the vacuum cleaner being built, in a Lego-like fashion.
Aside from the coolness of the commercial itself, it occurs to me that the design of the root 6 is quite similar to […]

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I you have read my previous post, GPG Best Practices, you will know that I am a fan of setting expiration dates on my GPG keys.
This has not always been the case. As with many computer users I tend towards the lazy, and if I can keep from having to re-learn a password by […]

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Like many people who have some concerns over security on the Internet, I have started to use digital signatures for all of my mail sent from my regular e-mail client on my Mac.
While there are several avenues for this, I chose to use GPG. While I know that this means jumping through a couple […]

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Everyone wanted DRM-free music and EMI partnered with Apple to make it happen.

Now apparently it’s not being done right. Of course, we all knew that the account holder name and associated e-mail address was being stored in the DRM encrypted tracks. But somehow everyone seems to think that Apple was going to just cease to embed that because the song was DRM-free.

Ars Technica has a story up on this.

I wouldn’t be surprised if some data was being analyzed in aggregate, although Apple’s current privacy policy does not appear to allow for this. As with the dust-up over the mini-store, Apple should clarify what this embedded data is used for.

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So I ran across a story on Slashdot about how ABC/Disney had a blog shutdown over the posting of some audio clips from a radio-station affiliate in conjunction with the blogger’s letters to the radio station advertisers over their tacit support of the comments and views of the talk radio hosts on the station.

The Slashdot post linked to a blog posting on the Daily Kos: State of the Nation that had more details.

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Lately I have been taken with watching foreign films.  Some of them are ones I have seen before, but most of them have been new ones to my collection.

Unfortunately many foreign films are not available in Region 1 (or NTSC) format.  If you are lucky enough to know how to rip a DVD and watch it on your computer then you are able to watch them, however most DVD players sold in the United States are region locked.  If you use a Mac then you can change the region encoding on the DVD player application, but only five times, which makes it damned inconvenient.  If watching them on your computer isn’t working for you then take a look here for some region-free DVD players.

Here are a few of the ones that I have screened over the last few weeks:

What are some of your favorite foreign films?

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