u/bookoocash

Started up collecting again in June. I’ve had the Friday the 13th tapes since childhood, but everything else is recent acquisitions.

I’ve been calling this my midlife crisis project because I’ve basically been trying to recreate the collection I had when I was 14 in 2001 before I ditched it all (excluding the Friday the 13th tapes) for DVD. I guess I’m happy in that regard because this has a point where I’ll basically be done, but I still have about 45 tapes to go. It’s been fun tracking down the stuff I used to have.

The tape without a case next to Demons is Dead Alive. The blu-ray and DVD cases are placeholders for stuff I intend to get on tape at some point. I do have probably 1000-2000 movies on blu-ray, but I keep those in sleeves in file cabinets to save space.

I know it was released theatrically unrated and the later Video Treasures/Anchor Bay release in the white box with the extra footage (which I had as a kid and would love to have again, but I’ll take what I can get) and Scream Factory blu-rays are noted as unrated, but this tape has it listed as “Rated R.” The runtime seems to approximate the uncut version and I know sometimes companies just slapped the ratings on willy nilly, so I wasn’t sure if this was uncut or not.

I have been working on a media cart project for some months now.

It’s almost complete. One of the final pieces here is finding a way to affix the power strip/UPS that everything is hooked to the cart itself so that only the cord hands freely.

On the back of the cart there are two screw holes that are roughly 9” apart. My first thought is to just get screws in there and anchor it on that. The issue is the spacing between the mounting holes on the back of the UPS is approximately half that.

Is there some type of bracket that I can affix to the cart using the screw holes there, which could then have something attached that has anchors spaced closer together. Alternatively, is there some type of clamping device that I could affix to the cart and space accordingly to match the distance between the UPS’ holes?

Please see the attached photos. Also apologies for the awful cable management. Once everything is in place I intend to power it all down and get stuff organized.

Also, for reference, this is the cart https://a.co/d/0bwQekGi

I have been working on a media cart project for some months now.

It’s almost complete. One of the final pieces here is finding a way to affix the power strip/UPS that everything is hooked to the cart itself so that only the cord hands freely.

On the back of the cart there are two screw holes that are roughly 9” apart. My first thought is to just get screws in there and anchor it on that. The issue is the spacing between the mounting holes on the back of the UPS is approximately half that.

Is there some type of bracket that I can affix to the cart using the screw holes there, which could then have something attached that has anchors spaced closer together. Alternatively, is there some type of clamping device that I could affix to the cart and space accordingly to match the distance between the UPS’ holes?

Please see the attached photos. Also apologies for the awful cable management. Once everything is in place I intend to power it all down and get stuff organized.

Also, for reference, this is the cart https://a.co/d/0bwQekGi

I have an external 1tb hard drive hooked up to my Pi 3b. I keep trying to add my main movies folder to my Kodi library, but it won’t let me. Whenever I click on it to add it or even just open it up to play something, it does what you see in the video. My TV show folder opens, but after that it’s hit or miss, some you can go into the seasons and episodes, others do the same thing in the video.

I am getting under voltage warnings, which I will be addressing with a dual usb once it arrives. Not sure if that has anything to do with it.

Any tips?

UPDATE UPDATE: I determined the main the issue was the formatting of the drive. I had been doing exFat for so long on my other media drives that I didn’t consider this older drive I had lying around may be formatted as something else. Welp, it was formatted as Mac OS Journaled. Reformatted to exFat, copied all the files back over, added it as a source, scraped, and everything is there.

As for the constant under-voltage warnings, I have a dual data/power usb cable and I’m just waiting on a power-blocker adapter to put on the data usb so that my Pi can properly shut down. I think I mayyyyyy be set after that.

UPDATE: Hooking up the dual usb to get additional power to the drive did not fix the problem and also created a new problem where it is supplying power to the Pi so it won’t shut down via the power button on my enclosure.

I’m trying to follow this guide for my Pi 3b+

https://filthypants.blogspot.com/2017/03/raspberry-pi-240p-composite-output.html?m=1

My questions are regarding this section:

>“In your config.txt, you can use the sdtv_mode directive to change to the new modes (either NTSC or PAL):

>sdtv_mode=16 # progressive NTSC

>sdtv_mode=0x10 # progressive NTSC (using hex notation)

>sdtv_mode=18 # progressive PAL

>sdtv_mode=0x12 # progressive PAL (using hex notation)”

I have changed sdtv_mode to 16, but have not witnessed a noticeable change. Do I need to add the “# progressive NTSC” after it?

Also, what is the purpose of the “sdtv_mode=0x10 # progressive NTSC (using hex notation)” line? Do I need to add that one too?

I asked this in another thread, but figured I would make a separate post rather than hijack the good news about bike lane expansion.

1. For some time now, I can’t recall exactly how many years, but the flex posts on the Centre St bike lane have been completely removed between Cathedral and Charles St, and many have either been removed or damaged between Charles and St. Paul. Is there a reason that they have never been replaced?

It’s particularly concerning because drivers routinely use the lane to make left turns onto Charles even when the lane is occupied by cyclists. That’s in addition to it now being even easier to use as temporary “free parking” (the double parking is a particularly big issue out front of the student building between Charles and St. Paul.

I similarly submitted a 311 request for this, could you look into this too? The request number is 26-00318819.

2. There is an area at the corner of Maryland Ave & Chase St, where a no stopping or parking is posted. There are also white lines in this spot. There is evidence that there used to be flex posts present, but I’m assuming they were removed for one reason or another. What this has resulted in, though, is cars cutting through the spot noted in the picture to avoid having to wait at the light to make the left turn onto Chase. I also want to give some folks the benefit of the doubt and acknowledge that without those posts and clearer signage, it might be a bit confusing for drivers and they may actually think that’s where you’re supposed to turn. In either case, this has resulted into numerous close calls, both personally experienced by me and ones I have witnessed.

I recently submitted a 311 request for this, could you look into it? The request number is 26-00318868.

Posted in here looking for a local tech repair shop that could fix a broken vcr on a CRT/VCR combo. JBS electronics in Catonsville fixed it for $75!

I have been wanting to set up a little retro corner forever and space was always the issue. We live in on the east coast of the US in one of the more denser, urban areas. We have a relatively spacious rowhome, but with two kids, one room of our basement for storage, and one room turned into an immersive mid-century tiki bar, I was left with the middle section.

As soon as I saw people with carts on here I knew that was the route to take. The portable nature allows me to move it wherever, even into the bar for a movie night.

I set a couple requirements.

1. It needed to have the capability to play games up to PSX as well as movies, at least in standard definition.

2. Everything needed to be contained in the cart. That means no space for physical cartridges, discs, etc, so emulation for games and storing video files for movies is required.

3. All roms and movie files needed to be local. No streaming. If internet conks out, I can still fire up this bad boy and have fun. Remote access would restricted to maintenance and file transfers.

After some work, here’s my setup:

1. Sony KV-13FS100 - Found this little guy about to be thrown in a dumpster at work. I love the compact size and also that it has component inputs. Haven’t been able to utilize them yet, but I have a plan (see below). It has a slight touch of burn-in in the upper right corner, but it’s barely noticeable except when there is a really bright solid color in that area (like the blue sky in Super Mario Bros 3). I think a capacitor might be a little loose and doesn’t reconnect after the set warms up for a sec, as there are some horizontal lines that initially appear, but go away in 10-20 seconds. I could try to repair it, but it was a free garbage TV and I’m worried I may end up doing more harm.

2. Raspberry Pi 3b running Retropie & Kodi - I went the Retropie route because it was really the easiest plug & play way to get games and movies up and running immediately. Also, it outputs composite 480. All of the roms are on the internal SD card. Movies are on a small external hard drive connected to it. I have the emulator resolutions set to 240p, though I know with the Pi outputting 480, it’s still not optimal. I still buy blu-rays and watch movies in HD via disc and the rips I make that go on Plex. I took approximately 1,000 of my favorite movies and down-scaled them to 480p to give me basic DVD quality. I remember watching a lot of my favorite tapes and DVD’s on a little 10” TV well into my early teens, so there is some comfort there. I have a PS classic controller hooked up to it. Also have a wireless Logitech as a back-up/second player.

3. VCR - Mostly for aesthetics, though I do have a small batch of tapes I have on display as part of my retro horror movie display elsewhere in the basement.

4. The cart is one of those DNA brand ones from Amazon. I wanted the Uline blue cart but it was so expensive, plus shipping, so I opted for something basically half the price. It is A-okay and does the job.

5. Stickers! I’m a film fan first and a video game guy second, so a lot them are movie related, but I do intend to get more representing some of my favorite games such as Resident Evil, Castlevania, Parasite Eve, Darkstalkers. Also want the class PSX logo.

Future Plans:

1. Everyone tells me the Wii is the best emulator for 240p. My intention is to eventually get a second hand one (we have one, but we still use that one as a family) and have that homebrewed and hooked up with the component cables. I would cover NES to PSX with the Wii. Maybe my movies too, but I’m not sure what players are available so that part is TBD.

2. I would like to do PS2 as well, so I’m considering getting a used PS2 and soft-modding it purely to play PS2 games. I would also explore PSX as well as any media player capabilities and if they are preferable to the Wii’s, switch PSX and/or movie functionality over to the PS2. I guess the PS2 could do component as well, so I’ll have to make a decision there.

3. If neither console can handle the movie functionality well, I will repurpose the Raspberry Pi 3b as strictly a Kodi media player. I’ll likely just have this hooked up with composite.

4. If I ever find a PVM at a decent price (probably never), I may upgrade the TV.

I’m finding all of this to be a lot of fun. The journey to getting everything to where I want is exciting.

Previous post: https://www.reddit.com/r/crtgaming/s/m2QJp9oGoJ

So I noted to others that I’m not going to be able to bring a Wii or Dreamcast into my work and run 240P Test Suite. Just not possible. I’m also not lugging home a possible 100 lbs dud.

So I’m working with what I have and I found a DVD/VCR combo lying around. The disc drive doesn’t work, but I can get the flat blue screen for the VCR to come up and it displays the full extent of the problem.

This looks pretty severe. I’ve tried power cycling but nothing seems to work. I could get a degaussing wand but everyone here says they suck and I don’t want to pay a bunch of money for a more professional tool that may or may not fix the issue for a TV that I honestly don’t even know where I’d put if it did work fine. I’m about to throw in the towel here.