I think you just plug it in. I'll have to check to see if it can be used with a monitor. I have an HDMI to Thunderbolt cord plugged into my TV, though since OS 27, streaming from macOS to tvOS has gotten much better, almost no lag. (I'm primarily an Apple guy.)

I do have a Galaxy S10 and a hub. I'll plug the HDMI cable into the hub and see if it works. It does generally depend on what kind of Android phone you have, though. Galaxy and Pixel have established ways of doing things, and the others... it's really anyone's guess how they'll react. But, generally, Android uses the Linux kernel. In my experience, it'll just take a keyboard or mouse if you can plug one in. Apple made a big deal about supporting game controllers, but Android more or less always has AFAIK. Fun fact: back in the day (I'm talking Android Gingerbread, so like 15+ years ago) I connected a keyboard, did CTRL+ALT+DEL, and the phone rebooted. It's funny because Android uses the Linux kernel and CTRL+ALT+DEL is a Windows thing. It's not a thing on Linux (or macOS). CTRL+⌘+DEL and CTRL+OPT+DEL don't do a damn thing on my Mac (we don't have Alt keys). Not sure what they do on Linux, but I assume "not a damn thing".

...And I couldn't get it to work. If I connected the phone directly to the TV, it would mirror it, but I had to click a bunch of things on the screen to make it happen, it wasn't automatic. Going through the hub was a no-go. The hub also has an HDMI port on it, so I unplugged my Xbox and plugged its HDMI cord into the hub, and switched to the input. Still nothing.

Did some Googling around and found out that Samsung doesn't allow you to easily change the USB settings. I couldn't make it work well on mine without tapping a bunch of stuff

I don't understand what a hub would buy you, aside from letting you connect multiple devices and maybe power concurrently. You can just use a USB-C cable and connect the phone to a laptop and have the same effect. If you can't do input to the phone, though, and it isn't already set up for data transfer, I don't think that a USB-C connection to a PC is going to help.

I don't use Google or Apple accounts myself, but my understanding is that if they have one and the phone is linked to it, there's some level of backup to the cloud that can occur. If that's happened, it might be that linking another phone to the account will work. I've no experience here, but might be something to look into.

Some phones can use an external USB-C display. I don't know whether you might be able to plug a USB-C touch display into the phone, authenticate, and enable developer mode or use a file transfer app or whatever with that.

If you get around to it, great. In the mean-time I’ll try your suggestion. Thanks, I appreciate the help!

It’s so easy in a calendar application to set up recurring events. I think the UI could definitely be rethought - at least for my use case.

Ahh. I've never used blocks- just the classic scheduling. I think me not understanding it probably steered me away.

I could tell you how I have classic scheduling. I set it up, add "schedule items" and while mine are dynamic time and in multiples of two, you can select fixed time. So you could add star trek TNG to start at 730 and play X amount of episodes.

Really it just gets hairy if you really want to start at clean intervals I think. I agree it's very convoluted.

Edit- didn't see your day requirements. It won't work then I don't think. Once I get some free time maybe this weekend I'll try playing around with it. Id honestly prefer one or two channels of my own to be more defined like this.

Further edit- near as I can tell you...

• add your blocks
• make a template group (channel 344 maybe)
• make templates underneath that with blocks
• make a new play out attached to your channel
• add template group items under that with your days/times

I think...

Thanks for asking. Here are a few screenshots. Actually ... it looks like a lot of nearly all the info I remember entering is not present ... I did save religiously.

I'm adding the entries again. I see there is no save button for the playout. When I jump to another tab within ErsatzTV and come back the Playout list is empty again. Okay, I've figured that out. Pressing "add playout" a second time saves my entries. I set an episode of a TV show to start just now and nothing happened on the player.

ErsatzTV Legacy Version v26.11.3-osx-arm64

What's your schedule look like for it? I think that's where the problem would be.

Thank you so much for getting back to me on this! :D Since then, I have tried several other tapes that had no noise whatsoever, so am leaning towards it being faulty tapes. But then again, as said in Edit 3, putting a minimal amount tension on that arm that controls the amount of tension exerted on the tape did alleviate some of the noise, so maybe:

• my VCR has seen better days, but if the tape played is in good condition, it can still work with it
• if the tape played already has too much slack, indentations or other damage, my VCR is not able to compensate for it

Your Edit 4 caught my attention. The fact that the counter stops right when the picture gets noisy might actually be a pretty useful clue.

From what I found, VCRs use a separate control track on the tape to help keep everything synchronized. If the deck loses that signal, it could explain both the counter stopping and the picture going haywire.

I'd be curious what happens if you play the same tape in another VCR. If the problem follows the tape, that tells you something. If it only happens in your LG, I'd start looking at the pinch roller or tape path.

Not saying that's definitely the issue, but it seems worth checking before replacing anything.

I did some AI-assisted research on this, so take it as a troubleshooting lead rather than a diagnosis.

I wasn't sure. But web says this...

As electronic devices become smaller and lighter in weight, the component mounting density increases, with the result that heat dissipation performance decreases, causing the device temperature to rise easily. In particular, heat generation from the power output circuit elements greatly affects the temperature rise of devices. However, in applications (switching power supply smoothing, high-frequency power amplifier output coupling, etc.) where large currents also flow in capacitors, the power consumption due to the loss component of the capacitors can increase to the point that heat generation by the capacitors cannot be ignored. Therefore, the temperature rise of capacitors must be suppressed to the range that does not affect the capacitor reliability. An ideal capacitor has only a capacitance component, but an actual capacitor also has an electrode resistance component, dielectric loss, and an electrode inductance component

I actually don't know much about electronics, but I have a speaker system where capacitors are known to get hot then the sound starts to crackle after about 5 hours.

Here's some info from the web though...

As electronic devices become smaller and lighter in weight, the component mounting density increases, with the result that heat dissipation performance decreases, causing the device temperature to rise easily. In particular, heat generation from the power output circuit elements greatly affects the temperature rise of devices. However, in applications (switching power supply smoothing, high-frequency power amplifier output coupling, etc.) where large currents also flow in capacitors, the power consumption due to the loss component of the capacitors can increase to the point that heat generation by the capacitors cannot be ignored. Therefore, the temperature rise of capacitors must be suppressed to the range that does not affect the capacitor reliability. An ideal capacitor has only a capacitance component, but an actual capacitor also has an electrode resistance component, dielectric loss, and an electrode inductance component

Hey, I'm applauding your MacGyver work. Sometimes it's what you gotta do.

Also, hard to tell from the picture, but the heatsunk parts must get hot and are pretty close…

There could be heat

My first thought was "you're wrong, 'caps' (Capacitors) don't generate heat!" But yeah, That's pure based on the title. In the picture the wires seem to rest against a heat-sink. Either way, it's best to tie them out of the way.

Thanks! I'll let it be for now, at least until I get my hands on those caps/ends that I cramp on, so that they'll sit properly in this:

Yes, but, if possible, I would cut the wires and recap the ends to make the connection fit better.

Caps could be a source or receiver of EMI, probably not a realistic issue though. It opens up possibilities in an if-then sense, but those are out there too

Did something similar! Thanks! Used shrinking tubes (without shrinking them. Just for isolation.).

Good idea! Thanks! 😊

Capacitors are not supposed to generate heat, nor should the wires, so it's not an issue, but it's not best practice either. if possible, use one of these,

There is a screw nearby. No need to buy it, make one from a suitable piece of scrap plastic

There could be heat...you can buy sticky backed ziptie loops at places like home depot. Stick one inside that case wall and thread a ziptie through it to hold the wires off the board.

A lot of watches work with Gadgetbridge

My apartment is also about 30m² so a single router is more than enough, but this is at my parent's in the countryside. The house is about 250m² on two levels. There is another much smaller building (around 42m²) about 50m away, and I have a cabin about 400m farther. I got Wi-Fi there using a set of GL.iNet GL-AR300M and a few antennas, but I'd like to have everything on the same mesh, and improve coverage in the house at the same time. Covering the barn another 30m away would also be a bonus.

Because of the size to cover, I like having the option to detach the antennas on some devices, so that I can position them better. My mother also don't want to see an "ugly" device with multiplie antennas poking out, sitting somewhere.

So far I like the Omada suggestions, and I'm leaning towards this solution.

Garmin watches with Gadgetbridge, and if you're on GrapheneOS you can even deny it network privileges.

Yes it would, for a while.