Random Stuff Episode 1:
Updates: DVD & Ebay
For quite a while now my regular DVD player attached to the TV in my living room I have not used because it gradually stopped recognizing DVDs. It accepts audio CDs but sadly the laser that reads DVD video information has been broken for something like 2 or 3 years. It has been even longer since I watched DVDs on a regular basis. When this problem started back whenever at first it was just an occasional DVD disc. Then it became every DVD disc I would put in a disc and it would give me a "no disc" error. I noticed I could put an audio CD in and it recognized that and played the audio from them, but didn't recognized DVDs. I had purchased a cleaning disc that is supposed to help, but it didn't. However I have still been buying occasional DVDs via Ebay and elsewhere, but mostly from EBay.
I have a CD/DVD ROM player on my ancient Windows XP laptop but ages ago whenever I would view videos the computer would overheat and crash. I also have an external DVD ROM Drive but that is a pain to have to plug in all the time plus I had the overheating problem with that laptop so I got out of the practice of DVD viewing.
This lack of a DVD player problem was on the back burner for a long time. I finally got a really cheap DVD player from Best Buy ($37 and some change including sales tax). I was going to get one at Target for about twice as much, but my Target no longer carries DVD players or DVDs and I don't like buying electronics online or trust getting electronic equipment shipped. Ironically that is how I got my Chromebook. My biggest concern with that isn't with the risk of damage during shipping but rather the porch pirates when it gets delivered. Anyway now I have a basic DVD player again. I hooked it up and the first disc I watched was a Doctor Who episode on DVD. Felt good.
Also related to the DVD issue and my past computer problems, which my Chromebook has helped recover from somethings. My lack of activity for my DVDProfiler cataloging. I need to get things updated and try to see if I can transfer the base program from my ancient XP to my Chromebook. I don't want to have to download the program and learn that I have to pay for it. I think I paid for the software ages ago to have an account tracking more than 50 DVDS. I have way way more than that in TV series alone. A few years back they added an Android app. Not sure if you can add stuff on it, but I can at least see my online collection on it.
I sold another card on Ebay on 29 June for $6 ($2 plus $4 shipping I don't use the Ebay Standard Envelope or PWEs when selling) the last sale was on May 3rd for $7 total.
4 comments:
Although I rarely toss a dvd in... I still continue to buy them every now and then. There's something about owning a hard copy of the movie. My favorite source is the flea market. There's a guy who sets up at both of the flea markets I hit up who sell them for a buck each.
I get a lot of used DVDs but one thing I don't like is when the inserts are missing. I was a bit disappointed a couple of months back when I got the Complete Series Box set of "Black Scorpion" for a great price, but the booklet insert was missing. :( I"m tempted to try to find another copy with the booklet. The difficult alternative is to try to find online images of each page of the booklet and do a homemade printout, but that requires me using the printer at work as I don't have a printer hooked up at home.
That is way too long to have gone without a DVD player. I won't say how many I have, but I've got a few backup DVD players, and more than a few backup VCR's... just in case!
Is porch theft a big problem where you live? From what I've seen online it's increased quite a bit in the more populated areas over the last few years. People have lots of dogs (pitbulls are plentiful) and guns here, and are more than willing to use both if a stranger comes creeping around their property. So, a person would have to be pretty stupid, or have a death wish, to go and try to steal something off of someone's porch around these parts.
Jon,
Porch theft in my area is not a huge problem but it happens from time to time. I have had it happen to me a few times in the past usually around the the Winter Holiday package shipping times. My apartment is particularly vulnerable due to it's proximity to the building mailboxes and the open air stairwell style. Standing by the mailboxes you just have to look straight up the stairs and can see if there is a package at the door of my next door neighbor or my door. Even if the package is propped against the door or "hidden" under the doormat. In 14 years I've been living at my apartment I estimate I've had maybe 4 packages stolen from the door within the last 5 or 6 years.
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