Using an all-in-one computah as a TV

There must be something you can do with velcro and cable ties. That and some 555s and you can rule the world.

This looks to be a job for Unistrut, scrap metal, 2x4 lumber, and duct tape. More realistically, I'll see if the rear kickstand can be removed and replaced with something that more closely resembles an LCD monitor mounting stand. I'll probably be able to adapt a VESA stand to the unique HP kickstand mounting pattern.

I just noticed another mechanical problem with the Pavilion 20-F323. HP put the carrying handle on the bottom instead of the top. The silver bar on the bottom would make a perfect carrying handle if HP had located it on the top of the display, instead of the bottom.

There's also another odd problem because of the touch screen. It has an extra 0.75 inch wide black strip around the entire display area. That's the black area around the blue screen in the photo above. It's necessary because finger swipes must start from outside the display area. Starting a finger swipe on the bezel does not work. There are several irritating side effects.

1. The monitor needed to grow 1.5" larger in both height and width to accomdate the added finger swipe takeoff area.
2. It is not practical to stack such monitors because of the extra large and useless black area.
3. I can't hang Post It notes around the edge of the display because it triggers the touch screen effects.
4. When used as a TV, the picture looks tiny when letterboxing adds to the black border.
5. The shiny black area and glossy screen is perfect for enhancing glare from inside lighting.

Another interesting feature is the on/off push button. It's very much the defacto standard size button found on most HP desktops and monitors. Most of these have a rather dim blue-white LED designed to not get in your face when illuminated. The Pavilion 20-F323 has the button located on a recessed panel on the left size of the machine. It is not visible to the user, which is good because it is now quite bright. In a darkened room, as is common when watching TV, it is bright enough to read by. Granted, it's not pointed in my face, but I don't really need another room light. Of course, all the labels are in dark grey print on black, making them impossible to read in dim room light.

Yet another curiosity is the built in camera. With the computer tilted back on its kickstand in somewhat tilted back operating position, the elevation of the camera is pre-aimed to point to where the users face would normally be expected to appear. However, when operated vertically, as I plan to do, it shows from my neck down to my waist, without any means of adjustment.

I'm beginning to suspect that this thing is cursed in addition to being badly designed for TV ergonomics.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

Tap Plastics is a much better way to build a nice stand. But given the other problems, use it to drive a cheap used 16:9 monitor. e.g.,

Probably good enough, as long as you don't have any identifying tattoos! :-)

Mikek

Naw, it's the beer paunch that bothers me (except that I don't drink beer). Oddly, I've gained only about 4 pounds in the last 10 years, but my waist has grown about 4 inches. During approximately the same period, I've lost about 1.5 inches in height. I can't believe that spinal compression would have such a big effect, but there it is. Strange, but that also explains why my weight loss program didn't reduce my waist line.

I do have some tattooed dots in the camera area. They were targets for the high energy x-ray beam used for cleaning up the mess after prostate cancer surgery. My full length zipper scar from a triple heart bypass is more interesting and photogenic.[1]

Back on topic... HP was good enough to supply an animated video of how to tear the computer apart: The immediate problem is that the rear kickstand is attached only to the plastic case, and not to the main chassis. At 13.2 lbs, I think this is a necessity, especially with only 2 screws holding the rear panel in place. I could add a backing plate, but without a means to secure it to the chassis, it's going to break.

This project is not looking good[2].

[1] Standard bad joke: I have no heart... it's been bypassed. [2] Why don't computer "reviews" discuss ergonomic and usability problems like these? At best, I get a description of how difficult it was to extract from the box and packing material.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

now wait a minute, it is most likely more energy efficient over the old antique computers, so this would constitute using a 7555 timer.

Jamie

Yours is interesting and photogenic, but this young lady had an artist do a fabulous job on a scar that I don't understand the origin of.

Careful, easy to waste an hour on this site, or has it been two.

Mikek

True, but the shock effect is fading. For some time after the surgery, I was into "flashing" my friends and acquaintances. When the general reaction went from "wow, that's cool" to "yech, that's disgusting", I stopped. I was going to attach a zipper to the scar on the occasion of a follow up visit to the cardiologist, but chickened out when I was warned that he has little sense of humor about his work.

Spinal fusion surgery for scoliosis: Not fun but often necessary. I know someone that went through it.

Thanks but I only found one item of interest: A friend does knitting and has a cat that hates me. That should get their attention. More of the same: If you don't hear from me for a while, you can guess what happened.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

50 hours * your standard shop rate = the most expensive 20" LCD TV in the world. :) I guess you can write some of it off to learning how to do the 8.0->8.1 upgrade, in case one of your paying customers asks you to do that.

I don't know if there is good Linux IPTV software, but somewhere around the 4th hour, I think I would have booted a Linux live CD and tried VLC... VLC can play damn near everything else I've thrown at it.

I have a new-to-me Dell Optiplex with Win7 that I'm about to bring up to date. Luckily I have the original Win7 install disc and an image backup of the as-installed HD, in case things go completely wrong.

Matt Roberds

Yep. However, that was about 50+ hours elapsed time. I was working on other stuff at the same time. If I had to bill for that wasted exercise, it would be about 20 hrs at $75/hr.

I've done the 8.0 to 8.1 update at least 10 times without incident. This one was unusual. What apparently happened was that the original factory 8.0 install didn't have any updates installed. The computer then sat in it's box for about 4 or maybe 5 months during which time Microsoft had issued a fairly large number of updates. When it came time to do the 8.0 to 8.1 update, it first insisted that I catch up on all those missed updates before allowing me to install 8.1. Mine is not to reason why but my guess(tm) is that when Microsoft discovered that many users either didn't bother updating to 8.1 or couldn't figure out how because it initially required logging into a Microsoft account on the computer in order to do the download. So, they just kept issuing updates for 8.0 as if it were a separate product instead of a long forgotten early release. So, instead of a few updates to the original install, the number of updates was far larger than expected. I guess(tm) that Microsoft hadn't bothered to test if such a large number could be installed at one time. Oddly, it didn't break during the actual install. That went smoothly. It was after the reboot, when it was "configuring Windoze" that the problems appeared.

I have a really awful combination of media players and computers running media player and server software. For Linux, I use XMBC and Plex. For Netflix, I use a Roku 2 XS. I also have an MVIX Utlio Pro, an old Roku 1, and two WD Media Players. Throw in several NAS boxes, a pile of 1GB USB drives full of videos, and various DVR's, and we have a media mess. Also, a Raspberry Pi running XMBC and a promising experiment at turning a Chromebook into a Linux based media player. The search for video nirvana never ends.

Dell installs are very easy as long as you have the original Dell install DVD.

The big problem with media players and servers for me is the noise made by the fan and hard disk(s). The large box Dell Optiplex 755 and

960 machines are my favorite because of the single humongous fan they use, which rotates slowly and makes hardly any noise. However, the video cards are a problem. I've had to settle on slow and inferior video cards in order to get one that doesn't have a fan.

Good luck on your setup.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

You're behind the times. Every generation has it's own universal solutions. During the tail end of the 19th century, everything was held together with baling wire. When the automobile appeared in the beginning of the 20th century, they were held together with sticky goo commonly called "bubble gum". During WWII, advances in consumer chemistry allowed everything to be held together with Scotch tape and cellophane wrap. After WWII, duct tape appeared as the universal fastener. During the space race, Teflon everything was the universal solution. We even had a Teflon president (Reagan). At this point, consumer analog electronics took off, and soon everything had to have a 555 timer inside. That worked well until microprocessors became cheap enough replace analog sub-systems, resulting in the PIC controller becoming the universal solution to all things electronic. That will probably remain true for a few more years, when SoC (system on a chip) devices start to take over.

However, none of that will help support a computer that can't be mounted vertically.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

Amen to that. You left out coathanger wire, though...

That, there's a solution for. Get one of those Fresnel sheet magnifiers, and experiment. Any non-central portion of the magnifier acts like a prism. Find the right region, snip out a small section, and slap it over the tiny little lens.