My Setup

[Foune]

Dashboard

E-Reader (e-ink) showing an eventghost HTML page H24/7, with auto-refresh and page navigation using hardware buttons or touch screen. Eventghost was used to collect arduino probes (Temp, humidity) via a serial port. EG was also used to generate trafic maps based on google maps requests, using some python image librairies to generate a 400x300 gif bitmap showing the traffic jam on the e-ink display.








Home Cinema

Eventghost is used for :

- Lights
- KODI, MPC-HC and various scenarios
- OSD for alert messages

https://streamable.com/o5su

Motorised IPCAM management

http://foscam.us/forum/eventghost-fosca ... -t911.html

Unfortunately the links are dead. I never posted my plugin here because I'm a poor noob python coder, my code is dirty. Nevertheless, the plugin was rather high level, using background tasks, etc.

Multiroom Music

Squeezebox control via XPL.

Home automation

Eventghost was used as an XPL bridge, for instance to convert my arduino probes to my XPL based software. Since I moved, I don't use this feature anymore. The main software was Domogik (linux server side, HTML5 Rest web client, Android client).

[eirik226]

Dashboard
EG was also used to generate trafic maps based on google maps requests, using some python image librairies to generate a 400x300 gif bitmap showing the traffic jam on the e-ink display.

Cool setup - the dashboard is clean and nice. I envy your kodi setup, with remote, big-screen and the lights.

Could you explain the part I've quoted? That sounds really interesting.

[kgschlosser]

I do want to spit out some cool information..

you can use pretty much most of the 3rd party IP security camera software (like blue iris) to connect to your states traffic cameras. every state (well in the US and i am sure this is the same globally) has a website that shows the live traffic cameras. with a little legwork you can either read the code for the page or if they were nice and didn't bury the direct link to the camera and it shows up in your address bar this can be used in the software to view the cameras. I have a very similiar thing using ImperiHome and android tablets and use ImperiHome to connect to blue iris. and i have EG coded to provide OSD overlays of my cameras and the traffic cams

[Foune]

Dashboard
EG was also used to generate trafic maps based on google maps requests, using some python image librairies to generate a 400x300 gif bitmap showing the traffic jam on the e-ink display.

Cool setup - the dashboard is clean and nice. I envy your kodi setup, with remote, big-screen and the lights.

Could you explain the part I've quoted? That sounds really interesting.

In short, here is what I did using python and an image library, using EG as a scheduler :

- Get a bitmap png of a specific location on google map using a specific google url.
- make a black and white photoshop mask in order to delete all pixels on the google image, except the exact roads I take, including alternative ways.
- Some color transformations in order to get a black and white drawing that could show the actual trafic in one glympse
- Some scoring algoritm on the resulting image in order to estimate wether there is trafic jam : if so, the trafic was displayed on the e-ink dashboard. If not, the regular display was visible (just like on the upper photos).

You can find the result in the attachment hereunder : you will see two trafic maps. The global look of the dashboard is ugly because it is displayed on a another device. About the trafic maps you can see, they are just as I expected : not sexy, but very explicit if you want to check traffic jam : dots = soft jam, bold black = big jam. Half transparent = no jam.

[Foune]

I envy your kodi setup, with remote, big-screen and the lights.

In the meanwhile, this room evolved a lot, now it is almost a dedicated room for cinema, with deep black fabric on walls and ceiling. During some weeks I had this fantastic screen, having rear light managed by EG : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNucV6l4_nY
This light gave an absolute perfect deep black within the picture.

[Foune]

you can use pretty much most of the 3rd party IP security camera software (like blue iris) to connect to your states traffic cameras.

That's interesting. In my case, I don't use highways, so it is useless. On the opposite, they are very small roads that can switch quickly from "smooth" to "big jam".

To be honnest, the image tweak I just described was'nt totally reliable as the google png map that google generated slightly changed every two or three weeks : the road location on the picture randomly moved of some pixels.

[skribb]

Dashboard

E-Reader (e-ink) showing an eventghost HTML page H24/7, with auto-refresh and page navigation using hardware buttons or touch screen. Eventghost was used to collect arduino probes (Temp, humidity) via a serial port. EG was also used to generate trafic maps based on google maps requests, using some python image librairies to generate a 400x300 gif bitmap showing the traffic jam on the e-ink display.

mg]

wow Foune, that is really fresh.

I never thought of using an e-ink tablet. it's BRILLIANT. I use regular tablets myself.

So it's just a webpage with links to EG webserver events? Do you ever change the navigation like open other apps etc?

also: "This light gave an absolute perfect deep black within the picture."

Do you mean that the blue border light makes the black on the TV screen "feel" blacker? that's amaxing

[Foune]

also: "This light gave an absolute perfect deep black within the picture."
Do you mean that the blue border light makes the black on the TV screen "feel" blacker? that's amaxing

The subject is well described here : http://www.homecinema-fr.com/forum/ecra ... 67983.html
I hope the google translation is helpful :

What is the use of LED backlighting?
The reason is not aesthetic because there is indeed a physiological explanation. The more an environment is bright and the closer the pupil of the eye closes. Conversely, there is less light and the pupil opens. The latter thus acts as a diaphragm of a camera to let more or less light pass.
The LED backlighting thus makes it possible to maintain a constant partial closure of the pupils of the spectators. This causes several positive effects: the blacks in the image are perceived to be deeper than they really are, the very lighter parasitic lights present in the room have no visual impact on the quality of the image, and Finish, it brings visual comfort because the pupils are always partially closed, the spectators are never dazzled, even during a transition from a very dark image to another very clear.

In short, the background light cancel the residual light the projector throws in black scene. This must not be compared with ambilight : ambilight throws a changing bright light on the wall, disturbing the eye. On the opposite side, a red or blue backlight, which must be as low as possible, becomes neutral for the brain that keeps focused on the image.

There are some constraints if you want to experiment this. The screen should be specific, having "light rejection" properties, in order to prevent the surface to be polluted by backlight reflexion on walls.



As you can see, the screen hereunder have no blue cast, even while being next to a column reflecting the back blue light



I bought this precise screen and I can confirm that it prevents most ambient light to pollute the image contrast and colors. It looks like magical, to be honnest.

[skribb]

I bought this precise screen and I can confirm that it prevents most ambient light to pollute the image contrast and colors. It looks like magical, to be honnest.

I am FLABBERGASTED

Thanks a lot for this amazing discovery, seriously I can't thank you/the universe enough for this info

EDIT: How much money would I need to spend on a setup like this like 55-60 inches?

[Foune]

60"? You'd better buy a OLED display, having infinite contrast with no constraint, cheaper.
The screen you can see above was in my living room sooner this year, it is 120" (diagonal).

[skribb]

60"? You'd better buy a OLED display, having infinite contrast with no constraint, cheaper.
The screen you can see above was in my living room sooner this year, it is 120" (diagonal).

Oh I see. I did not know OLED had perfect blacks

[kgschlosser]

Oh I see. I did not know OLED had perfect blacks

if you want perfect blacks, you will have to get a plasma for that. because plasma has no back light and the pixel light is actually made by each pixel when the pixel is in the black state. it is actually not emitting any light or is "off" unlike LCD, LED(which is LCD), projection(which is also LCD most often). on LCD for instance to get black. the pixel has to try and block the light that is being shot through it. which is no easy task... the advent of LED is to have more then one back light source. and they can use local dimming which is if a specific area of the screen is dark they can actually cause the LED to flash at such an extremely high rate that it doesn't get to fully light there for making it "dim" and only in a specific region of the screen. giving you the illusion of a better contrast ratio. tho this does work. it has many downfalls. and if you watch close you can see the back light changes.

this is information learned for a while back. and i do not follow TV technology that close. so it could be dated. but from what i last knew plasma gives the best true contrast ratio. and also has the best 3d image due to the extremely high refresh rate. but ti does cause a lot of issues with RF wireless devices due to the use of high voltage to excite the gasses in the pixels. they do produce quite a lot of EMI. And not to mention because of the use of gasses they have altitude and temperature issues as well....

[Foune]

Oh I see. I did not know OLED had perfect blacks

if you want perfect blacks, you will have to get a plasma for that. because plasma has no back light and the pixel light is actually made by each pixel when the pixel is in the black state. ...this is information learned for a while back...

We're talking about OLED, not LED. No backlight



OLED >> PLASMA >> LED

OLED overpass plasma black level. OLED overpass PLASMA on almost all characteristics, so PLASMA is almost dead.

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/40-oled-t ... st40497970

[kgschlosser]

I do know that about OLED. and there is only one OLED tv that i have found that can "turn off" for an infinite contrast ratio... but i have seen similar comments like this one when reading about OLED

In low ambient light conditions OLED produces a better contrast ratio then LCD

i wonder if there is some sort of reflective property to the back of the pixel to reflect the light emitted by the pixel into the viewing area. and if there is ambient light it will reflect that back as well..

don't know..

and also there have been comments about excessive motion blur with the OLED.

but when someone asks me what TV they should purchase my answer is always this.

everyone has their own eyes. and those eyes see differently then mine. so my suggestion is to go into a big box store stand across the store from the TV's. and look at the images. and see which TV's look the best. and write them down.

then go to the TV department. and stand kneel squat sit at the level and distance from the TV in which would be identical in your home.. and look at the different TV's

now the big box store sales person is going to hate you for this...

but tell them to take the TV's and set them all to default settings.... and watch the TV's..

the stores are infamous for doing this but changing the settings in a manner that makes the one that has the higher profit margin look better then the rest.

then have them put HD on if the TV's you are looking at are 4K. back in the day i would have said SD but since HD is available in just about every channel. you do this because the resolution of the TV never changes. it actually is always the same. the panel cannot physically change the number of pixels on the screen. so what the TV does is up-scales the image to fit the panel size. this is a topic of discussion as to what up-scaling means... but in the end this is what it does. it makes an image with a specified number of pixels fit into an area that has a greater number of pixels. now how they do this is all up in the air. the good ones will process the image and dither out the edges and clean up the image after it stretches it. and the not so good ones don't. but in the end they all have to do the same thing... stretch the image. some mfg's focus on the upper end feature set of the TV. making that to be the best it can do. but in reality. how much 4K will someone be watching?? and is 4K really necessary on a TV <= 55" i say no but then again i don't sit 3 feet from my TV to notice any pixels. now when you get into the world of projection. yes it is needed. and that is why it was developed. because of the use of projectors in the home.

think about it this way and do some math here...

1080P = 1920x1080 and that's a pretty good looking image.... well guess what.... that's only just over 2 mega pixel. so what is the need to go to 8.3 mega pixels for the same size image??? kinda makes you wonder about the digital camera thing as well. and having 1080P screens on a cell phone.. GIMMICKS

but a good TV will also be able to accommodate for the lower resolutions and give you a good image, one that doesn't look like super Mario bros from Nintendo.

NOTE - Samsung TV's starting in the 7 series and up use the same panel. just a different board. and in most cases after the TV has been out for a year the board from their top of the line can be had for around 300 USD. thus turning you 1300 USD TV into a 4000 TV. at a fraction of the price.. and it's super simple to install..this could have changed as i do not follow the tech on Samsung TV's anymore after the API thing (i wouldn't purchase Samsung anymore due to the fact they locked out their API, if you can't hack it you don't own it)

but the end result is. you have to sit there and watch it. not me, not the sales guy at the store, not the yahoo that wrote the review in some magazine or web article. YOU do. so pick what YOU like. and if someone gets on you about it. turn off the TV and sit there and watch a black screen. and then see what they have to say. and buying a factory refurbished TV is a good thing. because any bugs or glitches have usually been sorted out and you get the TV with the newer components. and less chance of having to deal with warranty. and just remember if you spend 4K on it now. it's worth 1500 in a year. they depreciate like cars. and don't buy into the extended warranty crap unless they give you back your money if you do not use it.

buy a battery backup for the TV. low voltage is what causes a TV to "burn up" literally. low voltage causes the TV to draw more amperage to be able to convert the amperage into volts and this process causes more heat which causes less efficiency, and in turn causes more amperage draw. and so on and so forth. and a battery backup will kick in the extra volts. and they are designed to do this and are way more efficient at it then a TV. and remember today's LED TV's only draw what 150 watts???? so you don't need a large backup. but get a larger one so you can still watch TV when the power is out... and this is also the reason why projector bulbs burn out. because of power failure while watching the fan doesn't stay running to cool off the bulb. and also not cleaning the filter before each and every use.

one other thing.
when do electronics break????.

when you turn them on, so if you never shut it off it has a better chance of not breaking. and most TV's consume a very low amount of wattage and it's not that far off from the wattage drawn when the TV is in standby.

TY for reading K's rant about TV's.

[kgschlosser]

and one other thing. i believe there is only one OLED made with "perfect blacks" and that's made by LG i am pretty sure it's across multiple sizes. But they do function the same as Plasma. and probably spin the electric meter the same as plasma as well.. LOL 1500 watts draw for a plasma TV.

and if you only have the space for a 50" TV now. but you could be getting a bigger space in a year or 2. it might be more economical to buy that projector. and build a 50" screen (it's really not that hard) this way you have the projector, and you also have the knowledge on how to build the screen. so when you move into that bigger space you have everything you need. and i can walk you through building a screen and what materials you will need and how to assemble it. this will also give you the availability to test out different screen materials and find one that you like. because at 50" the material should only cost around 60 USD.