Well, it happened. The DSL (pronounced “D S Slow“) has been replaced with cable. Let me tell you–cable is fast. I went with the turbo deal, so it brings a smile to my face whenever I run a speed test and see how fast it goes (anywhere between 15MB to 18MB). I approve.

Since I’ve had a thing for watching TV on TV, I splurged and got digital cable. While it’s nice to get a lot of channels (over 9000), it’s not so nice that I’m stuck using the set-top box. I’d much rather use my Media Center, since it’s a nicer UI and I’m keeping the Media Center on anyway for sound. This prompted research..

Time Warner gave me the Scientific Atlanta 8300HDC. This little box gives me access to digital channels, outputs in 1080i HD, and includes two tuners and built-in DVR. For those keeping count, the DVR-o-meter in my entertainment center is now at 4. The “C” in the model indicates that it uses a CableCARD to authorize access, and to subscribe to OnDemand content.

The hardware seems solid enough. It’s got HDMI-out, Component out, two FireWire ports, a USB port (for “future use”), and an eSATA port to expand it’s storage capability. Impressive. The FireWire and USB gets my attention, but I’ll cover that in a bit.

The software is not very impressive. It’s quite sluggish and doesn’t feel responsive when doing seemingly simple operations like pulling up the channel guide or pausing live TV. It could be that I just have a bias towards Media Center, but the performance difference is quite noticable.

So, how could I make Media Center my tuner again, and not have to deal with this set top box? Sadly, unless I buy the ATi Digital Cable tuner card, there’s no way I’ll get rid of the box. I can, however, try to use the STB to my advantage without buying an input card for my Media Center to pick up HDMI or component.

Let’s go back to those firewire ports. Apparently they’re supposed to be used for some TV’s that accept firewire. I’d much rather use them as an input and control interface for my Media Center. I found that there are drivers out there in the wild that support this, but they’re quite outdated (2005) and don’t support Vista x64 (which is what I’m running). I tried to connect the STB to my laptop and the laptop attempted to install drivers for the “Scientific Atlanta 8300HDC,” but it couldn’t find any drivers. Sadly, I am at a loss for now.

Perhaps TWC will start using the Motorola boxes. I hear they support QAM over the coax-out, which apparently lets VMC treat the output as a CableCard-like device…

~Jaker

So I was watching the news and the newscasters kept mentioning the completion of M-change. I didn’t think that sounded right, so I checked their website quick.

I guess it is done. Looks like I’ll have to take a drive down there some off-hours weekend day and check it out..

~Jaker

While my media center has seen a gradual upgrade from “spare parts” to “kicks ass,” the storage behind it has gotten a few upgrades as well. I have a media server that I call Icharus. He’s been on a slow transformation from a Server 2003-based Pentium 4 with a 320GB hard drive, to now a Server 2008-based Core 2 Duo with four 1TB drives in a RAID5 configuration. Yes, it means serious business. Losing data is bad, and losing a lot of data is worse.

I recently got a new case. This case has plenty of space for hard drives, so I was able to throw in the 4 1TB drives and set up the RAID5. The entire process was pretty weird. Here’s what happened:

Attempt 1: Via the Option ROM

I thought the best option would be through the Intel BIOS. So I press Ctrl+I and enter the Option ROM v7.5 and create my array. It created the array, so I then booted into Windows. I installed the latest RAID drivers (8.5) and opened up the Matrix console. There wasn’t any RAID. Worse, the drives I assigned to be a RAID were missing too. Disk Management reported no drives either. So I deleted the RAID and created it…

Attempt 2: Via the Matrix Console, Part 1

This process went pretty easily. I created the RAID, it appeared, and Windows formatted it. Easy? Almost. The disk size kept bothering me. Why was a RAID5 of 4 1TB drives only 1.99TB? Why did the Matrix utility show the array container as almost 3TB, but Windows refuse to go past 2TB? I did some research, and found that if you have version 7.5 or higher, Intel removes the previous 2TB limit that they used to have on their ICH chipsets for RAID. It also turns out that even though I installed version 8.5 of the RAID drivers, Windows still used it’s own version of the driver, which was a 6.X driver! Therefore I had to update the driver manually via Device Manager, reboot, and recreate the array…

Attempt 3: Via the Matrix Console, Part 2

After verifying that the driver version was 8.5, I recreated the array. Upon opening Disk Management, I was greeted with a much larger partition. After a quick format, my 1.99TB partition now reports as 2.72TB.

Lesson Learned?

Almost. If you look around in the Matrix utility and find the option to expand the array to fill the unused space, don’t do it! I tried that, and now I’m in the middle of a massive 700GB data recovery. That option seems to kill your partition, and doesn’t even resize it in the end.

~Jaker

Wrath of the Lich King™ Beta Test

You have been selected to participate in the beta test of World of Warcraft®: Wrath of the Lich King™. Welcome!

In the beta test you’ll get an opportunity to test the first zones of the new Northrend continent, and the new levels above 70. We look forward to your feedback on the overall experience, including quests, monsters, zones, aesthetics, and more. We would also appreciate reports on any bugs you may encounter. These can be logged using the /bug command explained below.

Getting started:

In order to participate in the beta test, you must upgrade an existing retail account that has been upgraded with The Burning Crusade®, allowing you to connect to the Wrath of the Lich King™ test realms. The World of Warcraft®: The Burning Crusade® game client that you use must be patched up to version 2.4.2 or later in order to install the beta test client.

Go to http://beta.worldofwarcraft.com and follow the detailed, step-by-step instructions to begin playing the Wrath of the Lich King beta.

Please be prepared to enter the current retail World of Warcraft account name and password you use, and the appropriate beta code listed below to authenticate your eligibility to connect to the Wrath of the Lich King test realms. To participate in the beta tests, you must have a valid retail World of Warcraft account active and in good standing as of August 25, 2008.

Below is a beta code that will allow you to upgrade a World of Warcraft account to be eligible for the Wrath of the Lich King beta test. Each beta code can be used only once to upgrade an active retail World of Warcraft account.

XXXXXX-XXXX-XXXXXX-XXXXXXX-XXXXXX

Please retain this email for your records.  If you experience any issues setting up the beta account or accessing the test realms, please email Billing Support at wowbetabilling@blizzard.com.

Sending us feedback:

Typing /bug in chat will open an error reporting interface, and we encourage you to use it any time you encounter a problem or want to send us a suggestion.

Troubleshooting:

 

If you experience any difficulties installing the beta game client, or have problems connecting to the test realms, please contact Technical Support either by posting on the appropriate forum at http://beta.worldofwarcraft.com/forums or by email at wowbetatech@blizzard.com. Please remember that this software is still undergoing development, so any in-game issues should be reported using the /bug feature.

Looks like I’ve found an excellent way to spend my weekend not working…

~Jaker