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OT: Video Game Computers/Gadgets/Gizmos Thread

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Re: OT: Video Game Computers/Gadgets/Gizmos Thread 

Post#501 » by tski1972 » Wed Mar 24, 2021 2:48 pm

I’m pretty sure our home pc is dying and since the wife is now working from home it needs to be replaced. Found this on Amazon renewed for under $350, but I need to connect two monitors. Am I missing something or does this only have one monitor input?

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Re: OT: Video Game Computers/Gadgets/Gizmos Thread 

Post#502 » by glenn » Wed Mar 24, 2021 2:53 pm

It has a vga and an hdmi port, so that’s two.
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Re: OT: Video Game Computers/Gadgets/Gizmos Thread 

Post#503 » by tski1972 » Wed Mar 24, 2021 3:09 pm

glenn wrote:It has a vga and an hdmi port, so that’s two.


Both monitors we have are vga, so I’ll just need to get a hdmi to vga adapter, correct?
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Re: OT: Video Game Computers/Gadgets/Gizmos Thread 

Post#504 » by glenn » Wed Mar 24, 2021 3:15 pm

tski1972 wrote:
glenn wrote:It has a vga and an hdmi port, so that’s two.


Both monitors we have are vga, so I’ll just need to get a hdmi to vga adapter, correct?

Hmm, my monitors are hdmi/displaylink, so I’m not sure. I think an active adapter should work, but maybe someone else can confirm.
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Re: OT: Video Game Computers/Gadgets/Gizmos Thread 

Post#505 » by tski1972 » Wed Mar 24, 2021 4:49 pm

glenn wrote:
tski1972 wrote:
glenn wrote:It has a vga and an hdmi port, so that’s two.


Both monitors we have are vga, so I’ll just need to get a hdmi to vga adapter, correct?

Hmm, my monitors are hdmi/displaylink, so I’m not sure. I think an active adapter should work, but maybe someone else can confirm.
.

I’m guessing a vga splitter will be the best option.
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Re: OT: Video Game Computers/Gadgets/Gizmos Thread 

Post#506 » by ReasonablySober » Thu Mar 25, 2021 11:59 pm

It only took me forever to figure out my home theater setup but I finally nailed it. Neither of the twi receivers passed 4K video, so I either hooked my PS5 video straight to the TV and didn't get surround sound (or used headphones) but had 4K, or I hooked the PS5 to the receiver, got surround sound but only output at 1080p.

I got my Xbox Series X tonight and it was enough for me to finally figure out the best solution. It took me three **** hours, but the solution ended up being hooking all my devices to separate TV inputs, hooking an optical audio out cable to my receiver, changing the audio input on the receiver to TV Audio, and changing the audio output settings on my TV to optical and Bitstream.

All of the sudden angels started to chant and all was right and beautiful in the world. I'm very glad I didn't have to spend hundreds on a new receiver that had proper HDMI 4K passthrough.
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Re: OT: Video Game Computers/Gadgets/Gizmos Thread 

Post#507 » by skones » Fri Mar 26, 2021 12:19 am

ReasonablySober wrote:It only took me forever to figure out my home theater setup but I finally nailed it. Neither of the twi receivers passed 4K video, so I either hooked my PS5 video straight to the TV and didn't get surround sound (or used headphones) but had 4K, or I hooked the PS5 to the receiver, got surround sound but only output at 1080p.

I got my Xbox Series X tonight and it was enough for me to finally figure out the best solution. It took me three **** hours, but the solution ended up being hooking all my devices to separate TV inputs, hooking an optical audio out cable to my receiver, changing the audio input on the receiver to TV Audio, and changing the audio output settings on my TV to optical and Bitstream.

All of the sudden angels started to chant and all was right and beautiful in the world. I'm very glad I didn't have to spend hundreds on a new receiver that had proper HDMI 4K passthrough.


In 2021, how do they make this so **** difficult for relatively tech savvy people? My rents had an issue with their surround sound and I fixed it for what they want to watch, but the speakers just completely change to the TV any time there's a commercial break. It's gotta be some mixing issue, but it's really just not worth the trouble to figure it out.
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Re: OT: Video Game Computers/Gadgets/Gizmos Thread 

Post#508 » by ReasonablySober » Fri Mar 26, 2021 12:36 am

skones wrote:
ReasonablySober wrote:It only took me forever to figure out my home theater setup but I finally nailed it. Neither of the twi receivers passed 4K video, so I either hooked my PS5 video straight to the TV and didn't get surround sound (or used headphones) but had 4K, or I hooked the PS5 to the receiver, got surround sound but only output at 1080p.

I got my Xbox Series X tonight and it was enough for me to finally figure out the best solution. It took me three **** hours, but the solution ended up being hooking all my devices to separate TV inputs, hooking an optical audio out cable to my receiver, changing the audio input on the receiver to TV Audio, and changing the audio output settings on my TV to optical and Bitstream.

All of the sudden angels started to chant and all was right and beautiful in the world. I'm very glad I didn't have to spend hundreds on a new receiver that had proper HDMI 4K passthrough.


In 2021, how do they make this so **** difficult for relatively tech savvy people? My rents had an issue with their surround sound and I fixed it for what they want to watch, but the speakers just completely change to the TV any time there's a commercial break. It's gotta be some mixing issue, but it's really just not worth the trouble to figure it out.


It's such an expensive pain in the ass and I've been playing catch up with the tech for two decades now. It used to be that my receiver didn't have both HDMI and Audio passthrough on the same input, so I'd have to output my audio through optical. That was fine when consoles had both outputs. Then the consoles changed to HDMI only so I had to buy a new receiver that did have dual video/audio HDMI passthrough. Fine. But then consoles come out with 4K resolution and my receiver that at the time did have some form of 4K output, but it's not the 2.0/2.1 output, it's 1.4, which the consoles don't support. Oh and also there's different HDMI quality cables, just to **** you up.

So like I said, I'm lucky that my Vizio TV happens to have optical audio out because my shiny new consoles don't. This SHOULD *fingers crossed* be a workable setup until 8K comes around. Hopefully I'm not giving a **** about that for a at least four or five years.
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Re: OT: Video Game Computers/Gadgets/Gizmos Thread 

Post#509 » by ReasonablySober » Fri Mar 26, 2021 12:54 am

MikeIsGood wrote:I recently started playing FF12 Zodiac Age, which I had picked-up on Switch whenever it came out but didn't play much at all (<5h) because something else had come out. I'm enjoying it now so much and it's reminded me how much I loved this game. I love the world of Ivalice, the characters are really solid, and the story is such a standout to me - both because of political intrigue, and also because it's not the standard 'you alone have been chosen to save the universe' FF/JRPG trope.


I just installed it on the new Xbox since it's on Gamepass. I think I might like it because of the setting. Ivalice is easily my favorite fictional game world. What you said about the political intrigue and not being the chosen one also sounds great and familiar to Tactics.

Gonna give it an honest shot.
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Re: OT: Video Game Computers/Gadgets/Gizmos Thread 

Post#510 » by crkone » Fri Mar 26, 2021 12:55 am

ReasonablySober wrote:
skones wrote:
ReasonablySober wrote:It only took me forever to figure out my home theater setup but I finally nailed it. Neither of the twi receivers passed 4K video, so I either hooked my PS5 video straight to the TV and didn't get surround sound (or used headphones) but had 4K, or I hooked the PS5 to the receiver, got surround sound but only output at 1080p.

I got my Xbox Series X tonight and it was enough for me to finally figure out the best solution. It took me three **** hours, but the solution ended up being hooking all my devices to separate TV inputs, hooking an optical audio out cable to my receiver, changing the audio input on the receiver to TV Audio, and changing the audio output settings on my TV to optical and Bitstream.

All of the sudden angels started to chant and all was right and beautiful in the world. I'm very glad I didn't have to spend hundreds on a new receiver that had proper HDMI 4K passthrough.


In 2021, how do they make this so **** difficult for relatively tech savvy people? My rents had an issue with their surround sound and I fixed it for what they want to watch, but the speakers just completely change to the TV any time there's a commercial break. It's gotta be some mixing issue, but it's really just not worth the trouble to figure it out.


It's such an expensive pain in the ass and I've been playing catch up with the tech for two decades now. It used to be that my receiver didn't have both HDMI and Audio passthrough on the same input, so I'd have to output my audio through optical. That was fine when consoles had both outputs. Then the consoles changed to HDMI only so I had to buy a new receiver that did have dual video/audio HDMI passthrough. Fine. But then consoles come out with 4K resolution and my receiver that at the time did have some form of 4K output, but it's not the 2.0/2.1 output, it's 1.4, which the consoles don't support. Oh and also there's different HDMI quality cables, just to **** you up.

So like I said, I'm lucky that my Vizio TV happens to have optical audio out because my shiny new consoles don't. This SHOULD *fingers crossed* be a workable setup until 8K comes around. Hopefully I'm not giving a **** about that for a at least four or five years.
It gets worse with Dolby TrueHD and the like. Some TVs, like Sony, you can't physically get the sound to your receiver if you use Apps like KODI for TrueHD content on the TV. You need a separate box like a Shield or a dongle that supports it. Has to do with some ARC bandwidth issues.

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Re: OT: Video Game Computers/Gadgets/Gizmos Thread 

Post#511 » by ReasonablySober » Fri Mar 26, 2021 2:45 am

LOL I gave FFXII an hour before the appeal of Demon's Souls with my finally working home theater setup beckoned.

I got Flamelurker down to 15% health on my first try back and I was already celebrating. Somehow I screwed up and two hits later I was dead. There's no way my neighbors didn't hear me give a loud

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I can't believe that just happened.
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Re: OT: Video Game Computers/Gadgets/Gizmos Thread 

Post#512 » by tydett » Fri Mar 26, 2021 1:26 pm

ReasonablySober wrote:LOL I gave FFXII an hour before the appeal of Demon's Souls with my finally working home theater setup beckoned.

I got Flamelurker down to 15% health on my first try back and I was already celebrating. Somehow I screwed up and two hits later I was dead. There's no way my neighbors didn't hear me give a loud

Image

I can't believe that just happened.


Ah, Flamelurker, the one good boss fight in that game.... actually Penetrator is pretty good too.
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Re: OT: Video Game Computers/Gadgets/Gizmos Thread 

Post#513 » by MikeIsGood » Fri Mar 26, 2021 2:57 pm

I don't know what I'm missing because I know people really were surprised by it and liked it, but holy **** I thought the Outriders demo was horrible.
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Re: OT: Video Game Computers/Gadgets/Gizmos Thread 

Post#514 » by Siefer » Fri Mar 26, 2021 3:01 pm

ReasonablySober wrote:LOL I gave FFXII an hour before the appeal of Demon's Souls with my finally working home theater setup beckoned.


FFXII needs about 5 hours to really show what it's up to. Vaan is whatever, but thankfully this is an ensemble cast, and the script is the closest thing I've seen to Game of Thrones meets Star Wars. It's probably the most "western" Final Fantasy in both writing and gameplay, and with Zodiac Age might (maybe FFIX?) just be my favorite game in the series.

I'll crawl back into my JRPG hole now.
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Re: OT: Video Game Computers/Gadgets/Gizmos Thread 

Post#515 » by ReasonablySober » Fri Mar 26, 2021 3:02 pm

Siefer wrote:
ReasonablySober wrote:LOL I gave FFXII an hour before the appeal of Demon's Souls with my finally working home theater setup beckoned.


FFXII needs about 5 hours to really show what it's up to. Vaan is whatever, but thankfully this is an ensemble cast, and the script is the closest thing I've seen to Game of Thrones meets Star Wars. It's probably the most "western" Final Fantasy in both writing and gameplay, and with Zodiac Age is probably just my favorite game in the series.

I'll crawl back into my JRPG hole now.


Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely gonna play it more this weekend. I think it looks great.
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Re: OT: Video Game Computers/Gadgets/Gizmos Thread 

Post#516 » by MikeIsGood » Fri Mar 26, 2021 5:01 pm

Siefer wrote:
ReasonablySober wrote:LOL I gave FFXII an hour before the appeal of Demon's Souls with my finally working home theater setup beckoned.


FFXII needs about 5 hours to really show what it's up to. Vaan is whatever, but thankfully this is an ensemble cast, and the script is the closest thing I've seen to Game of Thrones meets Star Wars. It's probably the most "western" Final Fantasy in both writing and gameplay, and with Zodiac Age might (maybe FFIX?) just be my favorite game in the series.

I'll crawl back into my JRPG hole now.


I just love how Vaan is kinda just...there :lol:

I'm still pretty early - didn't have much time to play this week, and I'm such a slow player. But now I'm putting it down for a bit I think to play MHR. I wanted to hold off to finish 12...but I'm weak.
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Re: OT: Video Game Computers/Gadgets/Gizmos Thread 

Post#517 » by WRau1 » Fri Mar 26, 2021 8:50 pm

Late last night I noticed 2 dead pixels on my brand new Alienware m17 r4. I got ahold of Dell and they said they were sending a tech out, a guy arrived at my house already this morning (around 11am) to change the screen. A little sketched out about the dead pixels popping up already but I'm super impressed with how quick they fixed the issue.
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Re: OT: Video Game Computers/Gadgets/Gizmos Thread 

Post#518 » by FrieAaron » Fri Mar 26, 2021 8:57 pm

I personally found the characters in FFXII pretty dull, but in terms of combat it's definitely my favorite gameplay of the series after they got away from the classic turn based JRPG model
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Re: OT: Video Game Computers/Gadgets/Gizmos Thread 

Post#519 » by humanrefutation » Fri Mar 26, 2021 9:01 pm

WRau1 wrote:Late last night I noticed 2 dead pixels on my brand new Alienware m17 r4. I got ahold of Dell and they said they were sending a tech out, a guy arrived at my house already this morning (around 11am) to change the screen. A little sketched out about the dead pixels popping up already but I'm super impressed with how quick they fixed the issue.


Dell is pretty great at handling repairs; I've had them come by in the past to replace screens and motherboards, and they usually have someone over ASAP.
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Re: OT: Video Game Computers/Gadgets/Gizmos Thread 

Post#520 » by ReasonablySober » Sat Mar 27, 2021 3:37 pm

tydett wrote:
ReasonablySober wrote:LOL I gave FFXII an hour before the appeal of Demon's Souls with my finally working home theater setup beckoned.

I got Flamelurker down to 15% health on my first try back and I was already celebrating. Somehow I screwed up and two hits later I was dead. There's no way my neighbors didn't hear me give a loud

Image

I can't believe that just happened.


Ah, Flamelurker, the one good boss fight in that game.... actually Penetrator is pretty good too.


Just beat Penetrator too. That dude is easy as hell. Thing I realized is I have just about all of the boss souls from both NG and NG+, outside of the ones from Flamelurker because of Blacksmith Ed. I need to figure out what the hell to do with them all.

ETA: Just made a Meat Cleaver for my quality build. This thing looks like fun.

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