Categories
Computers

Panasonic SC-HT900 freezing picture fix.

I bought a SC-HT900 couple years ago and not long after having it, video began to (if I remember correctly) freeze up when playing movies. I did some research and found out it is the decoder chip overheating. There are no fans or top ventilation in the disc player (SA-HT900) (although there is some vents on the bottom, lol what?). So I cut a hole in the top (this was a chore) above the decoder chip, which is on the green circuit board and says DTS, and put a 12 volt fan on it. Looked for a place on the circuit board providing the proper voltage and connected the negative to a screw for ground. The location to solder the positive wire to is (going by this picture I forgot to write it down) J328. There is C750 above that towards the back. The bottom of this picture is facing the front.

sc-ht900_2

sc-ht900_3

sc-ht900_1

It is pretty quiet. I’ve been using it for years now, maybe a couple times a month without problems. There is supposedly another issue with a fan in the subwoofer that causes popping noises in the speakers. But I haven’t had this problem. I could probably fix it the same way. Here is how one person fixed it.

I doubt this is going to be of help to anyone since this system is so old, but I thought I would share. You never know.

Here is some detailed troubleshooting information about a freezing issue.

Categories
Computers

Firebug – Download Almost Any Steaming Media

Using FireBug plugin for Firefox you can see all the requests the browser makes for videos, songs, pictures, website files, etc. Look for the larger file while playing media on a site and download it. Your video won’t be black though, that’s just the nature of recording/screenshoting a video, without proper settings to do it (i forgot, was lazy).

1. Install FireBug.
2. Activate FireBug’s Net console on the website first.
3. Visit the page of the website that has the media.
4. Look for the larger file in the Net logs. Rightmouse click, copy location.
5. Get away from the page playing the media (click the site’s homepage or something).
6. Paste the URL into the address bar.
7. Save It. If it wants to play in the browser, go to File then Save Page As.

I recommend you clear your cache before each video/song you play prior to visiting the page that has the file. Also play files on a website from the beginning or you may end up only download half of it. If the site does not autoplay the media, you can hit the clear button in Firebug to clear the Net log so it is easier to find the file when you hit play.

Categories
Computers

Import NetStumbler Data To MySQL Database

Wrote a little program that imports your NetStumbler text file export into a MySQL database. Very simple program that runs automatically using the data file uploaded into same directory. No fancy file uploading nor does it include viewing and sorting or doing anything with the data, yet. It also does not check against previous entries, so you’ll have to dump your MySQL before importing again.. The newest release checks for duplicates using MAC on import. That is up to you what you need it in a database for.

(excuse my poor versioning, etc, first time really trying to keep up with version numbers, details of improvements and GPL)

ns2db-v1.1b-with-viewer.zip – bug fix for lat/long field (thanks pixel), checks against MAC to prevent duplicates on import

ns2db-v1.1b.zip – added table view of data

ns2db-v1.0.zip

Categories
Computers

How To Convert Zune Playlist zpl to m3u or wpl

1.  Browse to My Music under My Documents and open the Zune folder.
2.  Copy the zpl file you want to your Desktop and rename it to wpl.
3.  Open the wpl with Windows Media Player (zpl and wpl are basically very similar)
All your songs from the playlist should be in Now Playing and no other songs.
4. Right-click on the title bar to get to the hidden menu or press CTRL+M for Classic Menus.
5. Go to File > Save Now Playing List As…, then change the format to m3u or wpl.
Source: Zunescene (archive.org)

You can also open m3u into Winamp. Then, using the gen_yar.dll (Yar-Matey! Playlist Copier v1.07) plugin you can export the files from the playlist to a specified folder, such as an SD card or flash drive.

Update: I found a program that will convert to m3u and pls directly from the file to a specified location.
Zune Playlist Converter by HazteK Software