Dr. Fade

Solution! Optical cable! The "Quick Setup Guide" for the soundbar never even /mentions/ that there's an optical port on the damn thing, but close examination shows it does have one (labeled clearly on the soundbar itself), and reviews have customers saying it works perfectly.

So I need a cable.

I was about to do that when I was handed the answer! It turns out there's actually an optical port on the soundbar that will go to the optical port on the TV; we just need to buy a cable for it. The soundbar's instruction manual /never mentions the port/, but it's on the item & labeled.

Oh, and the whole point of getting the soundbar is because the TV has horribly muddy sound (and always has, this isn't a 'breaking due to age' issue), and we want to be able to clearly hear the dialogue on things like, say, video games and movies. So major sound degrading 'but works' isn't a fix.

A strip of color-coded info on the tv ports, labeled: AC In Service HDMI 1 HDMI 2 l/r audio Rgb pc ) audio Component 1 (many baffling round bits labeled) AV 2: video l/r audio Dtv/TV cable/antenna optical Analog out l/r audio

In case this is useful info, the back of our TV:

The answer may be 'send this soundbar back and buy one that has the right kind of input port', but I'm hoping that's not the case, since it's a pain. Google is suggesting an optical cable or an HDMI -> RCA adapter, neither of which is looking like a solid option we can be sure will work here.

Question: What is the simplest/cheapest way to get the sound created by our HDMI stuff (Roku & Switch, sometimes PS4) to come out of this soundbar?

We have some HDMI switches floating around, but they don't seem to be the answer.

So, an actual question for the skyline!

We got a soundbar that offers two outputs: HDMI (ARC or eARC) -> HDMI ARC (on the TV), or AUX VA/Bluetooth to "voice assistant devices".

The TV has: two HDMI ports (in use), AV ports, a port labeled 'optical', analog audio ports, RGP PC port, 'audio' port.

I think the Americans have the right idea putting a major holiday in between Halloween and Christmas. Join me this week, fellow Canadians, as we celebrate in the inaugural Feast of Mr. Dressup. We will eat ketchup chips with puppets and hold the Christmas music at bay.

Give me a few hours and I'll try to dig some out! This was years ago, and I wasn't an archeology major, so 90% of the authors I read in that class I never read afterward. Though someone may get you an even better answer before I get back.

One of the most insidious fallacies built into the modern political economy is the idea that mandatory social and economic competition for existential stakes instills virtue. The exact opposite is true. It instills vice.

I think a lot of that cartoon with someone holding a box labeled "control of the internet" and Uncle Sam, at the gift wrapping table, asks "How would you like that wrapped?" with the two wrapping paper rolls labeled "child safety" and "terrorism"

I agree, and yet there's a tiny part of me, thinking back to when I spent a full page of an undergrad essay on a single punctuation mark choice in one poem, that whispers "At last, my time has come."

The “google is using your email to train AI” debacle is imo most instructively seen as tracer dye for multiple failures: many people are instinctively skeptical of tech companies now; and many outlets that should have had experts able to cogently weigh in and go “wait a minute” simply don’t anymore.

it is absolutely the tech companies fault that people now assume they’re doing something evil and sneaky even when they actually aren’t (regarding the latest Google kerfuffle)

like, no kidding that people have zero willingness to cut big tech the benefit of the doubt anymore

Ok palate cleanse time. In case you missed it, here's my most popular post ever

...okay even reading headlines on linked articles has given me information I did not want. Hoo boy.

KPOP Demon Hunters is a movie about the importance of effective public health communication in this essay I will...

….okay so I know so many of you are tired of your homeowner premiums going up but this is NOT the way to handle the situation.

Journalist challenge: Use “Machine Learning” when you mean machine learning and “LLM” when you mean LLM. Ditch “AI” as a catch-all term, it’s not useful for readers and it helps companies trying to confuse the public by obscuring the roles played by different technologies. 🧪

Challenge level: the Roku freaks out if it thinks you're trying to sneak some sort of recording device past its HDMI protection, and the TV only has HDMI output, not input.

Also the TV doesn't have Bluetooth.

As someone who masks on public transport and then teaches 100 minors sans mask each day: godspeed, brave soldier.

A small speckled dog with big ears, half buried the n blankets on the bed. Mostly asleep, not looking at the camera, still adorable in a half-assed shot I took in bad lighting.

I have said more than once that he put all of his points into Charisma and Emote. He's a good dog! But that photo grabbed me immediately, before I ever met him.

I am reminded of @catsofyore.bsky.social doing photo shoots for cats at their local shelter. And my own dog, who I drove to a city shelter to adopt that day (after two weeks of regular visits to find the Right Dog) after seeing his intake photo on their online catalog.

A panda mascot stands between a mascot in a blue owl costume and one in a pink owl costume.

Momo and Noah, who dress as owls, and Panki the panda are mascots from Hong Kong. They came to the World Character summit in Hanyu City.

I am reminded of a recent conversation with a group of friends with whom I play board games online every few weeks. I explained that, yes, Arcs was a great and well-designed game... but I'd rather stick to Root because it's fun to look at when I'm playing. (And also a good game.)

People think I’m joking when I say that “New Yorkers against New York” is a major constituency here and I assure you that I am dead serious.

Grimly reminded of the last chore by seeing this in my skyline.

bsky.app/profile/mcsw...

Today's planned chores, in order of increasing challenge:

Laundry
Sweep
Mop
Clean the shower
Convince the new sound bar with two output options to talk to the television which apparently is downright geriatric by current standards despite being an HDMI-accepting LCD flat screen

For the first time, Catholic sisters return land to a Tribal nation "This return represents more than the restoration of land — it is the restoration of balance, dignity, and our sacred connection to the places our ancestors once walked."

In the US, Catholic sisters return Wisconsin land to Ojibwe tribe in a historic first. The Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration have transferred a lakefront property to the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa for the same $30,000 they paid in 1966.
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Old elevators are trying so hard

I will participate in small poem Sunday with this mysterious two line koan I found among my notes