Strawberryland Forum

(02-04-2021, 12:55 PM)cpd2009 Wrote: [ -> ]Just saw your video posted above, and LOLed. The Snow White model is well done.

My taxes are done, and I should get my refund toward the end of the month as per usual. This is in addition to whatever stimulus amount the US government decides to release to citizens, if they can figure out just how much. And with my recent new job, personal expenses are already covered.

I'm all good with my computer setup right now, so I'll focus on re-acquiring more of my game collection and getting that BluRay disc burner for Rusty (Dell rig) and the associated BD-R media. I'll also need to get software for reading HFS+ volumes under Windows. Paragon software does have a utility for Windows for such a situation, and they offer a similar solution for NTFS volumes on Mac. I formatted my main 1TB external SSD as HFS+ and it contains my current video archive. I need to get most of that archived on disc since the drive is beginning to get rather full.

As for the iPad Air, I still need time to think about that. Procreate is appealing, and while I do enjoy using my Huion tablet with Affinity Designer, Procreate could offer the ability to do more daily sketching in addition to whatever finished art I put on my Instagram/Facebook.

I'm a stickler at keeping her in character, though I mulled about having someone do an impression of her and pull off an actual roast.

As for HFS+, I've actually tried a few filesystem drivers before like Paragon and a few others but I'm a bit leery about using them due to stability and/or filesystem corruption concerns.

(02-05-2021, 04:01 PM)huckleberrypie Wrote: [ -> ]As for HFS+, I've actually tried a few filesystem drivers before like Paragon and a few others but I'm a bit leery about using them due to stability and/or filesystem corruption concerns.

Hmm.. guess you may be on to something. I was checking out some forum posts about these HFS+ drivers and it's a bit of a crapshoot. They work on some systems, but others do experience data corruption and other problems.

I should have formatted the SSD as ExFat, but a bit late for that now. I guess the best option is to get a USB-3 BD-R drive for my 2020 MBP, preferably one that has M-Disc support. OWC does offer an external BD-R drive with M-Disc, but it's a bit on the costly side as per usual with OWC stuff. I'll see if there are any other external writers that have M-Disc but are also less expensive yet reliable.

(02-11-2021, 12:19 PM)cpd2009 Wrote: [ -> ]

(02-05-2021, 04:01 PM)huckleberrypie Wrote: [ -> ]As for HFS+, I've actually tried a few filesystem drivers before like Paragon and a few others but I'm a bit leery about using them due to stability and/or filesystem corruption concerns.

Hmm.. guess you may be on to something. I was checking out some forum posts about these HFS+ drivers and it's a bit of a crapshoot. They work on some systems, but others do experience data corruption and other problems.

I should have formatted the SSD as ExFat, but a bit late for that now. I guess the best option is to get a USB-3 BD-R drive for my 2020 MBP, preferably one that has M-Disc support. OWC does offer an external BD-R drive with M-Disc, but it's a bit on the costly side as per usual with OWC stuff. I'll see if there are any other external writers that have M-Disc but are also less expensive yet reliable.

Indeed, hence why I chose to leave HFS filesystem support read-only for the most part.

Here is a rather amazing hotel promotional video from North Korea. One determined tourist was able to record this direct from the hotel TV network and smuggle it out of the country. It's a pleasure to watch due to how bizarre and kitschy the North Korean hotels can be. Many have not been renovated since they were built, and it can feel like a real life time warp if you are one of the lucky tourists to stay in North Korea. Among the exciting things you can do at this hotel are eating raw carp at one of their many restaurants, go bowling in a compact three lane bowling alley, sing karaoke, have a business meeting straight out of the 1980s, and wind down your day in the olympic size swimming pool or sauna.

I have always been mystified with North Korea. It's one of the world's most brutal dictatorships, yet their propaganda desperately tries to convey an image of a friendly, welcoming country for the tourists who are brave enough to go there. And I do mean a guided tour. Their government doesn't want anyone to expose the abuses and corruption the country has, so you always have to have a guide accompany you at all times, even if you are a standalone tourist. Want to go to a restaurant just down the street from the downtown hotel? You need to ask a guide to take you there as you aren't free to wander alone. TV options are limited to just one or two channels depending on hotel. Ditto for radio. And there are persistent rumors that the rooms may be bugged.

So I couldn't resist and decided to flash a custom ROM on my Realme C3. It isn't perfect, but considering how bloated the stock ROM was with the cheesy app store and all that, I thought it wouldn't hurt to try out an aftermarket firmware:


...not to mention that it's nearly a year since I owned this device so I could care less.

That custom ROM looks neat. I was considering getting a Realme C3 at one point, but never did.

Searching for BD-R disc drives with M-Disc support brought me this potential candidate on NewEgg...
https://www.newegg.com/p/0Y6-0009-00081

It's a USB-3 BD-R M-Disc writer made by Pioneer, and it's only $119 from this particular NewEgg vendor. B&H Photo has a black-colored variant at $99.95, while Amazon lists it at $87.95. It does get good reviews on the various storefronts and Pioneer tends to be one of the better known electronics brands.

Compare this to OWC's Mercury Pro BD-R writer which lists at $129 and requires an external power supply since it uses a standard 5.25'' BD-R writer inside their own enclosure. Given the Pioneer's compact nature, good reviews, and simple USB-3 connection, I'm leaning towards the Pioneer drive. I will also need a standalone 5.25'' BD-R writer for the Dell rig so I can view my video archive discs on my TV and for general BluRay Disc playback. I could use the Pioneer drive for that, but I'd rather get an internal drive just for convenience.

In regards to the Dell, the video encoding is indeed much faster than on the iMac, even with an identical Avidemux preset. I have since moved all encoding over to the Dell leaving the iMac solely for recording video. I will also need to get a higher capacity USB-3 flash drive to transfer over the un-edited recordings. I only have a 64GB drive at the moment.

I considered getting a Blu-Ray drive for archival purposes, but that didn't pan out as recording media is rare and drives for them are somehow still expensive.

(02-23-2021, 10:36 PM)huckleberrypie Wrote: [ -> ]I considered getting a Blu-Ray drive for archival purposes, but that didn't pan out as recording media is rare and drives for them are somehow still expensive.

BD-R media is plentiful online. Searching NewEgg brought up lots of BD-R options, but they do tend to be more expensive than DVD-R media, and even a little more if you go for M-Disc media. As for seeing BD-R media in retail stores, it's almost non-existent. Even places like Best Buy or WalMart only stock DVD-R media.

As such, my IRS refund is now available, and after work, I will do some BluRay shopping.

The order has been placed and provided there are no delays in USPS shipping, I should get these on Saturday. I went for the aforementioned Pioneer USB-3 drive and a spindle of 25 BD-R M-Disc media. Based on some quick Googling, Mac OS Finder can burn files direct to BD-R media like any other blank disc and I assume I can also use Windows Explorer to do the same.

Later on, I will find the internal BluRay drive for the Dell. May go with an LG since I never had issues with LG drives.

(02-24-2021, 11:16 PM)cpd2009 Wrote: [ -> ]

The order has been placed and provided there are no delays in USPS shipping, I should get these on Saturday. I went for the aforementioned Pioneer USB-3 drive and a spindle of 25 BD-R M-Disc media. Based on some quick Googling, Mac OS Finder can burn files direct to BD-R media like any other blank disc and I assume I can also use Windows Explorer to do the same.

Later on, I will find the internal BluRay drive for the Dell. May go with an LG since I never had issues with LG drives.

Now that you mentioned it, I recall that certain LG drives can read and dump PS3 discs using specialised software. Same goes for Nintendo optical discs and a number of LG DVD drives.