Playing Cards at the Thrift Store

 I took a personal day from work last week. I dropped Char off at UHS at 7:50, and then picked her up at 3:15. I went thrifting in between. 

    One of my goals for the day was to look for another CRT TV. I have the Emerson, but that has a 9" screen. It's mostly for display. I needed something slightly bigger if I was actually going to watch movies or play games on it. I didn't have high hopes of seeing anything, though. CRTs have become a popular collectable. 

    So, I was surprised to spot a CRT TV/ DVD combo at the Many Hands thrift store in West Des Moines. The Toshiba TV was under a bunch of stuff in a full shopping cart. My first thought was, Man, someone beat me to it! and I consoled myself that sometimes that is just the way it goes. I started walking away, but then a store volunteer began pushing the cart towards the electronics section. Wait! It isn't sold. It hasn't been even put on a shelf yet! 

    As the woman pulled a small flatscreen television from the top of the cart's pile, I asked, "Could I look at this one?"

    "Sure!" she replied when she turned around. "I just sent my friend a video of it working on the test bench in the back. She got a real kick out of it. If you want, we can take this to the back again, and you can test it for yourself."

        I agreed. She was really helpful, and she was right. The 13" TV was spotless, and it played her test DVD without a hiccup. Sold! I thanked her and carried the television to the register's counter. 

    

    The TV wasn't a steal at $70, but when compared to the CRT prices on Marketplace and Craigslist, the amount was pretty fair. Plus, the TV still had its original remote. That's pretty important if the any of the physical buttons on the TV fail. Also, the money goes to charity. So, I got that in my karma bank.

    I was happy that they had wrapped the remote in a plastic bag before taping it to the top of the television. Sometimes that packing tape is directly applied to the remote and you can damage the buttons when you remove it.

    Speaking of wrapping, a woman already at the counter was buying what looked to be a stack of 25 small photo frames. The cashier was chatting with her as she slowly wrapped each frame in it's own piece of brown paper. I could tell I was going to be standing there for awhile. 

    That's when another guy spotted the TV I was buying. 

    His eyes widened, and he tapped his wife's arm with the back of his hand. He nodded to her at my TV and walked over to where I was standing. 

    He leaned in to get a better look at the TV and then slowly said in a slightly southern accent, "My son lives in Nebraska and they don't have jack in the thrift stores over there." He then looked me in the eye as if he had made a point. 

    I nodded noncommittally. Sometimes people in thrift stores will start a conversation about what you are buying because they have a fun story to share. I could tell this wasn't going to be one of those situations.

    "Well, my son called me last week and told me I should be on the look out for an old tube TV just like this one." He pointed at the TV as he played his dad-card. 

    "Yeah. Lots of people are looking for these now," I replied, not taking the bait.

    He paused for a few seconds as he considered what to say next. Then he shot back, "Well, my son wants one for playing his old video games." His mouth tightened and his eyes narrowed. I imagine it was the same face he made when he was a playground bully.

    "Sounds fun." I turned to check the cashier's progress with wrapping the picture frames. I was glad to see she was almost done.

    Undeterred, he continued throwing down his dad-cards, "My son says these TVs are called CRTs, whatever that means, and my son says classic video games look best on CRTs just like this one." His voice was tightening up like his face. 

    "I suppose that's right," I said. 

    He stood silent for the next 30 seconds trying to figure out how I could be so dumb. I turned and watched the customer ahead of me hand her money to the cashier. He saw this too, and quickly changed tactics while he thought he still had time to trick this rube into giving up that TV. 

    He put his finger on the price tag and asked incredulously, "They want that much for this?... What do they think they think this is?... You're not actually gonna pay that are you?" It was quite an act. He was even waving his hands around for emphasis. I'm sure he was willing to pay that price, but I didn't point that out. 

    Instead, I nodded. "Actually, it is a decent price. These are collectable and getting more and more expensive." I patted the top of the TV with my hand. "And nice ones like this are really hard to find." It felt good to throw a little dig at him there at the end.

    It was finally was my turn at the register after 30 more seconds of his silence and staring. I slid the TV down the counter and turned it towards the cashier. She scanned the price tag and told me I could tap my card whenever I was ready. I tried tapping my card, but there was a card read error, and my card was denied. 

    Of course that guy was still standing there. He was watching me trying to pay, and he chortled at my card's error. I inserted my card instead of tapping, and that worked. The card reader beeped in triumph, and only then did he turn and sulk away. I think his last hope was that I didn't have enough money and he could still swoop in and snag the Toshiba from me. 

    Sheesh. I've been thrifting my entire life, and people can still surprise me.

    I told this story to Charlotte on our drive home from school. She said, "The next time some jerk tries to play their dad-card on you, you can play the daughter-card. Just say, 'Well, this is for my daughter, and she likes vintage video games, too.' I don't even care if you're lying about me. You have my permission to play that card." 

    Good to know.

    It's time to party like it's 2002:

    It looks better in person. I promise. 

Playing with Music

I just purchased this from shopgoodwill.com.

This is the first model of the original Playstation. Its number is SCPH-1001. The back of it looks like this. 

You can use the standard red, white, and yellow RCA jacks to connect to your TV instead of using the AV Multi Out adapter.

Rumor has it that the SCPH-1001 has a really nice DAC (digital to analog converter), and it's a great CD player. 

Another rumor is that Sony discovered their DAC was too costly to mass produce, so later Playstation models looked like this without the DAC or the RCA connections.

The drawback to buying a SCPH-1001 today is that the laser is likely to fail due to flaws in the original design and the unit's age; this thing came out in 1995. For $9.99, I took a chance, and it plays CDs like a champ.

I could use a game controller to operate the CD functions, but a Playstation 2 DVD remote will control the basic CD functions of a PS1. That's weird, but cool.

As a CD player, the PS1 sounds great, but I missed having a digital display. I don't have my CDs memorized. If I wanted to jump to track 8, I'd have to know what track I was currently on. That makes my brain work more than I want it to. So, I went shopping. 

This 15" Advent LCD TV was just what I was looking for. 

The screen is small, and I like that the speakers are at the bottom. That makes it seem like it will take up less space.

Yellow tags were 50% off, so this only cost $9.50. That was a fun surprise.

An original remote is always nice. The dirt came off without much fuss.

And it has the RCA jacks. I only need the yellow one for video. 

I bought a $15 wall mount for the TV and a 15 foot RCA cord for $8.

Now I can see what track I'm on from across the room. (I plan to clean up the look of those hanging cables.)

This screen just screams 1990s. I showed this pic to a friend at work, and he said, "It's like you have your own video jukebox." I like that.

I thought this project was done, but then I remembered the PS1 game Ridge Racer.  I wrote about RR in 2019, "Once that game is loaded, you can swap the game disc with a music CD and listen to whatever you want while you race. I like Fu Manchu's "California Crossing."

I wanted to hear what Ridge Racer would sound like on my main stereo. I connected a controller to the PS1 and popped in the game. No dice. The PS1 couldn't get past the Playstation logo. I tried cleaning the lens, but it was no use. I did some research and online gaming forums reported that the ability to play CDs but not games was a sure sign the PS1 laser was dying. Well, shoot. 

I tried reminding myself that I only wanted it as a CD player. I now had that, but I couldn't leave it at that. The same forums and YouTube reported that using a laser from the "newer" PSOne was the best solution for the 1001 model. 

I went shopping again.

So, can one go into the other?

This is the "newer" PSOne's laser mechanism. 

This is an old PS1 laser. 

Here's the PSOne laser installed the old PS1. The PSOne's laser mechanism wasn't an exact fit, but it was really close. I only had to file away some of the shell's plastic to make room. 

Making the switch wasn't hard. Check out this exposed PS1 laser. The laser mechanism is only connected by a ribbon cable (left) and some power wires (right). Neither required any soldering. The unit just sits on rubber legs that act like shock absorbers. The mech isn't even attached with screws.

Time to try it out.

The old laser could not get past this logo.

This game is so cool. Instead of watching a loading screen's"spinning wheel", you get to play a short round of Galaxian. Kill all the aliens and you get a better choice of cars to begin the game.

Whoo Hoo! It works! Now where is my Fu Manchu CD?

Random Access Memories

I bought my wife a Roku Streaming Stick and an Amazon Fire Stick for Christmas in 2020. I purchased both because I am not tech savvy, and I had no idea which one would work with a gift subscription to BritBox. I also threw in a sound bar to complete the television theme.

We tried the Roku Stick first, and BritBox looked great, so the Roku was what we went with. I have no idea what happened to the Fire Stick. We were so impressed with the Roku in our living room that we canceled our cable service a month later. 

I bought a duplicate Streaming Stick for the basement TV. Eventually, of course, I bought a Roku from a thrift store.  

This is the SE Model that I picked up. Initially, I had assumed that all Roku models were created equal. 

I was wrong. When I bought this Roku in 2021, the SE was listed on the Roku website as a model that was no longer being manufactured, but it could still run the latest Roku operating system. 

The SE has now become a "legacy" model that has been discontinued. It cannot run a newer Roku OS version, and cannot be used to run IDK apps. I Don't Know what an IDK app is (dad joke). On the surface, the SE model still works fine.

The home screen looks normal.

The scrolling screensaver looks good, too. (Am I the only one who was disappointed when they added ads to the screensaver?)

But this Roku model has a weird quirk. Netflix is stuck in time. 

Netflix changed their logo back in 2014, but my Roku didn't get the memo. It still thinks that the year is 2013. This is what Netflix looks like upstairs:

Here's the Netflix's home screen:

There are no individual profiles to pick from. The app defaults to the primary account holder. Searching for a movie or a program requires you to select each letter of the complete title. The loading time is slow. You also need two remotes because the Roku remote cannot control the TV.  

So, this is what streaming was like back in the day?

Yes. And I think that's cool. 

Sure, I could invest in a new Roku streamer. But that would not give me the same clunky experience. This makes me laugh.

Another benefit of using a Roku SE is the feeling of time travel. To get the full effect, I turn down the lights and manually search for a show like The Blacklist which was new in 2013.

Not only do I get a great show, it feels like I went back ten years in time to watch it.

Too bad Netflix doesn't show commercials for Pepsi Next or Doritos Jacked.

I end up being vintage even when I try to be modern. I guess I'm just a "legacy" kind of a guy.

Retro Gaming Hits and Misses (Part 1 )

I recently watched a YouTube video touting the merits of using a retro TV for retro gaming. 

Before the early 2000s, all television screens were 4:3 (also called 1.33), and most movie screens were in the widescreen ratio of 16:9 (or 1.85). Here's the difference in screen size:

This is why most movies on broadcast TV or on VHS began with this message:

In basic terms, "Formatted To Fit Your TV" meant that the original widescreen image had been cropped from a rectangle to a square. It also meant that you never got to see the whole movie as intended. Something was always going to be missing. 

This is not true with retro video games from the 70s to 2000's. They were programed to be in that squarish 4:3 ratio. What you see is what you were supposed to get. 

This put me on the hunt for a 4:3 aspect ratio TV. I have on old tube TV that I can play games on, but the screen is only 13 inches, and it still takes up most of the space a desk or a coffee table. A LCD (liquid-crystal display) TV is much lighter, thinner, and will use less surface space. 

I bought this Sharp LC-20AV6U at GoodWill for $4.99. It has a 20 inch screen and the original remote was included. The marketing information for this TV brags that it is "Featuring a distinctive side-speaker design...". Actually those speakers are there to impersonate a widescreen TV. 

Nice try, Sharp. But you're not fooling anybody.

I like that it still has the warning sticker about the 2009 broadcast change. 

I also like the ability to connect through the component, s-video, RCA, and antenna options. 

I tested the TV with a DVD player. All was good. I'll call this a "Hit!"

Retro Gaming Hits and Misses (Part 4)

I have been using this Vizio sound bar in our basement for years.

The sound bar was quite a revelation. An explosion on the screen made it feel like I was surrounded by debris and flames, and I didn't need six speakers to pull that off. Since it is only a 2.1 system (two enclosed speakers and a subwoofer), it really works well with my older, 2.0 DVDs. 

I found this Vizio subwoofer at GoodWill a couple of months ago for $6. I checked my phone to see if it was possible to connect two subwoofers to one sound bar. The internet said it was possible. I bought it hoping I could bring more thunder downstairs.

Miss!

I couldn't get the sound bar to recognize the other subwoofer in the room. Shoot! I almost put the sub in the garbage since I had no way to test it. In the end, I left it near my chair and used it as a small table/ drink coaster. I was just being lazy to be honest. 

I recently found a Vizio sound bar by its lonesome at the Many Hands Thrift Store. The price sticker read, "No cords, untested, $10." I flipped it over to take a picture of model label. That evening I remembered the picture and compared it to the label on the sub. They were both Vizio V3. I brought the sound bar home the next day and although it took awhile the two eventually paired. 

Back to Amazon I went.

The replacement remote works just fine.

Hit!

I'm using an optical audio cable to connect the PS2 to the sound bar and some wood scraps from school to raise the bar over the cords.

A lot gets lost in translation when you use a phone to record a television screen, but this is what it kind of looks and sounds like after all these hits and misses. This is part of the opening to Sled Storm (2002). 

I have to admit I'm impressed with the TV. I would have laughed at the idea of buying a 4:3 set a couple of years ago. Now I think I should grab a couple more while I can...

Am I Coming In Clear?*

I wanted to watch the Olympics in our basement this summer, but we cut the cable cord last January. Our Rokus are handling streaming duties, and the TV antennas upstairs bring in local channels, but the TV reception in the basement stinks.

Small antennas like this one do not work well down there. I could get channel 8-1, the HSN, and four different channels showing the same televangelist. Channel 13-1 (our Olympic channel) might come in if I stood in one spot with my arms raised like I was in a Mr. Bean skit.

While moving into our house, I discovered that the previous owner left behind a large TV antenna in the garage attic. It's the size of what you would have seen attached to a house in the 1970s. I suspect he placed it up there when the house was being built. There's no way that antenna could have fit through the access hole in the ceiling. 

I would have never ditched cable TV eight years ago. Back then I thought that worthless antenna was taking up valuable storage space. I was going to dismantle it with a bolt cutter and throw out the pieces, but I forgot. I'm glad I did. Now that attena is like finding buried treasure.

The previous owners also left behind a satellite TV dish on our roof and a nest of cables in the garage wall. I pulled the wires out and found the cable for the attic antenna with Daphne's help.

I connected the antenna to the cable that ran around the house and into the basement. Then I ran downstairs and did a channel search on my TV. Nothing happened because I forgot to connect a cable to the TV (in my defense, I was pretty excited.) I ran the channel search again, and I was watching Olympic volleyball in no time flat.

Looks "good!"

Alright! Go USA!

I began watching other channels when the Olympics were over. I had forgotten how much I like the programs on PBS and MeTV. A lot of those shows air when I'm either alseep or at work. I wondered if there was a way to record them without having a cable service's DVR. 

One affordable option is the Mediasonic ATSC Digital Converter Box. I didn't expect too much for $30, and I was pleasantly surprised. The Homeworx is a bit clunky, but it works. I can record and watch shows without any kind of a subscription. That's cool. I like it.

You have to provide your own external hard drive to store the programs that you record. I went with a Seagate 1TB drive. The Twilight Zone airs at 11:30 PM, but now I can watch it when I want. 

The Mediasonic instructions really are terrible, so thank goodness for the people on Amazon who answer questions and leave ratings. This converter box would be a converter brick without their help.

Svengoolie was airing The Beast Must Die (1974) on Saturday evening. I recorded that while we were watching Lego Masters upstairs. I watched the movie last night (spoiler alert: Dumbledore is the werewolf) and had a lot of fun. I enjoyed being able to fast forward through the commercials and rewind when needed. 

MeTV airs shows I haven't seen before, like Mannix and Cannon, and programs that I haven't even heard of before, like The Time Tunnel and The Invaders. All of these programs run after midnight, so recording them is the only way for me to see them on my "big screen." 

I've also been absorbing America's Test Kitchen, Cook's Country, and Milk Street on Iowa PBS. Food Flirts is a hoot. There are gems to be found on the Laff, Comet, and Mystery channels as well.

Is any of this necessary? Not really. I can find most of this stuff online through one streaming platform or another. 

Am I having fun? Absolutely. How else am I'm going to record Svengoolie? 

*Did you ever notice in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory that the American actor playing Mike Teevee sounds a bit odd when he says, after being sent through the TV, "Am I coming in clear?" That's because he was hanging out with the British actress who played Veruca Salt, and her accent had crept into his own inflection.