So a few weeks ago, I got a Hauppauge 950q to watch TV on my computer.  I finally got it working today, because of all the stuff that I’ve had to go through.  First, I got a new cable box from Comcast.  Once I had the box though, there is no Coax out from the box.  So I had to use the composite input.  That’s fine, so I try to fire up Windows Media Center to play it.  Well, it turns out that Media Center refuses to work properly unless there is an IR blaster remote to control the box.  I don’t care about that, because I can just use the standard remote.  So, I tried using the standard WinTV7.  Unfortunately, this seems to lock up my computer with alarming regularity.  So, I’ve now moved on to MediaPortal.  Fortunately, it does not lock up on me.  The only problem that I had was a syncing issue between the sound and the video.  Here’s what I did to fix the problem, which may or may not work for other people:

1. Change your codecs  to be Microsoft.  Do do this, open up the MediaPortal configuration in expert mode, and go to ‘Codecs and Renderer’.  This did not fix it for me, but at least one other person said that it fixed it for them.

2.   Under the Media Portal TV Server configuration, go to ‘TV Channels’ and pick the decoder that you are using.  Mine is ‘CVBS#1 on 3’.  In the ‘Channels’ section, click ‘Edit’, and make sure the tuning details are right.  For some reason, mine was on ‘The Netherlands’ for country.  I also selected ‘VCR signal’.  I’m not sure which of these actually fixed the problem, but once I did that my sound is properly synced with my picture.

So I’ve used the Opera web browser for years now.  I’m used to it, I like it.  Not that I particularly have anything against Firefox, but hey.  It’s what I do.

Anyway, when Opera boots I always like to start clean.  But you know what would be very useful?

A way to close, but on the next start to come up with all the tabs that were open.

Many times, I find myself doing something important, and then I put my computer to sleep so that I don’t loose my place.  I would love if there was an option to close Opera, but load all of my currently open tabs on the next startup.  I don’t want this to happen all the time, which is why it would be great if it was some option, like “Exit and Save Tabs”.

(sometimes I get this to happen by just killing the Opera process forcefully.  The end result is the same, but it’s awkward to do)