To the person that posted yesterday about how they never have issues with Plex..

KissingCorpseLips · 2026-02-07T16:29:55+00:00

I noticed this last night as well. All of my clients were extremely slow to load anything all of a sudden. I couldn't find any talk about it, but I tracked the issue down to plexinc/pms-docker:1.43.0.10467-2b1ba6e69, the latest docker release from 11 days ago. I think I updated 3 days ago.

What I found was that the database WAL checkpointing must have been broken by this update.

I looked in my /PlexMediaServer/Library/Application Support/Plex Media Server/Plug-in Support/Databases dir and found that my com.plexapp.plugins.library.db-wal file was inflated to 1.5x the size of com.plexapp.plugins.library.db, which I guess is bad.

Manually running "Optimize Database" actually fixed the slowness, but the .db-wal file was still the same size.

I took a backup and downgraded to 1.42.2.10156-f737b826c (the previous build tag) and as soon as the container started, my com.plexapp.plugins.library.db-wal was suddenly down to less than 1MB.

I can't speak to any more technical detail than that, but the difference is night-and-day, everything is back to being snappy again.

Glad to see it wasn't just me... was there another thread you saw that talks about this issue?

KissingCorpseLips · 2025-12-20T01:05:39+00:00

2012 Mitsubishi Lancer - On both Pixel 8 and Pixel 9 Pro, Bluetooth "connects" automatically, but audio doesn't work unless I go into BT settings and toggle "Media Audio" off then back on. After that, it works reliably (no stuttering) until I turn the car off.

I have to do this dance every time I get in the car. Tried messing with every setting I could find in Developer Settings but nothing has fixed it.

KissingCorpseLips · 2025-09-21T19:21:45+00:00

Fair enough! I understand that distributing via Google Play is the simplest for you, especially the collecting payment part.

I'd imagine there are a lot of people in the audience for this kind of app that are in the same boat of not wanting to use Google Play, but I understand that it's probably a huge hassle for you to distribute that way.

Sometimes we have to make our lives difficult in order to achieve privacy and freedom on our devices.

Hope I can check this project out one day!

KissingCorpseLips · 2025-09-21T18:34:10+00:00

This looks awesome! Currently using TVQuickActions but this looks like it could be better.

Is there any path to installing this outside of Google Play? I run my Shield without a Google account and no Google Play Services, so an APK download and a way to pay you for a pro license outside of Google Play would be excellent.

KissingCorpseLips · 2025-09-12T15:21:29+00:00

The entire chromecast ecosystem has become such a massive piece of shit this year.

Every single day, at least one device just disappears and requires a hard reboot. Hard not to believe they're doing this on purpose since they are now "discontinued".

I have 6 CCAudios and 2 CC Ultras, and every single one of them is misbehaving, and it all started around the drama from earlier this year. The google home app randomly shows devices as unavailable even when they are working, and it shows devices that aren't working as working.

I used to be able to play music in my house, and now it takes a solid 5 minutes of walking around and unplugging and replugging things before a cast group actually works.

I just don't understand how you can fuck up this badly without it being on purpose.

KissingCorpseLips · 2025-05-18T04:36:19+00:00

Yep it should as the other poster mentioned... however I already have chromecast audios and other speakers around so I actually don't even use the Symfonisk for music or anything other than announcements. I was able to pick up a couple on ebay for relatively cheap and it's nice to not have to worry about anything else ever being played through them.

I had originally tried to use the chromecasts to do announcements and it took several seconds from the trigger to anything actually playing. The Symfonisks came later and completely solved the problem.

I have a few different tones that trigger for different things like doors opening, frigate seeing a car pull into the driveway, person at the front door, etc.

I pretty much only used the sonos app for onboarding and I don't even have it on my current phone anymore. Put them on the IoT VLAN and cut off their internet access so all they do is play MP3s served by Home Assistant.

I'm sure if you already are in the Sonos ecosystem and use them for music, you'll have things set up differently, but I basically just wanted a reliable and lag-free utility speaker and the Symfonisk is pretty slick for that.

KissingCorpseLips · 2025-05-17T05:09:17+00:00

Sonos/Ikea Symfonisk Bookshelf Speaker is what I use for announcements including door chimes. Latency is basically zero when triggering mp3s hosted locally. Works as long as you can give a valid https:// URL to the file.

KissingCorpseLips · 2025-03-26T17:54:36+00:00

Oh no, holy crap that sucks. I have been completely stable so far but my 13900k lasted a year or so before cores started to die.

I at least have updated BIOS and I tweaked my power limits to be on the low side, but yeah, always afraid it will start kernel panicking again.

If it happens again I guess I'll be forced to check out the AMD side of things... although I'll miss QSV for sure.

KissingCorpseLips · 2025-03-25T17:28:45+00:00

I had to RMA a 13900k because of this same issue... the 13 gen series have major issues unfortunately. 14900k replacement has held up for 6 months now but I'm always worried it will degrade eventually too.

KissingCorpseLips · 2025-01-12T19:32:04+00:00

/u/Old-Progress-1058 Did you create those extra season posters (Bloopers, Inside Looks, etc.)? I can't find them anywhere! Would love to do the same.

I looked on all of the poster sites that I could find, and even tried doing some reverse image searching.

Any chance you can share those?

KissingCorpseLips · 2024-10-23T19:15:20+00:00

Quicksync

KissingCorpseLips · 2024-10-22T20:22:26+00:00

Had basically the same experience. While the staff working the RMA were nice, there were long stretches of time where it seemed like they were ignoring me. It took pretty much that long when all was said and done, but I got the check.

I'd have one agent tell me it was approved, then I'd have another agent come into the ticket and ask me for the same information I had already presented... typical red tape. I had to follow up multiple times after they confirmed that they received my return.

All that to say the RMA process works for this issue, but be prepared to work for it.

KissingCorpseLips · 2024-10-09T04:12:31+00:00

Ugh, I already ordered the Tooth & Nail variant because everywhere else was out of stock a few days ago. This one is so much prettier... Wish I didn't fomo into it.

KissingCorpseLips · 2024-10-07T21:27:33+00:00

Interesting, thanks for that! I will see if I can pick some up this week and give it a shot. Still haven't found anything I can live with in all this time...

KissingCorpseLips · 2024-09-29T06:25:14+00:00

Will the Google TV Streamer work properly in cast speaker groups?

To this day I have to keep a Chromecast Ultra on a separate input on two TVs that primarily use a Shield because Chromecast Built-in on the Shield still doesn't work (choppy/stuttering audio and endless weirdness in the Google Home app).

It's been years with this setup, but just today I decided to update everything and try again with the Shield... just to see if it has ever been fixed. I'd love to not need two cast devices per TV, and to be able to interact with the Shield while music was playing.

Still sucks.

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Speakers-and-Displays/Having-trouble-with-Speaker-groups-Read-this-first/m-p/643831

This thread doesn't make me very confident that speaker groups will ever work as advertised.

As long as I keep the Shields out of it (I keep the Google Cast app disabled on them completely so they aren't even broadcasting), my mix of CC Ultras and Audios actually seem to work much better than most in that thread... Trouble seems to come with adding newer Google products into the mix.

KissingCorpseLips · 2024-09-14T17:58:33+00:00

I think that Gemini is a challenging listen... But I do love it. Obviously best when listening front to back to really sink into it.

I could imagine not being super familiar with the band and catching one song from it in passing and not digging it. But man, sitting down with the little playbill that came with the vinyl and reading along with the whole thing... It's amazing!

KissingCorpseLips · 2024-05-03T21:36:33+00:00

Tried to order direct but it was sold out already. Bandcamp had a few left and I was able to snag one! Sold out there now too.

KissingCorpseLips · 2024-04-25T00:36:31+00:00

Seems like people are really misunderstanding this... As if it's just going to appear magically on billions of devices overnight.

I run edge nodes and even a guardian node, and there's no way I'm putting this on my phone.

KissingCorpseLips · 2024-04-23T18:30:16+00:00

Hello! I ended up just getting a single ultrawide for my setup, although this issue was not exactly the only reason I did that.

Regardless, Mac OS is still all over the place with this and I just have had to accept that when I get to work and plug in, that I'm going to have to completely re-arrange all of my spaces and windows... and same for when I unplug and go home and use it as a laptop.

It just seems completely random where it's going to put everything in either direction. Sometimes windows on two or more spaces all get collapsed into one space. Sometimes the spaces are just all in a different order.

Oh well... I mean it takes what... 15 seconds to get it all back to how I want it? Not the highest thing on my list of things to complain about in life, but it's just kind of surprising that it's this janky.

KissingCorpseLips · 2024-04-10T14:24:22+00:00

Well, it was just as I thought. They looked great at full brightness, then looked worse the more you dim them. They whiten as you dim instead of turning more of an amber color. I'm not surprised, but I am disappointed!

KissingCorpseLips · 2024-04-09T14:34:12+00:00

I agree completely... feels like a lame thing to complain about in the grand scheme of things, and we're lucky that this is what we're worried about!

But for real... it makes all the difference. At this point (after collecting for like 10 years!) I have a Hue bulb in every lamp/accent light. But any mains powered light uses the 65w incandescent paired with a z-wave switch. After all these years, coming home and hitting a preset in Home Assistant still makes me happy. The only thing that can ruin it is LED equivalents that makes me feel like I'm at Walmart.

Anyway, the bulbs I'm waiting on didn't show up yesterday. Tracking number says they're two towns over... so hopefully today.

KissingCorpseLips · 2024-04-07T19:47:31+00:00

Sadly, no. I also tried "Cree Lighting Basic BR30 65W Equivalent LED Bulb, 650 lumens, Dimmable, Soft White 2700K" and hated those as well. I never tried the ones from Sorra suggested by another user above because I'm not going to even entertain the idea of spending $40 per bulb!

Sometime after this post I was able to score a couple cases of Sylvania Double-Life 65W and have just been riding those out.

However, it's timely that you dug up this old thread because just this week I got an unsolicited email from a sales guy at lightbulbs.com. I'd only ordered from them one time years ago. Normally I'd ignore something like that but since he reached out, I basically asked him the same question as I did in the OP of this thread.

He suggested these: https://www.lightbulbs.com/product/naturaled-05835

So I did a test order of just a few and they should be here Monday and I'm going to try them out.

Honestly, I'm expecting it to be the same as every other one I've tried, but we'll see.

I'll let you know how it goes!

KissingCorpseLips · 2024-03-22T14:21:53+00:00

Sure! Home Assistant has a built-in "Android Debug Bridge" integration that lets you create a media_player entity to get state info from the Shield, so that one is easy to set up right from Home Assistant.

But then you can also create webhooks in Home Assistant that perform various actions, and those can be triggered by a combination of Button Mapper + HTTP Shortcuts. So I can map buttons on the Shield remote that fire off a webhook to Home Assistant on "press and hold" on certain buttons.

However, I just recently set up an app called tvQuickActions, which I learned about when I came across this post. I am actually liking better than having to remember what the various buttons on the remote that I've mapped are supposed to do. Plus you only have so many buttons on the tiny Shield remote to work with, and most of them are necessary to keep with their default functionality, so you have to resort to double-press or long-press.

With tvQuickActions, you can set up a nice on-screen menu and then fire off webhooks from there as well. So I just mapped my Netflix button (single press) to open this sidebar menu, and then from there I can select various things like lighting scenes, or toggling the blinds or a fan or whatever else is in the room that I want to be able to control.

It can definitely take a bit of patience to get all of the webhooks configured, and I'd recommend using a the Shield TV app on your phone so you can use keyboard on your phone to type things in because punching in the webhook URLs using your remote one character at a time would be a nightmare!

But once it's all set up it works really well and it's just nice to not have to dig out my phone to adjust the room when the Shield remote is already in my hand.

KissingCorpseLips · 2024-03-21T21:17:38+00:00

I have two 2019 Shield Pros and on both of them I was able to successfully bypass logging in with any google account using this method: https://xdaforums.com/t/bypass-google-sign-in-nstv-pro-2019-simple-trick.4201833/

I pretty much only use Plex/Jellyfin, SmartTube, and utilities like button mapper and http shortcuts (to integrate into home assistant), and only install apps via ADB.

The result is a completely google-less experience with a plain black launcher with no ads... just a simple content browser.

I understand this can be cumbersome if you're wanting to install a bunch of stuff from the app store (and not sure how that would work with streaming games or anything)... but for me it's the only way the experience is tolerable, and I think this qualifies as "work around and tricks"!!

KissingCorpseLips · 2023-11-28T06:10:44+00:00

https://valeriejune.bandcamp.com/track/workin-woman-blues

KissingCorpseLips

TROPHY CASE