Smart(er) Home Cinema (SHC)
Smart(er) Home Cinema (SHC)
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Kostas Stergiou

Kostas Stergiou is a Professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He was the former Director of the Institute of Marine Biological Resources and Inland Waters of HCMR (2013-2021).He has research interests on fish and fisheries ecology, modeling and forecasting, ecosystem management, and bibliometrics. He has contributed more than 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals and several other publications (see https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=k8hb4pIAAAAJ).Since 2008 and 2015 he developed the home cinema and smart home hobbies and has installed different home cinema setups in two different houses which have lately been transformed to smart ones.
Movies, actors and directors

Predator

Reading Time: < 1 minuteIt just happened to watch the Predator again, for the 10th, or so, time. What a movie. John McTiernan directed this masterpiece. The direction is exemplary. The actors top of the line: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers, Bill Duke, Jesse Ventura, Sonny Landham. All the muscles of the Hollywood in one Read more…

By Kostas Stergiou, 2 weeksJune 2, 2025 ago
Movies, actors and directors

Witness for the Prosecution

Reading Time: < 1 minuteFew days ago I watched the movie Witness for the Prosecution. What a masterpiece. It is a 1956 movie. Billy Wilder is the director. Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich and Charles Laughton are the main protagonists. The plot of the movie is based on an Agatha Christie story. A barrister (Laughton) Read more…

By Kostas Stergiou, 1 monthMay 4, 2025 ago
Smart home cinema

No more Hue Labs

Reading Time: < 1 minuteHue Labs was a successful beta platform for Hue routines and automations. It led to many excellent smart home features. Hue Labs died in March 2024. Most or all of the beta features were migrated to the Hue app (there is a Beta annotation on features in the app). Lets Read more…

By Kostas Stergiou, 3 monthsMarch 27, 2025 ago
Movies, actors and directors

Gene Hackman

Reading Time: < 1 minuteGene Hackman, one of the best Hollywood actors, died at the age of 95 years in February 18, 2025. Hackman was a two-time Oscar-winning actor. He participated to 101 movies and shined in all of them. He was always an added value to all movies he participated, irrespectively of whether Read more…

By Kostas Stergiou, 3 monthsMarch 14, 2025 ago
Movies, actors and directors

How famous are French actors

Reading Time: 2 minutesAlain Delon, who died recently, is considered the European Marlon Brando. His photo was under the pillow of many girls in the 1960s and 1970s. We all know the movies in which him and other French actors were protagonists.         For instance, The Sicilian Clan, was a Read more…

By Kostas Stergiou, 5 monthsJanuary 16, 2025 ago
Smart home cinema

Setting up an HTPC as the heart of home cinema: Cables

Reading Time: < 1 minuteThe different parts of our home cinema setup are connected to each other with cables. Several years ago there were different video and audio cables available: Composite video cables DVI cables Coaxial video cables Component video cables Stereo RCA cables Coax digital S/PDIF cables Optical cables HDMI Speaker cable. Today Read more…

By Kostas Stergiou, 5 months ago
Smart home cinema

Setting up an HTPC as the heart of home cinema: Sound (2/2)

Reading Time: 3 minutesHTPC and home theater AV receiver Sound is an essential component of a home cinema setup. Its new surround formats, such as Atmos or Auro-3D, decidedly add  to the overall home cinema experience. In an earlier post I discussed the cheapest and simplest way to add different surround sound formats, including the Read more…

By Kostas Stergiou, 5 months ago
Movies, actors and directors

The fame of 90 actresses/actors: A synopsis

Reading Time: < 1 minuteIn this post I update the earlier synopsis of the fame for 90 (as opposed to 78 in the earlier post) actresses and actors. Their fame levels ranged from 0.8 famons, for Emma Stone, to 60 famons for Bob Dylan (figure 1).     Figure 1. Fame of 90 actresses Read more…

By Kostas Stergiou, 5 monthsDecember 31, 2024 ago
Movies, actors and directors

The fame of Chuck Norris and other actors

Reading Time: < 1 minuteContinuing our quest for the most famous actress/actor (see, e.g., here), in this post I explore the fame of four iconic actors: Harvey Keitel Jet Li Telly Savalas Chuck Norris.         And the most famous is… The use of Ngram shows that Chuck Norris, the protagonist of Read more…

By Kostas Stergiou, 6 monthsDecember 27, 2024 ago
Movies, actors and directors

Christmas action movies: Carry-on vs. Die Hard

Reading Time: < 1 minuteCarry-on is an action movie directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. The protagonists include Taron Egerton, Jason Bateman and Sofia Carson. Jaume is known from directing Liam Neeson in many action movies. The story reminds somehow Die Hard 2. Jason Bateman, the bad guy, blackmails Taron Egerton, an airport security agent. He Read more…

By Kostas Stergiou, 6 monthsDecember 24, 2024 ago

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