The "New Toys" Thread

IMO, UHD content on streaming services isn't quite there yet, either because it isn't available or doesn't meet the quality/performance/convenience of a disc.

i honestly don't care
from the moment i get 720p, i'm happy, all the rest is just overkill


i can't remember the last time i watched something on disc, must be more than 5 years ago
(and since i don't have a DVD/bluRay player, that will probably remain that way :D)
 
My olde Creative I-Trigue set was getting really old, and the sound was deteriorating, so when my mom said she wanted to get rid of the old 5.1 home-cinema-in-a-box set, I jumped that offer.
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Sony DAV-S550, currently fed through an analog 2.0 cable with prologic doing its best to make 5.1-ish of it. The motherboard I'm eyeing for the upgrade has optical audio out, so I can connect that when that happens. And as an extra upside I have an even better monitor support.
 
Ordered one of these, a Sony UBP-X500 UHD Blu-Ray player.

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Now, I already have an external UHD BD-R drive for my PC, one I paid to have imported from Japan. However, thanks to NVIDIA and stupid DRM, it's an absolute ballache to actually watch any UHD content on the PC as it only works with Intel graphics and there's always a driver issue that needs resolving before it works.

This will sit where my Xbox One sits now and it had damn well make the experience a lot better. It's the cheapest and most basic of the X series players, without any smart features at all. I'm connecting it to a smart TV that also has a smart cable STB and a PC connected, so I didn't need to pay for any of those features. I just got Blue Planet II and Planet Earth II to add to my other UHD stuff so I'm looking forward to trying it.

I'll be selling the BD-R drive, it's a Pioneer BDR-XD06J-UHD and is a great drive, if a bit noisy for watching films. It's just the software that lets it down. If anyone is interested in it for disc creation or data storage on Blu-Ray discs (it'll write 128GB BD-QL discs) then let me know or it'll probably go on eBay.

nice! I had a similar problem with a PC i built in 2013. I thought blu-ray would play as easily as DVD did and oh how I was wrong.
 
nice! I had a similar problem with a PC i built in 2013. I thought blu-ray would play as easily as DVD did and oh how I was wrong.

As usual, the extra copy protection they add to new formats only inconveniences the honest people...
 
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A Dell UltraSharp U2717D monitor to use as an external monitor for my laptop for the time being, and then as a computer monitor when I build a PC or get a used workstation next year. Haven't tested it yet because I forgot to bring my HDMI-to-HDMI cable, but from what I read on the internet, this should be pretty much the best bang for the buck in the category I was aiming for.
 
I bought a Xiaomi MI Band 4.
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At 40 bucks, it's not a huge loss if I end up disliking it, and I like the idea of tracking my heart rate, steps, etc.
 
Company phone contract renewal time: got myself an iPhone 11. Decided against the more expensive "Pro" option this time - it's really just the OLED screen and third camera (telephoto) for 350€ added price, not worth it for me imho.

So far quite happy - moving stuff over from the old phone was easy as ever, various WiFi and Bluetooth pairings are all there, and it's basically the same phone as my previous (X) except a tiny bit larger. It's an LCD screen and lower resolution, but imho the pixel density high enough that it makes no difference. And black value is not quite OLED-"real actual black", but also good enough, even in complete darkness.

Only new things I'm looking forward to using are dual-SIM for private and company numbers in the same device, and NFC-triggered iOS Automations for various stuff that I'll set up overtime (stuff like touch Tesla frunk to open etc.), those didn't work with the old phone.
 
I have the XR and it's a great phone. People that like specs and numbers scoff at the low resolution and the fact that you "can't watch HD video" on it, but I have a 4K TV and a 4K computer monitor for that. And my 37 year old eyes might be to blame for this, but I just can't tell the difference in resolution when comparing my XR to my parents' X and XS iPhones. The XR does have worse black levels and slightly larger edges, though, I'll give it that. But it doesn't bother me unless I compare them side by side.

And the XR gets great battery life. That was a really nice change of pace after two years of iPhone 7, having to charge after work if I had stuff to do later that night. Yes, I use my phone a lot. Like a lot-lot.

I don't even have a SIM card in the phone atm, I moved to ESIM. It helps that I administer the company cell phone plans and I get to play around with these things :D I can order stacks of blank SIM cards from our provider and put to use needed, as well as change cell phone plans etc. Really handy compared to having to go to the carrier store to sort stuff out.
 
I forgot to post here. :(

June 2019, the Corsair 500W power supply in my PC crapped out which prompted me to think about upgrading all hardware. Nothing else was wrong with it, just an old AMD A10-5800k which is now my home theater pc in the basement.

Since then my Cooler Master case became empty as all hardware was placed back into my Lian-Li PC-CK 101 case. :)

So, what did he get?

AMD RYZEN 7 3700X
GIGABYTE X570 I AORUS PRO Mini-itx
G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) PC-3200
Noctua NH-U12S CPU cooler
Seasonic M12II EVO Edition SS-620GM2 620W PSU
Samsung 870 M.2 SSD 500GB

I moved my AMD RX580 graphics to this pc so no need for a new graphics card.


I tried using the Wraith CPU cooler but sadly, the fan noise wasn't acceptable so I ended up using the Noctua cooler that I only got as a "just in case" sort of thing. The great new is, games like Assassins Creed and Subnautica that used to peg my old AMD processor now has this one at maybe 25%. I also don't need to have full hardware acceleration in Adobe premiere like my HP laptop with 6th gen i7 would need to export. This Ryzen set up exports movies in half the time. Hopefully this set up lasts quite a long time.
 
I forgot to post here. :(

June 2019, the Corsair 500W power supply in my PC crapped out which prompted me to think about upgrading all hardware. Nothing else was wrong with it, just an old AMD A10-5800k which is now my home theater pc in the basement.

Since then my Cooler Master case became empty as all hardware was placed back into my Lian-Li PC-CK 101 case. :)

So, what did he get?

AMD RYZEN 7 3700X
GIGABYTE X570 I AORUS PRO Mini-itx
G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) PC-3200
Noctua NH-U12S CPU cooler
Seasonic M12II EVO Edition SS-620GM2 620W PSU
Samsung 870 M.2 SSD 500GB

I moved my AMD RX580 graphics to this pc so no need for a new graphics card.


I tried using the Wraith CPU cooler but sadly, the fan noise wasn't acceptable so I ended up using the Noctua cooler that I only got as a "just in case" sort of thing. The great new is, games like Assassins Creed and Subnautica that used to peg my old AMD processor now has this one at maybe 25%. I also don't need to have full hardware acceleration in Adobe premiere like my HP laptop with 6th gen i7 would need to export. This Ryzen set up exports movies in half the time. Hopefully this set up lasts quite a long time.


The only thing you might need to upgrade is the graphics card, and that will still be decent for a couple of years, depending on what games you play.
 
The only thing you might need to upgrade is the graphics card, and that will still be decent for a couple of years, depending on what games you play.

Yeah, for sure.
 
Some updates for my PC:
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Fractal Design Celsius S24, won as a prize in a contest
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Sandisk SSD Plus TLC 1TB

End result:
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Upside: PC is even quieter than it was, and load temps are 10C lower.
Downside: Fuck me, that pump noise is grating when there is no longer a hard drive drowning it out, idle temps are 4C higher, and the M.2 SSD's blue PCB and stickers are so ugly now that I can see them...
 
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My old wired Xbox 360 controller is about all worn out(bought it about a month before the 360 came out), so I bought a new wireless (oh, it's fancy) Xbox One controller with the adapter. I might get the wire for it so I don't need batteries, or the play and charge kit.
 
Since my Nexus 5X which I bought used almost exactly 3 years ago crapped itself on Sunday (it won't turn on at all) I just bought a Motorola Moto G7 Play, cheap and cheerful. It's a low-end smartphone, but since I was satisfied with the performance of the 5X and the G7 Play is (depending on the field of performance) between on par and up to twice as fast the performance should be adequate for me.
 
it's pretty cool for slow paced games you normally play with a mouse or keyboard
but you won't beat any times in forza :)
 
Yeah, that is what I figured. I do play a bunch of old RTS games, so it should be good for that. Might even be good for the warship game I play.
 
My free Nokia Power Earbuds that I got with the Nokia 6.2 I bought for Maud finally arrived:
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They are more comfortable than expected, and sound a lot better than I expected.
Now to find a use for them, since my trusty Sony MDR-XB950N1 is a lot less annoying at the gym than I expected, and sounds better than these.
 
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