Random thoughts.... [Tech Edition]

[NecroJoe]

How can there be so many variants of a product that is arguably defunct when every modern TV has all the apps built in?

My 2015 Samsung started dropping apps as they got updates due to no longer being a supported device starting at around 2019. Pluto and HBO Max both were deactivated, uninstalled, and removed from the app store. Pluto just disappeared, and HBO Max sent out a notification that it was going to happen a few months in advance, but it was just to tell people they could buy a streaming device to continue watching their content. This TV also never got newer apps like Disney, Apple, or Paramount+. Additionally, it's grown more and more sluggish over time. I've been using an Amazon Fire Stick for the last little while, and while it's shit, it was still better than the TV's built-in OS because I could get all of the apps I wanted, the cross-platform search functionality was much better, and it was generally a *tiny* bit snappier...when new. I'm replacing it now, though, but don't feel too bad because all it cost me was a 6-pack of cheap beer in trade. It's gotten SO unstable, and now the UI feels like I'm operating it over dial-up.

My bedroom TV is a Vizio from 2018 I think, and the UI is trash. But, I'm the only one who uses it, and I only use it for two apps, and only at night when I am possibly going to be falling asleep soon. I'm fine putting up with its shortcomings...and the only reason I use it for only 2 apps (Pluto and YouTube) is because there's no Vizio version of the MST3K or RiffTrax apps. And if I got an external streaming device for those apps, the included remotes wouldn't let me lower the screen brightness or set a sleep timer. I imagine there are universal remotes that can control both, but if I even looked into it, I'd be tempted to spend money I don't really need to.

Also, not all of the TV-version of apps can support fancy features like Dolby Vision, and there's a certain percentage of people who say the video processing of the TVs is shit even compared to relatively low-end external devices. That I can't speak to, as it's beyond my media consumption standards.

And finally, with a Roku, there's a couple of ways I can use headphones/earbuds for audio instead of the TV speakers. Maybe there are other ways this could be done, but it's super easy with Roku, and it's a feature I will absolutely use. Some of their remotes literally have a headphone jack, or you can use the companion phone app and sync it to the unit, and then you can use wireless earbuds or headphones with your phone (which also acts like a remote for the Roku). Neither of my TV's have built-in Bluetooth capabilities. On my main TV, I have a soundbar with Bluetooth, but it's only to use the soundbar as a speaker from another source like a phone...no Bluetooth output to wireless earbuds or headphones.

 

[NooDle]

Overcomplicate? There's nothing simpler than getting a device out of the box and bunging a cable into it.

Of course there is. Getting a device out of your pocket/bag and have it be connected to wifi without you needing to do anything!
My house is from a pre internet era though, so I have litterally zero ethernet ports, and I'll be damned if I'll be pulling cables across my house.

I suppose it does depend a bit on where your internet tubes enter your house and where you want to use them (in my case, the tubez arrive in the middle of the living room, and the most of the internet is consumed on the top floor/bedrooms and/or the garden in summer)

Either way, I can't see myself going back to wired ever... most devices use very little data so there's no need for huge transfer speeds

 

[eizbaer]

Getting a device out of your pocket/bag and have it be connected to wifi without you needing to do anything!

How... does that work exactly? yes, being pedantic, but if we're comparing to just plugging a cable in... provided the cable is there and has somewehere close by to go...

also: I totally get your point. I probably would have a very limited number of wired devices as well, if they weren't all next to the sockets anyway. also if our house was actually made of stone rather than wood, I probably would have far fewer of those, too.

 

[Adunaphel]

As long as TV makers ship "smart" TVs with tragically underpowered SoCs in them, there will be a market for faster smart devices for your TV. As my current TV is not fast enough to properly handle HDR10 content, despite the TV claiming it can (and thus being unable to tell Uncle Jeffy's Penis Rocket Emporium's video service to not serve me HDR content), which leads to stuttering and generally annoying behavior, so I'm condiering getting another Shield TV for my main TV.

 

[NooDle]

How... does that work exactly? yes, being pedantic, but if we're comparing to just plugging a cable in... provided the cable is there and has somewehere close by to go...

also: I totally get your point. I probably would have a very limited number of wired devices as well, if they weren't all next to the sockets anyway. also if our house was actually made of stone rather than wood, I probably would have far fewer of those, too.

I may be the exception to the rule here, but I have used a network cable once in the 15 years I lived at my house.
And that was to setup the wifi modem/password initially....Every adaptation since has been made by using (you guessed it, wifi).

And sure, if some leet hacker gets into my network, he may be able to see what I'm doing, but then again, I doubt it'll be very interesting... Bpring stuff like the kids watching youtube or someone surfing the internet... The convenience of everything connecting automagically (once the password is setup, of course) outweighs pretty much every "data security risk" I can think of.

Even if the same leet hacker somehow manages to delete some of my data on my shared drive, it doesn't matter since it's backed up.
If they somehow manage to change settings on the router/modem, I can just reset it by literally pressing a button....

Also also : indeed. Stone house, garage attached, garden attached. So cables are no bueno there.

 

[eizbaer]

I may be the exception to the rule here, but I have used a network cable once in the 15 years I lived at my house.

I actually meant having to teach every device your WiFi credentials or set it up via WPS, arguably the same effort as plugin in a cable
I’m not worried about security tbh. On the contrary, I’d argue getting physical access to one of my Ethernet ports is actually easier than breaching the WiFi

 

[Matt2000]

The initial setup is what I was talking about, too. Also it's not a big deal.

 

[Matt2000]

Weird Windows issue of the day - Explorer.exe crashes when attempting to open a File Explorer window. Never seen it before but it's happening on my personal machine, it was fine yesterday after completing some updates so I have no idea why it's doing it today. SFC found and fixed errors but that didn't fix the overall problem, will do the 23H2 update later.

In other news I almost purchased my third 8TB Samsung 860 QVO while it was on lightning deal, but I was too slow. I do plan to get another to replace my final 4TB Storage Space in my server, when the price is right.

Edit: Windows issue resolved, for those running W11 watch out for update KB5032190, it's the one that caused the issue. I had to uninstall it to resolve the issue.

 

[Tram]

I've had a Shure SM58 microphone for over two years now, which I'd use with a Shure X2U audio interface on my Windows PC. It's always been problematic, and today I found out that the SM58 isn't exactly good for narration, and I always knew the audio interface was problematic.

Today I went to an audio store with the intention of buying a Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd-gen audio interface, and an XLR cable, but luckily for me, I ran into a seller who was very knowledgeable and helpful. To cut the long story short, he said that a better idea would be just getting a USB microphone. They had a PreSonus Revelator Dynamic on a massive discount, for some €90, which I didn't get immediately, but I'm podering doing so.

The only thing that's really stopping me is the fact I might not need a microphone like that. I mean, lockdown is long over, and I don't remember the last time I've done a video call or anything that required me to use a mic. Even if I do, I have a laptop with an integrated mic, and I guess it's enough shall I need to do a video call or anything similar. I'm also not really thinking of starting a podcast, and even if my father has the idea to record interviews of some people, there are better tools for his use-case scenario.

 

[93Flareside]

I've had a Shure SM58 microphone for over two years now, which I'd use with a Shure X2U audio interface on my Windows PC. It's always been problematic, and today I found out that the SM58 isn't exactly good for narration, and I always knew the audio interface was problematic.

Today I went to an audio store with the intention of buying a Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd-gen audio interface, and an XLR cable, but luckily for me, I ran into a seller who was very knowledgeable and helpful. To cut the long story short, he said that a better idea would be just getting a USB microphone. They had a PreSonus Revelator Dynamic on a massive discount, for some €90, which I didn't get immediately, but I'm podering doing so.

The only thing that's really stopping me is the fact I might not need a microphone like that. I mean, lockdown is long over, and I don't remember the last time I've done a video call or anything that required me to use a mic. Even if I do, I have a laptop with an integrated mic, and I guess it's enough shall I need to do a video call or anything similar. I'm also not really thinking of starting a podcast, and even if my father has the idea to record interviews of some people, there are better tools for his use-case scenario.

Having an interface really only benefits if you’re using different multi channel setups and/or need a certain preamp or some additional processing after the fact. If you‘re just doing dictation or narration, yeah a usb mic is probably better if you don’t require studio levels of quality. Think like audio book or even radio hosts in terms of the quality you’d get out of interface set up.

 

[Matt2000]

USB mic would probably work fine, I've had a Blue Yeti for years that's mounted above me and works great for Teams calls and such. If you used it on the proper stand or on an arm close to your face then it would be fine for narration. This year I've tried to improve my audio for video narration though, as the Yeti has too much echo when mounted up there and I hate having it in front of me. I'll tell you what I've done so you can decide if you want to completely avoid the same kind of thing.

I bought a lavalier mic years ago, basically an unbranded one from Amazon that plugged in to 3.5mm. One snag is it needs to be powered, so it can basically only be plugged directly into a PC or camera. Not into the mixer I bought last year. It also had shitty auto-gain that would constantly shift, so between recordings the volume level would change.

I wanted more control over the gain and the tone of the sound, so I got a better Movo LV-6 XLR Mic. To use this with the mixer I also needed a phantom power supply, as for some reason the mixer doesn't provide this. I got the Behringer PS400. The setup works well, the recordings are much more consistent and I can adjust the low, mid and high on the mixer in front of me.

The output from the mixer then goes to a Behringer UMC204HD, which was originally purchased as a DAC but it wasn't very good as one, so I got the JDS Labs DAC and the UMC204HD is now an input device. It's more than good enough for capturing audio from the microphone or from the Braun Hi-Fi stack, via the mixer.

If you don't want to go through anywhere near that much hassle, just get the USB mic.

 

[jack_christie]

JerryRig and dbrand ripped off:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byfWscC87Vg

 

[Perc]

Our phone system at work has a PC softphone client. I installed it on a new computer yesterday to have a device that rings loudly when calls come in, but it refused to make a sound.

Turns out the client refuses to play the ringtone sound unless it sees a microphone in the system, which it didn't have, because it is an ultra small form factor desktop without a microphone jack, apparently. So now I repurposed an old USB headset that will live under the counter next to the PC forever. It's not stupid if it works.

 

[kalf]

It's not stupid if it works.

I agree that the workaround isn't stupid, but the fact that you require that workaround is stupid. I assume it's some form of trying to idiot proof it because "no mic = no calls", but I don't know if it really helps with that.

 

[eizbaer]

Our phone system at work has a PC softphone client.

Oh god the pain of those damn things... I had to live with one particularly horrible ones of those softphone clients for about half a year until, luckily sharing an office with our CIO, I got moved into the "ms teams for phone test user group". I wouldn't have thought to be praising MS... but that's actually quite nice. except when teams gets confused by too many audio devices, of course...

 

[Matt2000]

Reminds me of the old Mitel stuff. Awful softphone client and general terrible system that wouldn't let you remove your mobile phone without adding another. Managed by a terrible MSP after our on-site PBX was retired. Very glad we ditched the lot and went to MS Teams for phone, it's so much better.

I do kind of miss the handset lifter I had on my office phone though so I could use a headset.

 

[Perc]

Reminds me of the old Mitel stuff. Awful softphone client and general terrible system that wouldn't let you remove your mobile phone without adding another. Managed by a terrible MSP after our on-site PBX was retired. Very glad we ditched the lot and went to MS Teams for phone, it's so much better.

I do kind of miss the handset lifter I had on my office phone though so I could use a headset.

We have Mitel. But my desk phone has a USB port, I use a Plantronics wired mini headset.

 

[Matt2000]

We have Mitel. But my desk phone has a USB port, I use a Plantronics wired mini headset.

Much fancier than our old 5312 phones, the main issue is they were LAN passthrough and not gigabit. Your comments make perfect sense if you're using MiCollab, I hated that.

Edit: For audio people out there - is it common to find an RCA cable that just picks up noise? I was getting a load of background noise from my JDS Labs DAC and I was about to get an optical DAC to eliminate it, then I just tried a different RCA cable first and the noise completely went away. From the outside it appears that the first cable was thicker and would therefore have more shielding. It was just BS though wasn't it?

 

[73GMCSprint]

Edit: For audio people out there - is it common to find an RCA cable that just picks up noise? I was getting a load of background noise from my JDS Labs DAC and I was about to get an optical DAC to eliminate it, then I just tried a different RCA cable first and the noise completely went away. From the outside it appears that the first cable was thicker and would therefore have more shielding. It was just BS though wasn't it?

Yes. RCA cables in general are more prone to picking up noise (particularly in comparison to balanced cables), and some are definitely worse (or better) than others. Sometimes moving a cable will make a difference (usually moving it away from power cabling), but sometimes they just have to be swapped for another one. I've also had a particular power cord generate noise in a system and eliminated the noise simply by swapping the power cord for another (seemingly identical) one.

 

[NooDle]

Right people, I need the collective FG hive mind : what good smartwatches are out there that are durable and won't break the bank?
I've been using Chinese crap for a while, and while it does the job admirably for the 10 or so € it cost me, there are many issues

Biggest problem I have is it randomly disconnects from the phone and forgets EVERYTHING. So clock, alarm, footsteps, etc are all lost.
Not a major issue, but when my watch doesn't really tell time, what's the point really? Also it only lasts like 3 or 4 days and requires some disassembly to plug it into the usb port, which is annoying.

i've been looking at pebble watches ages ago, and they seem cool, but apparently they are no longer around.
I don't really need all of the functionality of an Apple watch (like emails, phonecalls etc), but I don't really know where to start looking?

All I really want is a watch, pedometer, good battery life, maybe calendar integration? It does need to be very scratch proof / resistant because I'm clumsy and don't want to baby it around / take it off when I get my hands wet/dirty. NFC would be nice too but no dealbreaker if it's not on there.

Looking around I either see 700€ apple watches who are far too nice/expensive/capable for what I need, or Garmin type stuff that monitors every bodily function, which I don't need/want. Who goes to sleep with their watch on and then afterwards analyzes how many farts they did while sleeping anyway?

Suggestions?