It’s the April ‘24 Oddcast.

I have been looking for an opening to discuss a topic that others above have mentioned, namely the quality of your work Mat. I have been watching a number of videos that you referenced or are related to your work, including the DCC documentary. Mat, you are a better MC for the red carpet video than most I have seen in my life including pros and celebrities. I am not "blowing smoke" as we say in the US. I watched Databits and it was painful. I could see how you could have made the same material MUCH more interesting and informative. And not just the narration, the camera work, composition and editing. There is a saying "I would listen to him read the phone book" that could be applied (but please don't) not because of your mellifluous voice, but your humor. One that sticks with me is when you pointed out that there was a patent on the impossible to open packaging and compared it to patenting a kick in the crotch. For me, that's your "dead parrot" right there. I know the Oddcasts ramble a bit, and are aimed at a specific audience that finds the charm in that (including myself), but they are still better than too many "finished" videos. Your videos are the "whole package" from content to editing to humor. To sum up, compliments can be hard to respond to sometimes so please take this as an confirmation that you are doing good work and providing value to at least some people in the world.

If you ever decided to stop doing tech videos, I think there's a good group of us patrons who would continue to support you just for these videos.

I think I’m selfish, as I always feel like your videos are made for ME!! 🤣 I like details, I like to learn about old AND new things in and I like to find out about things I never knew existed. Keep it going, Matt!! Lee

Wish you well with your father, Matt. I really enjoyed that pinball video, watched it twice now. Lee

I have enjoyed your regular videos immensely because they are so polished- and l'm glad I joined Patreon because I really enjoy the intimacy of these Oddcasts. Thank you for taking us along. (I watched this one right after lunch- next time there's an Oddcast I'll have to eat along!)

I really enjoy these monthly updates, especially when we get to see some of the beautiful scenery!

I do like the food tasting videos from a bloke that can't taste much. It is very much how it is for many people. It is sad the pie made you depressed.

If ATGames has an issue they should realize that I didn't even know they existed until you gave them attention. ...and I think it's a fine product.

Recent patreon here, first one of these I've seen. Was great! Sound was fine and loved hearing the backstory on last month's videos. The only Pukka pie I've ever had was one of the curry ones a few years back. Was foul and never touched one since.The brand has the whiff of grimey motorway service station permently attached to it which some folk probably like but not for me!

Your Oddcast always entertains me and warms my heart, Mat. Your plain speaking honesty and dry humour are very much up my street. I live near the Bridgewater canal in Timperley, which seems like the M6 compared to yours. It's hard to walk more than a few yards before herds of bikes go hurtling by. The cordon bleu food interludes definitely add a bit of spice too - pun intended. Looking forward to whatever you send our way! 😊

Have you considered having the puppets do a oddcast or maybe a review? I suspect you could probably put together something that is quite hilarious. Maybe they could do a review of one of those old school dolls where you pull the string and it says something. I'm just imagining in the dialogue that could be had by two puppets investigating one of those things. "She seems to have one track mind." "She seems a bit yumpy to me. I suspect that if there was a fire she wouldn't have the sense to get clear of it." ... And if you did run out of content you could always discuss US politics. I suspect from where you sit the country across the pond appears to have lost its mind. Well let me tell you, a lot of us here feel the same way about it. I suspect the puppets could have a field day with that.

I'm with you on the need for a car interior to be right. Critical. We have a VW Polo that squeaks and the time to get rid can't come soon enough. Good luck with the Lexus and getting your E back.

Pukka pies are on the phone, offering £10K for you NOT to test their products again. :)

Hey Mat. Enjoyed your Patreon update. I've really enjoyed the Sony products that you have reviewed. Have you heard of the Sony voice Balloon? I have one, just wondered if you had heard of them. I just want the bragging rights for having something you don't know about 😀. About the revenue stream you spoke about and making enough to keep up the good work, you never mentioned your Patreon revenue- that's got to add up to a decent amount hasn't it? Keep up the great content Mat. I do t understand the complainers personally, maybe they should give it a try and see how difficult it is to film and edit a video. Sorry to hear your father's not well, I've been down that road and it's like watching someone fade away before your eyes. Take care and remember that we value your output.

"I hope to die peacefully in my sleep, like my dad... not screaming in terror, like his passengers." -- a joke I heard.

Me again, sorry. Will definitely give that M&S breakfast a try. My mother's a retired employee of theirs, so gets 20% off, but of course, only if she's with me!

I dunno when you shot this, but over in Yorkshire I've had the winter coat, scarf and thermals on again this week! Just checked my appalling internet speed... 6 mbps! BT. Alexander Graham Bell had a faster connection than me, I swear.

The walk and talk was cool. Pretty path you've got there by the canals. The Osmo does a good job at stabilizing the walking. It seemed to go a little wonky when you sat still on the park bench, like it decided to lock down the bg at the expense of making you and the bench float around. Weird effect!

One of the best things about watching video on Youtube is the speed control. Too slow? Play it at 1.25x or 1.5x. Too fast? Go the other way. These days I watch just about everything at 1.5x.

Crosby beach (not a million miles away) had concrete 'dragons teeth' to prevent any German landing craft during WW2... Long since removed, but from there the Leeds Liverpool canal is only a mile or two inland... Although I've not seen any concrete barriers within say 10 miles of Liverpool end... Beautiful stretch you have there though. Far nicer than some of the mudbath stretches!

Mat, I can empathize vis a vis whinging about a job and feeling like maybe you shouldn't. I left teaching after 20 years when COVID struck (actually, it left me... classes canceled left and right) and got a gig as a tech writer working from home. Literally every aspect of my working life has improved (not hard to do if you were a teacher in the US, sad to say), but I still have my annoyances. And my threshold for tolerating annoyances has been ruined by having a bit of comfort and ease. Maybe when it comes down to it, we are always going to be somewhat put off by the notion of work because it is after all an obligation and an impingement on our freedom. But then again, we are so accustomed to having work we might get into some existential trouble if we didn't have that obligation. How many retirees drop dead after a year or two of puttering?

Mat, I enjoy all your videos and look forward to the Odd casts for all the divergent sub topics and observations. But I am one of those that can get motion sickness from video and the towards the end I had to look away and just listen. The food reviews were a nice break. Please don't let me dissuade you from your explorations, but maybe a steady cam type device you can review? Like I said, this is not a knock on you, just an observation of me.

I really enjoyed this canal walk oddcast and obligatory food segments. My April winners are: the most entertaining video - the one with nicotine stained Sony KPX-1 and sports Walkman product of the month - the Wheel 2. Costs arm and leg and kidney. But you actually can buy it brand new. I also learned new vocab. Barge, which is not barge but narrowboat.

I'm sorry, but how are Amazon dictating anything you show from their site? You're reviewing a product! Recently I've also heard that they have been removing people's 1 star reviews for not being able to be 'verified' (happened to vwestlife). It's crazy how we just let them get away with so much crap.

How does your (clearly new?) microwave not have an automatic turntable built-in? I don't think I've seen a turntable-less microwave here in the States since the early 1980s.

Wow, bloke canceled his membership over something you said about DTS? Seems pretty petty. Humans... what are you gonna do, right?

I knew a guy named Len who walked 8 miles a day. He was 82 and in perfect health. Always said he'd die tomorrow after being hit by a bus. He was wrong - he was hit by a Jeep. (On the plus side, if he wasn't dead, he would have found it hilarious)

I enjoyed the Sony S2 video, but if you want it more entertaining, why not a trip back to the canal? I imagine that boom box would make quite a splash.

What you described about the Apple TV streaming a third party device has already been half implemented I believe. You can use ARC to send audio back to the Apple TV and it will happily take it and stream it over AirPlay to HomePod, but not to AirPods for whatever reason….

Tip to save a bit of hassle with the microwave: lower the power and increase the time to warm food more evenly.

Thanks Mat, I liked that. It looked pretty and saves going for a walk. I laughed out loud at the breakfast pie that induces depression, I could see myself doing the same

Thanks, Mat - always enjoy your Oddcast catch-ups. Talking about the high price of the 'Wheel' turntables, out of nowhere the other day, I was suddenly bombarded with adverts for those magnetic levitating record players - I think they were Kickstarted around 2016. They are still on sale (much to my surprise) and you'll be astounded at the unit price - 5,000 Euros! From what little I know about Hi-Fi, that sum would get you a seriously high-end turntable, so I think they are being highly optimistic expecting anyone to pay that for what is really a novelty record player. Although, the fact they are still in business implies that people are actually buying them. 'There's one born every day', as they used to say. Enjoy the rest of your week, Mat.

I'm joining the group of those who enjoyed the update and the outdoor setting. Thank you!

I enjoyed the scenery and I see it as a nice incentive to go out more often. I also think it's worth a lot that the municipality takes care of the footpaths along the banks. It sure looks beautiful. I live near the Emscher, a river that was once a disgusting cesspit due to industrial wastewater, but is now free of sewage thanks to 30 years of ongoing renaturalisation. Meanwhile, new floodplain, recreational and residential areas are emerging along the banks. You could easily forget that you are in the centre of a metropolitan area.

So much to comment on here, but I'll just say I enjoyed the whole thing: the canals, the fortifications, the pies, the philosophy--it's all about living and learning.🙂

Honestly, the person who can’t taste reviewing food is one of those absurd things that would totally be popular on the Internet. If I were you, I would take all these reviews you made and start a new channel posting one a week. I think it would be the bomb.

Enjoyed the catch up. You sure live in a beautiful place.

Love videos like this. It's like going out for a walk with a mate, only I don't have to go out, walk, or think of anything interesting to say back. And the food reviews, they make me smile. I can't eat anything you review because I'm gluten-free, so I'm a man who can't eat it, watching a man who can't taste it. I dunno why, it just makes me smile 😁

The one thing I like about you and your channel is the honesty. Honesty and humour... The two things I like are the honesty and humour... and humility. The three things I like are the honesty, humour and humility... and philosophy. The four things I like are...

Part of your appeal is that you breathe. Far too many YouTubers cut out breathing and the whole video ends up sounding like one massive sentence. A 5 minute video is pretty difficult to get through bit often the videos are longer than that and i have to switch off. Please keep breathing :)

The walk outside was lovely. Very peaceful. Thanks for taking the time to talk to us.

Speaking of just working, I bought an HDMI to 1080p AHD adapter last week to add a PC display to my CCTV system, that had no reviews and I was sceptical at £60 but it just worked. Very impressed.

Never stop being yourself it is why we watch and ignore internet moaners. Your truthful insight is what makes you so respected. Also as a slightly younger gentleman that you I don’t know how you have not had a Pukka until now.

It's a nice walk that. I liked all the videos. I could agree that the s2 line was less entertaining and more informative but I like it anyway, that type of overviews you do very well. I'm sorry about your father though. I know what you mean, people do get old and oftentimes is little left of what they once were and that is worse than having them gone

Keep those steps up, Matt. Love what you do. Ever thought about looking into a soviet era knock offs of western tech? There was a Czechoslovakian company called Tesla which produced a large range of electronics- from small radios, headphones, reel to reels, to TVs and early computers. There isn't much on eBay (occasionally I see something), but there is a plenty on Czech auction sites. Just a thought.

The main difference between a barge and a narrowboat is the size of the boat – more specifically, the width. Narrowboats typically have a beam (width) of between 6ft 10in – 7 ft, whereas a barge can typically be around twice the width – often around 14.5 ft.

• Re: DTS - Was it the ex-member who responded, 'That's not the answer I was looking for.' They seemed excessively rude, IMO. Good riddance...? • The video's sound levels/quality are fine through my TV's powered speakers. • Your rural area is beautiful. I prefer your mostly cloudy skies (I am not a sun person - I'm hot-blooded and pale, prone to sunburn). • The cobblestones on the paths and bridges appear extremely old; I love it. Thanks for sharing this environment with us, it's beautiful. • Your thumbnails are nice and typically humourous - and most importantly, non click-bait. The only reason mine looks okay is the versatility of the Canva app. I enjoy trying to be creative - I hope it boosts your views. • That first breakfast does look nice; not the second one 🤢 Sometimes I wish Smell-O-Vision was a thing. • Uh-oh, you may never get your Honda E back. 😅 • Did you paint your kitchen grey? It looks great. • I planned to comment regarding your father, but I never know what to say in these situations other than I am here to support in any way that I can. • Your energy level is fine - it's the public that haven't discovered your channel who are missing out. I mentioned previously that your retro-tech videos would be perfect to broadcast on local PBS channels in the US, and I still think so. Thanks for this video. I really enjoy seeing places I may never see in real life. Take it easy and give Bees Knees a scritch for me. 🤍🤍

It's Spring, the birds are chirping, the long boats are in the canal, and somewhere there's a dog barking, just to make the place feel a bit 'dicey'. These oddcasts are always enjoyable Matt. I was sorry to hear about your assessment with your Dad. It reminded me when my father was failing. There is a sense of detached acceptance where one has to continue on knowing exactly how the story's going to end, but you know you have to continue, never-the-less. With my Dad it was Alzheimer's, and it continued for a long time, over 10 years. It was a long, slow journey, but it did come to an end, and I felt better afterwards. And, now that he's gone, I don't ever think about how the story ended. Rather, I remember him when he was still my Dad. Good memories. P.S. the sound is fine, and the Action 4 did a good job. Very enjoyable.

Your microwave doesn't have a spinny-spinny!

I regret you doing the pinball video, as it's another £1.5K I'm going to have to find from somewhere to buy one.

Odd seeing Pukka Pies in the North West. Seeing as round here is basically Pie Central with Clayton Park / Galloways / Greenhalghs / Hollands etc, it seems a bit "coals to Newcastle" to me. Though I grew up with Wrights Pies in the Potteries (I think the Wrights Pie shop will soon be the only thing left open in Newcastle Under Lyme town centre the way things are going).

It's your honesty that originally brought me to the channel for dashcams. Still here years later. We can't all be Mr beast.

Looks like the spring has arrived