Not a format.
A little video about something that isn’t what it appears to be.
https://youtu.be/c6TiIduyag0
You can thank my deceased parents for this one. A number of years ago I was struggling with what to get them for Christmas. Being rather old they’d already accumulated everything they wanted so the only suitable gift that sprung to my mind was a hamper of edible goodies. The most suitable one that could be delivered was from Fortnum and Mason and ever since then I’ve been on the F&M Christmas mailing list and the device featured in this video was listed in there.
When I cleared out their house the empty wicker Fortnum hamper was found in the loft.
I’m still struggling with earache and deafness which is now causing a dull toothache as well - just your typical week. I was prescribed antibiotic drops, but I'll have to take it easier until things improve somewhat. I only mention this to justify this week's simple-to-make video. It was the best I could muster in the circumstances.
Hope you’re doing better - take care.
UPDATE
I’ve made a few small tweaks to the video, nothing significant, just tidying up. New version now embedded and linked above.
Comments (76)
Those little discs remind me of beermats! I wonder to what degree you'd be able to deface the barcode and they would still work? After 18 months or so of reusing my coffee pods one or two of them are failing to run having been bleached somewhat.
I'm not sure if this has been asked, but any chance you can image the SD card using something like Win32DiskImager (or similar utility for Mac, not sure what)? I actually want those Christmas tracks, for the heck of it. I hope they actually are stored on that SD card and not in a ROM chip somewhere. Also I wonder what would happen if you replaced your recorded mp3 file with a 320kbps one, would it work and sound less crappy?
For something that cost more than a portable speaker it’s a surprisingly unattractive device.
I'm late to this video and watching on YouTube, but it looks great Mat! Your new garden shed has really levelled things up!
It’s nice not to have to record everything up against a wall.
Here's hoping you've had at least fair to middling improvement of your ear infection. And that all is well on other fronts.
Thanks. I’ve got some more antibiotics so I think things are improving. This week has been very slow going. There’s probably a couple of full days editing required before I’ll have anything new to show.
I know the rotary barcodes also from one of our devices, but it's at the side of a disc, it needs to turn around once to identify the disc-type
Reminds me of the Fisher Price Record Player we have for our toddlers. The modern-ish one, not the old one. It does work with grooves, but only a few, and they push 4 buttons where the needle should be to select 1 of 10 songs. Let's take it apart, we might find an SD card to switch out the nursery rhymes for proper music!
Nice little video about a cute product!
If someone is into customizing this device could be an interesting starting point. The codes are easily copied, so you could create your own ones. I imagine this would be a good present for a child, if you replaced the hidden MP3 files with your own good night stories, audio books or similar. It's much cheaper than a tonie box, doesn't use any internet and doesn't expose a child to the negatives aspects of smart devices. Whilst I find retro technology interesting but mostly silly, I believe it has some benefits for children. It's so awful seeing children and even babies glued to screens watching brain rot for hours.
Just a quick one to say that we absolutely loved this new video, despite your protestations to the contrary! Oh yeah and congrats, newlywed! 😄
I had a time where I was rather fascinated by the possibility of generating digital signals from basically an analog input. Indeed, at the end of the day, that's what a cd does. Anyway, nice little video, interesting to see the application. Codes like those are cleverly and widely used in industry
You might be able to replace the music if you find the files. If it's just reading the barcode for a file name, as long as the name is the same, it might play.
Others could if that’s something that interests them. I’m sure it’s very easy. For me it’s just another mp3 player, I must have dozens of them, but unfortunately for me mp3 players don’t hold any interest. Perhaps that’s just me though. If you want one of these be sure to get a cheap one.
Well interesting thing and hope you’re feeling better… nothing worse in my experience than toothache - ear ache…
Fun gimmick that I’m sure is very over priced!
Probably does not fit with making things as accessible as possible, but just a heads up that the term for "making something digital, physical" is reify.
?
Get well soon!
When I look at the discs the barcode could have up to 4096 combinations. I wonder if the SD-card contains any music where there is no disc with matching barcode in the box. Like "hidden" music.
For those not familiar with the posh places in the UK, Fortnum & Mason are a high-end shop in central London that sells mainly food. The royal family probably shop there. Their tea is very good 😀
Probably silly to say, but that coffee looks delicious.
I have a vertuo machine too and it makes quite good coffee considering you only have to press a button 😃
Funny that the media info for the recording says it's MPEG Layer 2, that means it technically recorded an MP2/MPEG-2 file rather than an actual MP3 (which is MPEG Layer 3)
Layer 2 has lower complexity. Maybe that's just to keep the encoding chip simpler and cheaper. It's possbile though the decoder chip is not able to playback MPEG files that actuality use layer 3 encoding.
Were you able to open the .ebk file? Maybe instructions?
It contains a single character.
The "just before ten past five" joke is appalling, and you should be ashamed of yourself! Suggestions that I snickered then actually fully laughed are nothing more than scurrilous rumours. As always I enjoyed the video, but £55?! For that price I'd at least demand that the printing was correctly centred (I fail to believe I'm alone in being bothered by the gold centre in particular being so off-centre, but if I am then just ignore that twitch, it's nothing). The circular barcode looks very similar to one that was a finalist to become the format for UPC codes, submitted by a company called Charecogn. That company also apparently designed the first handheld barcode scanner, and their circular barcodes were called "Sunburst" codes. I rather like that name for something that now seems so prosaic.
Unfortunately the dates into time thing is a weird habit I have - there's a house up the road that shows 16:57 above the door and I always think to myself (whether I want to or not) that they only just got it finished before clocking off for the day. As for Sunburst codes - I like it. That's a great name.
I see your MP3 of Cuba Baion was recorded slightly before your Amazon delivery was due.
I didn’t spot that.
I love these easy-breezy videos 🍔👍 As someone said in the comments on YouTube, 15 minutes really is a great length for toy videos like these.
I think of Coppenrath as the frozen baked goods I always walk past in favour of the supermarket's own brand next to them. Edit: Apparently, this refers to a publishing house of the same name rather than the frozen pastry manufacturer. The things you find.
A similar thing is happening to the nintendo switch 2 where the game cartridges are effectively plastic tokens for a digital download, where you are at the mercy of the digital store if the game is still available after a few years. Sorry to hear about your health issues and all the trouble it’s causing. Hope you’re better soon.
Years ago I made a video where I was talking about the Wii U and one reason that it failed (other than the confusing name) was because the UK high street games retailer 'Game' refused to stock the Wii U console and games. Since Game were the only video game retailer in most towns, this really helped kill the machine in the UK. I said at the time that if I were Nintendo, when I release my next console I'd just sell my games online instead and cut out these problematic middle men. That's pretty much what has happened. Nintendo are doing just fine and Game now primarily sells Funkopops and other tat. The lesson here - Don't bite the hand that feeds you.
Jogged a welcome long forgotten memory of my old Tomy(?) “record playing train”- thing; was an air organ in a motorised toy train body that you set to go in a circle and the records were like plastic music box wheels; the plastic “pins” made the corresponding note blow. Even at 53, I still miss that thing. Regards
Really enjoyed this one Mat. Well-put together, good editing and the subject matter was interesting with the whole barcode angle which was unexpected. Again, hope you sort out some of those health issues. If it helps, and you feel you might have a tooth infection, see if they’ll give you something broad-spectrum like amoxicillin . I used to think my agonising couldn’t sleep for the pain toothaches were where the nerve was exposed, but once I’d started a 5 day course of antibiotics the pain would reduce by 99%. Dentist said it’s the infection that causes the crazy pain. Also a college swears by clove oil for tooth pain. In fact my dentist often packs fillings with something soaked in clove oil so perhaps there is something to it. Regards
Clove oil has been used to relieve dental pain for hundreds of years, and it does work to an extent, but it gets toxic very quickly, so best left to an expert to apply. Though I personally would probably avoid it due to it bringing up memories of very traumatic scenes from Marathon Man 😆
Am I the only one who thought the sound quality was actually not bad? Usually little plastic things like that I can't stand to listen to, but that one had a nice warm sound. Hope you feel better soon. Sorry, it's your ear, isn't it: HOPE YOU FEEL BETTER SOON!
• Holy mackerel, man. Your body needs to give you a break. Eh, as long as it doesn't involve bones, that is. • This is a cute novelty item. I love miniatures and oddities, and this meets some of the requirements, I suppose. • Your new desk blotter looks very nice. • I wouldn't want to imply that this technology has more potential than it actually does. However, it makes you wonder what additional applications it could be applied to... • I remember when my high school library installed a system that read bar code labels with a laser pen: https://ebay.us/m/6pFg0k It was really cool at the time. Oh how simple life was then. • 'Established just before 10 past 5.' 😆 *chortle* Ah, it's always a delight to watch your videos. Your eyes get bluer every time, perhaps I need an eye exam. Take care 🤍.
That's twice in a couple of months now I've gotten a wave of nostalgia for pen barcode readers (your post and an LGR video from August). I have such a strong memory of my local public library having these (though they were black plastic rather than metal), in particular the ones at the desk where you checked books out, which had a date stamp attached to them so the librarian could read the barcode in the book and then stamp the due date in one fluid movement. Weird what will bring up such feelings.
I noticed that there was a circuit board with some contacts that it looked like they could be pushed by those three buttons below the volume control. Did you ever true to press them to see if they really did do something?
No Slade, no sale.
I have a similar holiday mini record player. In this case, it’s the patten of metal dots on the underside of the “records” that tell it what song to play. https://i.ibb.co/PvJfGd50/IMG-7811.jpg
The way that works reminds me of some other device I’ve seen before, but my memory is on a go-slow. I’m pretty sure it was some children’s toy I got for my kids 20 years ago or so. It was definitely something that pretended to play different things depending on what you inserted, but the thing you inserted was just a token. Anyway, I hope your earache/toothache sorts itself out Matt. Thanks for all your videos. Saturdays wouldn’t be Saturdays otherwise :-). Take care of yourself.
here is a german price comparison site showing all the shops where you can get it, and it starts at 25€ https://www.idealo.de/preisvergleich/OffersOfProduct/207748292_-vintage-grammophon-sound-adventskalender-b-21-x-h-9-x-t-17cm-coppenrath-verlag.html
From the files I guess the executable code running in the player is also on the SD card or what would that EBKLIST.BIN be?
It’s a one character file.
Now I have actually seen the video I would like to see you replace the DIY02.mp3 file with different quality recordings and other file formats. Maybe consider an addendum? I know you probably don't want to take it apart again but it would be fun to see. Also you missed an opportunity to refer to the DIY discs as "red, gold and green." What would Boy George think?
Who's it a for then?
Hate to say Amazon was £38
The "Suggested Retail Price" from the manufacturer is 35€. You can buy it for 28€ at Amazon.de. So the shop Techmoan bought it from must be a very beautiful shopping experience hopefully.
You're a genius, you just gave me the perfect gift for three people @ Christmas
A few years ago, there was a similar device by Coppenrath with music and poems from the 1920s ("Ein rätselhafter Schimmer"): https://www.ein-raetselhafter-schimmer.de/boutique
I can't believe I'm saying this but you've actually been beaten to this one. Sort of. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBaMh6CYWSjX6mrcVMiwxGi6A4hoHhyTI&si=WmDfxHz_E3Tmsr2A Ashens, yes that one, doesn't go into depth about the tech or anything so your video is still unique. However it's unusual for me to see you cover something after somebody else. That is unless it's something like vinyl, compact cassette or MiniDiscs but then again your videos have that certain Mat from Techmoan je nais se quais that nobody else has so even if someone did cover something before you I'd still watch your coverage too.
Oh I don’t watch YouTube it’s full of nutters.
I think I have a clever name idea for the device. "Token Jukebox". You use a token, either the rotary barcode, or an NFC, or something else, that tells the machine to play a selected track.
As I was editing I thought Token was a better description, but by then it was too late. So yes I’ll go with your idea.
Of course you’d put Cuba Bajon on there. Now it’s going to be stuck in my head for a bit. Again. 🤣 That said… Take care of yourself first, Mat. Everything else can wait. If earache has turned into toothache then you have some nasty infection going on. Stay well on top of that and get rid of those little buggers and any stragglers.
Cuba Baion is a very pleasant earworm.
It's a low-tech version of the Tonies! Sorry you have to have health issues--again! One thing after another. Although recording Cuba Baion on this gadget is in keeping with the Techmoan Canon, I was kinda hoping that your test recording would feature you rambling on with one of the German Xmas songs or maybe "Get Lucky."😉🙂
How about this banger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P0s4dkpOTI&t=1130s 🎄
£55!!! holy cow, what a rip. That’s maybe £3 worth of materials!
With 7.65 USD wholesale that sounds about spot on. https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Children-S-Preschool-Music-Phonograph-Children_1601280108289.html
You know Mat something I thought I'd share with you although it's probably not the issue but just a thought. A few years ago I had my left ear suddenly go clogged and stay clogged. I could hear out of it but everything was dull and lifeless obviously because my ear was clogged, sort of felt like when you get water in your ear, that type of thing. I went to a few different ENT doctors and some of them did this and then some of them did that and it wasn't until the last one I went to looked in my ear and asked me had I been having excessive heartburn. Well it just so happened that I had been having chronic heartburn for a few months prior to my ear getting clogged up. Dietary matters aside a lot of it is due to a hernia causing excessive stomach acid coming back up the esophagus. Well apparently what had been happening was the stomach acid was coming up and because you have tubes in your ears that run into your throat the stomach acid was causing inflammation which was causing those tubes not to drain properly. I got on some medication for the heartburn and after a period of a couple months the inflammation subsided and my ears cleared up and have remained so, that is as long as I take the medication. This is probably not your issue but just thought I'd share and offer a thought, because it's something that three other ENT doctors missed until I got to the fourth one.
Unfortunately I know what’s wrong and it’s likely to get worse as I get older. At the moment it’s an infection, but it’s not the first one. I’m sure this happened around this time last year too. Glad they figured out your issue though.
I’m going to be one of those people who wants to get to the hidden folders because then you might be able to replace the 24 tracks with 24 MP3s you might actually want to hear. Happy Christmas!
Good luck https://www.fortnumandmason.com/retro-recordable-musical-advent-gramophone
Hope you feel better soon. Take it easy!
All the best to you Mat, hope you feel better soon. Gonna watch this while I eat my tea - not that anyone's interested but it's curry tonight.
Chilli Con Carne here.
🎅 🎅 Merry Christmas!🎅🎅🎅
Many of the supermarkets here have Christmas and Halloween stuff side by side. on the shelves. On December 26th the Easter stuff will go where Halloween was.
Health comes first! Sorry to hear about your ear issues, those can be terrible. Thank you for making us a video despite those circumstances
Sorry to hear that Mat. Hope you feel better soon. Regards