VIDEO ODDCAST JAN ’26
Something for the weekend.
A bit earlier than anticipated, here’s my first Patreon exclusive update for 2026.
https://youtu.be/2diOPJKZh_U
There’s an audio only version available in a separate post.
Take care.
Comments (64)
Think I’ve watched this 4 times now. Not got a clue why. I like your Oddcasts, as I put them on in the background 🤩 Finding the room situation really interesting. I’ve never seen the results of a short throw projector. In my head it would be like shining a torch up a wall with the light fading at the top and more intense at the bottom. I know that’s not the case, as that would be a shit idea. But I’m really interested to hear your take on it. Also, a nasal Techmoan is better than no Techmoan 😁 - it never bloody bothers me anyway. Good luck with all the medical stuff, pal. Lee
"I misplaced the thing I wanted to show you" Techmoan, as always, being the most relatable person on youtube.
Re: Watching less TV than you used to, I'm curious what are you doing instead?
i wish i knew, time just seems to vanish now.
On the Philips it sounds like the phono output is always connected to the turntable regardless of what else is going on. So when you were tapping the buttons for the CD player you could hear it bump the stylus and make a pop noise through the speakers.
Great idea with the projector. I did something similar a few months ago. I use a motorized screen coming from the ceiling.
Must say with advent of tv's getting bigger, the idea of a fold away screen when not in use is a very tempting idea, modern flat telly's just seem so ugly and dominating of the room when there off, especially as there just litrally a big black rectangle with no style or form these days.
My mother had the same floor put in. It’s amazing - it’s saved so many dropped glasses and ceramics - they used to smash on the tiles she’s had previously - but now they just bounce! Worth it just for that. As for cameras, Apple have worked hard to make the results look very good - there’s no shame in using them these days. The Ricoh GR is good if you put it on black and white - you get some great high contrast shots. Not life like at all - but the phone is the thing to do that with. (Damn sounds like that GR IV was a bargain. Would have loved to have a go at buying it (I only have the original GR I)).
For me there was no difference in the photos I took compared to the GRIII - so if you find a bargain priced one of those that's been traded in for a IV, it might be worth looking at. Oddly enough though there were plenty of GRIVs on ebay already with low photo numbers and not at scalper prices, more from people who realised it wasn't for them. I feel a lot of people did what I did. They were champing at the bit for a new quality compact, held out as long as they could for something like a Sony RX100 VIII, gave up, bought the Ricoh and then realised it wasn't that type of camera. I even saw people on forums who'd only ever used a phone camera and who'd bought the Ricoh as an upgrade asking why their pictures looked so bad.
I am a long throw tilt/shift projector in the back of the room type person...but I have a bit more ceiling height than you do...I can stand under my projector and arm fully extended, just reach the cables inputs...need a ladder to read what input is what.
Thouroughly enjoyed that actually even though I have no interest in video screens! Used both the video versions and had the audio podcast on whilst I was pottering around the garden for a bit earlier. Bath - pronounced Bahth (not Barth) by us northerners 😀 (yes I know Bath is in the south west).
I've been using a drop down vividstorm ALR screen and a UST projector in place of a TV for a few years now. Works brilliantly. I have MS and it has attached my optic nerve, so need a big screen. Not having a massive TV dominating the room while I'm not watching is a major benefit!
Hi Mat. On the subject of Sony products, have you ever tried their REON personal cooling devices? ❄️ https://www.sony.com.au/microsite/reon-pocket-pro/
I bought one with the intention of doing a review, however… it was agonisingly uncomfortable. I just couldn’t wear it long enough to get any opinion about it, and then I got very ill and it got forgotten about. However if I had managed to do the review it wouldn’t have been positive.
When did the theatre quad happen or did I miss an update that discussed that? I did end up buying the A7000/SW5/SA5 set and been enjoying it for years now. The newer sound bars all NEED the app so that’s a negative for me. The A7000 having two inputs seems like a smart feature that doesn’t exist on any other product either… Glad you’re happy with the iPhone as a camera. Better than the alternative you described of being unhappy with the standalone camera.
It was sometime last year when I realised I probably wasn’t going to die imminently I decided to treat myself. There was a good deal on too. Unfortunately ever since it arrived I’ve had hearing loss in one ear so I can’t get the full effect and therefore can’t really pass judgement. As a result it’s never been properly discussed.
Describing your photography style as "I just don't want to be one of those with the tripod and the bird and the thing that explodes..." made me blurt laugh!
If getting an endoscopy video is a patreon perk then frankly, I'm outta here. :) It was a messy video but not like I was forced to watch it. And I will give you credit, I did watch it and found some interest in it. Some people talk about interesting stuff in such a way that I honestly can't watch them. Sometimes if the subject is REALLY interesting I try and endure thru it. You have a nice presenting style.
For a moment I thought everything after your first sentence referred to an actual endoscopy. 🤣
While you might have described that 'oddcast' as a mess, I found it very interesting, and at times also funny enough to let go a few 'snortles' :)
What were you doing with that anamorphic lens? Techmoan: The Movie confirmed?
Nice to see your boss checking up on you my void constantly does the same :)
I had a TOE (Transoesophageal Electrocardiogram) many years ago, not an experience I wish to repeat, so my thoughts are with you. Hell, I've had medical cameras up and down even worse orifices than that, and they weren't as bad! I picked up a BenQ projector from a doorstep once ("Free to good home" sign on it.) I suspected it was there as the owner couldn't afford the bulb replacement. I've still got it. Might see if they've come down in price. Treadaire... the only company still using WordArt for Windows 3.1! Bath (and Liverpool) sadly just look like identikit cities now, all the same shops. I had a claustrophobic experience down London's Oxford Street in the late 90s. Gawd knows what it's like now. I actually shared The Crap Shot video on a forum last week, as the discussion was about terrible filming techniques. It went down very well. I didn't notice at first that it was unlisted, so that might explain a sudden boost in viewing figures!
Wild that you interviewed for ST Format magazine! I loved it as a kid and still have all my issues here in Australia.
Thanks for the update Mat - I don't suppose you want to sell me that Pinball Legends Micro from your conservatory? I can collect from a neutral location.
Love these updates - the unscripted waffle is just great. And belated well done on another trip round the sun . . . Couple of suggestions for you with a big caveat; as a relative newbie I fully appreciate I'm about to make the same mistake as countless others before me who assume their ideas are original, so apologies in advance if you've already considered what follows. I also have no idea of the 'domestic' acceptability of any of this. Feel free to completely disregard/ignore :-) Screen: given that you don't have any lights in the ceiling of the outhouse(!?) have you considered a full width semi-rigid screen that hinges at the ceiling/rear wall join/corner? Essentially it would give you the option to store it flat against the ceiling when not in use, and then hinge/drop it down against the upper part of the back wall when you need it (I dunno if I explained that very well). That set-up would free up some of your floor space, save a few quid on powered screens and would allow you to create a rigid frame with your chosen material on the viewing side and something that blends in with the ceiling on the back. Lounge: this is a much more speculative suggestion 'cos I've no idea what your hall layout is. Not sure what - if anything - you're intending to do for sound around the new screen location. It looks like the door opens pretty much flat to the section of wall to the side of the window, which may rule out side-mounted speakers. While you've got the decorators in, it could be worth considering changing the way it opens from in to out, saving you clouting anything. Have a great rest of the month!
Unfortunately nothing whatsoever can be mounted to the roof of the studio office - the ceiling material is akin to polystyrene - hence all the stuff with floor rising screens and projector towers. Even the light fittings are on the walls. If you look back on the Patreon updates you’ll find a lot more info about the office and its restrictions - it’s all been a compromise which has required some unusual solutions. As for the lounge I’ve measured everything and it’ll all work out - the hall door can only open inwards, there’s no room on the other side for it to open into the other space. Oh and the decorators have thankfully left - it was either them or me in the end.
Does the new flooring reflect or absorb the loud sounds, and echo in the room with the projector etc? Would you need new soundproofing in the lounge? What would you use for surround sound etc. No matter what i do i can never get correct amounts of sockets in the right place lol.
I’m a long way from finishing the set-up so can’t really comment on how things will sound in the end, I’ll know a bit more when I get some curtains put up. The surround system will be my Sony Bravia Theater Quad - the massive benefit of this when it comes to a UST projector set-up is there is no front centre speaker to worry about.
I happen to be going through the same stuff re: "pocket camera vs. phone camera." You're 100% right: the only people who aren't going to prefer a flagship phone camera over a "real" camera are the people who are indeed hobbyist photographers. Like me. When I click the button and look at the screen, I'm hoping to react with "Ooo…it captured a lot of data, that's awesome" instead of "Ooo…it took a very pretty photo." To hobbyists, the JPEG or the DNG file is the just the sheet music; you "perform" it, to your liking, inside Photoshop (or whatever). Even if all I'm doing is pushing a few sliders around in Lightroom Mobile on my phone…I consider that to be actual Fun. But yeah, to everybody else…the computational photography pipeline produces instant, effortless results that are never less than Very Good and are frequently Terrific. My current pain is that my really nice pocket camera is now (a) ten years old and (b) broken. It's a nice enough one that it can still be serviced. But I'll be out hundreds of dollars and I'll still have a tiny, twelve-year-old image sensor. I bought it in 2017, when it was a terrific bridge between the then-severe limitations of my phone camera and the inconvenience of my nice mirrorless camera. But in 2026, I have to acknowledge that the advantages of a pocket-sized camera (beyond image quality) aren't enough to justify the expense of the repair, let alone the $1000+ cost of its modern equivalent. Which is a bummer…it was really a perfect EDC camera.
The biggest selling points of a dedicated pocket camera to me would be a long zoom, physical buttons, auto lens cover and a tilt screen. It really would only be a Sony RX 100 Viii that could make me consider a separate dedicated photo camera again. There were quite a few head to head videos featuring the latest iPhone going up against the RX100 VII and it was pretty much a dead heat. That’s a great showing for a six year old camera, but not enough reason for me to buy one now.
I’m with you on the smartphone vs digital camera debate. I’m too old to be wasting my ever diminishing years faffing with ‘post processing’. I’ve just upgraded my iPhone 15 to the 17 pro and now faffing is a thing of the past with great images every time… this post was brought to you by Apple 😂
You have to follow the cat down the rabbit-hole, Mat. Have you not read your cat instructions?!
Ironically, my 22 year-old daughter now wants an 'old timey' camera which takes 'real photos'... you know, onto a memory card! Apparently they used these crazy old contraptions way back in 2000. 4-7 megapixels to get that genuine ancient look to the photos.
For the real ancient look I recommend a Polaroid 635CL Supercolor 😁.
Underlay underlay arriba arriba - glad someone else thought that too!
With new setup no room for laserdisc player then? I also was thinking getting short throw projector, I hadn't realised regarding the screen, we just got standard projector screen. Was in bath on Wednesday at the hospital for wife (we live Hastings)
Any chance you'll be looking at the new Sony Turntables?
I think there’s no chance - they look pretty average to poor from what I’ve seen of them. Sony have shown very little interest in selling decent HiFi for a while.
4:28 was that person me? I have the same issue with being in public. I have a meeting with a psychologist in February so they can tell me what I already know. Bizarre, I just bought the iPhone 17 pro in orange last week to replace the iPhone 14 Pro. The quality of the photos from the iPhone have been great for years. I'd tried several cameras to take photos for my website but the quality just wasn't good enough.
Re 04:28 I wasn’t thinking of that one, but yes that item is also sitting in it’s box waiting for a future round up of tat.
next video should be recorded in VistaVision.
Nice little surprise to get up this morning and see there's a new Oddcast to start my day with. Lots of stuff to ponder over, but on seeing your lovely new lounge decor, I now feel the need to update my lounge/living room. We'll see how long it takes to get around to it. Interesting to see that lush, green grass out in your back yard, while here in Minnesota USA we've got a cold snap with temperatures around -20F/-28C, although there are worse things happening around here at the moment. I'm with you on a couple of things: 1. Those scenes in Bath with all those crowds, I find unnerving, but on the rare occasions I'm in that situation I find a way to bear with it. 2. How using smartphones for photography while awkward or clumsy to use will nevertheless also produce consistently good photos that outperform a standard small camera. This gets me to thinking about how awkward and inconvenient AV gear was in years past and how you think you'd have kitted yourself out with AV and photo gear if you'd been an adult with similar tastes and budget that you have now, but back in the 1970s, 60s or even 50s. I think we can guess based on all the gadgets featured in your videos over the years, but it's interesting (to me anyway) to imagine what sort of gear you'd have used--such as still cameras and movie cameras, tape formats, stereos and other consumer gear you think you would have actually used in those days.
Well he did have a lenticular print camera at a time (early 90's?) when I thought such a thing wasn't available to the consumer market. Oh and current temperature in central Iowa is -3°F -19°C, so we are in better shape than Minnesota.
Have you ever been tested for ADHD? None of my business, and a f-off is ok.. I can just relate.. the old "it takes one to know one" defense.
I’ve got too many plates spinning to find the time for something like that. Got to go. But seriously though folks…I can’t have anything else wrong with me, I’d get kicked off the NHS.
Awesome oddcast, the more discombobulated they are the more fun. Sort of like you messing about your house with awesome tech. Also always fear that these make me go to Amazon and click buy it now. Excited to see how the short throw projection project will go. One thing I wonder is if people on the outside will see a reversed image of what you are watching. Can imagine your curtains will block it out.
Fortunately the light doesn’t go through the screen, from outside it’s just a dark grey panel.
I do like how that anamorphic lens looks.
Yes not great in low light, but very interesting in the right conditions.
Wow! A lot going on! It’s good to see that you’re getting on well enough, though I’m sure if I tried to do all the projects you’re doing, I’d be a total wreck. I think you answered the question why Sony might be selling its electronics company. When you were in Bath taking those photos, the iPhone gave you superior pictures to the dedicated camera… and you, my friend, are a bit of geek. For every one of us, (I’m including me,) who dabbles in understanding all the electronic technology that’s inundating us, there are hundreds of others thinking, “the damn camera isn’t working, wait, the phone’s much better,” end of story. In the end, it’s what you want the technology to do for you, and how well it does it for the money you’re prepared to spend on it. I’m just wanting something that can take decent photos and videos, that i don’t have to worry about. P.S., love the new flooring. That’s going to look great when it’s finished. Congratulate the missus on a job well done.
I’m taking all the plaudits for the floor, she was off at work but I had to try and convince the cat to spend all day with me in the garden office which really wasn’t easy.
Thanks for sharing. Our lounge floor is in need of replacement as well and now I know what kind of flooring material I would like to go for. That looks awesome.
I’d never heard of LVT before last week. One big benefit is that if you do manage to damage a ‘plank’ (which is apparently really difficult to do) - but if you did, all they need to do is peel it off and stick a new one down (I’ve got half a box of spare tiles left over). With normal wood flooring it’s all interlocked, so it’s a nightmare.
• Your new floor looks great. • The Philips video got a fairly large number of views. 👍🏼 • I had to rewatch the 'Cut the Crapshot' video. 😃 https://youtu.be/JGKM9oi0mkA . • Carry on making videos of things you're interested in - despite how horrible they apparently are I'm still enjoying them. • "An altercation with a nutcase." Sounds like my typical public experience, in one way or another. • That cat portrait is adorable. And agreed that the lounge looks better in that configuration, well through video anyway. • I thought Sony was appropriately demoralized by your review of the LinkBuds that they'd never make those sort of things again. • Anamorphic Widescreen Edition - are there any easter eggs on your Special Edition DVD? • I'm selling my old Sony CFD-545 (1996) and it reads a CD in 2 seconds - despite most of the same models on eBay indicating the CD function is dead. • I laughed so much at your voices and verbal sound effects in this one. Have a lovely clutter-free weekend and take care. 🤍
You’re right about the Philips video, I noticed that myself earlier which was a nice surprise. One company has offered to send me a very expensive all in one record player/speakers (I found the offer in my spam) - the only issue is that it’s not something I would ever buy for myself at the price, or recommend, and so I’m not sure it’s worth me looking at. Looking at the Philips video I’m wondering if the interest is in that specific type of device or just new record players in general.
Your experience in Bath at Christmas time is pretty normal - It's an awful place to visit as it's too small and too busy with the Christmas markets going on. Outside of that period it's a nice place to visit.
I think once was enough - it’s a shame this experience ruined it. It’s a bit like going somewhere in a downpour, it really leaves a bad first impression.
Great video; the only notes I have for you is that it could always use more cat content and eating weird things. Carry on.
You’ll be glad to know I’ve ordered some disgusting sounding Chinese noodle varieties to try. Duck Blood flavour anyone?
The mention about people leaving you alone in November and being able to get a massive amount of stuff done... I can relate to that. I feel like, as I get older, I appreciate and understand more that protecting my and my team's heads-down time is the most effective way to ensure that stuff gets done.
Yes when I was working in an insurance office, with all the appraisals and meetings, reviews, training etc etc - I could often be heard saying ‘remember when we actually did work, rather than talking about doing work’.
Portable minifon for you https://www.facebook.com/share/1AK9cGfK7T/?mibextid=wwXIfr
Sorry I can’t access Facebook however I do have a BNIB Minifon and accessories stored away somewhere.