November 2020 Patreon Exclusive Video Oddcast
Here's the November update - a few extra bits and pieces just for Patrons.
This is the video version - an audio only version is available in a separate post.
As an extra treat for lovers of cheesy 1980s movie promos - here's a link to Skip Intro's upload of Movies Vol. 2. https://youtu.be/Nqij6l5gg4A
Link - The Uher chaps https://sds-consult.de/UHER/index.htm
Comments (80)
More Uher stuff: The German Bundestag is selling an old tape machine "Uher Universal 5000", which seems to be mostly used for dictation. With foot pedal and all. I'm wondering what things that machine might have heard... https://www.zoll-auktion.de/auktion/produkt/1_Bandmaschine_Uher_Modell_Universal_5000/679357
Thanks will have to check if mine is plasma.
Hi Mat. Great video. Just a stupid question as I'm always asking my wife not to leave TV on pause. It it only oled TV that get screen burn or is it all TV? I know I just brought a second hand s9 cheap as the prev owner had badly screen burned the screen. Still usable but it notices
It’s only OLED & Plasma you need to be careful with.
Shame to see the Kenwood sign gone, I found myself admiring it quite a bit in the background. I was wondering where you got it.
I just found it on ebay. I’ve removed it as I found I had too many things plugged into too many other things to be safe.
You don't ever need to apologise for being yourself, Mat! :-) Re the Uher case, the machine I sold for £60 recently had a pretty good case with it. Wish I'd known you wanted one! https://photos.app.goo.gl/zXvYX3MGKw3yVQHc7 Ahh well . . . By the way, don't mention the money - you're absolutely right. :-)
Oh no need to worry about the case - from what I've seen the Report Monitor and the Report used different cases - so it very likely wouldn't fit. Thanks again though - always good to see you here.
Ah, I'm the same with just avoiding talking about money - 'how much was that' I usually just avoid the chat/discussion for the reasons you mention. Came from when I was brought up, just didn't discuss money, salary. Kind of a little bit crass to.
do views via patreon count towards overall youtube views, sorry if this a dumb question.
Yes they do - it's an embedded video, so it's playing on YouTube really. It all counts.
Hi Matt. Not sure if you'll ever see this, but worth a try. I would like to make you a battery powered lightbox to replace the Kenwood one you had behind you. I would like to make it in the style of the Kenwood Techmoan logo. I wouldn't charge for this. If you're interested, let me know. Thank you
That’s a very very kind offer, but I’ll have to decline. Last week I was going through the plugs in the room to find out what plugged into what and realised I’d got way way too many things plugged in. So as a result I’ve taken down the Kenwood sign (which I’d begun to think looked a bit odd on all videos anyway). So thanks again, but it’s better that I prevent a fire.
Stuck in the house for a week? In northern Canada we had a word for that: cabin fever.
FWIW, I've picked up a few cases from Cases and Enclosures (cases-and-enclosures.co.uk) and they're pretty decently priced and good quality. Just adding to the knowledgebase there :-)
Do you have links to any of the other "Skip Intro" movie magazine videos. I guess they are all unlisted, so don't come up in YT search.
He’s uploading one a month - so far there are just the two, but I’ve got it on good authority that he’s recently bought a few more from Japan (at great expense) in order to have a good long run of these...well until something stops him.
Great video. "Oddcast" is a brilliant name but at the same time I kind of miss the word "blather"
Ah, still one of my highlights of the month. Thanks Mat!
Because ONE province in Canada requires everything to be labelled in French, almost all consumer products offered for sale in the US also include French labelling. The manufacturers and distributers do not want to bother creating special packaging for one small French province... so we all suffer a dead language :-D
I'd be bitter if I lived in Ontario, too. Or Alberta.
One thing I do like is the fact you often put stuff up for Patrons a week in advance. I'm a Patron of a couple of other channels (both US based) and they'll put stuff up a mere four hours before it goes live for everyone else. So by the time I sit down to watch it, it's no longer an exclusive. I haven't seen the comments, but I laughed out loud at the main Muppet character wearing his mask like that, as that's EXACTLY how he'd wear it... if at all!
Don't worry about the grumps. I enjoy them regardless.
Really enjoy these off-the-cuff videos Mat, thanks for this latest one. On the topic of YouTube subtitles - these piss me off immensely. They will often “automagically” start to appear a short way into clips, and I need to manually turn them off. I think that because I have my phones regional language set to Swedish, the geniuses at YouTube assume that I must be in need of English help and thus must force subs on me.. infuriating on the phone. Anyway, hope you got that time outside! Looking forward to future vids.
Matt, I love your oddcasts. Raw and true.
Oh another thing, I am so glad that you do share these. It's kind of nice to be acknowledged, sort of like a blanket "Thank you for your support". Or a "this is something we're all in on together" Some places they do big productions stuff, but it's a business. Every video is sponsored, there are referral sales codes. In those cases Patreon is just another revenue stream, like KiwiCo, or Hello Fresh and the patrons, they may get a trinket gift and a laser printed *hand written note* that the outsourced customer service company sends out. You are an independent. You are true to your brand, and acknowledge your patrons. You are careful about how you handle gifts, and items that you recommend. Thank you for doing it your way.
Thanks - I’ve got to sleep at night and look myself in the mirror and a lot of the things that are on offer would mean that couldn’t happen.
I love the old movie previews and commercials. I recently restored an old Sony Betamax. Watching the 80s commercials was a trip down memory lane. "Raise your hand if you're Shure", "The extra fresh flavor lasts an extra, extra, extra long time!", the Pointer Sisters "Jump" Bounce fabric softener ad. All that good stuff!
We need an 'all advertising' network - nothing but commercials
6:10 If anyone knows how to refill a calculator LCD I would be very interested. I have a nice old Sharp calculator, maybe the first to have a Dot Matrix display, that has gradually leaked all the Liquid Crystal from around the edges. Yes I have Googled the subject a few times but never found an answer.
Here's how to roll your own: https://youtu.be/d4QFNWBSZYg Although you'll probably have more luck salvaging an OEM display from another unit... 😶
That wasn't rubbish, it was very interesting and I even watched it on a Monday night!
I'm sorry the minidisc packaging video wasn't more successful, I for one found it fascinating and really enjoyed it! So you definitely have my thanks. For the Uher video, I picked up the term, "success, disaster" where something is so surprisingly successful that it's turned into a disaster trying to cope with the success. It sounds like the guys refurbishing the Uher NOS had that issue. LOL Although, it seems that it tipped over to the success side of things if they were grateful enough to send you a thank you gift. Thanks so much for the update, as well as seeing the Sony XEL-1 OLED display still in active use! That definitely put a smile on my face as well.
if discussing your salary with your coworkers creates ill will, it should be ill will directed at the bosses, not at each other.
I’ve worked in offices for close to 30 years - any time anyone got to find out about someone else’s salary - stuff hit the fan. However fair it was - the result was always a thoroughly miserable time for everyone on the team - the bosses were part of the team too.
Another great update. Please continue to put them out at whatever interval you feel like!
Hi Mat and thanks for another great monthly update. Thinking about the release schedule and your comment about people not watching videos that are a few days old, I would have assumed that this applies to the casual viewer but anyone who finds and subscribes to your channel would then be happy to watch your back catalogue, maybe years after they have been uploaded. I know that when I find a channel that really interests me, I can spend days catching up. I would have also thought that as most of your content is not topical in the same way that a review of say a current TV programme would be the videos would not go stale so quickly. I suppose the general viewing public are more fickle than us nerds hence the rapid drop off in views – that and the mysterious way the YouTube algorithm works.
Oh the back catalogue is very useful - there’s hundreds of videos so each one adds a little bit to the daily total and in turn the monthly income. Without that mass of videos behind me, things would be very different.
I'm pretty sure burn-in on an OLED means you need to top up on the olediquid. Did you check the dipstick? 😳 Many years ago, while entering an electronics store a few steps behind a middle-aged couple, I can still remember hearing the husband adamantly telling his wife "We're not getting a plasma TV. Never plasma!" Wonder if he was more worried about "re-gassing", or burn-in? 🤔
Re the Uher guys: These days of lockdowns et al ... suddenly having a one year backlog of orders does not sound like a problem, but more of a blessing.
Wouldn't surprise me if they actually have a day job besides the UHER gig, though. Still, a nice problem to have!
You mentioned you have too much stuff in the storage locker. You may want to do a sale of stuff for charity (the NHS?). That may negate the issue of selling stuff and having people complain if there are issues with it. All sales would be "as is". Could raise some good money for a good cause, and would free up some space.
Most of the things I’ve got are US or Japanese voltage - so can’t really be passed on. However the main reason I don’t sell anything is that it’s a massive time consuming pain in the neck - unless it’s to someone I know.
One of the good things about a channel is getting stuff down for posterity (presuming YouTube don't take it down or something else happens). I feel that of all the things I've done in my life, this may be the best as it will carry forward knowledge. In particular the Ford SYNC video was created by interviewing the Microsoft folk who worked on it - knowledge that would have just been lost to time.
This is most likely a reach, but for that "OLED liquid refill" person, I wonder if somehow they were conflating Rear Projection TVs since they have liquid-filled projector tubes. That said, the liquid shouldn't have to be replaced for the life of the TV, so it would be odd for a salesperson to mention it. https://youtu.be/4gTthAud-VM?t=424 (video of guy disassembling one.)
I didn’t know about those - but yes it’s a bit of a stretch, but I’m all for it. I don’t think we’ll ever know what went on with some of these things.
My motto is "Never mention what you paid for it" We all have a mate down the pub who says.............."Why didn't you let me know, I could have got that for half, of what you paid" or "You could of had mine, still in the box, never used" And the usual when you say you paid £500 (when you actually paid £1000).........."Phew, they saw you coming there mate" Hope all good Matt and catch up soon. A&J
There are also some people who always like to know the price of things, but then when you tell them, they immediately forget anyway. It’s one of those automatic questions like how much did the newborn baby weigh? What are they going to do - put the number into an excel spreadsheet of baby weights? By the way - as far as the item I’ve put aside for you goes - as Dustin Hoffman once said in Marathon Man - ‘yes it’s safe’.
A things that didn't work out video once every so often would probably be interesting showing people that things don't always go to plan.
If you saw how a certain contingent of the internet rose up to try and get the 8-Bit guy cancelled recently for blowing a fuse in an already non-functional and unspectacular IBM machine - you’ll understand that while a rational person could see something go wrong and think - well ho-hum, much of the modern world is no longer capable of responding rationally to things that don’t always go their way. Recent events in the news lay testament to this.
I do believe you are right about not discussing prices. Someone always feels bad afterwards.
I agree strongly. Mat put it well when he mentioned that he would receive criticism if people felt he paid too much or paid too little for whatever he bought.
Absolutely love those Uher devices, but just have no real need for a R2R tape machine. Actually, just the story about the two brothers engaged in this enterprise and being such honest, decent folks makes the idea of having one of these devices even more appealing. Also liked how you appropriated the TM logo from the Brazilian news program.
The Brazilian news logo was surprisingly easy to get a pretty close copy of. I’m sure the font I’ve used is wrong, but it’s good enough.
Hope you managed to get some R&R Mat, we don’t want you to burn out! I think you have to remember with these update videos that we’re not watching them for flashiness - think of it like the Uher guys - not as flashy on the surface but at least there’s someone nice underneath. We appreciate your time and your ramblings about your world!
Right. Mat is one of the nicest guys on the Internet.
Some people are clueless or as you say just ignorant. I never knew about the counter on the other track though. This is very clever idea who ever thought of that
Im registered blind. But have pretty good central vision. I missed out on them machines. bu had 3 Aunts who were completely blind and they had them players. And yes Braille... It is flipping difficult. I tried for over a year to try learning it. But no change. Too hard. By guide dog 🦮 would have a better change of learning it than I me.
I’ll be honest, the dozens of dozens of comments saying ‘why didn’t it have braille on it’ kind of annoyed me - because it showed a certain level of socially unaware presumption and ignorance all at the same time.
The burn in discussion was interesting....We bought a Panasonic plasma roughly 15 years ago...still going strong, our friends bought the same TV and had it on for music in the background for their dogs when they were out of the house...they have burn in...you can see it but it isn't bad enough to throw out the TV.
For subtitles, I've used https://www.descript.com. It's not free after the demo, but has some amazing abilities beyond subtitles, but works really well for this. You can then upload the subtitles file to Youtube.
I’ve heard good things about it - I’ll look into this, thanks for the link.
Mini disc packaging got a mention on a big blog here in the United States........https://boingboing.net/2020/11/11/why-japans-minidisc-cases-were-the-best.html
I saw that - it appeared in a couple of places. However it was just far too niche.
Appreciate this video...it was a nice update.
Excellent - really enjoyable catch-up as always. Never mind the quality, feel the width, as they used to say. Actually, the quality is fine too. Have a great week, Mat!
I personally loved the Minidisc video. Those types of videos are the ones I get most excited about. Great job on it :)
About those studio lights, could it be the power supply making them interfere with devices and FM ?
This happens with all LED lights in my house - in every room. It’ll likely happen with yours too - give it a try. The ones in my studio are far closer than the ones in the roof, so have a greater effect. However if they are turned on and I dim the panels the effect is less than if I increase the brightness. While editing I realised I needed to quickly shoot an extra insert for a close-up of the tuner needle. So I left my LCD monitor folded out and plonked the radio in front. For a few seconds I couldn’t figure out why I was unable to pick anything up as I’d opened the curtains for light and all the lights were off - then I switched off the monitor (it was on screen saver) and the radio came in clear and strong. So the LED illumination in the monitor was killing reception too.
Thanks for the video! I'm sorry to hear that fixing the auto-stop didn't work (as I gave the tip about the capacitor I thought...). Hopefully better next time, unfortunately it's too far away to help you in person.
Don’t worry about it - plenty of people suggested I replace the caps - it seemed to make sense and I assumed that it would do the trick too. Then when people started suggesting checking resistance and connecting things to ground - they lost me. Swap old item A for new item A is something I can grasp - test and fiddle with item B using item C in conjunction with item B - while applying a voltage to item D - that’s where I tap out.
John's arcade does show the warts and all videos. Even with him failing to fix a monitor for months. I appreciate you may not feel that's what you want to show. I on the other hand enjoy the trials along with the successes, it lets me know that what I'm watching isn't just for the YouTube, but is actually real. Mustie1 is another great channel for this. In identally I paid about £3500 for our 65in curved Samsung. Thankfully it's still working, but looking at the prices now makes me roll my eyes. Watch the "cat" doesn't knock it over and smash it though that would be an insurance claim...
I like every video to contain some kind of progression or useful information. There is one device I spent a lot of money on that ended up going in the bin - and it’s such a catalogue of failure I’d like to tell the story, but I fear the public would try to cancel me if I made the video.
This video is fine Matt.
One thought about those repair false starts. Could they be recycled into a how to video? Even if the final result wasn't successful maybe just showing the process could be one of those videos to get back on track.
The ones I’ve done couldn’t - it’s either how to completely break something so it can never be used again and has to go in the bin or How to spend two days messing about and end up back at exactly where you started. Based on how people reacted when the 8-Bit Guy blew a fuse in an old broken business computer - the modern day public appears no longer capable of watching something without it having a happy resolution where everything is neatly tied up in a bow.
The stories about when you mention a company, and they do really well and then send you a gift just warms my heart everytime. Always seems to be Germany as well! Also, I know I am probably speaking out my butt so feel free to ignore this, but if you ever struggle to find a high quality image of something on google, try stock photo sites. In 2018, Getty images were threatening google with a lawsuit due to "unfair competition" as people were using google images to find HD art etc. Google eventually gave up and purposefully made finding hi res images on google images difficult, due to GI. Sorry if I'm speaking out of turn.
Those Getty images cost a fortune unfortunately, but I wasn’t aware that Google had stopped indexing them - so thanks for the info.
What was your experience like with the de-solder station? Did it speed up the process / make life easier? In projects I use de-solder wick and it's such a painful and messy affair.
It did seem a lot better to me. I tried wick once with no luck, and I’ve used those cheapo spring loaded things that seem very hit and miss. It’s likely only really worth it though if you plan on doing a lot of desoldering - which I don’t. Although I’ve a CD player that needs fifty or so caps replacing so I have vague plans to give it a go one day.