It’s déjà vu time again.
Yes you’ve seen this video before - well the first five minutes of it anyway, the last ten minutes have been re-shot and updated. It started as a simple experiment so much like a short story expanded into a movie, it might overstay its welcome.
Anyway enough about that - I’ve got more emails from people who fell for the scammers on YouTube. One showed me how far down the line he took it before finally becoming suspicious about the ‘giveaway’ he thought he’d won. He was communicating with someone somewhere via Telegram - I don’t even know how Telegram works (I don’t want to know - I have more than enough things that ring/buzz/ding and interrupt filming).
The give-away aspect perhaps should have been a give away as I don’t do give-aways.
On one hand I feel sorry and indirectly responsible for these peoples’ predicaments. In the same way a person who builds a road might feel responsible if someone crashes on it while doing a blindfolded wheelie on a faulty superbike.
On the other hand I’ve written enough email replies now to explain in the nicest possible terms that NO - you haven’t won a prize - and this isn't just a problem on my channel - it's all over YouTube.
The people who fall for these things jump on these fake offers with all the eagerness of a parched man offered a cold beer in the desert. Deleting these spam comments retroactively seems to have ZERO impact when the 'mark' hastily replied within seconds of the scam message being posted.
Even if I were to turn off the comments on the next video to stop the scammers there’s still 550+ old videos capable of receiving a thousand spam comments while I’m sleeping.
As well as the warning on the next video I did put a written warning on https://www.youtube.com/techmoan/about - but while people are enthusiastic to urgently dial any phone number written in Wingdings, they’re far far less likely to click on a tab labelled ABOUT before doing something irrational.
Anyway - that’s the state of affairs on YouTube this week. Just wanted to share - just venting, not looking for solutions, it's Youtube's problem to fix at source - I can't sort it from my end.
Have a good weekend.
Comments (42)
Sadly I don’t remember it, I had a tape recorder and a Girls World head 😬🤷🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
Glad you found a working solution. I have an earlier version of the second unit you showed off but under a different Chinese name. I use it to broadcast old radio shows on cassette from the HiFi to a modified 1940s Philco radio I have.
I've heard that Apt-X adaptive is the new hotness. It should take over from HD an LL as it will negotiate the highest bitrate it can. Plus, it can go above the HD's bitrate.
Does anyone know what the transmitter is converting the analog to before transmitting via Bluetooth? Is it 44/16?
It's almost worth putting up with the spammers just to read this pithy post from Mat! 😄
Super 👌 post as allways matt .regarding sound quality when listening to our music. I had a hearing test last week .the results show my right ear is 30db less than my left allso the frequency range is between 18hz to 12khz .being 67 years young lol .I only use headphones now if I just listen with the right there is a significant difference. Kind regards shaun
My hearing isn't geat - if I could ever clear my Eustachian tubes it would be a lot better though.
Supper post matt regarding sound quality.I had a hearing test the outher day .at 65 years young . I discovered my right ear is 18 to 12
Wonderful! As soon as I watched your first video on this topic, I rushed out and bought the transmitter - just what I need so I can see what it is connecting to - which can be a problem as I mix and match between various transmitting and receiving devices. Thanks for that, Mat. Now excuse me as I need to send off for the millions I won in a lottery I didn’t enter, and pay just a few hundred dollars admin fee. What could possibly go wrong?
So that means you have to turn the 1Mii on every time you want to listen to music (because if you keep it in the Tx position it keeps waking up your soundbar)? That reduces the usefulness.
In my situation it’s not a problem - when I’m loading a cassette etc into my HiFi I’ll also just turn the BT transmitter on at that point.
I enjoyed this new and improved video very much. Your earlier mishap created the opportunity for a comparison between SBC and Apt-X. As a result, the subject is more compelling. I chuckled at your comments at mark 10:41, very nicely done there. I am glad it worked out well for you in the end. We appreciate your hard work. I also had a random thought when you said the device forced your soundbar to turn on. it reminded me of Skynet or how the Orac computer took control of Zen from time to time. Another thought, who lives in Apartment X?
John Malkovich? 🤔
Between those scammers and all the other potential pitfalls and harassments you get on a platform like YouTube, I'm amazed anyone has the strength to run a successful channel without going mad. I don't think I'd have enough patience but I'm sure we're all grateful that you do, Mat.
Yes I’m not sure I’ll still be doing it in a few years…it’s getting weirder.
In the middle of watching the re-edit, an idea just hit me: At 3:45 you show how the B03+ is trying to connect to the TV, "which I don't want it to do" — are you sure? What if the LG TV does aptX HD? 🤓 If so, run the audio from the B03+ to the TV, then listen via the soundbar using the same input setting as for watching TV..! One less device plugged in (which i'm sure you'll find another usage scenario for, now that you've got it), and simpler switching between audio and television. The disadvantage would of course be that such a setup would also require having the TV running at the same time — but given it's an OLED, and providing it is able to keep a blank screen on, the additional power consumption ought to be minimal. I also noticed how the specs for your soundbar show that it is capable of transmitting on Bluetooth as well. Just for fun, run TV audio from the soundbar back to the B03+ and your Hi-Fi. 😁👍
I did check once I’d found out that the sound bar didn’t do apt-x HD and it turns out the TV won’t do it either..so I went and ordered the receiver. In addition though, I’d rather not have the TV on just to listen to audio.
I used to have BT headphones in the pre-AptX days and you could definitely hear the difference between it and a direct analog connection. While it could be heard on electronic music, the difference was MUCH more pronounced with things like rock or heavy metal. The electric guitar sound was very "crackly" and distorted. I never heard much distortion with AptX at all. I'd say that people who can't hear the difference between SBC and AptX would probably say that 2W computer monitor speakers sound "fine".
Someone asked how a Telegram is sent. Ask, and Western Union answers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAJQVStZYDk
I had to read the comments as I was so that confused someone was communicating by telegram. I purely associate this with little postcards... stop. That's how out of the loop I am.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who has no idea what half of this stuff is nowadays.
I had a similar issue with trying to link my PC to wall mounted speakers across the room each side of a projector screen. I started with a Bluetooth receiver, only to get poor audio quality and lip-sync issues. I then got an AptX HD/LL receiver. Turn out Windows 10 does not support AptX HD or LL and I had no luck finding any sort of Bluetooth driver or extension that could provide either capability. Finally, I bought the Avantree tree USB dongle and got both AptX capabilities. I also wondered what was different about the Avantree dongle compared with my other Bluetooth dongles and it turned out it presents itself as a USB sound card, i.e. it does not provide any bluetooth functionality to windows. Instead, it has a button to pair and toggle between SBC/AptX HD/LL.
I personally have blocked a whole series of words on my channels, which can no longer be written in the comments. Among them Give-Away in all its variations, and all posts containing links cannot go through. It's not a good umbrella but it does catch some rain.
I’ve made sure I’ve done that now - also added in a few connected words - hope that’ll reduce the silliness.
Absolutely loved this video (both times), but the comedy of a device that could potentially route optical to optical via low-res bluetooth is so 21st century. Yes please, I'd like to go from 24/96 bit audio to 16bit and then back again. I don't see why they'd even bother with that port on the device, just stick to normal 3.5mm stereo, since that's surely going to be far more common (and more reasonable)
I think it’s mostly for the TV-out pass through - so you can use BT headphones or a soundbar. At least that’s my theory.
it would be interesting to record the output from the BT receiver in the different HD/SBC modes and then you'd be able to edit the two together for an A/B comparison and cutting from one to the other you'd be able to do a blind test to really see if HD was better.
I feel I’ve already run this little idea into the ground - I’m in danger of taking it subterranean if I were to take it any further. My experience is that it sounded better - and since I’ve already bought all the stuff, I might as well use it.
At 51 I feel old, I've no idea what a lot of you are on about, Telegram? I thought that got scrapped in 1982. Wingdings? That sounds like, cough, another name for "ladyparts". The youth of today etc, not like in my day etc. I'm just off to build a burglar alarm, an AM transmitter, and a plantpot test with my Tandy 200 in 1.
No, you've got it wrong! Wingdings are safety gear we old timers used when we walked to school through the snow uphill both ways... you needed wingdings to keep the onion on your belt from falling off.😉
I had lots of issues with those scammers as well and just decided to put "giveaway" on my block list for YouTube comments. Seems to have worked, I haven't seen them in a few weeks.
I'll make sure I've done the same.
Isn't Telegram the thing people go on when they've been banned from Twitter? This could explain why it was being used in this context.
Telegram is just a messaging app. Similar to WhatsApp or Signal.
Mat, you've duplicated a bit at the interface chapter starting at 6:27.
Mat taking the Deja Vu theme a bit too literally. I thought it was me and had to go back and confirm that the volume section had repeated.
I never win anything, not even scam giveaways.
In the middle of watching 'Mend It Mark' installing BlueTooth to an old 1970s stereo when the Techmoan Signal goes off. May as well take a break from that video--it's rather long, though still engaging--and watch Mat for a bit before returning to MIM.
I desperately wanted to write "So, did we win the giveaway or not?" but I sense I might get banned :-)
Given the title of the Patreon post, I have to admit to being a bit disappointed when this wasn’t a VU meter round-up.
I’ll have to remember to keep that title in the bank if I do another VU round-up. However that seems unlikely at the moment given that train appears to have left the station and derailed long ago.
Very well written statement about the scammers in the comment section! Have a good weekend to Mat!