home theater, cord cutting, video streaming, a/v tech, and more!

Postby **nocera** » Mon Jan 27, 2020 11:37 pm

Are airpods really that much better than 30 buck Bluetooth ear buds?

Sound quality? Probably not much. They’re on par with the bundled iPhone wired headphones. Where they’re really great is they just work. They’re always charged and ready to go, they pair instantly when you put one in your ear, they pause your music/video/podcast when you remove one.

Postby **NTP66** » Tue Jan 28, 2020 6:09 am

Yeah, but you have to look like a ****** while wearing them.

Postby **shafnutz05** » Tue Jan 28, 2020 6:48 am

Yeah, but you have to look like a ****** while wearing them.

Yup, I get irrationally annoyed when I see people with them in. Then again, I irrationally loathe Apple so....

Postby **willeyeam** » Tue Jan 28, 2020 8:44 am

people probably thought headphones looked dumb when they first came out too

Postby **eddy** » Tue Jan 28, 2020 8:50 am

I think I still use the little free pods from the Great Race from 7 years ago or something along those lines. I'm seriously considering picking up the new pixel buds. I've been terrified of wearing headphones riding my bike or skateboarding to work, but I see these things have a little hole for ambient noises around you? The hand swipe features seem great and while the language translator seems awesome, I just don't know when I'd use it.

Postby **count2infinity** » Tue Jan 28, 2020 8:53 am

I bought these for work, and I love 'em:

Also, the amazon echo buds (which don't have all that great of reviews) are currently on sale.

Postby **skullman80** » Tue Jan 28, 2020 8:57 am

Sound quality is most important to me in a pair of headphones and that they stay in my ears when I'm running.
These are the ones I use. 20$ on amazon, and the sound quality/battery life is great.

Postby **nocera** » Tue Jan 28, 2020 9:23 am

Yeah, but you have to look like a ****** while wearing them.

I wear them all the time. Fight me.

Postby **NTP66** » Tue Jan 28, 2020 9:56 am

Yeah, but you have to look like a ****** while wearing them.
I wear them all the time. Fight me.

Postby **eddy** » Tue Jan 28, 2020 11:13 am

thoughts on this combo?

Arris T25
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/arris-surf ... Id=6379635

TP-Link AC2600
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/tp-link-ar ... Id=5844804

I see Triband is a thing now, do I nee that? I was looking at the mesh system and what is appealing to me is the range. I'd like to have better wifi on my back deck. Do you think that router should extend better than the comcast issued one?

edit, maybe that's not the router I was looking for, reviews say not great range and may have issues holding a lot of items on it...

Postby **eddy** » Tue Jan 28, 2020 11:23 am

this is the other I was looking at

Postby **NTP66** » Tue Jan 28, 2020 12:32 pm

Arris in general makes really good cable modems, so I see no issues there. As for the router, I'm an ASUS guy. The one you linked above will work fine for you, as well. If you ever wanted to, you could run custom firmware on it for a few feature enhancements that probably don't matter to you. As for triband, I don't think you actually need it. Dualband is going to satisfy most everyone.

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Tue Jan 28, 2020 1:23 pm

What's everyone's suggestion for a YouTube downloader? My usual app for this is useless with the free version, and I'm not about to pay $10 a month for it.

Postby **nocera** » Tue Jan 28, 2020 1:27 pm

What's everyone's suggestion for a YouTube downloader? My usual app for this is useless with the free version, and I'm not about to pay $10 a month for it.

I use https://www.y2mate.com/en3

I don't have to download from YouTube very often but this is the best web version I've found. And it allows full 1080p download whereas others I've seen limit it to 720.

Postby **DigitalGypsy66** » Tue Jan 28, 2020 1:30 pm

Yeah, I don't download much from YT either. My wife (and kids') school district has it blocked, and she needs stuff for lesson plans.

The process to allow a website is so ridiculous that it takes two weeks to get things approved, and they usually don't tell you that's it's been allowed...so dumb. I get it, but still dumb.

Thanks!

Postby **tjand72** » Tue Jan 28, 2020 7:51 pm

What's everyone's suggestion for a YouTube downloader? My usual app for this is useless with the free version, and I'm not about to pay $10 a month for it.

https://fossbytes.com/how-to-download-y ... ia-player/
You can use VLC player fairly easily with no addons/extensions needed.

Postby **LITT** » Wed Jan 29, 2020 9:41 am

Are airpods really that much better than 30 buck Bluetooth ear buds?
Sound quality? Probably not much. They’re on par with the bundled iPhone wired headphones. Where they’re really great is they just work. They’re always charged and ready to go, they pair instantly when you put one in your ear, they pause your music/video/podcast when you remove one.

this. i use them for work almost exclusively; havent tried to exercise/do anything active with them. it has really changed my productivity professionally. i can walk and be on the phone easily. conference calls remotely are much easier. the noise cancelling works surprisingly well.

its like one of those things i didnt know i needed it until i got it

Postby **dodint** » Wed Jan 29, 2020 5:31 pm

YoutubeTV. The streaming platform for the visually impaired. JFC this guide.

Postby **NTP66** » Wed Jan 29, 2020 8:06 pm

YoutubeTV. The streaming platform for the visually impaired. JFC this guide.

See my earlier comments...

Postby **NTP66** » Wed Jan 29, 2020 8:11 pm

They support page I found on their site said otherwise, but I guess that could just be outdated. In other news, Amazon has the receiver I want as a like new item for 20% off, so I'm pulling the trigger.
which one you get?

Got this all setup tonight. So far, everything works nicely. Bluetooth is awesome, and listening using my headphones was a very nice change. I have two minor issues. First, the volume adjustment is in dB, like most receivers. My old Yamaha allowed me to change that to "Scale" (i.e., 0-100). I liked that. Secondly, my Xbox One X will not show up when connected through the receiver. I had to change the 4K Mode from 1 to 2 (4k/60 only at 8-bit, no HDR10, etc.). I tried other cables to no avail, so I bought a new cable that supports literally every standard out there, including Atmos. I'll give that a shot tomorrow. Worst case, I set it back to 4K Mode 2 and play like I have been, with no HDR10.

Postby **eddy** » Thu Jan 30, 2020 9:51 am

They support page I found on their site said otherwise, but I guess that could just be outdated. In other news, Amazon has the receiver I want as a like new item for 20% off, so I'm pulling the trigger.
which one you get?

Got this all setup tonight. So far, everything works nicely. Bluetooth is awesome, and listening using my headphones was a very nice change. I have two minor issues. First, the volume adjustment is in dB, like most receivers. My old Yamaha allowed me to change that to "Scale" (i.e., 0-100). I liked that. Secondly, my Xbox One X will not show up when connected through the receiver. I had to change the 4K Mode from 1 to 2 (4k/60 only at 8-bit, no HDR10, etc.). I tried other cables to no avail, so I bought a new cable that supports literally every standard out there, including Atmos. I'll give that a shot tomorrow. Worst case, I set it back to 4K Mode 2 and play like I have been, with no HDR10.

Cool. I've had some handshake issues with my Roku Premiere and my AVR with 4K/60p/4:4:4, but that never had any effect on HDR. When you say you changed you mode, is that on the XBOX or AVR? It's been a while, but I believe I had to toggle my AVR down to 4:2:0 to get it functional (but I'd have to look again). When I got my new AVR, I went ahead and bought all new monorprice HDMI cables to eliminate any guessing. I get what you are saying about volume, my Pioneer counts down towards 0 and I usually keep it between 18-24 and the kids can't figure out why turning the volume up makes the db go down...

Postby **NTP66** » Thu Jan 30, 2020 12:09 pm

This is on the AVR. Sounds like you had to do the same that I may have to, according to Yamaha: https://manual.yamaha.com/av/18/rxv685/ ... 48907.html

Postby **eddy** » Thu Jan 30, 2020 2:40 pm

bingo

Postby **tifosi77** » Thu Jan 30, 2020 4:15 pm

YoutubeTV. The streaming platform for the visually impaired. JFC this guide.

I'm just thankful the PDP-made PS4 remote works with the app. Going in I had concerns it wouldn't.

Postby **tifosi77** » Thu Jan 30, 2020 4:26 pm

What's everyone's suggestion for a YouTube downloader? My usual app for this is useless with the free version, and I'm not about to pay $10 a month for it.

Wanted to reply to this earlier, but kept forgetting.

I've used Internet Download Manager for years with no complaints. It has an app you can install into your browser that will you can set to load a button over videos in pages so you can download. You sometimes have to jigger with the settings in both the program and the browser app before YouTube downloading will work, but there you go.