* Posts by Grumpyrocker

11 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Nov 2012

What a mesh: BT Whole Home Wi-Fi users moan over update

Grumpyrocker

We've got a HH5. But I use it only as a modem with the wifi switched off. It's connected to an Asus RT-N660U which does all our wifi and routing. The signal from the HH was fine, but there was just a lack of control offered in the firmware. Meanwhile the Asus does a bang up job and thankfully the HH seems not to struggle to much when asked to be merely a modem.

Recording Industry Ass. says vinyl and CD sales beat digital downloads

Grumpyrocker

Re: I'll stick

True in theory. But vinyl does protect us to some extent from the terrible mastering jobs often put on CD. There are plenty of albums that sound better on vinyl than CD, not because vinyl is superior, just because it's harder to crush and brickwall a vinyl master and have a record that plays/.

CD is technically much better than vinyl. But vinyl is fun, and I do buy some records in that format knowing it's more about the experience than the sound quality.

I still buy plenty of music. Some CD. Some vinyl. Some downloads. Where possible I buy from the most direct route from the artist - such as Bandcamp or their own site. I still believe in paying artists for the work in the hope they can keep at it as a job.

Want a new HDMI cable? No? Bad luck. You'll need one for HDMI 2.1

Grumpyrocker

Re: Desire...

Netflix and Amazon have lots of 4K content, with lots of it in HDR/Dolby Vision. 4K is there if you want it.

Industrial Light & Magic: 40 years of Lucas's pioneering FX-wing

Grumpyrocker

Yup. Good article. But the bit about Phantom Menace relying on CGI is just plain wrong. The film is full of models - not just for vehicles, but also sets.

For example the long shots of the Pod Racing stadium has Qtips/Earbuds for members of the crowd. Much of the city of Theed relied on some gorgeous models.

Redmond's on fire, your 365 is terrified: Microsoft email outage en masse

Grumpyrocker

Re: Xbox Live too

I also have a PlayStation 4

Grumpyrocker

Xbox Live too

Seems to be a very wide ranging problem for Microsoft. It's not just email - but also Skype, OneDrive and I can't sign into Xbox Live either.

Chirp! Let's hear it for data over audio

Grumpyrocker

I already own some devices that send data via sound in this way. These are TC Electronic guitar effects pedals. Users can download new settings and sounds in a phone app, then transmit these settings by holding the phone close to the guitar's pickups. The chirp is heard by the pickups, sent down the cable and changes the sound of the pedals. It's a really neat system.

Google stealthily coalesces UK music cloud into being

Grumpyrocker

Re: It wont lure me away...

It's not like your local copy gets deleted. This isn't a Star Trek transportation of your precious CD collection.

Grumpyrocker

Re: Not mentioned...

Not according to Gmusic on the web when clicking the download link...

"Each song can be downloaded 2 times on the web. This limit does not apply when you use the Music Manager desktop application to download files to your computer."

Grumpyrocker

Re: Good idea, poorly executed

It uploaded my CD rips just fine. They were stored on my PC as WMA Lossless. But yes it converted them to 320K MP3 in the process, but the uploaded catalogued and uploaded 6000 just fine. Took a while though. :-)

Grumpyrocker
Stop

Sound quality is a factor

Okay, Google doesn't offer lossless files but the 320K files are better than Amazon's poor offerings. On at least four occasions I've received a refund from Amazon after complaining about the dreadful sound quality of albums I've bought.

In the UK Play and 7Digital also offer 320K MP3 files. So while Google isn't unique I can't see a good reason to continue to buy Amazon's dreadful - and in many cases broken - mp3 files.

Personally I use both of the above and have been using Google's cloud service too for months (thanks to signing up via a vpn). Now the Google store is open I expect to use that quite a bit. I like the android app, the simplicity of pinning music for offline listening and the browser based listening experience.