@blacklion1725
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The only thing with doing it all off a PC – I have a now (rarely used) Intel NUC – is that the interface even with a decent keyboard/mouse controller is not great……nowhere near as easy (especially for non-PC enthusiasts) as say a FireTV or a Roku. The PC will do it all, but it is not a great user experience.
Just an opinion, and while I prefer the UI of the Roku by a mile, the FireTV box is probably the best solution to do just about everything with a “normal” remote experience. It gets better the more you use it as the “Recents” populates with the stuff you use.
Just a consideration, as I say I very rarely use my media PC these days, main use of it is recording.
I think the research points towards a smartphone being worse than any other sort of distraction as it has the capability of being salient either to you as an individual, the task at hand and any other things near the fore-front of your attention. Perhaps work-places would be wise to require that all smartphones are left in lockers in a ‘break’ room!
They are increasingly part of the workplace Ed. Increasingly at ours a lot of people do the bulk of their emailing from smartphones (either company issue or BYOD with very strict security). Totally agree about the distraction, and a lot of company intranet sites are more or less corporate facebook equivalents filled with huge amounts of random tat…..work imitates life.
On the commuting side, one silver lining is that instead of listening to a young girl ring her mate and talk about exactly nothing for your entire journey, they now sit quietly typing the “nothing” in to their phone instead (so its not all bad!)
Great tip Alan – thank you – didn’t know that one. Will give it a while and see – I seem (so far) to be able to do everything I want using the same commands in Powershell…..but good to know I can revert – cheers.
Yeah all up in the air and a guessing game at the moment for sure. Without derailing the thread offshoring has broadly been a nightmare experience where I have come across it…notable exception being Expedia where the (offshore) experience has been nothing but positive.
Instinct is we will win some and lose some, but like everyone else I’m guessing till all this comes out in the wash.
Not sure that’s related Bob, if it was EU related wouldn’t they pick another EU base? Also the off-shoring to India has been a huge trend in all sectors way before Brexit was even a twinkle in the eye. HSBC for example (the missus has an account with them) have a call centre in India while mine (First Direct – HSBC subsidiary) are in Scotland. Difference in service level chalk and cheese – First direct superb, her experience with HSBC is horrific.
But as I say, can’t see how this is EU related, just routine (theoretical) cost-cutting…..which rarely ends well for anyone from my experience.
Thanks Dave – have had a google on Powershell scripts – lot of it way over my head but could be some useful stuff for batch re-naming files which I do a fair bit.
Fair enough – must admit when I use my Slingbox now, the uplink is the throttle – not an issue but with 4G mobile data I know it could go higher (at the watching end). Still waiting for BT Infinity 2, so stuck with 40/8 for now – as you say first world problem! Just got back from holiday where there was about 6/0.5 shared between 6 apartments…….not much fun but would have bitten your hand off for even that not so long ago.
What are you uploading Duke out of interest? I can only think of Flickr, BAck-up and Sync, and sometimes slingbox streaming – never paid too much notice to upload speed (mine is about 7) – just interested why it might be more significant to you? Only being nosey!
I would go high on the receiver personally – the speakers can be upgraded incrementally, the receiver is a single “hit”. AVForums is a great resource, but a lot of the posters are real fanatics and spend crazy amounts (often) on equipment.
What a lot of people do i(me included) is for example when you upgrade your front speakers, the old fronts then become the rear surrounds.
I’d also suggest that your budget is absolutely ripe for a decent 2nd hand set of speakers (maybe even the receiver too) – eBay prime candidate as usual….upgraders and early adopters often list whole 5.1 and 7.2 sets for very good prices. A lot of modern AV receivers can cope with varying speaker impedance (often 4 to 8 ohm range) but it is worth checking before you buy that your combination is compatible. My Denon is currently supporting Q-Acoustics front speakers, and Gale rears and centre (no subwoofer), all plays along very nicely. There are also some decent in-budget systems for example here.
By the way I had a listen to the Denon speakers (2020) when I bought my receiver – very nice – optimised for TV viewing though – if you are after a hybrid solution for music too then I would look at compact bookshelf speakers, at least for front right and left. If its is TV only the Denon set sounded great. A lot of people will advise you to match the speaker brand with the receiver brand, I suppose there is some sense in that, so maybe a consideration once you are 100% set on the receiver.
Dave if I personally dug you out I can only apologise – but I can’t see where – but in any case if I offended then I apologise.
I totally agree about May and her election call – the woman is a walking disaster. For the record I am an inclined Labour voter, have voted for them, never Tory especially since Rosindell (google) who represents me now through no fault of my own
Any case Dave if I gave you the hump I apologise and lets live and let live – especially on the back of all the great info you have shared on here.
Never suggested you did Dave – two (not yours) posts on this thread suggest or imply that leave voters didn’t know what hey were voting for and were misled.
On your other point (EFTA) if that comes with “free movement” (AKA unlimited inward immigration) attached, then that is what I voted directly against, having seen the impact that has had locally on schools, housing, health and the rest.
Totally respect your opinion Bob while also totally disagreeing with it. Your’s if anything (after what you have chipped in for our country) should be worth more than mine…..you could also argue that young people (and at 18 I was a ****ing idiot) should not have an equal influence until they make some sort of contribution to society….but that’s a separate argument about voting age. My family was split 50/50 on leave/remain.
In any case – do we respect democracy or do we ignore it? Tony Blair got re-elected promising a referendum on the EU constitution – then when (if memory serves) Denmark voted against he said “no point” and then denied us our referendum, which was mirrored across Europe and lead to the un-voted but almost identical EU Treaty which is why we have all this mess in the first place……back-door internationalism.
I hate where this argument is going – anyone is entitled to think the outcome of the leave/remain vote was the wrong decision , but this creeping pressure to overturn or dilute the only purely democratic decision in this county in two generations (at least) I find disgusting.
We never voted to join anything at all (we joined the EEC without a vote), there was a vote to “remain in a trading block” (the EEC) and everything since is basically undemocratic, constitutional change by the back door (EEC-> EC->EU).
It stinks and we voted to get out of it….that really is the bottom line…..if it goes south then that’s on the “leave” voters same as Blair’s legacy, or Cameron’s is on those to elected them.
Genuinely staggered that that people are even suggesting we should ignore the results of a yes/no referendum in a supposedly democratic western democracy.
Oh bugger I know I said I wouldn’t…….yes the question was spectacularly simple – the agendas maybe not so but that is a decision for each individual – whose opinion should be respected. The arguments about the NHS and immigration are subjective and unless you ask every voter why they voted leave/remain you will never know. If you think you know better than other voters I would call that patronising.
Sorry you don’t like the outcome – democracy can do that – just like Theresa May thinking she can take us all for mugs calling an early election – sometimes you get caught out.
People have never been given a vote about asylum or the staggering and unsustainable levels of non-EU immigration – which has actually got worse under the Tories – but we did get a vote about the EU – and it was taken. Maybe a protest vote for some, maybe a reasoned decision by others (like me I hope). Many remain voters including my Mum were scared in to it by all sorts of doom-mongers who had no better idea than you or me as to what might happen
One thing you can’t say is the question wasn’t simple: Leave/Remain – it certainly was and the country spoke. If you don’t like it hard lines, the suggestion that one side was more influenced than the other is totally subjective and (in my opinion and mine only) media supported.
Tough sh*t Cameron, May, Corbyn, whoever – we voted LEAVE – get over yourselves – respect the public decision – get on with it.
Hmm…people didn’t know what they were voting for? maybe some didn’t, but I think that cuts both ways. I certainly knew that this was a once only chance to get out and took it. The so-called concessions that we (UK) got from the EU pre-referendum was very clearly stated as a one off by Brussels and that had we voted to stay there was only more integration coming.
I don’t know a soul who voted “leave” who has a different opinion (aside from why are we hanging about).
Point is though – we DID VOTE – and we voted on a very simple question to LEAVE – fully understand if you don’t like it – but hate the post-vote propaganda about ignorant voting – especially as the post-remain implications are ignored – it would most certainly not have been a status-quo.
Anyway over and out on this from me too – the point is we voted – we decided – lets for once do something that the people voted for and that politicians hopefully can’t backtrack on.
[BL withdraws from the discussion as he is listening to the Pretenders at Glastonbury on iPlayer – who are surprisingly still very good – respect to Ms Hynde]
I mean any democracy outside the current EU. And my point isn’t really about whether we do or don’t should or shouldn’t (leave), or how we do it. The only mandate from the referendum was to “leave the EU” and that is what they must do if they want to pretend there is any semblance of democracy in our country.
I know those pro-leave and pro-remain won’t be reconciled – main point is that I agree with the Germans (not often I have typed that) – whether it is lose/lose for Britain and/or the EU is up for debate – but for the first time in my voting lifetime – a single-issue decision has been made by the UK voters. The UK government (which may well be Labour by the time this starts to bite) have to abide by. If not then we cannot pretend to be a democracy.
Dave you think Brexit will be bad, I think it will be good, truth is we don’t know, but again to reiterate – we voted to leave on a very clear and simple choice of two options, not some fuzzy in-between. Time to get on with it.
Not talking about the lobbying Ed – the ballot paper was:
- Remain in the European Union
- Leave the European Union
Both sides told lies and half-truths which I’m sure influenced votes both ways, and you had unlikely alliances like both mainstream Tory and Labour campaigning for “Remain” while both UKIP and the Socialist Workers Party campaigned for “Leave”. Unlikely bedfellows all round.
This was a single issue referendum however and the voting paper was extremely simple and unambiguous…..and that is the only mandate they have….LEAVE….not half-leave or leave “a bit” – just LEAVE.
The Germans are right – and “leave” or “remain in” the EU is what the referendum asked – no “soft Brexit” third option so there isn’t a mandate to try and negotiate one.
It should be relatively straightforward – but of course whoever is in charge when the heavy lifting starts will almost certainly **** it up.
- timed reduction over time of our contribution down to zero
- withdrawal from the European Parliament and laws
- agree the successor to Free Movement including which EU citizens remain/leave and a policy for future migration, and travel between EU and Britain
- Reciprocal policy for ex-pat Brits in EU countries
- Discuss and implement trade details (ideally)
An over-simplification I know but the ultimate destination is a status alongside the majority of the worlds countries (approx 150) who exist outside the EU but still manage to travel there and trade with them, without all the baggage. We are entangled in the EU so it can’t be like flicking a switch, but look at a comparable non-EU country and say “that’s what we aim to get to in 5/10/whatever years”.
I just hope whatever party is in power puts up a candidate to fight this country’s corner……a stretch I know.
I upgraded mine recently…..if you have a Richer Sounds near you I’d recommend popping in, telling them what you want to to and see what they say. Consensus seems to be that if you are a music nut get a dedicated stereo amp, but if you are less obsessive a good AV receiver can really enhance TV viewing and do a decent job with music too.
My current unit is a Denon AVRX2300 which is now depressingly £60 cheaper than when I got it a few months ago. This type of device really is aimed at modern living. It is a 7.2 (or 5.1) surround unit, can play spotify (premium), internet radio and has 8 HDMI inputs.
There are lots of others and this is probably overkill for many. One feature I like is the auto-setup using a microphone, you tell it which speakers you have/don’t have and where you all sit it does the rest for you. I decided to leave out the subwoofer and don’t miss it at all (have decent front, rear and centre speakers).
It really is worth thinking about all the things you want it to do or may in the future, and as I say get some advice. I personally wouldn’t want to be without it now, really does enhance viewing, plays music well and is also an HDMI switch.
On the money Ed I think – I’d throw in arrogance as well as misjudgement – thought she just had to turn up and would walk away with a massive majority. In fact she didn’t even turn up all the time. Just an opinion but if she had been more likeable she might have got away with it, but she has the old school tory stuck-up air…..contempt for the little people.
Total humiliation for her.
On a positive note in the middle of all this tragedy (body washed up at Limehouse today and many victims still critical in hospital) – fair play to this bloke – even if he does support that lot! The press love a story like this but just heard an interview with him from his hospital bed, and he told it very calmly with no sensationalism, and typical bit of British humour, even those these scum sliced him to bits.
Listening to the interview this happened just before the police turned up and shot the murderers (outside) – so I think he has saved a good many from death and injury. Piling in to three terrorists – who were wearing bomb vests and armed with 12″ knives – as one of the comments says he should never have to buy another pint.
The interviewer asked him about his injuries, they have sewn his ear lobe back on and he has already had some plastic surgery – his main comment was “I can still lift a pint glass” – as I say – fair play!
What a contrast between a real man and the cowards who attack the innocent and the unarmed.
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