figmentPez
Staff member
240Hz is kind of a crazy requirement to me. Especially since you didn't list Freesync, or is that just a given for 240Hz monitors?
[Rant] Tech Minor Rant Thread
- Thread starter DarkAudit
- Start date
Most monitors in that class have some form of VRR included. It's practically expected at that point.
I don't know which video card I'll ultimately be using with it, so at this point which one(s) it includes is less of a concern.
--Patrick
Eventually settled on the Gigabyte M27Q-X (US$450-ish). I ordered it on Thu afternoon from B&H and it arrived Sat 10a.
The rant? Between taxes and work schedule and other obligations, I won’t even be able to open the box until Wed afternoon at the earliest.
—Patrick
I really hate how crappy Google's search algorithms have become over the last few years.
Sick, so trying to replay some easy-on-the-mind old classics. In this case, Warlords: Battlecry. Yes, the first one.
Now, several years ago (when this was already an old game), I could use google and easily find WBC walkthroughs, guides, and all that. There are far more for WBC2 and 3, but you could easily tell them apart, tell Google not to look for those, and with the right search choices and such, it was easy to get those for the first game on the first page of results.
These days, even with literally telling it to exclude ANYTHING containing the word "sequel" or the numbers 2 or 3 or the Roman numerals or whatever, on the first 11 pages of Google results (yes, I actually went beyond the first page), I managed to find 3 links, all leading to the same walkthrough (which is not the one I'm looking for. I remember the file). Everything else is "popular" WBC3 guides, trainers, cheat lists, or WBC2 guides, sponsored links, suggestions, ads, etc.
Google has just gotten so incredibly unusable to find anything but the most popular or successful page that is somewhat tangentially related to your search terms it's appalling. If I just type in some random crap, ok, fine, but if I'm using multiple search operators MAYBE TAKE THOSE INTO ACCOUNT YOU PIECE OF CRAP.
I swear, I'd go back to using Altavista if it still existed. This can't be "the best search engine around". By now I'd damn well prefer using the Google of 2005 which actually showed what I was looking for. They're just making themselves useless.
Sick, so trying to replay some easy-on-the-mind old classics. In this case, Warlords: Battlecry. Yes, the first one.
Now, several years ago (when this was already an old game), I could use google and easily find WBC walkthroughs, guides, and all that. There are far more for WBC2 and 3, but you could easily tell them apart, tell Google not to look for those, and with the right search choices and such, it was easy to get those for the first game on the first page of results.
These days, even with literally telling it to exclude ANYTHING containing the word "sequel" or the numbers 2 or 3 or the Roman numerals or whatever, on the first 11 pages of Google results (yes, I actually went beyond the first page), I managed to find 3 links, all leading to the same walkthrough (which is not the one I'm looking for. I remember the file). Everything else is "popular" WBC3 guides, trainers, cheat lists, or WBC2 guides, sponsored links, suggestions, ads, etc.
Google has just gotten so incredibly unusable to find anything but the most popular or successful page that is somewhat tangentially related to your search terms it's appalling. If I just type in some random crap, ok, fine, but if I'm using multiple search operators MAYBE TAKE THOSE INTO ACCOUNT YOU PIECE OF CRAP.
I swear, I'd go back to using Altavista if it still existed. This can't be "the best search engine around". By now I'd damn well prefer using the Google of 2005 which actually showed what I was looking for. They're just making themselves useless.
GasBandit
Staff member
What's good for users is usually shitty for ad revenue.
What's good for ad revenue is usually shitty for users.
Companies built up a userbase in phase one, floated by investment capital that wants in on phase 2's profits.
Phase 2 is the enshittening of the user experience through monetization, because the users are now being sold as a product.
Phase 2 lasts until enough people get sick of the shittiness and move on to the next phase 1 venture that the thing in question collapses/gets sold to yahoo who shuts it down a few years later.
What's good for ad revenue is usually shitty for users.
Companies built up a userbase in phase one, floated by investment capital that wants in on phase 2's profits.
Phase 2 is the enshittening of the user experience through monetization, because the users are now being sold as a product.
Phase 2 lasts until enough people get sick of the shittiness and move on to the next phase 1 venture that the thing in question collapses/gets sold to yahoo who shuts it down a few years later.
Modern day Bing is very much a better search engine than modern day Google. No, it's not great but despite its reputation it is decent - and that's more than Google has been able to honestly claim for years.
GasBandit
Staff member
It is FAR and away superior if you're trying to find specific varieties of porn.
The algorithm is so trained on finding what gas is looking for that it's learned to feel disgustIt is FAR and away superior if you're trying to find specific varieties of porn.
That's not disgust it's feeling
.Now want a comparison of each search engine's response to the goat question.It is FAR and away superior if you're trying to find specific varieties of porn.
--Patrick
GasBandit
Staff member
That's enough to stream 720p from plex!
The drop-outs are long enough that it sometimes takes 15min before I can reconnect to HF.
The spread between my signal/noise varies between 20dB to only 3dB over 802.11n and my AP is something like 30m away.
--Patrick
GasBandit
Staff member
"Time to move out of the sticks, gentlemen." - Winston Wolfe
Am currently here:
According to Wikipedia, they had a total population of just 136 in 2020. And I can believe it. The cell coverage map just kinda fades out as you get closer to the tip of the Keweenaw. The annual snow thermometer shows they managed to “only” get just over 21ft (6.5m) of snow this year.
—Patrick
According to Wikipedia, they had a total population of just 136 in 2020. And I can believe it. The cell coverage map just kinda fades out as you get closer to the tip of the Keweenaw. The annual snow thermometer shows they managed to “only” get just over 21ft (6.5m) of snow this year.
—Patrick
figmentPez
Staff member
Computers are annoyingly weird sometimes. On my PC Netflix playback stutters when subtitles appear on screen. If the subtitles remain up playback smooths back out, but if they stop then the next line of dialogue causes stutter again. Turning subtitles off makes playback smooth. But here's the weirdest part, it's only full screen, and only when the window is in focus. If I put another window in focus, even the tiniest little bit of another program in the corner of the screen, playback with subtitles is smooth. I have no idea why this is. Reminds me of an issue I had back in the WinXP days where some sort of video playback would only be smooth as long as I kept moving my mouse.
This sounds like a viewport issue. The subtitles are being treated as their own window, which knocks your computer out of fullscreen (i.e., “exclusive”) mode in order to display layered windows. If your player has an option for “windowed” or “fullscrren-windowed” try that and see if that fixes it.
—Patrick
GasBandit
Staff member
It's Netflix, the player is probably a browser.
Which leads to the next question - WHICH browser?
And, of course, what video card, and are your drivers up to date.
figmentPez
Staff member
Microsoft Edge, because that's the only one that does 1080p (Chrome and Firefox are limited to 720p on Windows, and Linux, according to Netflix). The issue also happened with the Netflix app, the last time I tested with it.
Video card is AMD RX 480. Graphics drivers are up to date, but this has been a periodic issue for years. At least I think there have been times when it hasn't been an issue.
GasBandit
Staff member
The app might just be a wrapper for an Edge instance without exposing the URL, a lot of crappy devs do that sort of thing.
I wonder, even at 720p, does firefox experience the same subtitle issue? This kinda smells like SmEDGEma to me.
I'd also be curious if watching something with subtitles in, say, crunchyroll or plex in a browser has the same symptoms.
figmentPez
Staff member
I thought that Netflix was the only problem, but I re-tested to be sure. Disney+ and Amazon Prime are fine. I don't have HBO Max anymore, so I can't retest, but it was working fine. Freevee stutters, though; which is weird because Freevee is tied to Prime Video, and I thought they were using the same player (the interface looks the same). I've tried two different Freevee shows, and they both do the subtitle stutter, but an Amazon Prime show does not.
Freevee does not have a stutter problem on Firefox (and can do 1080p*). I'll test Netflix on Firefox when I get a chance, I'm not currently logged-in there.
*Arbitrary DRM weirdness. Prime Video happily does 1080p in Firefox on Windows, but on Linux (on my Raspberry Pi, but I think in general as well) Prime is limited to 480p. Other streaming services play 720p on Linux, but won't do 1080p on Firefox+Windows. I assume this is because Microsoft has a deal with them to make Edge the "better" browser, but I can't figure out what Amazon has against Linux.
Reddit - Dive into anything
www.reddit.com
Reddit - Dive into anything
www.reddit.com
these guy found the same issue, and use an always-on-top window to basically 'solve' the problem without fixing it.
I believe this is because Widevine is required to properly play back the encrypted HD content, and Google is, uh, … resistant to providing a FOSS (and thereby reverse-engineerable) version of Widevine for the *nix crowd.
—Patrick
figmentPez
Staff member
That's the excuse for why most streaming services are limited to 720p on Linux. However, that doesn't explain why Prime Video, seemingly alone among the streaming services, is limited to 480p on Linux, while at the same time being more permissive with browser playback on Windows.
figmentPez
Staff member
Liked because we don't have a "this is scary" rating.
This meme format makes me nerd mad because it's backwards, in that scene Peter could only see clearly without his glasses.
