Thinking of getting a dashcam?

[Delphi]

Makes for an interesting watch.

[DeskJockey]

That's rather poor. Wonder how the NextBase brand (most popular here I think) stack up against them.

[simon_g]

There's a few challenges to getting clear shots of number plates, dashcams tend to be very wide angle so they can see out of all of the windscreen but that makes things further away. Then there's motion blur before you even get into trying to capture reflective things at night.

This is a good (if nerdy) look at it, he shows (about 6 mins in) how well an extra camera with a tele lens could work. Hopefully that will make it into dashcams soon, it wouldn't be expensive to do instead of an internal or rear-facing camera.

[Jobbo]

Beany needs to watch that and buy the one with image quality like a potato.

[Swervin_Mervin]

There's a few challenges to getting clear shots of number plates, dashcams tend to be very wide angle so they can see out of all of the windscreen but that makes things further away. Then there's motion blur before you even get into trying to capture reflective things at night.

This is a good (if nerdy) look at it, he shows (about 6 mins in) how well an extra camera with a tele lens could work. Hopefully that will make it into dashcams soon, it wouldn't be expensive to do instead of an internal or rear-facing camera.

I imagine crappy US plates don't help either. Are there similar issues with UK style plates?

[integrale_evo]

I was going to mention that before watching the Linus vid, ( which doesn’t actually focus too much on that )

But yeah, US plates have far smaller characters in a less clear front and a variety of colours.

Tbh, most of the time they’re just used to prove blame rather than to find a hit and run from plate details.

[Beany]

Beany needs to watch that and buy the one with image quality like a potato.

No.

Not because of the deeply insulting remarks about my photography skills, but because I can't fucking stand LTT.

[RobYob]

Not because of the deeply insulting remarks about my photography skills, but because I can't fucking stand THIS SEGUE TO OUR SPONSOR.

FTFY.

I do enjoy LTT though, his Canadrian drawl being far more palatable than either Jay2C or GamerNxs.

[Ascender]

Beany needs to watch that and buy the one with image quality like a potato.

No.

Not because of the deeply insulting remarks about my photography skills, but because I can't fucking stand LTT.

I used to think that, but I have to say I quite like his stuff now, he's much less sensationalist than most other YouTube tech commentators and is pretty even handed with his reviews.

[Beany]

His complete (and possibly deliberate) inability to understand why his 'Trust me bro' warranty gag was a fucking stupid idea, despite other people that he has worked with for years telling him to his face that he was wrong seriously undermined his credibility in my eyes.

[RobYob]

His complete (and possibly deliberate) inability to understand why his 'Trust me bro' warranty gag was a fucking stupid idea, despite other people that he has worked with for years telling him to his face that he was wrong seriously undermined his credibility in my eyes.

That was a particularly bad idea indeed, whether born of ignorance/fear of the process he really needed to shut-up and listen to an experts about it.

Sounds like they sold a load of TMB t-shirts though in the end.

Nobody's perfect.

I'm very much liking what see for the new investment in objective data gathering though.

Who's is your preferred techtoober?

[Beany]

Gamers Nexus is basically the video equivelant of Anandtech, that's plenty good enough for me - although it's almost exclusively based around PC content.

Most of the rest of the tech stuff I watch is either semi-nostalgic (LGR), needlessly esoteric (Tech Tangents - the guy owns a 70s microcomputer. A rack and a half of microcomputer...), or component electronics based (Adrians Digital Basement).

On one of LTTs streams, he was trying to defend the whole TMB thing by saying 'we sold a load of t-shirts though, people really like it' while his co-host was visible getting increasingly frustrated with every single fucking word that came out of Linus's mouth, where Linus was basically crowing about how his massive fuck up was somehow a good thing because they sold t-shirts, because meeeeemes. After spending the last couple of years talking about how LMG is now a serious business that does serious things....

It's LTTs Ratners moment among the serious tech communiity, and his co-host knew it.

[RobYob]

Yeah, I enjoy the weekly Linus & Luke WAN show podcastyesque thing. As you say it was clear Luke wasn't onboard with Linus' attitude to the warranty or the followup. Hopefully Linus learns from that. But as far as I know that's a fairly isolated incident of obnoxiousness (segues aside obviously).

I'm not going to begrude him making some cash off the "controversy" with shirts though. Fans will love the "irony" and most people will forget about it until he does something similar (hopefully never) again.

[Jobbo]

I wasn't aware of the warranty stuff so looked it up. Seems a bit of a storm in a teacup, missing the bigger point that he's selling a $249 rucksack. Erm... that's $249. For a rucksack. Makes a $5 shake seem good value.

[integrale_evo]

I have no idea what beany is going on about. I just watch the odd mildly techy vid on YouTube and he seems ok. Just skip the sponsored by bits.

[Mito Man]

Yeah someone TLDR the drama

I don’t mind Linus for the most part, he seems to be the least annoying big YouTuber who does all the PC reviews. Don’t watch him all the time though as it’s not really my genre, only if I’m interested in a specific thing he’s reviewing which isn’t often.

[Ascender]

I'm going to order a couple of those VIOFO A119s I think. Want one for the boy's car and will try one in the M2 as well I think - look like I can tap in to the vanity light supply from what I've read.

[Beany]

All the drama (for what it is) is in these two videos; a bit of reportage:



Then a policy change from GN because they've been pretty pally with LTT and some other tech YouTubers when it comes to reporting on them, etc:



Both are news pieces with timestamps once the videos start off properly.

I'm fairly hardcore even by geek standards when it comes to hardware reviews and consumer practises (broadly speaking, it's my job to be) so I probably take it a bit more seriously than someone who just casually drops in and out of computer hardware stuff, to be fair so I can understand you normies and casual nerds not being too fussed by it all.

[RobYob]

Yes... Ok that's a very good summary from GN. Dismissing Linus' naive/arrogant stance and double down response because of his charisma/naivety and historic decent track record is not right. Anyone else would/should have got an absolute mauling for similar.

[Beany]

LMG is not a small entity any more. They cannot behave like they're your pals, etc.

GNs points are pretty valid, and (as noted earlier, as a Very Serious Hardware Person) as such I need to be aware of such shananigans.

I'll not recommend any LMG stuff (videos or hardware awards etc) again till they actually admit they fucked this up. We ain't talking a $20 sticker here.

They haven't as yet...so LMG recommendations? Worthless as it stands.

If they can't even publicly recognise where they fucked up one something so 'minor' yet so public facing, do you think they'll admit if they cock up their methodology of an I9-12900 vs Ryzen 9 7950 which will get millions of views and tens of thousands of ad revenue?

They made thousands off those t-shirts, which Linus was only too pleased to crow about - you think he'll give a shit if he can get $50lk from Intel/AMD? Clearly, the money is what matters, not actual standards or ethics. Linus, the face of the brand, has already demonstrated that's all he cares about.....