I love modern technology

Relax in southern comfort on the east bank of the Mississippi. You're just around the corner from Beale Street and Sun Records. Watch the ducks, throw back a few and tell us what's on your mind.
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JR.
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Re: I love modern technology

Post by JR. »

Bill where are you located..? I have two old stand alone optical in/analog audio our decoders that work after some fashion.

I just plugged up the previous one that has the nice feature of a master volume control. It appears to be working fine, but in the past I encountered loss of decoding sync in use over time. The set up changes I made to get the new one working, included dolby surround sound settings in the direct Tv satellite receiver, and in the Roku monitor also, so the cheap decoders could easily be more stable now.

I still have my very first cheap decoder, but it uses 3x1/8th inch stereo output jacks for the 6 channels, so not as easy to test. As I recall it had power up problems that I resolved by replacing the 5V wall wart.

JR

PS; I have one drum tuner I shipped to Italy almost 2 months ago that is still lost in space (actually last scanned in Miami).
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billshurv
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Re: I love modern technology

Post by billshurv »

I'm in UK, but have a 'shipping point' with a friend in CA.
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JR.
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Re: I love modern technology

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billshurv wrote: Mon Aug 31, 2020 3:41 pm I'm in UK, but have a 'shipping point' with a friend in CA.
I ran it all day yesterday with no hiccups. I just turned it on again... If it works through the weekend without messing up, I can send it to your CA address. It is actually a step up from the cheapest of the cheap decoders because it has a master volume control. I have an even cheaper one with 3 stereo output mini-jacks and no master volume. My suspicion is that it may work better too since I tweaked my receiver/monitor setting. My optical feed is now coming from the new TV monitor, not the old sat receiver.

We can figure out some kind of a trade later... I wasted years fishing in the cheap end of this mud puddle. The market for stand alone decoders is pretty small, most people just buy much more expensive surround systems, so these cheap stand alone decoders are almost too cheap to work in a race to the lowest possible cost. I still can't justify the cheap price of my current unit with remote volume control.

JR
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mediatechnology
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Re: I love modern technology

Post by mediatechnology »

PS; I have one drum tuner I shipped to Italy almost 2 months ago that is still lost in space (actually last scanned in Miami).
I just had one to CZ take 88 days to make it to Customs.
There was no tracking visibility for about 85 days.

I've discontinued shipping internationally via USPS.
If the customer wants to use UPS I'll ship.
Otherwise its just not worth it anymore.
I've had a good run but I'm done with this Covid bullshit.
If Europe and the rest of the world wants to treat America like a disease and shut down flights what the hell do you expect to happen?

I will still ship to Canada.
That still seems to work despite full border closure.
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JR.
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Re: I love modern technology

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mediatechnology wrote: Tue Sep 01, 2020 6:04 pm
PS; I have one drum tuner I shipped to Italy almost 2 months ago that is still lost in space (actually last scanned in Miami).
I just had one to CZ take 88 days to make it to Customs.
There was no tracking visibility for about 85 days.

I've discontinued shipping internationally via USPS.
If the customer wants to use UPS I'll ship.
Otherwise its just not worth it anymore.
I've had a good run but I'm done with this Covid bullshit.
If Europe and the rest of the world wants to treat America like a disease and shut down flights what the hell do you expect to happen?

I will still ship to Canada.
That still seems to work despite full border closure.
I just checked and the package to Italy now shows that it was delivered a few days ago, so 2 months transit time.

JR
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billshurv
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Re: I love modern technology

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JR. wrote: Tue Sep 01, 2020 8:38 am [. My suspicion is that it may work better too since I tweaked my receiver/monitor setting. My optical feed is now coming from the new TV monitor, not the old sat receiver.
That's how I currently run the feed into miniDSP so works for me.
We can figure out some kind of a trade later... I wasted years fishing in the cheap end of this mud puddle. The market for stand alone decoders is pretty small, most people just buy much more expensive surround systems, so these cheap stand alone decoders are almost too cheap to work in a race to the lowest possible cost. I still can't justify the cheap price of my current unit with remote volume control.
The DRM on HDMI peeves me as it prevents me doing the things I want to But I accept i am not a mainstream use case :)
billshurv
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Re: I love modern technology

Post by billshurv »

JR. wrote: Wed Sep 02, 2020 8:21 am
I just checked and the package to Italy now shows that it was delivered a few days ago, so 2 months transit time.

JR
Curious. Last 3 packages I sent to America arrived within 3 weeks. I wonder where the blockage is.
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JR.
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Re: I love modern technology

Post by JR. »

I have no idea why but it took too long to get from MS to FL, and then too long to be delivered.

===

Do you still need a 5.1 surround decoder? While testing I perceived a very slight audio difference between the two but my newer one has EQ presets that I didn't check the setting. It sounded good enough that I left it in place for several days, and only removed it when a rare movie was too loud ( pretty uncommon running my amps at -8dB). I could have tweaked the volume on the decoders rotary but decided to reinstall my newer decoder with remote volume for the convenience.

If you still want it provide me a shipping address (domestic preferably), otherwise I'll keep it as a backup. It has an optical input and coax, I use the optical.

JR
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Re: I love modern technology

Post by billshurv »

I need to check when my friend gets back as he's decamped to Nevada until the smoke dies down as as soon as I know will fire you an address.
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JR.
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Re: I love modern technology

Post by JR. »

kool...

I'm still waiting for my buffer PCB but I feel like they will show up soon (faster than sending something from the US).

JR

PS: PS now that the surround is working good, I am hearing how bad some of the cinema mixes are... :lol:
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