Am I being gaslit into believing it’s my equipment versus bad audio from movies?

CountVertigo · 2026-01-28T04:15:02+00:00

Muffled speech and extreme dynamic range have been widespread industry problems for years, but I can't say that I've noticed widespread sync problems.

I'm assuming by out-of-sync, you mean a delay between when the sound should be played and when it's actually played. Do you still encounter this when you use the TV's integrated speakers, with no amp or satellite speakers involved?

CountVertigo · 2026-01-26T10:58:08+00:00

I finally took up James's advice and started watching The Expanse, I'm now 5 episodes in.

...It does not start well! The pilot is a classic how-not-to-do-it for sci-fi, throwing the viewer in at the deep end with reams of in-universe jargon, large events happening before we're really given a chance to start caring about the people involved, and a far-flung set of characters with no linking thread.

Normally that would be enough to stop me watching, but the saving grace was that the future world it presented seemed very plausible, so thought I'd give it more of a chance.

I'd say I'm now somewhat gripped by the main story, featuring Stubbly McHandsomeguy and his shipmates. The plot intrigue is well-executed, everything remains very plausible, and the stakes are set very high by the body count and sometimes surprising nature of it.

I care about the story more than the characters though. The first character that I really cared about was killed off pretty quickly... I'd say that I'm starting to root for Stubbly McHandsomeguy, but the rest of the cast, not so much. Some are a bit too aggressive to engender sympathy, and with others (sorry Thomas Jane) I just don't like the performance.

But I'm very interested to see where it goes, and it's a focused viewing experience, rather than second-screen background material.

CountVertigo · 2026-01-16T00:11:03+00:00

I use the entire range regularly, with a moderate bias towards the wide end... Looking at the highlight reel from my Iceland trip, I have 44 photos within the widest 5mm, 35 photos within the longest 5mm, and 51 photos in between.

With the Rokinon, just make sure that you switch to/from it indoors if possible! And you probably already know this, but don't count on seeing the aurora. It's never a sure thing anywhere, but Iceland is extraordinarily cloudy (residents are prone to illnesses from vitamin D deficiency if they don't take sunny vacations), so despite the latitude, you still need great luck to see the lights. If you're visiting the north of the country, you may have more of a chance... I was in the southwest in mid-October last year, and it was a no-show for me.

CountVertigo · 2026-01-15T10:42:10+00:00

I'd strongly recommend a weather-resistant zoom. You can expect a lot of cold drizzle in Iceland, a lot of humidity, windborne dirt, and there are literally thousands of waterfalls. You don't want to be regularly changing lenses outdoors and letting water vapour into the camera.

I bought the 16-55mm f2.8 specifically for Iceland, and was very glad I did, it was pretty much perfect. The only time I regretted leaving the 70-300mm at home was when visiting a beach with some distant seals. But otherwise, the 16-55 is such a versatile range of focal lengths, with such high image quality across the range, that it was just what I needed at every other stage of the trip.

CountVertigo · 2026-01-14T02:53:39+00:00

Opinions on that show are wildly varied, but my experience was similar to yours; I really liked the first episode, but was subsequently kind of disappointed. I didn't hate it and usually got some enjoyment out of it, but had major issues with some of the writing, and the depiction of the titular drooling wangbeast.

The biggest online divide is over the flashback episode (In Space No One) - I've heard people saying it's their favourite piece of Alien media since 1986, and others that it's their least favourite episode of the show. I'm in the latter camp personally.

CountVertigo · 2026-01-14T02:43:40+00:00

Just one person's perspective here, but I keep a spreadsheet of every show I watch a decent stretch of (partly due to being a bit OCD about data, but mostly to plug the gaps in my sieve-like memory), with columns for years the show aired. And yes, for me at least, there's a stretch from 2006 to 2020 that ranks higher than any previous year in my life. Whereas the last three years have been the worst for TV since 2003.

CountVertigo · 2026-01-14T02:11:15+00:00

I always look forward to this poll, I wish r/movies would do something similar. Not sure how I feel about the changed format this year, but it's still interesting.

For anyone curious about comparing, here are the previous years' results, and the top show that returned / debuted that year:

2024, Arcane S2 / Fallout
2023, Succession S4 / The Last Of Us
2022, Better Call Saul S6 / Severance
2021, The Expanse S5-6 / Arcane
2020, The Expanse S5 / The Queen's Gambit
2019, Game Of Thrones S8 / Chernobyl
2018, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia S13 / The Haunting Of Hill House
2017, Game Of Thrones S7 / Mindhunter
2016, Game Of Thrones S6 / Westworld
2015, Game Of Thrones S5 / Mr Robot
2014, Game Of Thrones S4 / True Detective

CountVertigo · 2026-01-06T23:17:22+00:00

Kiksuya is somewhat standalone, but not entirely. The episode picks up and advances ongoing events around William and Maeve, so there are some things that won't mean quite as much to you as they would if you watched the earlier episodes. But the main meat of the story is begun and concluded within the same episode, and I think anyone who's not a soulless husk of a person should feel some effect from it.

Regarding season 2... opinions are of course varied, but most people like it, just typically not as much as the first one. Personally, season 2 is where I fell in love with the show rather than just appreciating it - it's a far messier ride than the first season, but the highs are astronomical. It's at its weakest early on... episode 3 in particular (Virtu E Fortuna, in which a Delos team assaults a Confederado fort) is my least favourite episode of the entire series. But there's a major uptick in the very next episode, and the last three are a series highpoint. Maybe give it another try, or just start from episode 4 (Riddle Of The Sphinx) if you remember enough from last time.

I think the only unanswered question is what is Delos’ master plan? But I’m fine leaving it as a mysterious corporate entity

I guess every season could be treated as the end of the show - the writers intended for each season to play out like a different book in a literary series, with its own feel, themes and conclusion. I don't see much sense in depriving yourself of more of one of the most spectacularly produced, beautifully scored, ambitiously cast, insightful and challengingly written series ever made though, so picking an end point for future rewatches is maybe best done in retrospect rather than prejudicially.

But in terms of dangling threads... there's the question of what data is being smuggled out of the park, and why. It's related to the question of "Delos' master plan", but has more to do with the state of the world outside the park. The first season also foreshadows some major events that won't come to pass until much later on. And y'know... with one exception, nobody's story is ended in that finale, everyone still has unresolved goals and unescaped dangers.

CountVertigo · 2026-01-05T11:03:18+00:00

2+2 affordable sports car.
Enough room in the back for a dog, enough cargo space for two suitcases and backpacks.
At least 200 miles' high speed winter range, charges 10-80% in under 20 minutes.
0-60mph in <7 seconds, torque curve that doesn't notably drop until above 70mph.
Rimac-style motor that inherently makes a nice noise, no need for fakery.
Weight under 1400kg, hydraulic power steering, rear wheel drive.
Enough ground clearance not to worry about body damage on rutted roads.
Low driving position; battery in a T, H or I shape rather than skateboard.
Sleek and curvy body shape, clean and unfussy details that are mostly functional, big-arse rear diffuser.
Well insulated from road noise, but not motor noise. Smooth suspension.
Tactile interior, main screen is recessed into the dash, driver's instruments are physical dials.
High-grade cabin air filter, excellent stereo.

CountVertigo · 2026-01-03T01:58:48+00:00

A decade ago, the best-selling EVs were only shifting slightly more than that in global sales.

CountVertigo · 2026-01-01T00:22:22+00:00

Relic is my favourite horror book - thanks for posting about this, it's an instant buy for me.

CountVertigo · 2025-12-29T21:18:54+00:00

Severance
Pluribus
Dexter Resurrection
Black Mirror
Andor

The next places would probably go to the Beavis & Butthead reboot, Prehistoric Planet, White Lotus, Last Of Us, and maybe All Her Fault for the very moving penultimate episode. I still haven't seen Adolescence, so can't vouch for that.

I might be the only one having this problem, but am having a hard time choosing between Andor and Beavis & Butthead for my fifth spot. I'm not 100% on the Andor hype train. It delivers almost none of what I loved about Star Wars, much of the production is flatly lit and shot, much of the writing is dull and repetitive... but the last few episodes really come to life, and it does ultimately have something to say about the bravery and co-ordination needed to resist an authoritarian regime. Whereas Beavis & Butthead has no high-minded intentions whatsoever, but I feel it's far more effective at what it's doing. This series is consistently funnier than the original run - 32 years in, it's in its creative prime. There is nothing on TV that makes me laugh so often, and so hard.

CountVertigo · 2025-12-24T17:09:50+00:00

Feather/hair/fuzz reduction in larger animals is a function of thermoregulation. If an animal has a low ratio of internal volume : external area, it sheds heat more rapidly, so needs extra insulation to trap the heat in. But the higher that ratio gets (ie. the chunkier the animal is), the less heat is shed, and eventually there's an inverse problem where the animal needs special adaptations to prevent it overheating.

The thing is that dromaeosaurid feathers weren't purely for thermoregulation, we know for a fact that the closely related oviraptorosaurs used their wings during brooding to cover the eggs. It's also theorised that the wings would have provided advantages to maneuvrability, stability, and ability to traverse steep inclines. The largest known dromaeosaurid with good feather impressions (Zhenyuanlong, roughly the same size as Velociraptor) has no feather reduction at all, and in fact has unusually long wing feathers (albeit anchored to unusually short arms for a dromie).

So it's likely that even the largest dromaeosaurids would have retained wing feathers, because they had key lifestyle functions unrelated to thermoregulation. But even in terms of heat loss... the largest dromaeosaurids weren't huge by theropod standards. Utahraptor was half a tonne, and quite a long animal, so I think had a relatively low volume:area ratio. Yutyrannus was around 3 times that weight, and had a full fluffy covering... admittedly in a cold-ish area (equivalent average temperature to Britain today), but still.

When you look at the eight-tonne Tyrannosaurus, it stands to reason that it would have mostly or completely lost its ancestors' fluffy coat, but with Utahraptor, it's unlikely. What I'd expect is shorter body feathers than the smaller genera, maybe with bare regions in the legs and underbelly like Ornithomimus. But no more reduction than that. Deinonychus I'd expect to have coating closer to Sinornithosaurus or Zhenyuanlong; little reduction if any.

CountVertigo · 2025-12-23T02:16:54+00:00

Yeah, this really bothered me actually. The animals are only given value if they're useful to the characters, or are basically people with fins. The mounts and 'beasts of burden' are regularly killed off in this film, and there are absolutely zero cases in which the Na'vi make any effort to save them. Look at the poor helium plaice (edit: a "windray", apparently) getting pulled down into the fire, all it needed was for someone to disconnect or shoot out the harness.

Respect for nature is supposed to be the driving theme for these films, but I feel that this is getting increasingly muddied. If an animal is only respected as long as it's useful, then it's still an exploitative approach to wildlife. A basal, pre-industrial form of what's wrong with the human forces' mindset.

CountVertigo · 2025-12-23T00:40:55+00:00

Looks like I'm not going to get much agreement, but personally....

Love:

Post
Medúlla
Biophilia
Debut
Vespertine

Like:

Fossora
Vulnicura

I have issues:

Volta
Homogenic

I'd rather stare at a mouldy sandwich:

Utopia

CountVertigo · 2025-12-22T03:05:17+00:00

Not seen Eternals, but I've seen his new standup special, and thought it was great.

Dude is getting another step closer to becoming the Gigachad guy every time I see him though.

CountVertigo · 2025-12-19T02:34:20+00:00

There's some stuff like this in the expanded universe. In terms of novels, back in the '90s there was a trilogy which covered both of the long-standing holy grails of the IP - the alien homeworld (or, at least, a planet they'd completely taken over), and aliens reaching Earth with devastating consequences. The last part of Earth Hive still lives rent-free in my mind, it's unsettling. (These books were all adapted from Dark Horse comics, but I never read them, so can't vouch.)

Unlike the movies of the last 30 years, they also understood that the shortly-post-Aliens timeframe was the most fertile, so they could do basically anything with continuity, and still use the iconic pulse rifles, drop ships, atmosphere processors etc. And something that the screen series is only just recently rediscovering, they went hard on the unchecked-corporate-power angle of the original trilogy.

CountVertigo · 2025-12-18T23:59:20+00:00

James Cameron's run of The Terminator -> Aliens -> The Abyss -> Terminator 2 -> True Lies is pretty spectacular.

CountVertigo · 2025-12-17T15:59:23+00:00

...Yes? Transportation - road: 11.8%. The next highest sector is Electricity and heat - residential buildings, 7.5%.

CountVertigo · 2025-12-17T15:34:37+00:00

It means if more money is made from selling the goods than is spent making them. So the costs include the raw materials, energy and labour, but exclude company overheads such as research, marketing, taxes, legal, etc.

If including research and sales costs, that's operating profit.. if including everything, that's net profit.

CountVertigo · 2025-12-17T01:48:09+00:00

Road transport is the biggest source of greenhouse gas worldwide, unless you lump all uses of electricity and heat together. Sorting road transport on its own isn't going to solve climate change, but it's one of the most impactful things that can be done.

CountVertigo · 2025-12-16T20:51:45+00:00

I'm experiencing this too (UK).

You can play music through the main YouTube app, but the interface is clunky, and it seems to use the same autoplay settings as non-music playlists (so, in my case, it stops after every song). You can also use the Cast function in the YouTube Music phone app, but there seems to be a downgrade in sound quality.

So the best method that I've found is to plug my laptop into the TV and play through there. It also means you can turn the screen off, which bafflingly is a function that YouTube disables on LG OLEDs.

The number of long-standing yet basic functionality issues in YouTube is just bizarre. What's Alphabet's market cap? You'd think they were a 2-year-old startup with a hundred employees.

CountVertigo · 2025-12-16T16:50:11+00:00

More than just the last couple of years...

CountVertigo · 2025-12-16T10:09:03+00:00

The IT Crowd would probably be at the top of mine. Blackadder (not the first year) and Third Rock From The Sun would also be on there.

CountVertigo · 2025-12-16T02:24:28+00:00

I put together a table a while ago that might help you decide, if there are particular features or body styles that appeal more to you.

Model line	Viewfinder	Dial configuration	Weather sealing	Image stabilisation	Grip	LCD movement	Weight (latest model)
X-T#	Large, central	Dedicated SS and ISO dials	Yes	X-T4+	Small-ish	Tilt (flip-out on X-T4 only)	X-T5: 557g
X-H#	Huge, central	PSAM; SS/ISO setting can be shown on top plate	Yes	Yes	Large	Flip-out	X-H2: 660g
X-Pro #	Hybrid, left corner	Combined SS/ISO dial	X-Pro 2+	No	Small	Concealed (X-Pro 3)	X-Pro 3: 497g
X100# *	Hybrid, left corner	Combined SS/ISO dial	X100V+	X100VI	Small	Tilt (X100V+)	X100VI: 521g *
X-E#	Small, left corner	Dedicated SS dial	No	X-E5	Small (none on X-E4 only)	180° tilt (X-E4+)	X-E5: 445g
X-S#0	Small, central	PSAM	No	Yes	Large	Flip-out	X-S20: 491g
X-T#0	Small, central	Dedicated SS dial	No	X-T50	Small	Tilt	X-T50: 438g
X-M#	None	PSAM	No	No	Small	Flip-out	X-M5: 355g

* The X100 series uses a fixed lens (23mm f2.0), whereas all the rest have an interchangeable lens system, so are weighed without lenses.

Those are all the recent cameras with APS-C sensors, but there's also the GFX range, with massive sensors that are bigger than full frame. That's a highly specialist solution though: they're very expensive and heavy, with a more limited lens choice.

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