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Submitted via IRC for SoyCow4408
Comcast keeps losing TV subscribers, but it has a new way to fight cord cutting.
As streaming video continues to chip away at cable TV subscriber numbers, Comcast is making some of its Internet speed increases available only to customers that pay for both Internet and video service.
Last week, Comcast announced speed increases for customers in Houston and the Oregon/SW Washington areas. The announcement headlines were "Comcast increases Internet speeds for some video customers."
Customers with 60Mbps Internet download speeds are being upped to 150Mbps; 150Mbps subscribers are going to 250Mbps; and 250Mbps subscribers are getting a raise to 400Mbps or 1Gbps.
Comcast says speed increases will kick in automatically without raising the customers' monthly bills—but only if they subscribe to certain bundles that include both Internet and TV service.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday May 01 2018, @10:58PM (9 children)
... Comcast pries my four hundred music CDs from my cold dead hands.
Presently all but a few are ripped to 192 bps MP3, but a few years ago I realized I could tell the difference between 192 and FLAC or the original CD. The reason I can tell is quite strange: listening to 192 for a few hours makes me very, very weary. That doesn't happen with lossless media.
So I am going to re-rip every last one of my CDs then convert to both FLAC and 320 MP3. I am as yet unable to discern the difference between 320 and FLAC. I'm hoping that I can cobble together some manner of assembly line with abcde [einval.com].
I also listen to Radio Paradise [radioparadise.com]. RP the only Internet Radio station you will ever need - they even offer a FLAC stream now; how times have changed.
Each day when I commute to and from work I ask the RP iOS app to Cache Ahead 2 Hours so I will enjoy my listening pleasure as I pass through a long light rail tunnel. 2 hours of high-bitrate music downloads in ten minutes or so.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @03:27AM (1 child)
You found a job? Awesome dude
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday May 02 2018, @03:42AM
I changed the focus of my search from mobile apps to drivers and embedded systems
Once my clients' sales people sign off on my last build I'll get a mongo paycheck for writing an OSX driver for a USB to VGA adapter
I'm going to buy a used MacBook Pro. I have a Mac mini but you need two Macs to use the kernel debugger
I've already signed my next client
Portland Custom Software Development [soggywizards.com]
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by dwilson on Wednesday May 02 2018, @05:11AM
I can only tell the difference between loseless and lossy codecs on very high quality gear. I guess I don't have very good ears. I can still hear the hum from a CRT when it's on but displaying nothing, so I guess I have that going for me.
But once I realized I could hear the difference under the right circumstances, I re-ripped my entire collection to FLAC, just to avoid ever having to rip it again (It still gets down-converted depending on what I'm loading it on to, back then it was to 128kps mp3 for my player, now it's generally ogg vorbis for my lineageOS phone). This was years ago, mind you. I can't help but chuckle when I buy a new album and rip it today, using abcde. I can remember when ripping the tracks to wav was the quick part, and encoding to flac took ages and ages, and ages. Now, the flac encoding goes faster than the rip itself. Technology is awesome.
- D
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday May 02 2018, @02:03PM (5 children)
Your problem is that you used MP3; it's a shitty codec. Try ripping some stuff to 192kbps Ogg Vorbis or Opus and see if that makes you weary. Ripping stuff to FLAC is fine for archival, but it's a big waste of space in applications where space is limited (like on mobile devices).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 02 2018, @04:37PM (1 child)
i really have been happy with mp3 vbrs at 320kbps; it goes down to nothing in silence and whatever works in between for anything else. with sennheiser 650HD headphones, I have not found anyone that can notice the difference between a CD itself and the audio file when ripped this way.
I never got into ogg because I have a few older mp3 players that could not handle the computational complexity of ogg files, although the file size is superior and would be great to add more music to the same space -- old mp3 players... are too old.
(Flac is just like monster cables for audio from what I can tell. you know the difference only if you expect there to be one)
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday May 03 2018, @01:03PM
I had an iRiver music player years ago, and it played Oggs just fine.
The key is to do some research before you buy something, and make sure it supports open standards.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday May 03 2018, @02:48AM (2 children)
I expect M4A is a better codec than is MP3 but I wanted tracks with the widest portability.
There are some FLAC players for iOS but they all get really poor reviews at the App Store.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday May 03 2018, @12:55PM (1 child)
I've had no trouble with portability with Oggs (Vorbis). They work just great on my computer (Linux), phone (Android), and car (Mazda - runs a Linux-based infotainment system).
If you care about portability and freedom of choice, then you don't use Apple iDevices. If you're going to use iDevices, then you need to do everything the way they want you to, which means buying stuff on the iTunes store exclusively, and only using a Mac.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday May 04 2018, @03:15AM
I own a windows and a Linux box but use my Mac most of the time because using Linux or windows is like pounding nails with my fists
I have about 50 CDs that I ripped to FLAC. I play them with VLC Media Player for macOS
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]