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The New Plex Design Philosophy is Awful

  By Scott • 2025-11-10
Plex_Roku_App-Home_Screen-PXL_20251111_001730397-3840x2597-Q6

One button in the relatively new Plex client for Roku exemplifies everything that’s wrong with Plex’s current approach to its business model and customers. Looking at that “screenshot”, you might wonder what I’m on about. It seems perfectly normal. It might even leave you scratching your head as to why it could ever be a problem. It’s not just that button: The entire Roku app is awful. Among other things, it now forces your home screen to present Plex-corporate-specific-content, and buries your own libraries in a very irritating menu at the top of the screen. From a UX perspective, it’s horribly optimized (or not optimized at all) for quick and easy navigation. The prior version of their Roku app wasn’t … Continue reading

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3 Tiny Beelink Computers: Teardown and Comparison (SER, SEi, and EQR6)

  By Scott • 2025-08-23 ,
BeeLink Computers - SER SEi EQR6 Comparison - YouTube Cover Image - The Good, The Good, and The Uggo.

I happened to accumulate 3 Beelink computers at once: Two are going to be PtP VPN nodes at undisclosed mysterious and super interesting locations (some of that is a lie), and one will be a portable Plex Media Server for travel. This video is an unboxing and disassembly of all three, comparing them and showcasing their design advantages and disadvantages. If you’re looking for a video about their performance, well, I kinda didn’t even get to powering them on yet. This is 100% about the physical hardware. The SER and SEi series are incredibly similar, the former having an AMD CPU and the latter an Intel. The cases are different (metal vs. plastic and different venting), but the motherboards are … Continue reading

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The Wand Company Tricorder – Full Teardown (and Japanese AM/FM Tricorder Radio Ruse!)

  By Scott • 2025-07-20 ,
The Wand Company Tricorder - Teardown and Weird AM FM Japanese Tricorder - YouTube Cover Image

I recently got a Star Trek TOS reproduction tricorder from The Wand Company to accompany my cosplay at the upcoming STLV: Trek to Vegas 2025 convention. But, more important to me right now than getting a costume ready is the contents of this device! So in this video I do a full teardown; Though this isn’t a tutorial necessarily, as I shot it whilst figuring things out for myself the first time. My apologies to anyone that would rather I have preserved this NIB. But remember, Lore was disassembled and he turned out fine! Seriously though, as much as I’d love to preserve this in perfect condition, I purchased it to bring it to a con. It’s gonna get banged … Continue reading

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Overblown UGREEN Nexode 300W vs. No-Name Garbage “700W” USB PSUs

  By Scott • 2025-07-13 , ,
Overblown UGREEN Nexode 300W vs. No-Name Garbage 700W USB PSUs - YouTube Cover

I needed a USB PSU capable of supplying about 85W @ 20V on three separate ports simultaneously (so 255W total). The UGREEN Nexode 300W GaN “Charger” seemed like a good option, as it would have a decent amount of headroom and has a port labeled “140W”, and two “100W”. However, IMO it’s pure marketing nonsense. First of all, it’s very particular as to what loads you can place on which ports in combination. The only way it can output its rated 300W is if one of those loads is @ 28V. That’s fine, I guess. They can spec it however they want. However, in my testing while loading it with 250W across 4 ports, it started thermally throttling after about … Continue reading

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You Don’t Need a PYXIS Monitor, and You Can Have WiFi (Micro Studio Camera 4K G2)

  By Scott • 2025-07-05 ,
PYXIS Monitor - Alternative and WiFi for Micro Studio Camera 4K G2 - YouTube Cover

REUPLOAD – In the previous version I made the erroneous claim that the PYXIS Monitor couldn’t be used with the BMMSC 4K G2 and a USB hub to allow simultaneous monitoring and recording. The issue was that the monitor uses HDMI over USB-C, not USB-C data. So it will only work with hubs that support USB-C HDMI alt mode, none of which I had. Apologies if this misled anyone; It was definitely not my intent, as I very much wanted the monitor + SSD to be usable! Though a bit embarrassed, ultimately I’m glad I was wrong about it. Here’s the USB-C hub from the intro that *does* work with an SSD + PYXIS: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DRG9K3BJ (Not affiliated nor sponsored.) The … Continue reading

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Clicks “Precision Typing Instrument” for Motorola Razr and Pixel 9 (and Teardown)

  By Scott • 2025-06-29 ,
Clicks Keyboard Phone Case - YouTube Cover Image

I take a look at the Clicks Keyboard phone case (or, as they call it, the “Precision Typing Instrument”) with a Pixel 9 Pro and a Motorola Razr 2024. It’s a well-made product, and works without the need to install an app (and the app that is available does *not* require you to create an account for no reason). However, it’s not something I’ll be using, both because I don’t want to switch to a Razr but also because I’m probably overly sentimental about a tactile keyboard. Also, the form factor is cumbersome on a slab phone like the Pixel (and I’d have the same issue when paired with an iPhone). Note: As usual, this video is not sponsored nor … Continue reading

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Cramming a Consumer GPU in a Dell Precision 7960 (RTX 5070 Ti)

  By Scott • 2025-06-21 ,
Precision 7960 GPU Upgrade to GTX 5070 Ti - YouTube Cover Image

Once again, I’m trying to cram a consumer graphics card into an “enterprise” Workstation. This time it’s a Dell Precision 7960 Tower from eBay, with a w9-3495x CPU, 128 GB RAM, and two 1TB SSDs (one of which I’m upgrading to a 4TB Samsung 9100 Pro). As best I can tell, the MSI Inspire 3X is one of the few consumer GPUs that will clear the height constraints of the case (an RTX 5070 Ti here, but you can also get a 5080 in the same form factor). Also, I put on the tin foil hat to talk about how consumer graphics cards are probably bigger than they have to be to protect Big GPU. Storage Driver To download the … Continue reading

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Making an XLR-Barrel Splitter for BMMSC & Fiber Converter (+ Pace Soldering Station Tangent)

Video

  By Scott • 2025-06-07 , ,

I’m sprucing things up in the studio (basement), which includes removing most light stands and tripods. They’ll be attached to the ceiling instead, and with that comes re-wiring everything. Also, upgrade of a couple of full-size Blackmagic Studio Cameras (gen 1) to the much smaller and lightweight Micro Studio Camera 4K G2. Unfortunately, whereas the old BMSC devices have SFP slots for fiber connectivity, the BMMSC G2 does not.

So I’m also using a couple of Blackmagic Mini Converter Optical Fiber 12G modules with the cameras, but as with the cameras they require power which can’t be provided by fiber. (I did look at structured cable, but it wasn’t worth it.) To keep things somewhat neat and tidy, I decided to provide power remotely using 4-pin XLR cables going into custom splitter boxes with 3 barrel jack outputs. That’ll run the camera, converter, and a small LCD monitor if necessary.

Mostly this video ended up being about the adapter box, and I didn’t get into the fiber converter as much as I intended to from the outset. That’s because the whole project got a bit sidetracked by the power supply not working out of the box. I’d picked up a Core SWX Cube 200 Power Supply from B&H, which is supposed to put out 14.3V constantly, but was putting out 16V occasionally when I banged on it. Just a faulty unit, I suppose. Might return it or investigate further.

In a subsequent video I’ll go over the actual setup of the cameras using the adapter boxes, as well as the fiber converter (and hopefully a working high-amp PSU).

As usual, nothing in this video was sponsored and I’m not promoting anything. I paid for all this stuff out of my own pocket, for my own reasons.

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Sandisk Pro-Dock 4: Too Well-Made for My Purposes

  By Scott • 2025-05-29 , ,
Sandisk Pro-Dock 4 - Teardown and Review - YT Cover

I got this Sandisk Pro-Dock 4 card reader holder and laptop dock a while back for a bargain, hoping it would be somewhat slapdash in its electronics such that I could “convert” it to be used as a simple USB 3 card reader apparatus. Turns out, it’s so Thunderbolt that Zeus himself is scared. The engineers at Sandisk (and/or Western Digital) did an absolutely masterful job with this hardware, though the product appears to have been let down by poor software/driver support. It seems to be discontinued now, which is a shame. In this video, I tear down the thing and check out its components. Relatively high-res photos of the two internal circuit boards:

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Schaffner Interference Simulator: Posting Spikes on Mains

  By Scott • 2025-05-24 ,
Interference Simulator - Cover - v01 - 1980s IS

I got this Schaffner NSG 200E Interference Simulator mainframe with an NSG 223A module a while back to test a device featured in a previous video. That was quite a while ago, but I finally got around to taking a look at it. In this video we’ll check out the device’s internals and power it on for the first time in years. Then test some USB power supplies for interference (spike) pass-through. The USB PSUs were the cheapest I could find for fast delivery from Amazon, at about 4 bucks each. I wanted them to be of questionable quality, but they seemed surprisingly well-made. Though I’m not an expert, I am a fan of ⁨@DiodeGoneWild⁩ and would love to send … Continue reading

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What really scares me about AI generated videos. (Veo 3)

Video

  By Scott • 2025-05-23 ,

A.I. generated video content presents plenty of problems in the short and medium term: Job loss in the commercial, TV and film industries. False or misleading information. Dystopian idolatry of fake celebrities.

But IMO people are missing the really frightening aspect of all of this. The road leads to bespoke content generated for each viewer in any given moment. Once it becomes cheap enough, why would a company spend 0.5 cents to create a commercial to show to 100 million people when they could create 100 million commercials to show to each person individually? And why wouldn’t streaming platforms create content on-the-fly to cater to each individual’s preferences? It’ll lead to cultural isolation wherein all of us consume only our own media, in an infinite feedback loop. We each become an echo chamber of one, disconnected from our fellow humans.

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Tape Backup – Custom Server Build

Video

  By Scott • 2025-05-17 ,

I gave up on the HPE Microserver in the previous video on this subject and decided to go with a custom build. That went.. well.

It’s an iStarUSA D-300 case, ASRock Rack motherboard, Xeon Silver 4509Y, 64GB RAM and a Samsung 990 Pro NVMe. And, of course the Dell/IBM LTO-8 tape drive. Finding the right power supplies and fans was a bit of an issue due to my poor planning.

The PSU originally was a Thermaltake Toughpower PF3 1050W, but that full-size ATX form factor didn’t 100% fit so I ended up using a Corsair SF1000 SFX-sized PSU which was technically too small but whatever.

The fans were almost completely replaced between the beginning and end. I went with Noctuas for quietness and reliability, but the small ones in the back of the case didn’t move enough air. (As found out in the “smoke test” — not what you think). Swapped those out.

Of the two CPU coolers I tried, one suffered from extremely bad vibration at medium and high RPMs. The other also vibrated excessively (but less so).

Could I have made this a little easier on myself? Sure. But this was also my first ever custom rackmount build. And though I’ve probably built scores of computers over the last 30+ years, they were all desktops, and lately I’ve been buying so much used enterprise hardware that I lost the knack. Hence the super-long video.

BTW: Absolutely NOTHING in this video is sponsored, endorsed, nor otherwise shilled. I paid for everything out of my own pocket, bought it for my own reasons, and have no relationship whatsoever with any of the companies I’m about to mention below. There are no affiliate links or anything similar. You do you as far as these products go.

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V-Mount Batteries – SmallRig vs. Neweer 99Wh

Video

  By Scott • 2025-05-10 ,

I compare the superficial differences between the SmallRig VB99 and the Neweer Mini V-Mount batteries. I was looking for inexpensive V-Mounts and came across both of these on Amazon, and from the basic descriptions and product photos they seemed to only have cosmetic differences.

They’re both ostensibly 99Wh battery packs with D-Tap out, USB A and C out (with charging on the C connector), as well as 8V and 12V barrel plug outputs (and, of course, the V-Mount connector).

And they are in fact pretty much the same as far as features, weight, and capacity goes. Though, neither one was able to deliver the promised 99Wh (they got close at around 92Wh).

The SmallRig was almost twice the price, so as far as value-for-money is concerned: Buy the Neweer (or something entirely else).

This video is NOT sponsored nor affiliated with the companies featured. As usual, I just fancied comparing these two products for my own purposes, and purchased them with my own money just like anyone else would.

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Handheld Fog Machine: SmokeNinja, Please!

Video

  By Scott • 2025-05-03 ,

I examine the SmokeNinja fog machine from the company of PMI (which stands for Practical Magic & Innovation, though the logo is largely illegible and they only mention what it means in a tiny font in one place for some baffling reason). Despite them being embarrassed by their own company name, it seems to be a very well-constructed, well-designed and well-implemented device. (That’s 3 out of 3 “wells”, my highest score yet on this new scoring system I’ll never use again.)

It puts out a decent amount of smoke/fog, is easy to use, remote controllable, and has a user-swappable common type of lithium ion battery so you could use it extensively.

They pitch it for photography/videography effects or theatrics, and I guess it’d almost certainly be good for that. Now that I think about it, it would also be good for Halloween effects on the front porch or something. Though, I purchased it for the purposes of showing the airflow in computer cases, as well as the beam dispersion patterns of lighting fixtures.

As usual, this video is NOT sponsored nor did I receive any kind of compensation whatsoever. All opinions are mine and mine alone, and I paid for this thing out of my own pocket for my own reasons.

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Intel NUC Enthusiast as a Gaming HTPC

Video

  By Scott • 2025-04-26 ,

I’m not a terribly good gamer. I play Dark Souls and Elden Ring with a mouse and keyboard. It’s been my dream to actually be able to use a modern day controller, so I figured I’d force myself to by putting a “gaming” HTPC in the spare bedroom. Some kind of mini PC. That didn’t go to plan because I ended up getting distracted from this task by playing through Dark Souls 3 on my main PC.

But regardless, in this video I open up an Intel NUC Enthusiast 11, stick in some RAM and an SSD, then other RAM, then yet other RAM… then eventually play some games to see what the performance is like. It’s not too bad considering the thing has an RTX2060, which isn’t awful for 1920×1080 60Hz.

Pairing that with some Logitech keyboard (w/trackpad) and a PlayStation 5 controller, I will eventually learn to master gaming from a couch or bed. Because that’s living.