EEVblog #899 - Extreme Mailbag

[mathsquid]

Format schmormat.  I don't care as long as Dave does a separate video on those calculators.  Drool.....

[Brumby]

Part of the charm of the mailbag is the surprise factor - and the time spent on the item being proportional to the interest each commands is essential to the purpose of doing mailbag (as I see it).  While I think the unpacking itself could be sped up, some of the banter can be entertaining - and I would prefer that be kept.

I was thinking of a post-production process where the audio track with the banter was trimmed of 'dead air' and played back at normal speed while the video track was played at double speed.  I've seen this done at the end of some movies on TV where they want to get through the credits quickly, but I don't know if the time taken for this would be worth the effort.  Besides, banter tends to be something that's spoken to fill otherwise awkward silence.

I'd probably suggest sticking with the old format, with a fast-forward through the unpacking.  If there were any interesting bits during the opening, they could be the first points made when dropping back to normal speed.


Changing things to try and please people, while understandable, can be counter-productive.  I believe viewer control is something that needs to be kept in mind.  Each person can customize for their own preferences - and they can change their mind.

If the mail is piling up then it's time to admit there's simply too much of it and some stuff gets no airtime. Maybe the last two minutes of the mailbag could be all the stuff you opened but decided not to spend any time on. Just pile it up on the table so people can see their stuff.

I like that idea.  Just lay that stuff out and acknowledge who sent in what.  It would acknowledge those who made the effort to send something in, while at the same time demonstrating that some items aren't all that interesting any more.

[coppice]

That Simpson meter seems to have a lot in common with this TMK one I used to own.

[digsys]

I got the biggest buzz, when Dave finally cut himself on the "letter opener" ! Am I a bad person :-)

[Fungus]

I got the biggest buzz, when Dave finally cut himself on the "letter opener" ! Am I a bad person :-)

It's not clear what he cut himself with. Could have been something else.

[iromero]

I liked the new format a lot, specially the sped up unboxings! keeps a better pace. It would be ideal coupled with perhaps one or two 10-30 min videos on the most interesting things (if any, or links to older videos related to the topics that come up). I really can't think of any items in this particular mailbag  that needed much more expansion on new videos. For the VFD Dave already made a video explaining how they work, he also made videos about HP calculators. Panahand, pcbrax, blue gecko and the eeroots would be mostly an ad/review video which perhaps he can't say much because he doesn't really have too much use for them. Teardowns of stuff like cellphones and gps units has already been done in the channel and they all look mostly the same.

Perhaps if Dave is interested, some more talking about the ISA probe card, and perhaps debugging in general could be called for. But TBH at least on this one he did devote about an optimal amount of time on each item IMO.

[rrinker]

 I think Brumby hit it on the head - it's not necessarily what *I'M* interested in, it's Dave's reaction to what *HE'S* interested in that make the Mailbag great. That "wah wah wah" look when yet another thing he's seen a million times, or the way he lights up when something new or unique appears in the wrappings.
 Perhaps something those with kids relate to better? Watching Dave open random Mailbag packages is like watching the kids open their presents on Christmas morning (hey that's when we do it around here - others may do differently). Yes, there are some things that interest me more than others, but one can skip past something they don't like. The even more than usual off the cuff randomness is probably why I went through and watched all the Mailbag segments before catching up on all the other videos when I first found Dave's YouTube channel.
 Those that dislike Mailbag altogether - well, I'll be nice and not tell you where you can go, but rest assured I'm thinking it. 

[boffin]

Part of the charm of the mailbag is the surprise factor - and the time spent on the item being proportional to the interest each commands is essential to the purpose of doing mailbag (as I see it).  While I think the unpacking itself could be sped up, some of the banter can be entertaining - and I would prefer that be kept.

I agree, more time on the interesting stuff.

For example I would have liked to have seen the PCB stand assembled and how well it held a board; but I don't need (or could do the fast forward effect) of it actually being screwed together.

As for the meter, a restore video would be awesome, because that's a device that deserves a permanent place on your bench

[WN1X]

I think we can take a little from the old format and a little from the new one.

In the old format I thought there was too much time wasted actually cutting tape, opening boxes etc... more often than not I actually skipped that part so I could get to the good stuff (letters, postcards and the items enclosed).

+1

[Owen]

I think we can take a little from the old format and a little from the new one.

In the old format I thought there was too much time wasted actually cutting tape, opening boxes etc... more often than not I actually skipped that part so I could get to the good stuff (letters, postcards and the items enclosed).

+1

+1. I think it would be a good trade off sitting there with closed mail just telling the viewer the sender name + country. Next shot just waffling a bit close up on your typical desk view and shifting the mailbag parts opened in telling or showing the postcards/letters. That's actual the essential of mailbag for me .

[roli]

Can we get the old old format back? The one where a mailbag actually became a full length teardown? These days you usually leave interesting items for later, but that later never actually seems to come.

[ErikI]

Old format 

[ercapoccia]

I also prefer the old format. 

[twam]

I'm fine with the speed up of the package unwrapping, but for the rest stay with the old format.

And guys, please stop sending in old trash that we've seen many times before (Phones, Walk-men, Organizers, ...).

[Dr. Frank]

 

The faster style is MUCH better, the recent mailbags were really boring. Just like the recent European football championchip. 

For me, there's no thrill anymore to watch you opening packages, sloooowly unpacking and reading through postcards and letters. Got some charm also, but I'm more interested in seeing ancient or odd electronics stuff. Also a good share of items are boring, so a quicker walk over will have more dynamic.

Interesting stuff will have their own eevblog #, so nothing will be missed, especially not these quick teardowns, which I really didn't like so much.

Another advantage: you won't drown in these many un-opened items any more, and maybe people will send even more mailbag stuff, now.

Conclusion: Much more entertaining!

Another compliment: Even if this video is much faster than before, it's not superficial (compared to the other 'fast' format), and it's still well-founded (compared to the other, reaaallyyy sloooow format).


Frank

[Unixon]

I would stick with the old one. Recent mailbags were already hasty, another speedup makes EEVblog lose its charm.

[janoc]

@EEVBLOG

I didn't mind the old format neither, this new one feels rushed. You have don't have time to go over anything properly and then you are skipping stuff that might have been actually interesting - e.g. trying out those PCB holders or playing a bit more with one of the devboards. The sped up unpacking of boxes is a good idea, skipping/rushing the rest is not (well, unless it is yet another brickphone ...)

BTW, the Blue Gecko likely has display pins shared with those GPIOs you were touching, so that was probably causing those glitches. I don't think it was the battery - even when it was supposedly working at the end there were two glitched lines on the display and the entire thing was frozen.

[Jope]

I like this fast-paced format way better than the old one.

If Dave thinks that some items warrant a closer look, then that should be done in a separate video ("Follow-Up Friday"?).

[janoc]

Nah, didn't like it.

A fixed amount of time for every item can never work - all items aren't equal. eg. That multimeter could have had a lot more time spent on it.

If the mail is piling up then it's time to admit there's simply too much of it and some stuff gets no airtime. Maybe the last two minutes of the mailbag could be all the stuff you opened but decided not to spend any time on. Just pile it up on the table so people can see their stuff.

PS: Phones? No thanks. Not unless they're something really non-generic. Same goes for Walkmen, etc.

I agree. I would even say that mailbag doesn't mean that the mail has to actually get opened on camera. If there is too much stuff, well, open things beforehand, pick the interesting stuff worth showing and skip the rest. I am sure that nobody is going to get offended only because Dave didn't show their ancient "brickphone" or a wireless antistatic strap on camera.

[HighVoltage]

I liked this faster version.

Please do a teardown / review of the calculators.
I have one of the small versions, a few years old and it worked well for a while but the the foil keys broke and made it not usable anymore.
May be that is the reason, why they released the bigger versions with real keys.

[bitwelder]

I also felt the pace was a bit too rushed out.
But one plus was speeding up the unpacking/unwrapping time

Repetitive/boring items (phones, n-th copy of the same calculator model, wireless ESD straps) and postcards could have just a few seconds steady shot at the END of the mailbag episode (with sender's name overlaid), with thanks, as 'video receipt' for the senders.

I think after an 'extreme mailbag' episode Dave should launch a forum poll on which items should be later taken for a deeper inspection. Then, depending on the available time (and upcoming stuff) he can decide how many items to pick from the top of that list.

[nowlan]

Was actually interested in seeing the gps fixed. If everything is gonna drift and become landfill. I realise its probably obsolete by now. Still seeing things repaired teaches me something in the process.

[bktemp]

A common failure in resistive touchscreens is the connection between the touch layers and the cable: You have two layers (one for x, and one for y direction). Because there are electrodes on both layers, they need to be connected to the output cable using a conductive glue. If the connection at that point becomes a bit intermittent, it screws up the calibration.

[Kilrah]

I will second that! For me, it could go slower, with more detail, not faster.

+1, definitely not liking that experiment. The whole point of mailbag is the surprise effect and the widely varying interest of various things. Some don't need more than a minute or 2 (PCB rails?) but some deserve more (I'd have liked a 2-min teardown of one of the calculators to see what platform was used for example) and Dave's been pretty good at allocating proper time to things until now.

If someone didn't like long videos about random stuff they wouldn't watch mailbags anyway, it's not limiting to 2min per item that will change it. The others can always skip forward if there's things they don't like or care about.

One thing I'd like is for Dave to look at things a little longer/documenting himself a tad more about some of the more "exotic" things before talking about them if he can't figure them out himself in a pinch, for example it's pretty obvious the eeRoots thingy is intended to be easily used on a little robot thingy with room and connections for 2 motors, the obstacle detection IR sensors and line follower on the bottom. Sometimes it's just a matter of reading the letter/doc, or 30 seconds to look at the website and see it pictured right there. Would certainly sound a little more serious than "I'm not quite sure what's going on there" after 3 minutes of looking at the thing... That's unfortunately happening often in mailbags, with Dave not seeing the point or even going wrong about it.

[HKJ]

Even the old format was sometimes to fast with items. Mostly when a separate video was promised (I believe David is about 100 videos behind on that).
For me it would be nice if items got the time they needed in the mailbag and then do two mailbags some weeks.