Lonewolves wrote:
Grim... wrote:
Every time I see an RX-8 on the road I think "I'd better buy one of them before there's no good ones left".
So tempting isn't it? I did think about them at the time of buying the CTR.
Less than a grand now.
I think if you could garage one for a decade you'd make a killing.
Do you mean "garage" as in "keep one in a garage" or "never get it back from the mechanic" because in the case of the RX8 I'm genuinely not sure.
GazChap wrote:
Lonewolves wrote:
But it does celebrate its 15th birthday next month!
The Celica is 21 in a few months
Wow, I didn't realise it was that old!
Lonewolves wrote:
Grim... wrote:
Every time I see an RX-8 on the road I think "I'd better buy one of them before there's no good ones left".
So tempting isn't it? I did think about them at the time of buying the CTR.
Can't argue the bangs-per-buck and they handle really well too (the steering is horribly over-assisted, though, and of cousre there's bugger all torque - and I mean none). However, they are prone to weird shit... not starting at all if you mess up when it "catches" upon starting, especially from hot; lots of corrosion problems (surprisingly) including to engine mounts, wheels etc., and the fuel consumption is ruinous. Absolutely ruinous, for about the same brisk-but-nothing-special performance as a Golf 2.0 TDI. Think 20mpg on a good day.
They do sound awesome at 9000RPM though.
You're telling me the one with 246bhp is as slow as a Golf TDI?
Lonewolves wrote:
You're telling me the one with 246bhp is as slow as a Golf TDI?
I thought they were around 180bhp?
/checking... standby...
There's a Type-S version.
Yeah apparently there are two variants. 
The standard is listed at 7.0 seconds 0-60 (Golf GTD is 7.5 sec), but the quick one with 227PS is only 6.2 sec.
The standard car has 189PS.
The standard is listed at 7.0 seconds 0-60 (Golf GTD is 7.5 sec), but the quick one with 227PS is only 6.2 sec.
The standard car has 189PS.
GazChap wrote:
Better than the Dodge Charger or Porsche 928?
Better than the 928 because they don't even have the thin excuse of serving an aerodynamic purpose, and better than the Charger because they have decorative logos on the "closed" position.
Doctor Glyndwr wrote:
GazChap wrote:
Better than the Dodge Charger or Porsche 928?
Better than the 928 because they don't even have the thin excuse of serving an aerodynamic purpose, and better than the Charger because they have decorative logos on the "closed" position.
Sounds like it's verging on MaliCool territory
MaliA wrote:
Doctor Glyndwr wrote:
GazChap wrote:
Better than the Dodge Charger or Porsche 928?
Better than the 928 because they don't even have the thin excuse of serving an aerodynamic purpose, and better than the Charger because they have decorative logos on the "closed" position.
Sounds like it's verging on MaliCool territory
Mercury Cougar FTW
This Pontiac Firebird wants a chat.
Lonewolves wrote:
GazChap wrote:
Lonewolves wrote:
But it does celebrate its 15th birthday next month!
The Celica is 21 in a few months
Wow, I didn't realise it was that old!
Actually 22, keep forgetting we're now in 2017.
Build date was May '95
GazChap wrote:
Lonewolves wrote:
GazChap wrote:
Lonewolves wrote:
But it does celebrate its 15th birthday next month!
The Celica is 21 in a few months
Wow, I didn't realise it was that old!
Actually 22, keep forgetting we're now in 2017.
Build date was May '95
Mine's my daily driver though, so I think I still win.
Lonewolves wrote:
GazChap wrote:
Lonewolves wrote:
GazChap wrote:
Lonewolves wrote:
But it does celebrate its 15th birthday next month!
The Celica is 21 in a few months
Wow, I didn't realise it was that old!
Actually 22, keep forgetting we're now in 2017.
Build date was May '95
Mine's my daily driver though, so I think I still win.
Ahem.
Nice! Didn't realise you'd kept the Puma for your daily driver.
Zardoz wrote:
Nice! Didn't realise you'd kept the Puma for your daily driver.
Neither does he at the car park most days.
It used to be my daily driver before I started changing cars like most people change socks, if that counts?
ApplePieOfDestiny wrote:
Zardoz wrote:
Nice! Didn't realise you'd kept the Puma for your daily driver.
Neither does he at the car park most days.
It's funny cos it's true.
Bobbyaro wrote:
ApplePieOfDestiny wrote:
Zardoz wrote:
Nice! Didn't realise you'd kept the Puma for your daily driver.
Neither does he at the car park most days.
It's funny cos it's true.
Stupid car park man.
I didn't plan on keeping it - I hardly fucking fit in it - but I fell in love with it and it's been flawless so far.
Doctor Glyndwr wrote:
I'mmmma let you finish but the car MrsDoc learnt to drive in has the best flip headlights of all time
OF ALL TIME
OF ALL TIME
That's just...wow... words fail me.... I... think... It's just so.... yucky....and pointless. God damn.
And yet, the more I think about it though, it has some odd, amusing, appeal.
Needs bull horns
First thing that doesn't work properly on the S4, and it's hardly a deal-breaker, but the MMI system seems to have an issue with really long MP3s.
I bought a 128GB USB key shortly after getting the car, put ALL THE TRANCE EVER on it, and connected it to the MMI using the factory fit socket in the glove compartment via a £6 cable off ebay (Audi want three million pounds for the same cable), which it has been studiously working through ever since, and always resuming exactly where it left off the previous time the car was turned off. (Impressively, even if I changed the source to one of the SD cards to listen to something else in my music collection, which isn't all trance. It remembers where's it up to on USB/iThing/SD1/SD2 independently of each other.)
Anyway, in the last few days it's got to the 'Tsi Trance' folder, which are 70-90 minute trance mixes (as single MP3s) by some DJ chap who goes by the moniker or 'handle' of DJ GT.
Basically, with these very long MP3s it's a bit hit or miss as to whether it remembers its location in the track from turning the car off to turning it back on again. Sometimes it 'forgets' where it was up to on the most recent session, and goes back to where it was up to the last but one time the car was turned off. Like, yesterday I went to badminton at the NSC in Douglas which is a 25 minute drive, one badminton session later and the car resumed 'Dj Gt - Voices of Autumn 2003.mp3' from where it had been left on Monday after me and Mrs Hearthly got back from our kettle adventure to Currys, and not where it had been up to an hour and a half earlier.
No biggy likes, but I am now just having to eyeball where these tracks are up to before I turn the car off, and if it's done a dibley on me next time I turn it on, do a fast forward through the track to get it back to where it was.
I suppose in Germany they are all too busy being productive and industrious to listen to music for more than an hour at a time, so Audi's software engineers never considered that workshy Brits might have MP3s running to 90 minutes. It's also possible the USB key itself is out of the car's spec, certainly the SD card support is capped at 32GB and 4000 files per card, there's no specific mention of similar restrictions on USB keys but back in 2010 when the car was made 128GB USB keys had only just come to market, so it's possible support for them is a bit wonky or non-existent.
In other news my long-term MPG is slowly creeping down, it was up at 25.2mpg at one point, and is now down at 24.5mpg. The reason for this is I've started putting it in forced manual mode and using the flappy paddles far more often than is necessary, just because I like revving the arse out of it and listening to the supercharger (and SOUNDAKTOR.....) do its thing. This is bad for fuel consumption, unsurprisingly.
I bought a 128GB USB key shortly after getting the car, put ALL THE TRANCE EVER on it, and connected it to the MMI using the factory fit socket in the glove compartment via a £6 cable off ebay (Audi want three million pounds for the same cable), which it has been studiously working through ever since, and always resuming exactly where it left off the previous time the car was turned off. (Impressively, even if I changed the source to one of the SD cards to listen to something else in my music collection, which isn't all trance. It remembers where's it up to on USB/iThing/SD1/SD2 independently of each other.)
Anyway, in the last few days it's got to the 'Tsi Trance' folder, which are 70-90 minute trance mixes (as single MP3s) by some DJ chap who goes by the moniker or 'handle' of DJ GT.
Basically, with these very long MP3s it's a bit hit or miss as to whether it remembers its location in the track from turning the car off to turning it back on again. Sometimes it 'forgets' where it was up to on the most recent session, and goes back to where it was up to the last but one time the car was turned off. Like, yesterday I went to badminton at the NSC in Douglas which is a 25 minute drive, one badminton session later and the car resumed 'Dj Gt - Voices of Autumn 2003.mp3' from where it had been left on Monday after me and Mrs Hearthly got back from our kettle adventure to Currys, and not where it had been up to an hour and a half earlier.
No biggy likes, but I am now just having to eyeball where these tracks are up to before I turn the car off, and if it's done a dibley on me next time I turn it on, do a fast forward through the track to get it back to where it was.
I suppose in Germany they are all too busy being productive and industrious to listen to music for more than an hour at a time, so Audi's software engineers never considered that workshy Brits might have MP3s running to 90 minutes. It's also possible the USB key itself is out of the car's spec, certainly the SD card support is capped at 32GB and 4000 files per card, there's no specific mention of similar restrictions on USB keys but back in 2010 when the car was made 128GB USB keys had only just come to market, so it's possible support for them is a bit wonky or non-existent.
In other news my long-term MPG is slowly creeping down, it was up at 25.2mpg at one point, and is now down at 24.5mpg. The reason for this is I've started putting it in forced manual mode and using the flappy paddles far more often than is necessary, just because I like revving the arse out of it and listening to the supercharger (and SOUNDAKTOR.....) do its thing. This is bad for fuel consumption, unsurprisingly.
Scrap it.
Have you tried any mixes by DJ Parktronic yet? I've heard he's "banging", as the kids say.
Perhaps the Audi has taste and is objecting you your music?
KovacsC wrote:
Perhaps the Audi has taste
L-O-L.
KovacsC wrote:
Perhaps the Audi has taste and is objecting you your music?
Objection! Trance is the finest music in the world, and is also perfect car music.
Also, it's impossible not to be in the mood for trance. Like, sometimes I'll put on something in the morning that I'm really in the mood for, and then by the time I've finished work I'm totally 100% not in the mood for it, and I have to find something else to listen to.
Whereas it's always time for trance.
I always thought the S4 might be a bit much.
Probably should've just gone for S.E. spec/trim level mate.
Probably should've just gone for S.E. spec/trim level mate.
Hearthly wrote:
First thing that doesn't work properly on the S4, and it's hardly a deal-breaker, but the MMI system seems to have an issue with really long MP3s. 
nip:
That's a really interesting bug. I have no idea what could be causing it. I wondered if maybe the system is storing a "time through song" value in some too-short integer that's overflowing, but no combination of 8/16/32 bit ints and milliseconds/seconds units gives the behaviour you're seeing. In conclusion: hardware OEMs shouldn't be trusted to write software. (In secondary conclusion: modern cars have circa 150 million lines of code in them these days, and that's terrifying.)nip:Quote:
I suppose in Germany they are all too busy being productive and industrious to listen to music for more than an hour at a time, so Audi's software engineers never considered that workshy Brits might have MP3s running to 90 minutes. It's also possible the USB key itself is out of the car's spec, certainly the SD card support is capped at 32GB and 4000 files per card, there's no specific mention of similar restrictions on USB keys but back in 2010 when the car was made 128GB USB keys had only just come to market, so it's possible support for them is a bit wonky or non-existent.
I doubt it's that; that sounds like something that stops it working entirely, rather than makes it work intermittently. The bug is easily explained.
Trance = breakdowns.
Simples.
Trance = breakdowns.
Simples.
Total guess and hardly my area of expertise but I'd wager this will be something to do with the handling and size of a single track/file which can be cued or reviewed (forward or r versed). Thinking about it, in order to be able to do this reasonably quickly in real time, the entire file needs to be "loaded" as it were (especially as you listen to the speeded up cue/reverse as you do it), and >90 mins is an uncommonly long play, big file. The software will be expecting a finitely long file? This limitation must come into play at some point, but in which case it's a limitation, not a bug.
On the other hand, this could well be bollocks.
On the other hand, this could well be bollocks.
Or the timestamp value only goes up to 59 minutes and 59 seconds?
I quite like trance myself, though look ridiculous playing it lol. Happy memories though; man, we partied HARD back in the distant day.
Cavey wrote:
Total guess and hardly my area of expertise but I'd wager this will be something to do with the handling and size of a single track/file which can be cued or reviewed (forward or r versed). Thinking about it, in order to be able to do this reasonably quickly in real time, the entire file needs to be "loaded" as it were (especially as you listen to the speeded up cue/reverse as you do it), and >90 mins is an uncommonly long play, big file. The software will be expecting a finitely long file? This limitation must come into play at some point, but in which case it's a limitation, not a bug.
You may be on to something. I can't recall offhand how you seek within mp3 files but I can believe that you can't easily jump to arbitrary points in the file because lots of compression algorithms use information from the past to encode the current state (e.g. i-frames and b-frames in video codecs.) In other words, as you put it, the entire file has to be processed from the beginning. I can also believe the codec implementation in an old-ish car would already have been obsolete when it shipped, ie. is pretty outmoded now, so could suffer from limitations in this regard. (I'd argue it's still a bug, from the user's viewpoint, though; and that's all that really matters.)If that's the case, it could be a buffer overflow or buffer truncation again, but when the head unit tries to seek to a point to resume playback instead.
Hmm, but on the other hand, if that was it, I wouldn't expect AE to be able to manually seek within the file, either, for the same reason... interesting.
MaliA wrote:
Or the timestamp value only goes up to 59 minutes and 59 seconds?
I'd be astonished if that were true. It would imply all sorts of weird things about the programmers.
Well, maybe not that astonished.
We're not going to get much further without data. Ideally we'd need to establish some correlations, e.g.
1) played to x min y seconds: resumed fine
1) played to a min b seconds: resumed at c min d seconds
The questions are: for what maximum value of x:y does it go wrong, and what can we deduce from how a:b maps to c:d?
Hearthly wrote:
Whereas it's always time for trance.
Too fucking right.
Shit the bed, you mean I could be right? Bloody hells bells, every dog has its day! Cheers Doc.
Doctor Glyndwr wrote:
MaliA wrote:
Or the timestamp value only goes up to 59 minutes and 59 seconds?
I'd be astonished if that were true. It would imply all sorts of weird things about the programmers.
Well, maybe not that astonished.
We're not going to get much further without data. Ideally we;'d need to establish some correlations, e.g.
1) played to x min y seconds: resumed fine
1) played to a min b seconds: resumed at c min d seconds
The questions are: for what maximum value of x:y does it go wrong, and what can we deduce from how a:b maps to c:d?
And we'll need an S4. You do that stuff, and I'll poodle about in it.
Doctor Glyndwr wrote:
I can believe that you can't easily jump to arbitrary points in the file because lots of compression algorithms use information from the past to encode the current state (e.g. i-frames and b-frames in video codecs.) In other words, as you put it, the entire file has to be processed from the beginning.
Interesting. Is that why it takes a while to skip to the fun bits in ['cat videos' - Ed.]?
Kern wrote:
Doctor Glyndwr wrote:
I can believe that you can't easily jump to arbitrary points in the file because lots of compression algorithms use information from the past to encode the current state (e.g. i-frames and b-frames in video codecs.) In other words, as you put it, the entire file has to be processed from the beginning.
Interesting. Is that why it takes a while to skip to the fun bits in ['cat videos' - Ed.]?
We're in a 24/7 news cycle, nie. No time for plots and exposition, just Megyn shouting what is about to happen on a loop, forever.
MaliA wrote:
Kern wrote:
Doctor Glyndwr wrote:
I can believe that you can't easily jump to arbitrary points in the file because lots of compression algorithms use information from the past to encode the current state (e.g. i-frames and b-frames in video codecs.) In other words, as you put it, the entire file has to be processed from the beginning.
Interesting. Is that why it takes a while to skip to the fun bits in ['cat videos' - Ed.]?
We're in a 24/7 news cycle, nie. No time for plots and exposition, just Megyn shouting what is about to happen on a loop, forever.
Ah, Megyn. *sigh*.
Kern wrote:
Interesting. Is that why it takes a while to skip to the fun bits in ['cat videos' - Ed.]?
More or less, yes.
In video codecs, most frames that appears on the screen is defined in terms of the frames that proceeded it (and sometimes the ones that succeed it, too.) So if you have a still shot of a talking head, most of the frames will only contain data about the mouth movements, as the rest of the frame is still. This means it's hard to just jump to an arbitrary point. Some frames reset this structure, partly to enable seeking -- you can jump to one of those fine.
If you jump to a frame that isn't one of the reset ones, the decoder might "rewind" to the last reset one then play forwards to your desired frame before resuming. This can cause slowness, especially if it's a crappy Flash applet doing the playback, as can be the case for "cat videos." Or it might just start playing the intermediate frames right away and you'll see corruption and smearing all over the screen for a second or two.
This is also why DVDs have chapter marks which you can skip to instantly -- they are basically pre-defined points the codec knows it can seek directly to and start decoding right away. But you can't navigate a DVD except via chapter jumping or ffwd/rwd, for this reason.
Disclaimer: I'm far from expert in this sort of thing, I'm glossing over a few details I know and surely a lot more I don't.
Doctor Glyndwr wrote:
Kern wrote:
Interesting. Is that why it takes a while to skip to the fun bits in ['cat videos' - Ed.]?
More or less, yes.
In video codecs, most frames that appears on the screen is defined in terms of the frames that proceeded it (and sometimes the ones that succeed it, too.) So if you have a still shot of a talking head, most of the frames will only contain data about the mouth movements, as the rest of the frame is still. This means it's hard to just jump to an arbitrary point. Some frames reset this structure, partly to enable seeking -- you can jump to one of those fine.
If you jump to a frame that isn't one of the reset ones, the decoder might "rewind" to the last reset one then play forwards to your desired frame before resuming. This can cause slowness, especially if it's a crappy Flash applet doing the playback, as can be the case for "cat videos." Or it might just start playing the intermediate frames right away and you'll see corruption and smearing all over the screen for a second or two.
This is also why DVDs have chapter marks which you can skip to instantly -- they are basically pre-defined points the codec knows it can seek directly to and start decoding right away. But you can't navigate a DVD except via chapter jumping or ffwd/rwd, for this reason.
Disclaimer: I'm far from expert in this sort of thing, I'm glossing over a few details I know and surely a lot more I don't.
The compression is a 'track changes' thing?
MrChris wrote:
MaliA wrote:
Kern wrote:
Doctor Glyndwr wrote:
I can believe that you can't easily jump to arbitrary points in the file because lots of compression algorithms use information from the past to encode the current state (e.g. i-frames and b-frames in video codecs.) In other words, as you put it, the entire file has to be processed from the beginning.
Interesting. Is that why it takes a while to skip to the fun bits in ['cat videos' - Ed.]?
We're in a 24/7 news cycle, nie. No time for plots and exposition, just Megyn shouting what is about to happen on a loop, forever.
Ah, Megyn. *sigh*.
Nbc, now. Or, as I like to call it "Next Bus: Communism'
Live reportage from our grotty back street. (Well, live-ish.)
Will it work? OR WON'T IT?
Will it work? OR WON'T IT?
MaliA wrote:
The compression is a 'track changes' thing?
Yeah. It's a lot cheaper to track deltas from frame to frame than it is to store the entire contents of each new frame. This is more intuitively explained with video, which is also most of the sophisticated codec work has happened in the last 20 years anyway, but I'm pretty sure applies equally to audio.
Obligatory Tom Scott:
Doctor Glyndwr wrote:
In video codecs, most frames that appears on the screen is defined in terms of the frames that proceeded it (and sometimes the ones that succeed it, too.) So if you have a still shot of a talking head, most of the frames will only contain data about the mouth movements, as the rest of the frame is still.
That's why Ghost in the Shell is only 8Kb.