Tech News and Commentary

Dave and the team discuss Amazon’s new products including an indoor flying drone, Google blocking election ads after the polls close, 26% of US adults getting their new on YouTube, fake AirPods, Uber’s no mask no ride policy, and more.

Nick in Windsor, Ontario listens on AM800 CKLW The Information Station and asked: “My question has to do with streaming video with cameras over Wi-Fi. I’ve had less than good results with choppy video, even when set to standard definition. This happens when the cameras is right next to the router, so signal is not an issue. It’s just horrible streaming. My router is a Linksys N900, so it’s like 450/450. Do I need to upgrade my router?”

Nick, yes you should probably look into upgrading your router. The N900 series was pitched in a weird way from the start, making it sound like a gigabit router when it never really was, but it was a supposedly fast router for a cheap price.

Having said that, it should be easy to find out if your problem is the router or the cameras. Just run a speed test on your computer, or try to stream a show if you have a smart TV and see what happens.

If the router is struggling, itll probably struggle for all streaming media.

You did mention multiple cameras, so the problem is still most likely the router.

Just so you know, there is a world of difference between a $20 router and a $150 router. Usually if youre doing the bare minimum anything will do, but once you get into more data intensive applications like video streaming the cheaper devices tend to get overwhelmed pretty quickly and either slow way down or even freeze up and need to be constantly restarted.

If having access to the cameras is important to you, you may want to consider a more expensive router just for the reliability.

Rich in Purcellville, VA asked: “Dave, Taking questions via text is a very Into Tomorrow thing to do. I’m in the process of buying a new TV online and am wondering what specs to look for to make I get the best possible picture. There’s resolution, contrast, HDR, and many others so I’m not sure which matter most and what to look for.”

Rich, your budget matters most, if you can buy an 8K OLED screen, youre probably good to go, and Best Buy has some in stock for just $20,000!

If youre in the maybe cheaper than a brand new car camp like most of us, 4k will give you the best resolution that youre likely to access content in for a little bit, youll probably even forget you didnt buy 4K if you dont go below 1080p (the difference is not as stark as standard to HD). HDR will get you better contrast, so deeper blacks, brighter whites, that kind of thing.

Whatever you buy, leave some room in your budget for speaker or a soundbar if you dont already have any of those. Modern TVs are thin and that doesnt leave any room for decent speakers. Some TVs sound so bad that you may not even understand a movies dialogue.

In reality, if you care about picture quality, you probably want to look at the picture with your own eyes before you buy. Everyone uses the same buzzwords but the quality differs across sets.

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