Getting a BIG TV vs something better? And a surprise result for an Aldi product

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I was God's mate. I spoke to you on the Tuesday.

Thursday afternoon there's this lovely courier man at me back door with a parcel for me.

All I know is we've been 24 hours mate. You had it sorted after five weeks of herald, raising herald.

Mate, I can't thank you enough.

Join the conversation. Head to eftm.com and click Ask Trev.

Helping Australians with tech questions for over 15 years. The EFTM Podcast with Trev along.

Real Australians. Real questions. Every week.

You can text Trev now thanks to Vodafone on 0477 657 657.

Well there it is. One month is gone. It's February. Like, ridiculous.

But here we are in February and I feel like things are only just slowly really getting into gear.

We've had a few Apple announcements last week. We've got new air tags.

The hypertension alert coming to Apple Watch.

You know, we should be off soon to see some Samsung devices.

Maybe all Congress in Barcelona is happening. It's slowly getting there.

But I was talking to Stephen about this a couple of weeks ago on Tube.

I feel like there's an opportunity at this start of the year for tech companies to really jump in and get some airtime.

But maybe it's just me. And maybe I'm glad that we're taking our time to get into the year.

I don't know. We'll soon find out.

But we are not taking any time to get into gear.

We've got plenty of those. We have for the last few weeks and we've got more this week.

Plenty of calls to get through. Everything from TV advice to mesh systems and internet.

It's all coming up on this episode of the EFTM podcast.

We appreciate you listening, appreciate you downloading and hopefully you'll share with your friends.

It's the hard thing to do sharing podcast. I've said it before.

Like, how do you share a podcast?

And this podcast particularly because it's not one of those ones with two heads talking where I can make videos and things.

I don't know. I don't know how we would...

I don't know how you promote something like this.

I've thought about it a lot and I don't know. I've got no idea.

Anyway, I'm not fussed because we're here. You're here. I'm here. That's all that matters.

I just love more people to know about it as always.

We'll keep pushing though and we'll keep kicking on.

So keep your eye on the EFTM app for all that, all that we have, all the competitions we have and the news.

And we'll keep plugging away here with the EFTM podcast.

Great to have you company and I'd love you to get in touch. Speaking of the app, download the app and click on Ask Trev.

You can send me a note through there.

Or you can send us a text 0477657657. That's the text number and it's the same number for the EV show.

But don't worry, we get all the texts and we try and produce a rob basically,

try to break them up into the right places and we'll get you on the show.

Whatever you want to talk about in the world of tech.

Great to have you company and having to help you wherever I can or however I can.

If you have a tech question, just get in touch. Nice and easy.

It's always great to take your calls. You can send me a text 047657657 or jump on the EFTM app and click Ask Trev.

Mark's on the line. Good day, Mark.

How you going, mate?

Yeah, really, really good. What can I do for you?

Look, I've been...

I had my sons over the other night to watch the fights and they said to me,

Dad, your TV's too small. You need to get a bigger TV.

Was that the fights that didn't go very long because of drama?

Yeah, it was. It was the drama night.

So I've got a 65-inch Sonya Bravia, which I always thought was 40 and 35.

Yeah, that's the age where you say, Dad, get a bigger TV. I hear it. Yeah, I got you.

Yeah, and I do have a big room that it's in now.

So they've sent me all these texts with different TVs and telling me I need to get a 85.

They're doing what I do. They're living vicariously through you to get the biggest possible TV.

Have you got a budget in mind, first and foremost, or is that just going to come secondary?

Yeah, secondary, to be honest. I just want to get, as I say, I've got two Sony TVs in the house,

Bravia TVs, and I quite like them.

But yeah, I just see when I look at the high sense and the Samsung's in the 85-inch and bigger,

and I start to see all these uni LEDs and all this sort of stuff.

It's a bit confusing, to be honest. So that's what I contacted you for.

I thought you might give me some advice on what sort of TV I need to get.

Yeah, you know what's interesting about getting confused as you rightly are?

The problem is they all have their own way of describing different things in different parts of the TV technology, etc.

And like even I look at it sometimes, I go, hey, there's two different TVs there from one company.

And you know what the easiest thing is? You know which one's the best one because it's more expensive.

The simple thing is, the better the technology, the more expensive it is.

So if you compare two side by side, so for example, you can spend $20,000 on a high-sense TV at 100 inches.

But the one that's on my wall was only $7,000.

Now, I've seen it at prices around $4,000, so I would say to you, don't spend $7,000, etc.

So the thing is, are you going to notice the difference between the two?

Maybe not, but is there a limit to how low you go?

And I think that's really the main thing is, do you want to get, this is an investment.

You're hoping it's going to last five to ten years. It's massive, so it's going to be the absolute eye catcher of the room.

You want to make sure you're getting something decent for that.

Now, I'd say this to you, the 100 inch space is not something to shy away from because it's remarkable what you can get in 100 inches.

And mate, the high-sense 100 inch, they don't still sell the exact model that I have because it's a couple of years old.

But they do have the 20, there's two 20, 25 model high-sense TVs at 100 inches.

And the cheapest one is $3,300, and the next one up is $4,100.

And by the way, there's a $20,000 one, as we mentioned.

So, you know, I would push towards that $4,189 one. I'm looking at JV Hi-Fi and go, that's not their worst TV technology.

No, it's not their best. And I'd put that right up on the pinboard and say, that's kind of the TV that I would say,

what's going to convince me to get something different to that?

Because mate, 100 inches is impressive. Regardless of anything, it's impressive.

Samsung's best value 100 inch TV is $6,500.

Can I tell you that for $2,000 you're going to see a better TV picture?

No, I can't. I can't hand on heart say you're going to get a better TV picture because of that.

Is it better though to go, okay, if we're in that, let's just use that number as a budget, that $4,000.

So let's call it $4,000 to $6,000.

Are there 85 inch TVs that you should consider at that price that though not as big would be more impressive than the Hi-Sense?

And I'm looking at them right now going, wow, there is a Sony Bravia there.

You know, you love the brand. They're not what they used to be in terms of, you know, actual brand.

But you know, it's a Google TV, very nice. That's four and a half grand. That's amazing.

But for 15 extra inches, and if you're able to, here's my fun challenge to anyone considering a large, large TV.

You go online and you go to the actual manufacturer website and you look for the specifications, the dimensions.

And then you go, what are the dimensions without stand, which means the actual television, not the stand and all that.

Get some painter's tape and use painter's tape to mark out the size of that TV on your wall.

So you put it around your current 65 inch TV, right?

And you go, okay, here's what 100 inches looks like.

And then maybe a different colored painter's tape.

Here's what an 85 inch TV looks like.

Then sit back and for the next few nights while you're watching the tennis or whatever's on, you go, I think I could really live with 100 inches here.

And you know, that's essentially going to be the thing that sways you.

And I can't tell you not to buy the high sense 100 inch because the one I've got is not the best TV in the market by any means.

If my lights are all off and the blinds are all closed and it's pitch black and I'm watching say a movie on Apple TV and it's really high quality, you know, 2025 movie.

And the credits are rolling.

Maybe I can see the grays in the background of the white text on the credits being on a black screen.

If I'm really picking it apart, can I notice those things?

Yeah, I can.

Does it affect the way I watch Formula One?

No.

Bloody looks amazing.

And so that's the balance I give to myself.

As I say, yes, there is a better TV on the market.

It's probably an OLED.

But mate, is there an OLED that you can get at that price?

An 83 inch OLED is $10,000.

Okay, yeah.

Yeah, that's getting a bit higher for me.

So if you said to me what's the best TV I can buy at, you know, on a reasonable budget, $10,000 is an 83 inch TV.

That's a lot of money for an OLED.

There's a lot less you can spend and still get that absolute bang for your buck and that oomph that the boys want to get and they don't live with it.

So they'll be impressed when they come around, mate.

Well, I suppose the other bonus I fought with the High Sense, and I haven't had a High Sense TV before,

is they give a three-year factory warranty where pretty well every other telly is a one-year.

Mate, you can't argue with that, can you?

Because what it says on the box is that we back this.

Yeah.

Now, let's remember, every television sold in Australia through major retailers is backed by Australian consumer law,

which says that under reasonable circumstances, the TV should live a reasonable period.

Now, neither of those things are black and white, but honestly, every TV should last you five years,

and most TV should last you seven.

Is it a nightmare to deal with warranties after the manufacturer warranty through your local fair trading and Australian consumer law?

Yes.

Does having a three-year warranty make it easier?

So if anything happens in that three years, it's literally a phone call and get it fixed?

Oh, my God, so.

It's genuinely hard to argue with the way High Sense backed their product, mate.

Yeah, OK.

So the 100-inch High Sense, I'd be very happy with it.

I can't imagine you wouldn't be.

I think you'll be back on the phone going, this thing's unbelievable.

And just remember, and I just scrolled through the JB website,

and went, OK, what genuine different options are there?

And there are, I think, four 100-inch High Sense TVs that range in price from $3,000 up to $20,000.

And obviously, the mid, so forget the $20,000, there's actually one there that's normally $9,000 that's currently $7,000.

That's a very, very good price on their pretty much top-end mini-LED.

Will you notice the difference between the $7,000 TV and the $4,000 one?

Oof, I don't know.

In some circumstances, yes, but in daily viewing, no, is my argument.

Yeah, yeah.

So the wife monitor is, you don't need that 7,000 telly

because you're not going to notice any difference to the 4,000 telly.

Pretty much.

You know what I would do with that kind of in-your-head saving

is I would invest in a really nice sound system

because you're about to get the best TV you've ever had.

Yes.

So get yourself an amazing soundbar, like amazing, with rear speakers if you've got the space

and rear speakers don't need cables anymore, they just need power points.

Get yourself a really good sound system.

What sort of things do you watch?

Do you watch movies or sport?

Yeah, movies and sport, but probably predominantly movies.

Yeah, mate.

We were watching, what do we watch the other night?

We watched The Rip on Netflix, the whole family sat down and, you know, when it got really active,

I mean, the sound went nuts at my place and even my son goes,

oh, the surround sound because you hear the bullets or whatever it is coming from behind you.

And so even if you were to invest $1,500 into an amazing soundbar,

that's a lot, that's a really good soundbar, by the way.

Yeah.

That's still a saving on buying the better TV,

but I think the experience you get from better sound is better

than what you're missing out on in backlighting technology from that higher end, higher price TV.

Yeah, cool.

Happy shopping, Mark.

That's made it crystal clear, mate, and I appreciate you coming back to me with it.

I look forward to hearing what you end up getting, my friend.

I'll kick a bag on it.

I'll be getting it.

Good on you, buddy.

Thanks, mate.

See you, mate. Bye.

Cheers. Good to hear from you.

There you go.

I think we've sold Hisense TV there.

I think that was a pretty easy sell.

And I don't mean that genuinely.

Look, yes, you can spend the seven grand and get a definitely better picture.

This is between the U8 and the U7 from Hisense.

But for three grand, I would save some money and put into a soundbar every day of the week.

This is the EFTM podcast.

Great to have you company taking your calls.

Simon's on the line today, Simon.

Hi, how are you going, Simon?

I'm doing really good.

You're on the road.

Hard work on the way to a job, aren't you, mate?

Yeah, mate.

Driving from Cringham Bay to Newcastle.

All right, yeah.

Up the M1.

Love it.

What can I do for you?

Listen, I was quite disturbed to hear that my getting on elderly mother who has a late

onset degenerative disease, which affects her mobility and speech.

She was subject to a prowler at, like, 20 to four in the morning the other night.

Oh, no.

And I was quite dismayed to hear that her only solution to the problem was playing dead in

the bed.

So it was quite distressing.

Now, I'm looking to install some security cameras around the house for a bit.

And I've installed one myself when we went to England on holidays about 18 months ago.

We've got a ring stick up camera, which was quite handy for us.

And it suits all our purposes.

But the only issue that she would have is being able to replace the batteries when they need

changing without, you know, help.

And I was wondering if you could suggest anything that might be on the market in those last 18

months that would be able to be controlled by her mobile phone.

Yep.

She got Wi-Fi?

She has, yes.

And she's actually quite good with her phone.

Excellent.

You know what?

It's funny because my mum, when I put cameras at my mum's place when she moved into her

own home after running a pub for years, you know, I put cameras around the place and I thought

to be honest, it's going to be on my phone getting notifications.

But now I was down there on the weekend and she's like, show me this and show me that.

She's all over it, like totally all over the app.

But you're right.

Actually, the actual physical cameras, different ball game.

Now, what I would say to you is I would highly recommend you look at a wired camera.

Now, I don't mean, you know, it's got a cable going back to a box and all that stuff.

I just mean power, wired power.

The best camera in my system now is the Arlo wired floodlight camera for two reasons.

One, I never have to change the battery.

So even on my batteries, I've always got hot swaps ready.

I've always got ones ready to charge and put them in.

Fine, change the doorbell, change the one in the front of the house, all that stuff.

But if I go away for too long a period and I've forgotten about it, whatever, there's always

that one camera that is always working because it is powered via the house.

But it is using the Wi-Fi signal to get back.

So I didn't need to run cables through the house.

I just needed to make sure there was power there and you need an electrician to install it.

OK, under law, you would know that is working in the construction industry.

You can't do sparky work on your own, right?

They're under $200, so they're super affordable.

And the best part is it's got a massive floodlight on it as well.

So that in itself is another deterrent.

So, mate, honestly, I've loved this camera.

Sorry, say again.

Sorry, motion activated and all that sort of thing.

So think of it exactly the same as your Ring Stick Up camera.

But it's powered back to the electricity and everything else works through the app.

It's made it is so simple, so easy.

The only, I guess, complication with it is getting an electrician to install it.

But having now had one at the front of my house, I'm ordering another one to put at the back.

Because, mate, that floodlight coming on, you know, it's a great deterrent.

I really believe that.

That's excellent.

And have you got the ability through the software on that camera to perhaps speak to them

or give an audible warning that the smoke has been detected?

Police are being notified?

You can have two-way audio so you can speak.

If you sign up and maybe you pay for this because sign up to the Secure Plan,

which is like $10, $15 a month or something, you can get everything from alerts about fire, smoke,

dogs barking, you know, smoke alarms going off.

It'll identify individuals.

It will give you smart alerts.

So it'll say a blue car has pulled up, you know, it's overly smart.

The intelligence is amazing today in these cameras.

Fantastic.

So the Arlo wired floodlight is the one you want.

Last time I looked, they were about $189.

Yep, that's what it's called.

The Arlo floodlight.

They're $250 at Bunnings.

You might find them cheaper in other places online.

They come in white or black.

You choose the style to suit the house, I guess, basically.

And yeah, they've got these two LED lights kind of either side of the little camera

that you can point correctly at the area you want to illuminate.

And then, Bob's your uncle.

Honestly, I think it's a great device, really, really good security camera.

Thank you so much for your advice.

My pleasure.

I hope it gives you use of peace of mind and hopefully your mum as well.

That's excellent.

Thank you very much for your time.

All right, mate.

Enjoy the day.

You too.

Bye-bye.

Yeah, I mean, look, there are several wired products now on the market.

And it's a weird thing to say.

It's such a great camera because we've talked so many years about how good wireless cameras are.

And I get that.

I know.

But I wouldn't say you only need wired cameras.

I genuinely think they're great to have on the front and the back of the house.

But, you know, the doorbell, other, you know, nooks or corners of the house, you know,

those kind of areas that are harder to either wire or don't need to be wired.

It's just that great mix, you know, to mix as a part of your security ecosystem.

So, yeah, hopefully Simon can get that and his mum can have that peace of mind.

And most importantly, the rest of the family can have the same peace of mind.

Tech, cars, lifestyle.

This is the EFTM podcast with Trevor Long.

You can text Trev now.

Thanks to Vodafone on 0477 657 657.

Great to have you company and always happy to help wherever I can.

Steve's on the line.

Good day, Steve.

How are you, Trevor?

Yeah, really good, mate.

And yours, mate.

What can I do for you?

Well, I heard you talk about mesh just recently.

And we've been having some issues with our internet because we've been on 1225 type

plan for many years.

And after an NBN change up the road in the last 12 months,

we noticed some deterioration.

So you talking about mesh and then how do you see an advertisement for mesh?

I did a connector too.

I did a little bit more research only very lightly.

Seemed to confirm your confidence.

So we've, so we bought the mesh on the weekend.

Yeah, yeah.

We did a whole bunch.

Did you just look at the Mercusys one?

Bigger pardon.

What brand was it?

Mercusys?

Yes, yes.

I've given full details to Rick in an email.

Because I don't have the details present.

I'm down in Sydney at the moment.

I understand.

And, yeah, and it, we, we think I did a whole bunch of speed tests.

Which hadn't done in years.

Yeah.

Just get some benchmark pride.

Before set up.

Yeah.

And we seem to have about 2021 over about four, four upload 2021 down,

which, which has managed that's kept us going.

So you're obviously on fiber to the node.

Yeah.

Which is the old copper line.

Yes.

And you said there'd been some changes to the ambient that,

that had made it worse.

Have you saying?

Well, you know, sometimes you experience something and then you

link it to something else.

Not necessarily.

So we've made technical knowledge.

I noticed there is some deterioration when it rains.

Anyway, look, because we've had such low, bought such a low plan,

but it's managed for a while.

I thought it was starting to get the edge of, do we upgrade?

Right.

Have you asked who you with, who's your internet provider?

Double INET.

Okay.

Have you spoken to them to find out what the maximum is capable of

at your home?

No, I haven't.

We haven't done that.

We look, I have to say just a side note.

We've been with double INET since 1996.

Well, for 15 years, and then we moved from Perth to Sydney.

And then we went with internet when they changed over.

And now I think they go to TPG, but essentially the same provider

for many, many years.

Very happy with them.

We contact them about once every five years or so.

Well, the advice there is, and then it's especially important with,

when you're on fiber to the node, the copper, because

what happens with the NBN is, you know, you kind of don't know

what's going to happen.

And then they connect it all to your homes and everyone gets online.

And even though you're getting 20 slash four now,

the TPG, IONET absolutely should know in their database,

in their logs, they should know what your link is capable of.

So the NBN should have that information.

So you should ring them and say, what's my line capable of?

Because they may say 27.

And if that's the case, not much chance, not much reason to pay them

more money, if you're only going to get a couple of megabytes more.

But if they say 63, then you say to yourself, oh,

we should definitely double and go to the 50 plan.

Right?

Yeah.

In the unlikely event, they say 100 or more.

Then yes, you should maybe look at going even faster.

But the critical thing is to find out first, what can my home cope with?

Because that's, you know, think of it like a funnel.

The link into your home is the most important part.

That's the speed.

You're never going to get more than that inside the home, are you?

Right?

Because that's the speed outside the home.

Because then the mesh system you've got.

And look, I would say to you, $120 mesh system from Aldi is certainly not going

to stack up against a $700 system I've got here at my office,

because what will be different?

My office will be able to handle many more devices.

You know, 100 devices at a time.

It might be able to handle 1,000 megabit speeds.

And it'll basically handle more traffic at one time.

So there'll be less congestion inside the home.

But $120 mesh system that you've got will do one really important thing.

And that is spread the speed properly across your home.

And that's the most important thing you want,

is because if you've got a modem from Ionet that's sitting in one room,

and the TV, you know, three rooms away on the other corner of the house

is getting crappy internet, because it's so far away from the modem,

that problem becomes solved by the mesh system.

That's a good thing.

Yes, and look, just to go back to what you said, and I agree,

and I appreciate that about spreading the speed properly,

because that's the one liner to describe to other people

what the benefits of a mesh are, so I like that.

We're also balancing up where I've limited means,

and we're not willing to pay for more than we actually need.

So we've got only, do we need to know what the lane line capability is?

We have to measure it against what our actual needs are.

How many people in the home?

Four people in the home, two kid adults, I've called them,

and they're down in a garage doing a little bit of gaming.

But since we pay for it, they just settle with what they get,

but we have to check with them on how they're going,

and we're conscious of how they do it.

And the introduction of the mesh, I believe, has improved things.

I was going to say, I bet you any money,

they instantly get better outcomes because of the mesh.

Because that 20 slash four that you're getting, right?

Yeah.

And here's another great way if you want to describe it to people.

Think of it like a hotspot.

If you see your home's floor plan,

and you make the whole home red,

and you make a bright green spot where the modem is,

and then it slowly tapers out from green to red, right?

Somewhere in the home, and the red is slow internet,

the green is good.

Then what you do is you now put three green spots in your home,

one for each mesh system.

And so the closer anyone is to one of those mesh,

the better the internet.

And most likely, if you've placed them strategically,

almost all the home is closer to green than it is red, yeah?

And that's what you want.

That's what you've provided for those gamers down there.

Yeah, they could do a lot better with if they had their computers

plugged directly in through a cable back up to the modem,

or they were chipping in and you had 100 meg internet,

but you don't.

So that ain't possible.

So not non-consequential.

But what you do have is a system that will be better than the modem

you were supplied with by your internet provider,

without question.

And I have to say, that's probably five, six, or seven years old now.

So I was aware that was a potential issue we would discover

when we upgraded with the mesh.

My wife has since reported that she's...

I'll call it the elimination of buffering.

Okay, that's amazing.

But we're not convinced the speed has improved,

but it doesn't look like it's likely to, but the buffering has.

So that probably lines up with what you said

of spreading the speed properly.

Well, remember that map we just drew in our minds?

The red areas, you might have been getting three or four meg speeds.

Remember, the green areas are getting 20.

The in-between, the ones that are half green, half red,

they might have been getting nine or 10.

So what you're hoping for isn't for more than 20 anywhere,

because that's the internet you've got.

What you're hoping for is closer to 20 in more places in the home.

And the closer you are to 20, the less buffering there is.

Yeah, and I've just come up with another analogy that just helped me form

for someone my age or trying to understand.

It's like instead of having one air conditioner in the house,

we've now got three.

Yeah, think of it like, you know, split systems, you know,

people have one split system and it's pumping out of one room.

How's that?

How on earth is that going to cool your whole home?

That's silly.

You better off shutting the door and cooling that room.

Whereas with multiple systems, call it ducted or whatever,

it's pumping the air out multiple places.

And it's, look, you're not going to get down to the same temperature

as you would if it was just one small room with the window,

with the door shut.

But because you've got a larger space and more input,

as in cooler air, it's going to be a much more comfortable place.

So yeah, I think you've done the right thing.

Would I have recommended the Mercusys mesh networking system

to many people?

No.

But the critical difference is you aren't someone who's got 500 meg speeds.

And that's probably where this thing will hit its limits is

when you start firing much faster internet into it,

or when you put a large number of extra devices into your home.

If you've just got yourself, your wife, a couple of TVs,

and the gamers down there and all your mobile phones,

the likelihood of all those things being on at one time

is actually quite low.

The likelihood of there being three active things at one time,

probably quite high.

That system's going to handle that very well.

Yeah.

And can I say one thing else the mesh has introduced into our home?

And I'm sure your listeners will appreciate that it's actually

improved security.

Because now that we've got an app for the mesh,

we can actually see what devices are connected.

And once we're not going to do it,

I now realize I have the capability to control

which devices are on and off.

Yeah.

Whereas we didn't.

Can I tell you, for $119, that's excellent.

That is excellent capabilities.

Honestly, that is really, really good.

That's the kind of thing you see in much higher end products.

So you should be very, very happy with that to be able to not only see

but control what's on your network.

Excellent stuff.

Well, we didn't know previously.

Occasionally, you check your internet,

not your internet, your wireless and to see what devices there are.

And you recognize some other names and you think,

who are they?

Are they on our system or not?

You don't know.

But now we can actually tell which ones are ours and which ones are not.

So that's a real value and very happy with that.

Well done, right?

Can I say, Trevor, I've only been introduced to you guys

in the last 12 months when we bought an EV.

Oh, right.

And it's been fantastic.

But there's a real cross promotion opportunity

because I've now discovered your other tech talks.

It's funny, you know, now and then I'll start the EV show

or end it with that conversation about the other shows we do.

And I feel like you're right.

We should probably do it more.

But then you worry about laboring on it a bit too much or whatever it is.

It's a weird thing we do, but yes.

Well, the link would be, and I'm just thinking in terms of me, how it's helped me,

I find sometimes your terminology and the people you interview,

their terminology exceeds my expertise.

Right, right.

And so you could segue from when you introduce in some terminology,

you could say, look, if you want to look that up or get more, try our other tech.

Yeah.

And because I now want to get in and search your previous 20-odd years worth of tech talks.

You're in for, I don't know how that's going to go down in the family,

but mate, however you do it, I appreciate it, mate.

It means a lot.

Yeah.

Well, it's been fantastic.

So it's lovely to meet you guys.

Thank you, Steve.

And we appreciate you listening up there in War Hope, mate.

And never, never hesitate to get in touch, mate.

We should get you on the EV show and talk about your EV sometime.

Well, our next EV.

Okay.

My wife wants a hybrid and I want a full EV second time round.

We've got a year or two to work that out.

Well, let's talk about it when you're ready.

Okay.

Great.

Thanks, Trevor.

Cheers, mate.

Good to hear from you.

Thank you so much.

There you go.

That's lovely.

Really nice kind words, too.

And I appreciate it.

It means a lot.

Because as we say sometimes, it's a lonely world podcasting.

So you do feel like I'm sitting here on my own in an office talking on my phone.

And that's why I like having these calls.

So I feel like we're invigorated.

We're there.

And that's very, very nice.

And what a great buy.

$119 Mercusys from Aldi.

As I said, it's not something I would have outright recommended.

But then when you dig in and you go, well, you've only got 20 meg speeds, it kind of

works out and turns out pretty good product.

This is the EFTM podcast.

Great to have you company.

Colin's on the line.

Good day, Colin.

Good day, mate.

How are you?

Yeah, really good.

What can I do for you?

I just had a query.

I've got Telstra 5G.

It's on my home internet.

And we've got a thousand gig cap, which we consistently hitting every month.

So I wanted to upgrade to NBN, basically, but I'm not sure how it all works.

Everyone says, oh, here's your plan.

You've got to buy the modems with it.

But what do I do from that point?

Is my house ready for it?

I don't do it.

Where do I plug it in?

How does it work?

Yeah.

And so how long have you been in the home?

About five years.

OK.

So you've never had anything other than the 5G internet?

Not since I've been there, no.

Mate, it is a complete hand-holding exercise because these companies all want your business.

Now, the first thing to think about is your address.

You can go to just the NBN's website or, frankly, any internet provider.

So for example, I love Aussie Broadband.

I'm a paid customer.

And I've been with them forever.

You go to their website and you have internet plans.

You type your address.

And it'll actually tell you a lot about your address.

So firstly, is it in the database?

It should be because every single home in Australia is on the database for the NBN.

The question is which technology it is and whether or not it's an easy connection.

So the hardest connection might be something that's not cable.

So are you in a popular suburban area or regional area?

Yeah, we are.

I've had a look on their sites and it says I can get the basic.

I think it might be fiber.

I'm a fiber, sorry, a couple of the premises.

OK, fiber to the nodes.

So FTTN.

The good news is that can also be upgraded as well.

And so all you do is you go to Telstra, Aussie Broadband, find the best deal.

And you type in your address and you go, righty-o, I want to be on this plan.

Just pick the cheapest one if you want.

But you know, remember, you're coming from 5G.

So you're probably in pretty good speeds, but that cap is always going to be a problem these days.

Like so, you know, at Aussie Broadband, the 500 meg speed plan is $80 a month for the first six months, like $80 a month.

What are you paying for the Telstra plan?

I think I'm paying $84.

Yeah, so straight off the bat, you're in a good place.

That's a promo period to be clear.

So it's going to be like $95 a month after that.

But here's the great thing.

You can switch and change telcos as often as you want.

So just always remember that.

So you can go six months with Aussie and then find Superloop.

Go with them for six months.

Then go to I on it.

Mate, as long as you're willing to do the phone call or the website, it's easy to change.

So that's the first thing.

Now, do you need a modem?

Yes, you do because you're on fiber to the node.

Unfortunately, you need a little box that's going to turn the copper signal into the NBN.

That's basically the best way to describe it, which is not amazing.

But it also means, mate, that you're not going to get the speeds that you were getting before on the 5G

because the copper just isn't going to be up to it.

So you're probably going to be down on the 50 meg plan, which is not as fast,

but at least you'll be able to churn through it on that data limit not being there.

Do these internet providers all provide a modem?

Not regularly now.

But if you pick up the phone to someone like Aussie Broadband,

and again, the reason I recommend Aussie Broadband,

they literally have a call centre here in Australia who can talk you through this.

They'll probably sell you the modem, might be 150 bucks or something for a basic modem

that'll get you cracking and ready to go.

But once you do that, if there's never been anything in your home,

an installer might need to come out and set it up.

But it's most likely there is an old phone line somewhere in your home

that is actually ready to be plugged into,

and all you need is to find out where that plug is.

Okay, so basically the bone wall by from the 4i,

that just plugs into the old phone socket?

Correct. The worst part is, I'll just say quickly,

is I remember having a home with three different phone plugs in it, right?

The problem with those three plugs is, often they were wired cheaply and simply,

you want to be in the best one of those.

So if you can do any work to find out which is the primary phone socket,

that's the one you want to plug into.

Because the extensions are often a bit shitty.

But the bottom line, mate, you just need to call a telco,

and say, I want the NBN, sign me up, when can you put it in?

And they'll be blown away that you've never had it.

Because, you know, there's 11 million homes in Australia,

and I think 75, 80% of them have been connected to the NBN.

So first time off you go.

And after that, mate, I would do a very quick search to find out

whether your address is ready or available to be upgraded

to Fibre to the premises for free.

The only catch there is you have to sign up to a faster plan.

So you need to sign up to that 500 meg plan,

and then they'll do the install of the Fibre for free.

OK, cool.

Good luck, mate.

All right, just real quick, with the mode,

and I'll have to go down to JB or Harvey Norman

and just buy something off the shelf.

Totally, just make sure you know what you're looking for.

And again, Aussie Broadband, they don't want to sell you a motor.

They don't want to be in that business.

So you can just say to them,

I just want to get this connected quickly and easily,

and I want to own it outright.

What do I look for?

And they'll tell you what you need is what's called a VDSL.

Remember, ADSL, back in the day, phone line, internet?

Yeah, yeah, you just have the filters and such.

That's right, yeah, exactly.

These days it's called VDSL,

which is essentially Fibre to the node.

So you need a Fibre to the node compatible modem.

I would think there would be some retailers that still sell them,

and I think Aussie Broadband would give you advice on that

if you were willing to sign up to them, yeah.

Cool.

Good luck, mate.

All right, sounds good. Thank you very much.

Cheers, mate, anytime.

Cheers.

Happy to help.

There you go.

Running off 5G.

They had a really good example of the disadvantages of 5G.

Like, fast, easy to use, you know,

move from home to home, whatever.

But there's never going to be unlimited.

Well, there is, I think, Optus's 5G might be unlimited.

I think it's like 80 bucks a month or something.

But yeah, there's always some sort of downside.

Interesting.

There you go. First time on the NBN.

Love to have you on the show.

If you've got a tech question or you got some buying advice

or you want to brag about something you bought, I don't mind.

Paul's on the longer day, Paul.

How you doing, mate?

Yeah, really good. What can I do for you?

First of all, thank you because some months ago

I was listening to your show and you told me

you mentioned a name or a website to go to

to get a solar installer.

I've been looking for about 18 months.

And the result was I got somebody that was

within an hour of me that had an electrician.

So I got a full team of solar installers and electricians

and they were absolutely first class.

Oh, fantastic.

I've never found them without you.

So thank you very much.

Whereabouts are you located?

I live in Kinten in Victoria.

Okay, wonderful.

And they came from Bendigo.

Wow. How's the solar going for you?

26 kilowatts of solar, 48 kilowatt hour battery.

We're producing enough for the neighborhood

but because we've got two electric cars.

Yeah, we think we'll be right.

We've been prone to a lot of outages over the years

and particularly during COVID,

I had to have a battery at the boat and set up with an inverter

so my wife could use her computer.

The winter's working from home power outages

were far too frequent.

But we think we sorted it.

Nice, nice stuff.

The reason for my call, because I live on Oak Ridge,

the front gate is 200 meters from the house,

we used to have a SIM card in our gate motor system

such that if somebody pushed the button on the speaker box

outside the gate, it would cause the SIM card to call my phone

wherever I was around the world and I could answer them.

Keeping that was 3G and now it doesn't work anymore.

Well, it was 2G, then it was 3G, then it was 4G

and every time we changed generation,

it was another $800 to $1500 for a new printed circuit board.

Plus, in more recent times,

it was a nightmare to try and find a SIM card that would work

because originally we could use one of the trip SIM cards

that you only paid a minimum charge of $20 a year

and of course with that system, if anybody called it,

if they were registered in the system,

it would get their call but it would open the gate for them

and you could manage that quite easily

so people could actually be programmed to be able to get in the gate.

But without that, we didn't know when anyone was at the gate

and people couldn't call us unless they had a number

and things like it was a nightmare.

Somebody suggested I try Ring, but Ring works Wi-Fi

and so the reason for my call is

what do you suggest for Wi-Fi extenders to work 200 meters?

I actually have a PowerPoint about halfway down

so I'm looking at two lots of 70 to 100 meter links

that I need to go Wi-Fi.

200 meters with a PowerPoint halfway broadly.

It's a stretch. It's a real stretch.

I mean, look, the problem isn't really the location.

It's the exposure to the elements.

Where that PowerPoint is, is there a little hut there or something?

So there's a little spot.

I mean, I want to say that a mesh Wi-Fi system could do it.

So I don't know this is a good

because we had in our local baseball club canteen

where I put a little Wi-Fi,

just like a little handheld dongle

and I could see it from the other side of the oval.

So literally the other side of,

think of a running track 400 meters,

so that would be more than 100 meters.

Not great, but I could see it.

Now a mesh system, if you were able to put,

so is there a PowerPoint at the gate as well?

Yes.

I mean, if you could pull it

so that you could test a mesh system that had,

you'd need a router and two satellites,

so you'd need a system with three units,

which is not uncommon.

A router and two satellites,

the router you'd want to put at the absolute front of your house.

We want to get that as close as you could.

And then the satellites,

one at the PowerPoint in the middle

and then one down at the gate.

Look, what speed internet do you have in your home

out of interest?

I have that funny radio-based NBN.

I've been trying to get five bits of the home

and I've actually, as I've upgraded to three-phase,

I've provided,

so which one do you have?

You've got five bits of the node,

you've got copper or a satellite mesh?

No, no, no.

I've got a satellite mesh.

Fixed wireless is what they call it.

Yes.

Yeah.

So look, if you're getting 50 meg speeds on that,

at the gate,

I'd be amazed if you got two or three or five.

But see, you don't need much.

No.

You don't need much at all.

You really just need something to initiate

that conversation, that call, that process.

So there are mesh systems you can buy that are $4,000.

As we've learnt, there are mesh systems you can buy

at Aldi that are $120.

Now, is the $120 one going to do what you need to do?

Probably not.

My guess is the antennas and things are small

and they're small units.

So I would be looking a little bit more into something that,

weirdly, I'd want something that actually looks tall.

And I say that because what I want is antennas.

I want something that's got the ability to transmit properly.

And that's not what you're going to get

from these little disk ones.

So even the basic Netgear Orbi,

which is about $379,

that's only a two-pack you'd need another satellite.

I mean, oh, there's the three-pack.

I'm just on JB Hi-Fi.

So $549, Jesus Christ, for $549,

you can get the latest generation Wi-Fi 7 at the moment.

So that's quite a big unit with dual-band and whatnot.

So my only problem is I can't guarantee it to you.

That's my biggest worry is it feels like a fun thing to test,

but it's $550 to test, you know?

So that's my concern.

It's cheaper than your circuit board for the 5G or whatever it might be.

Yeah, but given the spread of your podcast

and your radio program,

so I expect there are a lot of people across Australia

that faces similar problems.

So it's not unique.

No, I don't think you're right.

I think it's worth finding out.

So I'd love to know where you end up,

because even if I don't get to test it myself,

your knowledge will be very, very powerful for me to have.

Also, you may remember,

we've often spoken about the F-150 Lightning.

There's a decision being made

to move some of them pretty quickly at 115,000 on-road.

Here?

Yes.

Wow, that's wild.

So someone's imported them, converted them,

and now they've got them stuck there?

Yes.

Wow, that's amazing.

You thinking about it?

Oh, absolutely.

It's a great unit.

It sounds like they've discontinued it over in the US as well.

Yeah, and this is an $80,000 discount.

That's a lot.

For a right-hand conversion alone,

let alone the base truck,

that is pretty good money.

I don't think we could lose on it.

All right, good luck.

I'll let you know how we go.

Yeah, thank you, Paul.

Good on you, mate.

Have a great day.

Thanks, Chris.

Thank you so much. Cheers.

Yeah, Paul, I think, had rung the EV podcast before

and talked about that big F-150 Lightning from Ford.

Very expensive car in Australia.

I never officially imported here,

but some people have imported them and done conversions.

$115,000 for a converted.

Whew, that's good value.

Anyway, if you want to get in touch,

go to the website neftm.com.

Click on us, Trev.

Be part of the show.

Thanks to Vodafone, you can text 0477657657.

It's great to have you company and love to hear from you.

Jesse's on the line.

Good day, Jesse.

Hey, mate, how are you?

Yeah, really good.

What can I do for you?

Yeah, look, I've been looking into getting some

translate headphones sort of thing.

I just wanted to know how they work.

I've got a Spanish partner and go on to see her parents

and they don't speak a lick of English.

So I wanted to get one of the headphones I put in.

You want to know what they're saying about you?

Yeah, that's right.

What's the phone have you got?

iPhone 16.

OK.

Have you got earphones?

I've seen a lot on T-Move.

I don't know if they're any good or not.

No, I don't have earphones.

Don't do the T-Move.

So Spanish, I'm just going to look quickly.

I'm trying to remember what languages they launched with

and live translation.

There you go.

Spanish is one of them, mate.

AirPods Pro.

And here's the thing.

Remember this.

AirPods Pro.

AirPods 4, the basic AirPods 4 or the AirPods Pro 2.

You don't even need the latest model.

Both work with this feature.

Mate, it sells itself as something amazing.

So AirPods 4 of $219.

AirPods Pro are probably $299 or $399.

But your partner lives with you?

Yeah.

OK.

So she can speak Spanish, right?

So you could test this before you go, which is great.

Correct, yeah.

So basically you set up the AirPods as normal headphones

and then you go into the languages app

and you download the Spanish language and you enable.

You have to enable live translation.

You have to enable Apple Intelligence on your iPhone 16.

And then you download the Apple Translate app.

And mate, look, the sell point here is you put an earbud in

and I believe you don't need both in.

You just need one in.

I think you do need your phone kind of in your hand or handy.

And basically it listens and it translates in your ear.

How's it going to work with two people that are

rabbiting away in front of you?

I'm not sure.

Will it work, I guess, in a more kind of simplistic way?

One on one, quite likely.

But mate, I think they're worth the buy

and they're worth the test regardless.

All right.

Yeah.

That was a thing like if I have one and say the mother has one

so we can talk to each other, would it translate English

to Spanish, Spanish to English on each headset?

If she has them as well, yes.

But not just one.

I think on the screen, on your screen,

you can show her what's being said.

Right.

OK.

Yeah, right.

Worth a try, mate.

Yeah, no, definitely.

Worth a try.

I'll get onto that for sure.

Mate, AirPods 4 or AirPods Pro 2 and onwards.

Yep.

Beautiful.

All right, mate.

Yep.

Just with that, if I've got those Air Pros,

I'm looking to get one of those adapters

so you can listen to your headphones on the plane.

Airfly, Airfly Pro.

Airfly Pro, yep.

That's the one, mate.

They're awesome.

All right, perfect.

Thanks a lot, Trev.

Good luck, mate.

Have safe travels.

Enjoy the family.

I hope they're not saying bad things about you.

Yeah, cheers.

Let's hope.

See you, buddy.

See you.

No worries at all.

I mean, we'll soon find out, won't we?

We'll find out whether they're saying lovely things or not.

Great to have your company here.

Happy to take your calls anytime.

John's on the like of the day, John.

Good day, Trevor.

Nice to take my call.

Thank you.

What can I do for you, mate?

Well, I have a totally colleague.

My wife's got, she's in the care at the moment,

and she's got Parkinson's.

And we try to keep in contact with her with her phone,

but she just can't handle it.

She can't, she can't turn on the loudspeaker.

Yeah, interacting with it is always going to be a challenge.

I see that.

I saw a thing on the,

one of my friends found out, I think,

called Care Window Systems.

And you know anything about that at all?

I looked, to be honest.

You sent the name, I looked it up,

and I'd never sent it before in my life.

What it looks like to me,

a lot of people listening might remember,

I talked about a thing called Facebook Portal.

Back in, I don't know, five years ago,

Facebook had a product that was like a video calling screen

that you could get.

This looks very similar to that,

but very much one-to-one and not run by Facebook

or anything like that.

Now, all I want to say is I haven't tested it,

but I see a lot of reasonable testimonials online.

My concern with it would be support,

because obviously she's in a place,

I don't know whether they would support it.

If she has a problem,

are they going to be able to come in and help her with it?

Obviously it's bigger than a smartphone,

so interacting with it might be easier,

but you still will have to press the accept button

to accept a call.

Will that become problematic?

I just worry about those basic functionalities

of it a little bit.

Yes, I agree with you.

I don't think myself in a condition

she should be able to handle it herself.

I know where you're wasting money on it

is what I'm basically saying.

If you don't feel like she's going to be able

to deal with it for the long term as well.

Even if it works for her for the first little while,

maybe things will, as they sadly do,

they'll degrade.

So unfortunately, I don't know.

There's a great solution there.

I was looking, my good friends,

Paul and Kate at Home Life Technology

sell some wonderful products

for people in care.

Paul created this business

because his mother had dementia

and felt like there was a lot of things

that she could have had and didn't have access to

and he wishes she did.

But I would highly recommend you looking at them.

They're going to solve the problem that you want

of a one-to-one video conversation,

but there's a couple of really amazing products.

They have like a day clock,

so very big fonts.

It tells you what's on in the day.

People that are coming to visit,

there's a radio with really easy-to-press buttons

that might be synced to her favourite radio stations.

There are picture frames

that you could have in her room that...

Do you have kids?

Oh, yes, we had six of them die.

And grandkids, I'm assuming.

So they could all contribute photos

to this photo frame in real time.

So my mum's got one of these

and I can, from here,

five hours drive from my mum,

I can send a photo to my mum's frame.

So that might be a lovely thing.

It's not solving the problem you have,

but it might be a lovely thing to put for her in her room.

So have a little look at homelifetech.com.au,

Home Life Technology.

They're wonderful people with really good products

for aged care, essentially.

Right, that'd be good.

Could you send me a...

I will, I will.

I'll make sure we do that for you, okay?

That'd be great.

Yeah, thanks very much.

My pleasure, mate.

Sorry I couldn't help you directly.

Thank you.

No worries, John.

Thank you, mate.

Thanks for getting in touch.

Yeah, I mean,

look, I'm not saying anything bad about care window.

The website looks great, the product looks great,

but in this particular instance,

I just don't know.

And so I'd prefer you don't waste money

on that kind of thing.

That's all.

If you've got experience with that product, please,

please let me know.

0477657657.

That's the text line.

Thanks to Vodafone.

Get in touch and Ask Trev today.

Thank you for listening.

It's been great to have you company.

Can't wait to find out what CV Mark gets.

I reckon it's going to be a hundred inch.

We can tell from his voice, couldn't you?

He's definitely getting a hundred inch.

And we've already sent John that link

to homelifetech.com.au, Home Life Technology.

You remember Paul and his wife, Kate,

from when we spoke on Dementia Awareness Week

on the show.

So I love you to support them.

If you have anyone elderly in your life

and you're looking to maintain their standard living at home

or extend their home living circumstances,

then there's got some great products for that,

from oven guides to keeping in touch

as a whole range of things.

And it's really cool tech and well-tested

and hardly anything but high quality.

So well, check them out, folks.

Homelifetech.com.au.

And yeah, what a surprise.

The surprise of the week has got to be the 120-dollar

Audi mesh system that's worked wonders for Steve.

But let's see whether Steve stumps up for better internet

at some point and whether it finds its match at that point.

But it doesn't sound like they're going to do that any time soon.

So I think he's going to be A, OK.

So if you're all like Steve

and you bought something and you're satisfied with it

and you don't think it's something I've ever heard of

or I might have not considered,

then get in touch.

I'd love to hear from you.

I'd love to hear your reviews of technology you've bought.

I'm happy to hear it.

I can't try everything.

I can't buy everything.

So get in touch and share your experience at any point in time.

AFTM.com.

Click on that.

Send me a text.

0447657657.

And we'll do it all again next week.

Getting a BIG TV vs something better? And a surprise result for an Aldi product

Formula One

Plymouth Prowler

Ford F150 Lightning

converted

About this episode

Original notes