Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Tag: technology

  • Microsoft Strikes again

    We’ve had a Home Theatre system for years. It uses a Denon 3808 AVR and a home-built HTPC running Plex on Windows.

    Last year, I replaced the the original 6th generation Intel NUC that was the HTPC’s hardware with a new 13th generation ASUS NUC and installed Windows 11 on it.

    This week we sat down to watch something on it, but the video would not play, it just froze. I tried playing it on my Desktop PC (also running Windows 11 and Plex), and that was fine, no problem.

    Scratching my head, I wondered whether it was a problem with the versions of Plex I was using – on the HTPC I use the version of Plex designed specifically for HTPCs, while on the Desktop PC, I use Plex for Windows (i.e. mouse-driven).

    So I installed and tried Plex for Windows on the HTPC. This time, the problem video would play, but there was no sound…

    It then occurred to me to see what audio codecs were being used in this video – and it was using the EAC3 codec.

    A search on the web quickly found the culprit – bloody Microsoft again. They’ve removed the EAC3 codec from newer versions of Windows 11, apparently in the belief that it is installed by PC manufacturers these days. Well, hello, I was this particular PC’s manufacturer, and you never bothered to tell me that I needed to explicitly install the codec. My Desktop PC was originally running Windows 10 (which had the codec supplied by Microsoft) and the codec was retained when I upgraded to Windows 11. That was why the video would play on my Desktop PC but not on the HTPC.

    Another hunt on the web turned up a source for the codec, so it was downloaded and installed on the HTPC. It just took hours of frustration before I found what the problem was: Microsoft – as usual.

  • A Supply Chain Story

    I’ve just purchased a Microsoft Surface Pro 12 and keyboard to replace my aging Surface Go 2.

    The experience of buying the Surface tablet has been illuminating of just how complex, and data-driven, supply chains have become.

    The Surface comes in three available colours: platinum, violet and ocean-blue. The online Dutch Microsoft store only offers the platinum version, with a black keyboard with the US International layout. Naturally, I wanted a violet Surface and keyboard… So I went looking for other online sources for that combination. All the alternative online stores in the Netherlands were only offering the same combination as the Microsoft store. The online German Microsoft store did have both items in violet – but the keyboard was the German QWERTZ version – not what I wanted at all.

    I returned to the Dutch store and explained what I wanted to a Dutch support person via Chat and after some research he confirmed to me in an email that we could source the Surface from the German store (because it was 50 euros cheaper – special offer) and the keyboard from the Irish Microsoft store. The only snag was that the keyboard would be the UK layout, rather than US international, but at least it would be better than the German QWERTZ layout. I replied to his email confirming that I wanted to place the order.

    I attempted to reach him again via Chat, but that was not working, so after I sent him my phone number, he phoned me. After verification checks, he proceeded to place the order via the German and Irish online stores on my behalf. I got email order confirmations for the tablet (in German) and the keyboard (in English).

    Because we had placed the orders in two different EU countries from where I actually live (the Netherlands), I was expecting shipment and delivery to take at least a week. However, the following day I got emails from both Microsoft and the courier that the goods were on the way and would be delivered the same day.

    Bizarrely, although the orders were placed in the online stores of different countries, they both turned out to be fulfilled by the Irish operation. Even more bizarre, there’s apparently a warehouse in Venlo (in the Netherlands just 80 km from here) that bears the title Microsoft Ireland Operations Ltd. That had the items in stock and so they were shipped locally to me…

    And a coda to this story is that before I had even set up and signed in to the Surface with its keyboard, Microsoft knew that I had bought them and had included them in the list of my devices in my Microsoft account. I think they must immediately track their serial numbers from the moment of placing the orders.