So, I have this Samsung Chromebook, which I picked up “Renewed” off of Amazon back in June. It is a spiffy little computer, overall, good for light web-surfing and other such simple tasks. Other than the fact that it no longer is eligible for operating system updates from Google (wish I’d known about that before I bought it), I’m very happy with it.
Now, I bought this device as a small (13 inch) laptop I could bring with me to Beoulus’ house for recording our gaming sessions, which has become the “Knights of the Tabletop” podcast. The laptop itself is very much up to this challenge, but I’m afraid the software available to it simply is not.
You see, this Chromebook is too old to actually run Android apps. It can only run web-based applications, which under most circumstances would be fine, but isn’t really working out for our needs. It seems that the web-based options for recording audio are mostly limited to only recording in Mono, at a very weak sample rate. This is extremely noticeable on our current episodes, and really makes the whole show sound very bad. Those apps that can record at a better quality only record for a few minutes at a time, which simply won’t do, either.
I can’t have that, so the Chromebook has to go.
Anyway, I plan to bring my actual laptop – yes, my main livestreaming, gaming, podcasting, editing, everything rig – to our next gaming session this coming Sunday, and see if it can’t do just a little better. Which is actually a joke, because I’ll have my full suite of tools available to me, and will be able to record the shows exactly as I need to, so that they sound significantly better!
Unfortunately, you won’t hear the fruits of this change in hardware until October, which is the month we are recording for next weekend. Yes, I know it is still August, but we’re trying to get ahead, so that we won’t have to worry about recording shows when the holidays start coming around, later this year.
So, what does that mean for my Chromebook? Well, I already have a plan for that, too. I’m going to use that as my travel system, especially at work. Have some free time, and need to do a little light Facebooking? Chromebook. Taking a roadtrip for a few days, but don’t want to tote around the full laptop rig? Chromebook. Family visiting, and they have no place to check their email? Chromebook.
Of course, if that doesn’t work out, I can always slam a light version of Linux on the Chromebook, and go back to using it for recording podcasts. I’m still not entirely sure I won’t be doing that, anyway, but the main laptop is what I’m leaning towards right now. Why go with a convoluted option, when I have one that I know works?
