Home Entertainment
Technology
The purpose of this page is to describe some of the technology I have used for home entertainment, the pros and cons of the items I've used and resolutions I've found for issues I've encountered. It is not intended to cover any particular subject comprehensively, but does include a few useful links to sites which do. The focus of the page is on my home desk top PC, although other devices will get a brief mention. The main topics I will discuss will include Audio and Video capture / Audio and Video CD burning / Music Synthesis.
My PC configuration
The configuration of my home PC is fluid and changes according to my needs, hence the external cover is never fitted. I buy all my hardware components locally in Singapore and assemble them on as needed basis. I seldom buy the latest and greatest, since the price paid for the performance level is never as good as technology that's been on the shelves for a few month. Also I like to search the net for advice on what works and what does not, before spending my money. Currently my favorite search engine is GOOGLE and this is my starting point for most of my research.
Currently my PC is an Intel Pentium II 350Mhz sitting on an Asus 440BX motherboard. As of the current time (October 2000), most people would already consider this to be very old technology. However it is still meeting my needs and I have no immediate plans to upgrade it. I am currently using Windows 98 as my operating system. I have a Memorex MD6032 (6X DVD / 32X CD) player and an HP 7200i (2X Write / 6X read) CD burner. My video card is an ATI Expert 98 ( AGP with 8MB Vram ). My sound card is a Creative Ensoniq, I also have a Yamaha SW1000XG synthesizer card fitted. I have 2 removable hard drive slots (currently I have 7 hard drives fitted into casings which I can plug into the slots as needed). I currently use an external Video capture device 'Studio MP10' from Pinnacle. Of course I have the usual external printers / scanners / modems etc. My PC is connected though the SW1000XG synthesizer card to a Yamaha S80 keyboard using the midi connectors.
NOTE: In April 2002, I decided this PC not longer met my needs so I upgraded to a new one. Experiences of using my new PC can be read by clicking HERE
Now follow some general observations about items in the configuration:
Hard Drives
Most people will find that if they try to use a single hard drive for business, internet, games playing, audio applications, video editing / burning etc. that they will spend much of their lives trying to discover, why the latest application they have installed, has made a previously working one, inoperable.
I keep one hard drive 'master' which I use 90% of the time. It includes applications for business, internet, Audio CD, VCD and DVD players, along with a couple of frequently used, but low resource demanding games.
I have one hard drive 'slave'. This is high capacity and high speed. I use it as the place to store all data which I may need to share between my various applications, that are spread across my various 'master' drives. I hardly ever remove this drive, other than when I want to change it for a bigger, faster one. I clean it up and defragment it regularly, especially just prior to an audio or video capture or burning session.
I keep one 'master' drive for all my musical composition type applications. This is the only drive I have which is set up to use the Yamaha SW1000XG as the sound card. This is because I like to keep the configuration simple, to make sure I don't get driver conflicts, or confusion regarding which sound card my various midi and audio signals are being routed to. I don't use the Yamaha card for my non midi application drives, because it has no games port.
I keep one 'master' drive for audio / video capture and burning applications. Again making sure that I am clear about which drivers are being used for which purposes.
I keep one 'master' drive for games.
My other hard drives are old ones which have been superceded, but are occasionally recalled into service for testing and other purposes ( see section on VCD burning for an example ).
All my drives sit in containers which can be plugged into one of two slots in my PC casing. The container and slot can be purchased for around US$10 each (in Singapore at any rate). It takes about 5 minutes to take an existing Hard drive which has been fitted internally into the computer and replace it with a removable set up.
To do this you simply remove the computer casing. Fit the slot into a spare bay in the front panel, this usually means inserting 4-8 screws (supplied with the slot). Disconnect and remove the existing hard drive and fitting it into the container. You then take the ribbon cable and power supply cable which were connected to the hard drive and connect them to the rear of the 'slot'. You then slide the container into the slot and lock it with the supplied key.
Once you have installed removable units, changing hard drives takes about 15 seconds plus a reboot. Although some people claim the change of drive will be autodetected on reboot, I've had some strange problems occurring in the past under Windows 95. Now I always press 'delete' at the start of the reboot cycle and make sure the auto detection has worked correctly, before proceeding. Since doing this I've never had any problems.
Using these removable racks has been one of the best upgrades I have ever made to my PC. Given the very low cost of doing this, I don't understand why every PC on the market is not so equiped.
I recently upgraded one of my hard drives to one running at 7,200 rpm (previously all my drives had been 5,400 rpm) I was staggered at the performance improvement.
Sound Cards
I originally upgraded my sound card to a Creative Ensoniq, because my old US$12 sound card gave lousy results, when I was trying to capture audio from old cassette tapes, to create .wav files for burning to audio CD. I had read that at the budget end, Turtle Beach and Ensoniq gave good results in this area. At the time during 1998 the Creative Ensoniq was selling in Singapore for about US$30. The dilemma I had then, was that the Creative sound cards had poor reviews for analog to digital conversion, while the Ensoniq sound cards had good reviews. However Creative had acquired Ensoniq. Would a Creative Ensoniq be good or not for my purposes? I had no idea, so I risked it. The results were very good and my US$30 was well spent.
I have always been fascinated by Synthesizers, this lead me to acquire a Yamaha SW1000XG. So far I have hardly used it, but plan to do so in the near future. In fact I've fitted a plug in Vocal Harmoniser to it, so far I've just dabbled with that. I will build up a section on music synthesis as I acquire more experience. Here is an update on this.
Video Card
I've long been a fan of ATI video cards. My current Expert 98 8Mb AGP is about the fourth one I've had. I've never had any problems except perhaps deciding which of the many drivers ATI supplied is the one intended for my particular card.
DVD ROM Drive
I've only had my Memorex MD6032 for a couple of weeks. This is already considered to be an old drive, but I chose it after some research, since I need a multi region playing capability. Even though Singapore is in S.E. Asia and the official Region code here is Region 3, most of the large shops here ( including the international chains such as HMV ) sell predominantly code 1 (USA). Of my collection about 80% are code 1, 15% code 3, plus I have a few DVDs bought mail order, of 1960s TV shows from the UK which are code 2.
According to my 'Google' searches, DVD drives manufactured after 1st Jan 2000 (usually DVD 10X and greater) are limited to 1 region code only. Generally you get 5 chances to decide which region you want, then the drive fixes itself to 1 region only. This is done in the drive's firmware. You can download various firmware fixes from the internet to overcome this, however there is always some risk when playing with firmware.
My Memorex drive is pre 1st Jan 2000, but comes with a software player PowerDVD V2.5. This plays great on my PC even though my processor is at the bottom end of the recommended range. PowerDVD itself also gives you 5 tries before fixing the region code in the software. However I had already discovered a utility available for internet download called DVD Genie which over rides this (I've now used it, it works). For information on region encoding, workarounds and utility downloads try http://www.inmatrix.com
I did find out very quickly that the ability to capture still images from DVDs was disabled in PowerDVD. However a thorough search of the documentation shows that this can be overcome by disabling hardware acceleration. To disable hardware acceleration go into [Control panel] , [Display] , [Settings] , [Advanced] , [Performance] and move the slider fully to the left. Again I've tried it and it works.
CD Burner
Based on my experience my HP 7200i CD burner works fine, although it is slow by today's standards. When I originally bought it I had some problems until I configured my Drive Ribbon cables as follows.
HD Master IDE Controller 1 (end of cable connector)
HD Slave IDE Controller 1 (mid cable connector)
CD ROM (now DVD ROM) IDE Controller 2 (mid cable connector)
CD Burner IDE Controller 2 (end cable connector)
Success in burning depends largely on the software and using a source from a defragmented HD. Having sorted out my cabling I've never had a burning failure for audio, data or video.
Computer casing
I use an ATX tower casing with 6 large bays plus 2 small (floppy drive sized) ones. Currently 4 of large bays are occupied, I keep a gap between my 2 HDDs and one between them and my 2 CD drives, which are themselves adjacent, I hope that this facilitates cooling. My outer casing cover is never fitted, more to enable me to change my hardware configuration quickly than for cooling purposes. Because Singapore is humid and most floors are tiled rather than carpeted, there are seldom problems caused by static when handling components.
Internet Connection
On the 1st of January 2001 I started the process of upgrading my 56K modem connection to Singnet Broadband. As a first step I installed the Ethernet card which comes with the DSL Modem. I had some problems installing the drivers for this. Subsequently when switching on my PC I got messages indicating problems locating my VREDIT.vxd, DFS.vxd and MSNP32.dll.
After some searching I discovered that the first two could be recovered from my WIN98 Installation CD. To do this [Start], [Run], type 'SFC' and [OK], select 'Extract one file from installation disk', then use browse to point at the Win98 Installation CD. Do this for both files which should be extracted to the C:/Windows/System/ directory.
To recover MSNP32.dll [Control Panel] , [Networks] , [Configuration] , then [remove] 'Client for Microsoft Networks'. You can subsequently re-install it. The error message disappeared on reboot and I have not yet spotted any negative effects.
After quite a lot of trial and error, I conclude that things could have been simpler with a clearer set of instructions from Singnet. Here is a page I have set up, which I hope will be helpful Setting up Singnet Broadband
Operating System
People love to bash Microsoft, but I've been a Windows fan for a long time and do not begrudge Bill G. his Billions of dollars. Currently I use Windows 98 and despite being a fan, will admit to the odd issue which has to be resolved. Many of these are not caused by Windows or Microsoft, but I have found a couple of tools included with Windows 98 which are useful for fixing & debugging. One is SFC which I've mentioned above (section on Internet Connection) and which is a great way of re-installing certain Windows files, without having to restore the whole of Windows again. Sometimes when installing games, issues arise with various files from different versions of Direct X. From [Start] [Run] enter DXDiag. This provides a whole range of useful information and tests. In particular it indicates which files are Retail vs Beta versions and which have been Microsoft certified.
Things I do with my PC
Rescue old Audio tapes
I used to have a good collection of Vinyl LPs and when I decided to get rid of my turntable, I copied them to audio tape. When I can obtain these old recordings on CD I do, but there are still a few which have not been issued. Until they are I will keep them on CDs which I have burned myself.
I use COOL Edit from Syntrillium ( http://www.syntrillium.com ) to capture the audio from cassette tape and convert it .wav format. I then use Easy CD Creator from Adaptec to burn these in Audio CD format.
There are only a few Tips I would mention.
1. Make sure the Analog to digital converter on your sound card is of reasonable quality (see section on sound cards above).
2. Defrag your hard drives before you start.
3. Capture the whole recording in one go, including a few seconds of lead in tape hiss, using COOL Edit.
4. Use COOL Edit to sample a couple of seconds of the tape hiss from the beginning of your recording session. COOL Edit can now be used to analyse this sample, and remove it from the whole recording, giving a much cleaner sound.
5. Chop up the captured recording using 'copy' and 'paste' (into a new instance of COOL Edit) and 'save', so that each song is stored as a separate .wav file. This then allows each song to appear as an independently selectable track on the resulting Audio CD.
6. Prior to burning, open each .wav file in COOL Edit and remove any excessive lead or trailing silence.
7. Optionally you might want to use COOL Edit to add a bit of 'reverb', especially when making CDs of audio you have captured yourself (e.g. birds singing, kids playing etc.).
8. Volume control at recording time, will typically be adjusted using the Windows volume control or utilities supplied with your sound card, not with COOL Edit, although COOL Edit can be used later to amplify .wav files from sources which were originally recorded at a low level. Setting up the optimal volume level settings prior to COOL Edit recording will great effect the quality of the result.
Rescue Video Tapes
Singapore like most tropical countries is very humid. Over time this can be very damaging to VHS and Camcorder tapes which eventually go moldy. So I capture them into my PC and then burn them onto VCDs.
I use Studio MP10 from Pinnacle. This is a budget external unit which allows video and accompanying audio to be captured from a VHS tape deck, camcorder or other analog source. The capture can be done from either Composite or S-Video sources.
Having read the Pinnacle FAQ on the Studio MP10, it is clear that users have varying level of expectation and success. For my part the product has more than exceeded my expectations. I would say the results are not as good as most commercial VCDs, but for a device that retails currently at less than US$200 it is exceptional value. In particular it is very easy to use. I know people who have spent many times that, for higher end devices, but have never burnt a VCD because the product was too difficult to use.
The Studio application is very easy to use. You can capture, edit, title, transition, add music and voice overs, all within one application. You can create MPEGs of varying quality (and hence size), including White Book compliant MPEG1 (this is required for making VCDs). If you want to make a high quality MPEG file and burn it as a data file to a CD (which you can play back on a PC) you can do it, but you need to select a lower quality if you want VCD compliance (this will let you play back on a VCD player connected to a TV). In the MP10 three default quality settings are provided 'Good', 'Better', 'Best'. Click the 'Better' setting for white book compliance (very old versions of the software (prior to version 1.02) had an incorrect setting for this. A download is available from the Pinnacle site to fix it).
The main areas where I notice pixelation and sound track interference are on parts of VCDs where I use some of the more sophisticated transition effects. This may well be because my PC really is at the bottom end, in terms of what can be expected to work for such video applications.
I am sorely tempted to go out and purchase Pinnacle's very low priced Studio DV (this internal card uses the same studio software, but allows firewire capture straight from a DV camera). The only thing stopping me is that it does not also have connectors for S-video or composite capture. There is also a product called Studio DV Plus which does have these connectors, but these are for output not input.
Back to Studio MP10. Having made my white book compliant .mpg files, I use Video CD Creator (part of Easy CD Creator 4 Deluxe) from Adaptec to burn my VCDs. Now follow two issues I have encountered and their resolutions:
1. Originally I could only burn VCDs with one .mpg file. After much searching of the Adaptec site, I found it was because my Windows 98, using Internet Explorer 5 was not using Microsoft 'Active Movie control', but Microsoft 'Media player'. Initially I overcame this by installing Video CD Creator on one of my old hard drives which still had Internet Explorer 4 (and Active Movie control). Subsequently I fixed my other hard drive by downloading 'Active Movie control' from the Microsoft support site and used 'Notepad' to edit my system.ini file in my Windows directory to include the line MPEGVideo=mciqtz.drv in the [mci] section of that file. In fact there was already a line for 'MPEGVideo=' referring to a different driver, so I disabled it by preceding it with ; (semi colon). I can now burn VCDs with multiple .mpg files with no problem.
2. When you burn a VCD using one or more multiple .mpg files as a source, you find you have a directory (Mpegav) on the VCD with a corresponding number of .dat files. Most PC based mpeg players will happily play both .mpg and .dat files, which gives the impression that .mpg and .dat files are the same format. However if you copy a .dat file from your VCD back onto to your hard drive and then try to use it as the source for another VCD using Video CD Creator 4.0, something strange will happen (this will even be the case if you change the file extension from .dat to .mpg). Your new VCD will have no files in the 'Mpegav' directory, but will have some strangely named .dat files in the 'Segment' directory. These files will be playable on your PC, but not on your TV connected VCD player. To overcome this you need to properly convert the .dat file back into .mpg files before burning the new VCD. Again searching the internet using Google provided me with this information and the software to do the job. I downloaded VCDGear GUI V0.02 from http://www.vcdhelp.com/faq.htm this did a great job and the site is a source of heaps of other useful information. From the same site I also found TMPGenc which allows you to do such things as convert .avi to .mpg, and also is useful for splitting .mpg files into sections or for joining them together. They recommend a minimum of a Pentium III 500mhz, but it seems to work OK on my PII 350mhz. The only issue I have so far is that when trying to use it to split up VCD compliant .mpg files, the files output appear to have a different bit rate to the input file, so although they will play ok on the PC, Adaptec Video CD Creator 4.0 won't accept them as being VCD compliant.
Maintain my Home page
This is an infrequent hobby, which tends to go through periods of no activity for several months followed buy short bursts of enthusiasm. As you will have seen I'm not into layout so much as content.
I use Microsoft Front Page 97 still.
Web surfing and Webcam meetings
The exchange of email with far away friends is OK, but not as good as being able to see them while chatting. I connected up a Creative Blaster Web Cam, installed Microsoft Netmeeting and MS Messenger service. I got myself a hotmail account and have successfully had live video chats with friends many thousands of miles away.
A couple of weeks after I got all of this working, I installed an upgraded ATI Video card ( I replaced my ATI Xpert98 AGP 8mb with an ATI Radeon AGP 32mb). Because my Radeon had no connector for my ATI TV card, I removed the ATI TV card. The next time I tried to start Netmeeting I got an error 'AMC Peripheral Device not found'. A Google search provided information that solved the problem. This involved disabling the ATI Video capture driver:
- Click [Start] , [Settings] , [Control Panel] , [Multimedia]
- Click the 'Devices' tab
- Click the + in front of ‘Video Capture Devices’
- Double click the entry for ‘ATI Multimedia Video Driver’
- Select 'Do not use this video capture device' and click OK.
- Restart the computer.
Other Equipment
Apart from my PC, I also have a Pioneer DV-K301C DVD player hooked up to a TV. This works with DVDs from all regions and plays back VCDs. I would say the VCD playback is not quite as good as it from either of my other CD/VCD players which are an Aiwa DX-K9900M and an Aiwa NSX-KT9.
My DV Camcorder is a Sony TRV9E.