Home Entertainment
Technology - 2
On my page 'Home Entertainment Technology - 1', I described how I use my PC for various multimedia activities. Since writing that page I have upgraded the PC and the operating system. This page is an update.
My PC configuration
This PC is a Pentium IV 1.6Ghz, with 256MB DDR Ram, Gigabyte 81RXP motherboard, OEM GeForce 2 64MB video card, 2 X 40GB Maxtor 7,200 Hard Drives in fan cooled removable bays, 1 X DVD ROM drive and 1 X CD-R drive. I decided to move to Windows XP as my operating system. I requested a multi region DVD player from my supplier, who assured me that the Sony DVD-ROM DDU1621 unit they sold me, was multi region. When I got it home I found they had been fibbing. I have since downloaded a patch to flash it to be region free, but from the mixed results I've observed on the discussion board, I've not had the nerve to try it yet.
Well actually I have now - Here's how it went
Some notes about my Windows XP experiences
In summary Windows XP seems to be more user friendly than Windows 98. However it can be frustrating in the way a lot of your existing applications require the purchase of upgrades for them to operate on Windows XP. The cost of the XP license is likely to be trivial compared to all the upgrade licenses that will need to be purchased.
The first thing I noticed was that my new motherboard had a sound card already built into it and it also had an Ethernet connector built in. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to configure my broadband internet connection, through my Aztech DSL Turbo 900 modem, connected directly to the motherboard. (The modem had originally been supplied with it's own ethernet card and software drivers, which were now no longer needed).
I needed to purchase an upgrade to Norton SystemsWorks, since my SystemWorks 2000 would not install under Windows XP. I was somewhat peeved by this, since I had recently subscribed over the internet, for a years worth of Virus definition updates for my Norton Antivirus which came as part of my SystemWorks 2000. So effectively I ended up purchasing about ten months worth of virus protection for my computer, twice.
I was able to install and use MS Office 97 and Ulead PhotoImpact 6.0, without purchasing any upgrades. I decided it was time anyway for me to upgrade my MS FrontPage 97 to MS FrontPage version 2002.
One of the main reasons I had decided my old computer no longer met my needs was because I had accumulated quite a lot of footage on my DV camcorder and wanted to edit and save that. My chosen format for doing this is MPEG2 and my old computer did not meet the specs required by most of the capture and editing solutions on offer.
Having previously used and been pleased with the Pinnacle Studio MP10, I decided to purchase Pinnacle Studio Deluxe. I was already familiar with the Studio Application and this card came with both Analog and firewire DV capture and output interfaces. Having made several movies with Studio Deluxe and having created outputs on DV tape, VHS Tape, MPEG1, MPEG2, Real Video and Windows Media, I am very pleased with the results. However there were a couple of things I discovered along the way.
Having rendered MPEG2 files, I discovered Windows Media Player (V8.0 under XP) would play the audio, but not the video. It appeared there was a codec that the application needed, but could not find. I experimented by downloading several DVD player applications in the hope of picking up the appropriate codec. These worked in themselves, but only downloading (and paying the upgrade fee for) WinDVD 4, fixed the problem in Windows Media Player.
Another issue was that the audio playback in Windows Media Player was horrible. Since I was also using COOL Edit96 to capture .wav files for inclusion in my movies, I found that if I was capturing them from CD then under Windows XP it seems the CD gets played through Windows Media Player's audio drivers before being captured by Cool Edit. I was getting horrible distorted .wav files. Funnily enough my download of WinDVD 4 seemed to fix this problem as well.
Sometimes after installing new programs I find that the sound output by Windows Media Player is horribly tinny. I have found that I can fix this poor sound quality, by opening Windows Media Player, selecting [Tools], [Options], [Devices], [Speakers]. I then change the "Default DirectSound Device" setting, to use the device for my sound card.
When the price of DVD burners drop a bit more, I will be in the market for one. Currently I make all my movies as short clips of 10 - 12 minutes and save them onto conventional CD-R as hopefully secure storage until that day comes.
There is an excellent DVD FAQ Here
So although I can't really blame Windows XP for all my woes, effectively I paid good money to move from a PC which had (an albeit slow) DVD player which could play discs from any region and could record top quality .wav files, to one which was challenged in these areas. Of course if I was an MP3 freak or dabbled a lot in trendy, but low quality multimedia, XP would have been ideal.
I think I am nearly at a point now, where my PC running XP can do almost all the things my old PC running Windows 98 could do, but it's taken a couple of months of investigation and upgrade payments to get there. XP does a lot more behind the scenes housekeeping etc. which for most users is good. I suspect though that for people wanting to produce high quality Audio and Video, being in touch with the rough end of the operating system is quite desirable.
In early 2004 I fitted an LG DVD burner, replacing the CD-RW drive.
UPDATE - I have now been running XP for two years and love it. However I recently managed to blow up my motherboard due to fitting an incompatible exchangeable disk drive. The motherboard has now been replaced with a newer Gigabyte model. Because there was an new motherboard, I had to do a restore of XP (preserving my old programs & data). However not long after this I had some strange phenomenon. e.g. The Windows task bar disappeared, I could not log onto the internet, I could not copy files in Windows Explorer, my desktop background was corrupted etc.. I did some Google searches and found some suggestions to insert my XP CD and then in "Run" type "sfc /scannow". So I inserted the CD, but because I had no task bar I could not select "Run". In the end I found that pressing Alt, Ctrl & Delete, brings up the Windows Task Manager. Clicking on the "New Task..." button brings up the "Create New Task" window. In here I entered "sfc /scannow" (without the quote marks) and pressed the "OK" button. A progress bar then appeared and a few minutes later my system rebooted, with everything working fine again.
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.
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