Gospel

HI all, Is there a DVD player which connects to a TV that will also play movies off an external USB drive? I have quite a few DVDs and would like to import them onto a hard drive. This part I know how to do. We would like to leave a DVD player at our cabin. So, when we go there all I need to do is bring the hard drive instead of a large case of DVDs. We don't want to leave a very expensive DVD player in case that place gets broken into. Thanks! Steven

Are you referring to Parallels or Boot Camp? If so, these packages are sold separately and not included. BTW, I will be bitting the bullet and getting a Mac Pro next month. It is either do a major system upgrade to use Vista or make the jump to MacOS. If you haven't heard, Leopard, MacOS 10.5, has been delayed until October. The news is somewhere on Apple's web site. Enjoy life! Steven

As I have said above, I was hoping for a stand-alone unit that didn't involve (independent of) a computer. However, I found another PlusDeck 2c for US$85 and got it. So, I am now back to converting tapes again. I like the PlusDeck because I just pop in the tape, click a button, give it a file name, and presto, the PlusDeck does the rest. Thanks, Steven

I appreciate the feedback. I like the PlusDeck because I could use software. All, I did was put in a tape, cluck "Save to file", and enter a filename. The software did the rest like starting the tape, auto reverse, stop tape, and close the file. It is very nice. Before getting the PlusDeck repaired or replaced, I wanted to see if there was a solution that is independent of my computer. BTW, there is nice thing using the PlusDeck with a SoundBlaster X-Fi card. It doesn't have the analog mix recording mode like hte Audigy. So while using the Line-in for the plus deck for recording, I could play MP3s, listen to TV via the Aux2-In RCA ports. I can record specifically from the Line-in port and the other audio channels don't get recorded. Thanks! Steven

Hi all, I am not sure where to start so here goes. I have a Plusdeck 2 which is a 5.25" internal cassette deck for my PC. It fits in one of the front drive bays like a CD/DVD driver.. I've been using it to convert my cassette based audio books to MP3. The Plusdeck is over two years old and I seem to have already worn it out. I need to send it in to be repaired. Before I do so, I have a question. Is there a small stand-alone portable cassette player available that can rip the cassette audio to MP3? It would be nice if it could write the MP3 files to a SD or CompactFlash card. SD would be preferred. Does such a device exist? If so, any info will be appreciated I've tried googling but am not having much luck. Thanks! Steven

Hi all, I have a set of Sharper Image noise cancelling headphones. The headphoens has a built-in 1/8 jack for a patch cable instead of having a cable permantly attached. It came with a very thin, lightweight audio patch cable. Well, this cable is great except it always gets wrapped around the arm of my computer chair. When I move my chair or lean over, the cable gets pulled out from the headpones. Is there a wireless bluetooth device that I can use instead of an audio cable? It would be nice if the device acted like a flash drive in that the pair of devices connected directly to the headphone out of my comptuer and audio in of my headphones. A USB device that attaches tot he computer would be OK too. Does such a beast exist? Thanks, Steven

Speedball, Was your Gateway the dual CPU E-550? I had a dual CPU Gateway E-350. It was a sweet machine until its motherboard developed a weird problem. It would not execute programs in extended memory. It would crash on bootup of both Windows and Linux. But DOS programs ran just fine. Memory, processor, and hard drive diagnostics found no errors. I never solved the problem. Since then, I've been building my own PCs. It is cheaper to buy a pre-built computer but it is more fun building you own. Enjoy life! Steven

To me, there is little difference in sound quality between iTunes and WMP. But, I think iTunes is *very much* easier to use than WMP. I started using iTunes six months before I bought an 60GB iPod Photo. I tried MusicMatch but I found it too complicated witha all of its docking panels. I don't care for Creative's MediaSource. And I only use RealOne for to play Real media content. I do use WMP for video because Quicktime doesn't seem to use Video overlay which my video card Matrox Parhelia) uses to maximize video on my secondary monitor. Enjoy life! Steven

I don't think this is your problem but, IIRC, you only need to connect the extra power connector to the soundcard itself if you are using the external IO drive that comes with the top level X-Fi card. I only have the power connector going to the front panel drive and it the drive works fine. I've not used the SPDIF connectors yet, so I don't know if both SPDIFs work on mine. JusI ordered an optical cable a couple days ago. You can get a 25 ft. Comprehensive tosslink cable from B&H for US$18. BTW, I alsp plan to connect my second omputer to the primary computer that has the klipsch PMU 5.1 attached to it. I want to use the second computer as a Linux based media center. Steven

I know I am a little late on replying to this thread. I have an unusual choice I like to use to show off my speakers. It is Mannheim Steamrollers Autumn Song DVD-A with just the ambient sounds. Sounds like you are in the middle of a forest with nature all around you. The Summer Song and Bird Song DVD-As are good too. Well, at least my parrot enjoys them. Enjoy life, Steven

OK, it has been a week since I installed the X-Fi card. Am I still satisfied with this card? Definitely YES! As I mentioned, there are some minior annoyances. 1) The XOR relationship of Line-In and Auxilary muted/unmuted state. 2) I have to turn off CMSS-3D when watcing DVD movies. Still, I have not regrets getting the X-Fi card. Enjoy life! Steven

Thanks to all for the advice. I've now resolved all four issues. I simply swapped the Sony DVD-ROM drive in the XP box with the no-name 52x CD-ROM drive in the Linux box. 1) The Linux box can now read DVD Linix distro discs. 2) The HP DVD Writer does good enough for viewing DVD Movies with minimum studderring. 3) The no-name 52x CD-ROM drive has no problems ripping extended audio CDs like the Robert Jorden audiobook. 4) I can still wait for HD DVD drives to come out before I spend any extra $$ on optical drives. I don't copy from DVD to DVD so having only one DVD drive in my XP box isn't an issue. Thanks, Steven

I've got a decent DVD burner already. I am mainly looking for good DVD-ROM drive for movies and ripping extended Audio CDs. I'm waiting for HD DVD before I upgrade my burner. Your suggestion is appreciated. If I need to go the burner upgrade route then I'll look at Sony's DVDirect. Thanks, Steven

Hello all, I am in the market for a DVD drive for my Windows XP box. In the system, I have a HP DVD Writer 630i and a Sony DVD-ROM DDU 1621. I want to move the Sony drive to my Linux box so I can load the latest release of Mandriva Linux from DVD. Currently I only have a CD-ROM drive in the Linux box. I wish I could wait for a HD capable DVD drive but Sony and the rest of the industry is still fighting on the standard. Can you say VHS and Betamax? What is a good choice for a DVD-ROM drive that has minimum skipping? Yes, I know that system stuff can cause skipping. But,t he Sony drive is much worse than the HP drive when it comes to the move pausing and skipping. Also, I need the drive to be able to rip extended audio CDs like the ones for Robert Jorden's audiobooks. Got one of his 29 CD (36 hours) audiobooks but both of my DVD drives can't read the last track. The CDs play fine in a normal stereo system CD player. Any help will be apprecaited. I hope this is an appropriate place to ask such a question. Thanks, Steven

Hi all, I just got my X-Fi Platinum sound card. Below are my first impressions of this card. First, let me explain where I am coming. from. I am visually impaired so I do have extremely good hearing. I'm a little more than a casual music listener. I have 4,500+ songs in iTunes. My tastes are mostly gospel music and oldies with some modern stuff though like some new age and nature themes as well as limited select of current music. I enjoy DVDs, audiobooks, and watch TV via the computer. So, my experience is only with the X-Fi's Entertainment mode. I also have a set of Klipsch ProMedia Ultra 5.1 speakers. Installing the X-Fi hardware was very easy. However, installing the software seems to take forever! Instead of a smoothly moving progress bar, it jumps after each section of the install process. This makes one think the installer may be stuck. The Audigy2 Drive that fits in a CD bay looks identical to the X-Fi Drive except the X-Fi does not have a firewire connector. It is probably possible to use the Audigy 2 Drive with the X-Fi Extreme Music model to make it into an X-Fi Platinum. But, no guarrentee it will work. I am NOT going to try it and take a chance of damaging the X-Fi card. The X-Fi ribbon cable does fit the Audigy 2 Drive though. So far, I think the X-Fi does sound much better than the previous Audigy 2 ZS Platinum. It seems a little more full and smoother. This mixer controls and various other control panels are now integrated into one window with a toolbar to select the desired panel. In each panel you have to click on a [back] button to get back to the toolbar. The 24bit Cryistalizer seems to help make sounds crisper and less muted at times. So, for now, I am going to leave this feature on. The X-Fi has two CMSS-3D modes: Stereo Xpand and Stereo Surround. Both seem to be good at making good use of the center speaker for centered sounds In Xpand mode it puts echos/reverb in the back speakers like you are in a large room. You can control the amount of the effect in the rear speakers. The Surround mode, of couse, copies the front speaker sound to the rear speakers. Again, you can control the volume of the the sound int he rear speakers via the CMSS-3D control panel. Personally, I prefer to be surround by music. However, CMSS does not seem to affect the Aux-In input. I have a WinTV tuner atached to it and the center speaker Is just a blend of what is playing on the side speakers. The same is true for the Line-In. The Sound Volume Monitor automatically levels out the sound volume of what is playing to keep it at an even level when enabled. Personally, I like this. But, if you are a classical music listener than you probably want to turn off this feature so you can hear the high and lows volume-wise. I'll be leaving this feature on. It is nice for TV watching becasue some of the cable stations like the SciFi Channel have less volume than the netowrks like ABC and CBS. Now, I don't need to adjust the volume when switching between these channels. Initially, the only annoyance is that I can not unmute both the Line-In on the back and the internal Aux card inputs at the same time. Unlike the Augigy 2 which had 4 internal card inputs (TADS, CD Audio, Aux, and CD Digital), the X-Fi has only one Aux connector. The card does have a long internal connector for an optoin digital break-out adaptor for SPIF-In and SPIF-out. Back to the two inputs. I have a WinTV card connected to the internal Aux connector. I have my internal 5.25 Plusdeck 2 cassette deck player attached to the rear Line-In jack. Please, no snide comments ont he cassette deck. Like I said, I like audiobooks. The Plusdeck 2 has a reaf slot connector for the inputs and outputs. Fortunately, the Plusdeck and Intervideo WinDVR software both unmute the desired input when each respective app is started. Normally, I won't be running both apps at the same time anyways. But, the WinTV Radio app does not unmute the Aux input so after running the Plusdeck software I will need to select Aux int he X-Fi mixer. Clicking on [Mute] button in the radio app doesn't mute/unmute the Aux input. I am not commenting in the MediaSource software because I don't use it. I use iTunes for music/audiobooks, WinDVD for movies, and Windows Media Player for MIDI and WAV files. Overall, I quite pleased with the X-Fi and am glad I got it. Well, that is my first impression. I haven't seen a lot of the details above in any reviews of the X-Fi. I hope this helps ohters. Please feel free to ask any questions about the X-Fi card. I'll try to help and I hope the other X-Fi owners will chime in. Enjoy life! Steven