Uechi-Ryu.com

Hi folks,

Here's the situation. I have an c.1997 233MMX/256Mb/Windows 98se Micron and I want to swap the CD-ROM out for a DVD-ROM. Now, the system doesn't meet the min. requirements for the software decoders out there. So I need to get a hardware decoder. I think I'm settled on the Sigma Designs Real Magic Hollywood Plus, and then I figure I can use any DVD-ROM. The Diamond Multimedia Stealth 2000Pro PCI video card will support any DVD movies, and the Sound Blaster AWE64 ISA card will support the audio. This I confirmed on the Sigma Designs website.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Any help/advice is appreciated.

Gene

Gene,
I can't offer any tech help but I can tell you my computer has a dvd and I never use it.
Once I got the one for the tv that was it.
I kick myself for not getting the one with a cd burner, which was my other option at the time. If your using the dvd for something other than watching "Enter the Dragon" just ignore my post, I'm falling behind on the technology.
F.

Hi Fred,

Do you have an empty drive bay in your computer? You can add a CD burner easy! Do you have an unused USB port? Even easier!

They even have combo DVD/CD-burners for reasonably cheap money. Real easy to change your DVD drive out of your system.

Make Allen an offer, and see if he can help you out!

Gene

C.mon, Gene.

In regards to "Make Allen an offer,"
I'm not a computer technician!!! Besides, friends stay friends longer without one working on the other's pc for cash. I'm really too busy to become married to another's pc if it develops problems. And it is ALWAYS the one who installed something who gets called by the irate one when the pc software blows up. No thanks. I'll pass on this one, Gene, but thanks for offering my services.

However, we can talk him through an installation on the internet, and I do have an extra firewire cd writer I could let go.

In terms of advice for your original post, Gene, not to be sarcastic but your 233 might do better as a flower planter. What you would have to spend and what you would get out of it would be way past the law of diminishing returns.

One can get a case and quiet ps for about the same as the ps alone. the old board's BIOS may not handle the new stuff, and old memory is really slow when it comes to video.

Somewhere you mentioned a 400w ps is in your future. Unless you are running AMD, needs are nowhere near that. I'm running a bunch of stuff including some pretty wild 15K SCSI drives with access times in the vicinity of 3ms on 200 watts in with a Pentium with plenty of power to spare. Everything is cool too; the Shuttle's variable-speed quiet fan remains on the lowest speed.


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Allen Moulton at Uechi-ryu Etcetera loves email at <A HREF="mailto:uechi@ixpres.com">uechi@ixpres.com</A>


[This message has been edited by s f b (edited November 13, 2002).]

ALlen,

The computer's going to my brother, who really uses it to web-surf and burn some CDs. He doesn't need anything fancy, but the DVD player might be a fun project to try. Otherwise, the system is in tip-top shape. At least I'm not saddling him with my 486 system...

I didn't mean to get you in trouble, Allen. But I figured why not use the best !

Gene

Gene, , Not to worry -- that's just my humor popping out at the edges.

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Allen Moulton at Uechi-ryu Etcetera loves email at <A HREF="mailto:uechi@ixpres.com">uechi@ixpres.com</A>

Allen,
The firewire sounds interesting, this e-machine 766 freezes up so often however I don't know if it would work. Lately I haven't been able to open "my pictures" without the screen going blue.
My goal at this point is to burn all my old kids camcorder videos onto DVD before they fade away, so I can watch them on my tv. I've been burning my digital camera pics with a pc at work when I get free time.
Is the technology there now to accomplish this, without busting the bank?
f.

Hello Fred.

I think burning DVDs from video tapes is the way to go. It'll sure save money on new tapes.

As I write this, I'm doing a Firewire video capture of some of Christopher's high school and college baseball pitching. There are many advantages to this. I'll be able to "albumize," combine, and trim multiple tapes plus add effects after they've been dumped onto a hard drive before burning the DVD.

Video CDs can also be made.

A decent DVD burner can be had for about 300 bux.

However, you DO seem to be in need of a new computer. Man, have I such a deal for YOU!!!

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Allen Moulton at Uechi-ryu Etcetera loves email at <A HREF="mailto:uechi@ixpres.com">uechi@ixpres.com</A>

Allen,

What equipment/software are you using to t-fer the video? Are you using direct capture from your video camera, or are you using a capture board? Are you capturing the audio through the fireware port, or through the sound card? Are you capturing to disk, or to memory and then to disk? What video editing s-ware are you using?

This is exactly what I eventually wish to do, so any pointers will be mucho obliged!

Gene

[This message has been edited by Gene DeMambro (edited November 14, 2002).]

Hello Gene.

I am feeding a <a href="http://www.sonystyle.com/">Sony DCR-TRV950</a> into a <a href="http://www.pinnaclesys.com">Pinnacle Capture Card</a> plugged into the new, red color, <a href=”http://us.shuttle.com/specs2.asp?pro_id=76”>Shuttle-X</a>. The capture card is well-equipped with a full suite of professional video editing software, NOT crippleware. Plug the card in, load the drivers, read the instructions, and it just works. After rendering and compiling, I save the output to a Pioneer ATA DVD writer I converted to supah-fast external Firewire.


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Allen Moulton at Uechi-ryu Etcetera loves email at <A HREF="mailto:uechi@ixpres.com">uechi@ixpres.com</A>


[This message has been edited by s f b (edited November 14, 2002).]