From Dave Garton:
I read your recent mailbag page about VHS to DVD.
I've tried some conversions myself, having used a standalone Pioneer DVR as well as a Datavideo DAC-100 analog-to-DV bridge.
http://www.datavideo.us/products/dac_100_main_page.htm
http://www.videohelp.com/capturecards/datavideo-dac-100/203
Here is a bookmark I've saved with loads of input, it might add to your arsenal of information, or serve to further confuse you. I hope it's the former!
http://www.macintouch.com/digitizingvideo.html
What I've come to realize is that a Time Base Corrector is essential for good capture from weak sources. Some standalones have it built in, while other high-end VCRs have it as a feature. Full-frame is the most desired, as I understand it. There are also half-frame TBCs.
Hope this gives you some more information to pass on, and hopefully use.
Dave
Dave,
Thanks for the info. I'll be sharing it in the mailbag.
Dan
From Travis Jay Patocka:
Dan,
I don't know if you have been looking at some of the UMPC's that are out there, but ASUS will be releasing it own kind of ulra-portable called the eeePC 701 within the next month or so. Supposedly this computer runs its own version of Linux and will start at $199 (in a very basic form); for around $250-$350 you get a machine that comes with 1 GB of RAM, at least a 4 GB hard drive (flash memory), Open Office and other applications, and WiFi. I see this machine as that third computer that Apple should have released long ago: Something that is cheap enough and small enough that you can easily leave that desktop and laptop behind and instead take this with you on the road. I'm not trying to be an ASUS fan-boy, but the idea of this machine and its potential and bargain price will make me a buyer. Any chance we could load 10.5 on this machine? I believe that it comes with a 900 MHz Intel processor. Thanks!
- Travis
Travis,
I was in Sam's Club over the weekend and very impressed with some of the smaller Windows notebooks, probably 10" screens (I didn't look too close). I'd just love to have a notebook computer that small, especially one that could convert into a tablet and have multitouch features like the iPhone and iPod touch. I really want something I can use in the field as a handheld, and regular laptops just don't cut it there - and the iPhone/iPod touch screens are awfully small for real work.
As for the ASUS eeePC 701, it specifies "Intel mobile CPU & chipset" but doesn't give any more details. Is this a Core Solo? Core2 Duo? Something older? How fast does it run?
Since it can run Windows XP, it should be possible to hack an OS X installation on it. How well it will run is something I couldn't even guess at.
Dan
From Mark McCormack:
I second/third/fourth using the Sony VRD-VCxx for basic video copying; I've been using one for years. If you need to do any editing or want fancy DVD menus, you obviously need to go the Mac iMovie/iDVD route (or Toast), which I've done many times for personal videos. Note that the Sony can burn continuously to dual-layer DVD, an extremely valuable trick which no other unit on the market could do at the time I purchased mine. Obviously this means that you can record nearly 2 hours continuously at the highest quality. I assume this means that the unit has several GB of internal flash-memory for buffering to accomplish this sophisticated trick. The only downside to it is that you have to hover over it to hit the Stop button when the source finishes. It has a small LCD display that shows the video as it runs, as well as the elapsed time.
The Sony senses copy-protection in the source and will refuse to continue. I discovered that if I routed copy-protected source video through my Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge to the Sony via its FireWire input, it just "happened" to bypass this problem, most of the time.
Mark in Seattle
Mark,
Thanks for weighing in. I'm hoping to avoid spending any more money on this project, but I'll keep it in mind.
Dan
From Tim Harbison:
I'm not one to complain (most of the time), but the headline of the article iPhone Update Even Breaks Authorized Apps is wildly misleading. There is no such thing as an "authorized" app for the iPhone. It simply does not exist.
The text of the article uses the word "unauthorized", which is accurate. The headline on Low End Mac only serves to fan the flames of what, in my opinion, is a debate that shouldn't even be happening.
I've explained it this way to friends: You go out and buy yourself a new car. Then, being unhappy with the performance, you decide to make a bunch of modifications to the engine. Then you complain when it blows up in your face and the manufacturer won't honor the warranty.
Do you really believe that there will never be an officially sanctioned developers kit? If you do, then why the heck are you complaining when a firmware update wrecks the phone on which you modified the firmware? If you feel that strongly about being able to hack the thing, just don't update it!
(please note, this rant is not directed specifically at Low End Mac or the editors, but at all those complaining that their iPhones have been bricked because they took it upon themselves to mess around under the hood and got burnt)
Tim,
Thanks for writing. According to Apple's Greg Joswiak, as reported by GearLog's Sascha Segan:
"...Apple takes a neutral stance - they're not going to stop anyone from writing apps, and they're not going to maliciously design software updates to break the native apps, but they're not going to care if their software updates accidentally break the native apps either."
Thus, Apple has given the green light to software developers to create native apps for the iPhone, while at the same time not releasing a Software Developer Kit and warning that iPhone firmware updates are very likely to break third-party software.
Using the word "authorized" was overly broad. While Apple has "authorized" third party developers to create native iPhone apps, it has not authorized any of the apps themselves. We have changed the heading on that article to iPhone Update Breaks Third Party Apps.
Dan
From Björn Steiner:
John [Hatchett] was asking: "The biggest questions that should be answered is why are school systems buying computers? Most businesses lease equipment."
The reason businesses lease equipment is mostly due to accounting. If equipment is bought, it is financially asset and there are some pretty strict depreciation rules with long term bindings, which can ruin your financial statement or share holder value. If equipment is leased, the use of it is not asset but consumables on costs.
As long as schools not even work on common business mechanics for their own business needs, there will be no change.
best,
Björn
Björn,
Thanks for writing. I don't think schools are overly concerned about depreciation and book value on their old computer inventory. I suspect it's just an argument for doing nothing, as it's cheaper to keep these old machines in storage than pay to have them recycled or take the time to prepare them so they can be given away or sold cheaply.
Dan
From Steven Hunter:
Mr. Cook would do well to first address his complaints to the manufacturer, but he should follow that up with a call to the Federal Trade Commission, his state's Attorney General's offce, the Attorney General's office of the state where the manufacturer does business, and
the Better Business Bureau.
For more info, see Rebates: Where to Complain.
- Steven Hunter
Steven,
Thanks for the info. I'll post it in the mailbag and forward it to Scott Cook.
Dan
From Steve Geary:
Hello Dan,
Again, I really do enjoy Low End Mac. Thanks for such a wonderful website!
In reading the most recent "The 'Book Review" - just, who does this "James R. Stoup" think he is?
Back on May 31, when you mentioned that Palm was going to release their Foleo UMPC, the more I read about it, the more interested I became. Many times I find I need a small, extremely portable computer to do menial tasks. Rather than drag a laptop around, I could buy a PDA, but I would like a regular keyboard and more screen real-estate.
I own a Compaq Aero-8000, which was exactly that in terms of 1999, but it is extremely limited in what it can do in this day and age. I had difficulty getting it to work with a 10Base-T ethernet card, let alone get an 802.11b card to work. Windows CE is so . . . Windows. It is full of bugs and stupid quirks as well as Pocket Internet Explorer 3.01, which is terribly out of date.
What I want to do is:
and other small tasks.
But Palm has scrapped the Foleo just as it was ready to ship! After all the development costs and production (I'm sure they had an inventory ready to ship), it's scrapped. I worry that Palm won't be around much longer with that kind of waste.
So I've been looking at possibly an Asus Eee PC, but if Apple would introduce something similar, I would be right there ordering it! I'm sure there are many others who would want such a device!
8-10" 1024 x 600 screen, normal keyboard (even if its slightly reduced in size), no optical drive, and enough power to do such simple tasks.
Asus' Eee PC as well as Via's Nanobook 7" screens are nice, but 800 x 480 is a bit cramped, but useable. I've seen Sony's UMPC with a 4.5" screen at 1024 x 600, and it was quite sharp and readable.
I suppose I'm one of those "non existent" people who wants a Macbook Mini.
- Steve
Steve,
You and thousands of others! Today's high resolution (high pixel density) LCDs make it practical to have a 10" 1152 x 768 display, which was wonderful on the first- and second-generation TiBooks. Let's call it 8.4" wide, 5.6" high, 135-140 pixels per inch (the iPod nano is 204 ppi!), LCD backlit for longer battery life.
You could have a decent keyboard, about 90% of usual. Make an optical drive a strap-on option for those who want to watch DVDs in the field or rip their CD collection into iTunes. Give it a flash drive instead of a hard drive and enough battery power to last an eight hour day. Hinge the lid so it can function as a tablet computer with the same multitouch capabilities as the iPod touch and iPhone.
This would be a hot premium item that so fits into Apple's niche. People would gladly pay $1,500 - maybe even $2,000 - for something like this, and all the better if it can also run Windows.
PDAs are disappearing, being replaced by smartphones and the iPod touch, but they can't hold a candle to a real computer. UMPC is promising, except that it's locking you into the malware infested world of Windows or the less than polished open source world of Linux. Apple needs to go there, and between the Newton, iPhone, iPod touch, and PowerBook Duo, they have to background to do it better than anyone else.
We can dream.
Dan
From Trevor J. Mahan:
Hello
I saw your recent write-up about OS X 10.5 not being able to install on machines with less than a G4/867 MHz.
"What the OS X installer does isn't check how fast your processor is running; it looks at the model number of your Mac and compares it to a list of 'bad' machines that are officially rated as too slow. So if you've got an upgraded CPU and your box is actually fast enough, well, it won't work....
Well, ok, this makes sense say for the non-CPU upgradeable G4 iMacs and Powerbooks, but this seems illogical for the G4 desktops. Afterall, the Quicksilver first came out with 700 MHz, 867 MHz, or dual 800 MHz CPUs. The motherboard is exactly the same, and I can swap CPU cards around easily in that model. But if I have a 700 MHz CPU in that machine, the OS X Leopard installer will stop again, why? If it isn't checking the CPU speeds, then it is checking the model. And several Quicksilver models of both generations are supported at one CPU speed but not the other? So if I have a Quicksilver originally at 700 MHz and have it upgraded with a Newertech 7448 at 1.8 GHz, it won't work. But if I have a Quicksilver originally at 867 MHz and have it upgraded with the same Newertech 1.8 GHz CPU, it will work?
I suppose the only formal answer will be known after the release of Leopard later this month. I have a Quicksilver 700 MHz upgraded machine as described with the Newertech CPU plus a Gigabit dual 500 MHz original machine upgraded with a Gigadesigns 1.4 GHz CPU. Both run Tiger beautifully with maxed out RAM, a SATA PCI card, and SATA drives. Both have great video cards - Nvidia 6200's at 256 MB VRAM. I run these in a work environment and will very frustrated if I can't upgrade to Leopard just because the 'original' CPU speed was not 867 MHz.
Thanks for the continued reporting on this. I have been a daily reader of LEM since y'all first appeared on the scene years ago.
Warmly,
Trevor J. Mahan