I am planning to buy a new pc, would like to know foll:
1) I am getting a combo drive, and I am planning to watch DVD movie on my
normal Sony TV.…is this possible? If yes, how? Moreover, my PC will be in
the room and my TV will be in the hall, the distance is roughly 20
feet….will that be a problem?
First, you'll need to have a video card capable of Video Out (aka
TV-Out).
You'll also need to have RCA Audio-Video Inputs for SVideo and Analog
audio for the TV or VCR (if one is hooked up to the TV). You may need
an RCA extension cable for the Video output since the included cables
aren't usually that long. This would hook into the Video out of the
video card and the SVideo-in for your TV/VCR. I think most recent
vintage Sony TVs have such connectors.
If you want sound, you'll need a cable for that as well. This would
hook into the Sound card's speaker-out (front speakers). For most
people, this means a 1/8" (Sony walkman plug) stereo to 2xRCA cable.
The Sony walkman plug would go into the speaker-out (front speakers)
for your sound card, and the 2 others would go into the audio input
for your TV or VCR.
2) Since I am a teacher, I may want to record my voice to make some language
Cd's for students. Is there anything special I would need in order to do
that?
1. Buy a PC microphone. Plug it into Microphone or Line-in.
2. Install a PC recording program. The "Recorder" program included
with windows will work, but it limits you to 1 minute of recording.
There's a work around (basically record 1 minute of nothing, load it
into recorder and keep pasting it in there until you have enough time)
but it's not really practical. I don't really do much recording, so
others can probably suggest a better program. Anyways, just remember
to disable the mute in the mixer for whatever jack you plugged the
microphone into, and mute out the other input sources. The reason
being that you don't want the background hum from them in your
recordings, but you DO want it to record from the microphone.
Save your recording as wav or mp3. WAV would be easier for this
application, and mp3 support depends on the recording program.
3. You'll need a burning program (this will probably be included with
your drive). There will likely be an option to create an AUDIO CD.
This is probably the option you want. Just drag and drop your
recording file into the program and burn away.
3) I would also like to record my voice & send emails with my voice since my
grandmother doesn't speak English. Is this possible? How?
Record it as above. When you email, attach (use the paperclip button
on Outlook Express) to attach the sound file you recorded to. Your
grandmother would need to know how to open attachments in order for
this to work, as she'd have to open the attachment to play the file.
There are internet phone programs available as well, some of which are
integrated into, or can be added onto instant messengers like MS
Instant Messenger and ICQ. Of course, you'd both have to be online
for this to work, and the steps involved in setup depend on the
program.
4) Can I watch dvd's from any region on my combo drive ? Does the system get
locked after 3-5 times of usage like it does on the laptop?
Yes. Unless you flash the firmware with a hacked one where the region
lock is disabled. It would have to be one for your specific drive,
and not all drives have a modified firmware available. Check here:
http://forum.rpc1.org/portal.php
Two caveats:
1. If you mess up the flash, you can make the drive useless. It's
pretty rare that the flash will get screwed up, but there is a risk
and, of course, it voids the warranty.
2. Most times, you have to install the hacked firmware BEFORE the
region lock is engaged (ie. before the region change limit is hit) or
the firmware update won't work.
You'll also need a program to let you change the region at will on
whatever player software you're using. you'll find a link to such
software on the page mentioned above.
