This & That: Putting Money Where Your Mouth Is

     by Elizabeth B. Wright   March 2005

Well, it’s not always possible to buy state of the art hardware and software, so what route is one to take into the video conversion jungle without breaking the bank account. My computer is just powerful enough to handle the demands of changing an analog video to digital. It won’t be the fastest machine on the planet, but for now it will have to do.

Before writing last month’s column, the investment had been made in Adaptec’s “VIDEOh!™ DVD Media Center,  USB 2.0 Edition, The all-in-one solution to turn your PC into a Media Center”. Now that’s a mouthful!! The cables that came with the unit were not long enough to string through the room and reach our TV-VCR setup. And that really would not have been a good idea, anyway. So, knowing the obsolescence of all things electronic, I hoped to find a cheap VCR. And find one I did. At about $50, a unit was added to my computer setup by connecting it to the converter unit and the converter to my computer. But nothing is ever so easy as putting tab A into slot A, etc. The software that accompanied the conversion unit indicated it would not install unless I first uninstalled the DVD burning program already residing on the computer. Feeling there was no other choice, I made the decision to uninstall the burning software.

You are probably way ahead of me.

When I got everything up and running, the first attempt was made to use the hardware and video converting program. All went well until the time came to burn the new file to a DVD. Yes, the burner would not respond to the new software. Finally, I decided to reinstall the original software, and that seemed to work.

With the current setup, I can bring my VHS tapes into my computer, work on them in video imaging software, then burn them to a DVD. It is going to take a lot of practice to see how all this turns out.

After reading my article last month, Mr. Pete Kramer with Metro Technology Centers, (Training Coordinator, Business and Industry Services) sent me a great e-mail with an alternative suggestion. To Pete Kramer's article  It is rather lengthy and rather than quote it, I am going to ask him to submit it to the eMonitor for publication. It most certainly will be of interest to all who are contemplating the move into video handling on home computers.

The computer I plan to use for my video work still needs to be upgraded. It is such a temptation to think about replacing it, but my hope still is to upgrade the hard drives that presently are in it. Since the motherboard will support up to 250gb drives, the search has been on for affordable hardware. One gets the impression that the makers of 250gb drives know they have a hot commodity since the prices are not low and tend to be rather consistent. As all of you who have read my column in the past are aware, I really detest the whole rebate scheme (or should that be scam?). Why should I pay out a lot of money to a retailer in the vague hope that I will get money back from somewhere? Why customers continue to buy into this practice is totally beyond me.

Yes, I saw in a one week sale flyer the product I want at what would, somewhere in the future, turn out to be a good price, but I still would have to shell out the original high asking price and then go through the tedious process of trying to reclaim some of my money. And there seem to be issues with warranties as well as the inconvenience of trying to fill out the forms, photocopying them for you records, etc., etc., in order to hopefully actually receive the rebate. So at this writing, I still do not have hard drive replacements.

One parting hint:

If you receive e-mail you don’t expect and don’t recognize, delete it. Don’t open it to see if you might be interested. I know this is old news, but it is surprising how many people still let their curiosity get ahead of their better judgment.

Elizabeth Wright is a member of the CCOKC and a regular writer for the eMonitor