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Raw Bytes Computer News KPBX FM 91.1 Radio National Public Radio Network Frank Delaney Producer Broadcast on Wednesday Morning 7:35 AM During Morning Edition Support Public Radio ! The Theater Of the Mind |
In computer news this week 06/30/2010 The times they are a changing
...and so is the pc and the electronics world Part 2 Last week
I talked about how the pc has taken over the tasks normally done on other
devices – like playing music, and editing pictures, and burning cd/dvds
- which are normally tasks done by cd/dvd players and cameras. But it
seems that there’s a backlash now on certain devices trying to seize
back functions from the pc, realizing that the pc is trying to obsolete them.
One case in
point, cd/dvd players – nothing high end like blue ray – just
standard boxes you can buy at discount or music stores for well under $ 100. Over the
years I’ve taught guitar and music classes, and I’ve used my pc
to create lessons plans using Microsoft word, and my lessons include pictures
and sound files and videos I’ve downloaded from the internet or created
myself. Several
years ago in order to create a dvd of my class materials – the pictures
and sound files and videos – I would have to burn a dvd using special
dvd creation software so that it would create a dvd which would display and
play everything on a standard dvd player. About 4
years ago I bought an RCA dvd player which was at the time known as a
progressive scan dvd with the capability to read some computer formats, like
mp3 sound files and jpeg pictures files and some movie formats. This only
cost about $ 40. The
technology jump here was that I could burn a dvd on my pc of just raw
computer files – mp3’s – jpegs – without having to
use special dvd creation software. When I put the dvd I had burnt on my
computer into the dvd player, it would list these files similar to what they
look like using Windows Explorer, and it would also display the picture
files, or play the music and sound files. I
recently bought a new dvd player – an
RCA DRC286 costing about $ 60 - and this is truly a
technological step up.
1 It can
play or display virtually any pc format file – there’s file
formats listed I’ve never heard of. 2 It is
what’s known as a HD Upconverter, meaning
when attached to a HD Tv it improves the picture quality – although I
just have it hooked to a standard tv – 3 and
this is the biggie – It includes a USB port – so that I can copy
files to a usb drive in my computer – and then plug the usb drive into
my dvd player and play them – WITHOUT HAVING TO BURN A DVD !!! This
is truly a great feature. 4 and
this is like icing on the cake – it can actually RIP cd’s –
meaning you can insert a music cd and a blank usb drive – and it will copy
tracks off the cd to the usb drive. It does this one track at a time and in
real time, so it’s not anywhere as good as how a pc can do this job en
masse, but hey it works.
Additionally there’s some really nice new features on the dvd
playback, including a feature where you can set a start point and an end
point and it will continuously playback and repeat the section you’ve
selected. So with
this new dvd player I would actually use it more and my pc less. Next week
I’ll talk about how digital cameras have entered the fight with pc’s. For Raw Bytes This is Frank Delaney (C) 2010 MTA Micro
Technology Associates http://www.mtamicro.com/kpbx.html Call: (509)624-7230 |
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