The Official PC building thread - 4th Edition

EAC to rip CD to flac with track info for storage...Foobar to change from flac to mp3 when needed...access movies and music on home network with VLC and PS3 media server

 

I tried Serviio on your suggestion and not only did it not work well but also messed up my system, TVersity has not given me many headaches and seem to be the best streaming tool out there right now.

I don't have any iCrap devices either and I still use iTunes from time-to-time but normally just use MP (not classic).

KMPlayer is OK but I think I'd use VLC before using it, which I also use from time-to-time.

 

The warranty on the rma'd drive carries over to the rma drive unless it's shorter than 90 days

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1058

 

I contacted WD thursday. They haven't gotten back to me yet. In any case, I'm gonna attempt the RMA process monday.

Thanks for the info. Clearly I misinterpreted :S

 

Red_Maw,

Remember way back when I took a 5 Lb. sledge hammer to an Optical drive, and pounded it flat? It was a Sony and they pulled that giving me a "Refurb" crap as a replacement for my 11 months of remaining warranty, "New" DVD Burner, and then denying me a replacement when it died, because it's 90 day warranty had expired!

It's good to see that the laws have changed, which is why you now get the answer you received. You will get the same answer from all of the manufacturers, because it's the law! As usual, nothing for the people who got fleeced in their original warranty scam, so they all got to keep what they stole from me and everybody else! I still have the Sony hanging up in my garage. I keep it as a example of "Futility!" I enjoyed every second of beating it into total worthlessness! LOL!!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

I think I do vaguely remember that, and the wonderful old warranty system where the warranty expired after 1 use lol.

For the record that wasn't an answer to me, just something to I found to back up what I remember about the WD warranty. I do have a couple of Sony ODD's that would be more useful as "futility" reminders though.....

 

Stevo,

Here's another well rated multi-media player for you to try, called PotPlayer. Here's some basic info on what it is, and what it can do.

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-windows-media-player-replacement.htm#Discussion

http://potplayer.en.softonic.com/download

It's as easy to use as Gom Player, but has a better rendering engine. It examines your system and components and applies the proper settings. for the internal hardware All I had to set was Dolby 5.1 surround in the audio and it was perfect. No "Stair-stepping or horozontal bars during action or panning, any direction, and I adjust everything else with my video card controls. I watched "Avatar" last night and was totally stunned by how good the picture quality is. A lot of people claim that KMPlayer has been dethroned, and it's written by the Author of KMPlayer.

Anyway, check it out!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Russ,

Very impressive but I'm going to have to brush up on my Korean. It even plays FLV's well that I tried the only thing I don't like is that it doesn't use the players whole window when scaling the window but I'm sure they will fix that down the road. I found a nicer download site that has x86, x64, portable, and skins without using a loader file. The link also provides some other players like Evil and so on...

Daum PotPlayer 1.5.30325 Beta (x86/x64/Portable/Skins)

Warning: DO NOT update PotPlayer from the options menu within the program. It downloads the Korean version of the player. Download it from the link given in the Quick Selection Guide only, which is the English translated version. Additionally you can toggle the updates setting to 'Do Not Use' through Right click->Preferences->General menu

Thanks Russ,
Stevo

 

Stevo,

You're most welcome. I have version 1.5.28025. I'm not big on Beta's! There are other versions as well, as you found out. As far as the scaling goes, I manually set the aspect ratio to 16x9, and it scales fine. The rendering engine is superb. To play files from the HDD, just open the Video_TS.ifo into the file selection and it plays fine from there. So far everything I've played was on my HDD, but I'm about to try a DVD. It should work fine.

Best Regards,
Russ

 

You don't have it set to keep original aspect probably as it isn't set to that as a default which means then the screen is distorted. Also when you scale the window the attached file(s) window also doesn't scale with the player window, it really should.

Also it does not recognize .bdmv files which would be nice if it would. However you can watch .m2ts so you can watch the raw Blu-ray files. It sure does a nice job on playing hi-def and I like the skins for it too.

I don't like beta's either but I really don't like sites that require their own little downloader tool so I won't use the link you provided that is why I found the other link. I'll dig around more for a direct download for the English version.

At any rate those are minor issues, this player is very nice over all and they will fix everything in time I'm sure.

Thanks,
Stevo

 

Haven't tried it yet but his should be a direct download for the latest x64 english version http://www.dvbsupport.net/download/index.php?act=view&id=236

Maybe I'm half blind and deaf but I've been using the same media player (I update codecs) for around 10 years now and still can't think of any reason to update.

 

That's the same file I posted but from a different place, thanks though. I don't think you're blind or deaf if you have a player you like and it still works good for all of the new media types, there is no reason to change unless you want to try something new.

Russ spoke of GOM and than this player as an alternative that is lite on your system, not a resource hog, and that is why we were discussing it, plus it is free which is a real plus! TMT is a resource hog and so is PowerDVD and so many others as well. I use to use PowerDVD but it got bad in my opinion. I switched to TMT and like it but still don't totally like it so I'm always looking for alternatives. Russ hit a good one here for a free player just like VLC this player works very well.

Well that's my slant...

Stevo

 

Red_Maw,

You sound like you are old enough to be a Jackie Evancho Fan! LOL!!

Just Kidding,
Russ

 

Well, I just bought my new SSD.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220602

It's promptly stuck me in a spot. I have what says Win7 Ultimate on the package, and it turns out to be an upgrade for Win7 Ultimate. You can't upgrade XP-Pro or Win7 Home Basic with it! What I actually need is Win7 Pro, because that's the only version listed that offers an XP Compatibility mode. Of course the damn thing is $250! LOL!!

Looks like I'll be using XP-Pro for a while yet. Bummer, I was looking forward to having the same software (Win7 Ultimate 64 bit) as the new laptop, for compatibility.

Is there anything I need to know about a SATA III SSD and XP-Pro, because I don't know a thing about them, except this one is fast! TIA

Russ

 

That's too bad what a bummer.... The SandForce SF-2281 is a very good chip so you'll have a very fast SSD wish I could afford one right now but unfortunately my piece of crap HP notebook just went down and now my next purchase will be a new piece of crap notebook that is cheap.

Way to go Russ,
Stevo

 

go download a copy of W7 Ultimate then Bitch slap MS for being such crooked bastards by using W7 Loader to activate the installation.

i did 3 years ago and I'm glad i did. i got burnt on a 267 dollar Vista Pro, i said to hell with them like i was giving em another $267 Bucks. been running the questionably acquired OS 3 years and have yet to be hit with a non genuine message.

the way i see it, you've done paid the highwaymen russ. if the greedy fools want to double dip burn there bridge to the ground.

 

That's true Russ and if you want to run Windows 7 Professional you can use the miniKMS to keep it activated, it works seamlessly. You've paid for Windows so if you change from Ultimate to Professional or better yet Enterprise, or a loader with Ultimate you should still be good.

DXR88 has a great point!

Stevo

 

Not sure which SSD i'll be getting yet. Perhaps the Corsair Vertex 3. I like what I'm seeing. The 120Gb is what I need. The price is agreeable. But I'm really nervous about how cutting edge the technology still is. I would have thought most of the bugs would be worked out by now. But perhaps they have, and there are fools out there I figured I'd get more ambitious about reading SSD forums, when I actually buy one. Jump right in, Right? LOL!

 

Weeee got my Christmas seasonal job. Now comes the hard part, Sandy Bridge, or an SSD... choices... XD

Omega, I'm still not sure about SSDs. Obviously the majority have some big drawbacks, but some series seem to escape most of it. Particularly, Sam is using an Intel X25-V Series drive which isn't very high end, but proves that good drives can be made. IIRC it also had some higher performance cousins.

I think we need some more enlightenment.

Sam, what are the currently known good SSD models? Not from review ratings on vendor sites but from your own research.

 

I rate the Intel SSDs over the vast majority of the alternatives. They don't have the highest sequential speeds or GB/$ but they're solidly the most reliable, and their random data performance (which is the reason SSDs are fast in the first place) is excellent. The newest SSDs based on up to date Sandforce controllers also score well here, but it's a bit of a product quality minefield of who you go with. OCZ are not the best brand in this regard, even though they're probably the most popular.
I have the old entry level Intel SSD in my gaming PC, a 40GB X25-V, it's only rated for 35MB/s sequential write and something like 150MB/s sequential read, yet it will manage that 35MB/s almost no matter how small the files are, because the IOPS performance is good. The bigger and newer Intels score far better as they have full-size controllers. Ftr, I still load the small number of games on this SSD about as fast as anyone - other than for extra space, I honestly don't see why people would buy anything else. For £70 this was better value than any Raptor I bought. Back in the day, 37GB Raptors were considerably faster than the run of the mill 7200rpm drives with 8MB cache, but even if you have a high-end Caviar Black, proper SSDs just leave them standing.