Steve's Tech Blog

Looking back, in my geeky opinion, LaserDiscs are kind of the Blu-Ray of the VHS era. VHS video tapes were one of the first mainstream consumer video recordings. Sure before these there were old Super 8mm films and even BetaMax, but VHS was the most common and after winning the format war it would go onto dominate the market for years until finally being defeated by the digital DVD.

Above is a LaserDisc copy of Toy Story, which looks like a giant compared to it’s modern DVD version.

But before DVDs came along there was an analog video format, with an analog or digital audio track called Laserdisc. A Laserdisc is about the size of a vinyl record, with a cover just as big. Allowing for a great piece of cover art, and a book-like jacket with notes, descriptions, stories, and photos from the film. Laserdisc players and movies were expensive, and they were very slowly being adopted. Most users didn’t know the difference of the media and decided not to bother with it. LaserDiscs also couldn’t store the entire movie on one disc, even though each one was double-sided. Many movies over an hour were split across multiple discs. For Example the 1993 LaserDisc release of Star Wars has 5-sides just for the movie, that’s 3 discs with 2 sides per disc, with the 6th side remaining for supplemental features such as trailers and interviews. Early players could only play one side of the disc at a time, requiring the viewer to get up and flip over the disc manually. It wasn’t until later on where more advanced players could read the other side of the disc on their own. So if you wanted to watch “The Empire Strikes Back” from start to finish you would need to get up from your cozy sofa at least 5 times to switch discs and sides. 6 times if you wanted some bonus material.

Above is a LaserDisc compared to a DVD. The DVD is almost the size of the middle of the LaserDisc!

But the picture quality was a bit better then VHS and instead of needing to rewind a tape, you could navigate to a chapter in the film instantly. No rewinding was ever required and you could easily skip to your favorite part in no time. This quality would also not degrade overtime and was consistent. Unlike VHS cassette tapes there is no wear and tear. A laser reads the information off of the disc without ever touching it, unlike a VHS cassette where the tape comes into contact with a series of wheels and servos. The Laserdisc image and audio will remain the same for years to come… unless the disc succumbs to laser-rot, where the physical layers of the disc separate and deteriorate. This usually happens to discs stored improperly or if the disc was poorly manufactured.

The makeup of a laserdisc is an analog composite video track and various audio tracks. Some audio tracks were actually digital and some were analog. In the case of the Star Wars Trilogy – The Definitive Collection LaserDiscs, the analog audio track was actually used as a commentary track. While the commentary track is not for the whole length of the feature, and there is a lot of silence between tacks, it would pave the way for DVD feature-length commentaries in the future. Players usually had composite audio and video output with maybe a digital audio connection if you were lucky. If your LaserDisc player has an S-Video port you may still be better off using the Composite video connection unless your player is really high end. But even then your TV’s comb filter is likely far better and will work with the Composite signal better.

Not only could the LaserDisc pause and freeze-frame, but with more advanced discs you could usually scan through a scene with a frame-by-frame control. Allowing you to study the frame of the film as detailed as you’d like. Also some discs included pre-set chapter stops, where a screen would inform you of an artwork gallery ahead. You would then use the skim or frame buttons to navigate through the gallery of images.

While DVDs have made VHS cassettes and LaserDiscs a thing of the past, DVDs would never have came to be if it wasn’t for the advancements of the first big experiment in the consumer home video market – the LaserDisc. It was the Blu-Ray of it’s time, but unlike Blu-Rays they died out before their popularity could peak and before the format got a true chance to shine. Well, more like HD-DVD… but there was no popular competing disc format to get in the way.

I started collecting LaserDiscs for their cover art, and I mainly still do. They have beautiful pieces of artwork, usually a more grand version of their cramped VHS counterparts – and sometimes a surprising styled cover adapted from an alternate poster. I have my LaserDisc player setup today and even though it’s kind of silly to have it plugged into an HDTV it’s sometimes fun to take a disc out and see what it was like to be on the cutting edge of home entertainment many years ago.

Have you ever heard of an Apple TechStep? Well this was a tool used in the early 1990′s by an Apple Tech to test a Macintosh computer. The tool was only sold privately to authorized Apple dealers, but later on Apple released it publicly for a price of $999. I recently picked up one of these on eBay for about $25.

The purpose of this tool is to test a Mac’s components. The Mac actually boots off of this device, the device can then run tests on the Power Supply, RAM, Motherboard, Drives, or Ports. The TechStep has a little LCD screen which displays only text. The numbered keypad has some text on it also to help you navigate around. On the back of the device are a few ports to connect to the computer: 25-pin SCSI, ADB (2 ports), Modem serial, Printer serial, and 3.5mm Stereo Mini-Jack. Also on the left side of the unit is an AC adapter port, the On/Off switch, and a secondary Serial port used for transferring diagnostic reports to a healthy Mac. The unit can run off of it’s AC power adapter or a single 9 volt battery, mine did not come with an adapter but the battery works just fine.

The TechStep uses ROM packs to load the computer diagnostic information. These are similar to GameBoy cartridges, the TechStep can hold two at a time. Each ROM has a sticker which lists which machines it is compatible with. Two were included with my unit “CPU Tests, Vol 1, v. 1.1.1″ and “CPU Tests, Vol. 2, v. 1.0″. Volume 1 works with Macintosh Classic, SE, SE/30, II, IIx, and IIcx models. Volume 2 works with Macintosh LCD, LCD II, and Classic II models. There are additional ROM packs, but these are very hard to come by.

To start using the TechStep shut off your Mac and the TechStep and connect a 25-pin SCSI cable, Serial Cable (Modem port works best for me) and an ADB cable running from your Mac to your TechStep. These cables are all male-to-male and are regular cables, no special adapters needed. Insert a 9-volt battery (after removing the ports section) or attach your AC cord, turn the unit on via the switch on the left.  The LCD screen will display which ROM card is in Slot A and will show an “Identify CPU” screen, listing the computers it’s compatible with. Press the number next to the machine, for example in my case I was using a Macintosh Classic, so I selected 1 for Classic.

You are brought to a “Home” screen showing you the list of the many tests you can run. I selected 3 for “Logic” and selected 1 again for the “All” function so I can run all of the available tests. The TechStep instructs you to turn on the Mac, once the Mac is turned on it will boot from the TechStep entirely – no disks needed! The Mac will go to a ‘Sad Mac’ face, but do not worry since your Mac is not being harmed. Your selected test will run and when it is finished you may save the results. Hold the * key and press the 7 (Save) button on the TechStep. You will be asked if you want to overwrite an older log if there is one. Now that you’ve run your test switch off your TechStep and your Mac.

With the TechStep software on your Mac you can test your Diagnostic Tool or retrieve logs from your TechStep unit. The ‘Report Generator’ program retrieves the logs from your unit. Plug in a serial cable from the Modem port on your Mac to the serial port on the left side of the TechStep next to the Power switch. Turn the TechStep on. Open the ‘Report Generator’ program and select “Receive Log” from the “Options menu” – a waiting dialog will come up. Eventually you will see the log the TechStep has generated on your screen. A detailed list of every test with the results is shown, you can save this or generate a report for printing out.

The TechStep is a very cool little device, it has become a hot item for vintage Apple and Mac collectors. If you find a unit be sure it includes a ROM pack (it’s A and B slots will be visibly blank without them) – without these ROM packs the TechStep can not function and will just display a “ROM Pack Not Found” screen.

-Steve

Below is a diagnostic report which was saved onto my TechStep when I got it.

You may have heard of the TCF, the Trenton Computer Festival located near Trenton New Jersey. (More info at: http://www.tcf-nj.org)  I have been going for at least the past 5-6 years and every year I have a great time. The festival includes talks, seminars, an indoor sales area, and best of all, the mother of all computer flea markets!

Every year there is something a bit different, but you can recognize some sellers from past years. George and Doug are the guys who usually bring a big trailer and have mostly Apple and Mac related items (my favorite stand). They have old wires, cables and software, basically anything Mac. They were selling an older Mac G4 tower and a G3 iMac. Their prices are fair and they give you great deals.

Another man there sells computers after they have had their data destroyed. For the last two years he was selling G4 iMac desktops, but this year he has begun selling G5 iMac systems, only 1 G4 iMac was for sale. He had an awesome vintage Macintosh accessory box which I picked up. I also bought a keyboard and a few cables from him, including a System 7 floppy disk set complete with it’s mini-box.

Indoors the vendors have an area setup, however their prices tend to be more high and strict. It’s harder to haggle with the folks inside so you can’t get the best deals. There was a nice TCF stand setup that gave me a free TCF 1998 hat however, that was fantastic!

The first day the flea market was packed, just like I remember from last year. Plenty of people and plenty of sellers. At one point my friend Todd and I grabbed a bunch of stuff that was free at one table, the guy was going home and didn’t want to take it back with him. Sunday however I arrived late at around 1pm, only two stands remained.  This was due to the rain. I picked up an older D-Link G router for $4 which was missing an antenna, the guy mentioned it was his first sale of the day. The indoor vendors were still there, but it was nothing like it was on the sunny day of the 24th.

But for me the TCF is all about the flea market, every year I return and find something new. It’s amazing what things you’ll see, you never know what you may find when digging through a box of cables or parts. I was very happy with my haul this year and I hope to go back next year for some more fun! Photos and video to be posted soon.

TCF Flea Market Sign

So as many of you have known, or guessed, I have been converting some VHS home videos taken by my parents onto DVDs. Despite the various specs of why VHS tapes are better than DVDs some people still wonder why you should do this? They don’t expect their VHS tapes to die one day – and they think they’ll just keep on working.

But they indeed can die. VHS tapes age also, they can fade, become more fragile, loose their video and  sound, or be eaten up by fussy VCRs. The only way to prevent this is to copy your tapes and keep them safe. You can’t risk losing your only copy of your home videos. In the past while transferring a VHS tape from 1982 there were a few drop-outs of video, where only the sound remained. The lifetime of the tape will be directly effected by the brand/quality of the tape. The times the tape has been watched and the quality mode that was set when recording the tape. One tape almost bit the dust during my transfer process, below is what happened to me and how I was able to avoid losing the tape.

Saturday evening I was about to start the transfer of another VHS tape to a DVD. This one was a Scotch Camcorder Pro (full-size) VHS tape. Labeled Disney World 1992 I have no doubt that the tape would be great to watch. So I insert the cassette into my VCR and press rewind to put the tape back into the begging. Unfortunately something was about to go very wrong. The VCR whirled up and rewound the tape to the beginning. I pressed play to see if there was any video on the screen – there was, but I had overshot the beginning. I rewound the tape less than a second to start it over as I held the DVD recorder remote in my hand, ready to press record.

But nothing appeared on the screen… just a blue screen. Curiously I paused and played the tape again, even rewinding it. Noticing the VCR was not making it’s normal noises I thought something was wrong – this was confirmed when the VCR refused to do anything with the tape and started ejecting it. Now I was concerned, is the tape damaged? Will I be able to recover this tape?? I took the tape out to examine it. The tape’s film-like track wasn’t crumbled or bent, the VCR didn’t eat the tape, so what’s the problem? Uh-oh, then I noticed it. The reel to the right side of the tape was missing – gone, it had snapped off the internal reel of the VHS cassette! I panicked and thought the tape was destroyed. Being home video tapes these are the only copies that exist, excluding some rare chances where we made another VHS copy for relatives, which were few and far between.

“So  what do I do now?” I thought – well I did what I always do when I need help, I use Google! One of the first results was a How-To article on the helpful site eHow.com. The article is titled “How to Repair a Broken VHS Video Tape” written by the user Jennifer Claerr. Skimming through the article I notice photos of a VHS tape that is taken apart. As I read the article I start to calm down, it doesn’t seem too difficult. I recall my father fixing an audio cassette for my brother when we were younger. So I got down to business – I placed the tape on the kitchen tablet and unscrewed five or six screws holding the tape together. I almost had the tape opened, but the side label was causing it to keep together, carefully cutting the label down the middle the tape was opened.
The problem was more clear then it had seemed before. The tape on the reel was no longer attached, meaning all the tape was on one side, it could not transfer to the other side, or be read by the VCR. I followed the instructions and took notice on exactly how the tape fed through the cassette. Each one can be a bit different, so take notice, I realized this the hard way. I carefully unwound the edge of the tape that had snapped off. Boy was I lucky – no tape was ripped off or damaged, it was just a clear plastic tab connected to the reel. But in the process of unwinding the spool the tape almost fell off the table – the plastic scratched against the fragile magnetic tape, skimming a hair or two off from either side of the tape. I was worried, but the damage didn’t seem too bad.
Now to repair it. I read about using tape, but I was concerned about having this break again, so I decided to use some packaging tape, which would be stronger then regular tape. I placed some tape on each side to where the clear plastic tape had separated from each end. Screwing the tape back together I hoped that no footage would be lost by this repair, I setup the VCR and DVD recorder to be ready to record things on the first try, I did not want to have to rewind the tape the beginning and risk damaging the tape again. The VCR whirled, the tape settled into position – and the video played! I didn’t notice any problems, the little damage I did to the tape was probably on the first few seconds of the “blue” screen and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The tape played fine until the end and the whole tape is now safely on a DVD disc that can easily be viewed and duplicated.

Chances are when you were younger your Mom, Dad, or relative was often asking you to look into the video camera to smile and wave. Cheaper camcorders and the popularity of VHS tapes helped a lot of people from the late 80′s and on to start taking their own videos. There wasn’t any film to develop and you could easily watch what you have recorded after wards without messing with a projector. But who would think VHS tapes would go out of style? I fondly remember popping in my favorite movie into a VCR to watch a film. But, today you hardly see a VCR in someone’s home theater setup, you can thank DVDs for that. Mostly because the resolution and quality of DVDs are vastly superior to that of the old analog VHS tapes. DVDs are digital discs, so they do not degrade after each viewing as VHS tapes tend to do. They offer nice add-ons like chapters, slideshows and pretty menus. But anyone born in the last 20 years already knows that.

So what do you do with all your home videos recorded onto VHS tapes? You probably still have a VCR and all of your old tapes – but if you want to preserve them you have to do something more then let them collect dust. Remember, these tapes can, and will degrade over time. I have come across an old tape from 1982 that had a few issues, the sound cut out at some points and the precious images on the screen were often interrupted by a dull gray screen. Your mileage will vary depending on the age and quality of the tapes, but either way you want to keep these memories safe. So how do we do that? Well we digitize them! Digitizing is the process of transferring an analog source to a digital medium. For example we can transfer or convert the content on a VHS tape onto a DVD disc. Once these tapes are converted they will no longer be degraded with each playback and can easily be duplicated and shared.

If you did not have a VHS camcorder but a C-VHS (Compact VHS) or other recording media the principal is still the same. You just want to copy the content to a DVD disc or other digital format or preserve it and keep it from degrading.

VHS vs DVDs.

There really is no contest, DVDs are the better way to go obviously, I just wanted to point out the facts of each format.

VHS tapes are an analog medium. Low resolution picture quality. They can degrade after each viewing and require rewinding and fast forwarding to reach a certain point on a tape. In order to copy a VHS tape to another tape you must watch the whole length of the tape in real time. The quality of the video will degrade from transfer to transfer. Can be re-recorded over if desired.

DVD discs are a digital medium. High resolution picture quality (More dots on the screen provide a sharper picture). They do not degrade after each viewing. Chapters are created to enable quick access to any part of the video. They can be duplicated and shared easily, and most importantly quickly. You do not need to wait 2 hours to copy a 2 hour DVD. The quality of the video stays the same, even if copied 1,000 times! Only DVD-RW discs can be erase and re-used, standard DVD-R and DVD+R discs can only be used once.

Okay I’m sold. So how do I do this?

Well it’s actually simpler then you think! But there are basically two ways to go about this depending on your equipment. You can either A) Use a set-top DVD recorder to record your VHS tapes directly to DVD discs, or B) Import the video into your computer, edit the footage, and then burn your own DVD disc. This option should mostly be reserved for folks who are a bit more tech savvy, as a lot of issues may come up that you may not realize before starting the project. But in this post we’ll be talking about method A) using DVD recorders.

The only downside to both of these options is that since VHS tapes are analog, this means you have to watch the entire contents of the tape to transfer it. So if the tape is 2 hours, you have to wait 2 hours for the video to play and it be recorded on your DVD recorder or computer. There is no real way of getting around this unfortunately, but once these are on DVDs you can copy the entire disc in as little as 15 minutes.

To get started first you need to purchase a DVD Recorder, these are just like VCRs ,but instead of using analog VHS tapes to record video and audio to, they use blank DVD discs. This offers many advantages, firstly blank DVD discs are very inexpensive, you can pickup a 100-pack for about $30. Considering each disc holds at least 1-2 hrs of video that is an amazing value.  Second, DVDs take up a lot less physical space then a VHS tape. You can store about 3 DVD cases in the space of a VHS box, even more if you use slim DVD or CD cases. Making it easy to store an entire library of home videos without having to buy another cabinet.

Using a DVD recorder.

There are many types of DVD recorders you can purchase, most of them go for under $100. Most include one DVD drive that can play and burn/create DVDs, but some models in fact have a built-in VCR to make transferring videos very, very easy. These are called combination units, they combine a VCR with a DVD recorder. With these models usually you just have to put in a blank DVD disc, rewind the tape to the beginning and press a button to automatically transfer everything. In fact as of writing this, there is a refurbished Magnavox DVD-R/VCR combo set for $89 at Best Buy’s web site. That’s a pretty good deal. I would suggest going for one of these combo units, they offer a simple way to transfer tapes with no extra cables to hook up, and no worrying about if your old VCR still works.  Just read some reviews before you buy, not all DVD recorders are created equal. With most DVD recorders chapters and menus are automatically setup, while the menu presentation usually leaves something to be desired, the most important factor is that your precious home videos have been duplicated and are now on a digital DVD. Be sure to read the manual to learn about all of it’s features and capabilities.

Using your own VCR.

If you already have a DVD recorder, but it does not have a VCR built-in there is no need to worry. If you still have your old VCR you can use that. Just plug it into the input of your DVD recorder and you’re on your way. Now there are a few things to keep in mind when using old VCRs. It’s all about picture quality. You are transferring these movies so you don’t have to do this again. You want to get it right the first time. It may be wise to go out and purchase a new VCR, these aren’t expensive and may produce a better quality picture, just make sure it’s a stereo model. Most companies try to be cheap and produce a lot of Mono-only units. You can tell if your VCR is stereo if you see a Yellow, White and Red jack on it, sometimes also on the front. If you just see Yellow and White – missing the Red – these are Mono-only which will not replay the Stereo sound your tapes may have.

If you want to stick with your old VCR that is fine, you just need to do some cleaning. Use a VCR Head Cleaning tape to help reduce the noise and lines seen on the VCR during playback. You may have to use this frequently if you transfer a lot of tapes – even on new VCRs. You just want everything to look as best as it can before you make the big move. Also use high quality cables, you don’t need to spend a lot to get a good pair of cables. Monoprice.com offers a large selection of cables very cheaply. Secondly, you want to use the best connection. If you are lucky you may have an S-VHS player, these use a connection called S-Video which provides a better picture quality over standard composite video cables (The yellow cable in the standard yellow, white, and red trio you see behind your TV set). Not all VCRs or even DVD Recorders support S-Video, but if you have it you should use it. Consult your manual to see if your player has S-Video, sometimes refereed to as S-VHS. I have a JVC S-VHS VCR that I picked up from a Goodwill thrift store for under $9, it was well worth it. The S-Video jack provides video only, you will still need to use your old audio cables for sound. I will talk about S-Video in more detail on my next post.

Recording Time.

DVD recorders, just like VCRs, have the option of different recording modes, this can extend the time each disc can hold, but will effect the quality. For example a DVD recorder may have three or more recording modes. 1 hour mode will produce the best quality, but give you less time on the disc. 2 hour mode will lower the quality, but double your recording time. 6 hour mode will significantly lower the quality of your recording, but allow you a lot of video time. Now like my old VHS home videos, yours may not be in the best condition. So why degrade them further? I would suggest sticking with the fairly high-quality mode. For my recordings I chose a 2 hour DVD mode. This gave me a good quality picture and allowed me to save 2 hours of video onto one disc. This worked great for me.

DVD Disc Formats and Basic Recording Information

Unlike VHS tapes where you can record over anything at anytime, most DVD discs can be used only once. DVD-R and DVD+R discs can only have content recorded to them once. So if you record a 30 minute video the disc, you can not go back and erase the video to start over and re-gain your space. DVD-RW or DVD+RW discs are re-writable, which is what the RW stands for. These are more expensive, but once properly erased can be used again – these are more expensive then basic DVD-R discs.

Also, DVD discs have a few different formats, DVD-R and DVD+R. Years ago the actual difference was due to compatibility of young DVD players playing back recorded content on these discs. Today the difference is less noticeable. DVD+R discs hold a tiny bit less then DVD-R discs, which is why I prefer not to use them. However read your DVD recorder manual to read which formats they support. Usually a variety of formats are supported so you can choose what suits your project best. These discs can all store around 4.7GB of information.

For increased recording time you may consider using DVD-DL discs. DL stands for Dual-Layer and is basically two DVD discs combined onto one disc – doubling your recording time. So if your maximum recording time was 2 hours on Good Quality mode you can record up to 4 hours. These can store closer to 7.8 GB of information. Most newer DVD recorders can use this format, but check your manual. Again these discs are much more expensive than standard DVD-R/+R discs.

The Final Step.

Once everything is setup and prepared it’s time to copy the tape. You will need to wait the entire playback time of your video in order to copy it. So if you want to copy a 30 minute segment it will take 30 minutes to copy, etc. Once your VHS tapes are transferred to DVDs you can now rest easily. You can now play back your home videos without worrying about degrading the tape. With the help of a computer you can duplicate your newly created DVD and mail them to family and friends. In fact I highly recommend backing up the disc you just made and duplicating it. Just in case one copy is scratched you have a backup, and it wouldn’t hurt to keep a copy on your hard drive if you have the room for it.

Advanced note about duplication with certain DVD Recorders.

Now there is only one problem that has happened to me with this when I tried to duplicate a finished disc. This may not happen to you and will depend entirely on what brand and model DVD recorder you are using. I was using a Samsung DVDR 120 unit and recorded an entire hour and a half of video onto a DVD disc from my VCR. This turned out fine, and the DVD played perfectly. But when it came time to duplicate the DVD disc my computer threw a fit! Why? Well not all DVD recorders record video in the same way. To achieve better quality or longer recording time most use different methods of saving information. Which may not sit well with your computer. So when I tried to simply drag and drop the contents of the DVD to my Mac, an error kept repeating saying that it could not read the file. Now my disc was not scratched, and it played back entirely fine – I just could not copy it. This problem only seemed to happen when I let the whole tape play to the DVD, I did not stop the DVD at any point – which is what I believe caused the issue. So if I simply stopped the tape and the DVD recorder and started again the problem would have never popped up.

The solution? Use a DVD ripping program. DVDShrink (for Windows) or MacTheRipper (For Macs) will rip the contents of a DVD in it’s raw format to the computer. Now since we’re using these programs to copy our own home-made DVD videos there is no legal issues to think of at all, so don’t let that get to you. Programs like HandBrake I have found will not work until you have ripped the DVD to your hard drive first using the method above. The program you are using may give you errors or messages about data not being copied or “bad sectors” however most of the time this is because the DVD program is not familiar with home-made DVD records and their specialized recording schemes. As long as you can skim through the final results you’ll be okay.

Stay tuned for my next post which will involve using a computer instead of a DVD recorder. This is a more tech savvy way of doing things, it allows more control and the ability to edit the video, but things can get complicated, and I’ll explain why.

-Steve

Hard Drives are great, sure they may crash or die if you get the bad egg in the batch, but our computers rely on them in one form or another. Without a hard drive you’d have no place but floppy disks to store your data. Be it solid-state flash drives or the older spinny type Hard Drives are a staple of the computer itself. It’s surprising how much data we accumulate these days. Of course with the internet it’s crazy how much information you end up storing, sharing, and creating. Years and years ago I remember being perfectly happy with a 10GB internal hard drive in my iBook laptop. Eventually that required me to get an 80GB external drive due to me starting to play with digital video cameras. Now my MacBook laptop has a 320GB internal drive and an external at least that big to use as a backup.

These days it’s all about Terabytes! (That’s 1,000GB) You can easily get a 1TB hard drive for under $90. That’s a lot of storage space, even for me, the man who has too many external drives to count.

So why all this space? Well we simply consume a lot of data and if you’d want to save anything you’ll need some space. Let’s break it down a bit to compare some sizes. 1MB is a little less then the space a Floppy Disk can hold, they can hold 1.4MB – most digital cameras take photos that are about 1-2MB per photo! 700MB is the maximum amount of data a CD can hold. 4.7GB or 4,700MB is the maximum size a DVD can hold. 1,000GB is 1TB, which is a lot of space for just about anything!

Now you have a hard drive in your computer right now, and you may think of getting another. Maybe it’s to backup your files, store huge videos, or just move your music collection to a place where it can grow. Now unless you have a desktop tower you probably don’t have a spot to add another hard drive. Sure you can upgrade your existing drive, but storage is so cheap it pays to hang onto the old one.

External hard drives are cheap as well, although you can save money often if you buy the drive and enclosure separate, unless you find a good deal. How does this work? Well hard drives are created with connectors, these are made to be connected internally to your computer. However external enclosures convert these connectors to the type found on the outside of your computer, such as USB, FireWire, or even eSATA.

For example you can buy a Western Digital Green 1TB drive for about $90 (bare internal drive with no case), then buy an external USB 2.0 SATA case for about $30. Making the once internal-only drive to a portable external storage vault. Bringing the total to about $120 for an external hard drive solution. However… if you browse to Newegg.com’s refurbished section you’ll find a 1TB USB 2.0 MyBook external drive ready to go for under $125. It’s your choice, but if you’re all about connectivity and speed it may be best to make your own external solution, unless you like to pay an arm and a leg for FireWire support.

Most of the hard drive enclosures out there offer USB 2.0 as a standard. If you’re like me you’d want a FireWire 400 port (at least). Unfortunately  most cases don’t include FireWire, you can purchase a FireWire/USB/eSATA combo enclosure for about $38. If you’re picky about your inputs then it’s well worth it. After all FireWire is much faster then USB, especially when moving loads of data, and FireWire 800? Well that’s even quicker.

External Hard Drives  are quicker then USB flash drives, much quicker, and can hold a lot more storage. They’re better for backups since they’re quicker and can even be used to boot up a copy of your operating system… unless you’re running Windows.

So what’s the point of this post? Nothing really.

Maybe it’s to remind you that storage is cheap and that you should backup your precious files and documents. Once your photos or videos disappear to a hardware failure it’s already too late… ALL HARD DRIVES EVENTUALLY DIE. I can’t stress that enough. I once bought a 200GB hard drive, less then 6 months later it died, along with all my “backup” data. Apple’s Macs all have an excellent built-in backup feature called Time Machine. As long as you have Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard” or later you’re covered, just plug in a blank external drive and all the work is done for you!

But you don’t even need software to do it for you, sure it’s easier and convenient, but even backing up an important folder of documents to a flash drive is a good idea. Don’t forget CD or DVD burners! You can easily store 700MB to 4.4GB to a disc for safe keeping. That’s an easy way to backup all those family photos you can’t replace. Send copies to friends and relatives while you’re at it.

Or it might be to inform you that you’re not bounded to the size of your disk that’s inside of your computer. After all expanding your storage options is best done externally – the sky is the limit. As long as you have long enough cables.

So my younger brother has a Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro, one of the earlier models. Anyway for a while he wanted Apple’s DVI to Composite/S-Video adapter. This year he put it on his Christmas list but, he still ended up without it. But a few weeks ago I was at MicroCenter and saw one as an open-box return. So I picked it up for him at about $5 off and he was very happy about it. It worked great with his Mac, allowing him to hook up his Mac to be displayed on the old TV in his dorm.

Now this made me wonder, can I use this on my PC? I have an Intel Quad Core PC with dual ATI 4670 graphics cards. The only thing I dislike about them is that the only port on them is DVI. There is no option for S-Video or Composite output, although I can hook the PC up to my TV via an HDMI to DVI cable I have. But I would like the option for S-Video out. Why? Besides the fact that I have a little obsession with S-Video, the main reason is that my DVD Recorder has S-Video input, therefore if I want to record what is on the screen on my PC I can do so. I do this with my Mac – it’s great for recording live streaming video events, or difficult to capture videos that are online in a pinch.

So I plugged in the adapter to the PC and ran a composite video cable to the TV set… what I got wasn’t pretty. Just a few black and gray bars. It seems that this adapter may as well be Mac-only. This was disappointing. I tried many different resolutions and video modes, but the adapter failed to display anything but some black and gray bars. So I suppose this adapter is only made for MacBook Pro machines. It may have to do with the type of DVI connector, if Apple’s MacBook Pro has a certain pins dedicated to TV-compatible video out – that would explain the issue. But, for now I’m stuck with using an old VGA to Composite/S-Video adapter I picked up at last year’s Trenton Computer Festival last year. The only bad thing is it needs a big power brick and it can be kind of bulky. No where as nice as a simple adapter. Oh well. Who knows, maybe the adapter just didn’t like my PC’s graphics card. Maybe it’s compatible with other graphics cards or adapters? I might try to see if I get any signal from my iMac. If I try a Mini-DVI to DVI adapter and then attache the Composite/S-Video adapter to that… although I doubt that’ll work. (Update: No, that does not work, it formats the screen for a TV but the output doesn’t seem to send a proper signal) Plus it’s useless considering I have a Mini-DVI to Composite/S-Video adapter. Oh well! It was worth a try.

I’ve been quite fond of WordPress for a while and since I’ve been using it for work a lot I figured I’d start using it more for myself. Usually I post once and a while to my blog on my .Mac / MobileMe blog. That requires me being at my MacBook and using iWeb, which is great – however I’m not always by my Mac when I want to make a post or update something.

So what will probably happen is that I’ll copy the relevant content of that blog over here and probably have the content mirrored across both.

Update: I have added three posts from the previous blog, these are labeled as “Archive”.

-Steven

Note: This article was transferred from my original blog.

A lot more people have Macs today, which leads to a lot more people with a lot more questions. One frequent mix-up comes when a user needs to re-install Mac OS X or when someone wants to upgrade their copy of Mac OS X. Either they lose their discs or they decide to use one from a friend and they discover it just doesn’t work. They wonder why, that’s because not all discs will work with all Macs.

This happens because there are two common types of Mac OS X install discs. Three if you want to be specific. The first type is a Restore disc. These are gray-covered discs that come with your Mac when you buy it new. Usually there are two DVDs included, one has the Mac OS X software and the other has additional programs such as iLife. These discs will only work with that specific Mac model it was included with. For example a restore disc that came bundled with a MacBook will not work on an iMac. Or even a newer (2008) or older (2006) MacBook restore disc, may not work with your 2007 MacBook model.

The second type of a install disc is a Retail Install Disc. This is the type of disc you will buy from Apple. This is a full install disc and will work on any Mac that supports the minimum system requirements. It will install on an iMac, MacBook, Mac Pro, Mac Mini, etc. This version however does not include some bundled software that originally would of came with your Mac, such as iLife and some additional applications.

The third type of install disc is a variant of the Retail Install Disc, this is a Retail Upgrade Disc. These discs are usually received through Apple’s Up-To-Date program. You would receive this disc if you bought a Mac with the older software pre-installed on the system right after Apple has started shipping a newer version. For example if Mac OS X 10.5 came installed on your iMac and Apple released Mac OS X 10.6 a few days earlier, your iMac gets an upgrade. There may be a small charge to receive the updated discs. These discs will only install if it detects the older version of Mac OS X installed. For example it will not work on a Mac with no version of Mac OS X installed, or a version older then the previous version.

This can sound a bit confusing, but there is a simple way to tell the discs apart. A Restore disc has a gray cover and will say the model of the Mac it is for on the front along with a version number and a date. A Retail install disc will have a pretty graphic on the front and not mention a model such as iMac or MacBook. A Retail upgrade disc will look very similar to the Retail install disc, but it may say “CPU Drop-in DVD”, “Upgrade Disc” or “Update Disc” on it. This signifies that the install disc will check for a previous (and existing) installation of Mac OS X before it can install the updated version of the software, and will not work on a Mac that has no software on it.

So if you bought a new hard drive for your Mac and it’s blank, you will need a Retail install disc or the appropriate Restore disc for your Mac. An Upgrade disc will not work in this situation. Above is a graphic showing the difference between a restore disc and a retail install disc. I hope this helps with some confusion about the different Mac OS X install discs. Happy installing!!

-Steven

Note: This article was transferred from my original blog.

So my first GPS is a little black and white unit, tiny but, useful. A Street Pilot i2. I got it for just under $200 on Walmart’s online store during a Black Friday sale. It worked for many years and was very useful, guiding me home or from here to there even when I was lost.

Unfortunately it eventually died. Well, kinda. I lent the GPS to a friend and the unit fell from their dashboard with the DC car charger plugged into the fragile mini-USB port on the GPS. The mini-USB port is what you find on most digital cameras, it’s tiny and pretty fragile – especially if thrown around. So after the GPS took it’s tumble the only way to use the device was to plug in two AA sized batteries. This wasn’t so ideal since the batteries would be eaten up quickly and the GPS would then die.

Without a car charger long trips with the GPS were impossible. Thankfully by this time I had already purchased a Garmin Nuvi 200, which has a built-in rechargeable battery and a healthy  and spry USB port.

So while sitting at my desk yesterday, procrastinating about other, more important things I should be doing. I started to look at my once-working GPS, I was quite fond of it so I started to wonder if I could get it to work again. Previously I had opened up the GPS and noticed some of the pins on the mini-USB were not exactly touching the main circuit board, which would of course cause the unit not to charge or connect to the computer.

My soldering skills are okay, but even so, the tiny connector would be a big pain to try and fix and I’d probably end up splashing solder across all the 5 tiny pins, ruining any hope of getting it to work. So I thought of an alternative. The battery terminal that holds two AA batteries has a black and red wire. Conveniently Garmin has each wire labeled Positive (+) and Negative (-). So I thought of a standard USB cable, which also has red and black wires!

So I grabbed an old USB cable that broke off of a USB mouse years ago, I hung onto the cable for just this occasion. I wrapped the red and black cables around their appropriate counterparts on the battery bay, making sure the metal made a good enough contact to test if my idea would work. I plugged in the USB port using a generic USB AC adapter, I didn’t want to plug it into a computer – fearing that if I shorted something out it would damage the USB port of the computer… this has happened before in the past. So needless to say I was wary… but, I plugged it in… and it worked!!

The next step was figuring out how to make a detachable port and cable setup, so I can plug in the USB adapter to power it when needed, but still use the batteries if I wanted to. So I looked around in my bin of spare cables and found an original XBox controller extension cord. Since the XBox controller cable is basically a modified USB cable it would be perfect, besides, I’d only need to use two of the connections of a USB cable for the power. I wasn’t worrying about data at this point.

The cable I used is a cheap Xbox cable, you can find one used at any EB Games or GameStop store for $0.99 to $1.99. So I wasn’t too sad to splice up the cable and use it as I pleased. I soldered it to the battery terminals and ran the cable to the right side of the GPS, instead of making a fancy slot for the cable to come out of I just shoved the end of the soldering iron into the side of the plastic case of the GPS, melting a hole for cable to come out of. Yes, very “professional” I know, but it was better then hacking away at the plastic with a pair of scissors. So now the female plug of the XBox controller extension cable is now coming out of the GPS, next I soldered the other end of the cable to a standard USB A type connector.

Now all I needed to do was plug the standard USB A connector into the car charger adapter, I got it off Monoprice.com for 97 cents! How can you beat that? it’s a generic USB charging adapter for the car. Next it was off to my car to test if everything worked out. I plugged in the USB cable, plugged the adapter into the cigarette outlet on the car and turned the key in the ignition to accessory. I pressed the power button on the GPS unit. The GPS beeped happily, turning on from a power source other then two batteries for the first time in years! It works great, and the power cable doesn’t interfere with the battery bay, meaning I can still use AA batteries if I had to. However I wouldn’t want to use both at the same time, that would probably damage something… or at least cause something to blow up and spark.

Anyway this was a successful and I hope this post may be helpful in the future to anyone who has a similar problem… yes that’s a bit far-fetched but you never know!

-Steven