Boys and Girls--we have Video!
Or more precisely, I have video. As an early birthday present to myself (my birthday is a week from Friday), I went out to Belmont Computers and had them install a DVD drive in my computer. When I had this system built, I opted not to get a DVD drive because at the time there were other features I wanted more than I wanted a DVD drive and I had a budget.
It's several years later now. I've upgraded the video card, installed a lot more memory, switched from Win98 to SuSE Linux and had the motherboard replaced. That last wasn't by choice--it just failed one day and I was just relieved that it was the motherboard and not the hard drive that was shot.
Making backups of my OS and files on CDs is a time-consuming process, requiring multiple CDs. Reinstalling or upgrading the OS also requires multiple CDs. Being able to back up the system to a single DVD instead (or at most, two if I get completely carried away with files) would be much easier. Plus, as a bonus, I'd be able to view movies on the PC as well, take screencaps and manipulate them in GIMP. So I decided that this was what I wanted for a present.
I got home from work, unplugged the box from everything and drove over to the computer shop. It's local and I like the service there very much. Installing drives is one of their "while you wait" services. It took about twenty minutes. I could have done it myself, but I was willing to pay $11 to have it done for me.
Besides, I knew I'd get my hands dirty afterward. See, SuSE Linux is owned by Novell. The official release of the OS is severely lacking in numerous proprietary codecs for viewing numerous file formats. Once you've installed the legal stuff, there are plenty of sites online that will tell you how to install the additional software to enable you to view pretty much everything out there. I did that, of course. But since I didn't have a DVD player I'd never bothered to install the DVD software.
It's taken me a while to wrestle the system into submission. Figuring out exactly which software updates and additions I needed took a little hunting around. But as of ten minutes ago, I finally got it sorted out. I can now watch Christopher Walken as the angel Gabriel in THE PROPHECY on my PC.
Now...to back up the system now that it's working just the way I like.
Edit: Shazbat! I spoke too soon. It'll play my PROPHECY DVD just fine. But my "Dead Like Me" DVDs? No. The %$&@ program crashes every time I try to start them. If I try it in "simple DVD" mode, it will play the first episode on the disk--and ONLY the first episode (that's all it seems to see)--and the playback is choppier than on the Prophecy disk.
Dammit. It's too late to keep trying to find fixes tonight.
Edit The Second: The West Wing won't play either. So it seems that a single movie on DVD will play, but anything with multiple entries crashes VLC. Now at least I have something I can ask about on the VLC web forums. (Or, you know, if anyone reading this has any ideas, feel free to suggest them.)
It's several years later now. I've upgraded the video card, installed a lot more memory, switched from Win98 to SuSE Linux and had the motherboard replaced. That last wasn't by choice--it just failed one day and I was just relieved that it was the motherboard and not the hard drive that was shot.
Making backups of my OS and files on CDs is a time-consuming process, requiring multiple CDs. Reinstalling or upgrading the OS also requires multiple CDs. Being able to back up the system to a single DVD instead (or at most, two if I get completely carried away with files) would be much easier. Plus, as a bonus, I'd be able to view movies on the PC as well, take screencaps and manipulate them in GIMP. So I decided that this was what I wanted for a present.
I got home from work, unplugged the box from everything and drove over to the computer shop. It's local and I like the service there very much. Installing drives is one of their "while you wait" services. It took about twenty minutes. I could have done it myself, but I was willing to pay $11 to have it done for me.
Besides, I knew I'd get my hands dirty afterward. See, SuSE Linux is owned by Novell. The official release of the OS is severely lacking in numerous proprietary codecs for viewing numerous file formats. Once you've installed the legal stuff, there are plenty of sites online that will tell you how to install the additional software to enable you to view pretty much everything out there. I did that, of course. But since I didn't have a DVD player I'd never bothered to install the DVD software.
It's taken me a while to wrestle the system into submission. Figuring out exactly which software updates and additions I needed took a little hunting around. But as of ten minutes ago, I finally got it sorted out. I can now watch Christopher Walken as the angel Gabriel in THE PROPHECY on my PC.
Now...to back up the system now that it's working just the way I like.
Edit: Shazbat! I spoke too soon. It'll play my PROPHECY DVD just fine. But my "Dead Like Me" DVDs? No. The %$&@ program crashes every time I try to start them. If I try it in "simple DVD" mode, it will play the first episode on the disk--and ONLY the first episode (that's all it seems to see)--and the playback is choppier than on the Prophecy disk.
Dammit. It's too late to keep trying to find fixes tonight.
Edit The Second: The West Wing won't play either. So it seems that a single movie on DVD will play, but anything with multiple entries crashes VLC. Now at least I have something I can ask about on the VLC web forums. (Or, you know, if anyone reading this has any ideas, feel free to suggest them.)