Link to the Show / Show NotesI Do Windows for Week Ending March 19, 2006
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IDW031906
Show Notes:
- Tech News
- Answers to your emails
Ben was wondering what I would recommend as a good “cheap” software package to copy home movies on VHS and copy them to DVDs.
Getting the VHS tape into your computer requires a video capture device. An ATI All-In-Wonder will do, as will the Dazzle, Pinnacle's Movie Box DV, and many others. Once you've got the video into the computer, edit it (I like Adobe's Premiere Elements for editing software) then burn it to DVD. Your DVD burner very likely came with software of some sort. Sonic's MyDVD is a common option. Ulead's DVD Studio is very good, too.
You have a couple of good choices. If you need a DV camera anyway, buying one with analog inputs will, indeed, work. It's not the most efficient way to do it because you'll have to record the signal to a DV tape then move it to your computer, but it will deliver equally good quality.
I recommend a Firewire based analog to digital video converter. USB isn't fast enough to do a good job. Formac makes an excellent converter. Pinnacle System's Movie Box DV also works,
Alan wrote "Hi Brad, I was wondering about Firefox and why it's so much better than IE. I have been thinking about making the move".
Firefox is better because it's less powerful. The problem with Internet Explorer is that it's too powerful. The ActiveX and Activescripting capabilites of IE mean that a web site can do a lot. That's good for a good site, but not so good if the site is malicious. Firefox lacks ActiveX and Activescript, so sites can't do as much. The good news is that you don't have to switch. I recommend Firefox for day to day browsing, but when you get to a site that requires IE, use it. Just make sure it's a safe site.
Randy wrote that the Microsoft Money 2005 that he uses only backs-up to floppies. Is there a way that I can get it to back up to CDs, or even to a flash drive?
Money just looks like it can't back up to anything but floppies. In fact, it can back up your file to any medium, including CD-ROM and flash drive.
Chris - A couple of months ago, for no apparent reason, the autoplay on my CD-RW and DVD-RW quit. The DVD-RW is aftermarket, but the Autoplay still worked until about a month later. What can I do?
Open My Computer.. right click the device (your CD or DVD) and select Properties. Click the Autoplay tab and choose the content type you want it to auto play. Then select the appropriate action. If that doesn't fix it, open Services from the Administrative tools. Make sure shell hardware detection is set on automatic. Still not working? You may need to make some changes to the Windows registry. Check this site for the keys to modify: http://windowsxp.mvps.org/reg/Enable_CD_autorun.reg
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