Some called it a battle. Others a war. But the blue laser thing was more like a tussle…a two year tussle. HD DVD had Toshiba, the DVD Forum (that sure helped DVD-RAM?) and a few studios that were kinda, maybe, sorta on their side. Oh yeah…and Microsoft.BD had Sony and its string of content owners, Panasonic, [...]
Post Tagged with: "Computer storage media"
QNAP Q35s Backup
I’m not the biggest fan of external HD enclosures. It seems that the speed of transfer is always too slow and the heat build-up causes you to lose data right up until the hard drive finally just dies. So when I received the Qnap QBack-35S, I was naturally wary of sticking one of my precious HD’s in [...]
2008 Means Storage
2007 was a rocking year…sure it was your content, your stuff anytime, everytime, everywhere. 2008 is going to be the year you buy things to store all that stuff…See what we are pretty darned sure the year holds for the consumer…Use it as you want, use it as you will The fun of analyzing the [...]
Pinnacle’s Home Video Stuff at CES 2008
Personal and personalized video content is not only more precious to people, it is quickly becoming the entertainment of choice as consumers buy and use lower-cost, high-performance camcorders; video-enabled cameras; web downloads and video-to-go personal media players (PMPs). To put the fun back into video production and content distribution/sharing, Pinnacle Systems continues to expand the [...]
Sony VAIO VGP-XL1B3 Media Changer
I have been looking for a cheap expandable storage method for Media Center for some time. After one of my recent rants about Media Center storage, one of the [OC]ModShop staff members turned me onto the Sony VAIO VGP-XL1B3 CD/DVD changer. This device attaches to any Media Center PC (including Vista) and adds additional storage [...]
Never Enough Storage for Media Center
I, like many Home Theater PC owners, simply don’t have enough storage. Even though Terabyte hard drives are available (and somewhat affordable), I still don’t have enough. I have a dedicated seperate drive for music, one for Recorded TV, another one for movies, another for photos, and another for High-Definition content… and that’s just ONE [...]
Flash Memory… Nothing Less Than World Domination
“Pathetic earthlings. Hurling your bodies out into the void, without the slightest inkling of who or what is out here. If you had known anything about the true nature of the universe, anything at all, you would’ve hidden from it in terror.” – The Emperor Ming (Flash Gordon, 1936, Universal Studios) Knowledge and imagination are [...]
How to prevent CHKDSK from starting upon bootup in Windows
Sometimes you need to check the health of your hard drives by running a diagnostic on them, but you cannot fix any problems because “the system cannot get exclusive access to the drive”. This problem occurs more frequently on the drive in which Windows is installed. So, you schedule CHKDSK to run before boot (or [...]
OCZ ATV 4GB USB Flash Drive Review
In America we know that excess is never enough. The technology industry provides us with portable solid-state disks that can hold every Atari 2600 cartridge ever created, and that still isn’t enough. We take these little gadgets with us everywhere, and I should know as I’ve destroyed more USB drives than the company’s Quality Control [...]
A-Data Nobility PD17 2GB Flash Drive Review
There are alot of flash drives available today with several different features. Some focus on portable applications, others on speed, or even ultra-portability. While some of these units have some nifty features, it doesn’t do any good it you don’t have it with you. Many flash drives come with a lanyard, but let’s face it: for [...]
5 Ways to Backup Your Data
The data on your hard drive is the most critical item inside your computer, and the only item which can not be replaced. It may be an unwanted hassle and expense to replace a defective memory module, monitor, or processor, but there is no replacing data once lost. In addition to the possibility of a [...]
QNAP TS-109 Pro NAS Storage Review
Many homes today have several computers distributed throughout the house, and there is always some common data to share between them. Whether it be MP3s, photos, videos, drivers, games, or whatever; it is alot more convenient to have a single repository of these files that everyone on your home network can access. Some people utilize a [...]
Convert Your VHS to DVD
Remember the holidays from three…five…ten years ago? Birthdays? Family outings? The great times you had with your parents, grandparents or great grandparents? Aren’t you glad you captured all of those special, precious moments on videotape? You’ve got dozens of taped memories stacked in a cabinet or tucked away on a shelf in closet. Disappearing Past The problem is consumer [...]
How to Professionally Repair DVDs Without Spending $500
If you are a technology junkie then you no doubt have thousands of commercial CDs or DVDs, not to mention thousands more of your own archives. Even if you take care of your collection like a scientific laboratory, you are bound to scratch some of these discs. Replacing these discs may be very expensive (if [...]
Verbatim 12GB Store’n'Go HDD
Flash drives have been getting larger and larger, and our need for portable storage is only getting greater. It wasn’t long ago that we reviewed Verbatim’s 2GB U3 flash drive, and we thought that was plenty of space for all of our portable data needs… but we quickly found ourselves starving for more data. I [...]
DVD Formats Explained (Bluray, HD-DVD, Plus, Minus)
The number of different formats available in DVD drives can be confusing to anyone in the market for one. The list is much longer, but to address a few of the common formats, we have DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM ,DVD+R DL and DVD±RW. Wow! This list of common formats is long enough, no [...]
Antec Lifestyle Fusion HTPC Case
Home Theater PCs are becoming more popular these days, and they all try to tone down that they’re a PC, trying to blend in with other Home Theater equipment. Antec’s Fustion case is one of Antec’s latest offerings for the home theater enthusiast. Antec designed this case to reduce noise and heat buildup using an [...]
Vantec External IDE to USB Adapter
Adding additional storage to your computer has never been so easy. Whether you have run out of available IDE ports or simply want to add hot-swap capabilities to a hard drive, the Vantec IDE-USB Adapter does the job. By conveting the IDE interface of hard drives to USB, the IDE-USB Adapter allows you to add [...]
Vantec NexStar 3: Firewire and USB HDD Enclosure
So when Vantec asked us to review some goodies we said yes obviously, so I got a nice big box filled with goodies, now lets check some of that out shal we. First up for review is the Vantec NexStar3 external 3.5” harddrive enclosure, now I already have an external enclosure but I wondered what [...]
Die, Floppy, DIE! (The Floppy Rant)
We live in an age where processors have reached an atomic minimum, a sound card has more processing power than Apollo 11, and where video cards become garage sale fodder within six months. CDs could once only be created by large studios with deep pockets, but is now a very common consumer item, and almost [...]
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