If you have a single (or some more) question regarding any of the tech topics of this board and feel that it wouldn't justify creating an own thread just for that, feel free to post it in here.
If you know the answer to any of the questions in this thread, please help us out here! I am sure it's going to be appreciated.
I am creating this thread since there's ben popping up too many threads lately with single questions asking for help that aren't really set out to create too much interest.
>>144
This is what I did watching Elfen Lied. Might not help at all. But whatever.
I used Winamp, with some pack of extensions called Community Codec Pack or something like that. The media was on .mkv files. Opened these with winamp. A couple of icons appeared in the right bit of the taskbar. One of these had a subtitle sub-menu item, right click to see what's there.
>>144
You can use mplayer ( http://www.mplayerhq.hu/ ), and call it via the command line like this (If you don't know how to use the windows command line, have a look here: http://www.sophos.com/support/knowledgebase/article/13195.html ):
mplayer -sub your_sub_file.ass -sid 1 -ass your_avi_file.aviYou have to be in the directory the avi and ass are in (Or give full paths to those), and you might have to give the full path to the directory your mplayer executable is in.
Also, random guess: Death Note 36.
Why do most of the Wall Mount Brackets for HDTVs all look the same? They all look like all HDTVs have the same mounting "holes".
Does that mean I can use whatever Wall Mount Bracket for whatever HDTV, as long as the Wall Mount can support it
>>147
standardization. not just for nuts and bolts.
Uh.
Whoops, the second link is meant to be the Samsung PS42Q96HD. Curry's website doesn't allow copypasta links.
External hard drives. I want to buy one to store my media (video, CD images, eBooks)
Question: what should I worry about or look out for?
>>151
The reality that they fail after a while.
>>152
Well, damn. I ordered one, and it's coming tomorrow. I wanted it to last a lifetime :'(
They last quite a while though. I've got one that's been with me for 1 year now.
>>155
I got a maxtor 120 GB going for 5 years. With only 5 bad sectors. It's giving signals about it's imminent death though.
Hey. I bought a HDMI to DVI-D cable.
If my computer has a DVI slot like so:
http://www.blogeek.ch/images/test/XPS2010/19.jpg
Then can I use a HDTV (that has HDMI obviously) to use as a monitor?
DVI is for visual data. If I plug in speakers in the computer and turn off sound on the HDTV, would the sound go through the speakers?
You can use the HDTV as a monitor. You would need to get speakers.
159GET in ancient thread.
160GET!
I need a good, free video converter. I want to convert WMV to AVI.
If possible, WMV to MP3.
>>161 Errm... you do know that MP3 is not a video format?
I do know that! I want to just rip the music from the music video, you see?
>>162
what goes between MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 then?
>>164
MPEG-3 is the designation for a group of audio and video coding standards agreed upon by MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group). MPEG-3 was designed to handle HDTV signals in the range of 20 to 40 Mbit/s.
It was soon discovered that similar results could be obtained through slight modifications to the MPEG-2 standard. Shortly thereafter, work on MPEG-3 was discontinued.
MPEG-3 should not be confused with MPEG-1 Part 3 Layer 3 (or MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3), commonly referred to as MP3.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG-3
You could just record the audio as it plays from your speakers using Audiacity, just set it to "stereo mix" (or something similiar) and record.
WMV being a proprietary format, will be merry hell to try and disassemble. The ASX stream format is patented, thus most free/opensource programs won't touch it.
mencoder, which comes with mplayer (as suggested by >>166), can convert these files though... although there's a significant learning curve, and results can vary quite a bit due to the guesswork needed to parse the container format and decode the streams.
just me, or are all external HD enclosures shit? i've gone through three so far (all SATA -> USB):
I'm thinking of buying this sound system:
But, what I want to know is, whether I can plug my computer in via VI-HDMI cable and then plug the sound system to TV by HDMI-HDMI.
I have a hard drive that contains certain personal data of customers (previously belonged to a small business with which I was involved) - at this point I'm quite low on money so I'm planning to sell it as part of an unwanted PC. But I obviously don't want any unscrupulous types to recover such data from the drive, so I need to use some kind of software to erase and rewrite it, preferably only the unused space (it's got a fresh install of XP on it, just so I can sell to people who don't know shit about computers, and at this point i can't be arsed reinstalling it). Would cipher /w do the job, or do I need something else?
>>173
there's a reason why businesses sell/give away their computers without a hard drive. if you're really concerned about personal data, i would recommend that you either buy an empty drive or sell the computer sans hard drive.
If I use a cable that plugs into the [Audio Out (like where you plug in your headphones) of a computer] and goes to a 5.1 sound system via [Composite AV Audio], would I still get a 5.1 signal?
>>175
no. you'd still get two channels (assuming two channel audio output from the computer). you would need some sort of converter that changes the two channel signal into a 5.1 channel signal.
>>176 And where would this "converter" pull the other 3 channels from?
I'm not so sure that they're so trivial to derive from a stereo source -- I suspect you need to have a 5.1 channel signal to begin with before you will get a true 5.1 channel effect.
>>177
Actually, the upscaling converter does derive the 5.1 channels from the 2 channel signal. Obviously for best results, the audio signal should be already designed to playback at 5.1 channels. There are algorithms that seem to work well that can be used to make the upscaled 2.0 -> 5.1 sound a bit better than just duplicating the audio streams. These algorithms would fall into the field of psychoacoustics fyi.
Whenever I download any torrents, my computer will randomly reboot. When it does so, Windows XP will complain about some corruption on the file system. This happens regardless of the BT client I use, and the file that is corrupted is always either the file(s) the client uses for resuming downloads, or rarely a cache file of Mozilla's.
Any idea why this happens?
I assume you checked for viruses first? Random reboots + XP = does not compute. XP is very stable in my experience. It has to be some hardware problem, like some defective card/bad memory/overheating cpu/bad PSU/etc. If it happens during a download I would investigate the network card first.
>>180 I had the random reboots like you describe... the culprit turned out to be "Windows Update".
>>179
Is that after it's on for a while?
Perhaps check the BIOS configuration and make sure it's heat threshold for auto-shutdown isn't too low.
Do any of you know what program is used in this video?
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8IWiJsCPtTc
Is it compatible with Vista and/or XP?
Okay, so I downloaded the trial. How come it only rotates WHAT I'VE DRAWN, instead of THE ENTIRE CANVAS like in the video?
>>187 Press E, move the Wacom pen around to rotate the whole canvas.
Do external video cards exist? E.G it plugs in a VGA/DVI slot, and it has 2 or more VGA and/or DVI slots
If they do, what do you recommend?
>>189
I think what you want is a "VGA splitter."
On a Mac, < 3 shows up as a bar instead of a heart symbol. I get something that looks like |. Why? I want a heart to show up...
For some reason, in some programs, / shows up as a yen sign. I toggled something in the regional settings to japanese, is that related?
189 here, I googled VGA splitter and all I got were things that could mirror the image from the source onto other screens. I wanted something that lets me use 1 DVI/VGA slot for a multiple monitor display (each monitor being an extension of the desktop).
Also, is there something that I can put inbetween my computer's DVI slot and HDTV's HDMI slot and be able to use the HDTV as a separate monitor with a 1080i/p signal?
I am trying to enter traditional chinese using windows vista. in xp I was able to use pinyin with the taiwan chinese input. but the taiwan chinese no longer seems to have the option of entering via pinyin. The only use of the pinyin input method was under PRC chinese and unfortunately PRC is all simplified.
>>194
In that case, what you want is a graphics card with multiple outputs. Connecting one to the back of another card would just be silly, which is why the thing you asked about originally does not exist.
(But it would still be possible, in theory. I remember seeing some sort of external graphics card for the Amigas, a long time ago. This sort-of made sense since you didn't have any slots to put a "normal" graphics card into, on the most common models. For the technically inclined: basically you'd trade resolution or frame rate for more colors, IIRC)
Just buy a new card.
But I am trying to use it with a laptop.
Thank you very much! This is one of the reasons I enjoy coming here for help.
I'll try looking for something similar for a resolution I want.
Again, thanks!
Hi guys does anyone have an invitation code fro DEMONOID.com
I REALLY REALLY REALLY want one -tear- but so do like ten million other people so help me out, ill send you nudes or something,lol
Can CDRs be repaired by those kits you can buy, or the various mail order services? I have an album on CDR with a couple of scratches that are seriously affecting playback of about three tracks, but I'm not sure if those sorts of things are safe to use on writeable media.
Those things you can buy, is that those who shave off a thin slice of the surface, and then applies a new one (or whatever they do)?
The writable layer is still on the other side, so in theory it should work. I'd be pretty damn careful and/or desperate before using them though.
Have you tried filling the scratches with "that other stuff you can buy" already? It seems like a far safer bet.
And of course, if it works, make a copy immediately.
I think I've read something about this in one of Dan's Data's letter columns, but don't know which one unfortunately... ( http://www.dansdata.com/ )
Hi
I am using Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit. For some reason, my Sidebar doesn't start up in the start up when it should, because I set it to "Start in Startup". What's wrong with it?
Where can I get more gadgets for it anyway?
Right click and there should be an option.
Right click and there should be an option.
Hello,
I'm having problems with moving files with Japanese filenames between Windows XP and my GNU/Linux via FTP (both ways). I connect to my *nix box from Windows using FtpDrive (http://www.killprog.com/fdrve.html). No issues with "normal" files but the ones with Japanese names either don't copy at all (don't have the exact errors here, I can get them if you wish, but normally it's something like "can't read from file") or if they eventually do copy the filename looks like gibberish (doesn't matter which way).
Now I have the support for eastern languages installed on Windows, no problems with Japanese files at all. On the GNU/Linux machine my term is in UTF-8 and it displays Kanji/Kana characters properly, haven't noticed any problems with Japanese names either as long as they 'stay in the box'.
To determine if the problem is with my ftp software I zipped a Japanese file on Windows, renamed the ZIP file to an ASCII name, copied it to my box, but when I unpacked it the name looked like gibberish so I think my ftp software is working properly. I also tried doing it the other way (packed a file on *nix, copied and unpacked on windows), same thing.
I tried googling different keywords to see if I can find anything relevant but I wasn't successful so far. Please point me in the right direction.
I have a problem with downloading files in Firefox (2.0.0.9).
I am using Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit, normal (not true) admin account. When I click a link to download, most of the time after I confirm the download (what do you want to do with this file? save to disk/open with) it doesn't download it at all.
Can I plug in PCI-E cards in a PCI slot?
I want to buy this product:
http://www.magma.com/products/pci/13PCI/index.html
but I want to make sure I can use the latest PCI type (PCI-E) in it.
No it won't. PCI and PCI-X is the older versions of PCI, and PCI-E is the latest standard. Although PCI may fit into PCI-E.
i have a cheap flash based MP3 player that i've had for some time now, and the USB has stopped working completely - the player just switches off when it's plugged in to a computer. is there anything in particular that might cause that, or is it just generally fucked?
>>211
Sounds pretty fucked, unfortunately. But you can try another USB cable (they're generally replaceable, look at the picture on Wikipedia's USB article to see which cable you have).
Also this should go without saying, but: You have tried more than one computer, right?
Vista Ultimate 32bit user. For some reason, towards the end of a song being played in Windows Media Player, it starts to get cut off and "jumpy". I am using Intel Core2 Duo T7600 or something like that.
What's wrong?
hey. for some reason my computer has started replacing my backslash key with the yen symbol. except it only does it with some programs. i cant log into some stuff because of it. does anyone know whats going on?
let me rephrase that, Windows Media Player starts acting laggy towards the end of the song. i tried using other computers with the same file, but it's only my computer.
>>207
My first thought was that your linux box uses UTF-8, but your Windows box might use UCS2 encoded Unicode in filenames. But I don't know much about Windows, so that might not be it.
A pointer: Check Wikipedia for "mojibake", and click around from there.
Maybe someone here can help if you post exactly what kind of gibberish you get. (both in the case of zipped files and copied files)
Listing file names with ls | hexdump -C might be useful to see what is going on. UTF-8 encoded filenames have three bytes per (kanji/kana) character, and UCS2 would have two, for example.
Also, are the filenames OK if you copy the files back to the Windows box?
i have an ipod dock, through which i use an IR remote and connect it to my stereo. i usually keep my ipod in a case, however, which prevents it from fitting into the dock. now what i don't want to do is remove the ipod from its case every time i want to use the dock functions.
so what i'm after is some kind of extension cable for the ipod dock connector - i thought there would be a million companies in china churning out such things, as there are for every other nearly-useless vaguely-ipod-related product, but as it turns out i couldn't find one on ebay! do these things really, really not exist? or am i just not looking hard enough?
So...
If I have 2 PCIe cards in my computer that do the same thing...
Would they work together?
E.G I have a 256mb graphics card, and added another 768mb graphics card. Would I have a total of 1GB graphics power?
>>218 here, i've been looking at this...
there are a (very) few companies making this sort of thing, and they're ridiculously expensive! in these days when you can get a cheap chinese ipod dock for around 5£, why are the only companies making extension cables based in the US and charging apple-esque prices?
graphics does not works this way - amount of VRAM means little, graphics cards are not just memory dumps.
if you have similar graphics cards (the more similar the better) and they're the same manufacturer, you can use SLI (nvidia) or Crossfire (ATI). Note that doing so will give you a 40% increase in speed at BEST, and with heavily mismatched cards you will have a massive reduction in speed (don't try to pair a 6600GT with a 8800GTX), as the 8800GTX will run at the speed of the 6600GT. the memory will also not be "added" - in fact, the memory on the card with more VRAM may even be disabled.
tl;dr: unless you have a lot of money to spend on two identical cards with the same chipset and care about THE OMFG MOST PERFORMANCE YOU CAN BUY, stay away from SLI, get a 8800GT and be happy
>>214
it's because you've set your local language to japanese in windows
>>222
Then you will have two graphics cards.
Just like plugging in two keyboards won't make you type twice as fast. (But you will have two keyboards.)
Nothing will happen other than perhaps device driver conflicts/game crashes/a useless card in the second PCI-E slot.
Ok, so this might be a pretty dumb question but...
I have an interview with one of the school districts in my town on Monday. Now, I've heard of data mining before, but is there anyway that they could (or would want to) be able to somehow get a hold of a list of websites that I've been to recently? I was talking with this guy I know, (who is pretty darn smart) and he was saying "yeah, I wouldn't want to go to that site, (talking about a xxx site) and then try and apply for a job!" So is there any truth to this? Can companies get a big list of websites that you've gone to? I know I didn't really format my questions very well, but could someone here shed some light on all of this?
>>226
no! christ that'd just be a massive breach of privacy. wouldn't it? i suppose you're probably in the US (are you?) where employers love to snoop into what people are doing in their own time, even if it has absolutely no effect on their productivity at work (hi drug testing) but its really not possible for them to get hold of a list of websites you visited, for all kinds of reasons. the only way visiting a website on your own computer at home would damage your job prospects is if it was something illegal and you got caught.
Help with Mail for OS X, please!
Why can't I delete these two emails? "Deleting" them just greys them out and doesn't remove them, and from there, all I can do is "Undelete" them. Help?
>>227 (OP here) It'd be a huge breach of privacy, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if they somehow did it. I do live in the U.S. and it seems like this kinda stuff happens all the time.
Hello, thanks for responding! Now after doing a few tests (inspired by your reply :)) I realized some of the stuff in my previous post was not completely correct/relevant.
What I have found out is that my *nix box stores Japanese file names in UTF-8 but Windows XP stores them in Shift JIS!!!
I found that out by doing something like this:
ls | iconv -f sjis -t utf8Now I just wonder what's the best thing to do... (and asking friend google etc) :)
Thanks!
>>230
the way i see it you have 3 options, all of which involve renaming some files:
(check link above)
Windows Vista Ultimate seems to replacing a lot of icons with these annoying red Xs.
How do I fix this problem?
The gadgets worked fine from when I first installed them, then got the Xs. I reinstalled them a lot to try to fix it but it still doesn't do anything. Before I reformatted my computer, the gadgets were fine.
>>232 here, the red X is also appearing in a lot of things.
For example the windows help and support center images.
I know this has probably already been asked a billion times but what's a good free firewall and antivirus?
thank you!
I've already posted this on one of the other boards, but turns out I was supposed to post it here XD
Whenever I try to view one of the image boards on 4chan, the only thing that will display are the advertisements on the top of the page. I've tried deleting all of my internet history files and I also did a system recovery/restore, yet the problem persists. When I tried on an XP computer (using Vista now) this did not happen and I could see the whole board.
If anyone has any suggestions or solutions I would highly appreciate it ^_^, thanks in advance.
My MP3 player sometimes claims that MP3s are "dual channel" and that it's only going to play the first channel. Obviously they're meant to be stereo, but encoded wrong or something. Dammit. Any ideas how I can fix this?
ok 4ch do you know how to change this ugly external WD's hard drive icon the default icon for internal hard drives like D:
btw picture is in link.
WANT
what is causing certain video files to be always "in use" under XP, preventing me from moving/renaming/deleting them? (without using the command prompt anyway, which is a pain in the arse with long-named files in obscure directories) is there some useless microsoft process doing that that i can just terminate?
Can I make it so whenever I turn my bluetooth shit on that windows will automatically make it the default stereo for music?
