Darren New wrote:
> Chambers wrote:
>> The way Apple has been trying to break compatibility with the rest of 
> 
> You know, I twitch a bit every time they have a "I'm a PC, I'm a Mac" 
> ad. They've gotten so crass. Why can't they say what's good about a Mac, 
> like they do in the iPhone ads?
> 

Because the major selling points are style and a sense of superiority?

I love the MS shopper ads, where they give someone a budget of $1500 to 
get a notebook, and they come out of the Apple store saying "I can't 
afford anything in there!" :)

...Chambers

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Chambers wrote:

> My TV is my monitor; when I watch TV, it's in Media Center, through my 
> tuner card.

...so it *is* possible then?

I'd almost be interested in finding out how, if it weren't for the fact 
that I don't watch TV anymore...

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Invisible wrote:
> Chambers wrote:
> 
>> My TV is my monitor; when I watch TV, it's in Media Center, through my 
>> tuner card.
> 
> ...so it *is* possible then?
> 
> I'd almost be interested in finding out how,

The tuner card is PCIe x1.  Plug it it.  Plug your antenna, satellite or 
cable feed into the card.  Launch Media Center, and let it scan the 
channels.  Tell it what area you're in, and it will download the 
schedule automatically.

That's it.

...Chambers

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>> ...so it *is* possible then?
>>
>> I'd almost be interested in finding out how,
> 
> The tuner card is PCIe x1.  Plug it it.  Plug your antenna, satellite or 
> cable feed into the card.  Launch Media Center, and let it scan the 
> channels.  Tell it what area you're in, and it will download the 
> schedule automatically.
> 
> That's it.

Heh. I'm guessing the tuner card is pretty damned expensive though. ;-)

Actually, what *might* be useful is if I could hook up my computer to 
another computer and record its output. (There are programs which are 
supposed to record what's on your screen, but none of them actually 
work.) I have no idea what kind of equipment you need to record a DVI 
signal though...

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Chambers wrote:
> Saul Luizaga wrote:
>> And when I'm watching a movie on TV I also search for the "rewind" to 
>> check out again a certain scene as I do on the DVD Player :-)
> 
> I can already do that :)

My mum accidentally discovered last night that she can do that too. She 
lent on one of the many buttons on the TV remote, and the program 
started playing backwards...

(Obviously *I* had to sort this out. Because, you know, my mum is too 
stupid even after all these decades to work out that the triangle means 
"play", the square means "stop", the two rectangles means "pause", and 
the pairs of arrows indicate moving forwards or backwards...)

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> Heh. I'm guessing the tuner card is pretty damned expensive though. ;-)

You can pick up USB tuners for under 20 GBP now.  I doubt internal PCI ones 
are much more for basic functionality.

> (There are programs which are supposed to record what's on your screen, 
> but none of them actually work.)

FRAPS is pretty much the standard for 3D content (games, 3D software, the 
Vista desktop!) and IME works well so long as you have enough CPU power 
spare to stream the video to disk - I think it lightly compresses it 
(losslessly IIRC) before writing, but you certainly want to recompress it 
later to a standard format that takes less space.

> I have no idea what kind of equipment you need to record a DVI signal 
> though...

Given that my fairly recent PC can compress a 1920x1080 signal to h264 about 
4x slower than realtime, I suspect you are talking about some serious 
broadcast-quality kit to do that job at desktop resolutions and frame rates.

Of course you could output to sVideo and then feed that in to a bog-standard 
analogue capture card if you're not worried about the quality.  Or just 
point a video camera at the monitor :-)

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> (Obviously *I* had to sort this out. Because, you know, my mum is too 
> stupid even after all these decades to work out that the triangle means 
> "play", the square means "stop", the two rectangles means "pause", and the 
> pairs of arrows indicate moving forwards or backwards...)

Yeh it's funny how after apparently years of using equipment that follows 
this standard, when you instruct such a person to "press the play button" or 
such, they suddenly have no idea what you mean.

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scott wrote:
>> (Obviously *I* had to sort this out. Because, you know, my mum is too 
>> stupid even after all these decades to work out that the triangle 
>> means "play", the square means "stop", the two rectangles means 
>> "pause", and the pairs of arrows indicate moving forwards or 
>> backwards...)
> 
> Yeh it's funny how after apparently years of using equipment that 
> follows this standard, when you instruct such a person to "press the 
> play button" or such, they suddenly have no idea what you mean.

Seriously, *how* many years has triangle been the play button on 
cassette desks, CD players, VHS units, DVD players...??

But my mum can't figure out how to work any of these devices, 
apparently. Stupid cow...

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scott wrote:
>> Heh. I'm guessing the tuner card is pretty damned expensive though. ;-)
> 
> You can pick up USB tuners for under 20 GBP now.  I doubt internal PCI 
> ones are much more for basic functionality.

Mmm, OK.

Pitty there's never anything good on TV anymore, eh? I could have a TV 
in my bedroom if I wanted...

>> (There are programs which are supposed to record what's on your 
>> screen, but none of them actually work.)
> 
> FRAPS is pretty much the standard for 3D content (games, 3D software, 
> the Vista desktop!) and IME works well so long as you have enough CPU 
> power spare to stream the video to disk - I think it lightly compresses 
> it (losslessly IIRC) before writing, but you certainly want to 
> recompress it later to a standard format that takes less space.

It also costs money.

GameCam is supposed to do the same thing also, except that it doesn't 
work. (You press record, and nothing happens.)

>> I have no idea what kind of equipment you need to record a DVI signal 
>> though...
> 
> Given that my fairly recent PC can compress a 1920x1080 signal to h264 
> about 4x slower than realtime, I suspect you are talking about some 
> serious broadcast-quality kit to do that job at desktop resolutions and 
> frame rates.

Hmm, yes...

> Just point a video camera at the monitor :-)

Now why didn't I think of this? Heh. I even *have* a camera...

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Chambers wrote:
> Because the major selling points are style and a sense of superiority?

While true, that's not really the only advantage Apples have.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   I ordered stamps from Zazzle that read "Place Stamp Here".

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