The Content Maker

November 3rd, 2009

Choosing The Best Firewire Card

Posted by admin in School of Multimedia

Choosing The Best Firewire Card

Confused by Firewire or IEEE 1394 technology? Don’t know which Firewire card or device to buy? Let’s see if we can answer some of your queries. Firewire can be a confusing concept for some beginners in digital videography. It’s made worse by the fact that many camcorder manuals do not document Firewire concepts clearly.

The term Firewire refers to a technology for transmission of data. It achieves extremely high transfer speeds (much faster than USB). As a result, it is able to transfer video (with almost zero loss in quality) from your camcorder to the computer. A Firewire cable runs from your camcorder DV output port to your computer’s DV input port.

Let’s see what factors need to be consider when purchasing a good Firewire card.

OHCI and Manufacturer Drivers Some Firewire cards are OHCI (Open Host Controller Interface) compatible. This simply means that you can plug and play the card in the Windows or Mac environment. OHCI Firewire cards depend on the native software drivers that are included in Windows or Mac operating systems. They tend to be cheaper and are a good choice for the average home user.

Other cards incorporate manufacturer drivers, which means that the manufacturer (e.g. Pinnacle) wrote their own specific software drivers for usage with the Firewire card. These cards tend to be pricier but they allow sophisticated features like real-time effects.

Real-Time Effects If you’re into video editing, you’ll know that rendering a video can take a long, long time. Rendering is the process of compiling all the screen effects, transitions, titles and video layers in an edited video so that a finalized version can be produced. If you get a higher-end Firewire card, then many transitions and effects can be processed by the card itself, speeding up the rendering process. Of course, the more real-time effects you need, the more expensive the card.

Bundled Software Many Firewire cards come bundled with video editing software. These are great products as they help you save you from purchasing a separate video editing package. However, be wary of those Firewire cards that come with a ‘lite’ or scaled-down version of the video editing package. I’d recommend those that come with the full fledged version of the video editing software - such as Pinnacle Studio 9 AV/DV.

Recommended Firewire Cards Let’s now take a look at some of the Firewire cards I personally recommend which are available in the market today.

Buslink 3 Port PCI Firewire Card This is a very cheap but good Firewire card. It retails for less than $40 online. The data transfer is 400Mbps which means it is good enough for real time video capture, as well as professional sound and graphics editing.

Pinnacle Studio 9 AV/DV Want some quality bundled software? Pinnacle Systems packages Pinnacle Studio (an excellent video editing program) with a Firewire card for about $70.

ADS Dual Link PCI Firewire Card ADS Technologies, makers of the best-selling USB Instant DVD analog-to-digital video conversion device, sells great Firewire cards as well. The ADS DLX180 Dual Link PCI card is a OHCI-Compliant card and is excellent value for money.

Conclusion To choose a good Firewire card, you should always consider the above factors: OHCI-compliance, availability of real-time effects and bundled software. My feel is that for home users, just get a simple card like the Buslink 3 Port PCI Firewire Card, or a software bundle like Pinnacle Studio 9 AV/DV. In future, when you become more experienced, you can always upgrade to higher end cards.

June 6th, 2009

Easy Simple Ways to Fit Audio-Books around Your Daily Schedule

Posted by admin in Bookworms Den, Internet Language Resources, School of Multimedia

A busy agenda can make it challenging to squeeze in everything you might like to read. Lengthy commutes to work and day to day activities may eat up sizable amounts of time everyday. Earning a living, dealing with children or even looking after your house can all cut down the free time you have to persue your hobbies. It’s simple to make use of the time you spend commuting to catch up on novels you can’t get around to reading. Thanks to download technology, it’s easy to indulge in David Sedaris Live At Carnegie Hall by David Sedaris for sale from Download Audio Book Online, or audio books brought to life by Kate White without even picking up the book.

Nowadays multi-tasking has become the norm. Audiobooks such as Pimsleur Italian I, II, & III Complete Courses by Dr. Paul Pimsleur for sale from Download Audio Book Online fill the dead minutes in our schedule, whether it’s waiting time at the physician’s office or possibly grocery shopping. An enormous variety of audiobooks can be downloaded right now in mp3 format these include Horrid Henry Meets the Queen by Francesca Simon, so utilize your mp3 player and earphones and get ready to listen to a biography or a great novel, like audiobooks by Dr Robert Blair without carrying a cumbersome book with you. Audio-books provide a large number of benefits like hiring or purchasing the book of your choice then enjoying it in your own time. Need to learn a new language? Why not give audiobooks a shot? Possibly the latest business practices are your thing, or you can enjoy contemplating current beliefs about religious belief or spirituality.

An extended selection of genres and titles are obtainable. It doesn’t matter if you enjoy history, or if you are crazy over science fiction and fantasy or even if your interested in self-help, most can be downloaded immediately. Numerous options are open; it’s simple to subscribe to a service and rent or else purchase what interests you. Reading will always have its place, however audiobooks offer a great alternative for active individuals. A author or celebrity can heighten the enjoyment of the majority of stories. Reading a title isn’t quite the same as enjoying audio titles performed by Murray N. Rothbard, with niceties presented during a performance. The depth of your reading experience can be increased when you listen to an audiobook like Cyber Law by William Brand and frequently go far beyond the written word. So remember audiobooks when you next want to purchase books, audio-books can give you tremendous way of squeezing the studying you need to achieve into your busy life.

June 12th, 2008

Home theater systems - the simple way

Posted by admin in Best Technology Resources, Product Management, School of Multimedia

Some people feel uncomfortable if not frightened by shopping online especially EBay. I agree there are millions of scammers out there just waiting to pull one over on you. Well, you have another choice. You can always visit a pawnshop in your area. People in need of money often sell anything and everything to pawnshops including cheap home theater systems. Most of the time the pawnshop owners are pretty straightforward and won’t sell damaged equipment however you should be cautious anyway. Always check the condition of the system while in the pawnshop. Make the works or ask them if you can hook it up and test it out before making a purchase. You should also confirm that you can bring the item back if you are unsatisfied with it later.

If you feel uncomfortable buying use or refurbished systems then you can always use other ideas to low the overall cost of your system. It is easy to find the cheap home theater systems that fit your specifications. You should consider the features you must have and those you don’t care very much about. By cutting back on the features that you will never use you will end up saving yourself money in the long run. If you aren’t going to be watching a lot of DVDs then you more than likely won’t need surround sound. If you don’t need a six DVD disk change then drop it as well.