Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with HD

Ahh, Vista... how I won't miss you.

NotMyselfRightNow — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:38:14 -0800

Questions about hard drives, enclosures, and other ways to survive a blue screen of death. I have a HP desktop running Vista. I went to do a SP1 upgrade ahead of a potential change to Win7, something went off course, and now I own a desktop that won’t get past a blue screen of death when I try and start up. I’ve tried a handful of things to resolve the issue to no avail, and at this point, I’m just ready to get a new desktop (had been thinking about it anyway, so I figure this is a sign from the computer gods).

99% of my data was backed up ahead of the upgrade. However, I would like to be able to access the data on the old HP just in case. Limited technical knowledge, but a history of reading AskMe questions, leads me to believe that I can remove my HD from the old desktop, place it in an enclosure, and access it like an external drive.

How complicated is this? Is it really that straightforward? Anything I’m not thinking of?

New stereo amp to replace my broken one.

misterpatrick — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:28:05 -0800

My amplifier/receiver died. I need something inexpensive (~$200) but powerful to replace it. I am not an audiophile but like my music to sound good. Should I get a simple amplifier and an HD radio tuner or troll eBay for a used receiver? I have two sets of speakers plus woofer and need about 100W per channel. Need three or four inputs. Don't need fancy 5.1 or anything. Recommendations? The receiver I am replacing is a Sony STR-DE525. Worked fine for me but our radio reception isn't great here and the stations we listen to broadcast in HD, so one reason to just get an amp and an HD receiver. My other inputs are the computer (iTunes), cable, DVD player and turntable.

What are these plastic rails on my hard drive called?

billybunny — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 11:43:26 -0800

What are these rails which snap into the side of a hard drive and allow it to slide into a bay called? And also, where can I get some more? My computer's case has absolutely no identifying information, and hell if I can remember who the manufacturer was 5 years after I bought the thing. I tried going into a computer store to get some more, but I couldn't even figure out what I was trying to buy, let alone if they'd have any of them!

USB SATA HD WTF FTW?

Admiral Haddock — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:58:09 -0800

Is my external HD enclosure killing drives? Or is it bad luck? I use a Mac.

I have this external enclosure for 2.5" drives. I put a new drive in there last year, but didn't use it until some months later (after loaning it to a friend). Drive was dead, and Disk Utility and Disk Warrior couldn't fix it. It was an extents error, and Disk Warrior alternatingly gave these errors: 2351, -36 and 2166, 2351.

My GF needed an external drive for Time Machine, and so we dropped in a new drive. Same errors, same lack of success with Disk Utility and Disk Warrior.

In each case, there has been no data on the drive, so I'm happy to pave them down to the lowest bits and bytes. A new drive is being sent by the retailer, but I don't want to kill it with the enclosure if it is at fault.

Is this an issue with the enclosure, or is this just bad luck with two different drives (by different makers)?

what the fudge...

the NATURAL — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:57:10 -0800

FilmFilter: Question regarding The Dark Knight, Public Enemies, and Collateral. I'm curious about these aforementioned films, which have been mildly trumpeted for some of their progressive filming methods.

In The Dark Knight: shooting in IMAX for four "major scenes," including the Joker's entrance, and, I'm assuming, part or all of the HK skyscraper leap.

In Collateral: according to different accounts (I blame Wikipedia), Michael Mann used a digital HD camera for parts of the movie -- apparently, low-light sequences and exterior shots.

In Public Enemies: acc. to Manohla Dargis, NYT, "shot in high-definition digital by a filmmaker who's helping change the way movies look..."

Why did the directors of these films (Nolan and Mann, respectively) choose to employ these methods (as opposed to conventional film)? And, what is the net difference in what I see as a viewer watching the movie?

Thanks, MeFi.

Are there any hard drive enclosures for 3.5" form HDs that can be powered off a USB port alone?

chefscotticus — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 22:30:29 -0800

Are there any hard drive enclosures for 3.5" form HDs that can be powered off a USB port alone? (ie, without additional AC plug) I'm looking for a HD enclosure to use with a Western Digital 1.5 TB Caviar Green SATA Hard Drive (WD15EADS) that wouldn't require me to plug an AC adapter into the wall. WD claims this drive uses 40% less power -- not sure if that matters.

It will be primarily connected to a MacBook (5.1) that has 2 USB 2.0 ports, but no FireWire.

RAID and backup system for Mac Pro?

shinynewnick — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:08:11 -0800

Best RAID / Backup system for HD video on a Mac Pro? I was in the process of building myself a nice little external RAID enclosure with four 1 TB drives, when I started digging into the articles and realizing that RAID isn't backup.

Now I have these 4 1 TB drives, a couple of 500 GB drives, 1 TB internal, and 640 GB system drive for my Mac Pro. So I'm looking for the best way to set up these drives in my workflow for producing HD video.

Here are my basic needs:

1. Reliable Daily backups - Daily backups of all my work. I'm still thinking of using the RAID esata box as a RAID1 setup, to prevent downtime if a drive goes down.

2. Long term backups - When a project is finished, moving the data off the working drive and onto two separate hard drives for storage. I'll buy additional 500 GB drives for this purpose as needed.

3. Speed isn't crucial, as I'm not working in uncompressed HD.

Time Machine seems to be a great built in system, and I'd like to take advantage of that. I'm also signing up for Carbonite for online backup of as much information as I can.

Any thoughts on the workflow and the best way to automate the system would be greatly appreciated.

DVD headspin!

mwhybark — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 11:05:04 -0800

Time for a new DVD player. Format confusion! Resources? After seven years, our old DVD player is consistently refusing to play a disc all the way through. I have paid enough vague attention to DVD format wars to understand that the wars are over and that one or another format won and, if I understand the way these things work, dual-format high-def players may actually be or become available. In addition to that I have noticed that a wide variety of ancillary media formats are commonly supported for playback on current DVD players.

The current machine has either/or s-video and component out; we currently use component out in parallel with a secondary s-video out and can view both signals simultaneously, which is nice for use with a projector. I would like to keep those output options and am open to adding HDMI out.

I am definitely looking for an upconverting player; our primary TV is true HD. It would be WAY COOL if the DVD player could also play a range of network-stored media files, both ripped DVD images and VIDEO_TS folders and loose quicktime files, .avi's, MP4s and MP3s and whatnot.

Where to go to review current offerings and models in order to get up to speed sufficiently to make an informed decision?

Thanks very much!

Some (reasonably recent) previous links:

http://ask.metafilter.com/120622/What-mainstream-DVD-player-has-the-best-error-correction

http://ask.metafilter.com/102589/DVD-player-that-isnt-hostile-to-endusers

Since when are harddrives actually the size advertised?

mathiu — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 04:07:07 -0800

Since when are harddrives actually the size advertised? I just bought a Western Digital 500 GB 2.5'' HD and I was surprised when it actually turned out to be 499.32 GB after the first initialization (on a mac). When has this changed? And what story/company was behind the adaption?

Does Zune HD have VPN connectivity option?

omaralarifi — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 11:13:09 -0800

Does Zune HD have VPN connectivity option as iPod touch?

Which monitor is for me?

timshel — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 06:51:38 -0800

Best affordable external monitor for HD video editing? I would like an external monitor to extend my desktop real estate and, on occasion, serve as a television/output monitor for HD video editing playback, color correction etc. It will presently be used with a Macbook Pro (DVI) and eventually become the second monitor to a iMac (DisplayPort.) I'd like to spend £500 or less. Is this doable?

A friend recommended this, though it's a bit beyond my price range:
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/Monitors/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=223-9379

Thank you!

Best way to edit MP4 HD video in FCP?

unSane — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 18:29:19 -0800

Preventing slowdowns when editing HD video in FCP? I am editing some H.264 720p video in FCP6. When I am just laying in the raw footage in insert mode, everything plays back fine, but as soon as I add a transition, playback gets really stuttery, and remains so even if I delete the transition and restart FCP.

I'm on a top end iMac so I know I'm probably pushing things a bit but it's frustrating that it plays fine until I add a transition.

Any clues? Should I transcode into something before editing? Would upgrading to the latest help much?

Is there such a thing as an HD DVR?

jackypaper — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:55:13 -0800

My HD cable channels route through a DVR. I have an HD TV. Do I need an HD DVR to take full advantage of HD? Is there such a thing? Thanks!

How much is my 37" 720p LCD TV worth?

greendress — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:53:48 -0800

How much is my used Sharp Aquos LC-37G4U (37" 720p LCD TV) worth? How much would YOU pay for it? A co-worker may be interested in buying my old TV. Neither of us is sure what would be a fair price. Can't find any of this model on eBay to make a direct comparison; found 2 listed on Craigslist in other cities -- one for $400 and one for $600 (which I'm SURE is too much) -- but who knows how much they actually got. The details:

- Sharp Aquos LC-37G4U
- Bought Feb. 2005
- 37" LCD
- 720p (does not support 1080p)
- does NOT have built-in HD tuner
- Nice condition, fully functional, still have all accessories and whatnot, e.g., stand, remote, manual

Links: Sound & Vision - ExtremeTech - PC Mag - Amazon.com

Looks like a new 37" 720p LCD can be had on Amazon for not too much over $600 -- but since technology marches on, a new one would have a built-in HD tuner, better contrast ratio, probably more inputs, and might be better in other ways.

If it were yours, how much would you expect for it? If you were buying it, how much would you pay for it?

How do I automatically take HD scenery pictures at our old house, transmit them to our new house, and display them on our HD TV?

925 — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 16:47:51 -0800

How do I automatically take HD scenery pictures at our old house, transmit them to our new house, and display them on our HD TV? For more than 10 years, we have been waking up to gorgeous lake and mountain views. We are now moving out of the family house, and going to live in the city. But my wife wants to take her scenery and her ducks and birds and boat views with her visually day-by-day. We can park a camera at the family house, and internet access is there. We are not looking for continuous video due to the bandwidth, but maybe one frame every couple minutes. Then transmit the frame, receive the frame at the city house, and display it on a 60 inch HD display.

It would be a big plus to be able to zoom or pan, but just a crystal clear still shot is all that I feel I need to do.

What camera/lens system will take stunning long-distance HD scenery views?

How do I transmit/receive the pictures automatically?

How do I display one frame continuously until the next one comes in, and make the frame transition non-distracting?

Is zoom and pan viable?

Can I do all of this for under $1000 in equipment costs and still get great pictures? If not, how much?

How can I stream HD content from one Comcast DVR to a another TV two stories above?

parakeetdog — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:18:04 -0800

Does anyone know of a product that can stream HD videos from an HD DVR to another TV two stories above? I have looked at Slingboxes and Popcorn Hour, but both seem to be able to send HD content to a computer, but not another HD TV. I have seen products that allow people to send non-HD programs to a TV, but I want send HD programming too.

Sony and Gefen make wireless HDMI streaming devices, but they are limited to 30 and 65 feet respectively.

Any suggestions?

3rd Party HD cables -- did wii make a mistake?

AlbatrossJones — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 17:52:02 -0800

[Wii_Filter] Does it matter of HD component cables are first-party vs. third-party? I've hooked up my Wii to my 40 inch Sharp, and while I know the Wii isn't going to make any stunning graphical leaps with a change of cables, is it possible that using Nintendo's "official" component cable would produce a higher-quality picture? And before I hear a lot of hate from Xboxers/PS3ers, yes, I know that hooking your Wii up via HD cables is not a "game-changer." But I know there's some improvement -- I'm just trying to gauge if I made a mistake by going 3rd party ($$$ saving).

A pocket digital camera that can zoom while shooting video?

jaimev — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 16:10:49 -0800

Are there are any pocket-sized digital cameras that allows optical zooming while shooting in video mode? Big bonus points if it can shoot HD (720p) video. I currently use a Canon PowerShot SD800 IS. I'm really happy with it. Except I find myself using it more and more as a video camera instead of a still picture camera, and the inability to zoom while shooting video has gotten irritating. I'm tempted to buy a video camera, but I'd rather just carry one device that does both still images and videos reasonably well.

What's wrong with my DirecTv HD receiver?

calgirl13 — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:19:51 -0800

One of my two HD direcTv receivers routinely loses its satellite signal and will spend countless hours 'searching for signal' while my other receiver works just fine. What's up? A couple months ago, I finally upgraded my bedroom directv receiver from a non-hd receiver to an hd one. Since I installed the new receiver (which I noticed is a refurbished one), it will routinely crap out on me and give me the 'searching for signal' error 771 msg. Re-setting it doesn't work and everything's plugged in correctly. It's not a satellite problem, I live in northern calif and don't have weather related issues and my satellite dish is completely unobstructed. My b-band box is connected. My other receiver never has this problem.
The weird thing is that it only happens when it gets dark. On average, this happens once a week. I usually turn it off and then the next day, it works just fine again. I've exhausted customer service and am trying to avoid the cost of having a repair person come to my house. Any idea what's going on?

Embeddable Video

nam3d — Mon, 25 May 2009 12:44:28 -0800

What video sharing website has the 'cleanest' looking embeddable video player which has less branding on it than say YouTube or Daily Motion? It would be a plus if it had a "HD" video option.

PC won't recognize my HD.

reenum — Mon, 04 May 2009 07:14:21 -0800

My computer is having problems with recognizing capacity of hard drives or recognizing the drives at all. I have an old Dell desktop tower. It has a 1.8 Ghz processor and 384 MB of RAM. I use it mostly to store my music and surf the web, so it doesn't need to be top of the line. It has a 40GB drive, and a second hard drive my dad installed.

On Friday, I tried to replace the existing second HD with a 250GB drive. When I started up the unit after replacing drives, the computer wouldn't boot. It kept asking for a boot disk.

So, I swapped the original drive back in. As I was putting that drive back in, I noticed that it has a listed capacity of 120GB. However, when installed, the computer shows it as being a 40GB HD.

I'd like to have more storage on my computer. So, is there a way for me to get this PC to recognize the full capacity of the 120GB HD or to boot up with the 250GB HD?

Stunning photos how to

crewshell — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 21:19:15 -0800

How is this photography effect achieved? http://ny.vicaso.com/compare

How does this service capture the richness, detail, and lighting on the HD photo compared to the standard shot.

Tips on how to recreate this would be excellent. ( I have some photoshop experience and access to a Nikon D3 / D300)

How do I get my files from Point A to Point B?

reenum — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:10:14 -0800

I need to move several gigs of music files from one external hard drive to another. But, there are a few problems... I have a 250GB WD HD in an enclosure and recently bought a WD Elements 640GB drive. I now want to back up all my music files from the 250GB to the 640GB drive. They total about 33GB.

Problem is, my computers do not have USB 2.0 drives. Every time I begin the backup process, it goes for a while, and then terminates due to an error in writing from the 250GB drive.

Is there an easy way to do this backup?

Alternatives to the Sony HDR FX7?

lemonfridge — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 04:34:22 -0800

I was all geared up to purchase a Sony HDR FX7 camcorder, but it is now obsolete. What alternatives are there? I ordered the camera, case and tripod from various websites to get the best price, but the camera is now obsolete and my order has been cancelled.

I'm now stuck with a Sony case, and Tripod (delivered already) designed for a camera I can no longer buy. The tripod has the interface for Sony cameras on the handle, and the case has custom cut foam for this camera - So I really want to stick with Sony if possible.

What alternatives are there? I was looking at spending £1500, and I'd prefer to buy in the UK to avoid any hefty fees. I could be tempted to spend more for a slightly newer model but not by much.

Suggestions?

old mac Mini is too Mini for TV

penciltopper — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:06:44 -0800

I have an old G5 PowerPC Mac Mini that would be just right to repurpose as a DVR/HTPC. But the weak onboard graphics are preventing joy. Is there a way I can offload the graphics processing workload to an auxillary device? It's an old G5 powerpc mini, still works just fine; but it's an orphan at the moment, with no purpose in life.
So I thought I'd try hooking it up to my TV and using it as a HTPC of sorts.

DVI output to my TV at 1080i works for DVD player, torrented .AVIs via VLC, etc.

But if I try to watch Hulu through it, the picture is choppy if it works at all. Especially for 480p streams.

I'd also like to use something like Elgato's EyeTV to capture over-the-air HD TV broadcasts and play them back later. (Watching the signal live is unnecessary, but would be a bonus.)

But I'm pretty sure the Mini can't handle that processing load?

Elgato seems to have a couple of devices like the turbo.264 that mention that they do the transcoding/processing of the video, offloading it from the attached Mac's processor.

Would this help? If not, is there some other kind of external graphics card or add-on device I can use to externalize the graphics processing workload, so the old hardware in the Mini isn't crippling?

Desired end state is that I am able to watch recorded OTA HD shows and "live" Hulu/other video streams

I have a NAS drive to hold recordings, and an XBox 360 (all three are on same wired network) if that helps.

1080i preferred, HD only (I can skip analog)
$250 max budget (so I'm not just going to buy a new Intel Mini)

Anyone have any experience or suggestions?