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Posted by Freewheeling on 08/28/06 21:23
Geena Phillips wrote:
> Freewheeling wrote:
>> Freewheeling wrote:
>>
>>> Wes Newell wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Sun, 27 Aug 2006 14:34:45 -0400, Freewheeling wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Wes Newell wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> On Sat, 26 Aug 2006 20:08:25 -0400, Freewheeling wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Well, Knoppix didn't work. It gets to the end of the
>>>>>>> installation, and just starts intermittently "flashing" some
>>>>>>> stuff on the screen. I let it go for close to an hour, and it
>>>>>>> just kept flashing. Tried both version 4 and version 5, with the
>>>>>>> same result.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> That's strange.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Again, if I wanted to set up a system to play HDTV off of
>>>>>>> cable/internet/phone what would I need to get? A new hard drive
>>>>>>> probably, right? (I currently have 2 40 GB drives, but they'd
>>>>>>> obviously be unsufficient for TIVO.) A new CPU probably, also?
>>>>>>> And a new video card?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> For cable, you'll need a QAM capable tuner. Phone? (Fios maybe, don't
>>>>>> know). Internet, you can forget for HDTV. 1080i broadcast take
>>>>>> about 7GB
>>>>>> per hour. 720p about 4GB per hour. SD only takes about 1GB per hour.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I wonder why Knoppix behaves this way? Perhaps it's the same
>>>>>>> problem
>>>>>>> that I have with video? Some sort of intermittent problem? Some
>>>>>>> hardware conflict?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Maybe that IRQ sharing you have.
>>>>>>
>>>>> I got this creature:
>>>>>
>>>>> http://tinyurl.com/rvoaf
>>>>>
>>>>> (Used http://www.tinyurl.com to resolve wrap problem for long URLs)
>>>>>
>>>>> It will at least solve my DVD playback, although it didn't actually
>>>>> say it was QAM tuner capable. If not, I suppose I can bring it
>>>>> back for an exchange. But they only had three TV/Video AGP cards
>>>>> available, and this was the cheapest.
>>>>>
>>>> IMO, you're wasting your money on crap like that. And no, it won't
>>>> do QAM.
>>>> And when NTSC is disconbtinued in Feb. 2009, it won't do much of
>>>> anything
>>>> except be a video card.
>>>>
>>>>> Now, I suppose I'll need to upgrade the HD (if I intend to use
>>>>> TIVO) and
>>>>> the processor, in that order.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> What Tivo? I don't understand what you're saying. I dumped my Tivo
>>>> and all
>>>> my DVR's over 6 months ago. They won't record digital broadcast.
>>>>
>>>>> I'd still like a more substancial hint on
>>>>> what to use as a processor. I just can't figure out what all the
>>>>> nomenclature is about. Can you just suggest something in the $60-$70
>>>>> range?
>>>>>
>>>> AMD 754 Sempron 3100+.
>>>>
>>>>> Thanks for all your help, BTW. Usenet is fantastic, as are you!
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I think you're jumping into this too fast. Their are many many
>>>> things to
>>>> consider before buying anything. If you've definately settled on
>>>> regular
>>>> or HD cable, then that All in wonder probably won't even work for
>>>> you to
>>>> record. And there aren't any Tivos that will record cable HDTV. The S3
>>>> should work if you can afford it whenever it's released. See last
>>>> line in
>>>> sig.
>>>>
>>> I have a bit of a problem, I think. The video went all haywire as
>>> soon as I logged on to XP, so I went into safe mode and disabled the
>>> video adapter, thinking XP would substitute something generic. But
>>> it didn't, it just blanked the display, so now I can't boot into safe
>>> mode.
>>>
>>> And to make matters worse, I got in to boot into regular mode for
>>> awhile before the screen when haywire, so I used the time to
>>> uninstall the ATI drivers, so now nothing works. Not sure what I can
>>> do. I'm pretty sure the device is booting to the logon screen, but I
>>> can't see anything. I figured that when I get the home network set
>>> up in a week or so I can Remote Desktop to the XP box, where the
>>> display will be governed by the second computer's video parameters.
>>> I've also installed XP on the other hard drive, so I have access to
>>> the files... if I knew what to do to change things so that the video
>>> works.
>>>
>>> That video card is a turkey.
>>>
>>> As for the cable connection, that hasn't started yet so strictly
>>> speaking I could cancel. But it's actually not a bad deal in
>>> comparison to the alternatives. Verizon's internet charges are way
>>> cheaper, but its phone rates are more expensive... so ends up costing
>>> the same for those two services. And, of course, if I did that I'd
>>> have no TV. Speakeasy is about the same as Verizon (more expensive
>>> internet, but cheaper phone).
>>>
>>> But the first order of business is to get my main XP box bootable,
>>> and then take back that video card. Maybe get a regular video card
>>> and worry about the tuner later.
>>>
>>> Anyway, it could be a lot worse. I didn't lose any data, and I
>>> installed that 2nd XP box on the partition that had the useless Lycos
>>> distribution, so didn't lose anything in terms of space. I may not
>>> be able to register it, though, with Gates' restrictions. Will they
>>> also balk at a new CPU?
>>>
>>> Anyway, it's irksome but it'll get sorted out.
>>
>> I'm not actually as stupid as this scenario makes me look. I just got
>> a little P-Oed that the stupid card was screwing up the display, and
>> chose the wrong thing to uninstall. I should have just uninstalled
>> the software itself, instead of the drivers. I'm fairly sure it was
>> the software that was screwing things up, mandating some really nifty
>> fade effects no doubt.
>>
>> I talked to the ATI folks who told me that the board is probably bad,
>> and I should take it back. Fine with me.
>>
>> BTW, if I get a new hard drive will Gates allow me to register my
>> operating system on it? Also, what if I change the CPU? With the way
>> hard drives crash I can't imagine that it'd be a problem, but you
>> never know with those guys.
>
> You know, the fact that you refer to Microsoft as "Gates" tells me
> roughly 90-plus percent of everything I'll EVER need to know about you.
>
When I was younger, just as the PC was beginning to emerge and Apple
didn't have any real competitors other than Commodore, a small software
franchise opened up in the Pacific Northwest called "Microsoft". One of
my techno-challenged friends observed that this might be construed as a
form of hyper-impotence. Just goes to show what's not in a name.
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