Site Meter Home Computer Talk » Blog Archive » Home Media Player

Home Media Player

by JM

When I moved to Australia I had a laptop computer with all my music from years of downloads on it. Unfortunately, not long after I arrived it stopped working. The power supply was the problem that we couldn’t seem to fix and Mr. JM provided a different laptop for me to use. He tried to swap over the hard disk but the IBM didn’t want to know about it.

So I downloaded what I could and found other music from his collection, but there was always the hope that I could get back my music. But time passed, we got married, I worked on Fiction Scribe, Write Anyway, Book Stacks and Long Relationships and eventually Web TV Hub - but every so often I missed my music.

A little while back, Mr. JM went looking on eBay for a USB hard disk enclosure so he could access my old HDD and get the music for me. Along the way he came across something much better. (Yes, he did get the HDD enclosure and uploaded my music for me. Yay!)

On eBay, under the description ‘Portable 2.5″ HDD DivX Player USB MP3 TV DVD MPEG-4 CD’ was an awesome idea. It is a Media player that talks to PC, DVD or video player or TV. It plays all kinds of multimedia, including Xvid & DivX, MPG’s, MP4’s, VOB’s, VCD & SVCD files as well as MP3 files. (For those who are a bit confused, these are all types of video standards, except the MP3, which is a compressed sound file.)
hdd-media-player.jpg

So far we have yet to find a multimedia file type it will not play. Before this, we had to take the video file from downloads and make it into a DVD. Not only does this take a lot of time, but the PC needs to be disconnected from all other processes to ensure there are no glitches in the conversion. Out-of-sync audio is the least of the problems.

So, add in a laptop Hard Disk, (we had an 80GB one available) format it in FAT32 & copy files over the USB 2.0 connection then plug it into your home entertainment system. Voila! Instant movies! Total cost, $AUD19.99 plus postage. The cheapest DVD player available that offered AVI file playing was $AUD75 and there was no guarantee it would do Xvid or DivX.

Also available (for slightly more cost) is a 3.5” HDD Media player. (3.5” is the size of modern hard disks in Desktop PC’s, so if you have one laying around…?)

Note: To format in FAT32, connect the USB Hard Disk Media player & note which drive it is. Look in My Computer – most PC’s have a C Drive & a CDROM or DVD as the D Drive – the USB drive will show as the E Drive.
Then click -Start- then right-click on -My Computer- and choose -Manage-
Then choose -Disk Management- then right-click on the USB hard drive and choose -Format-
In -File System- choose -Fat32-, then Format the hard disk.

DO NOT Format the C Drive!!! You will lose all your system!


Posted in Hardware on January 30th, 2008

Link to this Entry

Recent Posts

Related Posts

Leave a Reply


About Home Computer Talk

This site is for home computer users. Learn more about how to use your PC at home and ask questions. Any questions will be answered promptly.

Home Computer Talk Author(s)
    » JM

NAVIGATE

LINKS

CATEGORIES

TOP COMMENTERS

RECENT COMMENTS

SUBSCRIBE

ARCHIVES

Blogging Flair

 

Technology Channel Posts

 

Hot Off The Press

  • Maced tailgater out of jail on $2,000 bail
    Tyrone Calvin Graham-Jones was released Thursday morning from the Isabella County Jail on $2,000 bail, after a non-running preliminary examination. Graham-Jones had been in police custody since he [...]
  • How Long To Take Antidepressants
    There's no shame in taking medication. However, many people suffering from any type of depression feel resentful at having to take medication in order to feel better. Part of this reason is the cost [...]
  • No. 9 Women's Golf Opens Fall Season Sunday
    The No. 9 Auburn women's golf team will begin play on Sunday at the NCAA Fall Preview in Owings Mills, Md., hosted by Georgetown University. The two-day tournament will be played at Caves Valley Golf [...]
  • XBox 360 Price Cuts
    The three readers of this blog who are no doubt sick of my bitching about my personal XBox 360 problems, fear not. I'm only bringing them up because now that the Xbox 360 is has an official price [...]
  • Advice from Nina Garcia from Project Runway
    Advice for pregnant women: "Wear jewelry. Lots of jewelry. Make the guy buy it for you--he got you into this. He can help you style your way through it. Ms. Garcia points out that style is [...]
  • The Big Millennium Falcon for Thirty-Two Fiddy
    A recent forum posting has created a bit of a stir lately that I thought I'd share. On Hisstank.com, a prominent G.I. Joe toy message board, someone posted strong evidence that they bought three of [...]
  • HOH Room Reveal - and gametalk
    Here it is - the HOH reveal! After the cut, of course... His letter is cute - from sister, dad and mom. He's told twice to keep his sister's romantic life out of his conversations, [...]
  • Casting Roundup: Desperate Housewives, 30 Rock, ER and More
    Gail O'Grady, who starred as secretary Donna Abandando on NYPD Blue and mom Helen Pryor on American Dreams, will be joining the cast of Desperate Housewives in a recurring role this season. Gail's [...]
  • The NFC East Might Not Be As Good As Advertised
    I say this as an Eagles fan, but the title of this post is pretty much par for the course. Since this is technically a fantasy football site, I probably should have mentioned that the NFL was [...]
  • FSU weekly news (September 2 - September 5)
    In this edition of FSU Headlines (13:04): - Sports and Citizens at FSU - FSU and the Lucky Few - Leadership for Medicine, a Leader for Real Estate - Lots of Leaders at Law Subscribe to FSU [...]