Blank media comes in various types such as CD-R, CD-RW, DVD -/+ R DVD-/+ RW, Dual Layer and so forth. After you have written a Disk, how do you write / print what is on there? This is where the various choices come in.
Pen
CD Pen
This is the cheapest and quickest way to get something on a blank disk as well as been able to buy any media you want but the amount of information and the looks is limited as you can see. For most people, they are happy with this method.
Labels
You would buy a pack of Labels along with an Applicator and basically print the label using the supplied program – the end result you peel off, put on the applicator and press the Media onto this. The problem is normally one of alignment and the sticker not fitting the media, once this is stuck on, there is not second chance. After some time the paper based label can start to come off and even make the disk spin wrong, definitely the most fiddly way t print labels.
Light scribe
LightScribe
Many drives now support writing in this format and basically how it works is that you write the disk as normal, flip the disk over and use the supplied software to print an image. As it is basically removing some of the disk – you get 2 tone images as above and the other aspect is the price of the blanks are more then normal one’s. I have not tried this personally but from what I hear, it is not worth the hassle.
Direct Printing to Media
Canon IP4200
A Much better idea is to print via the printer onto the media itself and you end of with a blank disk that looks more or less like the real thing. There is no “lining up” of the media, you select the correct tray from the list, pull the flap down (in the case of the Canon) and press print – the results as you can see from the above are very good idea. The price of the “printable” media is not much different from the non-printable and comes in either Silver or White. The Silver gives the end result an almost hologram type look.
Conclusion
Having tried most methods out there to get my media labled throughout the year, the best way I can see is to make sure you buy a printer which can print onto the media direct (as can the Canon IP4200 for example) and buy the blank “printable” media online – seems the shops around here struggle with this concept – even though the sell the printers that do this.
WDTV
Western Digital are about to launch a Media Player that costs £80 which enables you to play most video formats MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H.264) along with many other music and photo formats, upto a resolution of 1080p via a USB HDD plugged into the device. This in turn is then connected to your HD TV via HDMI which you can control via the provided remote control.
Combined with a My Passport portable drive (sold separately), this player is the most convenient way to play HD movies or user-generated videos, listen to high-quality digital music and show high-resolution slideshows of your family photos on your TV. Also works with popular USB drives, and digital cameras, camcorders, and portable media players that can be recognized as mass storage devices.
|
Designed for My Passport, works with many other USB storage devices – Play content from most popular USB drives,and digital cameras, camcorders, and portable media players that can be recognized as mass storage devices.
Full HD video playback and navigation – up to 1080p – Experience the spectacular picture quality of HD video and crystal clear sound clarity of digital audio. Use the included remote control to navigate through your entertainment choices using our crisp, animated HD menus.
Collect without limits – There’s no limit to the size of your media collection; just add more USB drives for more space.
Advanced navigation
Photo viewing
Movie viewing
Music playback
Access two USB drives simultaneously – Two USB ports on the player let you connect two USB storage devices and access them simultaneously. Our Media Library feature aggregates the content on both drives into one list sorted by media type.
HDMI and composite video connections – The High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) port lets you connect to the highest quality HDTV or home theater. Additional composite (RCA) outputs ensure compatibility with virtually all television sets.
Includes free media conversion software – ArcSoft MediaConverter™ 2.5 — a fast, easy-to-use application that converts photo, video, and music files into formats optimized for use on the WD TV HD Media Player.
Ultra-compact design – Fits easily into your entertainment center.
|
Ideal For
Hassle-free playback of HD movies, home videos, digital music, and photos on your TV.
System Requirements
Package Contents
You can buy one at PLAY and is due for release 17/11/2008.
Supported formats Include:
| Music – MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV/PCM/LPCM, AAC, FLAC, Dolby Digital, AIF/AIFF, MKA | |
| Photo – JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG | |
| Video -MPEG1/2/4, WMV9, AVI (MPEG4, Xvid, AVC), H.264, MKV, MOV (MPEG4, H.264) | |
| Playlist – PLS, M3U, WPL | |
| Subtitle -SRT (UTF-8) | |
the link to the device is HERE – for all the specs.
I had the Dell GX620 machine (P4 3.2Ghz, 1 GIG RAM, 80GIG HD, Inbuilt Intel 950 Gfx) working with Vista Ultimate and was using a Media Centre remote which plugs into a USB Port and this combination along with a wireless connection and later a wireless keyboard would enable me to press the Media Button and have access to Movies, Music and Pictures all stored on another machine (laptop with USB Drives Shared) and it worked to my mind pretty well. Of course been Windows, it talked to the Windows Laptop no problem and worked as expected, esp. once you put the AutoLogin into play.
I wanted to see though what Linux could offer me and after watching some Video’s on YouTube – it looked fantastic, finding all the Movies anywhere on the network and playing Streaming info such as Youtube and other sites. I want to tell you now – what they show you on there and reality is about 1 million miles away from each other and the work involved to get any of this working was too much in my eyes.
Basically you need to Mount (FSTAB) in Linux the Windows Share to a directory that is one deeper then the MythTv and provided you can do this (passing username / passwords to it) then so far so good. You go inside MythTV and import and you then get a list but if you want CoverArt and everything else, then be prepared to put some work into this – it is not Automatic at all.
I am still wondering if the noise level form the Dell is too much for underneath the TV and also will the wireless cope with streaming the movie?
Written by 