Before we begin, I apologize for not having a column last week. I was a bit under the weather. Well, perhaps more than under the weather - it was bad enough that I didn't even THINK about writing a column! Anyhow, I seem to have returned to near normal now, so on with the show.
Just to follow up a bit on my last column on home video editing, there is some new news. I had found previous software offerings for getting video from your camcorder and manipulating it on your PC to be somewhat cumbersome and often downright difficult to use. Not to mention that the programs often failed altogether. Well, I downloaded the 30-day trials of two offerings from one of the leading software vendors in the home or amateur user category, Ulead DVD Movie Factory 2 and Ulead Video Studio 7. The Movie Factory seems to be an easier to use subset of the full Video Studio, but lacks a lot of the function. If you just want to get video from your camera and write a DVD or Video CD (VCD), then the Movie Factory will do the job.
The version 7 of Video Studio is not even available in stores yet, but you can download it on the web if you have a high speed Internet connection.
Both packages seem vastly more mature then I remembered, and not only that they didn't hang up or fail at all. I was able to capture video with no glitches, and easily write a VCD. It went so well that in fact I am thinking about shelling out some money now to get a DVD burner.
On that subject, you might remember my comments about the DVD format wars from last time. With Microsoft now having joined the DVD +RW Alliance, the end may be in sight for the DVD format wars. MS wields a big stick in this business. Stay tuned...
On a different note, my main home PC started behaving very erratically this past week. It had given me some trouble in the past, which I traced to what seemed to be a bad memory module connection. But cleaning out the module pins and the socket seemed to do the trick then. But now it was failing more consistently. Since the computer had a three-year warranty, I called up the manufacturer to get a replacement.
To my surprise, I was informed that the warranty was only one year for the main board (motherboard), CPU, hard drive and RAM! Duh! What else is there? I did look up the warranty statement on their website and, sure enough, that is what it said. I didn't think that was the case when I bought the unit two years ago, but I had no documentation to prove otherwise.
The lesson here: read the fine print and keep a paper trail.
Along similar service lines, I bought a new TV recently and did get the in-home service contract. Now, I usually don't get those contracts, but in this case the cost was acceptable and I checked with the local repair shops before purchase to verify the expected time between repairs on these new beasts.
I was a bit displeased with the convergence on the screen and called for service. They told me that the unit had to be brought into the shop. I followed up on the subject a bit, and it appears that the only difference between carry-in service and in-home service is that THEY will pick the unit up and return it instead of you bringing it in. They do in-home service on widescreen projection units, but not on standard CRT TVs. Again, you need to do research and read the fine print.
And finally to add insult to injury, my home theatre DVD player has started skipping on some DVDs. I tried to use a laser lens cleaner, but it made no difference. It was out of warranty, but I called the manufacturer anyhow about getting it repaired. The service rep chuckled (nicely) and told me just to buy a new unit. Welcome to the throwaway electronics world of today!
(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport / Oak Island area. You can visit his website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail him at bsc@bobseidel.com)