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BOOT CAMP 049
BUT WHAT ELSE CAN IT DO…
The thing about computers that makes them so useful,
interesting and entertaining is that they can do so many different things. One
minute you're writing an E-mail, the next you could be looking after the
finances of a small business, tracing your family tree or defending the Earth
against alien invaders.
None of that will come as a surprise to you, but did you
know that you can also use a PC to listen to almost two thousand radio stations
around the world, see scores of terrestrial and satellite television channels
and watch the latest movies? And all that while you're tapping out a letter to
Aunt Mabel or loosing for the umpteenth time at Solitaire.
We'll begin with PC radio. There are two possibilities. The
first is an add-on module or tuner card that plugs into one of the sockets on
the back of your machine or fits into a spare expansion slot on the PC
motherboard. These are basically radio tuners that feed an audio signal to the
PC's sound system. Instead of knobs and dials the controls are displayed on the
monitor screen so they can be operated by the mouse or keyboard commands. Audio
quality can be very good indeed, or at least as good as your PC speakers and
sound system permit. Stand-alone radio kits for PCs are a little thin on the
ground these days, the function is often combined with other facilities, which
we'll come to in a moment, but several models are still available costing
between £20 and £40, see Contacts.
The second method is to log onto to one of the numerous
'live' radio station web sites on the Internet. You hear the sound, as it goes
out on the air, through your PC speakers. The station could be just down the
road or on the other side of the world, but this being the Internet it only
costs you the price of a local telephone call, (plus any subscription charges
to your service provider). Internet radio uses a technique known as 'streaming'
(see Jargon Filter) to send sound as digital data and you will need some extra
software or a 'player' to listen in, but they are widely available as freeware
or shareware. There's usually a link on the radio station site to the
appropriate download. The most popular players are RealAudio from Real Networks
and NetShow (aka Microsoft Windows Media Player) and these can be obtained
direct from the sites listed in Contacts.
Several web sites operate a listing service with links to
Internet radio stations; one of the most comprehensive is Live Radio, (details
in Contacts). The quality of Internet radio is a bit variable, it can be quite
good, though be prepared for interruptions and odd noises, especially during
peak hours.
Turn your PC into a television and keep up with your
favourite soap whilst you get on with a spot of word processing. Again there
are two ways of doing it. The first requires a TV tuner card, several of which
also incorporate a FM tuner as well. Some cards have extra functions, such as
NICAM stereo sound, teletext and an external video input, so you can connect
them to a VCR, satellite receiver or camcorder. Most TV cards also have video
capture facilities, allowing you to 'grab' still or moving images, to
incorporate into documents or web pages.
They're surprisingly inexpensive, basic TV only cards like the Miro PCTV
and Hauppauge WinTV sell for less than £60. Combined TV/FM radio cards,
including the Hauppauge WinTV Radio and Miro PCTV Pro cost just under £100.
Depending on the capabilities of your PC the TV pictures these cards display on
your monitor can be as good as an equivalent-sized colour television -- the
picture can be full screen, or a small inset 'window' overlaid on an open
application.
Satcom Europe has just launched the first digital satellite
TV adaptor for PCs. Kiss Sky Vision comprises a satellite receiver card and
MPEG 2 digital video decoder card (see Jargon Filter), the whole caboodle costs
£250, plus another £50 to £100 for a digital satellite dish. The first model
can only receive SKY Digital's free-to-air channels; a pay-TV version is under
development.
Moving pictures can also be sent over the Internet, in much
the same way as sound, using data streaming. Needless to say you will need
suitable player software to view the images. The current market leaders are
RealVideo and RealPlayer Plus G2 -- available from the Real Networks web site.
Internet TV is definitely not a substitute for the real thing, especially if
your modem is a typical 33.6kbps model. If you do manage to get it to work
picture quality is quite frankly dreadful, the image is small and jerky and painful
to watch for more than a few minutes at a time. Nevertheless, if you enjoy a
challenge there's plenty of web sites broadcasting video and the fact that
moving pictures come to you more or less live, down an ordinary telephone line
from a site that could be thousands of miles away, is most impressive.
DVD or the Digital Versatile Disc is the latest way to watch
your favourite movies and it's coming to a PC near you. DVD-ROM drives which
replace a normal CD-ROM drive, that can read high capacity data discs (and
CD-ROMs) have actually been around for a while, but now several models come
with MPEG-2 decoder cards, enabling playback of DVD Video discs. DVD movie
discs usually contain 'extras', such as production notes, multi-channel
surround sound, multi-lingual soundtracks and subtitles. Prices start at around
£175 for the Philips DRD-5200, the Sony DDU-220 DVD-ROM drive kit sells for
around £250. DVD picture quality is outstanding -- it wipes the floor with VHS
tape -- but it has to be said that widescreen action blockbuster movies loose
something, when shown on a 14-inch PC monitor…
Next week -- Make your own 1999 Calendar
CONTACTS
FM RADIO ADAPTORS
Typhoon plug in card, £20, Choice Computers 0800 0735735,
www.insight.com
Nighthawk Wizard, £45, Watford Electronics, (01582) 745555,
www.watford.co.uk
Irlam (serial cable module), (01895) 811401,
http://www.irlam-instruments.co.uk
INTERNET RADIO & TV
Real Networks http://www.real.com
NetShow http://microsoft.com/windows/mediaplayer/download/
Live Radio http://www.frodo.u-net.com/radio.htm
TV ADAPTORS
Hauppauge UK, 0171-378 1997
Miro/Pinnacle, (01895) 424200 http://www.pinnaclesys.com
JARGON FILTER
MPEG-2
Moving Pictures Expert Group -- MPEG-2 is one of a set of
technical standards for compressing video into digital data; picture quality is
at least as good as normal broadcast TV
NICAM
Near Instantaneously Companded Audio Multiplexing, since you
ask… The digital stereo TV sound system used by UK TV broadcasters
STREAMING
Technique used to send sound and pictures over the Internet.
Data is 'buffered' or stored in a temporary memory by player software on the PC
to minimise the interruptions that would otherwise occur as data on the net is
sent in chunks or 'packets'.
TOP TIP
If you don't like a particular shortcut icon on your desktop
change it! Windows 95 and 98 has a
secret hoard of them hidden away in a file called Pifmgr.dll in the System
folder. Simply right-click on the offending icon and select Properties then the
Change Icon button on the Shortcut tab. Either enter the path C:\windows\system\pifmgr.dll,
or use the Browse button to search out the System directory in Windows.
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