Oct 15 2009

Equipment Checkout

Published by annunn under fall2009

Hey Joey,

I was wondering if it would be possible to check out the available Flip and Digital Voice Recorder on 10/16

Aly Myers

One response so far

Apr 29 2009

Laptop Recommendations (White MacBook with Firewire)

Published by vanarnhemj under spring2009

Hi Everyone:

For those of you who have asked me to recommend a Mac Laptop with the best price/best capabilities for multimedia applications I have compiled the specifications and included them below with a few additional notes about memory, external data storage, and video adapters.

The White MacBookThe recommendation is for a White MacBook Laptop with a Firewire port from the College of Charleston Apple Store.  The total cost is $1239 (currently the amount qualifies for free shipping).  Please note that this model is the only MacBook that has a firewire port built in as a standard.  I do not recommend purchasing any other MacBook at this time.  DOWNLOAD PRINTABLE SPECIFICATIONS HERE

If you want to upgrade your laptop memory to 4GB (instead of 2GB) you can buy it from Apple for around $90.00 when you purchase your machine or you can use the Mac System Scanner from Crucial when you find that your memory needs have changed.

Additionally, if you ever plan to project your laptop or connect it a VGA monitor, you need to purchase the Apple Mini-DVI to VGA Adapter. I have included the adapter in the recommended specifications.  You will use this adapter to connect your MacBook to a standard analog monitor, projector, or LCD that has VGA video cable.  All the Smart Classrooms on the College of Charleston campus use this specific connector.

The adapter looks like this:
Mac Video Adapter

People often throw them away or lose them because they don’t know what they are for.  Mac video adapters are NOT GENERIC and only fit certain machines.  Make sure to keep your adapter in a safe place that you can find again when you need it:)

MyBook Firewire External Drive I also recommend that you purchase a Firewire MyBook external drive, particularly if you plan to continue working on multimedia/video projects using iMovie.  The Firewire drive can be used to store and edit your video projects instead of using valuable hard drive space. These drives can also be daisy chained (connected to an additional drive) if you need to increase the amount of storage for your video data. Firewire MyBook drives range in size and price and can be purchased from most office supply/electronics companies like Office Depot and Best Buy.  They are also available from sites like Amazon.com.

Please note that a USB drive will not work for this – the drive must be a Firewire drive if you intend to use it as project storage for iMovie projects.  Additionally, you will need to reformat the drive as a HFS Journaled drive. (For those who must know “why” it is because iMovie will run into a file size limit of 2GB per single file which causes problems with video editing since the files are often larger than this.  The restriction is from the NTFS file system (in other words Microsoft/PC) that the drive was originally formatted with.)

To Reformat The External Drive to HFS Journaled:

  • Go to your Applications folder -> open the Utilities folder
  • Open Disk utility
  • Select your external hard drive in the listing on the left side of the application window.  If you haven’t plugged your external drive, do so now.
  • There will be four or five tabs on the middle screen -> First Aid, Erase, Partition, RAID, Restore. 
    Click on Partition.
  • Select one Partition, give your hard drive a new name, and select Mac HFS (Journaled)
  • Select Options and choose GUID Partition Table (this is for Intel-Based Macs)
  • Click Apply
  • Close Disk Utility when complete.  Your drive is now ready.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Joey

  • Select THE WHITE 13-INCH MACBOOK! THIS IS THE ONLY MACBOOK WITH FIREWIRE
    .
  • Configure your MacBook with the following:

    Specifications

  • 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
  • 2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM – 2×1GB
  • 250GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
  • SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
  • Keyboard (English) / User’s Guide
  • None
  • None
  • None
  • None
  • None
  • None
  • Apple Mini-DVI to VGA Adapter
  • None
  • None
  • None
  • None
  • AppleCare Protection Plan for MacBook/MacBook Air – Auto-enroll
  • DOWNLOAD PRINTABLE SPECIFICATIONS HERE

  • Add your MacBook to the Cart and Checkout.  Currently the amount qualifies for free shipping.

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Oct 21 2008

PC Magazine Review by M. David Stone on the Sony IC Recorder

Published by vanarnhemj under fall2008

by M. David Stone

The Sony IC Recorder ICD-BP150VTP ($199.95 direct, tested configuration) is thinner but wider than the other recorders we looked at, making it the most comfortable for one-handed operation by those with big hands, but still small enough to be comfortable for small hands. You can also clip it to a shirt pocket, much like a pen, for convenient, hands-free recording. Recording time is similar to the DS-330: 2 hours 7 minutes in SP mode and 5:39 in LP mode, which still produces acceptable quality for most purposes.Sony’s Digital Voice Editor software lets you play files, move them to or from the recorder, and convert them from the default Sony DVF (Digital Voice File) format to Sony’s MSV or ISC format, or to WAV files. For manual transcription, you’ll find keyboard commands that give you enough control to rewind a few seconds. Even better is the ability to set start and stop points for continuous playback, letting you loop through the same section repeatedly until you get all the words. If you primarily need to transcribe dictation or notes from someone who’s willing to take the time to train the voice recognition software, the ICD-BP150VTP may be your recorder of choice.

The Sony IC Recorder ICD-MS515VTP ($299.95 direct, tested configuration) is the only recorder in this group with removable memory which, of course, is a Memory Stick. The unit itself is shaped much like a fat Memory Stick—tall and narrow—with most of the controls along the right-hand side. Users with large hands may find one-handed operation a little clumsy. Recording time with the included 8MB Memory Stick is 2 hours 51 minutes in LP mode or 1:04 in SP mode, but with a 128MB card, maximum recording time tops 47 hours. Sound quality in LP mode is acceptable for most purposes.

Sony’s Memory Stick Voice Editor is similar to Digital Voice Editor, with a slightly more attractive interface and the ability to speed up or slow down playback. Of the three units, all that keeps this one from being the runaway winner is its surprisingly low maximum volume, which might make playback difficult to hear in noisy environments.

Both Sony recorders can turn any message into a reminder to play back at a preset time, which worked well in our testing. You can even define all of your messages as reminders. The Sony devices also connect to your computer via USB. The packages we tested came with Dragon Naturally Speaking 6.0, but you can buy the recorders without voice recognition software. A 15-minute training session was enough to cut transcription time dramatically for notes we recorded in a reasonably quiet room. Voice recognition works only on files recorded in SP mode.

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