TECH SUPPORT: DVDs for Dummies
Christmas Break is over, and we’ve all returned to our dorms or apartments and back to the daily grind of work and school. What’s missing? If you asked me, I’d say my Viper (the car, not the snake), speedboat and suitcase full of small unmarked bills. When I got back, I noticed all of these things were missing; but not because my house had been broken into.
The problem, you see, is that when I was born I took the wrong bus and accidentally got on the one headed for the Real World instead of Fantasy Land. Imagine my disappointment. But my problems aside, for everyone out there that got pastel knit sweaters from Aunt Irma for Christmas, I have a solution.
If you have a computer, but no TV, and want some added entertainment or distraction in your dorm room, you should consider adding a DVD drive to your PC. This is very easy to do, and will not cost you as much as purchasing a decent stand-alone unit from Wal-Mart. Provided your computer wasn’t around when I graduated from high school (five or so long years ago), you can purchase a $50 dollar DVD-ROM drive and be up and running in minutes.
A DVD drive for your computer is the size and shape of a normal CD drive, which you should already have. The difference, of course, is that it can play CDs and DVDs.
CDs today can hold 650-700 megabytes of data. A DVD, however, is capable of holding up to 17 gigabytes! And all of that is stored on a disk the same size and thickness of a common CD. This is accomplished through greater data density and the ability to make double-sided, double-layered DVDs. The data density of a DVD is approximately 10 times that of a CD!
Clearly, this is why DVDs are used for movies instead of CDs. Especially when you consider that it takes two gigabytes of space to store one hour of average video. Now since we’re talking about the storage capacity of a DVD, you’re probably wondering how you can write to or burn a DVD. This is accomplished the same way as making CDs, except you need a special DVD-R or DVD “Burner” drive to write to a DVD. These cost between $200 and $1,000. So if you got $200 more for Christmas than I did, go buy one.
The problem, however, is that you cannot make copies of all DVD’s with a DVD-R drive, even if it were for legitimate purposes (copying a DVD is as unlawful as copying a music CD). The type of DVD-R drives you can purchase commercially cannot create dual-layered DVDs, which hold the most amount of data. These are usually DVDs with lots of extra features on the disk, in addition to the feature movie (like music videos and deleted scenes). They require special and very expensive hardware to be created. I should also note that you need special software to copy DVD movies, and it will not be included with the drive. It exists to be used at your own risk (and by risk I mean being thrown in jail or paying thousands of dollars in fines — or both).
Blank DVDs that you can purchase will run between $5 and $10 each and hold about 4.7 gigabytes of information. You can store data on a DVD just as you would on a recordable CD, except the storage capacity is seven times greater. This makes DVDs ideal for backing up your PC or storing large amounts of digital video. Also, since DVDs are digital, a copy is exactly the same as the original. This is true no matter how many copies you make; there will be no reduction in quality.
Installation into a 500 megahertz or faster machine is a snap. The easiest way is to remove your current CD drive, and replace it with the DVD drive. If you wish to keep your regular CD drive in the PC, you will have to set a jumper on the DVD drive for your computer to recognize it. Then it’s just a matter of powering up the computer and installing the software that came with the DVD drive.
Once this is done, the drive will play normal CDs and DVD movies with the click of a mouse. If the installation procedure sounds daunting, you can bring your PC and the new drive to the Help Desk, where the consultants should be able to install it within the free one-half hour allotted to students. Happy viewing!
Eric Umina is a senior majoring in business information systems. Comments can be sent to the Help Desk at helpdesk@cc.usu.edu.