http://www.ecoustics.com/latest/articles Latest articles, updated every five minutes http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/23569/ You arrive home, giggling and overjoyed, only to find that the disc... won't... play.  You try everything to get it to work... but nothing works, because there's a bunch of scratches and Cheeto-prints on the back of the disk from the inconsiderate loser who rented it before you. Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:00:07 -0400 http://ecoustics-cnet.com.com/4660-10165_7-6887638.html?part=ecoustics-cnet&part=ecoustics-cnet&subj=video Ripping your CDs to iTunes' AAC audio format doesn't mean you're relegated to the iPod as your only portable music player. On this Insider Secret, Donald Bell shows you five iPod alternatives that will play nice with your collection of AAC music files. Mon, 07 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/21993/ Windows Media Player is a media player for all your digital media (audio, photos and video) for computers running Windows XP and Vista. It is available as a downloadable application for Windows XP directly from Microsoft or via Windows Update and ships with Windows Vista as its default player. It is also available on Pocket PC and Windows mobile based devices. In the following sections, I will show you the basic interface, library management, ripping/burning audio cds to the library and how to sync your media to a portable MP3 player. This article focuses on Windows Media Player 11. The Interface Windows Media Player 11 (WMP11) is the latest version on Microsoft's Media Player. It has undergone a complete overhaul from previous versions and sports a slicker user interface. It is pretty simple to navigate and access your media by just a few clicks of the mouse. You can use it to share media with other pcs, media streaming devices (XBox360, PS3, Netgear EVA8000, etc.), to rip and burn cd's to and from your library and sync your media to/from portable media players (both audio and video). There are 5 main buttons on the interface, they consist of the "Now... Fri, 16 May 2008 11:15:06 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/21081/ Remember back in the 1980s when you purchased your first CD? Whether it was Billy Idol or The Psychedelic Furs, imagine if you had gone home and placed the Sony-manufactured CD in your Panasonic CD player, only to find out that it didn’t work. Or, what if that CD from Virgin Records only had half the sound quality as a CD bought from Best Buy? Believe it or not, this is exactly the current digital music environment in which we live. To navigate a digital world without standards, today’s audiophiles must gain some digital music knowledge to optimize their listening experience as they convert their CDs to digital music. To understand where we’re headed with today’s digital music, it’s key to understand where we’ve been. All digital music formats are based on the principles discovered by German researchers at the prestigious Fraunhofer Institute. In 1987, the Institute began researching high quality digital audio compression. They discovered that by understanding how humans hear music, a particular song could be stripped of excess sounds that were inaudible. The obvious first choice was to remove frequencies too high or too low for the human ear to perceive. However, the more interesting breakthrough was... Fri, 08 Feb 2008 13:15:13 -0500 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/20259/ Ask any teenager what the "must have" gift on their list this holiday season is, and you will undoubtedly have the majority suggesting the MP3 player. The Sony Walkman of today, MP3 players offer the convenience of portable music in a very small package. A Little Background At the heart of the MP3 player is a music file. Similar in some ways to a compact disc, which stores digital music in a disc format, the MP3 also stores digital music. The one big difference is that MP3 files are compressed to a much smaller size, which enables the player to store more files. The wonder of the whole operation is that the quality of the music does not suffer as a result. What makes an MP3 player different than the Walkman of the past is the fact there are no storage devices that need be inserted (such as a CD or tape) into the unit to play music. The player is essentially a mini computer that stores a digital file. When called upon, the file will play music. In addition, the player is much smaller, with most flash players similar in dimensions to a credit card. The components of a... Sat, 22 Dec 2007 10:00:15 -0500 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/19445/ Your monstrous collection of compact discs has gotten a little out of hand. Billions upon billions of them are scattered throughout your home. They used to be the top-of-the-line in sound quality. Times have changed. MP3s have taken over. And now you have no idea where to put all your CDs or what to do with them. So what do you do? Well, there are about as many options as CDs in your titanic accumulation. But let’s take some time to cover the most popular—and arguably most effective—ways to do this. CD Changer One option, which was popular a few years ago (and still holds its own), is to purchase a large capacity CD changer. I actually bought a fifty-one CD changer back in the day (mid-1990s) as a means to better organize my moderate mass of compact discs. The stereo system was state of the art back then, and I was on top of the world. Today you can purchase gargantuan 500+ disc CD changers for fairly reasonable rates, allowing you to keep your CDs well-organized and niftily consolidated. However, you'll still have to keep track of your CDs somehow. Pros: Provides storage for CDs Keeps CDs well-organized and ... Wed, 17 Oct 2007 18:30:05 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/19443/ It had a rectangular body with a snake-like appendage that connected it to a plug on the wall. A number of helpless electrical devices plugged into the rectangular brick that was its power source. Its name was Surge Protector–the guardian of computers and electrical appliances, and preserver of operational voltaic doohickeys. Surge protectors may not be one of the X-Men or Fantastic Four, but they’re definitely super heroes for any techie or techie-wanna-be. But what are they? Why are they so necessary? How do they work? And what kinds are the best? What's a Surge Protector? Surge protectors come in many different shapes and sizes, but they all have one thing in common: they all protect electrical devices (computers, monitors, printers, televisions, DVD players, CD players, etc.) from surges in voltage. That’s what surge protectors do. They're always on duty: during a lightning storm; freak voltage spikes from the power company; or—more likely than not—a surge in power from demands by high-power electrical appliances or devices, like air conditioners or vacuum cleaners. Without a surge protector your electrical devices are helpless sitting ducks, waiting to be crisply blackened by the fire of unrestrained electricity. Besides preventing such an unpleasant scenario, ... Tue, 09 Oct 2007 13:45:11 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/dt/guide/83 Windows Media Player 11 is the latest Windows Media Player application available from Microsoft. This powerful and free digital music management software allows you to copy the music off of your audio CDs and onto your computer’s hard drive so you can enjoy your music without needing to pop in a disc. As an added bonus Windows Media Player 11 should automatically download CD information and cover album art so you can more easily identify tracks and such. To get the most out of copying CDs using Windows Media Player 11, read on.1) Insert an audio CD in your computer and the AutoPlay function of Windows should make a window prompt appear asking you what you wish to do with the CD. Select Rip music from CD using Windows Media... Tue, 27 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/14550/ Did your DVD/CD player or combo unit suddenly take a turn for the worse? Did it stop reading some discs, start skipping, or just stop playing all together? If you're the type to dig in and fix it on your own, Larry Dillon has the ultimate guide for you! Read on to learn how to figure out what's wrong, and maybe get that player back in top working order! Wed, 09 Aug 2006 19:36:07 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/14406/ Question: I have a portable Sony CD player (D-EJ119), and when I press play the LCD screen just flashes the word hold. Nothing happens, and I can't hear any music. Any ideas? Wed, 28 Jun 2006 11:43:11 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/pcw/howto/125183 Sony's new HD camcorder and Blu-ray Disc player lead the pack this month. Fri, 24 Mar 2006 03:00:00 -0500 http://www.ecoustics.com/pcw/howto/125063 The scoop on Apple's Mac Mini and iPod Hi-Fi Dock, plus other goodies like a $3000 CD Player. Wed, 22 Mar 2006 03:00:00 -0500 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/13315/ To those of you who have purchased Sony Walkmans with Sonic Stage 3.1 CD and many other Sony product CD's, There is a big question about rootkits messing up computers. Take it from experience, I've already replaced my hard drive since this NW-E505 MP3 Walkman was purchased for Christmas for my son. I've had nothing but trouble with it since... Mon, 30 Jan 2006 11:40:54 -0500 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/12079/ I ripped a CD to my computer. When transferred, the folder reads 57.8MB. However, when I attempted to burn it back onto another CD, I was only able to add another 5MB of songs. I thought the CD could hold 700MB. Therefore, why couldn't I add at least 30-40 songs if the songs did not exceed 700MB? Mon, 12 Sep 2005 11:25:13 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/11583/ I have a 1GB Sandisk digital audio player. When I try to play my WMA files on it, they will not play. It will only play MP3 files. All of my songs on my player are from my CDs, so why won't my MP3 player play them? Wed, 13 Jul 2005 19:33:46 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/11460/ Every day it seems that MP3 players come out with more memory and are getting smaller and smaller. However, I continue to struggle with the fact that I still cannot live without two MP3 players. Here's my thinking. I've now conditioned myself that while in the car, I need to have an MP3 player with all of my music on it so I can listen to anything that I want while driving. Until hard drive MP3 players become a reasonable option built into the car, at least a 40G MP3 player that can hold most of my CDs is a necessity. Unfortunately, 40G hard drive MP3 players are still not easily carried around while working out. Mine often skips while running and it's awkward to hold even with a shoulder strap while lifting. So, the option that works best is a Flash-based MP3 player that slips easily into running shorts and holds around 100-200 songs, such as the iPod shuffle.We're getting closer, but the closest thing I've seen is the Cowon iAudio MP3 Player. But, it has no screen and although thin, is still pretty big.I think in another ... Mon, 27 Jun 2005 23:54:09 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/11198/ Question:I have a Toshiba SD-K620 DVD Player. Sometimes it works fine and sometimes the movies get garbled. Is the tracking off? Is there anything I can do to correct this?-submitted by ERICAnswer:There can be many reasons why a DVD movie will not play back perfectly. The most common fix is for you to check the read side of the DVD disc for any fingerprints, smudges, or scratches. On a DVD, the pit size that is read by the laser is seven times smaller than that of a CD, so any defects on the disc can interfere with the player's ability to read the information on the disc.Another disc realated issue is that the DVD you have is defective. Not all commercial DVD discs are flawless, so a poorly printed DVD (bad printing can cause the data to be corrupted or warping of the disc) can exhibit behavior as you're describing. Try the DVD in another player and see if it garbles in the same place as your existing player.There are numerous hardware issues that can cause this as well. If the player is in an enviornment with lots of dust and/or relatively high humidity, particles can build up on the ... Thu, 19 May 2005 18:13:02 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/11024/ Two of my favorite activities are bicycling and listening to music. Historically, they have not been a good combination, because headphones can block out traffic noise that you need to hear to stay safe. Last year, I received a Rage helmet with built in speakers. It plugs into standard sound jacks on portable radios, CD players, and mp3 players. I first tried using it with my CD player. I was surprised at how well the speakers worked, and that I could still carry on a conversation with my husband, who was riding next to me. I do mostly trail riding which can be a little rough at times, and I had some problems with the CD player skipping. This convinced me that my new toy (the helmet) needed a new toy of its own. I bought it an MP3 player.I have been using the combination of the MP3 player with the speaker helmet for about a year now. I absolutely love it, and have loaded music specifically to help me keep a steady cadence when I ride. I find it hard to believe that there are so few helmet options like this. You can purchase the helmet at many sporting ... Tue, 19 Apr 2005 08:20:35 -0400 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/10605/ Question Dear Sir, please can you help. I Have a Canon digital camera which records and plays 30 seconds clips of video. These can be copied to a CD and played in a program called QuickTime on my computer, but it they will not play in my home DVD player. However, it does work when I copy JPEG photos. I have a Panasonic DVD home theater system, model SC-HT870. I'm hoping you can help this silly old fool in Devon. -submitted by terry Answer: The reason why your DVD player will not play those discs is because the format in which the videos are captured by the camera are not compatible with the DVD player. Video files are digitally encoded and compressed to save space. Since there are many different formats to do this, such as AVI, MPG, WMV, MOV, and more, the only device that can usually play all of them is a computer. Canon digital cameras normally use the AVI format to compress video, which is not compatible with just about all home theater components. This is because the DVD player does not have the proper decoder to uncompress the file. It's like talking to someone in ... Thu, 10 Feb 2005 15:51:51 -0500 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/10582/ When I first starting creating MP3s from my CDs, I just hit the 'record' button on the software and let the software do the rest. After some more investigation and speaking to a couple of people, I quickly realized that there is more to ripping a CD than just hitting the red button. Here's my experience and thoughts, and I'd love to hear what others are doing. File Format - Rip to MP3 not WMA If you are going to take the time to rip your CDs, rip them to a format that is standard across the industry and is going to play on almost every portable MP3 player and software available. MP3 is universal, WMA is not along with all other formats. Unless you only ever intend on playing your music on Windows Media Player, I would not waste my time ripping CDs to WMA or any other format for that matter until the next generation MP3 format is ubiquitous (which I won't go into here). Record Quality - Set to Highest Possible When you rip a CD, the software has a preference for sound quality of the music file produced. This is because when you rip a CD, ... Sun, 06 Feb 2005 23:58:50 -0500 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/10538/ Question: I have a Fisher Studio 24 compact disc player and when I put a disc in and push play it says searching ,but then says M-error. What does that mean? What can I do? -submitted by debbie4000 Answer: There's nothing like cryptic error messages to only make matters worse when your device doesn't work. Not only do you need to figure out why it's not working, but you need to take your best guess at what an "M-Error" is. "M-Error" is short for mechanical error. This kind of error is common to devices like CD Players, DVD players, and VCRs. Basically, it can happen to anything with a mechanical system that loads and ejects media. Mechanical errors can be any number of things. In some cases a gear is stuck, in others a part has jammed. Sometimes, a CD is positioned wrong or has fallen off of the carousel, causing the platter to not turn. One way or another, something mechanical is inhibiting the operation of the unit. Without being able to look inside and see what's causing it, that's about the best diagnosis someone can give. I'd be willing to bet there is a busted gear underneath ... Thu, 03 Feb 2005 20:58:57 -0500 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/10531/ Question: I just bought a Memorex MMP8500 mp3 player for my son. I installed the software, but it does not bring up a Removable Disc Drive for me to use for copying songs from Real Player. Any idea how I can get that RDD to come up? -submitted by gmlarson Answer: As a note for everyone learning to use their MP3 players, not all players will prompt as a removeable disc in Windows, especially when they require a proprietary program to transfer music (Sony's NetMD MiniDisc players for example). The MMP8500 does allow access as a removeable disc drive, which does not require Real Player to transfer songs that are not copy protected. According to Memorex, both the internal memory and external SD/MMC card should be available as disc drives. If you're not seeing the device when connected, here are the possible reasons why: If you're using Windows XP, I would try removing the device driver you installed from the CD, reboot, and reconnect the device. Windows should assign its generic USB Mass Storage driver, and create a Removeable Disc Drive icon in My Computer. Memorex notes that changing the installation path of their software could interfere with ... Wed, 02 Feb 2005 00:22:42 -0500 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/10529/ It didn't take too many memberships to CD clubs to realize that my CD collection would get pretty unwielding pretty fast. Early on, I knew that every time I wanted to listen to a CD, it wasn't going to work to... Tue, 01 Feb 2005 02:02:35 -0500 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/10475/ Question: My wife has a Sylvania Mp3 player when I download songs it only plays about ten seconds of each song. I'm using windows media player 10. please help -submitted by maf Answer: Many audio products have playback feature known as "intro/scan" mode, or something similar. No doubt you're familiar with other playback modes like repeat and shuffle. "Intro" mode automatically plays the first 5 to 10 seconds of each file to help you locate a particular song on a CD or MP3 player, just like how you would look for a particular song manually. You should be able to find an option to turn this off in the MP3 player's menu. Matt Whitlock - Editor, TechLore.com Thu, 13 Jan 2005 17:20:02 -0500 http://www.ecoustics.com/tl/10424/ Question: I have a bunch of MP3's that, not so long ago, started playing with (bad) sound. The sound is similar to shaking a radio real hard while it is playing. Real shaky, breaking up sounds. I thought it might be my sound card, so I bought a new one and still have the same problem. Now.....I have a Radeon All In Wonder graphics card and I have the cable box connected to the computer. I can watch cable on my computer. With the same new sound card the sound is perfect. When I go back to play the MP3's the (bad) sound is back. It seems to only do this with MP3's and music videos. Can someone please tell me what the problem could be? Thanks. -submitted by jah711 Answer: Assuming that your MP3s were created from a CD that you own and that CD plays fine, your problem sounds like something that I have encountered myself several times. I suspect that these MP3s have always had this problem, but maybe you never noticed it before. It is not uncommon when you rip a CD that one or more of the resulting MP3 files end up corrupted. When played, ... Wed, 05 Jan 2005 23:51:16 -0500