Editor’s note: While Mr. C. enjoys some well-deserved time off, we are reprinting a few frequently asked reader questions.
Q. I just purchased a new computer and want to copy all of my audiocassettes onto music CDs, but I know almost nothing about how to do it. Is there some publication that could tell me how?
I’ve looked at books at Barnes & Noble but found nothing with the kind of detail I am looking for. I just purchased a Dell Dimension 4700 with a 48X CD-RW. The only line-in that I can find has the symbol of a microphone on it. Upon purchasing it, I was told I could do it, but no one at Dell will tell me how.
Cathryn Wagner @usdieselparts.com
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A. You need a lot less than a book to do this, Ms. W. Most of the software that handles these transfers is relatively simple, and I’d like to recommend MusicMatch as a fine example that costs $20 and easily creates MP3 music files out of cassette tapes.
But first, let’s address your hardware concern. I checked your computer and found that it does indeed have a line-in connection. On the Sound Blaster 5.1 audio card you will find a row of four connectors. The one to the left of the microphone is the line-in. So you are covered with hardware. You have a cassette tape player with a line-out pin cable that you attach to the line-in port on your Blaster card.
Go to www.musicmatch.com and download the current version of that software. Now click on the Options choice in the MusicMatch toolbar and then select Recorder. Set that to line-in. (You’ll note that it also will accept sound from the microphone port for folks without line-in, albeit at a loss in quality.)
Now recall the Options menu and select Settings. There you will find an Advanced button. Click it and check the box for automatic song detection that comes up.
With this running, the software will record MP3 music files as your tape plays and automatically create a new file after each song finishes.
This is as easy as software for recording cassettes or LPs to digital files gets, and since you already have the correct hardware in hand, the process should be a snap.
On the downside, MusicMatch also will subject you to pitches for signing up to various paid radio subscriptions and music stores. Also, the software will automatically set itself as the default program for playing music files.
If you don’t like this, find an icon for a tune and give a right-click. Pick Open With in the next display and scroll down to Media Player, which is the default Windows player. You will see a check box to restore Media Player as the default.
Q. I am confused about the new DVD formats, and your recent column discussing them only added to my confusion. In that column, the reader says his friend recorded photos to a DVD+R disc and that he isn’t able to see them from any of his computers or his DVD player.
You responded by stating that the disks need to use ISO 9600 to “finalize” the DVD, and that it will then be able to play in other PCs as well as PlayStations and DVD players.
Could it be that the DVD+R disc that his friend sent to him wouldn’t work because he only had DVD-R compatible drives/players? Or are you saying that a DVD+R disc could be made to work in a DVD-R player if the disc is finalized?
I use Ulead VideoStudio 7, Pinnacle Systems Studio 7, and Sonic MyDVD software. I really hope you respond, since this whole DVD+R versus DVD-R issue has been a major headache for me and continues to be a problem for a number of my friends and family.
Steve [email protected]
A. Wow, Mr. H. Anybody who uses that potent collection of different home-oriented audio and video software should be answering questions, not asking them.
Let’s hope I can add light instead of just more heat to the massively confusing issue of recording CDs or DVDs on a computer and then playing them on conventional video equipment.
As you suspect, there are a fairly large number of DVD players, particularly older models, some of which have security features that block them from seeing the boot sector of a home-brewed DVD.
You seem to have such a dud in your living room. When one scans major lists of DVD players by capability, it turns out that there are some machines that will be able to see a DVD-R that has been finalized but not a DVD+R and so on. Go figure.
Meanwhile, new players are built by companies aiming directly at home hobby discmakers and include coverage for the whole ball of wax. You can drive yourself nuts reviewing product models at places like www.videohelp.com, but look on the top of the left side of that Web site for “what is” DVD.
Click on that for a useful glossary of DVD flavors and what machines they work with.
Q. I purchased a new HP computer running Microsoft Windows XP and transferred all e-mails from my old computer to new one. When pulling up these messages and viewing them, I would like to delete some and keep others. When deleting one from the group, all are gone. Is there any way to delete some and not lose them all?
Grover Bledsoe Jr., Lancaster, Pa..
A. The answer here is a cakewalk, and it’s a shame that it isn’t better known. When confronted with a list of e-mail subject lines, one can hold down the Control key and then select as many as desired by moving the mouse and giving each a click in turn. The messages selected can be saved, deleted or moved as a group.
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If you want to blow away the entire list of, select the one at the top and then scroll down to the bottom, then click on the last item while holding down the Shift key. This will paint the entire list, which can be nuked or nudged elsewhere.
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Contact Jim Coates via e-mail at [email protected] or at the baiduhai, Room 400, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago IL 60611. Questions can be answered only through this column. Add your point of view at chicagotribune.com/askjim.