yeah Bic is absolutely spot on. this is exactly how I do it. the divx capabale DVD players are usually between $35 and $75, so it's not really a major purchase when you consider the time you save not having to re-encode everything you download.

as an example, i usually download LOST and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA over the weekend. once they are finished dling, i can burn two episodes (about 350MB each, to one cd-rw in a few minutes. my DVD player was about $65, the cheapest one at the time, from Philips, purchased at Best Buy...

dvd-rw can hold several divx movies, great for archiving.

Good morning!

So, I wake up in the mood for transcoding! I dload the Cucusoft program, instal it and ... the moment I try to add an .avi it shuts down. Again. Again. Again. Obviously it won't work.

I'll try to do it the hard, doom9's, manual way later in the day.

P41.8GHz with 768MB RAM.

Say I use Nero, again. Let's confirm I'm using the correct application. From SmartStart, Make Your Own DVD Video, eh?

"Action succesfully completed" with VSO ConvertXtoDVD.

Grrr - more of an advisory than a plea for help, in this case... on an on-going issue.

Finally bought Far Cry today, installed, then (as is my usual practice), d/led the latest patch (1.4 - 180 MB) and installed that. Started playing and discovered I could have mouselook (the game is unplayable without it) if I stuck to the default keymappings, but lost it if I changed to 'my' preferred controls (which I've used since Quake 1).

Some googling suggested maybe the patch is the problem, so I'm currently uninstalling the game. I'll reinstall and test the virgin retail install, then think about whether to d/l and install the earlier 1.33 patch, which apparently doesn't have this issue. Kinda sux when a patch creates new problems...

You wont finish the game anyway, it gets pretty damn hard toward the end!

Are you asking for a CHALLENGE!!! {/Stinko Man}

We'll see about that (you're probably right). The unpatched version seems perfectly happy, so I'll go with that for awhile. Pretty fun so far.

(heh, no more bravado from me; I'm temporarily stuck trying to get into the carrier, still in the Training mission)

So, my Tab function seems to be rotating the wrong way all of the sudden. I used to write my post, hit Tab and it was on Post Now. Now it goes the other way round to the title of the thread, up there ^. Can such a thing happen? Did I do something and changed it? Can I change it back?

Does it behave the same on every website?

This is, perhaps, too basic a question for this thread, but I have no clue what to do. My Norton Internet keeps popping up with a Program Control "High Risk" message. Apparently "mcupdmgr.exe" is attempting to access the internet. The "What do you want to do?" box gives me the following options:
Block Always (Recommended)
Permit Once
Permit Always
Block Once
Manually Configure Internet Access
It pops up about every ten seconds and I have been picking the recommended choice, but I can't get it to go away. Apparently it is from McAfee. Shouldn't it go away once I tell it not to let it access the internet?

Urgghh - you have McAfee and Norton on the same machine? Kinda like belt-and-braces, except the kind that will tangle with each other and wrap tightly around your neck!

Researching the specific file... answers momentarily...

Yeah, that's just the updater for McAfee, so you should 'Permit Always' so it can keep your McAfee up to date.

Thank you, sir.

So, Oblivion has eaten my main comp's Radeon 9800 Pro. That is, it will play, and look gorgeous, but keeps overheating (OK, it was 33 C today) and crashing. Time for a new vid card.

Trouble is, this mobo is AGP. For $225 or so I can pick up an AGP version of an HIS Radeon XT1650 Pro 512 MB IceQ... a lot faster card with a lot more RAM, and better cooling. (It takes 2 slots with its cooler so I'll have shuffle cards and be sure it'll fit.)

But AGP is already past the end of its upgrade path and hard to find. PCI-Express (PCI-E) is the interface all the cool kids have now, and it'd make more sense (and offer more options0 to get a PCI-E vid card... but that would involve replacing the motherboard, and would be more like $600-700 in total for something sweet.

OK, laying it out that way, it's pretty clear what I do for right now, being not overly flush with cash... thanx for listening.

quote:

Originally posted by Wanderer:
You wont finish the game anyway, it gets pretty damn hard toward the end!

Wimp.

Farcray has been pushing the 9800 pretty hard too, with crashes and jaggies. No further bids...? Think I might be ordering a new card today.

I've been thinking about a dual-screen option lately, particularly as I've been doing some very tedious, but paying, spreadsheet crap in which an extra panel of real estate would be handy.

I haven't really dug too deeply yet, as I don't have the scratch at the moment, but one thing that I need to confirm is my power supply; supposedly < 350 watts and it just isn't going to work.

Yeah, lots of the new vid cards require a separate power connection direct from the power supply, rather than just taking their power from the motherboard via their slot. 350 W is really too minimal even just for the mobo/proc in lots of new computers and a serious video card would be the death of it. Still, power supplies are maybe $20-40 - perhaps a little more for a good quality 450/500 W one (be aware that the stated number is not always that reliable unless you buy a quality PS) - and it's maybe a 15 minute job if you take it slow to switch them out, so that shouldn't get in your way.