Tips Of The Week

Tip 1:

Although the SATA cables are clearly superior to their counterpart PATA, the SATA port in the motherboard is a bit fragile. The motherboard SATA connector includes a plastic tab which can be broken if the connector is bent. This might happen if the cable is pulled to one side. Because such a broken connector is on the motherboard rather than the cable, you just can't replace it. So whenever you are opening your system for some reason, handle SATA connectors with care!!

Tip 2:

If you want to play a movie with subtitles, just place the subtitle file inside the movie folder. VLC Media Player and Standalone DVD Players won't recognise the subtitle file unless it is named similar to the movie file. Even an unnoticed extra space or a capital/small letter variation will make a difference. BS Player will open the subtitle file without bothering about the file name. Only if the folder contains more than one subtitle file, it will choose the one which is named similar to the movie file (and of course, you can load any external subtitle file from BS Player's menu).

Tip 3:

File names of most of the downloaded movies and subtitles will contain a lot of dots (why can't those uploaders use underscore instead? In fact, what is need of symbols to seperate words in file names?). Since the letters coming after a dot will be confused for file extension by Stanalone DVD Players and some programs like SubtitleEdit, you have to remove all the dots and rename the file before using it. If you had downloaded those files through a torrent and if you wish to seed it for some time, then postpone the renaming of those files.

Tip 4:

In the 40-wire older version PATA cables, when you connect two devices (Hard Drive and/or DVD Drive), you have to set the jumper in one as Master and the other as Slave. With the 80-wire newer version PATA cables, you can put the jumpers in Cable Select (CS) settings in both devices. This means the master/slave relationship of the two drives will be identified by BIOS by the position in which the drives are connected to the cable. Usually the drive which is attached to the farthest end of the cable is master and the one which is attached between the motherboard and the master is the slave. Cable Select settings were designed to make it easier to connect hard drives and also to identify which is master and which is slave easily, depending upon the position where you connected them to the cable.

SATA Vs IDE

Question Of The Week

PATA Vs SATA

What are the differences?

PATA and SATA are two types of Hard Disk Drives (HDD) being used at present, PATA being the older and SATA being the newer. Except in the way they connect to the PC, both are essentially the same.

PATA stands for Parallel ATA. SATA stands for Serial ATA. ATA stands for Advanced Technology Attachment which is a standard for interfaces (ports and cables) that allow you to connect storage devices to the motherboard of your PC. ATA is also known as IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) which is simply a commercial name. Somehow it got stuck and is now being used interchangably with PATA.

1. Connection:

SATA interface is simpler and less fussy. SATA cables are long (upto 1 metre !!), thin, 7-pin cables. One end plugs into a port on the motherboard (labeled as Serial ATA Controller) and the other into a storage device like a Hard Drive or DVD Drive. The PATA cables, in comparison, look like a ribbon or belt, can connect two drives with one motherboard socket (labelled as IDE controller) and carry either 40 wires (older version) or 80 wires (newer version).

SATA cables are cheaper than PATA. With the SATA cables we can add or remove devices while the system is in operation (So-called Hot Swapping), but not with the PATA cables. The limited length of PATA cables (18 inches) prevent efficient routing and accessibility to component drives in the system. Moreover, their width prevent the system from cooling off by impeding air circulation inside.

2. Data Transfer Speed:

In SATA, data transfer occurs serially and is 1 bit at a time. In PATA, data transfer occurs in parallel and thus is a minimum of 16 bits at a time. But SATA is faster than PATA. How and why?

While first-generation SATA interfaces (known as SATA-1 Standard) had a data transfer rate of 150 MB/s (1.5 Gbit/s), even the latest models of PATA hard drives (ATA-7 Standard)could offer only a data transfer rate of 133 MB/second. It couldn't get better because as data transfer gets faster, synchronization of the data being transferred in parallel becomes a bigger problem. Although SATA-1 devices operated at best a little faster than PATA 133 devices, many people couldn't notice the difference.

Subsequently, second-generation SATA interfaces (SATA-2) with a 3 Gbit/s data transfer rate were developed, effectively doubling the maximum data throughput from 150 MB/s to 300 MB/s. Now SATA storage devices can transmit data to and from the rest of the computer over twice as fast as otherwise similar PATA devices. Wait... that is not all. SATA-3 standard with a 6 Gbit/s data transfer rate is on the way!!

3. Power Supply:

In PATA storage devices, there is a traditional 4-pin power supply called Molex which provides 5 Volts and 12 Volts. In SATA storage devices, there is a 15-pin power supply which gives a third voltage (3.3 V) in addition to the traditional 5 V and 12 V. This lower voltage allows faster signal ramping which is crucial for enhancing speed and reducing heat dissipation.

4. Jumper Settings:

One PATA cable supports two devices which must be set as master or slave with the jumpers provided. But if you are connecting only one device, usually there is no need for jumpers. Anyway, read the instructions (usually given on the label of the device itself) carefully.

One SATA cable connects only one device to the motherboard and is always the master. So SATA devices don't need jumpers generally. Yet they contain jumpers. Why? If you are connecting a SATA 2 device with 3 Gbit/s data transfer rate to your older motherboard which supports only 1.5 Gbit/s, you need to set the jumper on your SATA 2 device. Of course, it makes the use of SATA 2 standard meaningless!! But if your motherboard supports 3 Gbit/s, you can remove the jumpers provided with the SATA 2 device.

DVD drives are also now made available with SATA interfaces. Within a few years from now devices with PATA interfaces will become obsolete.

BS Player and VLC Media Player

Programs Of The Week

BS Player

VLC Media Player

Say "Good Bye" to your old media players. These two are the best to watch videos especially the downloaded ones. If you have the habit of watching movies with subtitles, then you just can't ignore these two.

To sum up the important features... Both players will provide the list of audio and subtitles streams from which you can choose; Both players offer functions to change font type, size, position and timing of subtitles; Both players allow you to change the aspect ratio of the video (VLC Media Player gives you more choices along with a CROP function); Both players give you the media information just in case you are lazy enough to use Media Info / G-Spot in K-lite Codec Pack; Both players allow you to configure shortcut keys on your own.

To sort out the differences... VLC Media Player can adjust the audio timing if there is any audio sync problem where as BS Player can load external audio/subtitle file; VLC Media Player has got in-built codecs where as BS Player is dependent on K-lite Codec Pack; VLC Media Player can't remember the last movie position and can't seek key frames in AVI files where as BS Player does both.

Apart from these two programs, I use Winamp for MP3 files and Cyberlink PowerDVD for VOB (DVD) files.

Onlyoldmovies and Avlinks

Blog Of The Week

http://onlyoldmovies.blogspot.com/

Well... I never had any policy that I won't write about other people's blogs. Anyway, this one is too good to resist. It has got download links for an extensive collection of old and classic Hollywood movies. Awesome collection, indeed. While copying the download links, don't forget to copy the passwords to extract the .RAR files.