when I was in a hotel recently, it had a samsung dvd player where I could connect my USB to the DVD player and watch videos on my drive on the tv.
I thought this was the absolutely bomb. I would like to buy a similar dvd player for home. I think I know the model of the samsung player that was in the hotel room (it was a home theater system), but I am wondering how I could find various brands and players that fit this capability. Any suggestions on how I can search for this? My searching over at amazon has netted spotty results at best.
Does anyone have advice about external hard drive enclosures? I'm taking out my 80 gig drive (regular internal hard drive for a PC are 3.5", right?) and putting it into a case to use it as an external backup. Does it really matter what brand I get? What's the best online place to buy these things? I know about newegg.com, but are there others that are as trusted and inexpensive?
P-C, you do need a 3.5" enclosure (there are also 2.5" enclosures for laptop drives). Other than that, it's basically a box that holds a bit of ribbon cable, so as long as it's got the kind of connector you want -- USB, Firewire, or both -- there's really no difference worth paying extra for.
Newegg has a ton of them in the $20 Range; Tigerdirect.com will also have a wide selection. Or if you have a Fry's near you, try there. I wouldn't bother with Best Buy or the like.
You also need to know if your drive is IDE or SATA.
Other than that, it's basically a box that holds a bit of ribbon cable, so as long as it's got the kind of connector you want -- USB, Firewire, or both -- there's really no difference worth paying extra for.
That's what I was thinking. The cheapest ones seem to be around $13.99, and they seem like they do the job, but the most popular ones are in the $40-$50 range.
Newegg has a ton of them in the $20 Range; Tigerdirect.com will also have a wide selection. Or if you have a Fry's near you, try there
There's a Fry's, and they say the ones they have start at $50, which, whatever.
Tigerdirect! I knew there was another one I'd seen, thanks.
You also need to know if your drive is IDE or SATA.
How do I find this out? I think it's IDE.
Okay, maybe not. I found the Quick Installation guide for my Seagate 7200 RPM drive, and it mentions ATA drives. Like, if I "already" have one ATA drive and such, so I presume I have an ATA drive. So SATA? How do I make sure?
Wait, this sucks. Nearly all the enclosures are IDE. What's the difference? All the SATA ones only have a SATA to SATA connection.
LeN, you should check Samsung's website if you haven't already. but like as not your laptop has some kind of s-video port, and there are cable that will run directly from your computer to the television. You don't need an intermediary.
IDE is the same as ATA (confusingly enough), and they were by far the most common type for many years. SATA stands for Serial ATA, and it's been getting more common recently.
The quick way to tell the difference is that IDE uses a ribbon cable about 2" wide, while SATA has a little skinny cable that doesn't take up half the room in your case.
(edit: I should totally leave these questions to Scola and get back to my steenkin' homework.)
IDE vs SATA
Oooh, I think I totally have IDE, then, because it has those huuuuuge cables. I'll open up the computer to make sure, but I have a little thing that lets me connect five drives to the motherboard instead of the usual four, and it's all about those ribbon cables. Unless one of those devices would be able to take IDE and SATA cables.
SATA stands for Serial ATA, and it's been getting more common recently.
Well, not in the external enclosure field!
