easy peasy DVD copying

Easy peasy way to copy a DVD, not bothering about whether menus will copy and whether you need to worry about libdvdcss etc…

Simply use dd and growisofs

dd if=/dev/dvd of=DVD.iso

growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/dvd=./foo.img

simple

Mouse matless + optical = Doh!

mouse mats……. They’ve always got me a little annoyed. They always seem to be in the same place, which is not where my mouse wants to be. So I rarely use one.

However, over the last few months I’ve been getting a tad annoyed with my Logitech optical mouse. It seems to skip a lot. Especially when I am wanting to click on a crucial icon!!

Of course, stupid me does not realise that my VARNISHED desk is just not a good surface to use..

Sometimes I do feel a bit thick!

M-Audio 1010lt

Well I finally went for the 1010lt. It looks a funky looking card. With tons of spaghetti coming out the back!

I plugged it in, compiled some new modules (ice1712), and ran alsaconf. Worked first time and I got Rythmnbox outputting direct via SPDI/digital coaxial to my amp. Cool. A little bit of extra work resulted in jack working fine with Mixx and Hydrogen. Funky stuff man!

However, I then tried envy24control. I had to first swithc to using gcc3.4.4 as alsatools willnot compile with gcc4.0.1. However, once compiled I ran it. Eeek! It’s a little bit more complicated than I imagined! There’s more channels in there than on your superduper sports/movies and porn package from Sky! However, I’m buggered if I can get it to output via s/pdif. What is worse is than now nothign works. I can output to a pair of analogue RCA jacks. But that is all.

Anyway i will persevere later!

Being a PC audiophile

I’m looking for a decent sound card.

I’ve got an Audigy 1. This is OK, and works fine for MP3, and DVD viewing. However, I;’ve been recently playing with Mixx and other DJ mixing software (all on Linux of course). In this respect the Audigy is a bit crap. I’m using JACK to link it all together. So far using Jack and ALSA is dead easy to setup on Gentoo.

My current speaker setup is a Logitech z640 5.1 system, with the front two speakers replaced by a pair of Monitor Audio Radius 45 speakers. I’m very impressed with the R45’s and I think these will have to be moved towards the rear, and atriplet of Radius 180s will become the front and center!

Eeek this better quality audio stuff is Expensive!

I was trying to decide between the M-Audio Delta 1010lt or the M-Audio Audiophile 2496. The 1010lt looks very cool, and has lots of praises about it’sLinux ALSA compatibility. But for what I need the 2496 would probabyl suffice, and at less than half the price…..

I eventaully ordered the 1010lt from a German company, as it was the cheapest in Europe.

MusikHaus

However, after ordering I found out that there is a shop in Cambridge that actually sells them. To be honest I would have gone locally, even with the extra expense, as I always think it’s best to get local good advice. But I’d already ordered from MusikHaus, so it would be unfair to cancel. MusikHaus rang me as well, and seem a decent company.

M-Audio Audiophile 2496 – Digital Village