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Tivo for qb?

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 10:46 am
by {Nathan}
Ok, I just thought of this and wanted to know what you think:

You find an old COM device you don't need... and since you could make a driver for it...

Get some RCA cords. Soder them to the correct pins to the com port, write a driver, and you have TIVO for qb.

My problem: I need more com information... like what each pin does. Also, for the driver, I might just use a coaxial cable, and record to a file everything I get... then, I just need to plug the cable into the TV's input, and put the data out of the com port to view it again.

NOTE: I do have the stuff to make this, just not use it. A 2 gig hd is not enough, when I get my good laptop with 17 gigs working, at least it will work... I have about 12 gigs free.

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 12:10 pm
by Pete
You could do that... or you could just use a video card to record it. Using my All-In-Wonder card, I can think of half a dozen different ways to record video of a QB program.

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 2:26 pm
by {Nathan}
I ment record the tv, not the the qb program... but with a laptop thats around 10 years old and no video input, its kinda hard. With a com port, everyone has it, and you just need to buy a new cord, not a new $500 video card just to have it fried playing doom 3.

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 2:49 pm
by Pete
I ment record the tv, not the the qb program... but with a laptop thats around 10 years old and no video input, its kinda hard. With a com port, everyone has it, and you just need to buy a new cord, not a new $500 video card just to have it fried playing doom 3.
Oh... well, that wouldn't be possible unless you want a ridiculously crappy quality video. A Com Port doesn't have fast enough of a data rate to capture live video. Even a USB port doesn't have fast enough a data rate for good quality video... You need at least Firewire or USB 2.0 to capture anything really "watchable".

A ten year old laptop wouldn't be fast enough to compress video on the fly anyway.

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 3:15 pm
by Xerol
Not to mention you'd be taking analog signals in through the com port, so you'd have to convert the raw info coming in to a data format that you could work with, and then you'd either have to display it or compress & save it (direct saving would last maybe 10 seconds before a 2 gig hard drive would fill up).

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 8:21 pm
by {Nathan}
Darn... hmm... I will think of something else to do with this crap then... theres gotta be something that I can do to prove the power of dos...

wait... isn't this engineering? this is what my dad originally took in college... but he dropped out... he said it was too hard... haha... i wanna be victorius where he sucked seed (for those who read vics tutors)

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 8:36 pm
by Xerol
Nathan1993 wrote:Darn... hmm... I will think of something else to do with this crap then... theres gotta be something that I can do to prove the power of dos...

wait... isn't this engineering? this is what my dad originally took in college... but he dropped out... he said it was too hard... haha... i wanna be victorius where he sucked seed (for those who read vics tutors)
Well, if you're going to be soldering RCA cables to a serial cable, why not try it with sound? It should be possible to have both input and output - 2 pins for each channel in and out, and then you can use the other end to go to speakers and an input device.

prove the power of dos with a com port?

Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 11:22 pm
by mennonite
piece of cake.
get an old 286 (no, it's gotta be a really slow machine, older the better) and put dos and arachne on it. then get a 56k external modem and attach it to the com port. then surf online with your computer at 56k and tell everyone it's a 286. yes, you can do the same thing with windows 3.1 (9x will not run on anything earlier than a 386), but it's 100x easier to configure arachne's dialer. then google for arachne sites of dos freaks (kinda like me) that want to do everything with dos. god bless them. you can't get video into your com port, but that's the com port's fault, you can't do that in windows either.
you can however, play video in dos. there are some decent dos players that will let you watch entire episodes of south park from dos, if your sound card is compatible. if not for my sound card being such a piece of crap (and incompatible) i'd prefer the dos player to the one i use for windows. p.s. you can't play south park on a 286 either. you'll want a pentium at least, and preferably a minimum pentium ii for a full 30 minute video. for shorter videos, 486 or maybe 386.

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2005 8:56 am
by {Nathan}
I got a 486 Pentuim... from what I have read about its history, it was revolutionary. But I got a broadband modem, and its connected to a f*cking family computer (got I hate it) and the only way I network is through the paralel port, using interserver. it sucks, no net, no nothing, just to transfer files. I hate dos.... when it comes to network / internet... what I wouldn't give to get a good old 56k... 3g...

Has anyone tryed that Netzero 3G? Is it as good as they claim?

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2005 9:51 am
by MystikShadows
Well there are bells and whistles to this 3G thing...but it is faster...considerably....so I would say that it's better than a dialup connection :-).

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2005 10:22 am
by DrV
Nathan1993 wrote:I got a 486 Pentuim...
You have a 486 "Pentuim"? ;) Perhaps a 486? or maybe a Pentium? but not both... :?

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2005 10:25 am
by MystikShadows
lol...yeah Dr_V that came when when Windows 3.X turned 32 bits, of course...LOL

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2005 10:31 am
by Nodtveidt
There is no such thing as a 486 Pentium. The "pent" in Pentium implicitly denotes it being the fifth in the 80x86 line, being a 586. Nice try but no banana.

Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2005 1:05 pm
by {Nathan}
then something is wrong with my laptop. It thinks its a 486 pentium... every program + the bios says that...

I think my laptop is mentally retarted.