hifi cables

SCART to USB

2010-02-19T10:05:00.000-08:00

SCART to USB Video Capture Kits.

Lots of people inquire if SCART to USB can be done, seeing as USB wasn't built to process movie files. This essentially causes it to become ideal for recording Television signals whether or not this is via your VCR or simply a totally different kind of video output piece of equipment such as your Sky box, rather than playing them again.

Gone are the days of clinging on to dated Video recorders just to watch old recordings. A SCART to USB Capture Kit make transfering these recordings a very easy task.

SCART to USB kits include the needed components needed to transfer your video files A good kit will not only supply you with a SCART to USB Cable but they will also supply you with some simple to use software that helps to make the whole task go as easy as possible.

While the kits are pretty foolproof there are a few other things that you will need to check.

Video files can be very large and take up a huge amout of space on your hard drive.. Backing up on to DVD's can help reduce the amount of hard drive space used.. Backing the video files as you go along will help you retain the quality should you neeed to call upon your back ups..

Check the connections of your cabling, ensure they are tight, as poor connections can affect the video files. We wouldn't be doing our job if we didn't mention health and safery, make sure nobody can trip on and loose cabling.

Get used to the software before starting out on long projects.

Hopefully a combination of this article and a SCART to USB kit should you maintain those cherriesed memories forever.

which one to choose Cat5 cable or Cat6 cable?

2010-01-26T08:14:00.001-08:00

Once only seen in the workplace and in geek’s homes nowadays a network of some kind can be found in a lot of homes. The influx of digital devices in to our everyday lives has seen the usage of networking become far more commonplace than it used to be.

Nowadays you will see them connecting all manner of things together sharing resources such as internet connections or simply sharing photos, movies, music or data between them. For some people this can lead to a number of problems but one that comes up time and time again is “What is the difference between Cat5, and Cat6 cable” and which should I choose?

While Cat5 cables have been around for many years now the newer and updated version Cat6 cable has only become commonplace more recently. Developed to handle the demands of the modern digital era in which we live with gigabit (1000mbs) speeds at minimum and up to 10 times that are on offer. While Cat5 cable can manage up to 100mbs which in its day was considered fast, as you can see above this is not so any longer! There is also another option that being an enhanced version of Cat5 cable known as Cat5e cable this offers greater speeds of up to 1000mbs and greater data integrity than its earlier version.

Often time’s people think that by plugging faster network cables into their equipment that you will see better performance. This is far from true as a network is only as fast as its slowest component so if you use a Cat6 cable then you will not see the blazingly fast 10gigabit data transfers that you were hoping for unless your other equipment is capable of also transferring at that rate.

Even though the more modern Cat5e cable and Cat6 cable may look identical to the earlier Cat5 cable inside there have been a few changes going on which have allowed for this greater speed and security. In particular with Cat6 cable the reason behind it is the way that the wire cores are protected they are all shielded from each other for the full length of the cable. This allows there to be less interference between them and improves the throughput greatly.

So which to choose Cat5 cable or Cat6 cable?

If your equipment will support the newer Cat6 cable then for sure that is the one to choose or if you are planning on upgrading existing equipment in the future then definitely go for Cat6 cable. If however you're equipment is not up to gigabit specification and you are not planning on upgrading then you could probably get away with the older Cat5 cable.

Different ways to connect your Sky HD Box

2009-12-16T02:44:00.000-08:00

At first appearance the back of your SKY HD box may seem a bit daunting with all the different connections on it. But there is no need for it to be, if you want to watch HD TV then you will need a HDMI cable as long as your TV can handle it. If not don’t worry as there are other ways to go about connecting them together and there are also a wide selection of adapters and converters available to help you with this. The other way to get HDTV is to use a component SKY HD cable these have a round connector which have between 4 and 7 pins in them and are found on most TV sets sold in recent years. One problem with using the faster and better HDMI SKY HD TV cable is that it will only transmit two channels of sound which means anything that is transmitted in Dolby 5.1 will not be heard. To get around this you will need a set of RCA audio leads these will also be needed to work with your Component Sky HD cable. Before purchasing your SKY HD cable you will need to check what cable connections you have available on your TV and then purchase the best cable SKY HD cable set you can. Most reputable retailers of cables & leads will only be too happy to help make sure that you have the right one to match your current equipment. Of course if HD output is not what you want at this time or you don’t want to use your HD output all the time then the other connections will suffice. You can have more than one cable connecting the equipment together and selecting which one to view on your TV. For this the RF, SCART or other outputs will be suffice for your needs. If you are looking to split the picture and the sound you will need to run the sound through some kind of stereo system or amplifier. The best way to do this is with an Optical Cable, as this allows you to maintain digital quality sound.