discs

Bare-bones collection management with Granthaalok: The Book-Library Manager

Although public libraries, university libraries, and other large lending institutions typically have fairly sophisticated software to manage their collections, there are smaller entities like churches, nonprofits, and even individuals who could use an electronic hand when it comes to keeping track of their holdings. Granthaalok: The Book-Library Manager aims to provide a simple solution for the user who needs a way to keep track of what gets checked in and out and by whom. Unfortunately, the program's unattractive interface and generally unintuitive functioning make it hard to recommend.

Granthaalok's interface consists of a large gray rectangle with a … Read more

The 404 1,010: Where we've got some pi in our eye (podcast)

A worldwide zombie invasion is the perfect hypothetical setting for survivalist tips, and Jeff and I can't help but explore a few of them after watching this week's episode of "The Walking Dead."

After we get that out our system, the rest of today's rundown consists of AOL laying off the majority of its AIM unit, waving goodbye to the printed Encyclopedia Britannica, and a city in the U.K. shaming away loitering youth with pink lighting that exposes acne.… Read more

Does it still make sense to buy CDs?

Happy Valentine's Day, peeps! (Actually, shouldn't that be "cheeps"? Hey, I like that. From now on, you're all my cheeps.) I love you guys and gals--even when you accuse me of running scams, ha-ha.

I thought I'd switch things up today. Instead of my usual deal (see this early-morning Marketplace post if you still need your fix), let's talk about something a little more abstract.

Yesterday, I learned that music-on-demand service Spotify now streams at 320Kbps via its iOS app. That's CD-quality, which got me thinking: do we really need CDs anymore?… Read more

RCA's 'video LP' format, doomed from the start?

While the LP revival is still in full swing you rarely hear about the other 12-inch, grooved vinyl record format, the RCA VideoDisc.

It was a grooved, carbon-loaded PVC disc. The grooves were 48 times smaller than an LP groove, but they were still tracked with a diamond "needle"! That was possible because unlike an LP's zigzag grooves the CED's grooves were hills and dales. That difference also minimized groove wear, so the discs could be played hundreds of times. VHS and Beta tapes would wear out faster than that. The VideoDisc also had stereo soundtracks.… Read more

Samsung's flagship Blu-ray player switches HDMI inputs, stores your DVDs in the cloud

LAS VEGAS--There hasn't been much news at CES 2012 in the standalone Blu-ray player space, but Samsung's flagship BD-E6500 has a couple of legitimately new features.

The BD-E6500 has two HDMI inputs on the back, so you can switch between two devices. That could be an attractive feature for those who've run out of inputs on their HDTV (and don't have an HDMI-switching AV receiver), although I could see it causing problems for Harmony remotes not used to treating Blu-ray players as switchers.

The other big feature on the BD-E6500 is disc-to-digital, which enables you to "sync" your DVD collection in the cloud, making it accessible from any device which has the Flixster app.… Read more

Will music CDs be dead in 14 months?

There's a new 2012 doomsday prophecy out there. The world might survive the end of the Mayan calendar, but compact discs might not be so lucky.

A report from Side-Line cites a number of anonymous music industry insiders who confirmed to the music magazine that the major labels are planning to stop pressing new CDs by the end of next year, if not sooner.

The issue, the argument goes, is that CDs cost money to create, store, and distribute and shifting to all-digital distribution will free up more resources for marketing and other parts of the business.

There is one problem with the notion of killing the CD, however. Labels are still making money off of them. … Read more

Fifteen worthy Blu-ray movies for less than $15

We've been producing a "cheap" Blu-ray movie list for several months and it's time for another update, especially since a number of our earlier picks on the list crept over the $15 mark.

As we like to note, cheap is popular these days and, not surprisingly, a lot of these bargain-price titles end up on the best sellers list on Amazon.com. But when it comes to owning discs, most people have become fairly discerning, and don't just buy anything because it's cheap. With that in mind, we've culled down the list of … Read more

How to use Apple's Lion Recovery Disk Assistant

With OS X Lion, Apple bucked the traditional method of releasing software on a physical medium, instead opting to release Lion through the Mac App Store. This is convenient for many, but it does not sit well for those who prefer to have a physical way to fix problems down the road.

Here's how to use a tool Apple just released to create a Lion Recovery HD on a USB drive.… Read more

Music database and player

We can tell that the developers who came up with Soundbase are more into coding and music than PR since they call their freeware "a single executable that runs from any location" instead of a powerful, versatile, and highly flexible music database, player, and tag editor that can store, sort, edit, and play more than 100,000 songs, search for album art, and even play Web radio. It was created as an alternative to the large commercial MP3 players and organizers. It's based on Microsoft's DirectShow architecture and supports most popular formats, including MP3, OGG, APE, … Read more

How to create an OS X Lion installation disc

OS X Lion has been released and is available in the Mac App Store to download and install. While its availability solely as a download may have its conveniences, the lack of its initial distribution on optical or other media has been met with a decent amount of criticism, especially by those looking for options to troubleshoot and customize their OS installations. Apple's approach to installing and managing your Lion installation does offer a decent amount of flexibility, but if you would like to have your Lion installation on DVD, then you absolutely can do this.

Luckily the OS … Read more