LIVEdigitally

When Top Gun came out I was 6 years old. I had to be Maverick, and watched the movie approximately 2.3 times a day for the entire summer vacation. I distinctly recall riding my bike in the street one summer day when suddenly I heard “Highway To The Danger Zone” on a neighbor’s boombox radio. He was washing the car in the driveway. I darted over to my house, ditched my bike in the grass, ran to the TV, and frantically pushed channel up until I was at MTV. To my disappointment “Highway To The Danger Zone” wasn’t on MTV, it was that damn Madonna girl again. I didn’t really like the Top Gun song, but I yearned to see Tom Cruise’s F-14 Tomcat fly the skies and shoot missles.

Flash forward 20 years, I can watch that music video with the help of the internet anytime or place that I desire. Screw the music video, I can take the movie with me anywhere. The idea of Tom Cruise in your pocket was absurd in the mid 80’s (yet every woman pondered the fantasy).

Where will it go from here? What dreams that I can’t fathom possible are being made possible? The Cable-Tec Expo 2005 will give you a hint of what’s to come in the near future. VoIP, H.264/MPEG 4 Part 10, Everything on Demand, DVR + DVDRW, Wireless MetroMesh Networking, and the list goes on. Highway To The Digital Zone I say!

I always try to watch TV when I’m on the freeway, thing is, I don’t have a TV in my car. Following a SUV on the highway at night almost guarantees a TV with The Little Mermaid playing for a car seat or two in the back seat. I like the Disney collection as much as any seven year old, but I can’t handle the same the heavy rotation that they consume most animated features. My tiny collection of DVDs coupled with the poor reception for broadcast TV stations on the road would provide a very repetitious viewing repertoire.

Sirius sees this problem and plans to tackle it just as they did with top 40 radio stations that include 24 minutes of commercials in each 30 minute segment of heavy rotation pop songs. Sirius Satellite Radio (whom I did a review on earlier) is planning to release stock quotes, sports scores, music videos, and cartoons via their service in the end of ’06. With content like this I just may validate spending four digits on a video/audio system in my car. As of now I just don’t see spending $1000.00 or so in order to watch my 7 DVDs in the car on 5” monitors. Let’s see if Sirius will add channels like Food Network and G4TV, I may not leave my car.

Found via wired.com

Introduction

LiteOn is known in the optical drive community for their lineup of outstanding CD-RW drives that are sold at ridiculously low prices (and I agree, as I own two 52x burners, bought in 2002, and 2003, and still going strong). When LiteOn started making DVD writers they were members of the DVD Alliance, more popularly known as “The Plus Camp,” as they were compatible with DVD+R and DVD+RW media. While they now make writers capable of both “plus” and “minus” writing, they have been generally stronger at the “plus” standard. The LiteOn 1693S is an upgrade to the LiteOn 1673S, and adds support for dual layer DVD-R discs, as well as featuring 16x reading and writing of DVD discs. These DVD-R dual layer discs are the latest discs available and feature two layers superimposed on top of each other; the laser adjusts its strength to write to the near or far layer. These discs are much more expensive to produce, and more difficult to write, but feature double the capacity of single layer discs. Most DVD Videos that you rent at Blockbuster are dual layer discs (although pressed, not created with a laser). The drive is also capable of handling CDs as well, so it can replace a CD writer in your system.

While LiteOn drives are popular worldwide, in the US they are often rebranded by Sony, for example, this LiteOn 1693S drive is also sold as the Sony DRU-800A. By purchasing the LiteOn, the astute shopper saves money, and owns the same hardware as the Sony version. Let’s take a close look at this drive’s many features. (more…)