Over the Millenium New Year’s weekend I was bitten by the home theater (or HT) bug. Since at the time I already had a DVD player in my laptop (using Margi’s DVD-to-Go, now discontinued) and a decent big screen TV, I opted for a receiver. I chose the Pioneer Elite VSX-24TX. It’s a Dolby Pro-Logic/Dolby Digital/DTS/THX 90W receiver with component, optical, and S-video connections and still serving me well today.
ADS Tech PYRO1394DV firewire card
Since I have a digital video camera of course I want to be able to edit video on my PC. Since most digital camcorders have IEEE 1394 ports (also called Firewire (by Apple), or iLink (by Sony)), I also have a Firewire card: the inexpensive PYRO 1394DV card from ADS Tech. The PCI card provides two external (and one internal) Firewire ports, a cable to connect to your camcorder, and is bundled with Ulead’s VideoStudio SE which pretty easy to learn. Beware … you need a LOT of hard drive space to store all the digital video clips!
Sony DCR-TRV8 miniDV camcorder
My digital camcorder is the Sony DCR-TRV8. It’s a miniDV camera complete with 10x optical zoom (120x digital zoom, but who uses that?), digital and picture effects, 12/16-bit PCM sound, audio/video output, 3″ flip out LCD screen, and a ton of other cool features. Since it’s now several years old, it’s been supplanted by much newer models in the DCR line (including ones with megapixel still image capture, MPEG movie modes, and even Bluetooth connectivity!) but mine still works perfectly and continues to help me document those memorable moments.
Delorme Tripmate GPS receiver
Now this is cool. The TripMate from Delorme is an inexpensive GPS (global positioning system) device that uses the government’s network of GPS satellites to pinpoint your position on the globe. Paired with Delorme’s Street Atlas software in your laptop, you can plan a trip, attach the Tripmate to the serial port of your laptop, place the Tripmate on your dashboard, and then watch yourself move on the map as you drive. The GPS calculates your heading and speed and even speaks when your next turn is approaching. Very, very cool.