Some electronic entertainment advice to new-comers in DR.

AZB

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Jan 2, 2002
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Ok, I am bored in my office without lights (thanks to inverter).
Here are a few tips for new-comers to DR to save some cash on things like UPS, TV and computer equipments for entertainment etc.
Buying a TV and PC is not the same as back Home. Tvs are expensive and with constant power outtages, you may not be able to enjoy you TV and internet at the same time.
Here are a few tips to converge all the entertainment items through your Powerfull PC.

First of all don't buy a TV and a UPS (for PC) and yet still have both. Here is what you do:
If you are planning on living here in a small apartment in the north coast and not planning on spending alot of money on luxuary items then my plan is perfect for you all.
Buy a powerfull PC (a desk top) with a 7200 RPM huge hard drive, Pent. 4 or Athlon xp, a 17 inch monitor and PC power speakers with a subwoofer and a 2 kilo inverter (dominican made if you buy from my guy, will work forever without breakdowns).
For TV, you buy a TV card with FM and video capture built-in (avertek deluxe with FM and remote PCI, 79 dollars and without remote and FM, 49.99). It comes with a remote control and will convert your PC into a 125 cable ready TV which will also connect your VCR. If you have a huge hard drive 70 gigs then you can also use your PC as a VCR (record on Hard drive in Mpeg format and watch it at a later time).
There is no custom duty on PCs and monitors. So there you have it, a PC, a TV and a FM radio. If you download MP3 music file you can enjoy your favorite music from your PC with far superior sound to your FM radio. It sounds almost the same as CD. If you have 1000 songs on your drive, you have more music than you need for the rest of your life. I am sure you will find friends who have 10,000 mp3 files on their PC and they will be more than glad to dump some on your PC. If you connect youself with DSL (internet Flash) then you can actually hear CD quality internet radio broadcast from all over the world.

Now to have a properly working PC in DR you need windows XP with all the sp1 updates to protect yourself from viruses and attacks. XP is the most stable windows OS platform that your money can buy. Its very difficult to damage the operation system as compared to win 95 or 98se. There is a feature where you can do a system restore to bring back your PC to a healthy state if you mamage to screw it up with installation of a bogus program. Constant power outtages and sudden power off of the PC still doesn't damage the windows.
If you have the UPS for power support in black out, then you only have enough time to close everything and wait till power comes back. Here is a solution: get a fast switching power inverter with 4 batteries and now you have a UPS which lights up the whole house and still lets you play with PC for hours. The problem is that many inverters are not fast enough to switch in order to have your PC work uninterrupted. Many times the pc starts all over and you lose all the data. The problem can be solved with under 200 pesos. Take your PC to a technician and have him remove the power supply and have him install 2 more electrolytic 200v 330 micro farads capacitors. The problem is that many new PCs come with a cheap power supply which only use 220 - 330 micro farad caps in the filteration circuit. You need 660 mirco farads to have a PC working with a inverter. This way when the power goes off and the inverter switches to reserve battery power, in that milli second we have a gap. This is where the reserve power from the caps come into play, thus providing you with uninterrupted power in case there is a black out and the inverter switches in. Most PC power supplies have 330 mirco farads caps so when you put in another set of 330 mirco farads caps in parallel, you are all set. Now your inverter is like a UPS. Don't forget, UPS can't be charged with an inverter so stick to a inverter alone.

Now when you install win xp, make sure you have a latest copy of firewall and an anti virus program ready. Do download the MS patch for win xp for the msblast worm. Here is what you do: Do a clean install of xp and then before you connect to internet, install the firewall and antivirus and most importantly the msblast patch. Now you are all set to connect to internet and feel free to update your windows with the critical file patches (SP1).
I tried to reinstall windows 3 times and all the times when I connect with the internet, I suddenly had received the msblast worm. This worm along with others had destroyed my files and prevented me from connecting to internet and gave me RPC error and kept reinitiating my windows. It was a pain in the neck and I was ready to throw the PC out the window. Later when I did the research, i found out there are attackers all over the net who are scanning the open ports of all unsafe PCs and injecting viruses in them. You don't even have to download anything, just get yourself connected and you have it. Its that simple.
So when I installed the patch, firewall and an anti virus program, thats when my blood pressure came back to normal. I swear to god I was about to break my PC with a sledge hammer and turn into a tibetan Monk for the rest of my life.

So here we have a system which does everything: PC (high quality) a TV (avertek deluxe TV card, PCI, with video capture and FM and remote), A FM radio and a UPS (actually the invertor) if you modify your power supply and buy a cheap inverter from eddy in santo domingo.
Connect a cable service and you get 80 plus channels and if you connect to internet flash, you get a whopping 384BPS speed for 995 pesos / month. This alone will give you all the special digital radio stations from all over the world and even ownload MP3 music and you have a music library. Install the free software winamp and you can make your own play list and enjoy your own favorite music.
All this equipment is enough to let you stay out of trouble and perfect to make you into a serious geek for the rest of your life.
Have a nice day.
regards,
AZB

PS. Prodacom in santiago has a similar PC TV card with remote control and FM radio for 1500 pesos. I am not sure what the picture quality of the TV would be like but for that price, its worth the risk. Oh and if you install a DVD / CD-RW combo into your PC then you have a DVD player and a CD rewriter to further complete your entertainment system.
 

MrMike

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Will that work for a router?

I have a router, the one Codetel gives you for broadband: "DSL modem" in other lingo.

Problem is it jamms up every time the inverter switches, with and without a UPS there is no difference. I have to reset it everytime, and unless I leave it off for 10 seconds or so, it has trouble reconnecting to Codetel.

You think if somebody stuffed a couple extra capacitors in the power supply that would fix it? I'm trying to get Codetel to replace it, but I don't think they'll be around soon.
 

suarezn

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Good post AZB. The only thing I would change in your configuration is that I would not buy a PC, but a laptop. This way you wouldn't have to worry about the UPS or changing the power supply. The other advantage of having a laptop is that it is portable, so you can take anywhere with you. Let's say you go to the beach and want to take your music with you, if it resides in your latptop then there you have it. I was actually thinking about getting one of those TV/Tuner cards for my computer and then getting a projector (proxima, infocus, etc) - Instant large screen TV.

BTW, the other day I went to my office in Detroit for a company meeting. When I came out I found that the right window of my car had been smashed and they had taken my portable MP3 player, which I had left on my front seat, and my radar detector. It reminded me of when you got yours stolen. I kind of wished (for a second) that I was with a bunch of PPH guys at that moment...
 

norman

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Apr 10, 2003
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Inverters for PCS

Could you tell me if this is avail in Puerto Plata ? IS it an add on ? Can you tell me more about it I would appreciate it. IS it better to buy a bigger one. I don't know a thing about inverters? Thanks
 

Paul Thate

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Jan 11, 2002
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inverters

always buy as big as you can afford and buy as many batteries as you can afford.
this is one of the times more is better,.

The power situation is not getting any better .
You would want to run as much as you can from it.
Small 3.5 k inverters will not handle pumps, swimmingpools etc.
Be ready to handle blackouts of several days.

All this is available in POP , Trace is there
in Sosua Abajo is a german who produces local made
inverters.
 

AZB

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Jan 2, 2002
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Suarenz I understand your feeling when you had found your car broken into. At least, in my case, I had some asses whipped of the bad boys.
About a laptop: I won't go for it as they are expensive and just not as effecients enough as a desk top. Example, they are slower then their desk top counterpart. Its not easy to simply upgrade, like installing a PCI video/tv card. In a laptop you would have to use the USB type plug-in that cost a fortune and often doesn't deliver the same performance. I have tried to run some DIVX movies on a laptop with the same CPU as mine (athlon 1100) and the laptop couldn't keep up with audio, video synsc. Don't get me wrong, I like laptops but when it comes to performance, desk top is the king.
Mr. Mike, try to have 2 more caps installed in your device to solve your problem. But consult with a tech first as I have never worked with that type of equipment. However, I am almost sure that bigger caps (or extra caps) will solve your problem.
 

Lissa

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Aug 7, 2003
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I know the thread isn?t about this, but..

I have a conflict about which OS I have to use , right now I?m under w98, but I used to have XP (it cracks a lot, even though I?ve a great PC, 2.4gb p4, 512mb ram,etc) some genius told me that I?ve to go back to 98 so I did, So my question is which is the best OS for you? Every time I?ve to make an upgrade to any of my desktops is a pain ?cause I?ve to spend a lot of time on it, and begin downloading drivers. Does XP or W2k worth the switch?. Thanks for the help!!!
 

norman

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Apr 10, 2003
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Re: inverters

Paul Thate said:
always buy as big as you can afford and buy as many batteries as you can afford.
this is one of the times more is better,.

The power situation is not getting any better .
You would want to run as much as you can from it.
Small 3.5 k inverters will not handle pumps, swimmingpools etc.
Be ready to handle blackouts of several days.

All this is available in POP , Trace is there
in Sosua Abajo is a german who produces local made
inverters.

How much wold one cost to run a computer and a few lights for a few hours? WOuld you have and contact information/numbrs/e amail(best) in Puerto Plata? thanks Again
 

Paul Thate

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for that you only need a 1.5 k with a couple of batteries.

Remember we have not had edenorte power yet today.
why do you want to protect yourself only for a few hours.?
 

norman

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Inverters

Paul Thate said:
for that you only need a 1.5 k with a couple of batteries.

Remember we have not had edenorte power yet today.
why do you want to protect yourself only for a few hours.?

What would the price/ time costs? How big are these things. Are these car batteries?
 

Bolt

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I bought a 2.5Kw "Dominican brew" invertor made under license here of a reputable US company a couple of months ago even though we have the planta. I wish i had bought it months earlier as it makes like some much easier.

I paid $1000 US for it with 4 T105 batteries and it has ample power to run my fridge, 2 wireless networked laptops so I can even surf while in bed or around by the pool (in the shade though otherwise can't see the screen)

Also codetel flash router, lights, TV, laser printer, fan, coffee maker, microwave and it CAN run my 1kw water pump for the 20 seconds it needs to fill a sink as my 2.5 Kw invertor has a 4 Kw surge ability. Expect to pay at least double that for a trace unit of same spec. Their units cost roughly a US dollar a watt.

Just watch what is running at the same so as not to trip the invertor so i dont run coffee pot if microwave is on etc.

Also my flash and PC's do not get even flicker or jam up on the chageover when power goes away.

As im down on the south coast (they look after us down here!)Powercuts last just an hour or so a week and in the last couple of years i lost power for more then 8 hours maybe just 3 or 4 times so I never really "save" power on the invertor just carry on as normal knowing it will be back soon.

Just wanted to add reading the above post that the batteries are deep cycle special batteries similiar to car battery size and invertor is about the size of 2 of the batteries and wieghs in about the same as 2 car batteries.

Finanlly, codetel Flash routers come with either a cheapo AC transformer and suspect this will not handle the 100 milli second changeover or they are supplied with a 12 volt switch mode PSU depending on model and stock which is what I have and will handle the transisition without dropping out. Might be worth changing the router PSU for a better one. I wouldnt try putting caps inside the router there is very little space and will void the warranty.
 
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sable227

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Aug 11, 2003
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This may be sort of off the topic so forgive me if it is.

What ever you do buy a GOOD surge protector for both your PC and elctronic equipment. I bought a Belkin surge protector for the PC and for the stero/tv I bought the Monster power bar.

The Monster bar will regulate the flow of electricity to the stereo and tv which you need down here due to spikes and outtages. IMHO Belken makes the best protecotrs for PC's.

Both are spendy but it beats buying new equipment if you have nice stuff.
 

AZB

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Jan 2, 2002
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Whatever surge protector device you use, please make sure you have a real earth ground. It means the 3rd prong of the socket would have to be grounded (6 feet of brass bar into the ground). Not a single house or apartment I have seen in DR comes with a ground connected (except the meter outside). You may see a 3 prong electrical outlet but i gurantee you its not connected to the ground. Proper grounding will save your PC from frying and will make the spike protector work.
 

m65swede

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Mar 18, 2002
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Re: I know the thread isn?t about this, but..

Lissa said:
I have a conflict about which OS I have to use , right now I?m under w98

Windows XP is in my opinion the best consumer OS Microsoft has offered. I've built 3 new computers in the past month for me and 2 of my friends, and put Windows XP Professional on all 3 units. I had run XP Home for about 1.5 years of flawless performance on my old machine.

If you feel the need to have Windows 98 or 98SE also, you can install XP alongside 98. Best way to do this to insure a smooth install is to wipe your hard drive clean, format, then install Win 98 first. Then install XP as your 2nd OS.

When your machine boots, you will be able to select which OS you wish to use during that session. Make sure you have plenty of RAM; I like 256 Meg or more (am using 1,024 Meg in mine) for XP-based machines.

One other goody to add to AZB's excellent post would be a DVD
burner. Prices have dropped tremendously; some are as low as $89 USD.

Swede
 

Aguayo

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Oct 11, 2003
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Best Windows version

I don?t care for fancy screens or 16 million transparent icons, but I like fast video for gaming and video playing. And I hate Windows doing things for me, like removing icons from the desktop, upgrading automatically or giving me advice, so you can see I don't love much XP.

In my personal view Windows 2000 is the best OS made by Microsoft, because:

1. It is more stable than XP and far more stable than the 9.x/ME line.
2. It makes more effective use of the computer resources (RAM and processing power) than XP and doesn't waste time drawing eye candy (but can handle video and gaming without any problems).
3. It has plenty of drivers, so you can install most peripheral without problems.

Of course, Windows 2000 doesn't have a firewall or a movie editor, but the programs included with XP are not very good.

I think that AZB idea of using a PC as a ?home theather? is a good one.
I only may add that it would be good to use a video card that can handle at once a TV and a computer monitor, so you can watch movies in the big TV screen and browse the Internet in the computer monitor, in case you want to (at least when there is electrical power available...).
And if you want to save TV programs with good quality (like 640x80 12 MB sec MPEG) without dropping frames, it would be better having two hard disks, one for Windows and the other for saving the movies..
 

AZB

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Jan 2, 2002
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Ok aguayo, you are becoming way too complicated for some people here. I know where you are coming from, 2 hard drives for video capture etc. Hahahah.
Capturing video and editing them is a whole new ball game, there are people here who don't even know how to even install windows on a machine let alone capturing videos on 640x480 without dropping frames.
Anyway you seem like my kind of a guy. I was also thinking of a nice video card with tv output but I didn't want to confuse the folks here. I know there are computer geniouses here but a good number of folks are very computer illeterate.
I know what you are saying about the automatic windows updates and fancy colors and graphics. I have disabled all these fancy worthless features to save of precious pc resources. I am quite happy with my xp.
 

Aguayo

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No doubt 2 hard drives are overkill for most folks and I agree completely with you that XP is a good option for the typical user.
Some time ago I didn't have any experience capturing videos, but after purchasing a WinTV 250 TV card, I had to learn a lot to be able to record video with good quality.
I think that it is not easy to match the quality of a TV + video recorder with a computer, without spending a lot of money or time.

By the way, a good information source about this topic is:
http://www.vcdhelp.com/
 

MikeKO

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If the goal is hi quality TV, a better answer is purchase (while on vacation to US or Canada) a front projector. These will provide a very high qualtiy TV output (including High Def) at about US$1,500. Also obtain a receiver (US$ 500) that can also get DirecTV (or Dish, Vroom, etc.). When you get to customs, bribe the guy, and there you go. Great TV in high definition via DBS. If you go for one of the Canadian DBS services, you can get all of the US networks in HD also.

Mike
 

Chris

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Oct 21, 2002
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Re: Best Windows version

Aguayo said:
In my personal view Windows 2000 is the best OS made by Microsoft .....

I agree with this fully. I dread the day when I have to upgrade on my main computer to XP.

Great idea AZB - we've got something like this partially configured in our house and it make the greatest picture when my little granddaughter sits on the floor with 'her' laptop and watches Winnie the Pooh!. Kodak moments...