02/17/2014 - Practicum Blog

So today was my last day of work experience with Laura at the Riverside College so I couldn't take on any big tasks or anything. Instead I worked on converting the VHS to DVDs. I was having problems with getting the burns to work properly due to faulty software and the size of the disks. So after doing some looking around I found this software called Wondershare DVD Creator which worked wonderfully. It saved the AVI files I had as an ISO and burned it to the DVD. I managed to get Salon Fundamentals videos 1-10 done and on DVDs today so it was a pretty productive day.

I'm kinda glad I got this work experience mainly because my first practicum was almost all hardware, but this time it was next to all software, so that worked out good for me. I learned alot about TV tuners and coding this practicum which is good because I'm really interested in learning more about it.

I would like to thank Laura for giving me this experience because I am walking out with more knowledge than I had before so thats good for me :)

Thanks for taking the time to read this~

02/06/2014 - Practicum Blog

Today was alot of sitting around because It was very limited of what I could do. I spent the majority of the afternoon recording VHS and working on getting the bulk of them recorded. while those were going on I played around with Laura's new laptop and got everything setup for her. It was fun playing around with it because I've never used windows 8 before. I found it kinda confusing at first and I had to look things up to make it easier for me. I sugguest watching this if anyone has Windows 8 or thinking of getting it.Windows 8 Tips

Hoping tomorrow I'll get the some editing started so I can start to burn them to DVDs


Thanks for taking the time to read this~

02/05/2014 - Practicum Blog

When I arrived today I had to start working with a new capture card on different XP machine in the lap. I spent around 6 hours working with the desktop, was getting problem after problem. I ended up swapping out the hard drive testing other to see if they work, I also spent some time trying to do some cable management because we had some issues with bad IDE cables and some were not wanting to fit with the new hardware i was putting in. Even though I spent too much time on the pc just playing around with it, I did learn alot and that is the hands on work i enjoy doing.

I was aslo asked by Greg the speed of the IDE cables so i spent some time to look into them. I found THIS helpful as it gives you a bunch of info on IDE and SATA cables :)


Thanks for taking the time to read this~

02/04/2014 - Practicum Blog

This day was a very troublesome day. I've been trying to get this capture card WinTV to work on my laptop so I can get started on the VHS conversions and get them done and out of the way. After spending many hours trying different versions of the software I came to find out that It will not work on Windows 7. Only XP versions. After doing some looking around I found that windows 7 has a option to go to XP Mode and it will run a XP machine in a resizeable box. If you're wanting to try XP Mode download Virtual PC First. I also found a WinTV v7 ISO so after installing those I ran the ISO on the XP machine. It worked for a short amount of time but I had to move onto a different computer because it was taking up too much time and not work fixing again.

We eventually ran out of time and the day was over, Thanks for taking the time to read this~

02/03/2014 - Practicum Blog

This day I worked more on the Itemized list that I have to get done. I got all the tapes into word and I believe I got all the formatting done right. Its not perfect but it does get the job done and it was simple to make. I'm not sure if she will be getting more VHS's but she can use this sheet for future use so It will be of use to her.
This is the list i made this day.


Thanks for taking the time to read this~

01/31/2014 - Practicum Blog

I was not able to show up to the college due to sickness but I managed
to get started on one of my tasks that Laura wants done. I'm having to create a itemized list of the VHS's and DVD's the class has so they can
keep track of what movies they have.

I wasn't too sure how to keep track of them and how to even get started
so I looked around online and found this. Its not exactly what I'm wanting to do but it gave me ideas and I was able to come up with something by looking at this.



Thanks for taking the time to read this~

01/13/2014 - Practicum Blog

So today when I arrived at the college I did a little research on TV tuners to show Laura what she can get to convert her VHS's and the price of them. I have found one that I believe would get the job done and more, plus its only 10.00$ so its not expensive at all. THIS is the capture device I'm wanting to show Laura.

I'm currently working on a proposal to give to Laura that will display the laptops that I'm wanting to run by her and show her what she can get. THIS is one of the laptops that I'm recommending to her, it will suit all her needs and do more!

Today was kinda a slow day since I spent the majority of my time at the college building the proposal for Laura. I'll let you know how things go tomorrow.


Thanks for taking the time to read this~

01/06/2014 Practicum Blog

So today I spent the entire day pretty much trying to locate a VHS to DVD converter that a friend of mine has. Unfortunately he had troubles finding it so I didn't get it from him, so I gotta inform Laura about that and see if she's wanting to put the money out for one.

Once I got home, I started looking around for some laptops that would be good for Laura to have. She mainly wants one to check emails, go onto YouTube and to play DVDs so pretty much a everyday use laptop. I have found several laptops that would be good all with different price ranges, but I'm curious if any of you have a laptop in mind that you would recommend, would greatly appreciate the advice!

Thanks for taking the time to read this~