Miguel Carrasco's Real World

Vista Microphone and Line-In Issues?

I've been using Microsoft Windows Vista for almost 6 months now, and recently transitioned my Media Center PC to Vista Ultimate.  Everything has been working phenomenally and I am really pleased with the operating system!  Security is vastly improved, sharing has taken it up to the next level, searching is much better, and it is much more visually appealing.  However I have been running into a few annoying issues as of late, and it seems other people are having the same issues, yet no resolution.  The main annoyance?  Why does my microphone not work?  I should re-state this, I mean the microphone itself works, and if I plug it into the microphone port and record, it works great.  However, I cannot hear the microphone audio through my speakers... and I also have no option of turning it on through the new audio control panel. 

As you can see below, the new design is great, and I love the ability to set audio levels for different applications!  What a concept!  However, I can’t set my microphone audio levels at all, nor can I un-mute its default state.

The new Volume Mixer in Vista

So I did some more poking around the control panel, and found out that my Microphone is definitely working, however, options have changed in Vista, and it seems I have no way of turning on my microphone to play through my speakers.

Sound Control Panel in Vista

Microphone Properties - Levels

Nothing to exciting in Levels either, all I can do is set it to 100, yet Vista still seems to want to not play anything through my speakers.

So why do I want to get things playing through my speakers from the microphone anyway?  Well, on top of Karaoke which is a blast with friends (singshot.com and ksolo.com), I'm trying to learn Guitar and have a few programs that I need to hook up with my Line-In.  However Line-In seems to have the same issue, no audio through speakers.

If anyone has a solution to this, please email me or post in our comments below!  I'll post the solution to this issue as soon as I find a way to do it!

UFC 66: Liddell vs Ortiz 2

Don't miss the action tonight as Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell takes on the former UFC Champion "The Huntington Beach Bad Boy" Tito Ortiz!

The last time these two fighters met, Chuck hit Tito with a poke in the eye that should have been a stoppage.  However, it was not to be, and as Tito tried to wipe his eye clean, The Iceman landed blow after blow on Tito's face, causing a stoppage.

For those that do not follow the UFC, The Ultimate Fighting Championship's popularity experienced its best year ever in 2006.  Two reality television shows were done this year, as well as "Ultimate Fight Night" was introduced on Spike TV.  Today marks an extremely important night, as tonight could be the night that boxing is surpassed in popularity by the original Mixed Martial Art Pay-Per-View competition, The Ultimate Fighting Championship!

Mixed Martial Arts competitions have already surpassed Boxing in respect to buzz and popularity this year.  On television, numbers are up in a big way for UFC events, and tonight, if the UFC manages to bring in it’s expected 1.2 million Pay-Per-View viewers, it will have surpassed boxing in the largest venue of them all, the Pay-Per-View arena!

It airs live on Pay-Per-View December 30th, 2006 on Bell ExpressVu 401 and 455/472 on DISH Network.  Who am I hoping will walk away with the belt?  Tito Ortiz of course!  Who do I think will win?  Probably Chuck.

UFC 66 Press Conference

Make your Wii a Media Center!

Well I finally have most of my entertainment system running the way I want it!  Media Center is hooked up and recording all my shows like mad, and I never watch commercials anymore!  My life has improved immensely!  Now, time for some Wii tweaks! Red Kawa has released software that can turn your Wii into a media center extender!

Download today!
http://www.redkawa.com/mediacenters/wiimediacenterx/

It seems to work really well, although not all file types are supported, I am at least able to load images, mp3's, and some videos without too much trouble!  Beats having to use the SD Cards that’s for sure!

How to get a Wii

I finally managed to get a hold of a Wii today!  I swear I felt like a little kid again going to the EB Games store and asking if they had any "Wii's" in stock for the last month.  Every time the answer was no.  This time I tried a different approach!  I called ahead of time!  Turns out the stock guy at EB Games just received 10 units.  I rushed down, stood in line for 20 minutes.  When I got to the front, the cash guy tells me they have none left.  Apparently they sold out in the morning.  The store was packed with people just waiting around it seemed for a shipment.  Anyway, puzzled about "this morning" I tell the guy that I talked to someone and he said they just got 10 in.  The guy comes out of the back, and says, "Oh ya, we just got 10, want one?"!  So I get mine first, and within seconds as I look at the games and other add-ons and such, the 9 others are sold.  Boy were the few that were just in front of me pissed!  Anyway, with a little luck and a credit card, you too can get your Wii!  If you don't have much luck, here are a few other things I tried in the last month:

1.Refreshthing
This page has a script that checks the status of the Wii online.

2.eBay
There are lots of Wii's on eBay.  I was going to buy all 10 and sell them, but I figured that was wrong and unfair.  Plus I was worried what the mob of teenagers behind me would do to me as I walk to my car with 10 Wii's.

3.EB Games
They are getting these in nearly every day apparently, directly from Nintendo.  If you have a day to waist, just go to EB Games at opening, and just wait, you will get one.

4.Amazon
Above is the link to the Amazon.com Wii Section.  Simply keep clicking refresh until a unit becomes available.  Once this happens, you can just choose "add to cart", and you have yourself a Wii.

Anyway, once you manage to score a Wii for yourself, you will be extremely happy!  The interactivity online is awesome, game play is fantastic, cool factor is definitely there, and most of all its fun for everyone!  It's also quite the exercise to go a few rounds in the boxing battles!  Nintendo really came out with the best consol and outsmarted Microsoft and Sony on this one!  Great Job!

Software Getting Easier! Hardware Too Complex?

I've been incredibly busy in the last few weeks with our software development team!  From trips to Atlanta, Phoenix, Denver, Chicago, Las Vegas, it has kept me swamped, and as such, very little posting on the blogosphere!  Anyone that has been on business trips before knows that they are not always as sun as some might think!  Hours in the airport... delayed flights... lost luggage... cancelled flights.  If you need any help or tips when travelling, feel free to read these articles, as they could really help!

Last few weeks have been incredibly busy with work and other things.  Joining a Ball Hockey team this winter didn’t help the schedule, but it is helping the lacking physic.  It also gives me some good quality time with my wife.  Nice to see her kicking butt on the hockey rink.

Anyone else out there running Vista?  I just installed the final version a few weeks ago on my laptop and two desktops at home, and I have to say, this is quite possibly the best Microsoft Operating System I have seen come out of Redmond, ever!  It installed on my Asus V6V like a dream, didn’t need any new drivers at all!  On my custom built home machines, also very few issues (K8N Diamond Plus, and a P965 Platinum with a Core 2 Duo chip) other than a sound card issue on the older of the two. That was easily resolved by buying a new creative PCI soundcard.

Many industry experts have made high claims that Vista will finally push the personal computer into the living rooms, and from my first experience on using media center, I tend to agree, on the software side.

On the hardware side of things, I disagree.  Software used to be so complex to use.  From punch cards, to command prompts, to booting games with boot disks to get more "conventional memory", software used to be so complex to get running!  Who can forget the Windows Blue screens of death, or the complexity of loading drivers to get things to work correctly?  Software interface screens also used to be so complex to use.  Vista seems to make everything so much easier to use!  Security is vastly improved; the user interface is much more user friendly, and the graphic capabilities just make the whole overall experience of using the computer much more enjoyable!  Media Center is now embedded into the Operating System.  Simply setting up your computer with Vista, clicking the Media Center remote buttons, and you’re on your way to enjoying your media files in a hugely more interactive and easy to use way!

Hardware on the other hand, is getting more complex.  As software makes huge improvements, all focused on making it easy to use the software, hardware seems to be sacrificing ease of use, for quality.  It used to be hard enough to learn to hook up your VCR and television, and maybe set up the clock and set a few programs to records!  Now, you’re faced with a multitude of various cables, connection methods, to hook up your TV to a simple DVD player.  S Video? Component? RCA? Coax? Plain video cable... and then once you have figured out which cable you would like to use, you have to choose the quality... Ok, I will go with S Vide, Monster cables... still not enough!  Now I am forced to decide on the quality of S Video monster cable I would like!  You start to get the point... Although I do realize that quality is extremely important, especially when you are talking about audio and video, but it still has to be easy to use to make it to the mass market!

To make the next leap in audio and video, where we are putting computers and DVR devices everywhere, hardware makers need to standardize and decide on common platforms!  For my parents to be able to use a Microsoft Windows Media Center PC, I need to be able to build them or buy them a Media Center PC, which they can literally place beside their television, and have the television detect the new device.  Once detected, everything should be configured for them.  No wires except for power.  You might say this is not achievable, but the thought of having everyone have power and lights in their houses some hundred years ago was also unheard of.  And even if we can’t go completely cordless, at least let’s go to a single cord!

Here's to hoping next year brings simplified hardware!  After all, what good is easy to use software, if the hardware that runs the software, is impossible to configure!

Happy Holidays!