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Author Topic: Unusual hardware info needed.  (Read 1029 times)

Offline exploder

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Unusual hardware info needed.
« on: July 13, 2011, 11:48:20 AM »
My brother would like to switch from Windows XP to PCLinuxOS KDE but he has a cassette deck installed in one of his drive bays for remastering tapes to DVDs. Does anyone here have any experience with an unusual device like this in PCLinuxOS? I have not seen the device myself, my brother told me about it over the phone and said it looks similar to a car cassette deck. My brother has seen many screenshots of PCLinuxOS and seems to be very interested in it. My brother has an older HP computer with a P4 processor and 1 GB of memory and I am pretty sure PCLinuxOS will run fine on it. I am going to burn my brother a Live CD and hopefully I can get it to him sometime this coming weekend. This is the first I have heard of a cassette deck in a home computer but maybe someone can give me some advice about it. I would really like to see my brother running PCLinuxOS and I think he would really enjoy it.
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Offline AS

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Re: Unusual hardware info needed.
« Reply #1 on: July 13, 2011, 12:50:28 PM »
Hi exploder,

Do you know brand/model of this device ? Very probably it's a cartridge tape unit may be HP or Tandberg device ...
If so, hardware for itself should be recognized from Linux, not sure about the tape cartridge content, different software use different formats over the same media.... more info needed.

Brad/model
Interface (SCSI / ATA / eSATA ...)
Cartridge capacity
Windows software used to read/write to that unit..

AS
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Offline Crow

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Re: Unusual hardware info needed.
« Reply #2 on: July 13, 2011, 12:56:54 PM »
 

Last time I had a cassette and a computer together it was a Timex Sinclair 2068 and I was young and single.

Ok, this is not the Sandbox  :-[  go ahead As   ;D
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Offline exploder

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Re: Unusual hardware info needed.
« Reply #3 on: July 13, 2011, 01:24:06 PM »
I will call my brother tonight and get some information on his tape deck. It sure would be nice to get him switched to PCLinuxOS! I will give him a call when I get home from physical therapy tonight so I can provide more details. Thanks! 
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Offline exploder

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Re: Unusual hardware info needed.
« Reply #4 on: July 13, 2011, 06:31:38 PM »
My brother says it's a Plus Deck 2 and the software has the same name.
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Offline djohnston

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Re: Unusual hardware info needed.
« Reply #5 on: July 13, 2011, 06:40:19 PM »
I think this post gives the best description of what that hardware is and does:

http://www.amazon.com/review/R1R8RIBVMGHDPG/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt/182-9771469-4419667#R1R8RIBVMGHDPG

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Offline AS

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Re: Unusual hardware info needed.
« Reply #6 on: July 13, 2011, 06:51:37 PM »
Quote from: exploder on July 13, 2011, 06:31:38 PM
My brother says it's a Plus Deck 2 and the software has the same name.


http://www.plusdeck.com/ (click on plusdeck2c icon)

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1678869,00.asp

http://www.osnews.com/story/12132/The_Plusdeck2_Tape_to_MP3

according to the following page, this device is listed as lacking Linux support:
http://www.linuxdriverproject.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/DriversNeeded

AS
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Offline exploder

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Re: Unusual hardware info needed.
« Reply #7 on: July 13, 2011, 07:14:28 PM »
Thank you! Well, if my brother wants to make the switch, he will need to convert all of his tapes or else duel boot. I appreciate the information, he would not be happy finding his tape deck no longer worked.  :) I might ask him if he would mind running Windows in Virtualbox to get around the tape deck issue. Thanks again for the help! 
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Offline AS

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Re: Unusual hardware info needed.
« Reply #8 on: July 14, 2011, 02:24:51 AM »
Quote from: exploder on July 13, 2011, 07:14:28 PM
Thank you! Well, if my brother wants to make the switch, he will need to convert all of his tapes or else duel boot. I appreciate the information, he would not be happy finding his tape deck no longer worked.  :) I might ask him if he would mind running Windows in Virtualbox to get around the tape deck issue. Thanks again for the help! 

Dual Boot: this solution can work, but of course it require restart the computer to switch between OSes.

VirtualBox Linux host - Windows guest: this solution can't work for your brother; VirtualBox provide an environment where the guest OS can see only an emulated hardware, it will not be able to see the real hardware.

VirtualBox Windows host - Linux guest: this can work, but it's not the ideal solution.

I would go for dual boot  ;)

AS
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Offline exploder

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Re: Unusual hardware info needed.
« Reply #9 on: July 14, 2011, 07:46:42 PM »
Thanks AS! My brother e-mailed me tonight and wants me to burn him a Live CD, so he is interested. Looks like he will either have to get all his tapes remastered or go with a duel boot. My brother said he was tired of defragging, virus scans and running an OS as old as XP is. My brother liked what he saw in my screenshots and the idea of running a rolling release. I told my brother that I thought he would have a much better selection of software than he currently has and PCLinuxOS could make his old P4 system run a lot better than it does now. I am burning my brother a CD just as soon as the download finishes.  ;D

Edit: My dad had my brother set up with that brown operating system at one time.... I assured my brother that he would have a completely different experience with PCLinuxOS KDE!  ;D ;)
« Last Edit: July 14, 2011, 07:50:01 PM by exploder »
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Offline exploder

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Re: Unusual hardware info needed.
« Reply #10 on: July 15, 2011, 12:05:40 PM »
I appreciate all of the help, Thanks! I e-mailed my brother and gave him all of the information and I have a Live CD ready for him to try. I don't want to push my brother into using Linux, I want him to decide for himself. I think my brother is going to like PCLinuxOS KDE, he really liked what he saw in the screenshots I sent him and he has commented on several things he likes. My brother can't afford a new computer or the latest version of Windows and I think he is going to like how PCLinuxOS preforms on his hardware! I made sure that my brother understood that PCLinuxOS is a rolling release and he seemed pretty happy about that. My brother is interested in music and artwork software and I think he will like the selection of applications available in the repos. I should be able to give my brother the Live CD this weekend and I am interested in what he has to say about PCLinuxOS. Thanks again for all of the help with the tape deck!
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Offline AS

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Re: Unusual hardware info needed.
« Reply #11 on: July 15, 2011, 12:12:12 PM »
Looking forward for your brother join The forum  :)

AS
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Offline kjpetrie

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Re: Unusual hardware info needed.
« Reply #12 on: July 16, 2011, 06:38:01 AM »
I would guess, if it's as old as it appears to be, that it has an analogue connection to the sound card, in which case it probably only needs drivers to control the deck from the PC. If it also has buttons to control it, it may well still be usable. Try it out in livecd mode and see how it works.
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Offline exploder

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Re: Unusual hardware info needed.
« Reply #13 on: July 24, 2011, 09:40:25 AM »
My brother has a lot of tapes to transfer to DVDs, so I think that he is going to hold off installing PCLinuxOS for a while. I told him that was fine, I don't want to pressure him into anything. I did give a co-worker a PCLinuxOS CD and he said he really liked it and has installed it on his laptop. This guy has been interested in other operating systems and had tried that brown OS in the past with unfavorable results. I told the guy that PCLinuxOS was a good representation of how a Linux system should be and the only question he had was how to make the panel fit his screen. I asked my co-worker to let me know what he thinks after he has a chance to use PCLinuxOS for a while, he said he was going to re-load his laptop over the weekend and duel boot Windows 7 and PCLinuxOS, he has some Windows games he wants to continue using. I try to let people make up their own mind on weather or not they want to run Linux but I do make certain I give them the very best representation of a Linux system to try. PCLinuxOS KDE is the easiest distribution for new people to understand and it looks more familiar to them than other desktop environments, most people seem to adjust to it very quickly and enjoy it.
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