MaximumPC 2003 12

You write,

we respond

NO, TOM, THIS DOESN’T

GRANT YOU ANY TYPE OF

SPIRITUAL “GET OUT OF JAIL

FREE” CARD

I just renewed my subscription,

and Thomas McDonald’s recent

Game Theory column is a good

example of why. I am a nun.

As a kid I would gladly have

applied to Starfleet Academy,

but as a missionary sister I’ve

found a real-life way to “seek

out new worlds” and “boldly

go.” I easily identified with Mr.

McDonald’s struggle to accept

comics, action figures, and

a love of science fiction and

fantasy as part of his adult life.

Thank goodness we worked

through those issues, right?

What I have consistently

appreciated about Mr.

McDonald’s column is that his

values shine through: His review

of Sims Online is an example.

One parting thought: I doubt

St. Paul would have minded if

we grown-ups keep our toys.

The one Paul served said we

needed to become like children

to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Thank you all for putting out a

magazine that is, if nothing else,

a lot of fun to read!

—SR. DEBORAH WILSON, MSBT

WHY NOT A 9800?

I understand that you used an

ATI All-in-Wonder 9600 Pro in

your Entertainment Center PC

[November 2003] instead of a

9800 board because of power

issues. I also know the 9600

board will be slower in games

than the 9800. But how do the

boards’ video-capture abilities

compare? Is the 9600 just as

good as more expensive cards in

video-capturing abilities?

—WOLVERINEKID

TECHNICAL EDITOR WILL SMITH

RESPONDS: The 9600 and 9800

share similar hardware, and use

exactly the same software, so

image quality for capture should be

virtually identical. The 9600 even

has one feature that the 9800 lacks:

an FM tuner for radio

time-shifting.

DLP PROJECTOR

DISAGREEMENT

In your November issue

cover story you say that

DLP projectors are better

than LCD projectors

in every way. That’s

completely wrong!

While contrast ratio

in DLP is much higher

than on LCD, LCD is

rapidly improving, and

you didn’t mention

the “rainbow effect” at

all. The rainbow effect

affects 10 to 20 percent

of all people who

view DLP projectors.

If the DLP affects a

user, headaches and

other annoyances will

plague their viewing

experience.

—HOWIE UMAN

TECHNICAL EDITOR WILL

SMITH REPLIES: We’ve heard

reports of the rainbow effect as

well, but haven’t been able to find

anyone who suffers from it. It’s

usually described as a shimmer-

ing rainbow effect over the entire

screen. We think that the actual

affected numbers are much lower,

especially with newer technology.

Newer projectors feature a faster

color wheel than first-gen products,

which minimizes the problem.

BUT DOES IT FIT?

I just read your November cover

story, and I was a bit surprised

that you chose the Radeon AIW

9600 Pro to put into your small

formfactor home theater PC,

considering some folks online

had problems with the same

board and case. Did you guys

actually build the system, or

just choose parts for the article?

I don’t mean to be a pest, but

I was just curious after hearing

about the problems people were

having.

—PUNKY

TECHNICAL EDITOR WILL SMITH

RESPONDS: Of course we built the

machine, Punky! We did have a

smidge of trouble getting the 9600

All-in-Wonder into the Shuttle case.

We had to use a little more force to

get it into the slot than we normally

like to, but the board went in fine,

as you can see in the photos from

the article.

MORE ON POCKETPC-SIZE

VIDEO

I thought your November article

on compressing a video to play

on a Pocket PC was really cool,

but a freeware utility called DVD

Decrypter will save you a lot of

time. It rips the contents of a

DVD to M2V and AC3 streams

that you can send right to

Windows Media Encoder , without

having to handle VOB files and

all that.

—REZA PALAVI

FEATURES EDITOR LOGAN DECKER

REFLECTS: We received a ton of

mail regarding our how-to on for-

matting a full-length movie to fit on

your Pocket PC, and we were able

to draw two conclusions from the

letters. One, our readers love the

idea of being able to watch mov-

ies on their handhelds. Two, not

many realize that using software

to decrypt the contents of a DVD is

illegal in the United States.

Now, common sense says that

we should be able to rip a movie

from a DVD we purchased and play

it back on a portable device, just

like we do with audio CDs. But the

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

(DMCA) disagrees, and thus we

can’t advocate the use of seemingly

benign apps like DVD Decrypter ,

AnyDVD , or SmartRipper.

If you don’t like it, we recom-

mend you let your Representative

and Senator know how you feel

about the DMCA. They are probably

unaware that there are legitimate

uses for DVD decryption. In fact,

many of them are probably unaware

that movies are now filmed in color.

In/Out

MAXIMUM PC AT

AN ALL-TIME HIGH

First off, I want to thank you

guys for putting out such an

awesome magazine. Maximum

PC replaced my mom’s Yahoo!

subscription when that mag

went kaput, and it truly was

love at first sight. Anyway, I

thought you guys might enjoy

this picture. This summer I went

on a week-long

backpacking trip to summit

Mt. Whitney (at 14,496 feet,

the tallest summit in the

continental US), and the only

reading material I took along

was my latest issue of Maximum

PC. The magazine sure took a

beating after rereading it about

10 times, but I enjoyed it every

time through.

—BOB SOMERS

06 MAXIMUMPC DECEMBER 2003

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