News for Wednesday, 17 March 2004

Here's a brief sum up of problems and good news we were told of about 10.3.3.
For a start, there's a big problem with Acard RAID cards. At least 6885, 6880 and 6820. If you have created a RAID volume with a card from this brand, better wait than see!
Justin tells us 10.3.3 supports the Active Directory from
Microsoft quite better:

The 10.3.3 upd. enhances dramatically Microsoft AD support. In many networks I was unable to include Macs under 10.3.2 without changing DNS configurations. The AD plug-in in 10.3 to 10.3.2 was very sensible to DNS and required normal and inverted records for AD (for SRV records from Microsoft displaying services addresses). As I wasn't allowed to change this configuration in one of those, I couldn't link it to the AD until there. It is now done, under 10.3.3 use Active Directory seems as easy as under Windows.

Sanyo has shown its last DVD burner controller, the LC897491. A DVD burner based on this LSI will have the following capacities:
- Burning DVD+R at 12x
- Burning DVD-R at 8x
- Burning DVD±RW at 8x
- Burning CD-R at 52x
- Burning CD-RW at 32x
- Reading DVD at 16x
- Reading CD at 52x
The new LSI has been already used in the upcoming PX-712A/712SA 12x Plextor DVD burners. Pioneer 107 is currently based on a LSI from Nec, the same one found in the Nec DVD Burner 2500D; but Pioneer's burning technology is better.
[Translator notes: A good LSI is important, it contributes to the global performance of a burner, but other parameters are also critical.]

Philips has released the reference design for developing video/MP3 player around its last chipset, the "Nexperia PNX1500".
Players based on this chipset will support audio, video, real-time encoding and will be WiFi compatible (802.11 a/b/g).
I the video capacity will not be interesting for all users, being able to fill up his iPod without connecting it might be nice.

Let's start by a message from Michel regarding video DVD burning since it is a nice example of the classical encountered problems:

I have made a movie from our journey in Reunion's Island. I have edited the 8 hours of video into a 55 min movie. I have used iMovie3 and iDVD3 on an iMac 17" Superdrive. Most of my friends who have watched the movie asked me for a copy. So I have tried to burn the first DVD and the next ones, one after the other as proposed by iDVD. The first DVD was burned in the expected time corresponding to the length of the movie, whereas of all the other DVDs were completed much faster (around 20 minutes less). And here starts the problem: if the first DVD was containing the entire movie, for the next burned DVDs it was completely different... The movie is not smooth, there are many "freezed" images, and suddenly the movie stop and it is not possible to read the DVD further... From one DVD to another, the "freezed" images can be at the beginning, in the middle or rather at the end of the movie; but in all cases the DVD can not be read properly. I had to discard around 15 DVDs due to this problem... In addition, I have placed a label on the DVDs using the CD Stromper. Big mistake, same effects, "freezed" images, the movie is not fluid anymore and the sound is desynchronized...even if the label is placed on the original DVDs...

To start, if the burning time of the first DVD is longer, this is due to the encoding. His problem with the following burned DVD is quite common, and we will advise to create a disc image of the original video DVD, and then burn additional DVD directly from the disc image using disc utilities.
Never burn DVD at the maximum speed allowed by your burner. Only the Pioneer 106 is reliable enough for burning video DVD at 4x, whereas the Pioneer 107 model can be used at 4x and 6x if it has been patched with the recent firmware.
And to conclude, but it is really important, do not stick labels on your video DVD. Whatever system you will be using , it will never be precisely centered, the DVD will then vibrate and will not be properly read by DVD players.

In addition to the Pioneer 107D, Mac OS X 10.3.3 is now natively supporting following models as listed by Mac et Vidéo:
HL-DT-ST:
RW/DVD GCC-4481B
DVD-RW GWA-4082B
MATSHITA:
DVD-R UJ-825
SONY:
CD-RW CRX315E
We know now which burners will be installed in the future revisions of Apple computers...

A macbidouille.com reader reports to us that Ripcase from PikaOne, a portable external DVD burner, is now directly supported by iApps under MacOSX 10.3.3.

AppleAndMe made an article showing how to change HVT (High Voltage Transformer) of a CRT iMac.
As you may know this accounts for most of the breadkowns that occur on iMacs 233 to 400.
Having this mended by Apple costs 100s of euros.
Following this article, provided you've got the experience it takes, it will cost you 50 Euros.
Always keep in mind though that HVT can release 5000V shocks even when the computer is unplugged, which naturally involves death! The HVT is responsible for most of the accidents linked to TV electrocution following opening of a TV or a monitor.
If you feel you're not up to doing that yourself, why not ask a friend who's got what it takes ?
Thanks to Eric for giving us an English version of this tutorial.
http://www.hardmac.com/article.php?id=17

The Pepsi-iTMS operation created in some US universities a very profitable business, according to Salem:

For one month, one Pepsi bottle out of three has a code to download a free song through iTunes... I discovered that in a Michigan University, an impressive network of students decided to earn money with this Pepsi-Apple commercial operation. Several students seek the "winning caps" in the cafeteria, and buy them 35 cents to the owner. Then, without scruples, they sale them back 75 cents to other students, and it seems to work in a terrific way! They claim their price is cheaper than the one proposed by Apple (99 cents), and that it's totally legal! The administration of the University has posted on the walls that any denunuciation would be rewarded by a $500 voucher in the University shop and book store. The problem is that they are facing a massive wave of denunciations, making things more and more tricky!! But at least, here, in this University, we can't say any more that Apple can't advertise!!

Apple has posted an update for all the G5 fans ;-), dubbed Apple Fan Control 1.0. Get it here if you run OSX 10.2.7 to 10.3.2. If you have updated to the latest 10.3.3, no need to download it, it's part of the update.