Personal Tech: Holiday Gift Guide

The Washington Post's Rob Pegoraro was online to offer ground rules for buying on the cutting edge and answer your questions about the hottest gadgets each Monday in a series of discussions leading up to the holidays.

In Sunday's column , Rob reviewed a new digital video recorder from satellite broadcaster Dish Network.

A transcript follows.

In the 2005 Tech Gift Guide , Rob offered insights for buying digital cameras , mp3 players and home computers . He also filed three audio reports on the same topics. Listen to shopping tips for: digital cameras ; mp3 players and home computers .

Want to know what upcoming topics are being covered? Sign up for the Fast Forward e-letter -- get updated information on personal technology news and product demos.

Past editions of Rob's e-letter are online here .

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Rob Pegoraro: Good afternoon on this chilly day... a lot of questions and not a lot of time to answer them in. Let's get started!

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Portland, Oregon: Great columns, Rob. I just scanned all your gift columns in hope that you might solve one stocking stuffer for me. I didn't see any comments or reviews of USB storage devices-- those small key-chain doohickies that replaced floppies. The giftee here is in college, although not an arts or graphics major. First, I don't know how much storage I need to buy (256, 512 or 12 gig). Second, does one company consistently offer high quality USB device along with low prices? (Yeah, I know all tech buyers want this.) Thnx--

washingtonpost.com: 2005 Tech Gift Guide

Rob Pegoraro: Those little USB devices--I've been calling them "USB memory keys"--are pretty much commodity parts; if you buy from a known brand, you should be fine. More memory is always better, but only up to a point. Calculate how many dollars you pay per megabyte for, say, 512 MB and 1 GB; often, the highest-capacity key will cost more per meg than the second-highest.

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King George, VA: Any sign that Dish or DirecTV may start using new DVR's and other improvements to keep their existing customers, instead of just stealing them away from each other? Both companies let new customers get new equipment for free or discount it heavily, while current customers have to pay outrageous fees to upgrade or even just to replace old equipment when it breaks. I quit Dish network after five years because they wanted to make me pay to repair old broken equipment when I could get a new Tivo box from DirecTV for free. Now DirecTV wants to make me pay for a DVR box with a bigger hard drive, so I'm ready to switch again if Dish comes out with a better DVR of its own.

washingtonpost.com: Fast Forward: Portable DVR From Dish Is a Nice Idea but Needs Work

Rob Pegoraro: I haven't heard of any such movement, but you'd think they would want to keep existing customers happy--that's much cheaper over the long run, when you factor in subscriber acquisition costs.

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Susquehanna Township, Pa: Considering getting a laptop, but have one question. When is the new Microsoft op0erating system, replacing XP, due out?

Rob Pegoraro: Not until the second half of next year--if Microsoft can stick to its schedule.

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Alexandria, Va.: I am writing to find out your opinion on the available work-arounds to the iTunes/Windows Media Player incompatiblity. I am buying my teenage son an iPod Nano for Christmas and would also like to set him up with an iTunes allowance, but he will still be using his old MP3 player for mowing the lawn and exercising. Do the work-arounds that I see posted on the web (copying downloaded songs to a CD and then re-ripping to WMP and the Hymm software) really work? And when do you think that MS and Apple are going to come to their senses and stop this silly feuding?

Rob Pegoraro: Burning downloads to CD, then re-ripping them as MP3 files always works. Hymn--a program that removes the copying limits from iTunes purchases--doesn't work with the latest iTunes release, although I'm sure it will be updated soon enough.

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XM Radio: The BF wants a portable XM Radio for Chrismas, and I'm unsure about it. He wants to use it to listen to sports stuff (games and sports talk) on the portable and I would get it set up for the car. What do you and the peanut gallery think of XM Radio? I know the the music's good but is it worth the investment? Can you listen to it on the metro, in tunnels since it's a satellite tansmission?

I'm on the fence about if it would be good for something other than music.

Rob Pegoraro: I like XM--but I'm not a subscriber myself, as my commute is on Metro. I do listen to radio a lot at home, but there I can tune into Internet radio for free.

With a portable XM radio like the MyFi, you can record 5 hours of programming to listen to when you're out of reach of the signal. The other XM receivers don't have that time-shift function, AFAIK.

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Washington, DC: Does Cingular allow users to have one account (one phone number) on 2 cell phones? Thanks

Rob Pegoraro: No, I don't think any of the wireless carriers offer that. What you can do with a Cingular (and T-Mobile) account is remove the SIM (subscriber identity module) card from one phone and pop it into a second phone--one account, two phones, just not two phones in use at once.

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Ann Arbor, Mich.: We're looking for a reliable pocket-size point and shoot digital camera. We've pretty much settled on the Canon SD400 or SD500, which both get good reviews on imaging-resource.com. My question: I saw one anonymous review on cnet.com (and an identical post on circuitcity.com) that said that the 5 megapixel resolution on the SD400 was too high for the CCD sensor size, and that the SD500 was therefore a better buy. I am wary of an anonymous post, especially one posted to multiple sites, and am wondering your take. We just want something simple that will take good snapshots, and we don't plan to print anything big.

Rob Pegoraro: If you're not planning on printing anything bigger than, say, a 5 by 7 print, even the SD400 would be overkill. Get the SD300, with a 4-megapixel resolution, instead, and use the savings to buy other tech goodies

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Clifton, VA: Be careful with some of the cheap plasma TV sets that claim to HD. A set with a resolution of 850 x540 is not HD and is little better than a standard definition set that delivers 480. the last number in the resolution should at the minimum be 720. For example 1020x720. Better would be 1280x720.

Rob Pegoraro: Absolutely--although I rarely see screens with under 720 lines of resolution labeled "HD" these days. They're almost always described, correctly, as "ED": "Enhanced Definition."

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Atlanta, GA: In your newsletter you mentioned ripping a DVD to a hard drive file. Can you recommend any utilities for doing this on a PC?

washingtonpost.com: Today's E-Letter: The Tough Task of Making Your Video Portable

Rob Pegoraro: The one I've used has been DVD Decrypter, which used to be at, I think, dvd-decrypter.com. But that site's now offline... not sure who's hosting it these days.

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Arlington, VA: Is it possible to disable the camera on the Treo 650? I'm not allowed to have a cameraphone at work but I'd love to have a smartphone, if I could get one without a camera.

Rob Pegoraro: Sure - stick a piece of duct tape over the lens.

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Strasburg, Va: Hey Rob, are you able to store other types of files on an iPod other than music files, or do you have to buy a USB memory key?

Rob Pegoraro: Put an iPod in disk mode, and it doubles as a removable hard drive--you can store any file at all on it that way.

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Coatesville, PA: P am horrified by the lack of availability of the hardware (xbox 360)... Why does microsoft do this?? Thanks, enjoy your column

Rob Pegoraro: This has happened with *every* video-game console at its debut, at least since I've been trying to keep up with the business.

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Boston, MA: Hi Rob,

What's your bottom-line assessment of the Treo 650 versus the Blackberry 7100? Or does it all depend on which features really matter to the person?

Dave

Rob Pegoraro: The Treo kicks the Blackberry's butt. It's much easier to use, it lets you use an enormous variety of good, often free third-party software, it has a camera and you can turn off mail delivery -- with a Blackberry, once you set up a home e-mail account, it won't stop checking for new messages unless you shut it off, something I found enormously irritating in practice.

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Washington, D.C.: Hi Rob- Thanks for taking my question- Santa needs help! Any tips on what features to look for in a combo DVD/VCR recorder, to be used primarily for transferring home video tapes to DVD? Thanks again.

Rob Pegoraro: The big think to look for is the DVD formats the DVD recorder uses. DVD-RAM won't play in most computers and DVD players, but DVD-R, DVD+R and DVD+RW will. DVD-RW is in the middle; many recorders use a special "VR" option with those rewriteable discs that makes it easier to edit them but also prevents them from working in many DVD players.

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Arlington, VA: TV's: Besides hdtv, dlp, plasma, and LCD, it seems there is another acronym out there - ILA - what is it? Is it a variation of one of the above?

Rob Pegoraro: I think you're talking about D'ILA, the name JVC uses for a

"microdisplay" technology called LCoS, short for Liquid Crystal on Silicon. Like DLP and rear-projection LCD, it lets a manufacturer build a relatively thin set for a lot less money than a plasma or LCD screen of the same size.

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Mac user!: I have several short quicktime clips that I want to assemble into a longer quicktime movie as a holiday gift. What mac program is the easiest to use to do this with?

Rob Pegoraro: iMovie

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Washington, DC: Apparently, a lot of people are willing to pay $1.99 for downloads of TV shows off of iTunes. How long until the music industry forces Apple to match or exceed that price per song download?

Rob Pegoraro: Hopefully, never. The people who run record labels may be greedy, but I think even they can recognize that arbitrarily doubling the price of a song download will more than cut the market in half.

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Louisville, KY: Is adding and deleting large amounts of memory (1-2GB) at a time bad for your hard drive? Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: No.

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England: doesn't microsoft media center do all you want?

Rob Pegoraro: No. Here's my last review of the Media Center software: Microsoft's Improved Media Center Still Falls Short

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Ann Arbor, Mich.: Thanks for taking my earlier question about the Canon SD400. I've discovered the SD300 is very hard to get find; I assume the SD400 is ok, even though more camera than I need?

Rob Pegoraro: Should be fine...

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Bethesda, MD: Just asking your professional opinion Rob - since I know Apple isn't going to tell you - do you think gapless playback is going to be addressed on the next generation of iPods? Ever?

And just for clarification, I mean true gapless playback with seperate tracks, none of this entire album on one track.

I'm just wondering if I need to get over this one flaw and get an iPod, or if you think this will be addressed.

Rob Pegoraro: I have no idea. I cannot imagine that adding this feature would be at all difficult, but I don't know why Apple hasn't done it already.

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Stafford, VA: Not so much a question as a complaint

I have a year and a half old iBook that is in repair for the third time in as many months. I have purchased the Applecare extended warranty coverage for it. It seemed to suddenly get very slow and I kept hearing a clicking sound like a fan hitting something. So, I thought it was perhaps the hard drive or CPU fan. When it came back, the invoice said they had replaced the Logic Board. I got it back and had it a few days before it seemed to get real slow again, though there was no clicking this time. So, I sent it back again. This time, they replaced the hard drive. When it came back, I noticed that airport card signal seemed to be much weaker than before it had left. So, I called Applecare and they told me to open up and reseat the airport card. I noticed right away that the antenna wire seemed to be frayed (my guess from having been pulled off for being in for service so much) and I pointed this out to them. They told me to reseat the card, which I did. The signal still seemed weak, so they told me to send it in for service. After I hung up with AppleCare, I tried to reseat the card one more time just for peace of mind and this time the connector came off. Now they are telling me that it is not covered under AppleCare and it will cost me $500 to repair. This is BS since AppleCare had instructed me to disconnect the antenna cable and reseat the card. I am currently on hold with dispatch to argue this over them, but my patience is running thin. Next time, I'm buying a DIY laptop kit and install Linux!

Avoid Apple!!!!

Rob Pegoraro: Sometimes, good manufacturers make bad products. Take a look at the next posting...

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Toronto, Ontario: I recently purchased a Dell XPS model, basically because we wanted the power for media and games. The unit has caused me no end of problems which I'm still trying to work through with Dell support. Do I have a unusual unit or has this model caused them problems?

Thanks

Thom Clulow

Rob Pegoraro: See?

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Fairfax: I want a Nano, but only have 1.0 USB ports. How difficult is it to upgrade the USB ports to 2.0? I'm not very computer savvy by the way.

Rob Pegoraro: If you've got a laptop, you need to buy a PC Card adapter with a couple of USB 2.0 ports. That goes into the slot on the side of the laptop; install some driver software and you're done. With a desktop, you need to add a PCI Card to the inside of the machine, then install some driver software. That's not that much harder, it's just a little intimidating sometime.

(Note, however, that if you've got a desktop without PCI Card slots, such as an iMac, or a laptop without a PC Card slot, you're stuck.)

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Arlington, VA: Has Directv made a decision on when they will move to mpeg4?

Rob Pegoraro: They've already started that--a friend who lives in southern Fairfax told me Friday that he's getting the new DirecTV MPEG-4 receiver. (MPEG-4 is a more efficient video encoding system; DirecTV is using this to provide local high-def channels. Older DirecTV receivers can't decode that signal, although they still get the rest of DirecTV's lineup.)

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Apple problems: A friend of mine got an apple ipod, and it took several hours and a couple trips back to the store to get it working. Now the hard drive has apparently crashed. In contrast, my Dell DJ worked perfectly right out of the box and has yet to give me any grief. And as far as gapless playback, the gap between tracks is nearly imperceptible.

Rob Pegoraro: And if that experience were at all typical, Apple would not have the 70 or 80 percent market share it currently owns in the MP3-player market.

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Buying Treo 650 w/disabled camera: Some carriers give you the option to purchase a 650 without a camera. Sprint comes to mind.

Rob Pegoraro: Does Sprint? I know Verizon does.

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Washington, D.C.: Is a portable keyboard a good gift for someone who owns a Treo 650? How about a gift certificate to ITunes - is it compatible with a Treo?

Rob Pegoraro: A portable keyboard could work. No, iTunes downloads can't be played on a Treo unless you re-convert them to MP3 first (by that burn-to-CD-then-rerip workaround I outlined before).

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Bethesda, Md.: Has Verizon had a change of heart? Could it be Verizon is finally listening to its customers? My Verizon-branded razr has fully functional Bluetooth, despite Verizon's statements otherwise.

Rob Pegoraro: One of my coworkers had the same happy surprise as you. I'm going to call Verizon to ask what's happening--did somebody forget to hobble Bluetooth on some Razr models, or is this an overdue change in policy? (At least until now, Verizon has limited Bluetooth capability on most phones to allow only the use of wireless headsets--file transfers to/from computers and address book syncrhonization have all been blocked.)

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Alexandria, VA: Seriously, Apple has the 70-80 percent market share because of the image, not because of sterling quality and ease of setup.

Rob Pegoraro: No, actually, it has to be because of my reviews :)

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Washington, DC: This is probably a lame question, but here goes. Are there 2 formats for DVD drives in computers--plus and minus? And do they not cross over so you need plus DVDs for a plus drive and minus DVDs for a minus drive? I bought some blank DVDs to back up pictures and my computer isn't recognizing them. The DVDs are plus and I now have realized that the drive says minus. Is this my problem?

Thanks!

Rob Pegoraro: Probably. Most DVD burners on computers support both major formats: DVD+R/DVD+RW, or "plus," and DVD-R/DVD-RW (or "dash" or "minus"). But many older ones only accept one or the other type of recordable discs. The electronics industry owes you an apology for not coming up with a single format when it had a chance--these stupid format wars almost never benefit consumers.

(Once burned, however, both plus and minus formats should work in any remotely new computer or DVD player. It's only recording that poses these big compatibility issues.)

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Alexandria, VA: Rob: Looking to purchase a 32" LCD television for my mom to replace her circa 1980 console set. She is a cable household but does not subscribe to any premium channels and does not use a set top box, just connects the cable directly into the coax input on the TV.

Will a set with an ATSC tuner be able to decode and display all of the channels she is receiving via her cable including NTSC format signals?

Rob Pegoraro: Yes - nobody makes ATSC (aka, digital) tuner-equipped sets that don't also include a regular NTSC tuner.

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Woodbridge, Va.: Which browser is more secure-opera or firefox?

Rob Pegoraro: Firefox has had more reported vulnerabilities. However, I'm not aware of either browser being successfully attacked in the way that Internet Explorer has been.

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St. Louis MO: My husband and I are thinking about upgrading our home computers, which are networked. We both have PC's. I've been reading your reviews of Apples and am impressed. We bought our college student daughter a G4 laptop last year and she's had zero problems with it, which reinforces my desire to make the switch. However, my husband has some software he uses for business that he says can only run on a PC (Visio is one, I don't remember the other). Can we network an Apple and a PC if I switch and he doesn't? Also, what PC's would you recommend?

Rob Pegoraro: Networking Macs and PCs together is not a problem at all--Mac OS X includes software that lets it be a client or a server in a Windows network.

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NY, NY: I have a Sony digital camera that takes MPEG-4 movies. How do I get them saved to a format that I can burn to a DVD that will play on any DVD player?

Rob Pegoraro: You'll have to transfer them to a computer with a DVD burner. There, you can use any decent video-editing app to manage and edit them... Sony probably includes some sort of software for that with its camera.

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20906: Honest answer for a regular tv watcher please: is hi-def all that it is cracked up to be for the price? How soon before we are going to be forced to either get hi-def tv or some kind of converter? Thanks

Rob Pegoraro: 1) Yes, high-def does look great for the price--but that price isn't $2,000 and up. HDTVs with built-in tuners go for as little as $700.

2) You can expect analog broadcasts to vanish from the air by 2009, maybe sooner. That does *not* mean you'll have to buy a new TV, or even that your new TV will have to be HD. Digital TV allows for 18 different formats, only some of which are high-def. At worst, you'd need to buy a converter box for your old set--but if you already have a cable or satellite box, you wouldn't need any extra hardware at all, since your cable or satellite operator would, presumably, just furnish you with an updated box.

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DC: I would like to purchase an mp3 player, preferably an iPod. However, I would have preferred to buy a 20Gb they had out last year, instead of the 2 or 4Gb nano (too small) or the 30-60Gb video iPods (too much) they have out now. Is there any sense in buying a 20Gb refurbished one online (what is that, 4 generation?) or will the store not support those anymore if they get broken? I just want one where I wouldn't have to erase songs all the time but one where I'd use more of the memory... Am I stuck waiting for the next generation and hope they have a 20Gb out again? Any recs of other mp3 players of that capacity?

Rob Pegoraro: Just get the 30-gig iPod. It's a lot thinner than last year's model, it costs the same and it'll show photos and videos. The only thing it doesn't have is FireWire compatibility (which is a real issue for owners of older Macs that can't be upgraded to USB 2.0).

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Baltimore MD: RE: XM - we love it and I'm sure your BF will to. You'll never want to listen to commerical radio again.

Rob Pegoraro: Thanks!

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Washington, DC: Just to prolong the debate, here's my 2 cents on why Ipods are so popular. I have a Dell Jukebox and a Mini. When I got a new computer in May, the Mini switched to the computer flawlessly--no problems. The computer failed to recognize the Dell, and after many loads and re-loads of the driver, and much searching on the Dell website, I now have a fancy paperweight. I'm a convert--I'll stick to Apple from now on, and I suspect many people have had similar experiences.

Rob Pegoraro: More on the iPod...

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Switching to an iBook G4: Wiill there be any compatability issues if I have I transfer my old MS Office (Windows) files to MS Office for Mac?

Rob Pegoraro: The only likely issue is fonts--if you don't have the same fonts loaded on your Mac as on you PC, documents may look different after the switch. But a) most people stick with default fonts like Times New Roman, which are on any new PC or Mac, and b) you'd face that risk with any move to a new computer, regardless of its operating system.

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Clarksville, MD: If I have up to $2,500 to spend and want a reasonably thin (up to) 50" television screen that is HDTV ready, can connect to cable, and has ATSC capability and a good picture which can be installed by Christmas, what should I narrow my search to?

Rob Pegoraro: That actually covers a lot. You can get plasma sets up to 42 inches in that price range, and LCDs up to 37 inches--maybe 40 inches if you're lucky. If you can deal with the slightly greater depth and more limited viewing angles of a microdisplay set, you can easily buy screens in the mid-50s and keep under that price range.

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Silver Spring, Md.: Any such thing as a color (inkjet I assume) PC printer that can print regular 8.5x11 documents, but also photos on photo paper? I need both and would hate to have to buy 2 separate machines. On the other hand, a lot of the "all-in-ones" you hear about sound like overkill to me... I already have a scanner, which doubles fine as a copier, so I don't want to pay for buy these functions a second time.

Rob Pegoraro: Yes, absolutely. The only thing that makes a printer a photo printer is the number of inks it uses--instead of the usual four colors (one of them being black) in a general-purpose inkjet, photo printers have five or six or so ink tanks, which allow them to generate a broader spectrum of colors. You can still print in black and white with a photo printer, though.

Another option is to get a printer that accepts either regular or photo ink cartridges. HP has made models like that, where you swap out cartridges depending on the print job.

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Short Hills, NJ: While using Firefox, I am never able to watch videos posted on MSNBC. I always get an error message stating that I need to have MediaPlayer installed and also must be running IE. Why can't these files play on Firefox?

Rob Pegoraro: Because some (IMHO) fool at MSNBC signed a deal with Microsoft, standardizing the site on a video presentation that can only be played in Internet Explorer for Windows. That's an utterly stupid thing for MSNBC to do--why drive away at least 15 percent of your Web audience?

(I've been meaning to write this up for a Help File item; thanks for the reminder!)

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Midwest: Is there a reason my 5 year old Bose Wave Radio won't play new CD's? Do new CD's have a different format they won't play? The CD will play on my car stereo.

Rob Pegoraro: Did the label of this CD include any mention at all of it using some sort of copy-protection system? Those types of CDs may not work in some regular CD players, especially if those CD players are built on a CD-ROM mechanism (for instance, to allow them to play MP3 files off data CDs).

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Pittsburgh, PA: Can an ink jet printer be made to print only in black and white? If so, how?

Rob Pegoraro: That's an option you can select in the Print dialog box each time you order up a print job.

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Bethesda, MD: What are the disadvantages of usingApple's Lossless format for ripped MP3s, otherthan the fact that I don't like proprietary formats? I.e., can I use iTunes to re-sample the lossless datafiles into MP3s at different bit rates (high-qualityones for streaming at home, lower quality ones for myTreo's SD card?)

Rob Pegoraro: The big disadvantage is that you burn up a lot more disk space storing up songs in this format--then you lose even more when iTunes converts a song from Apple Lossless to MP3 or AAC. But if you've got a big enough drive, that won't matter.

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Bethesda, MD: I will be setting up a home wireless network with a laptop I just ordered. Does the anti-virus software on the laptop need to be from the same company as on my desktop PC? I use Norton anti-virus on the PC, but was wondering if I could use one of the free anti-virus the Post wrote about on the new laptop?

Rob Pegoraro: No, you don't need to run the same anti-virus program on different PCs.

BTW, since I'm still getting this question in e-mail even after answering it in Help File the other weekend: No, my review of AVG and Avast did not suggest installing either or both program on top of an existing anti-virus utility. Doing that is one of the more certain ways to screw up a Windows system.

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Strasburg, Va: Hello again, Rob. Let's say that I have an account on Outlook Express and I got another computer, would I be able to either move or duplicate that account to my new computer? Thanks!

Rob Pegoraro: Absolutely. The Files and Settings Transfer Wizard included in XP can help you with that; so can data-migration utilities like AlohaBob PC Relocator.

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Some "fool" at MSNBC signed a deal with Microsoft?: What do you think the MS in MSNBC stands for?

Rob Pegoraro: Remember the ads when MSNBC first arrived? Something like "News from two names you know: Microsoft and NBC." *Why*, exactly, I'd want Microsoft to be my news source was left unexplained...

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Fairfax Station, VA: Rob,

A question that should have broad appeal is to map out options to convert mini DV camcorders to DVD media. Since analog camcorders duping to VHS tapes are becoming passe, please help us navigate the myriad choices for saving camcorder recordings.

I'm not too eager to buy a digital camcorder that stores to mini-dvd, as they are both expensive and short (only 30 minutes in length at high resolution.)

Would a smart path be to USB or firewire the mini-dv camcorder feed into a PC that has a DVD burner in it? There are many editing programs out there, have you any recommendations on which ones are the best value for the money? Minimum configurations needed for PC or DVD burner to edit? Type of media you prefer to copy their films (-R or +R) formats?

Thanks for your insights into this question, one I suspect a lot of families are wresting with...how to save their home videos onto a more permanent media (i.e. DVD) and get away from VHS tapes that wear out over the years.

Rob Pegoraro: You've basically got it right. Get a mini-DV camcorder with a FireWire port (some only include USB 2.0, but that can be a lot more work to set up than a FireWire connection) and a computer with a FireWire port and a DVD burner--plus a fast processor and plenty of free space on the hard drive.

I don't think DVD-based camcorders either, for that same reason. There is, however, a third option: JVC sells some camcorders that use internal hard drives to store video. Their capacities can be a little limited, but I suspect that's how most camcorders will work in the future--with a hard drive, it's vastly quicker to access old recordins and edit footage in the camera. You also don't have that fragile tape-loading mechanism to break on you in mid-trip.

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Vienna, VA: I am finally going to break down and buy an ipod. However, why is it that none of the MP3 players have an FM/AM tuner?

Rob Pegoraro: Plenty of MP3 players do include FM (but not AM) tuners; it's just that none of Apple's do.

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Alexandria VA: I know you like to point out that DVD-RAM is the least widely supported format, but its advantage is that it's very rewriteable and you can edit what you record. If you have a DVR with a hard drive, you can transfer your recording to one of the other formats.

Rob Pegoraro: But if you have a DVD recorder with a hard drive, that hard drive is far more rewriteable and editing-friendly than even DVD-RAM.

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CD Burn: Rob, I am making homemade CD's of late 1980s and early 1990s music to give as Christmas gifts to my college chums. I have dutifully purchased all the songs off of iTunes (no illegal downloading) and now CANNOT get the songs to burn to a CD. What am I missing? Help, please.

Rob Pegoraro: If the songs play in iTunes, then you should be able to burn them, period--iTunes purchases don't come with partial rights, where one song may be "burnable" and another is not. Are you remembering to create a playlist of your songs, then selecting that and then clicking the "burn CD" icon? Can you get regular MP3s to burn to a blank CD?

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Arlington, VA: One of the men on my list would like a handheld PDA. I've read over a couple of your articles, but I'm still a little confused over some of the features and what is worthwhile - like wireless. He will use it mostly for organization, but I'd like for the technology to be current for at least a year. I was thinking the Palm Tungsten E2. Any thoughts?

Rob Pegoraro: The E2 has Bluetooth wireless, but that's not what most people have in mind when they think "wireless." If you want built-in WiFim, you need to spend a little more to get the new Palm TX, which has WiFi and Bluetooth. (Bluetooth, for the uninitated, basically replaces USB cables for short-range data transfers; it's not a way to go online, generally speaking.)

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Louisville, KY: Rob,

I almost forgot to thank you for your anti-virus article a couple of weeks ago. Norton conked out on us the Friday before it was posted (its Firewall somehow keeping us from accessing -any- web pages). Avast allows my system to run tons faster, is free, and is so far secure.

Rob Pegoraro: Glad to be of help!

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Anonymous: How cana wireless network be set up so others can't use it on a PC within range of the home?

Rob Pegoraro: Set a network password for it, then make the network invisible (i.e., don't have it broadcast its identity) for extra security.

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Ithaca, NY: Rob,

Can commercial PC games be made to play on a Mac in any way? Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: No, not unless they're DOS games so old that they could run at an acceptable speed in Virtual PC or some other Windows emulator.

(But ask me again whenever Apple ships its first Intel-powered Macs. You should be able to run Windows under emulation a *lot* faster, in addition to booting up Windows itself as an alternate operating system.)

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Nashville, TN : Re: Pittsburgh printing in b/w --

A lot of folks print only by clicking on an icon, and thus don't see the Print dialog box you mentioned. Be sure to go through File/Print to see the dialog. Only then will they have the chance to switch over to black & white printing.

I never miss your columns, Rob.

Rob Pegoraro: Thanks for the tip!

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Washington, DC: What should I be looking for in terms of features and functionality for a conventional flat screen tv?

Thanks

Rob Pegoraro: We gotta agree on definitions first! "Conventional flat-screen TV"? Does that mean a CRT with a flat front to its glass tube? (I prefer to call them "flat-front" screens myself.) Or do you mean a plasma or LCD flat-panel display?

Setting that aside, however, my own shopping list would have these basic features:

* At least 720p HD resolution.

* Built-in ATSC digital tuner.

* At least two high-def video inputs, preferably one of which is a digital HDMI port.

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Washington, DC: Hi Rob. What's your take on Verizon's RAZR phone? I haven't heard much about it, but saw an ad the other day and I must admit that I have RAZR envy. Is it worth the price tag? I'm about due for a new cell phone (my little Samsung has survived two years with me, and I think that's about all I can ask for).

Rob Pegoraro: One of my coworkers just got one, and I'm looking forward to inspecting it myself. It really is absurdly thin. It's like the iPod nano of phones. At $200, it is on the high side for cell phones, even those marketed at fashion items.

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Re: Burning CDs from iTunes: Could the previous poster's problem be that they have exceeded the maximum number of CD burns for that particular downloaded song? I thought that you could only burn a purchased song something like 6 times off of iTunes (but maybe I made that up?)

Rob Pegoraro: Right! The limit is 7 burns of any one playlist, but that count resets once you burn a different playlist. It also resets if you burn your purchases from a different computer.

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Takoma Park, MD: Hey Rob-

What's going on with the Tivo-ipod connection? Will I really be able to download any show from my tivo to watch on my ipod? How would this work?

Rob Pegoraro: It's just an extension of the existing TiVo ToGo software; TiVo's just adding another option to the TiVo Desktop software. So you'd transfer a recording from TiVo to PC as before--a very slow process--then you'd convert to an iPod (or PSP) format using TiVo Desktop before sending it over to either device.

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Annandale, VA: Rob,

I have a system running on ME that has several performance issues. I've uninstalled all programs I no longer use, am up to date on all virus and Adware definitions, etc. Someone suggested upgrading to XP, which should solve my issue. However, by the time I buy it, I am half way to a new system. Thoughts?

Rob Pegoraro: Yeah, buy a new system. Anything that shipped with Windows Me is now over four years old, which is too old to be sinking much more money into.

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Pasco, WA: Thanks for taking my question. Buying a DVD player has confused me even though they are relatively inexpensive. How important is ability to show Divx DVDs? Is a HDMI connector important?

Rob Pegoraro: DivX is a compressed video format that's used for a lot of Internet video (including a lot of the stuff that people download without paying for it). If you don't know what BitTorrent is, you probably don't need to worry about DivX. HDMI is a high-definition digital connection, which you'd only need on a DVD player that "upconverts" video to high-definition through some software processing; an HDMI connection should then provide a slightly cleaner image than an analog, component-video connection.

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Laurel, MD: I am getting the new video ipod 5G for Christmas this year and am really excited about it. I know the 5G model comes pretty bare bones. Which accessories do you feel I should be picking up to maximize my experience? Also, know of any good software that would let me convert dvd's and other video files so that they would work on my ipod? Thanks for your help!

Rob Pegoraro: For most people, I think a car adapter would come first. The tape-deck adapters deliver the best sound, but if your car, like most, didn't come with a tape deck, you'd need to get an FM transmitter instead.

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Eugene, Oregon: I am in the market for a 42 or 50 inch plasma HD. I've been looking at the Pioneer and Phillips models. Any other brands I should consider? And does that ambilight technology really make much difference at home?

Rob Pegoraro: Look at Panasonic, Samsung, Sony and Dell--all are likely to be cheaper than Pioneer's sets.

Ambilight is a Philips option that lights up the wall behind the set in colors designed to complement what's on the screen. Philips says this makes TV seem more real/vivid/engrossing, but I can't get over my own "this is a gimmick" reaction. (Also, if your TV is backed into a corner, as mine is, I don't think this will work as designed anyway.)

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Dulles, VA: Are there any good DVR/PVR options out there that don't involve a monthly subscription or lifetime fee? I just want to record tv on a hard drive for playback and I don't care about pausing live tv or fancy programming guides. Thanks and love your column.

Rob Pegoraro: Yup. On the one hand, you can get a DVR without paying anything upfront from most cable systems, and from Dish Network as well; the monthly fees they charge won't pass the cost of a new standalone DVR for a long time. On the other hand, some DVD recorders also include hard drives for basic time-shifting, and most of these don't come with any subscription fee.

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Re: NBC digital over the air: Rob, somebody asked last week if it was possible to get NBC digital broadcasts over the air. Yes, it is. There are web sites that will tell you how to aim your antenna based on your address. If you are in an area where you can get both Baltimore and DC stations, you may need two antennas to get decent signals for all the local channels.

Rob Pegoraro: The Web site most folks recommend for that is antennaweb.org, run by the Consumer Electronics Association.

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NY: Hi Rob -

What do we should do an old system to remove personal data before recyling? By the way, it's Win95 (!) and boots up 'funny' w/the desktop looking 'screwed up'. Not worth salvaging even for just storing files (4G hard-drive, anyone?)

Rob Pegoraro: Thanks for reminding me that it's about the time of year when we run our annual "what to do with an old computer" story. In the meantime, this old Help File item has the details on how to wipe a hard drive: Scrubbing Your Hard Drive; Going Online to Complain (washingtonpost.com)

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Rob Pegoraro: Once again, almost two hours have gone by... thanks for keeping me busy! I'll be back here for one last time next Monday, and then my typing fingers get a week's vacation.

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