Chapter 11

Multimedia Devices and Mass Storage

You Will Learn…

About multimedia devices such as sound cards, digital cameras, and MP3 players

About optical storage technologies such as CD and DVD

About tape drives and removable drives How certain hardware devices are used for backup

and fault tolerance How to troubleshoot multimedia and mass storage

devices

Multimedia on a PC

Goal• To create or reproduce lifelike representations of

sight and sound

Challenge• Data storage is digital

• Sights and sounds are analog

CPU Technologies for Multimedia

MMX, SSE, and 3DNow!• Improve speed of processing graphics, video, and

sound

• Use improved methods of handling high-volume repetition during I/O operations

Software must be written to use the specific capabilities

Multimedia Devices

Sound cards Digital cameras MP3 players Video capture cards

Sound Cards

Record sound, save it to a file on hard drive, play it back

Have ports for external stereo speakers and microphone input

May be SoundBlaster compatible

Stages of Computerized Sound

Digitize or input the sound (analog to digital)• Includes sampling

• Data is measured at a series of representative points• Sampling rate = cycles per second, or hertz (Hz)

Store digital data in a compressed data file Reproduce or synthesize the sound (digital to

analog)

Sound Card Manufacturers

Installing a Sound Card

Physically install the card in an empty PCI slot on the motherboard

Install the sound card driver Install the sound application software

Installing a Sound Card

Installing a Sound Card

Installing the Sound Card Driver

Digital Cameras

Use light sensors to detect light and convert it to a digital signal stored in an image file using JPEG format

Use TWAIN format for transferring images Camera’s image-editing software (or another

program) can be used to view, touch up, and print the picture

Digital Cameras

Digital Camera Manufacturers

MP3 Players

Store and play MP3 files downloaded from a PC, using internal memory and flash storage devices

Compression Methods Used with MP3 Players

MPEG (Moving Pictures Experts Group) standard• Tracks movement from one frame to the next and

stores only what changes

• Cuts out or drastically reduces sound that is not normally heard by the human ear

MPEG Standards

MPEG-1• Used in business and home applications to compress

images

MPEG-2• Used to compress video films on DVD-ROM

MPEG-3• Used for audio compression

MPEG-4• Used for video transmissions over the Internet

How MP3 Players Work

Play MP3 files downloaded from a PC, using internal memory and flash storage devices (eg, SmartMedia, CompactFlash, or Memory Stick)

MP3 Player Manufacturers

Video Capture Card

Allows you to capture input from a camcorder or directly from TV

Features to Look for on a Video Capture Card

IEEE 1394 (FireWire) port to interface with a digital camcorder

Data transfer rates, which affect price Capture resolution and color-depth capabilities Ability to transfer data back to digital camcorder or

VCR Stereo audio jacks Video-editing software bundled with the card

Optical Storage Technology

Patterns of tiny pits on disc surface represent bits, which are read by a laser beam

Major optical storage technologies• CD-ROM drives

• Use CDFS (Compact Disc File System) or UDF (Universal Disk Format)

• DVD drives• Use only UDF

CD-ROM

Data physically embedded into disc surface

Surface laid out as one continuous spiral of sectors of equal length that hold equal amounts of data in pits and lands

CD-ROM

Read-only Slower to access than hard drives Used to distribute software and sound files Combines constant linear velocity (CLV) and

constant angular velocity (CAV) Look for multisession feature

CD-ROM Drive Manufacturers

CD-ROMs

Caring for CD-ROM drives and discs• Use precautions when handling

CD-ROM drive interface with motherboard• IDE interface (most common)

• SCSI interface with SCSI host adapter

• Proprietary expansion card that works only with CD-ROMs from a particular manufacturer

• Proprietary connection on sound card

• Portable drive; plug into external port on PC

Installing a CD-ROM Drive

Installing a CD-ROM Drive

Accessing CD-ROM Drive When Booting from a Floppy Disk

Windows rescue disk needs to include tools to access CD-ROM drive in the event of hard drive failure• There will be no access to 32-bit Windows CD-ROM

drivers on the hard drive

Files required to access a CD-ROM drive while in real mode:• 16-bit device driver provided by manufacturer of CD-ROM

drive; loaded from Config.sys• 16-bit real-mode OS interface to the driver, Mscdex.exe;

loaded from Autoexec.bat

CD-R (CD-Recordable) Drives and Discs

Enables “burning” your own CDs Used for distributing software or large amounts of

data Cannot edit or overwrite Allow for a lot of data storage on a relatively

inexpensive medium Bottom of disk is tinted (eg, blue, black); CDs are

silver Can be read by all CD-ROM drives

CD-RW (CD-Rewritable) Drives and Discs

Allows overwriting old data with new data Cannot always be read by older drives More expensive than CD-R discs

DVD (Digital Video Disc)

Storage capacity• 8.5 GB (one side)• 17 GB (both sides)

Uses Universal Disk Format (UDF) file system Uses shorter wavelength laser than CD; a second

opaque layer also holds data Uses MPEG-2 video compression; requires MPEG-2

controller to decode compressed data Audio is stored in Dolby AC-3 compression

DVD Device

DVD Devices

DVD Drive Manufacturers

Installing a DVD Drive

Installing a DVD Drive

Installing a DVD Drive

11-15

Installing a DVD Drive

Installing a DVD Drive

Tape Drives

Advantages• Inexpensive and

convenient

• Large capacity

• Several types and formats

Disadvantage• Sequential access

Tape Drive Manufacturers

How a Tape Drive Interfaces with a Computer

External• Parallel port with optional pass-through to the

printer

Internal• IDE ATAPI interface (most popular)

External or internal• SCSI bus• Proprietary controller card or floppy drive interface

External Drive UsingParallel Port

An ATAPI IDE Tape Drive

Tapes Used by a Tape Drive

Two kinds• Full-sized data cartridges• Minicartridges (more popular)

Standards• Quarter-Inch Committee (QIC) or quarter-inch

cartridge standards (not used much today)• Travan by 3M (popular, improved group of

standards)

Minicartridge for a Tape Drive

Removable Drives

Can be internal or external Advantages

• Increase overall storage capacity of a system• Make it easy to move large files from one

computer to another• Serve as a convenient medium for making backups

of hard drive data• Make it easy to secure important files

Considerations When Purchasing a Removable Drive

Drop height Half-life of the disk Plug and Play compliance

Types of Removable Drives

Iomega 3½-inch Zip drive• Stores 100 MB or 250 MB of data• Drop height of 8 feet

SuperDisk by Imation or Maxell• Stores 120 MB or 240 MB, respectively• Backward compatibility with regular floppy disks

Iomega Jaz drive• Stores 1 GB or 2 GB of data• Drop height of 3 feet

Zip Drive Kit

Installing a Removable Drive

Internal removable drive• Similar to installing a hard drive

External removable drive• Different process

Troubleshooting Guidelines

Do not touch chips on circuit boards or disk surfaces where data is stored

Do not stack components on top of one another Do not subject them to magnetic fields or ESD

Problems with CD-ROM or DVD Installations

Computer does not recognize the drive (no drive D listed in Windows 9x Explorer)• Check data cable and power cord connections• For an IDE drive

• Is correct master/slave jumper set?• Is IDE connection on motherboard disabled in CMOS setup?

• For SCSI, are proper IDs set? Most current drivers installed?

• Another device using same port settings?• Suspect a boot virus

Troubleshooting Sound Problems

Problem with sound card itself Result of system settings Bad connections

Troubleshooting Tape Drives

A minicartridge does not work Data transfer is slow Drive does not work after installation Drive fails intermittently or gives errors

Chapter Summary

What multimedia devices can do, how they work, and how to support them

Storage devices• CD

• DVD

• Removable drives

• Tape drives