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Samsung Optical SmartHub SE-208BW Review
400 days
by TwiddleGeek
in cable Modems
Though we’re supposed to be living in the age of cloud computing, most us still have piles of DVD movies we simply can’t play on smartphones or tablets. Enter the Samsung Optical SmartHub SE-208BW, a wireless DVD burner that allows any Android, iOS or Windows device to play discs, browse files, or gain access to a USB-connected storage drive, all over a standard Wi-Fi connection. Though the SmartHub Optical offers a lot of features, inconsistent video quality and a complicated setup process make this $130 device a tough sell.
DesignClick to Enlarge
Available in black or white plastic, the 7.8 x 5.9 x 1-inch, 1-pound SmartHub Optical is light enough to fit in your bag and thin enough to fit on even the smallest shelf next to your router. The tray-loading optical drive is button activated and spring loaded so it feels quite sturdy and easy to manipulate.
The top of the Samsung Optical SmartHub has status lights for power, Wi-Fi, Ethernet connectivity and USB storage activity. The back surface has ports for the AC adapter, Ethernet connection and USB storage, along with a mini USB port that can be used to connect the SmartHub directly to a PC or a USB-enabled TV.
Setup
Setting up the Optical SmartHub is a tremendous hassle due to poor documentation, a confusing installer and Samsung’s puzzling decision to put the program on a DVD that can’t be run on the drive itself. The device does not come with a printed instruction manual, save for a fold-out quick start guide that’s light on written instructions and heavy on-screen shots of the install software.
In order to set up the Optical SmartHub’s wireless connection, users must plug the device into a power outlet and attach it via Ethernet to either a broadband modem or a router that’s connected to one. with the device plugged in and powered on, the instructions then advise you to place the setup disc in your PC notebook’s optical drive to run the install software.
What if you bought the Optical SmartHub precisely because your notebook, like so many these days, doesn’t have an optical drive? you can connect the SmartHub to your notebook using the bundled micro USB to USB a cable and copy the setup files from the disc to your hard drive. Unfortunately, though you can use the SmartHub like an ordinary external DVD burner when it’s tethered to your notebook, you can’t run the installer while the drive is connected, so you must copy the files to your hard drive and then unplug. we also found the setup files available for download on Samsung-odd.com, a site which is not listed in the bundled documentation.
Once you launch the software, it asks for the SmartHub’s current SSID and password, both of which are printed on the bottom of the device. then, after your computer connects, you have the option to change those settings to an ID and password you can easily remember. The software proceeds to ask you questions about how to set up the SmartHub’s Ethernet connection and assign it an IP address. while there’s no help figuring out all the options, the defaults (autodetect IP address) will work for most users.
What if you don’t own a Windows PC? Samsung doesn’t provide any Mac OS version of the setup software, but it may be possible to configure the device by connecting to it using Wi-Fi and then logging into its browser-based control panel.
In order to use the SmartHub, you will need to connect your notebook, tablet or smartphone to it via Wi-Fi. However, while you are connected to the SmartHub, you can still use the Internet. So the SmartHub is effectively your router, and users who don’t already own a router can use the device for that purpose. Once connected, you can access a browser-based control panel with settings for wireless access, DLNA support and using the SmartHub as an FTP server. Samsung provides no documentation for these settings, either.
iSCSI Setup and PC Drive Letter Access
After configuring the wireless and Internet connections, the setup program will install the iSCSI Initiator, a small program that allows your PC to see the SmartHub as a drive letter. we found that just clicking OK on all the screens was good enough to complete this process, but we were confused by a Windows dialog box that appeared with literally dozens of iSCSI options that the instructions never warned us about. Fortunately, leaving all the fields blank and hitting OK was sufficient.
Once the iSCI Initiator is installed, you’ll need to launch it in order to access the burner from within Windows. upon launch, the initiator sits in your system tray and you must right-click it and select “Log in” before it will provide a drive letter for your SmartHub.
Strangely, we found that though our DVD appeared as a drive letter, a USB hard drive we attached to the SmartHub was only available via Windows’ Network browser, where it prompted us for the device’s administrative username and password before allowing us to browse the folders.
When our PC was connected to the SmartHub and to the external hard drive we attached to it, we were able to treat them both as standard network drives. However, you cannot burn discs via the Wi-Fi connection.
Accessing the SmartHub from Android or iOS
To access the drive from a tablet or phone, you must download Samsung’s free SmartHub app from either the Mac App Store or Google Play market. Before launching the app, you must connect the device to the SmartHub via Wi-Fi.
On both Android and iOS, the app has a simple UI with icons for File Manager, Smart Backup (copy files to an external hard drive), Video Player (play video files), Music Player (play music files), DVD Player and Audio CD Player. All of the player functions are grayed out until you register the SmartHub within the app by typing in its serial number.
Provided that you don’t have a PC logged into the SmartHub via iSCSI, you can connect more than up to four mobile devices to the SmartHub at a time, allowing you and one or more friends to watch different media files or perform different backup tasks at the same time.
DVD Playback
Across two different locations, two different DVDs and two different devices, wireless DVD playback was noticeably jerky and pixilated. when we tried streaming a DVD of the movie “Super” to an iPad 2 and a Samsung Stratosphere Android phone in our office, the movie was watchable but the on-screen action was not at all smooth. The picture suffered from visual noise, and we even saw a little bit of ghosting. when we tried streaming a disc of the movie “Dark City” in our New York apartment, the jerkiness and visual noise were even worse.
Though the Samsung Optical SmartHub will allow you to stream the same DVD to two or more devices at once, each stream is independent of the others, meaning that your devices won’t necessarily be at the same point in the movie at the same time and the drive will have to shuffle back and forth on the disc, making the playback pause and unpause constantly. when we tried launching the DVD of “Super” on both our devices at once, we were impressed with the novelty but not the slideshow-like experience.
The SmartHub app provides very limited DVD controls, only allowing you to choose between chapters and titles, only one of which is the movie while the others are previews or extras. Neither the chapters nor the titles have any more description than their length in minutes and seconds; they don’t have thumbnails either. There’s no way to get to the DVD’s own menu screen. when playing a video, you have standard back, forward and pause buttons along with a time slider but not much else.
When we streamed both discs to a Windows 7 PC using Windows Media Player, the playback was smooth and sharp. However, we doubt most users would buy this device just to use it with their notebooks.
Video File Playback
Using the SmartHub to play video files that are stored on an external USB hard drive or Flash drive provided an inconsistent experience. a 654 x 352-pixel XVID episode of a TV show was a bit jerky but smooth enough to watch in the office, though the images looked a bit grainy on the iPad’s 9.7-inch screen. The video kept playing even as we walked up to 50 feet away from the SmartHub. when we played the same clip at home, it was so jerky that it was difficult to watch and there was a lot more visual noise.
When we streamed a 1080p MP4 trailer for “The Avengers,” it was extremely smooth, sharp and colorful on the iPad, but the same clip wouldn’t even start and locked up on our sluggish Stratosphere phone.
Music Playback
The music player app for the Samsung Optical SmartHub allows you to play audio files that are stored either on an optical disc or attached storage drive. Unfortunately, when we launched the player and used it to navigate through the folders on our external hard drive, it only showed some of our MP3 files as available for playback. a series of Lady Gaga MP3s were available and streamed smoothly, with almost no buffer time, to our phone. However, a folder of AC/DC songs appeared as empty in the app, even though it was filled with tracks.
File and Photo Backup
If you have an external USB storage drive attached to the SmartHub, you can transfer files to and from it using the Smart Backup option in the Android or iOS app. when you launch the Smart Backup function, it first lets you choose a source device, which could be your tablet/phone, an optical disc, or the USB storage drive. you then choose the specific files and folders you want backed up, followed by the destination device and folder on it. you can transfer files from an optical disc to your mobile device or USB drive, but you cannot burn discs using this feature.
The Android version of the SmartHub app has another feature called Photo Backup that’s nearly identical to Smart Backup, but takes you directly to a list of available photos on your mobile device and lets you choose which ones you want copied to the USB drive.
In our tests, copying files to the USB drive attached to the Optical SmartHub was extremely quick and painless. we copied 278 photos totaling nearly around 280MB of data over to the drive in just a couple of minutes. Unfortunately, the iPad version of the app limits your file transfer to 50MB at a time, whether you are moving a single file or a whole folder.
Smart TV Connection
Samsung says you can connect the Optical SmartHub to one of its Smart TVs using the micro USB to USB a cable that comes with the drive. However, when we connected the SmartHub to a 55-inch Samsung Series 7000 TV, it was not recognized. Considering that most people who own Smart TVs already have DVD or Blu-ray players, we’re not sure this feature has much value.
Verdict
In theory, having the ability to play DVDs on your mobile device would be a real convenience for anyone who has a large library of movies on disc. Unfortunately, after you get through the confusing setup process, the Samsung Optical SmartHub doesn’t deliver a strong enough video playback experience to justify its purchase. The drive’s best features involve its ability to read and write to a USB storage device, something you can get more cheaply or better by buying a dedicated Wi-Fi hard drive such as the Seagate GoFlex Wireless, a network-attached storage drive, or a router with a built-in USB port.
- SATA III SSD Showdown: which is Fastest?
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- Accessories: full Coverage
Good Practices in Handling USB Flash Drive
410 days
by TwiddleGeek
in Drives Storage
USB drives are easy to use devices with integrated USB port. There are many devices like printers, digital cameras, MP3 players, external hard disks, camcorders, pen drives or thumb drives integrated with USB hard drives. you can easily connect and access these devices by just plugging it into the system.
External USB hard drives work more or less like the inbuilt hard drive of your computer. External hard drives provide enhanced storage capacity. An external hard drive with 1TB of storage capacity is also available in the market. External storage devices can be used as backups, photo libraries or just to have additional storage capacity.
Another popular type of USB storage drive is the flash drive (also known as pen drive, thumb drive, memory stick). USB flash drive uses flash technology to store data. These devices are much smaller, easy to carry and reliable to use. There are few latest flash drives that can even store up to 256GB of data.
Compared to other devices, data can be lost from the USB external disk easily due to handling errors and due to other system related issues. Handling errors or improper practices is the most common error that can lead to data loss from USB external drives. they include:
Accidental deletion of files
Accidental deletion of drive(s)
Unplanned formatting or formatting wrong disk
Accidentally unplugging the USB hard disk
Files once deleted from USB hard disk cannot be restored from the Recycle Bin. to recover deleted files from USB hard drives you will require a good undelete software. Recovering deleted files from USB external disk drives is possible only if the deleted data remains in the drive without getting overwritten. to avoid overwriting of deleted data you need to follow the steps given below:
Do not make use of USB drive till you recover deleted or lost data from it
Do not download or install any new data restore application to the USB drive
Do not save the recovered data on the same USB drive from which you have lost data
Cyberpower Gamer Xtreme 9000
598 days
by TwiddleGeek
in motherboards
The Cyberpower Gamer Xtreme 9000 falls between two desktops, the Maingear F131 Super Stock ($2,300 direct, 4 stars) and current Editors’ choice Digital Storm ODE Level 3 ($2,399 direct, 4.5 stars)—being that it’s better than the former, but can’t quite match the latter in gaming performance. but for those of us—make that most of us—who don’t have the $2,399 to spare for a typical high-end gaming desktop, the Cyberpower’s $1,799 (direct) price is an excellent substitution for those looking to some serious gaming without going broke.
Design and Features the Gamer Xtreme 9000 uses a plain metal black case with a brushed aluminum front panel, so compared with the sleek white chassis on the ODE Level 3 there’s not much to write home about. At first glance, the front panel looks to only have a vent, Blu-ray player/ DVD-R/W optical drive, and power button. the two USB 3.0 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, audio and mic jack, and FireWire 400 port are all hidden behind a discrete door that clicks open and closed by pressing one of its corners. the top of the case has a hard drive slot that turns an internal 2.5-inch drive into an external storage drive—a cute recycling feature for those with extra hard drives lying about.
In the back there are a plethora of video inputs, including two mini-HDMI ports, four DVI-I, a DVI-D, HDMI, and VGA port. Audio connections include the standard audio and mic jacks as well as SPDIF-out for speakers. there are seven USB 2.0 ports, eSATA, and two USB 3.0 ports, but they are occupied by wires that snake through the chassis to provide you with USB 3.0 connectivity in the front. This pass-through solution is common, as cases don’t commonly connect those ports to motherboard headers, but it’s still awkward and unattractive. A wired Ethernet connection is also there, but there’s no Wi-Fi—you’ll have to install a card if you want to wirelessly log onto the Internet. A nice extra wireless feature is Bluetooth 2.1, which allows you to pair with numerous Bluetooth peripherals.
The side of the Gamer Xtreme 9000 has a clear window, so your friends, or perhaps a potential date, can marvel at your dual-SLI Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti graphics cards and huge 850W power supply—sexy! the wiring on the inside is nicely organized, allowing proper airflow through the perforated vents on the front, back, and top of the chassis with the help of a few fans, of course. Cracking open the system is easy and requires no tools: Just push down on two levers on the Gamer Xtreme 9000′s side panels. there are two DIMM slots open, out of four; the two currently occupied by 4GB each for a combined total of 8GB of DDR3 RAM.
The PCI and PCIe x16 slot will be hard to get to, as they are located in between the two Nvidia graphics cards, so anything extra will be a tight squeeze. the extra PCIe x1 slot has plenty of space for a card, so you won’t have to pinch your fingers as with the PCI card to install something.
On the motherboard are two 6Gbps SATA ports and two 3Gbps SATA ports to connect an extra optical drive or hard drive depending on your needs. there are plenty of bays to hold three optical drives and four hard drives. two of the hard drive bays are occupied by a 1TB 7,200rpm spinning drive and the other by a 28GB solid-state drive (SSD). Now, the SSD acts as a cache drive, which stores frequently used programs, like boot, Microsoft Word, Outlook, World of Warcraft, etc. This technology is enabled by Intel’s Smart Response application and helps to improve launch times for applications and overall PC boot time—minimizing the time it takes to load the next level in Starcraft II or launch Portal 2. Just to be clear, if you were to go to Computer in Windows the drive would not appear, but from the Smart Response Technology the cache/SSD can be managed. This may be a lot to take in for the mainstream user, but there’s no setup involved for you. however, the complexities when picking and choosing these components on the configuration page may put off certain users, especially if they aren’t as well-read when it comes to PCs. That’s why systems like the ODE Level 3, which I would recommend to mainstream consumers, gives you the system without the hassle of combing through each spec.
Performance 
the Gamer Xtreme 9000 is meant for high-end gaming enthusiasts, which means it can play Crysis (DirectX 10) and Lost Planet 2 (DirectX 11) at High-quality settings—anti-aliasing, textures, the works. it achieved 60 frames per second (fps) on Crysis and 96fps on Lost Planet 2. these scores are right in between two of our pricier Editors’ choice gaming systems: the Maingear F131 (47fps Crysis, 72fps Lost Planet) and Digital Storm ODE (71fps Crysis, 121.7fps Lost Planet). so it’s better than the Maingear, but still below the Digital Storm ODE in 3D performance. Admittedly, the Digital Storm ODE does have an advantage in its dual-SLI Nvidia GeForce GTX 570 graphics cards, whereas the Gamer Xtreme 9000 comes with two Nvidia GTX 560 graphics cards.
The 3.4GHz Intel Core i7-2600K processor combined with 8GB of RAM makes quick work of multimedia creation programs. the Gamer Xtreme 9000 moved through our Handbrake video encoding in 59 second and cycled through 12 of Photoshop CS5s most intensive image filters in 2 minutes 26 seconds. so on top of gaming, you’ll be able to edit photos and create videos, perhaps post them on YouTube or that Let’s Play section in the Something awful forums.
The system comes with a 3 year limited warranty that includes free labor to replace any defect or upgrade any part. Cyberpower also provides free lifetime technical support through the phone and email.
The Cyberpower Gamer Xtreme 9000 is a solid gaming PC that will be able to play virtually any high-end 3D game on the best quality settings, and its $1,799 price tag certainly sweetens the deal. but the Digital Storm ODE Level 3 more powerful, and its SSD storage solution, and all-around purchasing system, is a little more comprehensible for the mainstream users who may not understand the complexities of picking and choosing parts and managing a cached storage solution. if you’re more the tinkerer or hardcore user, and don’t mind combing through several pages of picking and choosing the specs for your desktop PC, then the Cyberpower Gamer Xtreme 9000 is a great alternative to the Digital Storm ODE Level 3 if you’re not willing to pay that $600 extra for the latter. but if you’re looking to buy a PC and don’t want to go through the process of configuring one piece by piece (a la build a bear) and don’t want to pay $600 more, then check out the Acer Aspire Predator AG7750-U2222 (4 stars, $1,999)
BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS: Check out the test scores for the Cyberpower Gamer Xtreme 9000
COMPARISON TABLE Compare the Cyberpower Gamer Xtreme 9000 with several other laptops side by side.
More laptop reviews:• HP Pavilion dv6t Select Edition• Panasonic Toughbook CF-S10• Asus U36SD-A1• Sony VAIO VPC-SE16FX/S• Toshiba Qosmio F755-3D290• more
Types of Storage Drives for Computers
615 days
by TwiddleGeek
in Drives Storage
A data storage drive is a device that is used to store computer data. Computer users are now able to choose from a variety of computer storage devices. Storage devices that store data readable by a computer are known as ‘mass storage.’ each storage drive has its own advantages and disadvantages. if you are looking for a storage drive for your computer, below is a list of the different types of storage drives available for computers:
Flash Drives: because of their small size, flash drives are also referred to as ‘thumb drives.’ they are also known as USB drives because they connect to a USB port. Flash drives consist of a USB connector, flash memory chips, small circuit board, and a plastic casing. Flash drives vary in how much data they can hold. The data capacity ranges from 64 megabytes to 64 gigabytes so they may not be helpful if you have to store a lot of data. Flash drives have pretty much replaced floppy disks and optical discs.
External Hard Drives: External hard drives are exactly the same as the internal hard drive in a computer except they are located outside of the computer. To use it, you have to connect it to the computer. like flash drives, they are normally connected to a USB Port. The storage capacity ranges up to 700 gigabytes so they are beneficial if you have to store a lot of data. you can use them for both desktop computers and laptops. they also have enclosures which permits them to be handled without being damaged. External hard drives are designed to be portable.
Solid-State Drives (SSDs): These drives are much like a regular hard drive because they use the same interface and connections. however, instead of a spinning magnetic disk, solid state memory is used. Solid-state drives are designed to replace the hard drive. Solid-state drives have very fast read and write times and are very reliable because there are no components that will wear out.
Smart Cards: These devices are also called memory cards. Once smart cards were not that helpful when storing data, but now they have been developed to hold more data and they are used for a number of devices such as PDAs, cell phones, and laptops.
Online Storage: this method of data storage is referrer to as a ‘remote back up’ there are online storage sites that permit computer users to store their data on their servers for a fee. The more storage space you require, the more you pay.
Tape Drive: this type of drive uses a magnetic tape or cartridge to store data. they are mostly used to backup data because the seek times are much considerably slower compared to other methods of storage. Most tape drives connect to a computer by a USB cable. Storage capacity can range from a few hundred megabytes to hundreds of gigabytes.
There are many ways to store computer data. Manufacturers have developed different types of storage drives to keep up with technological developments and meet consumer demands for a safe way to store their information. The type of storage drive you choose will depend on the computer device you use and the storage capacity that will meet your particular storage needs. as technology continues to develop, storage drives for computers are likely to evolve.
Trenton 1U Rackmount Computer Features Expanded Data Storage
663 days
by TwiddleGeek
in ide Sata Cards
Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) July 20, 2011
the Trenton TCS1502 rackmount computer supports up to four front access / hot swap storage drives and a dual-processor MicroATX embedded motherboard. Trenton’s TCS1502 merges rackmount sever storage capacity with a compact 1U computer enclosure and long-life embedded motherboard stability to enable fast system deployments in diverse applications such as network operation centers, Mil-COTS Command & Control centers and medical imaging systems. the TCS1502 uses the Trenton JXM7031 embedded motherboard with two extended-life quad-core processors, multiple SATA II/300 storage drive interfaces and an on-board RAID controller.
Here is an abbreviated features list of the Trenton TCS1502 rackmount computer:
- Shallow-Depth Chassis — 1U, 19” rackmount computer with four easy access storage drive carriers
- Storage Capabilities — four, front access / hot swap drives support 2TB of data storage minimum and 4TB maximum
- MicroATX Motherboard — Trenton JXM7031 featuring two, Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® Processors EC5549 and PCI Express 2.0 option card support
“The TCS1502 is a standard system designed to provide both fast deliveries and system configuration stability over long project deployment cycles”, said Michael Bowling, President of Trenton Systems. “This 1U rackmount computer is a storage server solution that provides the data storage capacity and dual-processor motherboard performance needed to meet and exceed many government and defense computing requirements. the Trenton embedded motherboard used in the TCS1502 is made in the U.S.a. and backed by our five-year factory warranty.”
About Trenton Trenton is a designer and manufacturer of complete industrial rackmount computer systems, video display wall controllers as well as embedded motherboards, single board computers, system host boards, backplanes and processor AMCs for critical embedded computing applications. please visit Trenton rackmount computers for additional information on other system solutions. Trenton is a member of the Intel® Embedded Alliance, a community of communications and embedded developers and solution providers.
For more information about our company, or any Trenton product, call (800) 875-6031 or (770) 287-3100. please visit our website at trentontechnology.com/.
Here are related links to the TCS1502 1U rackmount computer: TCS1502 product detail web page – trentontechnology.com/products/rackmount-computers/1u-rackmount-computers/tcs1502
JXM7031 product detail web page – trentontechnology.com/products/single-board-computers/embedded-motherboards/jxm7031
Government & Defense computing solutions – trentontechnology.com/solutions/government-defense
Trenton rackmount computers – trentontechnology.com/products/rackmount-computers
Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. PCI Express is a registered trademark of the PCI-SIG. all other product names are trademarks of their respective owners.
External HDD container with print server
775 days
by TwiddleGeek
in print Servers
gadgetmarket.tv when only the best will do you’ll want to get your hands on one of these Network Attached Storage (NAS) enclosures from us. This feature packed unit can be used as a simple USB 2.0 external drive or a fully operational network storage drive with printer serving (you can attach a printer to the enclosure to share across all computers on your network). The aluminum case features active cooling (from a quiet, blue LED lit 80mm fan) and support for both SATA and IDE hard disk drives (HDD). Мы представляет только самые лучшие устройства сетевой системы хранения данных (NAS). Многофункциональный девайс может быть использован как в качестве простого внешнего накопителя USB 2.0 так и полноценного сетевого накопителя с возможностью присоединить принтер (вы можете присоединить принтер к устройству и все компьютеры вашей сети смогут его использовать).Video Rating: 0 / 5
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