Computing desk
< December 19	<< Nov \| December \| Jan >>	December 21 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Computing Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

December 20

JavaScript: registering event handlers in a loop

Resolved

Basically I have an array of objects, each one owning a DOM element, and I want to register an event handler to each of the DOM elements, but the function that executes when the event fires needs to know some property of the object that the specific DOM element is associated with. That might not be very clear, but here's the code:

for (var i = 0; i < data.length; i++) {
    var art = new Artifact(data[i], $('template_artifact'));
    $('shop_unselected').appendChild(art.element);
    art.element.onclick = function () { selectArtifact(art.getID(), true); };
}

Obviously as written this doesn't work as intended. art.getID() is evaluated when the event fires, which means it ends up taking whatever the last value of art was assigned to. I need some way of locking in the value of art.getID() at the time that the event handler is registered. Usually when I run into this problem I can find some dirty way to get around it, but I was wondering if there's a simple way to make this work that I'm not thinking of or don't know about. Rckrone (talk) 00:44, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Do you mean like so:

        art.element.onclick = function (id) {
            return function() { selectArtifact(id, true); }
        }(art.getID());

Looks a bit twisted but that's how you create a closure (google javascript closure for more). 88.112.56.9 (talk) 10:24, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That's just what I needed. Thanks! Rckrone (talk) 16:00, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Linux boot drive mounting

This has happened twice in the last couple weeks - previously I've never seen anything like it. My understanding of LVM is that you cannot boot from an LVM drive. So, I install all of my machines with a plain Linux partition for boot and the rest of the drive space as LVM. For ease of discussion, assume there is one drive (sda) with two partitions (sda1 is /boot and sda2 is /). I can boot just fine. The problem is that once I boot, I cannot mount sda1. According to fdisk, it is there and a Linux partition. Looking in /dev/, it is not there. So, I cannot mount it. I do not want to attempt to fdisk sda1 again or reformat it because it contains grub - which will cause the machine to be useless if I mess it up. I'm left wondering two things: How can sda1 vanish from /dev/ when fdisk clearly reports it as being there? What can I do to force the system to recognize that sda1 exists without reformatting it? -- kainaw ™ 03:27, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

To explain further, /etc/fstab has a commented out UUID line for /boot. The UUID listed does not exist anywhere in /dev. So, it cannot be mounted. -- kainaw ™ 04:46, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know why, but I think I know how this is happening: whatever's organising your "/dev" directory is messing up somehow and "forgetting" to make an entry for that partition - I know modern Linux kenels have various virtual filesystem drivers and user-space demons for it, but at heart it really is a filesystem with files in it. On an old-fashioned system, /dev is just a normal directory, and each file is created by running the mknod command or system call with the details of the device being represented. So the name "/dev/sda2" is really just a conventional place to put the file with the correct attributes for the second partition of the first "SCSI" disk. (Where these days "SCSI" may actually mean an IDE CD-writer, SATA drive, etc, with drivers implemented via SCSI emulation; clearly, the IDE implementation wasn't that extendable)

It looks like the device file system article has a more detailed explanation of this, including the various management systems used by more modern OSes (under the section headed "devfs"). - IMSoP (talk) 19:26, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Britannica Not Displaying Articles

Hello! I have i Britannica 2008 DVD,Install on my Dell Inspiron laptop with higher resolution,every thing is working good but i cant open an article.e,g when searched for atom and clicking on atom there is no text in the open tab.So plz tell me how can i solve this problem.(I have tried Windows XP and Windows 7)Thanks —Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.154.42.42 (talk) 04:04, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The joy of inkscape

Hi again, its me. Enjoying the fun of learning inkscape. For some reason my text comes out as a black rectangle no matter what I do to it. Convert to Text -> Rectangle; Stroke to Path -> Rectangle; Object to path -> Rectangle. The rest of the svg is a path as well. I don't understand why the text is a rectangle even after I convert it to a path. - ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ ^τ _¢ 08:15, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It's not Inkscape, it's the SVG renderer used by MediaWiki. The mediawiki (and firefox) renderer (which I think is libsvg) doesn't render flowregion objects properly (cf this simple example. That issue has been outstanding for years. I explain what to do in this posting. Ideally you'd leave the text objects as text (rather than converting them to paths, which are essentially impossible to edit); the list of available fonts is here. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 10:04, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I've uploaded a fixed version (I started with a fresh document and new text objects, and just imported your trapezium shape. The font I used is Bitstream Vera Sans Bold, which is slightly heavier than the one you used, but (particularly for such a small picture) the difference is probably too little to care about. Please feel free to speedy my example image once you're done with it. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 10:33, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I'm looking through the list of fonts that are supported. They seem to be precisely the list of fonts that inkscape doesn't have. How do I get them in inkscape (I know they are on my computer)? However, why is it that the text remains a rectangle even after I convert it to a path? Is it no longer text or a flow region at that point? - ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ ^τ _¢ 18:28, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Inkscape doesn't have fonts of its own; it uses ones installed on your computer. So you should probably install the ones you want to use, so you can see the same results at home as you'll see once uploaded here. Your example still has a flowregion; I don't know how it got there. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 18:33, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Can I open the svg (I heard they're written like an xml file) and manually change it to not be a flow region? Also I do have those fonts (they appear in Microsoft Office), but they don't show up in inkscape. - ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ ^τ _¢ 19:42, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

What version of Inkscape do you have? Versions <.43 had a bug in the font loader. Versions .44 and .45 fixed that bug, but the fix required removing support for OpenType/Postscript fonts. Version .46 had full font support re-added without the bug in the <.43 versions. -- kainaw ™ 06:05, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This is the typical response I see from the open-source community. They always point fingers. "You downloaded the wrong version." "You should have run fsck." Or they blame the OEM: "Their drivers are buggy."

But, like Kainaw and Antilived have said: never try Illustrator. It's too expensive. Don't try CorelDraw, either. It's also too expensive. Besides, they're not open source. Inkskape appears to not work at all, but it's open source, so it's worth putting up with not getting any work done. Right?--Drknkn (talk) 12:10, 22 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Inkscape actually works pretty well, as the large number of images on Wikipedia developed with Inkscape should attest. Illustrator has its own bugs, of course, and its own irritating aspects. (And it's own dodgy SVG support.) By all means, if people want to plunk down $600 on Illustrator, they should feel free. But Inkscape can get the job done. --Mr.98 (talk) 22:04, 22 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

And to be honest Illustrator will have the exact same problem once the svg is uploaded. The rendering bug is a bug in libsvg in MediaWiki, not in Inkscape. Drknkn, if you bothered to read the whole post you would've picked that up. The bug in Inkscape is for its font loader, which was tangential to the OP's original problem at most. --antilived^{T | C | G} 23:59, 22 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Then why did it work fine for me when I helped him here? If you had bothered to read that, then you'd pick that up.--Drknkn (talk) 00:56, 23 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Because you lied. What more do you want? Base all your arguments on ignorance and lies and you win every time, right? -- kainaw ™ 02:12, 23 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Oh and btw, it doesn't work.

--antilived^{T | C | G} 04:53, 23 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Looks fine to me.--Drknkn (talk) 05:39, 23 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Not only do you not admit your own fault you actively tried to bury it? You are disgraceful Drknkn. --antilived^{T | C | G} 07:14, 23 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Why did you add a black background behind the image? This is how it really looks:

--Drknkn (talk) 07:24, 23 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Because the background is supposed to be transparent, but the spaces inside the letterings aren't? It's supposed to work on any background colour, not just white (so basically you made no improvement). --antilived^{T | C | G} 09:06, 23 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I forgot to use the paint-bucket tool inside those spaces. I could have done that easily. Did you think that was a bug in Illustrator, or something?--Drknkn (talk) 09:15, 23 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

There. I fixed it.--Drknkn (talk) 09:24, 23 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

C'mon guys, smarten up: Nobody pays $600 for illustrator, they download it for free. Open source software always has problems, but at least it's developed by users, for users, and not by corporations to overflow their greedy pockets. I have whatever the latest build of inkscape is (assuming they aren't releasing a new one every week, I downloaded it about week ago). Can we get Arial into the allowed fonts? Seems so much simpler to stick with Flash and converting it to svg. - ʄɭoʏɗiaɲ ^τ _¢ 03:55, 23 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Can you check this to make sure the fonts are actually installed. Inkscape will only show fonts that Windows says are there. Windows only reports fonts that are actually installed (not just placed on the computer). Other programs look for font files and pseudo-install them on the fly just to work with them. That is not proper, but it allows you to dump a font file anywhere on the computer and have it instamagically work. There have been arguments both ways on this in Inkscape development. Should it be programmed to do it the proper way which means people have to learn the cryptic method of installing fonts or should it be programmed the incorrect way to make life easier for people. If it is done the incorrect way - what if two completely different fonts with the same filenames are on the computer? Oh - that never happens. And for the ~~idiot~~ liar who thinks that I'm somehow involved in Inkscape development... I had absolutely nothing to do with any planning or development of Inkscape's font handling for Windows. -- kainaw ™ 04:09, 23 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

FireWire for HD camcorder

Hi. I have a Sony HCR-HC7 camcorder that I need to back-up some HD video from. I am looking for a PCI card so that I can copy the video to my PC. I am trying to figure out if FireWire supports HD video and, assuming it does, whether there are some FireWire PCI cards that are appropriate for HD video and some that aren't (for example, whether I need to have a 1394b compliant card). Also, I am wondering whether it is possible to use the HDMI output to transfer directly to a PC (I have looked but can't seem to find an HDMI PCI card, so I am guessing that people just use FireWire). I have tried Googling this morning, but I can't seem to find definitive answers on this, so any help would be really appreciated. Thanks MyWireIsOnFire (talk) 11:37, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

1. "I am trying to figure out if FireWire supports HD video". FireWire is just the cable and the chipset that lets you transfer data between your camcorder and your computer. FireWire itself doesn't know from video formats. What you need to find out is what FireWire transfer rate (400? 800?) your camcorder is going to output, and then you'll need a FireWire PCI card that supports that transfer rate. 2. "Can I use the HDMI connector instead?" I haven't ever done this, but googling "hdmi pci input" yielded this card on the first page; there are presumably others. Comet Tuttle (talk) 03:02, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Free SVG picture

How do I make one? I have only a pc. Kittybrewster ☎ 12:44, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Use the free SVG software Inkscape. --Andreas Rejbrand (talk) 13:00, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This question includes a link to a SVG tutorial at the end - apparantly SVG files are easy to make. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Computing#File_formats_for_Geographical_information_systems_or_mapping_software 89.242.211.123 (talk) 16:05, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Windows taskbar position.

My 18 month old was playing with my PC the other day and managed to move the taskbar into a vertical position up the side of the screen. I've looked at all sorts of things but I can't find out how to move it back to the bottom. Help? I'm using Windows XP, home edition, version 2002.91.109.225.220 (talk) 14:41, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I don't have XP to hand, but I think you can just drag the taskbar to whichever edge you want. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 14:42, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) "All sorts of things" doesn't seem to have included Google. You just need to click and drag the taskbar. If that doesn't work, right-click on it, deselect "lock the taskbar", and then click and drag. Algebraist 14:45, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I don't have XP any more so I can't check, but I recall that from some positions the taskbar seems reluctant to move, and it is necessary to click somewhere near the time. Dbfirs 17:29, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The key thing seems to be to click on a blank area of it, (making sure it is not locked is important)Shortfatlad (talk) 17:46, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Just to make it more clear - click and hold the mouse button down, and move the mouse pointer to the bottom of the screen. Then release. Once done I recommend locking the taskbar as described above to prevent it accidentally happening again.Shortfatlad (talk) 17:48, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with grabbing it at a blank spot near the time. One problem you might have, though, is that there's no blank spot left to grab. In this case, first drag the inside border inward to make the bar wider, and this should free up some space. StuRat (talk) 01:06, 23 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Modifying XP/IE8 to remember previous Favorites or Save As links

One thing I find tedious about XP/IE8 is that instead of them remebering where you previously saved a webpage, file, or Favo(u)rite, you have to browse for the same location all over again. Is there any way of modifying them to remember this? If they cannot be modified, then what operating systems or browsers can be modified in this way by the user, or offer this feature already? Thanks 89.242.211.123 (talk) 16:11, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I think you can do this. In Explorer you can add files and programs to the favorites (use "organise favorites" and drag the file to the list ). In IE8 you can do the same, again select organise favorites and drag the file to the favorites list. There probably are other ways to do this. Is this what you meant?Shortfatlad (talk) 17:22, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Another way - in "explorer" (that's the name for the program window that is open when you browse files) - select "folders" in the taskbar - then navigate to the file you want - make sure you navigate in the directory display on the left. With the file or program or folder you want to favorite : make sure it is selected - ie its contents should show up in the main part of the display on the right. Then simply select "favorites" >> "add to favorites" - things selected as favorites also show up as favorites in internet explorer (and vice versa). Does this work for you?Shortfatlad (talk) 17:42, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I am not sure if that is what I want. What I meant was, if I am saving a series of things, then I would like the computer to remember where I saved the previopus one, and offer me that location again, rather than having to browse for it all over again. 89.242.211.123 (talk) 21:34, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Doesn't IE8 do that - I'm sure if I select "save as" from internet explorer and change the place the file is saved, then the next time it offers the new location. Did you want a "list of most recent saved positions" to select from or something like that?Shortfatlad (talk) 21:49, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It does not do it on my computer. I just get My Documents. 89.242.211.123 (talk) 23:10, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Stumped - could this be something to do with enabling cookies (they help the computer remember) ? Got those turned on? Someone else might know.Shortfatlad (talk) 23:15, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I do have cookies turned on. When I save pictures the computer sometimes offers the previously saved location. Update: when I save another picture quickly after the previous one, the location is remembered. If its a minute or too, then I just get offered My Pictures. So seems to be time related. 89.242.211.123 (talk) 23:34, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

?It may be remembering by file type? Might be worth experimenting to see if that's the case. eg see if .jpg .wmv .html files always save to the same location once seleted?Shortfatlad (talk) 23:57, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It might be something to do with using Ccleaner a lot, which cleans out a lot of things. If I knew which was the relevant record, I could tell Ccleaner not to erase it. 78.147.27.40 (talk) 20:34, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Probably - using internet explorer's own "delete browsing history" also resets it.Shortfatlad (talk) 21:20, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Some experimentation indicates that using Ccleaner does make the computer forget where to save documents. But the computer never under any circumstances remembers where it previously saved a Favo(u)rite, which is tedious. 92.29.68.169 (talk) 14:58, 23 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

BSOD, Kernel Panic

How do you take a screenshot of them? --Drogonov 16:43, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If you run the panicky OS inside a virtual machine, you can screenshot its bluescreen using the host OS tools. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 16:51, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

In a last resort, you can pull out your digital camera and actually photograph the screen. I've had to do this a dozen times or so. If the purpose is contacting The Authorities, it's better than nothing. Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:10, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I've often asked people who call me and ask me to magically fix their computer from a few hundred miles away to take a photo with their phone and txt me the photo. It is an easy way to do a screenshot for those that don't know what a screenshot is. -- kainaw ™ 17:13, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Really ? I'd think the average cell phone camera would take such a low-res pic that you couldn't read any of the text on the screen. StuRat (talk) 00:37, 23 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I have a rather cheap phone and the camera is 2 megapixels. My wife's is a bit old too and it has 3 megapixels. I often use mine to take photos of pages out of textbooks that I don't want to buy. I have no problem reading the text. -- kainaw ™ 03:18, 23 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If you just want to see the panic info, on Linux some panics write to dmesg. Similarly Windows can be configured to store some crashes in a crash log. -- Finlay McWalter • Talk 17:29, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Dmesg is going to be overwritten the next time the computer boots. You might have better luck checking syslog or setting up more verbose logging. Also look for any core dumps. Shadowjams (talk) 21:12, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

My computer'c clock suffers from amnesia

I'm using Ubuntu, and no matter how often I set the clock right, the next time I upload the OS, the clock is late again. --Quest09 (talk) 17:55, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Assuming there are no major differences in this respect between Windows and Ubuntu, and your computer is a few years old, it may well be that the CMOS battery has gone. Fortunately this can be reasonably easy to fix. Hope that helps, - Jarry1250 ^{[Humorous? Discuss.]} 18:01, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

If it's easy on your model, you might just go ahead and replace the CMOS battery as Jarry 1250 suggests. If you want to try something else, you might try noting just how much it is late. Is it reset to some date several years ago? Is it slow by the amount of time the computer was off? If you are using a dual-boot setup with another OS like Windows, does use of the other operating system influence how much time is lost? --Jc3s5h (talk) 18:05, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, the laptop is rather old (7 years). No, not all information is lost. The date is right and it is late by the same amount of time. No, I don't have another OS, and I cannot install Windows since the laptop doesn't have a cd-rom anymore.--Quest09 (talk) 18:08, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I don't use Ubuntu - but on SuSE, you can set the hardware clock equal to the software clock using:

 /sbin/hwclock --systohc

(You have to have superuser privilages to do that).

If that permenantly fixes your problem, then you're good to go. If the problem comes back after the next time you power down your machine - then it's likely a CMOS battery problem. If the error is a suspiciously round number of hours - then perhaps you have the timezone settings screwed up in some "interesting and creative" way. SteveBaker (talk) 03:04, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It certainly sounds to me like the problem is with an old battery on the motherboard. You should be able to work around this by configuring your Ubuntu installation to perform an Internet time update at regular intervals (NTP server) -- I believe by default the schedule will be to update every 24 hours, but you should be able to reconfigure the cron job for it to update more frequently. Rjwilmsi 19:03, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

That can work - but isn't without problems - the difficulty is that each time you reboot, the operating system has a seriously wrong idea of what time it is - which doesn't get fixed until the system is finally booted and able to reach the Internet, run cron jobs, etc. The problem with that is that things that happen during reboot (like the periodic running of 'fsck' to check your hard drives and the archiving and eventual cleanup of various logging files) will either never happen - or happen every time you reboot - also, the time stamps on any syslog messages will be incorrect...there are all sorts of tiny problems that can crop up. This may not be such a huge deal to you - but we should be clear that using NTP isn't really a perfect fix for this problem. However, on an older computer - it's probably not a terrible idea because unless you are 'handy' enough to fix it yourself, the cost of paying someone to replace the CMOS battery could easily be more than the computer is worth. SteveBaker (talk) 18:30, 23 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Is it always off by some round number of hours? Or is it different each time? APL (talk) 02:05, 22 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Networking with Ubuntu and Windows

I have a laptop running Ubuntu 9.10 that I wish to hook up via an unsecured linksys wireless connection to a hardwired Windows network. How should I do this? --Lucas Brown 17:58, 20 December 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lucas Brown 42 (talk • contribs) [reply]

Perhaps I should rephrase this a little. I can hook up to the internet/etc. from the laptop via that linksys (I am writing this on that laptop), but I cannot access shared documents on the Windows machines. What should I do to be able to access them? --Lucas Brown 18:00, 20 December 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lucas Brown 42 (talk • contribs) [reply]

In my experience sharing from Windows to LINUX is quite straightforward -- you simply mark a folder as shared in Windows, and then you can access it in LINUX by the network tab in Konqueror or Dolphin etc. Rjwilmsi 19:06, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

In the folder browser, there is an icon labeled "Windows network", but when I try to open it, it says something about not being able to mount the location. --72.197.202.36 (talk) 04:49, 23 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Unix and Linux

What are the similarities and differences between the two of them? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jessicaabruno (talk • contribs) 18:07, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

See the Linux and Unix articles. To the layman, Linux (more properly called "GNU/Linux") is basically just one variety of Unix. There are many, many versions of Unix. ~~To the expert,~~ Linux is of particular interest because it is free software, unlike Unix; the use of the GPL software license has caused a proliferation of free software that works on Linux systems. (I am obviously glossing over large amounts of information, which will annoy the Linux guys.) Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:14, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

(Whether Linux is "more properly" called GNU/Linux is a matter of considerable debate in the community. IMHO, it's just Linux and the GNU guys are merely trying to grab some credit for the (considerable) work they did on tools by muscling in on the name. Very, VERY few people outside of the GNU inner-cabal actually call it "GNU/Linux" in practice.) SteveBaker (talk) 02:59, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Had to correct a couple items, I guess I annoyed myself. Comet Tuttle (talk) 18:27, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

comet,

Thanx for answer to my question here. Wasn't really looking in depth answer, but just looking for the basics.

Its alright about the corrections, have seen my fair share of it, did it myself as well.--Jessica A Bruno 19:20, 20 December 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jessicaabruno (talk • contribs)

There are differences in detail - but at the level where most people use them, they are almost identical. In particular, the BSD flavor of UNIX shares such a vast amount of software with Linux that an end user might be very hard pressed to see any distinction at all. These days, the differences between UNIX and Linux are no greater than between one flavor of Linux and another (Ubuntu or SuSE or whatever). The main areas where there are differences is due to UNIX having become somewhat frozen in time - where development on Linux is incredibly active. Older versions of Linux were much closer to a standard UNIX distro than more modern varieties. SteveBaker (talk) 02:59, 21 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

DVDs and music files

I have some blank rewritable DVDs; to be exact they are DVD-RW 4.7GB/120min. My car stereo says that it plays MP3 and WMA files. If I were to burn some MP3 or WMA music files onto the DVDs should my car stereo be able to play them, or would I need to use CDs? (The stereo does not have a USB port, so when the manual says that it plays MP3 and WMA I assumed it meant CDs; my questions is whether DVDs would also work) ~~ Dr Dec (Talk) ~~ 20:01, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It's unlikely that your car stereo will read DVDs unless it's a multimedia stereo (any video outputs?). Have you got the model number? (Also the instructions will say if you have any)Shortfatlad (talk) 20:08, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It's a Sony CDX-GT24 [1] ~~ Dr Dec (Talk) ~~ 20:41, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

DVDs are an entirely different reader and format than CDs. If the car stereo doesn't say it can read DVDs, it probably cannot. --Mr.98 (talk) 20:12, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Really? Sugar! I'll have to go out and buy some CDs. Any suggestions on the type? ~~ Dr Dec (Talk) ~~ 20:44, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Doesn't matter, really. CD-R or CD+R are the options. In most modern readers and writers there is no difference, but if the stereo is a few years old you might check the documentation first to see if it has a preference. Ditto with your recorder. There is no need to get RWs unless you plan to write to the CDs again and again, which is generally not really that cost effective given how cheap CD-Rs are these days. --Mr.98 (talk) 21:02, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Update: the spec page on your stereo says it definitely reads CD-R. So get those. --Mr.98 (talk) 21:03, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Fantastic! Thank you for such a helpful reply. I really appreciate it :o) ~~ Dr Dec (Talk) ~~ 22:22, 20 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Er BTW, there's no such thing as CD+R. Different dye types and different reflective layers may make a difference in drive compatibility but nowadays any decent CD-R should be fine Nil Einne (talk) 01:02, 23 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]