Windows 2 Apples

The last five days, I’ve been evaluating an HP pavilion desktop computer paired with a 24 inch HP monitor as a possible replacement for my aging XP Sony VAIO. I realize this is not the All in One experience I had hoped for, however, after spending time with the new Sony and HP all in one computers, I decided to take the plunge and spend the time testing a component based system.

One of the major features I need on my primary windows machine is the ability to select stereo mix, wave out or what U hear as the recording device. I noticed with the release of Vista, many computers were being shipped with this option disabled. Much speculation as to why this option has been deleted can be found when you peruse rumor blogs. The consensus appears to be that a number of the audio chip manufacturers have been unable to develop stereo mix drivers that work reliably with Vista.

Both the Sony and HP all in one computers are shipped with no provision for enabling stereo mix. Reviews of the new Gateway One have varied lukewarm to enthusiastic. I have not seen Stereo Mix available on any Gateway Vista PC. Friends who have purchased Gateway computers have been instructed to simply buy a patch cord to route the audio out of the speaker into the line-in or microphone input. There’s no reason to believe the new Gateway One will be shipped with this option enabled.

Fortunately, almost all windows computers shipped with the Realtek Chipset allow the user to activate the stereo mix option. Unfortunately, even the RealTek stereo mix device switch is often hidden by default and requires that you right click on the record or playback panel to show and enable disabled devices. Once a source for playback or record is enabled you may set the selected “device” as the default and modify properties associated with that option. The HP tower ships with RealTek and stereo mix works beautifully.

Apple computers are shipped without this option, as well; however, there are several very elegant and inexpensive fixes for this problem in OS X. I opted to use a program called Hijack Pro which allows me to capture the audio from specified applications as well as system audio. Unfortunately, there are no satisfactory software fixes available for Windows PCs. The primary reason the virtual Vista Business operating system on my Mac cannot replace my aging Sony is the inability to enable stereo mix.

Immediately after activating Windows Vista, I initialized speech recognition and was surprised to find that even though the new desktop is a quad core Intel with 3 GB of ram running Windows Home Vista Premium, I saw no significant difference between accuracy on the HP tower and my virtual installation of Vista Business on the Macintosh. I also noticed a few issues in using Vista speech to text that could be problematic for disabled.

In an effort to make vista more secure, Vista frequently prompts the user to allow the installation of new applications as well as some updates. Unfortunately, when this prompt is displayed the speech engine is disabled and individuals unable to access the keyboard or mouse could not respond to these prompts. This so called User Access Control prompt can be disabled but not a wise thing to do. I believe there are less drastic modifications that would bypass this problem and will try a few recommended modifications to my virtual Vista machine UAC settings and report back.

I also noticed that the dictation mode in the vista speech to text engine does not work when using Microsoft Works applications nor is it available when using the open source word processing programs. It does work extremely well when used with Microsoft office 2007, however, this adds additional expense that could be avoided if Microsoft enabled dictation within the Works suite. WordPad would be a much better choice as a low end editor if Vista supported universal spell check found on Macs.

If you need to export your document using a file format not supported by WordPad, it is possible to cut and paste your dictated text to the Microsoft Works word processor. This seems an unnecessary work around and I hope Microsoft addresses this issue in future releases. I would also encourage Microsoft to follow Apple’s lead and make spell check active in all applications.

So far I’m pleased with the performance of my new HP tower, finding it particularly attractive when contrasted with the cost of an Apple system with similar specifications. The HP W2408 monitor is shipped with a stand that allows you to easily position the monitor, wall mount or rotate it so that you can view your text in landscape as well as portrait mode. This is a very welcome feature given I have found the inability to adjust the height of my iMac to be a major issue. The fixed height of my iMac forces me to look straight into the monitor rather than down at it as recommended by most optometrists and ophthalmologists.

The monitor has a shiny reflective screen much like the new iMacs and my 19 inch Sony SDM high resolution monitor. I did notice some glare on the screen but, because of the swivel base mounting, I was able to adjust the screen height to reduce glare and optimize viewing angle. The additional screen real estate has come in handy when running programs such as the Mixcraft3 from Acoustica but is over kill in most other applications.

As I rotate in my chair from left to right, I can compare the output of my iMac, HP widescreen and my Sony high resolution 19 inch monitors. I continue to find the Sony monitor the best I’ve ever used. The mat display on my 20 inch iMac is beautiful but the inability to adjust the height of the monitor requires I wear a special pair of glasses designed for working at a computer. When viewing the Sony or HP monitor I can adjust monitor height and use my preferred graduated lens glasses. This is a huge plus given I’m prone to leave my office area wearing the wrong glasses.

With the exception of the Windows to Apple’s theme music, this podcast is an Apple free production. The text was dictated using the Vista speech to text technology, the audio was recorded using Mixcraft3 and M-Audio interface and microphone. GarageBand continues to set the bar for easy to use multitrack recording software. Mixcraft3 is more than adequate for creating quality podcasts and is better suited for editing voice sound tracks than GarageBand. Although shipped with fewer loops and instrument samples, Mixcraft3 is an excellent tool for producing podcasts on Windows PCs.

Thank you for downloading and listening. Remember change is always is always with us and tomorrow a new adventure.

Note: HP Pavilion m9040 PC with 3 gigs Ram, Quad Core, 640 gigs HD, TV tuner, remote control, Microsoft Center Updates to TV programming, 24 inch monitor and all in one scanner / printer was purchased for $1,640.00

A 24 inch iMac with 2 gigs of Ram, 500 gig HD and Core 2 Lists for $2,999.00

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