Win an HP HDX Dragon valued at $5k

How can you be included in the HP HDX Dragon Giveaway? Simple. All you need to do is share your opinion on your favorite freeware in a number of topic areas. Fill out the survey and you're automatically entered in the giveaway. Full details here.

If you aren't selected for this HP HDX Dragon, there are a total of 31 being given away at 31 different sites. Be sure to subscribe to my blog in order to stay up to date on all 31 chances to get your hands on one of these awesome machines.

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Audio and Video Questions and Answers

I'm thinking about getting a Mac as a second computer at home. I'm not sure I want to spend the money on a new Mac, because it might not get used much. Is there anywhere I can purchase a used Mac?

One obvious place to look for used Apple hardware is the online Apple Store. There are plenty of refurbished Macs available direct from Apple. Depending on what you're looking for, you can find great deals there. Sometimes refurbished means the computer was a dud in the first place, so tread with caution.

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I have to do a video project for school and I want to make a LEGO stop motion video. Is there any free stop motion software for windows that might help me?

If you have the patience to do it, you really don't need any special software to make a stop motion video. Since stop motion is effectively a series of still images organized to tell an animated story, you can build a stop motion movie by taking still images with any digital still camera, name them sequentially (which your camera will likely do automatically), then import them into a video editor like Windows Movie Maker with a duration of 1 second for 30 frame per second video or 2 seconds if you want 15 frame per second video. From there you can add audio and export the whole thing. While this method will work, it can be frustrating because you don't get a live preview. There are other alternatives...

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"How can I get an HP HDX Dragon for free?"

I haven't actually received that question from any readers (yet), but I'm offering a preemptive answer here because I'm sure you'd love to find out how you could get one of these sweet machines. If you've been following along on my blog, I've posted updates on each of the participants in the 31 Days of the Dragon giveaway to date. Today's the day I'm going to share the rules for my giveaway.

I'm keeping it simple, you simply need to share your opinion on the best Windows freeware in a series of categories, as well as provide a valid name and email address. A random winner shall be picked from everyone who submits valid answers to the survey. Your pick in each of the categories must be a verifiable spyware-free no-cost software application, so be sure you spell the software's name correctly. The winner will be posted to my blog at approximately 11 pm Pacific on 2008 May 22. You are welcome to enter from any country HP is legally allowed to ship to. All fields in the survey are required.

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"I have a Sony AVCHD camcorder. iMovie doesn't recognize the camcorder files. How can I edit the files on my AVCHD camcorder with my Mac?"

AVCHD support has been inconsistent for both Mac and Windows users. The format varies slightly depending on whether your camera is from Sony, Panasonic, or Canon. For Mac users, software support varies depending on which versions of iMovie, Final Cut Express, or Final Cut Pro you happen to be running. I personally prefer Final Cut Express to iMovie for editing on a Mac, but the correct version of either will work.

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"I want to connect my Blu-ray player (PS3) to my monitor. The monitor only has a VGA input. What would I need to convert the HDMI out on my PS3 to a VGA connection?"

One of the key challenges in converting HDMI to VGA is maintaining support for HDCP, which creates a protected signal path from Blu-ray players to a monitor as a means of preventing copying. There are a number of converters that will connect an HDMI cable to a VGA port, but anytime HDCP is present, instead of rendering the video signal, you get a black screen on the monitor. To avoid the black screen, you need a converter that includes support for HDCP.

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Michelle writes, "My aunt wants the Internet however she doesn't want a phone line and she doesn't want cable. Do you know of any internet installation with this kind of setup?"

Piggybacking Internet service as DSL over a phone line or high speed cable service are the two easiest ways to have Internet access, although they aren't the only solutions. Depending on where your aunt lives, there may be several ways for her to access the Internet without either of these more traditional Internet access solutions.

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"When you copy HD video from a camcorder to a DVD, do you have to playback on a HD-DVD player or will it play back on a standard DVD player?"

It really depends on the format you choose for your DVD whether the DVD you burn will play in a standard DVD player, or whether you need an HD-DVD player in order to watch your DVD creation. If you have an HD-DVD player, the method I describe for burning HD-DVDs on standard DVD media will result in DVDs that only play in HD-DVD drives. Your other option is to output your HD content as a standard definition video during the authoring process. Here's how this works:

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