How To . . . Guide
From
TallPine® Technologies, Inc.
Welcome to the SampSonic™
Your SampSonic™ is a quiet, full function computer. It has Windows XP, a lot
of memory, a large hard drive, a fast processor, a network card, a CD
player/burner, a remote keyboard and a remote control . It is intended to be
hooked up to your TV and home audio system. With a SampSonic you can store and view your digital photo
library and listen to your recorded music from the comfort of your living room.
It provides you with a powerful way to save and organize your digital photos
and to record your CD library. The
SampSonic is based on the latest SmartWidgets® technology from TallPine®
Technologies, Inc.
Using Your SampSonic
When you turn on your SampSonic system it will automatically start the SampSonic software and display the Main Menu on your screen. The first time you use the SampSonic you may want to adjust the size and position of the picture as well as the brightness and contrast. Instructions are included later in this document.
The system comes with a small amount of sample content for you to experiment with. However, in order to make meaningful use of your SampSonic you will need to add your music and photos to the system.
Initial Settings
The SampSonic comes pre-configured to operate correctly in a typical environment. You can change the way many things work by pressing the Setup button on the main menu page. You can, for example, turn tooltips on and off, change button styles, select color styles and access music and photo options.
Adjusting your picture
If the picture is not centered correctly on your screen you may need to use the Windows Display properties function to adjust the size and location of the picture. This will only need to be done once and can be done as follows:
1.
Press the Min
button on the SampSonic Main Menu.
2.
Right click on
the desktop and select properties.
3.
Click on the
settings tab and select advanced options.
4.
You can adjust
the brightness by clicking on the 'Color' tab.
5.
If you are
using a computer monitor instead of a TV you can skip the remaining steps.
6.
Click on the
'Displays' tab and then click on the TV.
7.
You can adjust
the quality of your TV display including sizing and repositioning the picture.
How to Use Shortcuts
The SampSonic software supports the use of keyboard shortcuts to make it easier for you to move between pages. The shortcut keys do not require pressing Alt key. Simply press a single key. This is helpful when you are sitting in your easy chair with the keyboard in your lap or in one hand and you want to press a shortcut key. In order for shortcut keys to work the main window must have the keyboard focus. This means that sometimes you may need to click anywhere on the SampSonic main window in order to get the shortcut keys to start working.
Keyboard Shortcut Definitions
Alphabetic Key Shortcuts |
Numeric Key Shortcuts |
|
|
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Special Keys and the Remote Control
The SampSonic system unit is usually shipped with a keyboard and a remote control that have special keys that can be used to perform various functions as long as the TallPine Drivers are installed. Any remote with a numeric keypad that generates standard numeric keystrokes can use the numeric shortcuts listed in the previous section.
- + - volume up
- - - volume down
- mute - mute
- up arrow - forward
- down arrow - back
- right arrow - next track
- left arrow - previous track
How to Play Music
When you record audio CDs they are stored in folders in your music library. The recorded CDs can be selected by pressing the All CDs button on the music main menu page. Individual CDs or multiple CDs may be selected from a list by clicking on them. When they are highlighted they can be played immediately by pressing the Play button, or added to the jukebox by pressing the Jukebox(+) button, or added to a custom playlist by pressing the add button.
The JukeBox
The jukebox allows you to select and play any combination of CDs, songs and playlists. The contents of the jukebox can be viewed and played by pressing the Jukebox button on the music main menu page. The content of the jukebox is remembered when the SampSonic is turned off and will be restored when the SampSonic is restarted. CDs, songs and playlists that have been placed into the jukebox are displayed with a black check box in the CD list, CD song list and/or playlists. This makes it easy to identify items that are currently available in the jukebox.
Playlists
A playlist is a custom collection of songs and/or CDs. A playlist can be added to the jukebox just like a CD. The SampSonic allows you to create any number of custom playlists. You can add songs, CDs or other playlists to any number of playlists. A song can be in more than one playlist. You can use playlists to build your "Best of the Beatles", "Best of ...", or "My Favorite Songs". All your custom playlists may be viewed, selected or played by clicking on the Playlists button on the music main menu page. Any song, CD or Playlist can be added to a playlist by highlighting it and pressing the Add button.
Now Playing
The main menu page will always display what is currently selected for playing as well as information about the current song. The source of the current selection is listed in the upper right. This indicates whether the now playing items were selected from the all CDs list, the jukebox, playlists, or a CD. If you want to make a change to what is currently selected, you return to the source and make the change and press the play button again. If you go to a different source you can make your selections and press play. The selections from the new source will begin playing immediately.
Player Control Buttons
The player control buttons that appear at the bottom of music related pages allow you to control the playing of your selected music. Pressing the Play button will update the music source and selection, and then begin playing. The Pause button will suspend playing. The Rewind button will start the current song at the beginning. The Fast button allows you to move fast forward and backwards within the current song. The Track button switches to the next track. The Next CD button moves to the next CD or playlist in your now playing selection. The Favorite button adds the currently playing song to a playlist named favorites. This is a simple way to remember a song that you may want to go back to later.
How to Record Music
Go to the CD Player main menu and click on the Record button. This will take you to the Record CD menu page. This page will display a summary of the CD that is currently loaded into your CD player. Your SampSonic comes standard with title, artist, and track information for over half a million CDs. This information is used automatically when a CD is recorded. If your CD is not found you can edit this information manually. This internal database can be updated periodically by obtaining SampSonic update packages. If you are connected to the Internet, the SampSonic will automatically connect to a CDDB server to obtain the latest information.
Recording the CD
The process of digitally recording a CD is called 'ripping'. To begin ripping your CD click on the Rip button. Rip status will be displayed at the bottom of the page. You can click the Save to store the CD volume information and do other things such as play other music or view photographs while the rip is being performed. When the rip is complete the new CD will appear on the All CDs list. You can abort the rip and restart it later if you like. It typically takes 6-12 minutes to completely rip a CD.
How to Add an Existing MP3 Library
If you have an existing MP3 library that is available on a network or some other media you can use it with your SampSonic.
Put the MP3 Files Into a Folder
The first step is to make the library available in a folder, either on your SampSonic or on the network. This will require that you map a network connected drive or copy the MP3 files to any folder on your SampSonic. By default the SampSonic is set to look in D:/music. If you like you can copy your files into that folder. The SampSonic will look in all subfolders within the specified path so you can copy multiple folders and subfolders into the main MP3 folder.
Set Your Import Path and Refresh Your Library
Go to the Music Menu page and click on options. Set the Mp3 Music Import Path to point to the folder containing your MP3 files. Click the Apply button to change the settings. Click the options button again and then click on the Refresh button. This will scan your library path and the MP3 Import path that you may have just set. The SampSonic will find all MP3 files in the path and check for title information in the files. If the MP3 files contain title information it is used and the song is added to the library. If the MP3 file has no title information it is skipped. Once the files have been added to your library they will appear in your CD list just like a recorded CD.
How to View Photos
You can view individual photo albums, photo volumes, or a slide show consisting of selected volumes and albums. Note: Photo volumes are collections of photos that were captured from a CD ROM, photo memory card or other device. When you think of a volume think of a roll of film. Photo albums are collections of photos that are assembled by you from the photos in photo volumes.
Albums
To view an album go to the Photos main menu and click on the Albums button. A list of all your photo albums will be displayed. You can select one and click on the View button to browse the photos in the album, or you can highlight one or more albums and click the Select + button to add them to the current slideshow selection. Albums that are selected as part of the slide show appear with a solid black check box.
Volumes
To view a volume go to the Photos main menu and click on the Volumes button. A list of all your photo volumes will be displayed. You can select one and click the View button to browse the photos in the volume, or you can highlight one or more volumes and click the Select + button to add them to the current slideshow selection. Volumes that are selected as part of the slide show appear with a solid black check box.
Slide Show
To view a full screen slideshow of your currently selected albums and volumes you can click the Slide Show button on the Main Menu page or you can go to the Photos main menu page and click the Slideshow button. A windowed version of the current slide show is also displayed in the Photo main menu page. To stop the slide show simply click on the picture and a set of options will appear at the bottom of the screen. These options will allow you to return to the main menu page, resume the slide show, freeze the current photo, edit the current photo, bookmark the current photo, or print the photo if you have a printer available on your SampSonic.
You can view a list of all the selected items by clicking the Selected button on the Photos main menu page. From there you can view or remove individual slide show selections.
Photo Viewing Options
The photo options page allows you to select the arrangement used to browse the photos in an album or volume. You can also control several options related to the slide show. For example, the number of photos displayed from each volume/album before switching to next album/volume or the number of seconds each photo is displayed. To get to the Photo options page go to the Photo main menu and click on the Options button.
How to Capture Photos
Go to the Photos main menu and select Options. Click on the Capture button. The capture menu will be displayed with several buttons and input fields.
The 'CD ROM drive letter' should match the drive letter of the CD ROM drive in your system. This is normally set to 'E' unless you have customized your system.
The 'capture path/device' field is set to a folder location that will contain the photos you want to capture. If your have photo memory card reader such as a Smart Media card reader attached to your system and you would like to capture photos directly from it, enter the drive letter assigned to the reader (e.g. f:). The SampSonic requires that the reader be mapped to a logical drive letter.
The 'choose source field' allows you to select between capturing photos from your CD ROM drive or from a device/folder. If your photo source is already organized into multiple folders with meaningful names you can choose to keep the source names. This will preserve the organization and information encoded in the folder and file names while still creating unique identifiers for each photo. I unique folder name will be assigned by the SampSonic and all the subfolders and photo files created by the capture will be located in this folder.
Preview Capture
You can preview the capture process to see what your current selection will capture by pressing the List button. It will display a list of all the photos that were found on the selected capture device.
Capture
Press the Start button to begin the capture operation. It will run in the background. You can view other photos, listen to music, or do something else while the capture is taking place. Status of the capture operation is displayed at the bottom of this page.
What Happens When You Capture Photos
When you perform a capture operation the following things happen:
1.
The capture
source is scanned and a unique ID is automatically calculated for this
collection of photos. This ID is associated as a keyword and is used to help
uniquely identify each of the photos.
2.
A folder with
the assigned ID is created in you SampSonic Photo library.
3.
If you choose
to keep source names from the capture source, a separate volume is created for
each picture folder on your source device. Otherwise a single volume is created
and all photos from your capture device are added to it.
4.
After all the
volumes are created and all the photos are copied from the source into the
volume folders, thumbnails are generated for each of the photos. This process
can take a fair amount of time if the source photos are high-resolution
photographs.
5.
Each newly
created volume will appear in the photo volume list when this process is
complete. They are created with a category of '-New Volume' and will appear at
the top of the photo volume list.
6.
You can then
edit the volume and add a title, choose a category and add keywords to help
identify the volume.
Considerations When Capturing from a CD ROM or memory card
Since the content of a CD ROM is static and CDs are typically used for long term archive purposes you should record the volume ID assigned to the CD and keep it on file with the CD. If you ever need to locate a particular photo saved on a CD you can us the Volume ID number assigned by the SampSonic as a key.
If the CD ROM is a factory CD from a photo processing service the photo names and folder names are not meaningful and you should not choose the keep source names. This is also true of folder names and photo names on memory cards.
When you capture photos from a memory card or a factory CD the names of the photos are not unique from capture to capture. Meaning the names on one CD are often the same as the names on every other CD. In order allow these photos to be tracked properly the SampSonic assigns unique names to each photo by using the unique volume ID associated with each capture operation.
When you capture photos you may want to discard unwanted photos or you may choose to keep everything. Keep in mind that captured photo volumes are exact replicas of the source material. Similar to a roll of film, they may contain photos from several events. You would normally go through a newly captured volume and place the photos into albums that relate more closely to separate events or topics. You would then normally select albums for viewing rather than volumes. When you add a photo to an album you are not moving the photo out of the volume but rather you are pointing the album at the photo in the volume where it was captured. This allows a photo to be part of any number of photo albums at the same time.
Adding Photos Directly to the Photo Library
If you want to add photos to an existing volume or add a folder containing photos to the SampSonic without going through the capture process you can simply copy the photo files to any volume folder or copy a folder containing photos into any location within the SampSonic photo library path. These new photos will not appear in the SampSonic until a photo refresh operation is performed. This function can be performed from the Photo Options Menu page. The refresh operation will scan the photo library and add any new photos. It will also create thumbnails for new photographs.
How to Add Existing Photos
If you already have a library of photos on a computer or stored on one or more CDs you can add them directly to the SampSonic. There are two methods to accomplish this task.
Direct Access Method
The Photo Options Menu allows you to set two paths that are used to locate photos, the picture store path and the picture library path. If you have a photo library on a network drive or in a folder that is accessible to the SampSonic you can set the library path to point to that folder. In this case you should set the Picture Store path to point at where you want photos to go when a SampSonic capture operation is performed. Then perform a refresh operation.
This method will make the photos in your existing library available along with all photos stored in your capture path. It is important to note that the SampSonic will create thumbnail subfolders in each of the folders in your library paths. If this is a problem you should use the copy method.
Copy Method
An alternate method for adding existing photos directly to your SampSonic photo library is to copy them into the SampSonic Picture Library Path. If you want to keep your existing library photos separate from those you capture with the SampSonic, you can set the library path to a different folder than the store path. The copy method is useful when your existing photos are on one or more CDs, or your photo library folder is not accessible to the SampSonic, or you do not want thumbnail subfolders created in your existing photo library.
To use this method, copy the contents of your library to the path identified by the Picture Library path option. Then run a refresh operation. If your are copying multiple CDs you may want to make sure each CD is in a uniquely named folder and then keep that folder name with the CD so you can locate the CD later if required.
How to make an audio CD
Once you have recorded your music collection, it is common to want to burn custom music CDs to play in your car or portable player. The SampSonic, in conjunction with native Windows XP function, allow you to do this easily. First, you collect the songs you wish to burn on the CD. Second, you burn those songs onto a blank CD.
Collect Your Songs
Collecting the songs you want to burn onto a CD is simply a matter of building a custom playlist. Create a playlist or use an existing one. Add the songs to the playlist that you want to put onto the CD. Then select the playlist and view it. You can also select an individual CD instead of a playlist. Click the Audio CD button on the bottom right of the page. This will copy all of the selected songs to a folder called AudioCD. A shortcut to this folder is placed on your desktop by default. The destination folder can be changed via the Music options menu. If you change the destination you will need to modify this procedure accordingly.
Burn the Audio CD
The Windows XP native media player provides the function required to burn the CD. To perform this step you may need to click on the Min button on the SampSonic Main Menu page. This will reduce the size of the SampSonic window so you can see other desktop items. Then perform the following steps:
1.
Start the
media player from the shortcut on the desktop.
2.
Select the
'Copy to CD or Device' function.
3.
Choose the
playlist you want to use. You may want to delete the songs you don’t want to
record from the list.
4.
Right click on
the 'Audio CD Files' shortcut on the desktop.
5.
Select the
'Add to Playlist' option and pick a playlist or create one. You should choose
the same playlist you chose in the previous step.
6.
Place a blank
CD-R disk into your CD Burner.
7.
Review the
order and content of the playlist and make whatever changes you wish.
8.
Click the red
'Copy Music' button in the upper right portion of the media player. This will
start the CD burning process.
9.
When complete
remove and label the CD.
10.
You can then
close the Media Player and the Audio CD Files folder.
11.
Click on the
SampSonic window and it will expand to full screen.
The actual burning function is part of Windows XP. If you are familiar with burning Audio CDs using other procedures then there is no reason not to use your own familiar process. The only thing you need to remember is the location of the songs you want to burn. This is the d:/audiocd folder by default.
How to make a Photo CD
Once you have captured you photo collection, it is common to want to burn a custom CD ROM to send to a friend or family member or for backup and archive purposes. The SampSonic, in conjunction with native Windows XP function, allow you to do this easily. First, you collect the photos you wish to burn on the CD. Second, you burn those photos onto a blank CD.
Collect Your Photos
Collecting the photos you want to burn onto a CD is simply a matter of building a custom album. Create an album or use an existing one. Add the photos to the album that you want to put onto the CD. Then select the album and view it. You can also select a photo volume instead of a photo album. Click the Audio CD button on the bottom right of the page. This will copy all of the selected photos to a folder called PhotoCD. A shortcut to this folder is placed on your desktop by default. The destination folder can be changed via the Photo options menu. If you change the destination you will need to modify this procedure accordingly.
Burn the Photo CD
The Windows XP native media player provides the function required to burn the CD ROM. To perform this step you may need to click on the Min button on the SampSonic Main Menu page. This will reduce the size of the SampSonic window so you can see other desktop items. Then perform the following steps:
1.
Open the Photo
CD folder using the shortcut on the desktop.
2.
Choose the
‘Copy all items to CD’ option under picture tasks.
3.
Place a blank
CD into your CD drive.
4.
Windows should
inform you that you have files waiting to copy to a CD. Click on the balloon
help. This will cause the CD drive window to be displayed.
5.
If Windows
does not prompt with the balloon help, use 'My Computer' and open the CD drive. This is normally Drive 'E'.
6.
Select the
'Write these files to CD' function in the upper left.
7.
Follow the
instructions provided by windows.
8.
Remove and
label your CD ROM
Archive and Backup Considerations
When you use your SampSonic to capture photos from your digital camera you have no long- term backup of your pictures. The only copy is on your hard drive once you decide to reuse your memory card. It is often advisable to burn backup copies of your photos onto CDs for safekeeping. The photo CD allows you to do this. You can usually store several volumes on a single CD.