Used Laptops and Accessories

Today's technology is moving at lightning speed and it's an expensive prospect to keep up and keep all of your own personal technology up to par. For instance, you may love taking digital photos with your camera, but do you have a computer or laptop that is compatible? Do you have a digital camcorder and you want to play around with digital video editing or that you'd like to hook up to your TV at home? Maybe you love your webcam, but your computer doesn't have sufficient memory to keep up?

If you plan to buy, or have bought an inexpensive refurbished laptop, what do you need to power all of these nifty features? Once you have everything ready, how do you actually use everything together?

Here is a quick guide to using various components and accessories with your refurbished or used laptop computer!

Using Your Camcorder with Your Used Laptop

You can if you have an S-Video connector. S-Video-In allows you to connect laptops to a television or camcorder or VCR to transmit their signal and be able to view them on the laptop's display. S-Video inputs use a four-pin jack to receive video signals from camcorders, gaming consoles, TV, or any device that has an S-Video out port. The S in S-Video stands for separate: S-Video connections transmit the chrominance (color) and luminance (brightness) portions of a video signal along different paths, allowing them to be processed separately. This is a common way to display content from a digital camcorder or any device that has an S-Video Out port.

S-Video Out: Connects a plasma or newer TV to your notebook to display video content streaming from the notebook. The most common way to connect a TV to a notebook, S-Video Out uses a four-pin jack to send signals from your notebook to your TV or anything that accepts S-Video In.

This feature is not standard to all laptops, so you need to check the feature list to make sure it is included if this is something you whish to do.

Using Your Used Laptop and a Web Cam

If you want to use your laptop and a webcam to talk to relatives or friends across the country it is best to have the same camera on both sides of the connection to be able use all the features of the cameras.

You can talk by using cell phones or telephones or can use instant messaging or even send e-mails back and forth. Using the webcam will allow you to see each other to add another dimension to the phone call.

You will need the following:

• A computer

• An Internet connection (the faster the better).

• A connection from the laptop to the webcam (most common is the USB, others include Serial, Parallel, etc).

• Two cameras.

• Software (from the webcam vendor or from others, like Microsoft).

If you already own the webcam then check the systems requirements to determine what you need in the way of a laptop, should you not already own one. If you aren't sure about which webcam to purchase then check out the reviews at ZDNet to get a better idea. Logitech (a market leader) has a low priced webcam the QuickCam® Communicate™ for $49.95 (on their website). It requires Win 98 or later OS, P3-700 MHz with 64MB RAM if you use their VideoCall software for broadband. It costs less than $6 per month if you sign up for their one year plan.

Free software you can use for video chatting with friends includes: Microsoft's NetMeeting. It includes video in multiple directions, chat, and audio. The systems requirements of NetMeeting are minimal as it will work with a Pentium 90 and Win 95 or later and a 56K modem. EyeballChat is another option. It lets you chat live, share messages, music and photos and communicate securely. Its systems requirements are a Pentium II 400 MHz with at least 64 MB RAM. Another option is a web based conferencing tool for $9 per month like MegaMeeting Personal

So now you know how to use a refurbished laptop and how to buy a refurbished laptop that can help you use exciting accessories like your WebCam or your camcorder! The possibilities are endless and so are the savings!