Tascam US-144MKII USB Audio Interface

• Bus-powered USB 2.0 audio interface
• Two phantom powered XLR mic and Two 1/4 inch balanced line inputs
• MIDI and S/PDIF stereo coaxial input and output
• Up to 96kHz/24-bit audio resolution with Zero-latency monitoring
• Steinberg Cubase LE4 48-track recording software included

I got this unit this week, and after installing the driver from the Tascam website for Windows 7 64 bit Home Edition (Cpu is a regular celeron 900 @ 2.20 ghz with 4 gigs ram and 250 gb 5200 rpm hd) the unit worked as advertised. I upgraded from a Mobile Pre usb which is a 16 bit unit, to this for it's 24 bit recording, and Usb 2.0 which has a faster trasfer rate than the Mobile Pre's Usb 1.1. I tested the unit out, using a pair of Samson Resolv A 5's, and the unit has quite a good amount of quality to it! It weighs around 1 and a half pounds, but has a nice aluminum shell casing with sidings, real nice durable stuff. The Volume Pots look very nice and feel good, but seem only a little on the senitive side, but are enough to get the job done. I threw on Reaper 3.75 and opened a session i mixed down to 8 tracks, had a latency on lower latency settings of 128 samples/15 ms, not too bad. on lowest latency settings i get it down to 49 samples/ 12 ms. the Monitor mix Volume pot is a good idea, cause if you want to hear a direct monitor of your vocals, you basically slide it between the input and computer to get a decent balance between that and the usb in/out signal.

Phantom power is built into the device. And so far using a Perception 220, which has a full dynamic range of -139 dbs, and s/n of 78 db, the unit sounds wonderful! For a unit this size, and cost (around max 150.00), this is a great choice for a starter or even a intermediate recording enthusiast. I use mine for vocals, mixing/ mastering and standard use of music listening in WMA Player, etc. The front is cool, cause it is where you plug the mics into L and R Channel sides, as well as you can either plug keyboards,synths, as well as a electric guitar or electric bass on R Channel's 1/4 trs INSERT. The mic pres are good for the cost, but what is great here is they sound much more quality than the unit is worth. Very nice preamps with Phantom power, which this unit is powered strictly thru the Usb 2.0 port, a extra plus and less wires in my set up!

I did not experience any noise associated with the guitar line that others have wrote about on the internet in regards to this device, in my test i had no such issues , as i am running Tascam driver for Windows 7 64 bit version 2.02. It installed easily , the whole ordeal took only around 7 minutes to get into the drivers, install, complete and ready for recording! Midi in and Out work as advertised as well, with 16 channels of Midi thru the US 144 MKII. I used my Midi Controller keyboard on Reaper 3.75 and Sony Music Studio 8 without a hitch.

The output to the headphones is decent, not as loud as some others, but on this unit compared to the Mobile Pre, this unit had much better sound out the 1/4 headphone jack output, and it was cleaner. It doesn't break up as i increase the volume. I set my Resolv's to the volume i need at the max i wanted to set and forgetand control them both using the unit's built in Line Out Volume control. I can't be any happier to mix and not have to get up and raise and lower the volumes on each speaker seperately during mixing sessions! What i like also is the layout of the interface's functions, it is all on the top of the unit. The Digital I/O is also another nice feature attached to this unit. I have not had the chance to try it out, but i soon will.

Overall in my opinion and in my experience, the Tascam US 144 MKII is a solid unit with great features, solid build that is durable, has lots of value for it's small street price (between 119.00148.00), has good quality preamps for it's price range and is portable as well as sturdy enough to use on a desktop in a full blown music studio! The Tascam US 144 MKII is a great first choice unit for people just starting into their own music recording, down to intermediate users like myself, who had previous experience with simpler interfaces, and want higher quality components for music recording and vocal recordings, without having to spend more than 150 to get studio quality sound recordings in their set up.

Buy Tascam US-144MKII USB Audio Interface Now

The sound quality is very good. However, the interface crashes at random intervals throughout the day. On a fresh install of Windows XP SP3, I frequently got the Blue-Screen-of-Death blaming tascusb2.sys. There was no warning. Computer could be on for hours before doing it, or not. I haven't been able to discern a pattern as to when it happens -it happens most often when I listen to music, but sometimes it will crash when I'm doing nothing at all with it.

Installing the newest drivers from the Tascam Website actually made my system crash more often than the old drivers. The interface also takes 20% of CPU power to run on a Core 2 Quad Laptop, even when I'm doing nothing with it. The Interface actually crashed my PC once while I was writing this review.

Appearantly, this is a problem that existed with the previous model of the US-144 as well. Google it; there are dozens of reports online of people having the same issues as me, and hundreds of reports regarding Tascam's worthless customer support, even here on Amazon. The instruction manual is also littered with typos.

Even when it does output sound, you can't use it in a production environment due to very high latency. If you set the latency to anything other than the highest setting, you will get all kinds of crackling and skipping, even when just listening to music in Winamp or Windows Media Player. It often doesn't get properly recognized in Cubase 5. Recording is nearly impossible.

Support is unhelpful, telling me to disable my anti virus and firewall(not an option due to security concerns, but even when I did do it for an hour, my system crashed again), and outright lying to me, saying that Mac users don't have issues with the Tascam Audio Interface, when even the reviewer above me has problems getting it to work on his Mac.

Bottom line: When the thing works, it outputs some nice, clear sound for the price. Unfortunately it's nearly unusable due to constant crashing, latency issues and worthless support. Stay away until they put out some new drivers, which they have been promising for nearly two years.

Jamal Nichols

Read Best Reviews of Tascam US-144MKII USB Audio Interface Here

An excellent audio interface! Good quality build, easy to use and results in a clean, non-attenuated ("flat") sound. I'm using it as part of a home studio and for that purpose I couldn't recommend it more highly.

Some reviewers have noted problems getting this interface to work on Macs. I'm running a new 24" iMac and it works absolutely fine I literally just installed the driver, plugged in the interface, selected it under 'System Preferences > Sound' and it worked straight away.

I think the problems that some people were having were due to the drivers not being up to date at the time of their reviews. Hence, be sure to check the date of any negative reviews the latest drivers for Mac OS 10.6 weren't released until August 2010, and like I said, I'm happy to confirm they work fine.

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Before buying this device I was reading how it "blue screened" a lot of peoples systems and gave them a lot of trouble. Since I have been building and fixing computers for 12 years and have dealt with every problem you could dream up I thought I could handle this and not have any problem. I have plenty of audio usb interfaces and just needed another device with good stats like this one.

I loaded up the driver cd that the device came with and as it installed it looked like it was an old installer form 1992 so that worried me that this was not a very professional company when it came to software and the software team was lacking. Well sure enough an error came up half way into the install. No info or anything for this error but only to call the company. I tried all my usb ports and tried installing it a few more times while trying all combination's but no luck. The system was running Windows 7 32Bit and it was compatible with the cd so that was not the issue.

Calling the company was the software's recommended action but the low i.q development team that created the software obviously did not think that someone may be using the device at night time when the company would be closed. With them being closed for the night I could not call and even if I did what would I tell the poor service rep? That there was no error code or anything to identify the problem and that there could be billions of combination's on why the product is not working. I would not want to be on the phone with them for all that time testing what they tell me to test and still not get anywhere.

I have dealt with driver problems before from building and fixing computers for so long so I am used to going on product web sites to get the newest drivers so that's what I did next to try and fix the problem. I went on their official web site and I downloaded the newest driver that was actually not that new and it was about the same as the one on the cd. After installing the driver it recommended restarting so I clicked yes. A few seconds later my computer blue screened for the first time ever not allowing me onto my computer.

I scanned my computer to fix the problem but windows came up with nothing after a 40 minute scan. I was forced to use a system restore to get back into my system. I don't like system restore and normally turn it off to save system resources and space but on this system I forgot to disable it so I'm glad I could use it because this computer only had 1 partition so it would be a real hassle to try and get all my files and music recordings back.

The blue screen never stayed on the screen long and just made me reboot every time because it would not let me use the "start windows normally option" since windows did not feel like starting normally. There was no way to figure out what was really wrong since it would be a flashing blue screen so I was never able to go into the systems registry or wherever the problem was to fix it myself since I did not know the error/problems code. Just bad audio drivers messing with the hardware I guess.

This whole thing really is a let down because the stats on this usb audio interface seem so good especially for the price.

I'll never be able to use this device for work, I just can't let those drivers near my system again giving me blue screens and wasting so much of my time and who knows when it will happen again when I am with a client or working on a song.

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I think it is sad that there are only 2 reviews of this device and they are negative. First off if you have a bizarre random recording program that no one has heard of, then you may run into technical problems. I am using sony acid and it works beautifully. The 2 track at once concept is what I really love about it, the sound quality next, aND the overall ease to use it. as far as the rumors of the BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH are concerned, i did have some blue screens...but they by far were not the death screen. some computers dont work well with the driver that comes with it...the computer will periodically tell you via blue screen that it doesnt recognize the hardware or the driver and that it needs to be disconected. disconnect, restart and youre good. my computer did it a few times at first, then automatically removed the driver....the device still works fantastically with my comp..i have had a blue screen come up once since, in a 3 month period. it depends on you computers age and processor speed. i have had no problems with this device and would highly recommend it to anyone else.

7" Articulated Magic Arm with Single Rod Clamp - 15mm (4 1/4"thread) for Dslr Rig Support System

Just received this arm and tried to use it on a shoot today with the Lilliput 7" 5D field video monitor. The swivel joints all lock tight with the knob. However. the threaded post into the 15mm rod clamp, is impossible to get tight enough. The weight of the monitor keeps causing it to loosen, allowing the monitor to swing like a barn door. I'm going to try some Loctite on the threads, but if that doesn't work, I'll probably have to get a stronger arm. If I had something lighter to mount, I'd probably give it four or five stars, but with the 7" monitor it just doesn't quite do the job.

ADDED Feb 8, 2013:

I ordered a Cowboy Studio super clamp and have attached the monitor to the tripod on several days of shooting. This works great. It is pretty east to position the arm so the weight is pushing down against the 1/4" threads to keep it from loosening. Also the whole setup is much more sturdy on the tripod. For moving around I adjust the monitor arm & monitor to hang straight down with the monitor facing toward the folded legs. This works pretty well for re-positioning the camera without removing everything. Since mounting the arm to the tripod, I could bump it to four stars.

ADDED Feb 11, 2013:

I just received a double 15mm adapter-it goes onto both rails and has the 1/4" threads for mounting the magic arm. This is much more stable that the original single 15mm clamp. I still haven't had to do any actual hand-held production, but with the Loc-Tite on the threads, this seems a lot more stable in just testing it out in the office. I'm not sure why this part is currently not available-hopefully they will get more in stock, as it is really useful. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007GWFN8E/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00

Zoom H4n 4-Channel Handy Recorder Bundle with Carrying Case, 16GB SD Card, Headphones, Mini Tripod,

I just picked this unit up yesterday, so my review is based on my initial findings just playing around. Please note that this review is only of the H4n ext, and not for/of the seller.

The product itself is very well designed. It's got a little weight to it (feels solid to me), and I could see it getting a bit tiring holding this out at arms length for extended periods. luckily it's got a standard tripod screw mount (like you'd find on the bottom of a camera/video camera). The unit I bought also contained a small mic stand adapter... a plastic dowel with a tripod screw on the bottom.

The surprising thing was that this unit runs on two standard Double-A batteries. At first, I was expecting some kind of rechargable ni-cad pack. Honestly, I like this better anyway. In the end, I'd ALWAYS prefer to have a power source that I can pick up in any convenience store just about anywhere, as opposed to having to rely on finding somewhere to recharge.

I only did a little bit of test recording using the built-in mics. I must say though that I felt the mics performed very well. The included wind-screen was most helpful in keeping the sound clear despite a bit of a breeze.

I did quite a bit more recording using the mic/line inputs. Using two standard mono RCA to 1/4" phono cables, I was able to hook the line level out of several different standard home audio sources (CD Player, DVD player, Cassette player, VCR, DVR) and with the tiniest bit of tweeking of the recording level, I got very good results from all of them.

NOTE: This unit records directly to WAV (or Mp3 I believe, but did not play with that) with VERY good quality, but there are NO DIGITAL INPUTS. If you're looking to record SPDIF or other digital formats, this is not the unit for you. If you're looking for very good analog-to-digital recording (very decent ADACs) either with built in stereo mics or using external (1/4" phono, XLR, and stereo mini jacks available) on up to 4 channels at once, you could do a lot worse than this product.

I really loved that the unit records direct to SD card. It was VERY easy to record, dump the contents of the card to a PC, and be back up and recording again within a couple minutes.

I also liked how easy it was to insert MARKs while recording. In one test, I was recording a rather long segment that I knew I'd need to be breaking up into many separate files. I was able to put (Sound Forge compatible) marks at various key points during the recording just by tapping the (rec) button whenever I wanted to lay down a mark.

I DID notice that when I formatted the SD card, the sequential naming of files reset itself. This could be bad if you record a bunch and do the record, transfer, format thing. I quickly found the option to save file names with date-time stamps for names instead, and I think this will work out quite nicely.

The unit has the ability to do some multi-track type recording, punch in/out, and even apply a few effects (compression, etc...) I haven't really played with these, and honestly, I probably won't... I just plan on using mine to record either via the mics or over the inputs, then transfer the files to PC where I do most of my editing/mixing.

The owner's manual is obviously a fairly direct Japanese to English translation, but at least it (mostly) makes sense. There are a few odd phrases here and there, but nothing you can't work out.

All-in-all, I've had my H4n ext for too short a time to give a comprehensive evaluation, but for first impressions, I'd say this is a real winner, and certainly worth the money.

This was a really nice package deal. The H4n itself has really impressed me, you can actually adjust the XLR inputs individually, just RTFM (read the manual!). The headphones sound very decent but fit on my head a little weird (they feel loose). The cheapo stand ACTUALLY holds up the H4n... rather well. I thought i would just throw it away but it works. I also like the little "handle" looking thing, which is designed to screw into the H4n and then be put into a mic stand. I originally thought it was some kind of handle to walk around with it, which would be stupid.

Haven't used the remote control yet, but this deal is worth the buy in my opinion (your going to spend 300 just on the h4n) might as well get a buncha little extras like the memory card.

Buy Zoom H4n 4-Channel Handy Recorder Bundle with Carrying Case, 16GB SD Card, Headphones, Mini Tripod, Now

I've used this recorder several times now...the first time the record volume was set too high (My BAD), but fortunately I had turned on the compression, and did manage to save the recording. From then on, lowering the record volume and checking all the levels, even while we were playing ended up with incredible tracks.

I don't like leaving things up front of the band (classic rock) because we do get unusual clients and they like to bump into things, so...I set the unit close to center of the band (upfront a tad), then run a mic to the PA, leaving me with still another channel for whatever we would need.

This is in 4ch mode, and when in this mode, the recorder records two identical files (both stereo) except one is marked with and "I" (internal I guess) and the other with an "M" (mic, I guess), making it easy to identify files for export to the software, which I may add is ample and full featured

The Cubase Le that came with it seems pretty good, (Like I need another piece of audio software), but like most good software you have total control of your audio, balance, volume, etc

You can record in stereo with the built in mics, (which are VERY sensitive) or you can use externals in place of the built ins, or 4 ch, or MTR mode which will allow you to use the unit as a multi-track recorder, and over dub, plus merge the files to free up tracks. Pretty cool.

MP3 and wave files are the choices for this unit unfortunately HOWEVER, there are several choices for bit-rate.

Pop in a 32 gig card, and enjoy 25 hours of recording time with the highest settings!

Battery life is what's to be expected from a mini computer...you can use alks or rechargeable NIMH, making sure you properly set the unit up for the particular battery. When using the NIMH and USB, the batteries get charged which I found was pretty cool.

I picked up a bunch of NIMH's from here with chargers. a couple around the house, and one I take to the gigs. I use the power supply though most of the time when doing the gigs. I also use the AA's for my wireless stuff.

Plus there is a battery saver feature too which changes the way the unit performs, so you actually have LOTS of control with this ZOOM H4n!

I have read the manual a couple times (it bailed me out too) and haven't really found a translation problem..probably because it was from the download, which is in PDF format and all the tails on lowercase letters were truncated, so I guess I never noticed the bad translation, as I was trying to figure out what letter was where...lol

I didn't get a tripod with mine...hummmm....oh well, really don't need one...have a few types laying around already. But I did purchase the waterproof case for it...I would highly recommend that. Keeps all the little "stuff" together as well as protecting the unit.

Over all, price/quality/performance...

I was impressed, as well as audio geeks who heard the final results were VERY IMPRESSED that this little unit kicked some royal butt!

Lets see if it has a long life!

I'll give it a 10 outta 5

Read Best Reviews of Zoom H4n 4-Channel Handy Recorder Bundle with Carrying Case, 16GB SD Card, Headphones, Mini Tripod, Here

This unit sounds amazing,and it does everything; Great stereo recordings, use the built-in mics and/or your own and/or plug in a combination of mics. You can even run mics and two line inputs from the board or straight from instruments.It's a multi-track recorder with digital effects and dynamics proccessing. Use it as a card reader.

The big thing is; REALLY EA

SY TO USE. VERY INTUITIVE.

Buy the remote too, it's well worth it. The remote even has a green l.e.d. that flashes yellow and then red as you approach clipping levels. That's incredibly handy when you're trying to play an instrument and run the recorder too. You can also change recording levels from the remote along with transport controls etc.. etc...

Last but not least it was a killer package deal from Amazon and Unique Squared. The headphones even sound great!

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The device is very easy to operate and records pretty good audio. The preamp hum is very low, but noticeable when recording pure voice. However, using Audacity it was very easy to remove since its consistent.

It has a slow start up, takes a good 30 seconds or so before the device can start to record audio. The batteries will last a good few hours, I recommend you avoid using stamina mode. Sure, you can get an extra few hours out of the batteries but audio sync to video will become a serious problem very fast.

I don't recommend the package deal. The case and headphones are cheap and poor quality. I seriously doubt I am going to end up using them. The SD card is a generic cheap 16GB card. You are better off buying an SD card separate and spending a few bucks more for better headphones.

The included stand is very stiff and hard to use. If you really need a stand like that, I recommend the low end gorilla pod. I am using this to attach to my tripod with a Canon 7D for video. The device is heavy so don't use a hotshoe mount.

Jensen JTA-460 3-Speed Stereo Turntable with MP3 Encoding System and AM/FM Stereo Radio (Black)

• Convert vinyl to MP3 format without a computer
• MP3 compatible with USB and SD/MMC Slots
• AM/FM receiver with digital frequency
• Belt-driven 3-speed stereo turntable: 33/45/78 RPM
• Built-in stereo speakers and included remote control
• Belt Driven 3-Speed Stereo Turntable - 33/45/78 RPM
• Built-in Stereo Speakers; Remote Control
• MP3 compatible; USB & SD/MMC Slots

This is easily the best tech purchase that I have made on Amazon. Chose to have this baby over-nighted and received the package in less than 18 hours.

To start, This is a very attractive looking vinyl player. The back of this unit contains RCA(Red/White) outputs to hook up to an audio receiver but also has a "phones" AUX port that you can plug in directly to speakers...or headphones. After looking into an array of vinyl players I found that the majority of them lack an Aux output and are not "self powered" like this unit which contains its own speaker system(the speakers are decent, but obviously you want to hook this up to some real speakers anyway). A player with only RCA outputs requires a sound system with receiver and this can get really expensive. I am not so much interested in the recording features of this player, but have tried it and it is very intuitive. I have hardly experienced ANY skipping issues that others are claiming. The skips I have encountered have been on account of the record itself. The only issue I have had...and I am not quite sure how to explain it, but rarely a record will cut out before the end of the last song on a side. It may be related to the weight of the vinyl. A counter weight is included and while not meant for this purpose, I have found that this fixes the issue. Again, this has happened very rarely.

I have a "RCA to AUX" cable connected to the microphone input on my computers sound card and output the sound from my computers headphones port to a set of Klipsch 2.1 powered speakers and man does it sounds great. In this way, my computers sound card is acting as an audio receiver. The sound is louder, crisper and deeper sounding this way. As an added bonus, I can control the volume using my computer.

EDIT 11/27/2012: I have left the general message of my original review intact above, however, when I first wrote this review, I was outputting the sound directly to a pair of speakers. While this certainly works fine, it is just not preferable in terms of sound quality. I recommend either using this player through a PC sound card or audio receiver for optimal sound, the latter being the more expensive, but likely better option. If you are like me though and just DID NOT want to buy an audio receiver, this is a tremendous way to have your player set up. Honestly, I just cant imagine an audio receiver being much of an improvement over how I have things now, if at all.

Favorite Vinyl:

http://www.amazon.com/Rock-Soul-Part-Greatest-Hits/dp/B000091DIQ/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1354060106&sr=8-3&keywords=hall+and+oates+greatest+hits+vinyl

Buy Jensen JTA-460 3-Speed Stereo Turntable with MP3 Encoding System and AM/FM Stereo Radio (Black) Now

We were looking for a turntable that would allow us to play records we haven't listened to in years without the hassle of a big sound system. This is perfect for our needs. Speakers are clear and strong enough for a small room. The biggest advantage is that this system uses a USB or flashcard rather than the software other systems use and customers have complained about. Reasonably priced; a great value.

Read Best Reviews of Jensen JTA-460 3-Speed Stereo Turntable with MP3 Encoding System and AM/FM Stereo Radio (Black) Here

Excellent. Converts old vinyl LP records to MP3's without any trouble at all. All you do is plug in a flash drive or a memory card, play the record, and you have an instant MP3 copy of the record.

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I was attracted to some of the features of this unit such as built in speakers and ability to record mp3's directly to a flash drive rather than needing to put new software on my computer. The speakers work fine, though the sounds seems a little flat without more bass. The mp3 feature however, is frustrating. As other reviewers have mentioned, it takes a little while to start recording, so if you press record just before putting the stylus down, you will miss the beginning of the song. The encoder does not automatically split tracks for you, but they tell you that you can manually do this by stopping and starting the recording in between songs. Unfortunately, with the delay in the start of recording, this function doesn't actually work without chopping off the beginning of every track. I honestly think it would be easier to just record the entire side of the record and split tracks on my computer, but I don't think the company should advertise a feature that doesn't work the way it should.

The more problematic issue I have had with this unit is that it makes a loud clicking/whirring noise as soon as the motor engages and remains until I turn the record player off. During the break between songs or quiet sections in the music, the sound can be heard and is incredibly distracting.

I'm still debating if I want to exchange this unit for another on the chance that this one is just defective, or if I just return it and try a different model.

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First I must say that I received it in excellent condition, very quickly and Amazon was terrific as usual. They were very responsive on the return as well. I could not be more happy in that respect. That said, I was not expecting state of the art equipment for $90, but I was expecting something that would at least play an album or record at one speed or another. This didn't...after feeling the physical weight of the tone arm and seeing the obvious lack of construction quality, I made sure to test it with an expendable recording (hehe, the best use of my wife's old Jane Fonda workout record I could find). The stylus pressure (yes, with the protective cap removed) was well into the ounces when it should only have been a couple of grams. There is no counter-weight or tracking adjustment to offset any of the pressure. When I delicately placed the stylus onto Jane's grooves, it stopped the record completely and the platter kept turning underneath it. Given the weight of the tonearm, that was predictable. Using another equally expendable record, and trying all 3 speeds, the results were the same. I re-read the manual looking for adjustments but found none. I did the same using Google with the same results. I didn't test anything else on the unit, but just packed it back up for return. Maybe I got a bad unit, but the quality was such that I decided to look at alternatives instead of a replacement.

Canon GL1 MiniDV Digital Camcorder with Lens & Optical Image Stabilization

This is one incredible camera. Here are some of the best features about it:

-3CCDs

-L Series Fluorite Lens

-All Manual Controls

-Progressive Scan

-Optical Stabilization

-Large Manual Focus Ring

Of course, we all know that 3CCDs are far better than one... I need not go into more depth there. As far as the lens goes, some have argued that they see no difference of quality over that of Sony's. This may be due in part to the fact that they are looking for a difference in resolution. When compared in numbers to some of the 3CCD models of Sony, you may think that this is a lower resolution camera (which can be a very deceiving thing). It is recognized that a camera with a high resolution in numbers does not equal a pleasing, or sharper image. When you compare the color of a Sony and this GL1 (or any other Canon against a Sony, for that matter), there will be no comparison. The Sony will inevitably lean towards the blues, giving a very cold, unnatural feeling, which can often result in having to waste time in post, by adding color corrections. The Canon will have a much warmer, more natural coloring. With deeper, richer blacks.

The Progressive Scan (or frame mode) is beautiful. It gives the footage a much more film like jitteriness, instead of the liquid smooth interlaced footage that is usually the only option you have on most Sony camera models. It is called "frame mode" because it captures 30 FULL frames per second, instead of 60 FIELDS per second (top field and bottom field) being joined together to make the 30 frames, which when slowed down will show interlaced lines. Some say ...that Progressive Scan is only meant for a "digital motor drive" where you capture 30 frames per second with the intent of getting still pictures from it. Yes, this is a possibility... but no, video is not really high resolution enough to use this for any real purpose other than having a somewhat grainy image for a home web site. I have not heard of ANY professional using it for anything other than to shoot a real project, as true video footage. Video to film transfer locations prefer people to use progressive scan to shoot on their GL1 or XL1 for film transfer. It loses much less quality in the process. There are many commercials and documentaries (as well as independent films) which have started shooting in progressive scan on the GL1 and XL1, in order to get the higher budget film look.

The manual controls on this camera give you such control, that you can achieve truly professional results. You have control over Shutter Speed, Aperture, Gain, White Balance, Focus, exposure, etc. If you want the choppy effect of Saving Private Ryan, or Gladiator's battle scenes, just up the shutter speed to 250 or higher. Or if you want a lot of background blur, open the lens way up.

Ah, yes... the image stabilization. You won't get anything close to it on other brands. They all have a slight shake, and jitter, never truly stabilizing it, especially when zoomed. This one has none. It only floats. And of course, if you want that jittery handheld look of some of the new films and such, just turn it off. But when you want smooth, non jittery handheld shots it's always there.

If you are trying to decide what camera to get, always go down the Canon road. Almost all of them have features that Sony only tries to make up for with home userish built effects and such cheesy non-professional effects that one can achieve if they have a computer to edit on (and still want the effects by then. Why record it permanently, when you might change your mind later). Some Sony users complain about how Canon does not have good still picture resolution. I say, "who needs still pictures on a camcorder??" That should be left to 35mm, or a digital camera devoted to that form of media alone. I have yet to see a printable, good looking still even from a Sony. Both the video format, and the small included memory cards cannot handle the resolution required of this. With all the manual controls, the far superior color, and the incredible look of progressive scan, one must have only the choice to go Canon. If you are an aspiring documentary or commercial maker trying to decide between a GL1 and an XL1 (not likely), the advantage of the GL1 (besides the price) is that it is small. This allows you to be in crowds shooting, without stares from everybody. Or shoot where you would otherwise be unable. This can also be a downfall. It may look wimpy to the client (of course, once they see the footage, they will probably buy one themselves). ....

Lastly, I just want to say that I would highly recommend this camera, but if you can afford it, go with the XL1 (...), it is even better!

I have been using the GL1 for nearly 3 years now. I take it out on shoots for a website I work on... sometimes I create QuickTime Movies, sometimes I take stills from footage and convert the stills to .JPG files.

The 30-lux capacity means you can walk into a subdued lighting environment such as a dining room lit by a single candle and get very good, balanced exposure. It is not like an infrared camera or anything, however... there must be SOME non infrared light, or you get nothing.

The 30x zoom can't be beat. You can be 50 yards away from a person and zoom in and get a shot of their nose... in many ways, it must be seen to be appreciated.

Considering the features, the unit is light-weight, but newer digital camcorders of similar strengths are now on the market for far less and weigh half as much. Still, the GL1 is easy to hold with one hand while using the eye piece or the LCD panel.

I only have a few criticisms. For one, the unit does not ship with a firewire cable. If you are ordering this item for its firewire compatibility, you will need to order a 6-to-4 pin firewire cable separately. (6-pin for your Mac, 4-pin for the GL1).

Also, the GL1 has a tendency to eat tapes. For a while, I thought I was just getting deffective tapes, but a co-worker got a DV deck and the deck was able to view and use the tapes without difficulty. Just viewing the tapes on the DV deck seemed to "fix" whatever the GL1 perceive was wrong with the tapes. On occasion I will get an all red "WARNING: EJECT TAPE" display on the LCD panel... I then eject the tape, rewind it a bit on the DV deck and then I can use it fine for several weeks w/ the GL1. This has been a problem from day one and I have head-cleaning tapes.

The unit has a tripod screw mount on the bottom and a hot shoe on top, so it's a good piece of hardware for professionals.

The battery that ships with the unit will only run for about 30 minutes on a full charge... but that's 30 minutes of actual recording, rewinding, etc. I highly recommend getting an additional 2 hour battery as back-up, especially if you're stuck somewhere and don't have the luxury of having an AC wall socket nearby. You can run the camera straight off AC power, but it is awkward... you must run the cord from the GL1 to the charger and the charger is then plugged into the wall. This extra cord does not come with the unit and you must buy it separately. It would have been nice if they had included this cord as well as a DC charger for the car.

Back when I was ordering this item, I spoke with Canon directly to ask them information about the firewire capabilities, etc. Afer speaking to a customer service rep. for over 1 hour, it was obvious that the folks answering the phones for Canon absolutely know NOTHING about their own products or terminology used in photography or videography... if the answers are not in the little book in front of them, they are worse than uninformed... they tell you the wrong information. If you want more information about the features of this camera, seriously examine the specs featured here on Amazon and read all of the reviews.

Buy Canon GL1 MiniDV Digital Camcorder with Lens & Optical Image Stabilization Now

First, the visceral. The image quality is stunning, and the creative license and possibilities afforded through DV are staggering. With a GL1 and a good NLE like Premiere, the only limit is your creativity. Effects that just a few years ago started at tens of thousands of dollars on film can now be rendered realtime.

Now the practical. I spent a fair bit of time looking through the market at the 'low pro' end. Canon's GL1 and XL1 were clearly in the running, as were several Sony products. What finally sold me on the GL1 was the flourite lens, which to my eye has a noticeably brighter image, as well as the optical image stabilization, which provides a more natural looking view also. I have to say that I find the manual zoom feature useless as it's a servo controlled focus rate, and very difficult to 'stop' in a slow focus. I've found that using the 'automatic/manual' focus switch to allow the camera to bring the subject into focus, then switching immediately to 'manual' to lock the focus is very effective as a workaround. The only time this doesn't work well is at the limit of either the optical focus or the digital focus when the subject is poorly defined versus its background. In these situations, the rangefinding system seems to 'hunt', giving a nauseating soft in/out blur. Truthfully, using the camera under these cirucumstances is rare, and this is the only criticism I've got for the system. An often overlooked feature of DV is that the audio quality is about the same as CD, and is digital. This means that even your home movies now have DAT audio quality! Despite many comments to the contrary, I've been very favourably impressed with the quality of the audio, including the stereo separation.

I also mentioned the XL1, but the only difference I could see was perhaps better audio, and for the considerable extra expense and size, it wasn't a good tradeoff for me.

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Almost amazing! The picture, the sound, the ease of using the GL1 is far above any other that I have ever used. The sound feature on the instant playback was a welcome change. I could hear a truck coming down the road even before I could see it. The picture is awesome. I caught fall color leaves on the snow. With the white, green, and fall color spectrum, it put the digital camcorder to the test. Downloads were superb! This Pro-Am is one to move up to or if you want the best start here.

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This is by far the best camera for this price range. HOWEVER don't pay more than 2100-2200$US for it. I bought it for even less than that. Its size at first gives it the appearance of being a "home-video" recorder and not quite the sleak professional look that the XL1 has. However don't be fooled by this, it uses the same CCD system as the XL1, and just lacks the removable lens option in addition to a handful of other digital features. But the GL1 costs 70% less and produces very high quality images and video. Its size makes it VERY easy to carry around (just last weekend I saw someone with one at a bar in San Francisco). Its a great value and a great product, just hunt around and read up on it to make sure its what you want. Because Looks are VERY deceiving, this isn't your dad's old mini-betacam...this is a beautifully engineered camera that produces high quality results.

Black Pen 640*480 & 30fps Camcorder Video Camera

I was quite surprised with the quality of the picture and sound on this pen camera--it was really good. And an even better deal when I remembered that I bought this one for $25.00 not the $79.00 one I was looking at.

I only have 2 problems that I am trying to workout:

1) For women, when clipped to your collar, the camera seems to want to take fabulous pictures of the ceiling. The size of your chest will determine the severity of the camera angle (lol).

2) In a dark room, the light on the back (indicating that the camera is recording) has glowed against my skin--not very stealthy. But a dark piece of a sticky note over the light seems to do the trick.

my OS is WinXP SP3 and it didnt recognize this device. it came with no cd-rom setup and i couldnt find anything about it on the web... i had no chance to get to know if this item works.

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Could not watch video or pictures.Instructions not clear for a novice. I could not get it to work ? Clear instructions on how to operate unit.

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This thing is a piece of junk. Mine was defective when I recieved it. It wouldn't do anything and my computer wouldn't reconize it. Even if it did work I don't think I would like it. I know it didn't cost much but it looks like a big cheap toy pen.

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POV.HD Advanced Point-of-View 1080pHD Recorder (Black)

I initially chose this camera because of its singular place in the `wearable camera' market and by that I mean a camera that produces stellar video and is at the same time inconspicuous during use. Frankly, if you don't fancy walking about with an electronic appliance strapped to your hat there are currently few other options. There are smaller, more agile, and certainly less expensive movie cameras that will take a good deal of abuse but a couple of key features set this product apart: the ability to tag sections of a recording, an external microphone, and a remote control to make it all work when the recorder is tucked away in a pocket.

Having outlined its distinguishing features I must add the customer support received from V.I.O. has, surprisingly, been a complete annoyance. The camera arrived with an SD card not recommended for use (per their Web site) and with a noticeable scratch on the camera head. When this was brought to their attention, they indicated the SD will work fine and if I wanted the camera head replaced I would be responsible for shipping. I was more taken aback than angry since this is their flagship product and sold at a premium price. As I say, the video is quite good but whether you wish to deal with a company having this perspective on customer service is up to you. Given the camera's normal usage, you may well be forced to rely on them one day. I like the camera and have decided to keep it but I wouldn't buy it again. In summary, have you seen the GoPro?

Just received this bad-boy from VIO. I have been a long time (3 year) user of the POV.1 system. I use this for shifter kart racing. I have always loved the POV.1, but I was really excited about the POV.HD just due to the 1080p high definition recording modes.

I tried this unit for the first time today and it is a HUGE step up over the POV.1 and POV.1.5

The video is insanely clear in 1080p 30 frames per second, and the microphone is much improved. The recording unit is still larger than I'd like, but this is, in my opinion, the best helmet camera system on the market, no question. Viewing video on the LCD is excellent and the interface is improved as well.

It's more expensive than the contour and GoPro units for sure, but it also beats those units in video and audio quality. If you can afford it, it's the best there is.

Still, despite the drawbacks of the large-ish recording unit, this baby get's 5 stars.

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First off, it's worth noting that none of my problems are related to the Amazon Seller. The order arrived quickly and as advertised. The problem I have with the product is strictly related to the manufacturer.

The unit operated correctly for three day trips on a UTV. On the fourth trip it stopped recording loops and the loop counter was acting without logic. Sent back twice for the same problem and it's still not fixed, nor do I have it back in my possesion. I have asked for a replacement unit but the manufacturer isn't responding. At one point I was told in writing that "We are thinking it may be a firmware issue that your are experiencing. We plan to address this issue in the next firmware release. I do not have any time schedule I can give you however at the present time on when it will be complete." I have asked the manufacturer for a refund as I have lost interest in owning anything POV VIO manufactures and supports.

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I got this recorder because it was the only POV recorder that lets me see exactly what I'm recording as I'm recording it. Moreover, users have reported significant reliability and firmware problems with products by ContourHD.

My device came with firmware version 1.17c, which was the latest available on the website at the time.

The included 4GB class 4 card works fine for recording video at both 1080p 30fps and 720p 60fps. It obviously is too small. I briefly tested this device with my Lexar 128GB SDXC card, and it worked. I first formatted the card using the device. I then recorded video. I was able to play back the video using both the card and my computer. I haven't filled this new card much yet, but over time I will.

VIO Customer Care stated that SDXC cards are not supported because they were observed to not work 100% reliably with the device. They said that you might be able to record with such cards, but you might get invalid clips from time to time, and the write speed may be off. Personally I could find no problem at all with it, recording at 1080p 30fps.

I am currently using Sanyo Eneloop XX NiMH batteries, along with a Maha charger. As of the date of this review, when it comes to AA batteries, you simply can't do better than this. I however have yet to make the device use one full battery cycle.

I did once get an error stating that card size or speed was unacceptable, but changing the batteries fixed it. I will see if this happens again.

You can get a 12v power adapter by VIO from the helmetcameracentral website if you search for "PWR-VIO-POVCAR". I've yet to get it. Per VIO Customer Care, it'll work with this device.

It is just not optimal to record video wearing this on the left or right side of your head. If you do this, part of your head will be recorded due to the wide-angle nature of the lens. I prefer wearing it on top of my head, affixed to a black cap using two black 8" cable ties. At first my head felt a bit heavy with it on top, but I soon got used to it.

When driving at night on a dark road, even with exposure set to its max possible value of +3, the video recording quality is very poor with the video being too dark. I don't know how this compares with other camcorders, however.

I wish the the device was smaller. When I compare it with my compact Sony Cybershot DSC-TX100V camera which records 1080p at 60fps, I can see no reason why this device has to be so bulky.

Be aware that some states have eavesdropping and similar laws against recording video and/or audio. For example, in my horrible state of Illinois, if I record _audio_ of a police officer, I can get a felony and 15 years. If I record the audio of another person without their consent, I can still get a felony and many years. As retarded as these laws are and as corrupt as their lawmakers are, we have to be aware of them. Google is your best friend. Search for eavesdropping and/or wiretapping laws for your state, and for "War on Cameras".

I will update this review if I have something to add.

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Purchased this camera for an Afghanistan tour. Worked great, battery life was good, video quality was excellent. Unfortunately it was on the seat of a truck that hit an IED. No more camera:( no complaints though!

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Spy Alarm Clock

Excellent seller and I received the spy alarm clock within two days (well before the estimated delivery time). The camera is very simple to set up (watch the video on YouTube). Based on other reviews, I used sufficient lighting and the pictures were very clear. The only draw back for me is that the date stamp/time feature is not compatible with Windows 7. Suprisingly, I was able to view the pictures anyway. Lastly, I haven't been able to figure out how to disable the alarm clock. I highly recommend this item, would purchase from this seller again.

I gave it as a gift, receiver likes it very much, great product, fantastic price, would recommend it to others

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Not appeared user friendly. Directions not clear enough as how long to wait before pressing next button. The flashing light during motion detection really negates the whole point of being a nanny cam. Why keep selling them when the bad reviews out weigh the good? Will go back a try another cam previously bought where a reviewer gave more specific instructions! I really would like my money back.

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its ok it has a speaker and gives you the time every hour a little annoying if you ask me, also requires a sd card but i was not sure what size until i received,i had not test the product yet, i will let you guys know when I do it to provide a better rating,

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The clock showed up and it was already broken on the inside of the clock and the speaker was shot. The remote does not work accept to turn the clock on and off. Not worth it at all.

Philips LFH9380/27 Rechargeable Pocket Memo Digital Diction Recorder with Slide-Switch Operation an

I am a physician who has been using this device for the past several months. I have become extremely frustrated because of at least two design flaws which have resulted in lost dictation and countless wasted hours. First, the data card at the top of the device pops out much too easily, and as this is not always immediately obvious, one can continue dictating not realizing that nothing is being recorded, thereby resulting in lost notes. Secondly, the "-" and "+" buttons' position is a huge mistake. It is so common to accidentally press the "-" button while holding the device. This resets the file from the beginning. As there is no way to know this unless unless one looks at the timer each and every time before starting a new note (which is impractical when there are so many notes to be dictated in a busy session), I have dictated over previously recorded notes not realizing the device had been reset. This is an extremely aggravating problem which occurs multiple times each day. It would probably help if the reset button required two taps instead of one, and/or there were some sort of warning beep alerting the user that the device has been reset. It is extremely annoying to be dictating only to realize after it is too late, that you have just recorded over already dictated notes, which again, results in lost transcription. I would never recommend this product to anyone.

I purchased the original dragon and, after much training as a young lawyer, the program got better. Thereafter, I relied on paralegals to handle transcription until purchasing Dragon 12 but was still skeptical of the feature to transcribe dictation from recording devices such as the above. Because the incredible clarity of the microphone and the ability to correct as you dictate, this recorder has made my practice far more efficient. As such, my clients benefit from less time for transcribing. My legal assistant can take the dragon aided transcription with this recorder and polish into a fine document in far less time. No matter the background, the recorder performs incredibly well and I highly recommend for one needing heavy use recorder. Easily the finest recorder I have ever worked with

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Good dictation machine. I use this primarily for dictating letters, notes and pleadings in a legal office. It works about the same as an old cassette tape dictaphone that I still have as backup. Our office is transitioning to the fully networkable electronic version. The big advantage here obviously that it is completely electronic and networkable. We set the storage file to a Dropbox file in the cloud and I can be anywhere and I plug the machine in and it is saved where my assistant can get it immediately. Because it is saved in a. Common file I can tell when the dictation is pending. In progress or done.

It is not without its quirks but with a little Experience you will learn how to make it work for you. The machine must be set up properly and the default is pretty close to what I need. There are modes that will start a new file every time the slide switch is switched from pause to record. And there are alternatives on how the slide switch is set up. What is lacking is a good tutorial. I would love to see. Little video on what all the options are and how they can be adjusted to fit my particular needs. There is an online help file but this doesn't really help as much as it should.

We will be outfitting all the lawyers in the office with these.

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Foscam Blue Iris Professional - Supports Many IP Camera Brands Including Foscam and Agasio, Zone Mo

I have a total of 16 camera's, a couple of Panasonic BL**, Linksys, Foscam FI8910w and Askak Mole IP cam for indoors along with a SWAN DVR system for outdoors that i just figured out how to add onto the software. I absolutely love it, and it's been working great over wifi, and the customization is awesome. I mainly bought it for home security and to monitor my newborn. I can setup to record motion for all the camera's and motion + email/sms alerts on specific ones that I would want to know about like front door, drive way and side gate access. I like using the text feature because it's almost instant. I get notifications on my iphone within 6-10 seconds of a trigger. It's awesome, example my text will read "Alert Motion detected on Side gate" ...I log in with my iphone Blue Iris app ($10) to see that the PGE guy is in my backyard reading my meter and throwing in lunch away in my trash can. If i miss it, the the iphone app has the ability to watch the DVR'd recording (with audio if your cam supports it). This feature alone is why i bought it. It is invaluable. Since most break in's happen in the day time, and thief's usually ring the door bell to see if anyone is home then go to the backyard where no can see to break in, this alerting system is critical along with the ability to review the alert to determine if it's legitimate or not. With the iphone app along with the PC version, I have reduced my remote viewing iPhone apps from 3 to just 1. Its so cool, i show it off to all my friends and co workers. Since I figured out all the settings, i helped them get it setup up to at their homes. They all love it. I use it all the time, even when I miss place something, it's awesome to have to abiliy to replay past events to find what you lost.

The web browser functions works pretty good as well, I have noticed sometimes the image will get frozen and I need to refresh the browser to start up again using Firefox. This could be due to my companies firewall and proxy settings. The fix for this is to download the free add-in Auto Refresh v.1.02. I like this one the best because it has the option for hard refresh or the just a "soft" refresh of the view you are on. this is helpful if you have groups setup. I have Outdoor cams, Indoor Cams / and Kids room cams groups. Doing a hard refresh goes back to the default view which is view All camera's. I do not select this and only do a normal refresh every 1min (adjustable). This way when I only want to watch my kids rooms to make sure they are doing their homework or chores, when the page refreshes it remains on my 3 large camera's views of my kids rooms instead of going to the main "All camera's" view like with a "hard refresh" which makes them all very small b/c it's showing all 16 cams.

I have and monitored ADT security system as well but the Blue Iris application is like my front line of defense in case thief's try to cut the power or disconnect the phone line. Additonally it has the best user interface and endless features that are not available on any of the other security applications. I have the BI software running on a desktop PC for now recording to an external HD hidden behind some books on my bookshelf with a 15FT usb cable. A laptop would be better since you can hide it more and it has a battery for power outages. Just keep your router and a few camera's on a UPS and you should be fully protected.

Another cool feature is the ability to not only send alerts but it can play audio or turn on lights if alerts trigger. I have a profile setup for when I'm on vacation to play a 30min audio track of some action movie with explosions and dialog to simulate someone watching TV. The audio plays on my computer BOSE PC speakers that are turned up pretty loud. I also split the speakers out to they play on the opposite side of the house so that thieves could hear it from whatever entry point they are thinking about going in.

I did run into an issue with my Astak mole cam is very flaky on the BI software. I can get to it fine using its own webserver and on the Free IP cam app I have on my iphone, but with the BI software, it's hit or miss, sometimes it working and sometimes its not. This could be the camera though so I'm not going to knock off a star until I do some more research. I submitted a case with the BI support and got a response a few hours later from support. Ken offered some suggestions and also offered to help work on it if I put it online for him to take a look. Working in IT support myself, I was impressed with the support I received from the BI software developer.

Other features that would put this over the top would be the 2 way talk feature for both the remote web view and smart phone app. Some of my cameras (foscam/Astak) have the ability to speak into your phone or computer and with the built in speaker on the camera, it will output your voice on it. This is a neat feature to communicate to someone in the house when they are not picking up the phone. I purchased the foscam iphone app just for this feature alone, however it is lacking big time in comparison to the BI iphone app.

All in all I'm very impressed with both the Blue Iris PC app and the iPhone app. With the rising crime rate across the country because the cities have no money to fund police and investigators, burglar's know this and are taking advantage. As a homeowner, I understand that this will not prevent a break in, but at least it may catch one, or better yet deter one. I would highly recommend this to anyone wanting the flexibility of remote viewing and alerting for their security camera's.

This software is can be quite complicated. It is NOT plug & play. There are many, many configuration options. The software requires extensive knowledge of settings and the language that go with knowing HTTP, FTP Servers, WEB Servers, IP configurations. I have written & currently support multiple web sites & maintain a Windows 2008 R2 network for a company of 35, so Im somewhat familiar with what it takes. If you want to record activity from installed cameras, logic says you need to move or copy those recordings "off premises" to be reviewed later, which this software does provide. Why? Because if your property is being stolen or destroyed, so are the recordings if they are only being stored locally, on premises. Its like any good backup. So an FTP off-site or cloud is necessary to protect your files. Read and take your time or you will find yourself being overwhelmed by technology. Update to backing up your files off-site. I discovered that the popular cloud-type backup companies do not support backing up video file types, ie: MOV, AVI or MP4. What you can do is to purchase an ISP account which generally gives you about 10GB to start. Then you need an FTP enabled synchronization type software to copy the jpg & video files to that off-site location. I have it set to copy from the directory every 10 min. These are just things you can never know up front.

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This is great remote viewing and recording software for the Foscam IP cameras. It does everything I want it to do. Email alert functionality works fine for me, and the motion sensing algorithm is easy to adjust and seems to work remarkably well. The pan, tilt interface for the Foscams works very well also better than the software that comes with the cameras. There are a plethora of feature controls, triggers, alert settings, and record options more than I will probably ever use. The navigation is well laid-out and things are easy to find.

My only criticisms are that it does not seem to provide a control for the IR lamps on the cameras, and the user interface is a bit "clunky" looking. But the latter issue doesn't affect functionality or usability, so who really cares? Overall, I'm quite pleased.

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I know you can run BootCamp/Parallels/Fusion to make this work on a MAC, but it would be nice to have a native MAC version. I did purchase this via the download from the Blue Iris website and did setup Bootcamp to run it and it works very well. It has all sorts of cameras and covers the many different cameras I use from Foscam, to Q-See to Swann and others.

The Blue Iris App works well, but you need to have it connect to the machine running the software. Once that is done, it's a no brainer

For the price, you cannot go wrong if you are running Windows. It works very well and is really easy to setup. The help files are well written and tell you everything you need to know for any setting. Just click the question mark on the page where you are and the help opens up to show you every option on that page and what you can do. You can also open the help from the home page and do all the normal things you can do with a Windows help search

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Blue Iris ("BI") is a significant improvement over painfully basic OEM supplied control/display software. BI is reasonably intuitive and compatible with most-all IP cameras, and if a camera is not listed specifically in set-up, generally a set-up file for a similar camera will work fine. There are lots of IP camera forums on the Internet that discuss using BI if you run into challenges.

Note that the BI software license is for ONE HOST COMPUTER. If you monitor/control your cameras from more than one computer you will need a separate license for each additional host. So be sure to install your software on your primary host.

For the price, this is an excellent buy. Full-up professional IP camera control packages typically cost 4X the asking BI price.

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VideoSecu 4 CH Wireless Audio Video Outdoor Day Night Security Camera Home CCTV System WA1

WE PUT THESE INSIDE OUR WORKSHOP AND WHEN THE LIGHTS ARE OUT AT NIGHT AND NO MATTER WHAT MOVES INSIDE THERE ; IT CAN BE SEEN WITH CLARITY. I FEEL VERY SAFE WITH THIS SET OF CAMERAS AND PLAN ON GETTING MORE OF THEM . THE QUALITY IS GREAT AND THIS IS MY SECOND SET TO ADD TO THE ONES I PURCHASED 10 YEARS AGO. GET YOU A SET OF THESE AND TRUST ME YOU WILL FEEL SAFER. EVEN YOU DEER HUNTERS AND SITE SEEING PEOPLE WILL BE ABLE TO SEE WHAT LURKS IN THE NITE.

Pictures not clear. Night time horrible. Did not like this camera at all. We were disappointed in this purchase. Never again

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great package,price and look until you plug them in and try getting past the constant static and noise. My husband was so upset.We will be in process of returning this product a.s.a.p

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Mach Speed 8 GB Eclipse MP3/Video Player with 1.8-Inch Display, Digital Voice Recorder, Shuffle Mod

• 1.8 inch color display for showing menu and lyrics
• Plays music and video, also functions as a digital voice recorder
• 8GB of internal memory, built-in rechargeable battery
• Drag and drop file transfer
• What's included in the box: Media player, USB cable, and earbuds

Very similar to the current iPod Nano models as far as size and weight. As you can see, the controls are the main difference as is the software. It's about 1/8th bigger in width than the Nano. Charges through USB cord and has the capabilities for reading text, watching videos, pictures and of course, music. Will update as far as battery life. You can upload through Windows Media Player or drop and drag what you want into the device itself. The controls take a bit to get used to though. It's the only thing I have slight issues w/ right now, but I'll just have to play w/ it more. Comes with a flyer where you can download 25 songs for free.

31 July 10Playing w/ it a bit more and it seems to tak around 3 seconds for the music tracks to kick in when you either press Play, FFW or RWD. Not a major issue though.

** Fits great into the Belkin Lillian Dual-Fit Armband Case for the iPod Nano also, if you're looking for an armband for running or going to the gym.

Buy Mach Speed 8 GB Eclipse MP3/Video Player with 1.8-Inch Display, Digital Voice Recorder, Shuffle Mod Now

It was wonderful at first. The 8GB was what I needed for all the music I wanted to listen to plus several repeated music for certain play lists. However, after having it for a few months, I would charge it, I would leave it for a couple of days and then it would be dead. Charge it, listen to it for 18 mins, leave it for a few days, it would be dead. Not even using it, the battery would drain somehow.

What did their support say when I e-mailed them? To call their support line. Well their support line is a long distance number, no toll free. When I was able to call, no help because I don't have the Receipt anymore. So I will certainly will not be buying a product from them again.

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I bought this player after reading the mixed reviews below, not expecting much; but for the price, i figured why not. It took about 3 days to arrive (amazon has always had good shipping times) and worked right out of the package. it came with some preloaded songs i didn't really like but i was able to delete them after i hooked it to my computer and loaded the songs i wanted. replaced the stock headphones with some Jlabs J6 i have, and the audio quality awesome. i haven't had any battery issues and get about 7 hours of playback each time, only takes about 2 hours on my computer to charge. the most difficult thing for me to get a hang of was pushing the "M" button instead of the middle button to go into a menu or select an item. All in all im very pleased with my buy and would recommend taking the chance on this.

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I thought the following would help "de-mystify" many people's issues and problems with battery drainage/power loss on the Eclipse 180 player. Most all of Eclipse's Mach Speed MP3 players(including the small clip versions) have a separate "on/off" button located on the side(I was once really mystified myself!)that must be switched to the "on" position before powering on the player with the front power "play" button (and also before charging via a USB cable), as well as switched to "off" position after powering the player off to avoid battery drainage. This can be a nussiance to remember all the time(I still sometimes forget), but it's just part of the Eclipse Mach Speed MP3 player line. I look at it as a "sacrifice" for the rechargable battery convenience. If this is a problem for you, you may want to look at other models of players before buying this one.

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I bought this for the music player at my work. Set it up and was frustrated that the controls were awkward at best. After I did learn to operate the system, I plugged it into the speaker system, the jack was somewhat finicky and I had to move it around a lot to get a good connection. The sound seems a bit off even though I am using 320K mp3s. I got the player for around 20 dollars and see that it is 39.99 now. Don't buy it for that much, I would say don't spend over 15 on it, that is about what it is worth. I put it on shuffle and it has been playing for 72 hours now, so, that's good. I wanted a cheap mp3 player for work and that is what I got.

NAXA NRC-172 PLL Digital Dual Alarm Clock with AM/FM Radio and Snooze (Black Lacquer)

This radio is packed with features -some, like a digital tuner, are not often found in this priced range. Low priced radios with analog tuners are universally garbage, so, I couldn't resist. As expected, product was very lightly built. Directions were complicated, but complete and logical. The clock functioned well, the tuner found my favorite stations with ease, and the presets worked fine. The radio just would not hold the selected station. It would play (and play well) for all of a few minutes, and then go silent for a few minutes, then come back on for a few, then go to a loud static for awhile, then back to the station, over and over. If while it was silent, I pressed a volume button, it would instantly come back on for a moment, then go silent again. Apparently there was a short of some kind deep within the unit.

I called Amazon, explained the problem, no replacement for this item was available, the agent cheerfully refunded my purchase price. I did not have to return the defective product. Service doesn't get any better than that.

BOTTOM LINE: From the mixed reviews written for this product, it appears that quality control is a crap shoot. If you get a good one, you win and you have a nice little bedside clock-radio. If you get a dud, you get a refund. Good luck!

It does everything it is supposed to do. I bought it so that I could set both alarms for 2 different times per day and it works great.

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it has been nearly 2 week that i am using this radio.The performance is really great after my Coby analog radio.the perset station future is great to use.

the only thing is that using the features of this radio is like using the control panel of a jumbo jet cockpit!!.it is so complicated and the features is IN ONE ANOTHER.

Overall a good radio.specially with the price Amazon selling.

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I replaced an old 10-15 year clock radio in the bathroom with this clock radio. It is small and unique looking and works well, but it does not really shout quality etc. It is too light weight to push the button, without holding the clock itself. The buttons make loud clicks when pressed.

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The first clock that i got didn't work, so i got a replacement. The replacement initially worked fine, but the buttons on it quickly started not working. This product was a real let down, and i don't recommend it.

Innovative Technology The Aviator 5 in 1 Wooden Music Center

Excellent stability! Excellent sound fidelity! Simple to operate. Make CD's from your old vinyl recordings and from your cassettes,then use your computer to rip the CD's into formats for your iPod. The Aviator is a must have if you need to convert a special collection of music that you cannot download. Naturally, digitized downloads are superior, but this machine is for you if you don't mind an occasional snap, crackle and pop in your copy.

I have enjoyed making CD's from my collection of vinal records I have. The system is easy to use and I was very happy with the results I got. It also has very good quality sound when using the radio or the CD, I would recommend this product.

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I purchased myITVS-750 for $200. and I am able to convert my old tape cassettes to CD's but with great effort and a certain amount of frustration.

The Automatic track insertion doesn't seem to work that well and I have to resort to manually inserting the track numbers myself which is a pain, especially, if I am not paying attention and forget to press the button.

The tape player doesn't have it's own stop or play button. There is only one button that either gives you fast forward or ejects the cassette ..that is all it does. You have to turn the tape over to do any rewinding if you need to cue the tape. It is difficult because when you insert the tape it passes through the FF mode and forwards your tape ever so slightly. What you have to do is rewind past where you want to record,play the tape till you get to your cue point and then hit the play button while the unit is in the "record standby" mode.

I cannot comment on the turntable for recording vinyl because I don't have any records, but I have read complaints from some users.

The owners manual is difficult to navigate. It just doesn't seem to be that well organized, or written for that matter. It would be better if they had "tape cassette to CD" on one page and "Vinyl Recording to CD" on the next page, and did it in a step by step format. They seem to have mixed the modes together.

Another small example of their lack of common sense can be seen on page 3 where there's a diagram of the unit with numbers labelling each part, but then you must flip to page 4 to see the description for each number. So you have to constantly flip back and forth when they could have easily put all of the info on one page.

If you have to go to the ithomeproducts web site in order to email their Tech Support you will have to scroll down the Tech Support page until you get to "Spare Parts" (That's right, spare parts!) and click on that ...then and only then will you be able to email their Tech Support. I only found this out when I had to call their Cust. Service number and was informed by the Rep. Incidentally, if you need to email them about their sales or products you will easily find "email"...how bout that! It almost seems that once you purchase their product they really don't care to be pestered with silly questions about how their products work.

When I first got this thing I thought that it was broken until I talked to the rep. The buttons on the right side light up but the ones on the left side do not.

In addition, it would be nice if they had a bell or buzzer that would sound when the tape or CD is finished. What happenss is that the tape finishes but the CD continues to record in silence and if you are using a CD-R you can't rerecord over the silence. You end up throwing the half recorded CD out because you don't have enough room for the other half of the cassette.

In conclusion I will say that it sorta works. But I hope it doesn't fall apart right after the warrenty period is up. I am rushing to do all of the recording before that fateful moment if that gives you an idea of how confident I am with this product.

I do love my old tapes and have waited a long time to find something that will convert them to CD...even this contraption!

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We bought this at Bed, Bath & Beyond using a take 20% off any item deal. I could not wait to get this thing home. I have been dealing with different turntables, software, etc and it's been a long row to hoe. I have always had difficult finding something I didn't have to babysit that would split the tracks as it records it. This does that. It's a little touchy and takes some getting used to with the pausing to flip the record/tape, and restarting the record but once you get the hang of it, this thing is straight gold! It sounds good, has all of it in one(except for the 8track player but I have it plugged into the AUX :-) THIS WAS WELL WORTH THE MONEY

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The first music center I brought I took it back to the store because I could not get Cds to play on other CD players after I had recorded them on the It Music Center. I got another one from the store and I still had troubles.. I had read the instruction book from cover to cover but I still couldn't get it to record. Finally, I almost gave up and emailed the Company about my problem and in a days time, answer came back to me, informing me, what I was doing wrong. So all of you out there, cursing this product out for nothing working right, listen up, and I will tell what to do, to make the product work.

Read the instructions very carefully. After you record the complete record push the stop button. Then push the Cd button, then quickly push the Finalize button you will see fin---ze

just as you see this message right away, like right now, push play button, then you will see *b u s y*, appeared on the lighted screen for a few seconds,, wait and the cd tray will come open, and your CD will be finalized, and you then can play your newly recordable Cd on any CD player, and even on your car cd player, where most people like to play their Cds anyway,. I hope that this information helps all those out there, who have been having trouble trying to finalize their recordable Cds. I have seen a lot of complaints against these It music Center, but now you know what the problems are. Thanks for letting me share this with you. Hope it helps you out. CDL>>>>>>>>>>>

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Samsung DVD-P231 Progressive-Scan DVD Player , Titanium

• DVD-Video, audio CD, picture CD, JPEG, MP3, and WMA CD-R/CD-RW playback capability
• Progressive-scan video output for film-like images on high-definition and HD-ready TVs
• EZ View feature eliminates letterbox black bars for 4:3 aspect-ratio TVs
• 3:2 pulldown digitally corrects frame-rate distortion for DVD movies
• Stylish titanium finish

Got this about a week ago and am quite impressed. The picture and sound quality are excellent, menus and setup are easy to use (I bought an open-box model, missing only the manual, and have had zero problems), and this puppy does just about anything you ask of it.

In addition to progressive scan, this will play not only MP3s but also Windows Media files from CDs. There's also an Easy View feature that will let you watch the film in pan-and-scan if you so desire (GASP! heretics!!)

And not only does the DVD-P231 work quite nicely, the titanium finish is far more attractive than many of the generic-looking black boxes out there. I don't recommend buying a DVD player solely on the basis that it matches your TV, but in this case it's just the icing on the cake.

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I bought this DVD player to replace my Panasonic RV31 because it had progressive scan out and I just got a new HDTV set, so I wanted to see if there was an improvement. At $75 at Best Buy, the gamble was pretty low.

The first movie I watched was Enemy of the State. I liked the EZ View button which can alter the aspect ratio the DVD player puts out so you don't have to alter the TV aspect ratio. However in the first couple of scenes, there's a picture of the front of a restaurant where there's a black car with silver trim sitting in front. Immediately I noticed that this silver trim had a very distinct jagged quality to it. Out of curiousity, I put the disc in the old player, and it played it without any video noise.

I continued to view the movie in the new player, and the video noise was "unsettling" to say the least. It's almost like when you set a PC monitor to interlaced it was so bad in some spots.

And the final straw was that the player froze on the ending credits like it was starting to overheat. I brought the player back to Best Buy the same day I got it, and bought a cheap JVC progressive scan instead.

To tell you the truth, I hardly notice the difference between progressive and interlaced. Maybe the TV is doing a good job of 3:2 pulldown conversion.

Anyway, I would not recommend this player due to poor video quality.

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I purchased this player about a week ago, to hook it up to my newly acquired 26 inch HD widescreen Samsung tv set. The component output and progressive scan made a big difference! Very noticeable improvement over the first-generation Pioneer player I'd been using. This player has played every disc flawlessly. It also has a great feature that allows you to adjust the size of your tv screen to keep fullscreen dvds in the proper perspective. On my widescreen tv, I used the "vertical fit" mode which put black bars on either side of the screen. Tonight I played a rental disc that had many surface scratches. The player handled it perfectly. There might be the odd player out there that has a slightly better picture, but for what this player cost, and the fact that it has "vertical fit" and can play even scratched dvds flawlessly, makes it a winner I can highly recommend!

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I have noticed most positive reviews for this are from customers who just started using this DVD Player. And up until a few days ago, I probably would have written a good review. There seems to be a trend with this unit. Mine worked flawlessly for a little over 1 year, probably played 50-75 DVD's. It has been treated like a "baby". Still looks as new as the day I opened the box.

All of a sudden it will not recognize DVD's or CD's.. The display says "Loading" for a few minutes, then reads: "No Disk". I am sure it is out of Warranty, so it will have to just be trashed. Might just have to go back to Sony or RCA for something more reliable. Now Progressive Scans are $30. Cheaper to buy new than to have this repaired.

Good thing AMAZON does not have anymore of these in stock.

Congrats to those who's still work, but it could just stop working 5 minutes from now.

I believe Samsung should recall these or at least give customer's $25 Gift Certificate for a new DVD player.

Thank you.

This DVD worked great when it was new. The line resolution and progressive scan worked great. The color was clear and audio was sharp. CD wkd ok too. I paid extra for progressive scan at the time for the sharper picture. Now 13 months, one month after the warranty expired the DVD mechanism stops reading DVDs. According to Samsung, there are two lasers one for the CD and one for the DVD. I probably used this player 20 times in 13 months and the DVD laser died. Samsung suggested I clean it. I did. No luck. Now I'm having to go buy a new DVD player. Stay away from Samsung. I usually get at least several years of product use with electronics. I used to sell electronics. Spend the $ on a better product, or be happy with one year of good use.