15 ft Premium Digital Optical Toslink Cable

this cable has now been installed for several months and never given any problems. it was cheap, but does what it needs to do.

Bought a Samsung 3D tv last year from HH GREGG...... And a Yamaha digital receiver for my home theater system. Of course you need cables for these items, at only $30. each. Spent over $100. For 3 cables, including this one.... Returned them next day when I found them all on Amazon for less than $20. So I had to wait a few days to hook it up.... Cables work fine! Thanks Amazon, as always.

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Motorola RAZR V3 Unlocked Phone with Camera and Video Player--International Version with No Warrant

I received my unlocked razr v3 here in Baghdad and right out of the box it was great. I am not pleased at all with the hands free. The volume from the ear piece is not the quality I have come to expect from original accessories. The sound of the mic according to my wife is distant. Again not the quality of an original in my opinion. I have browsed the inside of the phone. I am a long time motorolla user so it was very familiar. I have a plantronics bluetooth in the US and when I get home I will try it with the phone.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Baghdad!

From day one these phones were a problem. They were listed as new but when I turn them on there were a history of use. I informed the seller and they were willing for me to return them but I decided to just accept a free leather case being that they looked new. BIG MISTAKE! Within 3 months I had to purchase 2 new phones. Problems include dead LCD, batteries not holding charge, phone turning off in the middle of calls and the list goes on.

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do not buy this phone, it is defective and does not work. it will not charge the battery at all, i spent extra money thinking it was just a defective battery when in reality it was the phone itself that was defective. dont waste your time or money on this phone save yourself some grief!Motorola RAZR V3i Unlocked Phone with Camera, MP3/Video Player, and MicroSD Slot--International Version with No Warranty (Silver/Gray)

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worst cell phone i have ever purchased kept losing calls had hard time getting text messages from others.i had 2 razrs before they were great phones but thisone is a piece of crap.hadn t had a month and i ve already ordered a new phone,not a razr

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i asked for a new phone and he send me a beat up phone. its not worth buying from him. i work hard for my money and for someone to do that to someone else is wrong. he makes amazon look bad.

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Samsung DVD-VR330 DVD Recorder

• Combo DVD/VCR with capability of converting VHS tapes to DVD; measures 17 x 3.1 x 10.6 inches (WxHxD)
• Full-function VCR; timed and one-touch VCR and DVD recording
• Records to DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, dual-layer DVD-/+R, DVD-RAM; plays CD-R/RW discs and MP3, JPEG files
• Connections: 1 component out, 1 composite out, 1 S-Video out, 1 Firewire in, 1 RF in, 1 RF out
• Digital optical and digital coaxial audio output for home theater surround sound

I've had this player/recorder for about 2 months. I found it at my local Ckt Cty for two-hundred twenty plus tax. I have recorded some of my older VHS tapes (Kung Fu stuff that is not on DVD and may never be) onto blank DVD-Rs and DVD+RWs. Both discs worked fine and I did not wait an inordinate amount of time for the discs to be finalized (maybe 2 minutes). The picture quality was just as good as the tape (no loss) as I expected. (I figure DVDs will last a lot longer than those ratty VHS tapes I had been keeping, that's why I transferred them.)

The recorder is supposed to handle pretty much any type of DVD media and it records at 4 different speeds for DVD. For VHS, it records at the standard 2 speeds (SP, SLP, EP). The manual claims slowest speed for DVD can save up to 8 hours on a standard single-sided disc; VHS can get 6 hours from a 2 hour tape (3X), just like other VCRs.

I have my recorder connected to cable and a powered antenna with a splitter. The tuner works fine for both sources, even with my cable source being split off for Internet. I have time-shift recorded using both disc and tape and was happy to see that works well, too. I recommend recording stuff with commercials to a VHS tape first since there is a record pause button that I like to use for eliminating commercials before I commit shows to disc. The chapter breaks for DVD are automatically set for every 10 minutes, but I wish there was a way to (on the fly) chapter stamp where you wanted to. You can edit chapters afterward, but it sounds too complicated and time consuming in the manual.

So far, I have had no reliability issues. Each time I have performed an action the player/recorder has worked as expected. I have also gone the other way and recorded DVDs to tape (mostly as a test, but also because there is no way to record from DVD to DVD). Note: I am not suggesting breaking the law, merely pointing out what is possible.

The player starts tape and DVD playback quickly and you can switch back and forth between VHS and DVD very easily. I sometimes record a TV station and watch a DVD at the same time, too. My only complaint besides the chapter thing would be I wish the DVD section played at least 3 discs since most TV series have 3 (sitcoms) or 6 discs (dramas) and I wouldn't have to change discs so often.

Update: Thanks to a question by a reader of this review I went back and tried my homemade discs in other players. Turns out the Samsung will definitely not make working copies of video recorded on 8x discs. The 4x DVD-RWs play fine, though. And make sure you've finalized the discs. This can be done later if you forget at the time you make the disc. Read and re-read that manual!

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I tried a Sony RDR-VX511 for 3 months and found the DV input was flakey and it would not play DVD+R dual-layer made on my computer even though finalized and would play on my laptop, a Panasonic and also this Samsung. The Panasonic (forgot the model) will not record the second layer of a dual-layer until you close out the first layer! This is ridiculous if you want to record on a dual-layer. Luckily a small note on the box warns you of this but I didn't see it until I read the manual.

This Samsung works very well for me. The DV input works and as a bonus will send commands to the DV output on my Sony camcorder. Very handy for dubbing from the DV tape camcorder.

The other bonus I found was it controls my Samsung TV. It can be set for other TVs too, a real plus.

The only disappointment so far is the lack of an S-Video input on the front AV2. That would sure help dub from my Hi8 analog tapes. Too bad, I could have rated 5-stars otherwise.

One other worrisome point is that it takes forever to finalize some disks, my dual-layer for example. It goes to 95% for as long as nearly a half hour. The first time I thought it was frozen so I unplugged and restarted. The DVD seemed to play OK but this was bad. The second time, I just left it and started looking on the internet for any clues. Then all of a sudden after around a half hour it completed the last 5%. Very weird.

I will try to contact Samsung on this. I do not see any software update yet for this model. (You burn a DVD with a downloaded file and the player will update its flash memory..Good plus.

Layout of the remote is a bit crowded and the unit itself won't win any beauty contests but it's the best I've found for my purposes.

Read Best Reviews of Samsung DVD-VR330 DVD Recorder Here

Since I make DVDs for some customers, I would like to think that I understand these type of gizmos to a certain extent.

Most of the complaints on the reviews were caused by customers who do not understand how the DVD burning process works. I can refute almost all of the complaints.

The quality of transfer from video to DVD is outstanding. I could not see any loss at all on my 37" television. It took all of a second for me to do it. I pressed the "to dvd" button. That is all it takes. DVDs do have to be finalized in all of these console units if you want to play the DVD elsewhere. Your computer burner/software likely does this automatically.

Like all high tech items, it has presented some interesting findings. DVD+R discs have to be initialized. The unit tells you what to do so this is easy. DVD+R discs seem to take longer to finalize but that could be due to a slower write speed on the DVD+R disc that I used. I do not seem to be able to pause a recording without flat out stopping it. If that problem continues, I will be upset. I suspect it is me not knowing what to do. Playback on a disc that has had recordings stopped goes much better on the Samsung than on other units. Using the SVHS input requires that you go into the menu and instruct the machine to use the SVHS input. I called Samsung and talked to a rep who did not know too much before finding what I needed in the pretty lenghty instruction manual. The manual seems OK....it is just...big. Accessing the A-B repeat function could be better, it could be worse. The remote is a good design except that the skip chapter button is 1/4" from the fast forward button. That is a matter of finger dexterity I suppose. If you transfer a DVD to video, the loss in quality is noteable. That is why DVDs are replacing video however. I like the fact that the highest quality mode allows for 1 hour and 14 minutes to be put on a disc. Better chance of putting an entire event on one disc with the highest quality. Also easy to use dual layer discs which almost double recording capability. Also plays SVHS tapes and I have a few lying around. I really like the function where a graph shows you how the tape is tracking in the Samsung. It automatically picks the best tracking and units are supposed to do that. But this machine shows you if your tape has tracking issues that require significant automatic adjustments. I believe the Samsung also allows manual tracking adjustments which is pretty awesome.

I bought the machine to mostly transfer old movies to DVD and I could not be happier with its performance in that critical respect.

I've only had the unit for a day. I wrote the review mostly to straighten out some erroneous complaints. It is incredily easy to use for dubbing video to DVD and that is what it is made for. Just remember that the disc has to be finalized if you want to play the disc in something beside the Samsung.

I think Pioneer likely makes the best DVD recorders. They are priced accordingly. I bought the Samsung because it is a bigger bang for the buck for me. This unit has several features that separate it from a unit simply made to make and sell cheap. It is for the person who can appreciate some quality features they may not have expected in a unit of this price.

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I spent weeks trying to find a DVD recorder, and finally decided on the DVD-VR330. I'm very happy with the operation of this unit. I wanted to transfer our old VHS home videos to DVD, and the process is very easy, and it works very well.

Samsung is NOT known for their easy-to-follow instructions, so it takes some time to interpret them and you may need to experiment for a while to figure out exactly how to work all the features, but all in all, this is a very nice unit.

I purchased a Samsung DVD-VR330 on November 24, 2006. It would never recognize and record on DVD+R or DVD+RW media that I tried from the get go. DVD-R media 4X seemed to work the best. However after a few months it started having a hard time reading blank DVD-R and even ones that had been recorded on in the DVD-VR330 itself. I would put the discs in and have the unit eject them several times before finally detecting them. I had pretty much given up on using it as a DVD recorder using it only as a player to play movies which it has continued to do fairly well.

Recently I tried recording again on DVD's using some TDK Brand DVD-RW 4X media, that I have had for a couple of years, with success. The disks are P/N DVD-RW47CCB25, 25 Pack. I have recorded TV programs, used recorder to cut out commercial segments, replayed them, erased them, and recorded again on the same disks with no problems. I once again tried DVD-R's, DVD+R's and DVD+RW's all of which it still will not recognize. The problem with my unit appears to be a media/firmware compatibility problem or possibly corrupted original firmware. I have found that DVD-RW 4X media is getting harder to find and if you do you can not trust that it is actually DVD-RW or even manufactured the same as the media bought 2 years ago. I have read reviews on TDK Brand DVD-RW media that the consumers actually discovered was DVD+R media labeled incorrectly as DVD-R when they put it into their recorders.

The manual for this unit indicates "Not all brands of discs will be compatible with this unit." However Samsung will not provide media brand recommendations. They want the consumer to spend all kinds of money buying and trying different media until they find something that works. The manual also indicates "The latest firmware upgrade to improve recording & playback quality can be downloaded from our web site." Samsung has never posted any firmware updates on their web site for the DVD-VR330. Apparently Samsung never planned on providing firmware updates, which is required to keep up with the rapid changes in available media. They want you to buy their products, throw them away and buy new when they become obsolete which is just after a few months.

This was my first Samsung product and I will never buy another. In fact I have since bought two LG Brand LCD computer monitors, one Panasonic Brand 50" plasma TV, One Sony Brand Blu-Ray Player and LG Brand Clothes Washer and Dryer which I am very happy with. My new Sony Blu-Ray player is connected to the internet and its firmware is easily updated which has been done twice, once at first installation and once about a month and a half later. Samsung, you should be ashamed of putting out such an unreliable product. However, it's your loss!

Philips All Region Free Hi-Def 1080p Up-Converting DVD Player (Free TAMZ Brand 10 Feet HDMI Cable)

• Region Code Free 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 PAL NTSC, built in 3 way converter PAL to NTSC and NTSC to PAL you can connect to any TV
• HDMI 1080p upscales to high definition for sharper pictures
• Multi Zone Code Free Playback DVDs Divx XVID AVI files
• 100~240V 50/60Hz World-Wide Voltage
• PAL/NTSC Play Any Region DVD's - Best Region Free DVD Player

This is an amazing product from Philips..! Really loved it.

Best feature I liked is that you can copy MP3 songs being played to USB by one button.

The Product Model is NOT C-1080p(as described by the seller). It is actually DVP3560/F7 for Worldwide use (110-240V). Actually, there is no C-1080p product model on Philips website too. 1080p is the upscaling capability of product.

For all those who are looking for a worldwide use DVD Player, I would definitely recommend DVP3560/F7. 110-240V can be checked on the back of the dvd player.

The most funniest thing is that brochure (leaflet) for this product on Philips website is NOT UPDATED, it says 120V, 50Hz which is incorrect & misguiding.

Hope you all will enjoy it as I am enjoying.

Happy Playing..!

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It is easy to use and works well. Will review in depth later, once I get to Europe because I don't have a dvd with European specs.

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I had to buy a DVD player that could handle the PAL format, the European format which could not be played on the DVD player I owned, which only plays NTSC format. It does a beautiful job. I've very satisfied.

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FAST DELIEVER PLAYS ALL REGIONS OF DVD'S GREAT PICTURE EASY TO USE I AM VERY HAPPY WITH THE DVD PLAYER

The buzzing noise of this device when it plays makes listening and viewing very difficult. Ratings appear to be erased to avoid bad scores for this devise. This makes me believe Amazon and the seller are in the business of trying to sell defective products. Lost $17 returning this thing. Don't buy it!!

Memorex 700MB/80-Minute 48x CD-R Media Black, 50-Pack Spindle

I have used dozens of different brands and colors of CDR's, and the Memorex black ones are the ONLY ones that have NEVER given me any trouble. I have Memorex black cdrs in my car that have been there for 3 years. They've been through the hottest summers and the coldest winters. To this DAY they still play great. All other cdrs that i leave in my car get ruined by the heat. The black cdrs are not exactly the "nicest-looking" cdrs on the market, but they are SUPERB in terms of performance. If you have some valuable information or music that you want to keep forever, i strongly recommend the Memorex black CDR.

MY '96 Maxima has the bose stereo (Clarion) head unit in it and was not liking my Taiyo Yuden (top quality) CD-r's when the temp was high.. so I looked at some reviews for cdr's and found these. Took a chance and ordered a 50 pack and wooo! I couldn't be happier. I burned my first disk today and tested it (it was in the upper 80's here) and my stereo had no problems with these. I reccommend you try these out if you have a picky older player.

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I originally got these disks because I was having trouble with my car's cd player skipping with regular silver disks. I read on the internet that black disks can track better and sure enough, all burns have played perfectly. I have used 4 or 5 different drives (from cheap OEM drives to Plextor) and they all worked. These are the only disks I use for music cd's anymore.

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I've used these for years. I love them. I never have any problems with them. Usually, if I go back and check after burning it was a problem with the audio file on the computer-in the rare event of an error. It was not a problem with these. I've used them in my ford, a bmw, a benz, honda, saturn, pioneer, & various computers + players. I've used them for data and music. They're great and always play. If you do have a problemcheck your burned file's quality. Chances areit isn't these CD-Rs. TIPUSE A SILVER SHARPIE (yes these exit) AND LET IT DRY BEFORE INSERTING IN PLAYER. IT SHOWS UP GREAT AND LOOKS NEAT. No need for the writing space complaint. :)

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The media worked fine for me, got a pack once as a gift and used them all. Between work, home, and laptop burned them on cd-r's and dvd-r's and all worked. No idea why some reviews complain about "black" cds being bad. You can buy cd-r's in red, blue, orange, silver, and ones that look like old 45 records, etc... It's just the color, it's not some other format. So if you're having trouble, don't blame the color. Memorex is a good brand name for cd-rs or dvd-rs so ignore those talking about an issue with "color".

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Openbox S10 HD Satellite Receiver PVR

• 300 MHz MIPS Processor
• Fully compliant MPEG-4 H.264/AVC Main Profile Level 3 & High Profile Level 4.1
• Fully compliant MPEG-2 MP@HL & MP@ML
• Fully compliant MPEG-1 Layer I & II & III, Dolby Digital Audio(AC3)
• SCPC & MCPC receivable from C/Ku band satellites

I ordered the Openbox S10 from Amazon and the supplier was L33T Group, Inc. I think experiences may differ based on who supplies it. I've been using this receiver about a month now.

Some people are selling fake clones of this receiver so I did check it based on information on a forum. The Openbox I received is an original and not a clone. The problem with clones is that if you update the firmware or change the OS, it will brick after 10 on and off cycles (forums did have work arounds for clones though).

I am using this strictly for FTA on Hispasat 30W. I don't use any cams or cards so can't tell you anything about compatibility with them. I use a fixed offset dish so I can't comment on motor controls but the menu has everything to use a motor. The receiver did not come with Hispasat freqs preloaded. I did a blind scan and it found every free to air tv and radio channel listed on LyngSat. I was not able to get EPG (electronic program guide) to work though. I think that HispaSat may not have an EPG for the U.S. beam though.

I connected a 16 Gb USB stick and use the PVR function. It works very well. I have it setup to auto-record whatever channel I am watching so I can pause or rewind live shows and it starts recording immediately after changing channels (1 to 2 seconds).

I noticed that audio/video sync was off on most channels by about 3 seconds and was quite annoying. I updated to the latest firmware and it fixed the problem. I think there are multiple ways to upgrade but the method I used required me to download it to the USB stick. You insert the USB stick into the Openbox and go to "Upgrade by USB" in the menu. It loses all settings after upgrading but HispaSat was in the new firmware. I had to set my LNB type and scan for all the channels again. Definitely worth it though for the synchronization.

The receiver has an excellent picture. It changes channels quickly. The remote worked well for the 2 days I used it before setting up my Harmony universal remote. I have never had the Openbox lock up or reboot on me. The box is small and light. It gets pretty warm but not too excessive. My entertainment system is in a sealed closet and it hasn't overheated even with the stereo heating the closet up pretty good.

I have one issue that seems to be a compatibility issue with another device. I use a RE BL IR repeater/ IR to blue-tooth PS3 controller. If you are one of the rare people who uses one of these, you might want to know about this otherwise disregard. At a distance of over 11 ft using the RE BL and the wired emitter, the channel up and down function often outputs a number rather than channel up or down. Instead of being able to scroll through the channels you will keep ending up at the channel number that the RE BL relays to the Openbox. I have definitely confirmed the problem to be with the RE BL and not the Openbox.

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First of all, no book. I found one on the internet, but it didn't have the process for upgrading the firmware, which is necessary because it will not power an antenna motor with the lnb without it, according to the reportsI read on the net. I did find a book net, though, through a forum. I received the unit in excellent condition physically, it looked pretty and small. I bought a new DG380 Powertech motor which draws a max of 350ma of current. The LNB draws about 200ma. The Openbox S10 is only capable of 500ma max.current. So it didn't work, the motor wouldn't run with the lnb connected. So, I removed the motor to see if I could just set it up with one satellite, but after an hour of watching a tv program, it started rebooting, which means the receiver was shutting down because of too much of a load on the power supply (I think), and the receiver got pretty warm, and when I disconnected the lnb, the receiver became stable again. Since I don't live in the US, the receiver is not in warranty, which I knew. I am an electronics tech, and after looking the inside over, and cleaning many solder splashes and sloppy solder connections, it didn't solve the problem. So, I don't know whether the problem is poor design or just failure. I sure wasn't impressed with the workmanship.

Edit: After a bit of troublshooting, I found the problem with motor and lnb drive was that the Openbox aparently was designed for 220VAC Europe, etc., power input. I am running it on 220VAC now with no problem.

Read Best Reviews of Openbox S10 HD Satellite Receiver PVR Here

I've had an Openbox S9 receiver for over a year, and didn't think too highly of it. A few months ago, I found out that some S9 and S10 receivers were assembled with the wrong value resettable fuse in the LNB power supply. Mine was shutting off when the current hit 350mA, much too low. I replaced it, updated the receiver with new firmware, and what a difference! So I decided to take a chance on an openbox Openbox S10 (one that had been returned) and I'm very pleased. I checked for it being a "clone" receiver, it's not, it was priced at less than half of what I paid for my S9, and is much smaller physically. What's not to like? To those who have had problems, my suggestion would be to do your reading, take a couple days, or weeks, to learn how to set things up. BTW, these receivers have universal (100-240VAC) power supplies, and will work with any LNB. Do your research to determine what you need (LNB type, dish size, etc) and do a site survey to make sure you have a clear line of sight to the satellite(s) you want, or hire someone in the business.

EDIT: After a bit more than a month, I've decided that the S10 is not worth buying. The first problem I had was with the hard drive (DVR) function. I used a laptop hard drive in an enclosure, the same one I had used with my S9 for over a year, and the S10 couldn't handle the load, it started cycling power every 2 minutes or so. It's okay with separately powered hard drives or USB/flash type memory. Then it decided to stop sending power to the LNB. I can "piggyback" it to my S9 and change channels, so I know the tuner still works, but I have to watch the same satellite polarity that the S9 is on. I don't recommend this receiver.

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I bough this openbox s10 from Amazon, And it works fine.And I downloaded new s/w from Yojiatech and upgraded it,and it was ok....

Then I turn it on one night and it shows on the screen "this is clone..." and it is dead.The supplier sent me the clone one but charged me the price of an original!

What a dishonest supplier!!

I LOST MY MONEY WENT I BUY THIS ITHEM. PAST 2 WEEK THE RECEIVER WAS BURNS BELEIVE OR NOT. IS IN THE GARBAGE AND THANK YOU FOR THE RECOMENDATION.

2.0 inch LTPS 720P HD Car DVR Black Box with Separate Rearview Camera/Sticker Mount/Night Vision/SO

• HD 720p high-definition video.
• Dual separate camera.
• SOS urgent file protection.
• Motion detection. Built-in G-Sensor (car accident case of emergency save, will not be deleted).
• Recorder will automatically start video when connect the power.

This is the second i1000-style camera I have bought.

The Good: This camera from Amazon Prime arrived in 1 DAY! Wow! It was new, with plastic covers over the lens and screen. It came with both camera lenses, fwd and aft. Battery life is about 20 minutes after charging, so plan on using the cigarette charger. It properly overwrites old files when the SD card gets full, it powers up and down with car ignition. It will stay on about two minutes after the engine is off, or you can keep it running with the key in "accessory" position. (assuming your cig lighter is powered like mine) The video display shuts itself off after about 3 minutes so you don't have the light shining in your eyes. The blue "power" and blue flashing "recording" LEDs are too bright for nighttimeyou must employ a piece of black tape. The suction mount is very small and stable, the "permanent" sticky back mount is even smaller. The whole camera mounts on the windshielf behind my mirror, completely hidden from my sight by the mirror. Cables are about 6 ft long so you can snake them out of view behind trim panels in your car. The video resolution is not clear enough to read license plates until you are stopped-at-a-traffic-light distance away. I plan to read the license plate number out loud if the need ever arises, and let the sound recording remember it for me.

The (not so) Bad: **Update** I FINALLY discovered that this camera DOES record sound. It uses an unusual encription for the sound track. Neither Quicktime or Windows Media Player would play the sound track. You must find an enhanced codec package and install it on your PC. I used K-Lite from Cnet now I can hear the sound tracks. The sound is good, but not excellent. I can hear engine revs and conversations inside the car. This particular model watermarks the date/time onto the recordings with green letters in a black box in the upper LH corner. I have read that other similar looking cameras show the date/time watermarks with white outlined letters. I don't know how to tell which version you are ordering the green date/time or the white outline date/time. I suspect the white date/time version of this camera is the "original design" camera. For the record this camera's firmware is Ver: 007 F20_212111.

Summary: Overall I'm very happy with the camera. Good price so I won't cry if it gets stolen from my convertible. It runs reliably without any fiddling. Turns itself on and off and keeps a nice record of shenanigans on the highway.

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It arrived two days ago. It's a nice toy. But, the quality is not very good. The microphone does not work out of the box (I used the right setting. It is broken.). I saw a review on the internet before I bought it. They showed a different rear camera and a remote in the box. This one came without the remote. The manual is horrible. They should hire somebody who is a native English speaker.

The box does not say anything about the producer or the origin.

Edit: I tested it today under perfect weather conditions. Picture quality is poor.

I return it.

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Just got the recorder cam, worked good for first day. Then, who would've thought, that this little device like all electronics, does not react well exposing to the summer heat. I live in Chicago where hitting 90 degree is common. This device when overheated, will not record at all until it has been cooled off. I cant really sent my unit back because i wired the charging unit through dashboard to fuse box (should've waited). Oh well, seems like a nice device but dont buy unless you live in canada or russia i guess.

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For the price it works pretty awesome! (So far no issues since I bought it in Jan 2013. I'll post a sample video in the future. I'll update my post if my unit stop working in any way. Paul.

Hewlett Packard Jornada 548 Color Pocket PC

I have had my Jornada for a month now and I have been nothing but pleased. It has exceeded my every expectation. The color (12-bit) is wonderful, the sound from the built-in speaker (and headphones) is surprisingly good, and the functionality is astounding. Make no mistake, you are not buying an organizer --you are buying a COMPUTER. 133 mhz processer, 12-bit color, 32 mb of ram --is it just me, or wasn't that a top-of-the-line desktop computer 5 yrs ago?

Well, I won't go into the basics -other reviewers have done a good job doing so --let me focus on other areas.

Buying extra memory is a must if you download a lot (MP3s or books). (I filled up my memory within 2 weeks after downloading 9 books, 2 songs, and 5 extra games... Books seem to be 500k to 1 mb, MP3s are 4-6MB and games are less than 1MB) I'd recommend going with the maximum upgrade of 128 MB flash-card --you could put 2 hours of MP3s on that card! This is great if you always wanted an MP3 player, as I did, now I can just roll the functionality of my Jornada into my portable music station.

For downloading books I recommend checking out the great FREE selection on Amazon.com. (Another good place is, egads!, Barnes and Nobles.com) There are some great books just worth keeping in the memory in case you are stuck somewhere with time on your hands.

I highly recommend getting the FREE Pocket PC expansion pack offered by Microsoft --it contains some games (Chess is great, Hearts is great, Pac Man is alright --but is meant to be played with a joystick), but more importantly, offers a lot of other great software, free. There is a "paint" program -it offers simple drawing in many colors (but no paintbrush or sprayer), the e-book reader program (allows you to display e-books), a great "slide-shower" program (I put family pictures in here in 5 minutes) --there is a full screen mode which allows you to page-through slides, and is really impressive. There is even an ADOBE ACROBAT reader --quite amazing, though I wonder how documents will look on a small screen.

The best thing about the Jornada is that it is very intuitive. The internal file system is set up just like your home PC -with a version of "explorer". This allows you to open an "explorer" menu (when your Jornada is "synched" with your computer). The advantage of this is you can just open folders on your big computer's screen and drag and drop PHOTOS, E-BOOKS, MP3s, and M-PEGS just as easy as that. One of my best comments about this product is that I didn't need the instruction manual.

Other highlights --the COMPLETE synchronization with Microsoft's products is absolutely wonderful. Outlook is FULLY synched --alerts, contacts, and tasks to remember are added to your home computer (after you've added them to your Jornada). (By the way, you receive the FULL version of Outlook 2000 for free when you purchase your Jornada). Word and Excel allow you to open e-mail attachments as well as create new documents. Microsoft Money requires a separate purchase of Money 2000 (or newer) and is really cool. It keeps your whole checkbook, basic stock information, and lists of Payees and Expense categories available at your fingertips.

The Jornada can be extensively customized, I found THAT very attractive --a variety of sound, backlight, password, and hotkey settings can be changed quickly from the internal menus.

Surprisingly, the calculator is one "widget" that I've used more than anything else. It really feels natural, and gets a LOT of use in restaurants...

The weight is nothing you can't handle, but is noticeable --it is heavier than it looks, and I wouldn't want to put it into a shirt pocket, or try to squeeze it into a pair of jeans. If you drop it on a hard surface, good luck, because it looks like it'd shatter --it is heavy.

The cover is very nice. It is sleek metal, which is great protection. One drawback is that it is not something that is easily removed (though you can --with care), and doesn't move back more than 90 degrees when opened.

I like the stylus. It is very easy to pull out and use, and stores very well.

The best program is the built-in "NOTE taker" function. You write on the screen and your strokes are captured exactly as written--no "graffiti" or "keboard" needed here (though these ARE an option). This is the fastest way to take notes --basically just drawing on a touch-pad. Also, another neat function is that you can press the red button on the side and RECORD voice messages that are saved with specific notes--really cool! You can even record messages when the machine is off --just press the button and you can record for as long as you have memory!

Every morning I plug it in and it automatically downloads 500 web pages for view later --it takes less than 5 minutes on a 28.8 modem. This is the best part --I was astounded how fun it was to read news on the metro on my handheld. (Every time you "synch" outdated web pages are deleted, and new ones stored).

Go to Avantgo.com, and you can choose a variety of web sites to be AUTOMATICALLY downloaded to your Pocket PC --this is just the ultimate in usefulness. I entered my zipcode and now articles are more relevent to me. Just an example --I said I wanted to see Hollywood.com, and now I get all the movie summaries, locations, and movie times downloaded to my Pocket PC --no more looking through the paper... You can download book reviews, news, business, sports, and weather. You can also get ALL of your articles on your MY YAHOO site (if you have one) --this was a REAL plus. The New York times offers a LOT of features, as does MSN.

One last thing --you can download MAPS -this blew my mind -there were maps of all major cities available --you just drag and drop the ones you want onto your Pocket PC. When viewing a map, just click on the spot you want to see, and you can zoom in. You can get to individual streets, and it looks stunning in color --I really love this feature. No more carrying outsized maps with me (and looking like a tourist) when I'm in the city. Wonderful!

More to say, but not today. I am one satisfied customer. A purchase for someone who wants more than just an organizer... a LOT more.

Having had extensive experience with both WinCE and Palm handheld devices, I have to say that in the past I continued to lean heavily toward Palm -not because it offered anything particularly cooler or better, just that it met my requirements: 1) must be stable hardware & software; 2) battery had to last up to 8 hours at a time; 3) had to have applications that met my needs (now and in the future!); and 4) it had to be "sexy" (yes, I'll admit I'm shallow). To date, WinCE handhelds & palm-helds have had a hard time making inroads in my mind on several of these key requirements.

My new HP Jornada 548 Pocket PC has changed everything for me. The color is sharp and clean (yes, even with the notorious 12-bit vs. the advertised 16-bit technology), the software seems to be extremely stable, and the look of it is way sexier than even the Palm V! But probably the biggest change is the software availability that comes with the Pocket PC and from 3rd party developers. Including Pocket Word, Excel, Money, AvantGo (can't live without it!), Pocket IE, Reader (I'm in the first half of "Timeline"), and support for POP3/IMAP4 email in addition to the included Outlook Inbox -and still leaving me nearly all 32MB of memory I started with is AWESOME!

Notice my focus on applications? That's no coincidence ... a palm-held PC has become more and more important to me, and it MUST do more than just show my contacts and appointments (something I hear a bit too much from other Palm users). My Pocket PC has become an integral part of my computing day; and will continue to be even more important over the next few years. So having top-notch applications available that are fast, user-friendly (still getting used to the new spot for "Start"), and seamlessly integrated with my desktop PC counterparts is critically important for me.

My heartfelt congratulations & thanks to the teams at HP and Microsoft ... way to go!

Buy Hewlett Packard Jornada 548 Color Pocket PC Now

The Jornada 548 is not perfect, but for me its the best mix of features so far.

I've had several color palm-sized Windows CE and Pocket PCs. I've had 2 Casio Cassiopeia E-105's, a Compaq Aero 1520, and a Cassiopeia E-10 and A-11. I've also looked at the Compaq iPaq.

The iPaq is fast and light and its display is easily visible outdoors. But once you add a CompactFlash card sleeve it's bulky. And you still need a case to protect the screen, adding further bulk. (Screen protection is important to me because I've broken the display on my Cassiopeia E-10 twice!)

The HP Jornada 548 has a built-in metal screen protector and CompactFlash slot, and a metal case. It looks sleek and its display is very nice indoors (but hard to see outdoors). Since I need screen protection and I always use a CompactFlash memory card, it's the perfect Pocket PC for me.

A word about Pocket PCs vs. Palms: If all you need is an electronic organizer, a Palm is sufficient. It's easy to use, it's convenient, and its organizer functions are simple. But look at one of the Pocket PCs if you need an organizer that's FULLY compatible with Microsoft Outlook (including all contact information fields). Look at a Pocket PC if you want the power of a multimedia PC that you can carry in your pocket. To me there is no question the Pocket PC is the right choice for me. It won't be for everyone.

You can get a color Pocket PC for not much more than the color Palm IIIc. If monochrome is enough for you, the Compaq Aero 1550 Pocket PC is thin and sleek. It's in the same price range as a good Palm, and it's more capable.

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Notwithstanding that the ipaq has 206 mhz vs the HP's 133, that the ipaq's TFT LCD screen is a little sharper outside, that the ipaq can take PC cards and flash cards (with the help of add-on jackets) vs the HP that can only take flash cards, that the ipaq weighs 6.3oz vs the HP that weighs 9.1oz, that the ipaq's has a 12 hour Lithium Polymer battery vs Hp's 8 hour Lithium Ion battery, and that the ipaq has wireless capabilities, I would still, and without hesitation, choose the HP Jornada 548!

Why? Because of the following1. the HP looks and feels better (good old HP quality) 2. the HP, being slightly heavier, and together with rubber linings along the sides, fits snugly and safely into your hand 3. the ipaq's silver/aluminium finish looks cheaper than HP's black finish 4. the record button on the ipaq is reputed to be badly placed 5. the ipaq's internal housing for the stylus could become troublesome 6. the HP comes with a 'built-in' hard cover for the screen essential for a PDA 7. the HP's flash-slot is integrated much easier than carting extra jackets around 8. the shape and size of the AC adapter for the HP is far superior to that of the ipaq compaq have forgotten that the whole motivation of having a PDA is its size defeated if you need a briefcase to carry the AC adapter! 9. both do the same tasks, one slightly quicker, but the difference is academic; 10. the ipaq's jackets (pc cards and flash) do not clip in tight this could lead to the PDA sliding out and ending up under feet is it worth the risk? 11. the plastic wallet that comes with the ipaq does not close properly another potential disaster So hardware spec-wise the ipaq wins hand down but quality, finish, appeal and design awards must go to the HP my ultimate choice.

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I love my Pocket PC. I use this thing more than any device I have ever owned. From the moment it arrived it became much more than a gadget. I have owned lots of gadgets, including the palm. They were great to carry around and show off but the pocket PC is the most useful thing I have ever owned. Here is an example of how I use it through out my day. 5:00 AM: Wake up to the alarm. It plenty loud enough to rouse even me. 7:00 AM: Listen to MP3,s or sometimes audio books on my drive to work.

8:00 AM: Pop it in the cradle and sync with my Outlook at work. All my email, Calendar, task, web pages, files, etc... 9:00 AM: go to daily morning meeting with nothing but my Pocket PC. I have all my status reports in MS word. When we discuss an email someone sent out with an attached excel spreadsheet I just open it on my pocket PC and review. I open up the note pad and take notes through out the meeting.Oh yea, sometimes I get bored and play games with the sound off. It look like I am taking notes. 10:00 AM and throughout the day it goes with me to all meetings. Taking notes on it is a breeze. It is as close to actual writing as you can get. 12:00 Noon: Take it to lunch. If I am alone I read through the days news on Pocket Internet Explorer. Its updates every time I sync so I always have the latest news and movietimes, weather, etc...If it is a business luncheon I exchange contact info with partners and clients via infrared. I can exchange even with Palm owners thanks to Peacemaker. 6:30 PM: Go home and listen to MP3's on the way. 8:30 PM: Read books using the MS Reader. So far I have read. Tom Sawyer, Timeline, Fredrick Douglas, a good portion of the bible, part of the Koran, Thus spake Zarathustra' Albert Einstein's Quotes, Shakespeare's Sonnets and Digital Times.

I own the Jornado and it is in my mind the best. The Ipaq and Casio are great in many respects but no one beats the form factor, styling and slickness of the Jornado

GGI CT2DG Tape Cassette to MP3 PC USB Converter

Very disappointed! When I received it, it did not work...at all. Even with batteries. A ridiculous waste of money. Getting sent right back to the factory in China where it was made. I don't know what I was thinking. Maybe, hey, let me waste 30 bucks!

I was given a copy of a tape I made of a family event in 1970. This you made a digital conversion, reduced the tape noise, and brought back old memories. Simple to use. Likely not durable but well worth the price.

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This was great. Did everything it was supposed to and was easy to use. It's good to know how to use Audacity, but that is not hard to learn.

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At first I wondered whether this might be a poor quality piece of equipment because of its low price. But it was easy to use, made a good recording of the cassette tape I wanted to preserve, and the included software has many good features to fine tune your final recording. The construction seems solid enough, as if it is built to last. Great deal for only $20.

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This is garbage. The autoreverse malfunctioned as soon as I started using it and plays a couple of seconds on one side, switches to the other side, plays a couple of seconds and then cuts off. It feels cheap, looks cheap, and is a complete waste of money.

Classic DVR1000 DVD Recorder/Player , Silver

• DVD player/recorder with DVD+R/+RW recording (1 to 4 hours on single-sided 4.7 GHz media); playback of DVD-R/-RW, MP3 CD, and Kodak Picture CD
• Progressive-scan playback renders seamless, flicker-free images on high-definition and HD-ready TVs
• Audio/video inputs accommodate VCRs, camcorders, cable boxes, antennas, and other AV components; offers 8-event advance programming
• Dolby Digital 5.1-channel surround-sound passthrough for use with compatible AV receiver and speaker system
• Measures 17 x 2.7 x 11.4 inches (W x H x D)

I would've given the Classic DVR1000 3 stars but, after reading product reviews on even the most popular brand (and much more expensive) dvd recorders I am very grateful that I purchased this system at this time. For the moment, it seems to be up to snuff with any brand out there. Take it or leave it. It has it's pros and cons but, apparently they all do. So, until the day that one of these manufacturers REALLY, REALLY painstakingly troubleshoots all of the existing pangs out of present day recorders this CLASSIC DVR1000 will suffice for anyone interested to purchase an inexpensive and fully functional DVD Recorder. I have had limited bad experiences so far. I've had to throw away a disk or three but, from what I understand so does everyone else! What gives??? I don't know. I do know that the DVD's I have created with this recorder were crisp even utilizing the 3 hour recording mode. Imagine! 4 Disney movies on 1 DVD! I did it from my VHS tapes. Can't tell the difference. If you want to spend more to get the same results go right ahead. I wouldn't waste my money until they perfect the whole world of DVD recorders.

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I bought this dvd recorder around a year-and-a-half ago. 8 months ago the device began to malfunction and so i sent it in to classic for a warranty repair. as it turns out the device is on back-order and they will no longer be making repairs or replacements. therefore i have been in lidigation with classic for the past 8 months and they have been less than helpfull. i citanly donot recomend buying this, or any other classic product.

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This is the biggest piece of crap...period! After about two months had no sound from coaxial connection, had to use s-video and rca. Sound was still bad, but could hear it at high volumes. Soon after would no longer record from a timer program. Now I can't even get the f@#king disc out. Company is of no help and will not repair. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY on this garbage!!!

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I purchased this unit almost two years ago and have yet to make it work. My brother, who is very tech savvy, helped me set up the unit. I had very little success working with tech support. My first call was answered and I was provided some assistance Since that call, I have been unsuccessful talking to anyone. They have an answering machine, but they don't return calls. I would stronly urge anyone considering the purchase of this product to reconsider. It was an expensive and frustrating mistake.

I am a little disappointed in this dvd recorder. If you buy this product solely for recording tv shows, from camcorder, etc.., then you'll have no problems. This device is excellent for that. The remote control and menu screens are very easy, and it records in great quality.

However, I have had this particular recorder for over a year and a half. It has already stopped playing my store-bought dvds. It'll play my recorded dvds alright. Also, it's picky about the speed of your disc. So, watch out for that. I think it'll only play/record up to a 4x.

So, I give it 5 stars if you purely want to record. I give it 1 star if you want to watch your dvds (for the exception of recorded dvds). It just gives a blank picture, and the dvd player starts making a grinding noise. I have not bothered contacting Classic for any help. I think the warranty is expired, and I heard rumors that they give the ol' 'runaround' about replacing or repairing this particular player.

New 4gb 2.8-inch Touch Screen Mp4 Player with Camera Black

I debated between 4 or 5 stars because there are quite a few things that could have been done much better, but I can't believe all the features they crammed into this for just $28 (including shipping).

If you're looking for a high quality device, this might not be right for you, but if you want a cheap device that does one or more of these functions adequately, it could be quite the deal. While there are a few usability annoyances, most of the features do appear to be at least useable. I've encountered a lot of ultra-cheap devices that have a log checklist of features, but they are implemented so poorly that they can't be used. While the cheap hardware does put limits on the function and some of the interfaces could be improved, most do seem usable.

Here are a few features and specs that aren't mentioned in the product description:

The ear-buds are white. This is a genuine iPod wana-be.

The camera takes pictures up to 1280x960 resolution (defaults to 1024x768, but can be adjusted up or down). It appears to only save images as very low quality .jpg's. A 1024x768 image was 100kB, a 1280x960 was 150kB.

Video recording 320x240 resolution with audio.

Comes with stylus (but no good place to store it).

Can operate as a USB PC camera (not tested)

Built in speaker (not high quality sound, but handy on occasion).

Switch to lock out the touch screen.

Other Apps included:

Calculator (simple, not scientific)

stopwatch

calendar: just displays a calendar with a few major holidays. This is not a planner.

Games: Go, Chinese Chess, "road" (shuffling blocks to get the big block to the exit), Minesweeper

Notebook (A simple text editor). This has an on screen keyboard and handwriting recognition of English and simplified Chinese. The English recognition doesn't seem to work very well, but it appears that with some practice one could find the way to write each letter so it would be recognized. The keyboard has a bug where pressing the shift key prompts to "Clear all text", so I haven't found a way to make capital letters except with handwriting recognition. Trying to make a capital C can be difficult. One way to work around this was to "return" to Chinese character entry mode and select "all" instead of simplified Chinese. then when you draw a character, it will display a large number of characters it thinks you might have typed (both Chinese and English), and you can select the one you want. For some reason however, when entered this way, the characters have spaces between them that can't be deleted. The notepad application has locked up on me twice, requiring resetting the device. Reset can be done by poking the stylus in a well-marked hole in the side of the case. It reboots in less than 15 seconds. So this app appears to not be too useful, but looked impressive at first.

Touch screen:

The touch screen is pressure sensitive (not capacitive), so don't expect it to work like an iPhone. With the included stylus, it works pretty well. Some operations can be done with finger touch, but the accuracy isn't good enough for a lot of the small buttons, or buttons near the edge. This could be an annoyance. Since there is no slot to hold the stylus, I probably won't bring it with me, so I'll need to improvise. The ear-bud plug can be used in a pinch.

Manual:

The printed manual appears to have been based on a different version of the software than is on the device. It comes with a CD that might have more info, but I haven't gotten around to looking at it yet since it is a small CD which I can't put into my CD drive without tipping my PC on its side. The most important part is the instructions is to hold the power button for three seconds to turn it on, which I might not have guessed without the manual, but it doesn't mention that it's a slider, not a button, and you have to slide it the correct direction. Sliding the other direction is to lock out the touchscreen.

The Display is adequate. It looks like 320x240 resolution. The viewing angle is pretty bad (only one person can really look at it). I haven't tried it in daylight yet.

Quality:

lightweight

It arrived with the Mini-SD card slot cover detached. I was able to put it back on, but it seems to fall off when I open it. The SD slot cover is hard to open.

The case has a slight misalignment, but it doesn't look too bad.

I noticed a lot of static on the radio as I was listening to the radio in the background and doing other things. I'm not sure if it's whenever the screen updates or when the processor is working.

Quirks:

Up down arrows. to increase a number, press the down arrow. To decrease, press up.

The play/pause/stop button shows the current state, not what will happen if you press the button, which is different than most apps I'm used to.

This product is overall good. It weighs much less than I anticipated which is nice. Some things about it are not what I had thought when I bought it. This media player looks like an iphone, but does not compare in performance. The touch screen is very difficult to work at times. And not all videos can be played on the player. But what music I do load onto the player plays very well. And is much smaller than an iphone, which is nice.

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The product arrived on time and was exactly as described! My son got this for his birthday and loves it. The instructions were very easy and he was able to download music, videos, and pics, by himself.

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I received mine 2 weeks ago. It is perfect for me, was able to download music easily, and pretty fast. The only thing I can not figure out is how to download my TXT file books on it? I have books to add to it, but I can not figure it out, seeing that the user manual does not give details. If anyone knows how I download games, and e-books onto the MP4, can you please share? Thank you in advance :)

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It is cheap plastic and you have to bang the crap out of it to get the touch screen to work

JVC Everio GZ-MG50 1.33 MP 30 GB Hard Disk Drive Camcorder w/15x Optical Zoom

Please note that since there have already been many user reviews written, this may not seem like much of a "review", but I thought I would touch on a few things I was wondering about myself before buying the camera in case it might help someone else.

This hard drive-based camcorder is wonderful. Well done JVC! I was going to buy the next model up, the MG70, but since I don't use it for photos, I don't believe I would benefit from the increased megapixel CCD. Besides, the MG70 only had 10x optical zoom, and was missing the video light and F1.2 bright lens. I'm happy with the MG50.

In case you haven't noticed, this camcorder has no viewfinder so you must use the flip-out LCD screen.

Video quality: The hard drive feature is brilliant! The only quality level you should avoid is Econo (37 hr mode), since it reduces the resolution by half and also records only about 15 frames per second. Ultra-fine (7.25 hrs) is the best, but I couldn't notice much of a difference when I lowered the quality level to Fine (10 hrs) or Normal (14 hrs). On the highest 3 modes (ultra fine, fine, and normal), the camera records full 720x480 resolution. As far as I can tell, it really is sampling that many lines of resolution. Other digital camcorders I've used (mini-DV) have had very noticable "stair-step jaggies" in parts of the picture, especially along the borders between high-contrast elements of the picture. On this hard drive camera, however, the resolution is significantly higher and these jagged lines (aliasing) are rarely noticeable at all, if ever.

As for how the camera records files onto the hard drive: It creates a new .MOD file (it's an MPEG-2 video file with Dolby Digital audio) every time you start/stop the recording. So, all your clips are conveniently seperated, but of course you can combine them with your video editing software later if you prefer. The camera will record for 12 hrs continuously if needed, but will create a new .MOD file for every 4GB of footage.

You may have read in other reviews about the following trick: rename the .MOD files that the camera records to .MPG for increased compatibility. Well, I tried it and it works like a charm, regardless of whether your video footage is in 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio. This makes it easy to use your favorite DVD-burning or video editing software with this camera, as well as ensuring future compatibility. I haven't found even one program that couldn't play the files perfectly after I renamed them. Even Windows Media Player 9 had no problem. If you leave them as .MOD, then you won't find many programs that support it (at least not yet). The only ones I found that did were the one that came with the camera (Cyberlink), and Adobe Premiere Elements 2.

One thing I should mention about the files that the camera saves. It numbers them in hexadecimal (1-9 then A-F (eg. MOV009, then MOV00A...)), so some people may find this a bit annoying. Also, my Windows XP computer alphabetizes the files A-Z, then 0-9, so they end up being displayed in the wrong order. I'm not sure why my computer is doing this and don't know if all windows XP computers will do it (it worked fine on my Windows 2000 computer), but you can always list them in chronological order if you need to correct this. I believe most video editing software will, however, list the files in the correct alphanumeric order (1-9 then A-Z). Mine all do.

The camera has a handy feature called "File# Reset". Every time you activate this, it creates a new folder on the hard drive and begins saving all future clips into it. This is a handy way to seperate your recorded "events", in case you tend to fill up the hard drive before copying it to your computer, and you may have months worth of footage on the camera. So you can have your daughter's birthday party in one folder, your trip to the zoo in another, etc...

Playback: Playback of sequential clips on the camera (either on the LCD or onto a TV) is seamless. There is no pause between scenes it plays back just like a tape would with clean cuts between recordings. Also, you can locate specific clips by viewing thumbnail images (9 per screen) or by listing by recording date. Then, of course, after playing back clips, there is no need to fast forward the tape back the next available blank part for recording. When you go to record again, the camera will not overwrite previous material.

The camera allows for limited editing (deleting or rearranging of clips). Also, in case you delete a lot of clips and then continue recording, the hard drive may eventually become fragmented. The camera has a handy utility built in that will defragment the hard drive. I haven't used it myself because I haven't needed it, but it's nice to know it's there.

Low light performance on this camera isn't the best I've seen, but it is still pretty good for such a small camera. My previous camera was a JVC as well (mini DV only about 3 years old). It was slightly brighter in low light, however, I find that this hard drive JVC camera has much better autofocus performance for low light or fast movements. All recent JVC cameras (including this MG50) have "Night Alive" mode which reduces the shutter speed to about 1/2 second. This is useless unless your camera is on a tripod and your subject is not moving at all. You might as well take a picture then... However, the MG50 has adjustable shutter speeds in between as well. I find it useful in low light situations to change the shutter speed to 1/15 sec. This brightens the image considerably. It does reduce the motion a blur if things are moving too fast, but I still consider it a reasonable trade-off for the amount of extra brightness in the scene.

The built-in light is useful under some situations. Be aware the effective range of the light is only about 3-5 feet, so unless your subject is within that range, the light won't make any difference. It does have it's useful moments though (like filming a pet on the floor in a dimly lit room) Also, using the light consumes less than 10% more power because it's an LED, but of course that's also the reason why it's not very bright.

Photos: Image quality for still photos, in my opinion, is terrible. Not only is the resolution inadequate for most uses, it's extremely difficult to depress the shutter button without shaking the camera and blurring the image. The start/stop button (doubles as a shutter release button in photo mode) is quite stiff.

Startup time: This camera has poor startup time, but I guess that's to be expected being that it's a hard drive camera. From the completely off position, it takes 10 full seconds (based on my own tests) before you can actually begin recording. Even this is only about double the typical startup time for a mini-DV camera, it might mean you'll miss that special moment you're trying to record. Even if the camera is in record-standby mode, it still takes 3 seconds from the time you press the start/stop button until the camera is actually recording.

Camera noise: The camera does produce a faint hum while the hard drive is spinning, but I found that this is less noticeable on the recording than the sound of the tape machanism on the 3 mini-DV camcorders I've used. Of course, some mechanical noise is expected on compact cameras like this one. Without an external mic, it is unavoidable. Unfortunately on this camera, you cannot connect an external mic. The zooming motor is also slightly noticeable, but no more than other similar-sized camcorders. Besides, unkless you're in a completely quiet situation these sounds won't even be an issue at all for you.

Lens cap: The lens cap stays in place nicely. Since it only covers the lens itself and doesn't extend any further than it needs to, it tends to stay in place (unlike other cameras I've had where the lens cap pops off while inserting/removing it from a bag or pocket).

Drop detection: you may have read that this camera has a feature that senses a freefall or other motion that could potentially damage the hard drive, and automatically shuts the camera off. Well, just so you know, there is an option on the camera to turn this feature off, in case you want to make a video on your favorite rollercoaster. I'm not saying I recommend this, but I just thought I'd mention it. I myself have not personally witnessed this feature work yet, but then again I haven't tried dropping it!

Overall, I highly recommend this camcorder to the casual videographer (great for vacations!). It seems to really stand up to competing cameras in it's class on most points. However, if you're a more serious videographer you might want to consider a larger, 3-CCD camera with a bright light and external mic. Otherwise, have fun!

I gave this review only 4 stars because of these few issues: lack of viewfinder, slow startup time, and poor image quality for still photos.

I've been waiting for this technology for years. So when I found out JVC was planning on coming out with their 4 GB microdrive version, I had to have one. The $1500 price tag was too much though. Then I found out the GZ-MG50 was coming out, and would be about a $1000. I thought it was still a little pricey, but I couldn't wait any longer.

So far, the camera has performed great. It's been easy to use and easy to transfer the files to my computer then to DVD. However, the video editing software that came with it seems a bit cheap, but it gets the job done. Maybe the next gen version will be an improvement.

The movie quality is very good. I won't give it a "Great" because I occasionally see pixel blurring when watching my burned DVDs.

Don't bother taking pictures with this, unless you only plan on emailing them. The quality is far too low to use to capture those precious moments.

I recommend getting an additional battery (the three hour model). The one hour battery just doesn't cut it, especially if you want to review your scenes while you're out shooting.

If JVC gave the camcorder a larger CCD and included better software, I would have given this a 5 star rating, otherwise I think they are on the right track, and in a few years, the MiniDV may be as forgotten as the eight-track.

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Finally! I have been waiting for a video camera that takes good quality video (not mpeg4) and does not use tapes. Everyone that I know has a minidv/digital8 camera, and when they shoot something, the last we all ever see of it is when they hook up the camera to the tv at the end of the day. After that, no copies, no sharing, most of the time no one ever sees the video again. The whole point of recording memories is that you can watch them easily whenever you want and be able to share them with friends and family whenever you want.

First I have to say this is my first camcorder ever (yes, I have been waiting 30 years for this camera). I have used plenty of other camcorders that people have let me borrow, but this is the first camcorder I ever buy for myself.

I went to Cancun two weeks ago and I made the decision that I had to buy a camera for the trip. This camera was a great choice and I love it! I didn't have to lug along my digital still camera, because the everio takes 1152x864 pictures as well which is more than enough for me (for those out there that think they need 6 megapixel pictures, wake up and smell the marketing).

When I got back from my trip, I decided to sit down and get everyone a copy of the video. I was a little apprehensive because I work in advertising and I know how cumbersome and slow it can be to work with large video files if you don't have a computer specifically made for that task...I decided to use my home computer because I didn't want to wait (2.6ghz celeron with 512mb of ram). I didn't really like the DVD authoring software that came with it (seemed to complicated and unintuitive), so I used the Nero VisionExpress that came with my Nero Ultimate Edition software. It was soooo easy to get this done. Within one hour I had already completed a dvd with all the footage from trip, with thumbnail menus, and chapters automatically set for each time the camera stopped. I shot some footage of tropical fish in the water at Cozumel and I used that as the video background underneathe all of the menus. On a separate DVD I also created a compilation of photo slideshows (with music) from all the photo cameras everyone took (including pictures taken with my Everio).

I had the software "burn to hard disk" so I could make as many copies as I wanted of both dvds. I made 5 copies and was totally done with the project in 2 hours. This would not have been possible without this camera, capturing from any other minidv camera or other video source would require hours upon hours of video conversion to dvd compliant mpeg2. But since this camera shoots in mpeg2, that is not a factor.

I love this camera and highly recommend it for most people. If you are one of those videophiles that worries about the number of lines of resolution of your video, or how many ccd chips your camera has, then this camera is probably not for you. If you want great looking video and the convenience of being able to share it EASILY, CHEAPLY AND QUICKLY then definitely check out this camera.

On another note, I have used the software that came with the camera to convert video clips to quicktime, windows media video and realvideo. This is very useful for emailing clips, posting them on websites, or putting them inside your windows media center (or other home theater pc) for easy access.

Also, when getting this camera, be aware that there are two models/versions out there that only do 640x480 pictures...I almost made that mistake.

Read Best Reviews of JVC Everio GZ-MG50 1.33 MP 30 GB Hard Disk Drive Camcorder w/15x Optical Zoom Here

Love my new JVC Everio. The original model just used compact flash cards, but the new Everio GZ uses an ipod like hard drive that lets you store a year's worth of video on it! Tape is definitely dead, and DVD camcorder's 30 mintues a disc doesn't hold a candle to the Everio.

The only issue I had was that the software that come with it was pretty basic, but all the other video editing software programs didn't recognize the Everio video files (.mod files which contain MPEG2 Video and Dolby Stereo Audio).

I did finally find Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0 which supports this new file type natively. It has made editing a breeze.

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[Below is my recent review of the JVC Everio GZ-MG40, which has a 20GB hard drive rather than 30GB. Becase GZ-MG50 seems to be identical to GZ-MG40 save the hard drive capacity, I thought this review would be useful to those considering to buy GZ-MG50.]

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I have been using this camcorder for almost two weeks now. And here are my impressions:

PROS:

A) This is a tiny camcorder and I can easily carry it in my pocket everyday.

B) It records directly on a [30GB] harddrive. This is probably the most amazing feature of this camera. It has the following amazing benefits:

(1) A huge recording space

(2) Random access to recorded videos when browsing

(through a thumblist of videos)

(3) Super fast transfer onto your computer through USB 2.0.

(4) No tapes, no CDs, no DVDs to worry about while recording video.

(5) Facilitates easy archiving/organizing . For example, all the recorded files on the camera's harddrive have "creation date"s as a part of their file information. When the camera is connected to your computer, you can sort all files by date and easily separate all recordings by date to different folders by simply selecting and dragging. (This is extra, but if you want to index and be able to search your video files, say with google desktop, simply enter a list of keywords in the file name about the contents of the file.)

(6) The harddrive on your camera can double as additional portable storage mediathis is unlikely but If you wanted you could even install linux on it and carry with you an operating system on your camera.

C) Video quality is good for a consumer level video camera. The sound quality recorded through the internal microphone is good: i can hear the lectures I record very clearly and there is no annoying noise generated by the camera.

D) The charger that comes with this camera is very small. So you can carry that around as well and worry less about running out of battery.

CONS:

A) No mic jacks.

B) manual focus and light adjustments are done through menus.

C) The editing software that comes with it is limited.

D) The battery life is a mere hour(but you can buy a 3 hour battery for 70-80 dollars).

As with all camcorders, the still images shot with this camera are not at the level of quality you can get from a good still camera. It produces reasonable snapshots in well lit situations.

The video files recorded by this camera have a ".MOD" extension in their name. I replace ".MOD" with ".MPG" and most of my standard video viewing software automatically recognize the files.

Supersonic SC-709 Portable MP3/CD Player

• Top Loading CD Player
• Built in AM/FM Radio
• Plays MP3/CD/CD-R/CD-RW
• Records from CD and Radio
• 20 Programmable CD Memories

Needed a CD player that can handle mp3 books on CD for an elderly sight-impaired friend. This was up to the task, affordably.

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I was pleased with this online purchase. I had no idea what to expect, but it came on time, brand new and in great condition. Everything works! I just had to take back a store-bought product from Target right after opening the box (a vintage boom box that didn't work at all). When I got this boom box, I was happy. Great product for the price.

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I was looking for a boombox that would play CD (including MP3), cassette (yes, I still have those!), USB input and AUX input. I bought this purely because it met all my requirements on paper and it looked decent in picture. It all worked, although it looks a bit cheap. Very decent product for the price.

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I couldn't get the CD player to work. When I notified the company, they didn't have technical support, but were great about letting me send it back. The process has been a little slow because their machine that makes their return labels was down. I'm waiting for the return label. Again, they have been very nice to work with and have explained the delay. My rating is based on the fact that I couldn't get the CD to work. The radio works fine. I don't know about the other functions. Since I purchased it primarily to use it to play CDs, I knew I wasn't interested in keeping it without being able to play CDs.

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I bought this for my mother. My father just passed away and he had several burned CDs from his quartet days. Her other CD player would not play them. This plays them and also a Bible CD that was MP3 format. She loves it.

Samsung BD-D5300 Blu-ray Disc Player (Black)

• Samsung Smart 2D TV
• Fast booting and loading time
• Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital TrueHD, dts-HD Master Audio
• Touch sensor Control
• Samsung's AllShare lets you sync up many of your DLNA-enabled digital devices so you can access music, movies and photos right on your TV screen
• New graphic user interface
• New graphic user interface; 2D
• Wi-Fi-ready,Wireless-ready

Netflix issues [updates below]

I bought this primarily to stream Netflix, so that's what most of this review is about. I've previously used my Xbox360 to stream but since I don't really play online games spending money for a yearly gold membership seemed like a waste. However, now that I've experienced the Netflix app on the player I'm thinking the extra money on a 12 month membership may be well worth it.

The user interface is less than desirable, but it gets the job done. You can browse titles, your queue, etc. All the major functionality is there. One issue is that any command you send to this app, play, pause, scroll up or down, has about a two second delay. Why, I don't know, but it is annoying. After some use (like watching a couple episodes) the app seems to slow down, like it's running out of memory. One time it was so bad it would take 10 seconds from entering a command to execution. A reboot of the player fixes everything, but give me a break. There's obviously some fundamental flaws in the programming of the app, probably a memory leak. Hopefully this will be addressed by an update to the software.

The way the app buffers isn't the best. When the streaming quality drops down it tries to do it on the fly. This can cause some problems with dropped audio, dropped frames, and a/v sync. The xbox interface stops playing to adjust the quality and buffer, but there's none of the above issues. On the players app there's no way way to see the quality of the feed you are getting, where the xbox shows you a nice graphic similar to wireless signal strength bars.

Another buffer issues is that any time you decide to fast forward it re-buffers, no matter how short you are fast forwarding. I never had that problem on the xbox unless you forwarded a large enough amount to overrun the buffer. Why fast forward? I don't want to listen to the celebrity interview during Top Gear or the opening titles of a tv show. Also, with the command delay previously mentioned you'll probably overshoot where you want to stop.

[update]

I've received the latest software updates and the new smarthub starts instantly. But I've had an odd issue with Netflix where an episode stops playing saying there was an issue. Start it up again and it will continue for a 10 seconds or so and stop again. I ended up watching the episode on my computer with no problems, so I don't know what the supposed issue was. I assume something about the way Netflix encoded that episode caused the Samsung app to have an error. I hope I don't run into that anywhere else.

Player issues [update below]

Not really an issue, but the audio setup for BluRay has some misleading descriptions onscreen. What ever you do don't bother sending either of the re-encoded signals to your receiver as you'll definitely have audio sync issues. I just sent the unprocessed bitstream signal and my 12 year old receiver decoded it just fine. It's not 96 kHz Dolby HD but will do just fine until I decide to get a new receiver.

If you also have a Samsung TV the any-net feature can be a pain with your universal remote (Logitech Harmony). Unfortunately the player only has a power toggle command, not separate power off and on commands. After powering off the player I go back to watching tv as normal, but at the end of the day I power off all my devices with one signal from my remote. My tv shuts down as it should, but because the player only has a power toggle command, the player comes back on. And with the any-net feature it sends a signal to your tv and powers it back on. Why they just can't have the extra lines of code for separate power commands I don't know. My workaround was to use an option in the remote software program to always keep the player powered on, which means it never receives a power toggle command unless I specifically send it.

[update]

I have to downgrade the rating on this unit as I've had more time to play BluRay discs. I'm sending a digital audio out signal from the optical port to my receiver and having A/V sync issues. I've watched an action intense movie like The Matrix with no sync issues, but last night I tried to watch a comedy, The Hangover, and immediately the sound is out of sync. Typically it is the action films that cause sync issues as the extra processing added by your TV causes the lag in the display. I'll see a frame dropped every now and then, and thought that might be the system trying to keep sync but I don't believe that's the case. What discs play better than others seems to be hit or miss. Playing the sound through the TV speakers removes the problem. On some discs I've been able to get sync back by rewinding a little bit, but eventually the problem starts to build up again. I've also had it where that trick did absolutely nothing. The way I see it, the only way you are going to get good A/V sync is if a) you only listen through the TV speakers, b) your TV has a digital audio out port that allows the signal to be passed through without downgrading it. Unfortunately my 40" Samsung 6300 doesn't allow that, it downgrades it to a 2.1 signal. c) you have a HDMI compatible receiver. Even c may not help as I read that often people still need to program in a sound delay, so if the root issue is that the delay varies by disc because of some processing issue inherent with the player you are stuck adjusting your settings for every disc. And that's if the delay stays consistent throughout the movie.

General Info

Here are some times I recorded, all approximate (1 Mississippi):15 seconds to power on. 25 seconds to enter smart hub (app interface)[update, now instant as long as your internet connect has established]. 20 seconds to boot Netflix app. 10+ seconds to load BluRay disc, varies with the disc.

Overall I would give this product a 3[update 2]; a 2 for the Netflix capabilities and 4 [update 2] for the BluRay disc player.

[Update 3] Sometimes a disc would not load, it would just try to boot forever so I would need to power off. Also, random freezing issues with netflix. I returned it and bought the equivalent level Sony BDP-S380. Much better user interface, no issues so far. Not looking back; sad to think of the month lost being an unpaid beta tester for Samsung. Love their TV, but have yet to have a good experience with any of their disc players.

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This was my first bluray player. I bought it at a local store because it was on sale and it streamed Netflix. I was looking to replace my xbox 360 as I don't see the need to pay for xboxlive and Netflix anymore.

This player is an excellent bluray player. Load times didn't seem unreasonable to me. Picture quality was great. Sound was great. The menus were a bit choppy when trying to navigate the player and the delay between the remote and the action on the screen was noticeable, but not a deal breaker. Nothing was ever instant on this device. The player found my network (wired) automatically and found all the movies on my computer and played them flawlessly.

Netflix worked well enough, but the menu was slow to respond to commands and choppy. Video played back fine and I never encountered a problem. I never tried any other streaming services because it was too much of a hassle to enter my login information with the remote. I registered for Samsung's app store and by the end wanted to pull out what little hair I have left. Between the sluggish response to button push on the remote and the unintuitive layout of the text input it turned out to be more trouble than it's worth.

I only had this player for a week. Off and on during that time it would have trouble connecting to the internet, not just Netflix. On the last day it refused to connect to my home network at all. I messed with it for three hours before I gave up and returned it. I paid the difference and got a better player.

If you want a bluray player, this is a good inexpensive one to start off with. If you want all the other streaming services, spend the money on a higher end one.

Read Best Reviews of Samsung BD-D5300 Blu-ray Disc Player (Black) Here

Bought this player so I could hook it up to my internet and stream Netflix. The blue ray works great and even updates the software automatically, all you have to do is click yes to update. The only complaint I have is that nowhere could I find that you had to have the Samsung wireless adapter to connect wirelessly. I had a USB wireless adapter laying around but the player asked me to insert the Samsung adapter and never gave me the option to use the one I had. Small complaint but I did have to run a cable to it as I was not willing to spend another $80 on the Samsung adapter. My advice is buy the wireless player instead.

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The Samsung BD-D5300 Blu-ray player seems like a good player judging by my in-store tests, appealing to me for these reasons:

1. MKV/DivxHD support (H.264, MP4, AC3, AAC, 5.1 Channels)

2. Netflix streaming

3. "All Share" DLNA type network file sharing

4. Decent brand with regular firmware updates (automatic if connected to a network).

Does it support MKV? This was of course my number one question. The answer is Yes!

The blue-shirts at Best Buy were kind enough to hook up a Samsung BD-D5300 to a TV (Samsung UN32D4000) for some testing. I had generated several MKV and MP4 files using Handbrake for Windows and put them on a 4GB Patriot brand thumb drive. I plugged it into the front of the player. Cool new interface by the way and it felt more responsive than the last generation.

The videos played at true size, so a 480p DVD rip appeared to float real tiny in the middle of the screen. However pressing the remote's "Tools" button during playback allowed me to change the video aspect from "Original" to "Mode1" which essentially scaled the video up to fit the screen, respecting letterbox where appropriate. It also remembered the setting after stopping the current video and starting the next video.

6 out of 9 file tests played successfully. Best of all the most important audio/video codec combinations worked specifically MKV-H.264/AC3 5.1 and MP4-MPEG4/AAC 5.1. Here are the test results, five using an MKV file container and four using an MP4 file container and all 480p DVD rips.

1. MKV H.264/AC3 5.1 -YES (Dolby Digital, 5.1 channels)

2. MKV MPEG4/AC3 5.1 -YES

3. MKV MPEG4/AAC 5.1 -YES (Advanced Audio Coding, 5.1 channels, 640 kbps)

4. MP4 H.264/AC3 5.1 -No (froze on frame 1, forgivable as MP4 container is not suited for AC3)

5. MP4 MPEG4/AC3 5.1 -N/A (using ".m4v" file extension instead of ".mp4" player simply did not see file)

6. MP4 MPEG4/AAC 5.1 -YES

7. MKV MPEG4/MP3 2.0 -YES (320 kbps, Stereo, Dolby Pro Logic II)

8. MP4 MPEG4/MP3 2.0 -YES (256 kbps, Stereo, Dolby Pro Logic II)

9. MKV VP3(Theora)/Vorbis 2.0 -No (160kbps, Stereo)

Pressing the "Info" button on the remote while playing a movie file showed the format breakdown on the screen, such as "AAC 5.1 Channel". The player also correctly reported "AC3 2 Channel" in my 2-channel Dolby Surround MKV/AC3 test. 720p H.264 video also worked in my Japanese anime test of a MKV-H.264/AAC w ASS subtitles, however the subs didn't show.

The bad news:

* No support for MKV-infused "ASS" Advanced SubStation Alpha subtitles. Bummer for Japanese anime fans.

* 2.35:1 aspect (super widescreen with top and bottom black bars) H.264 video streams stretch taller. Not fully to 16:9 but enough to cut the height of the top and bottom black bar roughly in half and enough to be notice that the actors are taller and skinnier. [EDITED THIS BULLET 12/7/2011]

* 5.1 AC3 streams are sent directly to my discrete amp/receiver. Be sure to change the blu-ray player audio setting to "Bitstream (Audiophile)". [ADDED THIS BULLET 12/7/2011]

MKV support is an exciting development for Samsung. I have bought Samsung blu-ray players in the two previous generation lines and watched as the number of supported movie file formats has grown. Supporting MKV, the mother of all movie containers, is a huge leap.

Now if only Samsung would resolve the 2.35:1 MKV video stretching problem in a future network update I would add that fifth star.

[12/13/2011 UPDATE -Changed from 4 stars to 2 stars]

Now that I have moved the BD-D5300 player from the master bedroom (where it is only lightly used) to the man cave I have additional feedback to share. I just finished troubleshooting a network problem. The player would not get an IP address from my router. I tried different network cables, tried rebooting my routers, everything. Then I took the player back to the master bedroom and networking worked instantly. I brought it back to the man cave and...networking worked instantly! :| My guess is the fix was the complete unplugging of the device from the power socket and plugging it back in. Not only had I read this fixed other user's issues but now it fixed mine. :( What's more is this is the second time a "power cycle" was necessary to fix odd player behavior.

One other drawback to this player is the time it takes to get to Netflix. First you have to load Smart Hub Samsung's apps interface which takes up to 30 seconds. Then and only then do you have access to the Netflix icon. I am loving my old Samsung BD-P1600 blu-ray player (2009) more and more every day because of it's one-click access to Netflix or Pandora.

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For the 24 hours that it worked, the BD-D5300 was a servicable, if slow, player. The UI is impressively unresponsive, and NetFlix took a good 20-30 seconds to load, but once the movie started playing it worked fine. However, that was last night. Today, it rarely boots. When you turn on the power, the unit displays "HELLO", and then that's it. Nothing ever appears on the screen until you hit the power button again to turn it off, at that point you'd see the desktop flash for a fraction of a second before it powered down. I'll be taking it back tomorrow and buying another, non-Samsung, player.