Dane Elec 128 MB Secure Digital Card

How many pictures will it store? It is the most commonly asked question from digital camera enthusiast but usually the question that is the most difficult to get a straight answer about. Well, considering I worked in the memory industry for over 7 years I can help clarify this perplexing question and do so unbiased as I have since changed industries.

The DANE-ELEC DASD0128R 128MB SD Card, like most 128MB cards, will store on average 142 pictures when used with a 2 megapixel camera, 106 images when used with a 3 megapixel camera, 64 pictures when used with a 4 megapixel camera, 51 images when used with a 5 megapixel camera, and 40 pictures when used with a 6 megapixel camera. These numbers are based off the assumption that you are going to shoot your images at the highest quality JPEG setting available for the camera and understand that they are estimates and may be off by as much as 10 percent due to numerous factors including the complexity of the scene being shot and the compression algorithm used by your specific camera.

I truly hope this review was helpful to you in determining whether this card is the right capacity for your specific needs.

It is an excelent card. Fast to write and read. But after 15 months, the memory broke. But was a good deal.

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This is an excellent sd card. It has fast and reliable. Made in Japan.

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Sony ICD-UX70 Digital Voice Recorder - Pink

The digital playback is very useful for transcribing lectures without having to go back and forth. Recordings can be easily sorted in the folders, everything is very accesible. I am glad that Sony added the automatic power off when stopped, I have another digital recorder that does't have a power button, and this is a battery saver.

As an academic, voice recorders can be a life-saver. Whether recording lectures or presentations, or making research comments without having to drop a journal to make a note, this kind of product is awesome. The old microcasette recorders were heavy and large by comparison, and lacked many of the cool features of these newer IC recorders, but they had the space in the chassis for a decent size speaker, and the tapes could be used in transcription machines. This particular model is very small, which increases its cool factor, but it does have its share of limitations. The tiny screen packs in a lot of information--but the result is that everything is microscopic. Spring for the bigger screen, Sony. Another drawback of the size is the one AAA battery. This makes it small and light, but reduces battery time. Not that there's anything you'll want to record that it can't handle on a fresh battery, but you will have to change it more often. Finally, and most important, the small size leaves this thing with a speaker that is only 1 cm in diameter, and only 95 mW. That's technical talk for too small and not loud enough. You have to hold it to your ear to really hear it. That means that in most circumstances, you'll have to wear headphones to listen back. Once you do, the sound quality is pretty good, but it takes away considerably from the fundamental convenience of the thing. There are tons of other nifty features, but nothing I found indispensable. I brought it back.

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This is a very user friendly item, and it interfaces nicely with a computer. I've downloaded sound files off of it onto my Mac. Very intuitive. But also very small, and I've already lost it a couple times. Luckily, I found it again, too.

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This is a good recorder, however there is not much volume. Have to hold it up to ear to hear recording. I have not downloaded the files on the computer yet so I can not comment on that feature. Overall, It is good for what I purchased it for.

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Magbox 12000mAh Travel Chargers Backup External Battery Pack Charger Power Bank Charger Rechargeabl

I received the Magbox 12000mAh Travel Chargers Backup External Battery Pack Charger Power Charger and the only issue that I found is that the only instructions that you receive with the product is in not in English.

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Marantz CC4003 5 Disc CD Changer (Black)

• 5 disc changer
• MP3, WMA, RS-232C
• Cirrus Logic DAC
• Headphone with Level

I've always had mass-market cd players before, figured digital is digital, and never realized the difference that a higher quality player can make. This Marantz is a revelation. It brings my cds alive with a depth, vibrance, and clarity that I've never heard before. It's also quite stylish, with the trademark Marantz curved edges. The buttons on the front of the unit are a bit small and obscure, but I like the remote. It's got excellent functionality and the buttons are nicely sized. So far, my only quibble is that when you stop a cd in the middle it does not start back up at the same place, but goes all the way back to the beginning. And the changer tray seems potentially delicate. I'll keep my fingers crossed on that one. Overall, I am very happy with this purchase.

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It's getting hard to find a decent multi CD player with good sound. My old Denon sounded very good, and I really liked the loading system which allowed me to change 4 discs at once and to change discs while one was playing, but after 10 years it started to go and needed replacing. New Denon's still sound good but people always complain about the bad quality, problems with loading mechanism breaking down, etc. Yamaha's multi-CD player works very well but the sound quality doesn't match the Denon and I don't want to go backwards in terms of sound quality.

I read MANY reviews and ratings, and Marantz seemed like a good step up from my old player. The same parent company owns Marantz and Denon so the sound is at least as good... it's most likely the same converters and sound in both units, but don't quote me on that. Marantz has a 3 year warranty, while most companies only give a 1 year warranty.

I didn't read any bad reviews of either the cc4003 or cc5004 CD players, and people liked them both. They were very well rated and recommended, especially the cc5004. People seem to think these are single vs. multi versions of the same level player. I found out the hard way this is NOT TRUE!

Based on all I read, I bought the cc4003, in order to play several CD's. At first all was good and I was happy with my purchase. The loading tray seems better than that of most other brands, but it's annoying that you can only load 1 CD at a time, and the tray never opens to CD1 so you have to constantly press "Disc skip" button after loading each CD.

However, I soon came across 2 burned CD's that did not play properly. The first of these took a long time to load, skipped tracks and sounded VERY distorted; the second disc would not even load ("no disc" message appeared). These 2 CD's were in mint shape, they had always played before, they still played on every other device I tried, they were burned the same way I burn all my CD's --using Nero software and copying from original CD sources --so it makes no sense that these were unplayable. This meant that I probably had MANY CD's that would not play for some reason... who has time to test out all their CD's???

I thought I had a faulty unit, so I returned to the store along with the CD's, to try another cc4003 and found the same problem. However, the cc5004 played these CD's fine (to be safe, I tried 2 cc5004 players).

In the end I exchanged the cc4003 for a cc5004 and would recommend people avoid the cc4003. It's too early to tell whether I'll have any issues with the cc5004, but I tend to believe it will work fine. Marantz is a well reputed company and the construction seems sturdy. The sound is the same on both units.

The remote works well, far better than my Denon remote ever worked. However, it's very big and somewhat awkward for one hand. The Denon remote was easier to hold. Also the "door" on the back which hides the batteries is flimsy and can fall off.

On a side note, I also tried playing my CD's through my Panasonic Blu-Ray (which cost about 1/3 the cost of the Marantz CD players). The sound was the same as on the Marantz CD players, which surprised me, but they probably have the same converters. The Blu-Ray also has a digital out for the sound. However, the Blu-Ray does not allow me random play or to get to a specific track via the numbers on the remote (i.e. if I want track 15, I have to press play then >> 15 times!), so it's not practical for me.

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fantastic it is like have a complete new cd collection

it was time to change an old technics (95).

i was surprised asking for a cd changer, the sales men in many electronic stores answered : get a dvd player no more cd players are manufactured

and this one has been made in january 2010.

cons

slow motion of the changer when loading the cd`s and noisy

pros

friendly remote control

great sound

you are getting new techno at very good price

i recommend this cd player

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I just got this a month ago. Good So far.

Looks really good. Sounds good, I have attached to a Carver Preamp and it sounds just fine (not a big believer that there is much of a difference once you get above $250 units). The carousel is a bit clunky in movement but not a problem. the diameter is tighter than my last Panasonic, you can only remove CDs one at a time. the buttons on the front are poorly marked (can barely identify buttons if lighting isn't really bright)and most of then are covered up when the drawer is open, this just means it helps to have the remote with you when changing CDs.

This is clearly a case of getting what you pay for. I am very pleased with this exceptional piece of audio equipment. I'm hearing notes and asides and things I've never heard before in alot of my favorite CD's. The imaging, separation, clarity, and, depth of field is superb! Ever think all CD and DVD players are alike? Well, this fine instrument will show you otherwise. I really love the clunky remote which has a retroseventies feel and a simple, logical style. I regret to inform everyone that the manufacturer's carton proclaimed "Made in China" but despite my reservations it performs beautifully. I only wish there was one more slot for a sixth CD. If faithful sound reproduction is important to you paying this much for a machine that does one thing exceptionally well can't help but bring you joy. This system feeds into a Marantz Model 2230 (1974) which drives two first generation Advent Speakers (1969) bringing all the clarity and power I need. The bass is especially noteworthy. Shipping and setup was not a problem and I was anxious about it but FedEx got it safely to my home.

Exceptional job and thanks to both Amazon and Marantz Inc.

Yamaha POCKETRAK W24 Pocket Recorder

• Quick startup - 4.5 seconds
• Long battery life - 38 hour of PCM and 56 hours of MP3 recording
• Two great practice aids: Tuner and Metronome
• Extremely sesitive top quality X-Y stereo microphones
• Wireless remote control included

The most important point is that the musical quality of the recordings from this tiny device is awesome. Full frequency range, very clean, and you can set the EQ for both input and output. It's got lots of options, but is still pretty user-friendly. The small screen is very readable, but is not a touch-screen--all controls are by buttons and switches, for positive action. One reason I chose this one is that it comes with a remote control. You can set it up out front when you're playing, and remotely start and stop it, and adjust the volume level, if you see the peak light flashing too much. At outdoor music festivals, I mount it on top of my straw hat, with a short bolt coming up into the 1/4-20 thread on the bottom. Yes, I am a geek, but it works great!

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It is easy to use and adjust depending on your personal needs. Clear sound. It does not make any difference if you are seated far or near (a professor) in an auditorium or laboratory. You can hear your recordings directly from the pocket or download them into your personal device at your convenience. I definitely recommend it!

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I was thinking to purchase the Sony one, but that is more expensive($500) and doesn't support SD card. The Yamaha is more cost effective. Before received this, I was wondering what I could get for 2xx dollars.

The appearance of the device is pure plastic, looks cheap. However when I turned on have few try to record my Guitar play, I was shocked about the sound quality. Excellent!

The problem is from the plastic feel device appearance, I don't know how long it will last. Anyway, half of the SONY price, I could buy another one if it's broken.

I reviewed the feedbacks on the web before purchased this one. I didn't find any negative feedback, that's why I bought this.

For more device information, there are few advertisements on you tube.

TaoTronics TT-CD02 2.5" TFT LCD HD Car Dash Camera DVR Camera Recorder Black Box with 6 IR LED Nigh

I just purchased this model from another vendor. First, this is in no way an HD recorder. The video is 640x480 AVI at 30fps. I've been through every menu I can find and there are no HD settings. The instruction pamphlet says it is only 640x480.

What do I like about this: It was only $30. The video is acceptable if you want to document incidents while you drive. Each 2 minute video is about 100 Meg in size and it is pretty easy to find the clip you need. You can turn the audio on or off. The motion detect is good. Just get in the car, listen for the start up chirp when you start the car and go. You can put a date & time on the image.

What's not so great: The video. The resolution almost guarantees you cannot make out signs & license plates. If the sun is in view, you'll see a red spot where the sensor is overloaded. This hasn't caused a problem yet, but I don't think it's a good thing.The mount is not that sturdy, but is adequate. It hangs down from a suction cup on the windshield. I may make a block to sit it on the dashboard for a less conspicuous look. But that may be a bit dodgy as you next the flip down display to aim the camera or look at the menu settings. You have to be careful when handling the camera as the general construction isn't that sturdy. It has 6 IR LEDs on the front. They do pretty much nothing.

Overall: It's a decent little camera for the money. Emphasis is on "for the money". It is not a particularly well built or high performing unit, but I think I will have some fun with it. If I had to guess, within 6 months I'll buy a legitimate 1080 resolution camera and move up to that.

Update: 12/27/12. I have spent much more time with the camera and have stumbled upon the high def settings. But, They are not actually hi def.It is the original 640x480 interpolated (extrapolated?) to hi def. The video is still only so-so, but I like the camera more as time goes by. I am planning on getting something better in the spring when road trip season returns. So far the Sony AS10 is looking pretty good to me.

I've opened the pack and appears be good, the finish is raw plastic, so don't wait glossy surfaces, recommend only VGA mode in video, others is too noisy, good supply in wires and the suction base is good, for the price is good value.

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Sony Carrying Case for PCM-M10 Recorder

I bought this item based on description where it mentioned the case can carry PCM M-10 recorder, as also necessary cables that go with it. The case itself is very well built, but there is room in it only for the recorder. Do not expect to be able to put any cable into it. I plan to retain the case with me and use it with batteries . My rating should have been only 3.5 stars, but I liked the construction, so upgraded it to 4 stars.

Fits the M10 perfect, but little room for cords or anything else. Its small and compact and holds the recorder, which is what I was after. I'd recommend

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Could use a little more room for additional cords. An expansion gusset could make this a better product

Liked it

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Olympus VN3100 Digital Voice Recorder

When I went out shopping for a voice recorder I didn't want one that had fancy lights, did backflips, had a taser built in (though that would be cool ;) I just wanted a voice recorder so I wouldn't forget my thoughts during the day. I have a very bad memory and I knew that if I could speak my thoughts rather than writing them I could remember much more of what I wanted to remember.

So I started here at Amazon. The reason I started at Amazon was because they have the widest selection of anything anywhere. (in my own personal opinion) After looking at a few different ones I decided an Olympus would be my best bet. I have always had a great time with Olympus and have never ever had a problem with it. I was not disappointed!

The device itself weighs in just about 65 grams and is 4x1.5x11/16 (LengthxWidthxDepth in inches) It is literally palm sized and fits comfortably in my hand (though I have a bigger hand than most people) It has an internal mic and speaker both of which are adequate for any atomsphere. Most audio-philes would not be happy with the sound quality but be not discouraged, it records clearly anything that is spoken. In the Menu it also gives a choice of recording in high or low mic, as well as sound quality of XHQ, HQ, SP, and LP. It also sports a mic and headphone port for you to use external equipment with it.

The interface is very easy to use and fairly intuitive. There is a hold switch on the left side for locking it and turning it off, a battery charge level in the upper right hand corner, and an easy to read lcd screen. It has four folders (A,B,C,D) for easy organization and each recording records the date and time when it was recorded.When in hold the only thing that it'll show if you press any button is the date and time. (it can show 24 clock as well)

This unit does not sport a usb port for connection to your computer (hence the pc absent from the model number) and actually comes in a silver finish not the blue one. One thing that irked me but is not much of a problem was that it has a strap hole but does not come with a strap. It is an accessory that can be bought from Olympus.

All in all this is a wonderful product and is actually fairly cheap for the features that it packs. For those with bad memory it is a life saver as well. I would recommend this product to anyone who wants to record anything from thoughts to speechs.

I tried to save a few bucks and bought the VN3100. It is doing a great job for me. I have no complaints on the quality of the unit, hence my rating of 4 stars.

I am using it simply for reminders throughout the day. Its much easier to record my thoughts than trying to remember them all. I am an architect and many ideas come and go during the day. The VN3100 is excellent for quick capture.

My regret was triggered by several recordings I made of my two boys (2 and 5 years old). We have been playing around and I have several recordings now that I would love to save. Without any way to download the files to my PC, they will need to remain on my recorder forever.

I recommend that anyone considering the VN3100 upgrade to a recorder with a download feature. You never know what you will record that you will want to keep forever.

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I've had this recorder for a number of months now, and I'm using it to recorder interviews that I am using for my thesis. While the recording quality itself is fairly good, I am extremely irritated that the buttons themselves aren't really set up very well. For example, I am transcribing the interviews, and so I am constantly replaying parts of the recording. If you don't press the button exactly in the right spot, you end up, instead of forwarding backward or ahead, going all the way to the beginning of the track and losing your spot. For obvious reasons, this can be extremely infuriating. I've had it do this a good 20 times at least, and then have to try to find where I was. It's caused a loss of efficiency that I think is unacceptable.

So, if you don't mind inefficiency and having to spend a lot of time forwarding and going back and subsequently losing your spot, then it's great.

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Chris provides a very useful review, which gave me the confidence to order a couple of these recorders for mental notetaking. i too need a digital short term memory

like Chris, the reviewer, i just want a vanilla digital voice recorder without all the undelivered promises of the higher end machines. i've bought and returned a couple of other higher end recorders and i'm ready to settle for a lot less.

most importantly, this recorder is so much easier to learn how to use than the others.

now, my major problem is to remember: 1. to have the recorder with me and 2. to use it before the target thought vaporizes into thin air.

recording fleeting thoughts is a lot like taking photographs of UFOs.

and you certainly cannot beat amazon's price on this unit !!!!!!!!

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i never owned a digital recorder, but was pleasantly surprised by this product's 1) price 2) ease of use 3) amt of recordable hrs 4) folder system 5) size (tiny!). i don't have a basis of comparison but i am very happy with the purchase, and use it a lot.

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JVC CU-VD40 Share Station DVD Burner for HD Everio Camcorders

This unit PROBABLY doesn't do what you think it does. If you read the website and the box, it looks like you can shoot wonderful HD movies, push a button and voila! a DVD pops out and you can SHARE it with friends and family. Notice it is called the "Share Station"! NOT the unit spits out a DVD that "cannot be played on normal DVD players" (page 47 of the manual). This unit is simply an ARCHIVAL unit. It takes whats in your camera and backs it up to a DVD. Thats it. Call JVC and verify it.

The sharestation is probably the worst piece of equipment I have ever purchased. Worked when it wanted to the first couple of months, now it doesn't work at all. I have always liked JVC products but after this dreadful experience, I am gonna have to think long and hard before I buy ANYTHING from JVC. This item will not recognize ANY disc, even the ones I made with it

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I recently bought a JVC sharestation, to go along with the JVC Everio camera I just bought. You are supposed to be able to connect the camera to the sharestation, and start burning DVD's. Sounds great! Every disk I have used creates the error message "Incompatible disk". I am not alone, only now I find out that hundreds of other people are also unable to use the device that they just paid $200 or more for. JVC is not acknowledging the problem. I don't know how JVC can get away with this!

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I purchased the camera and the share station. I took family video and tried to burn to a dvd. The DVD provided by JVD wouldn't work. It kept saying 'incompatable disc' so I purchased the DVD-R by Sony (recommended in their manual) and it still says 'incompatable disc'. I called the JVD Help Center and they said...you have to send it to the factory. No help at all....just send it in. Don't buy this piece of junk.

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Well, I read many poor reviews on the internet about the product, and the reviewer is correct, this is an archival unit only, and won't generate a DVD that can be played on anything other than the JVC ShareStation. Unfortunately, I had already purchased a $1600 JVC camcorder which I could not return due to it having 5 hours of footage of my new baby (which I can't get off of it) on its HDD. So, I went ahead and purchased with these limitations in mind.

Unfortunately, when the unit arrived, it was defective. Won't recogonize any disc of any type. Even the disc supplied by JVC in the packaging showed up as "incompatible disc."

If you have already purchased the camcorder, you may also be stuck purchasing this unit; however, if you have not yet purchased a camcorder, I would strongly consider another brand.

See ya!

Swann® 4 - channel DVR

this is about the cheapest DVR i have seen on the market, after the wifes car got vandalized i jut wanted something to record and some vid cameras.

i got this DVR in a kit with 2 maxi-bright cameras.

The DVR itself is a real pain in the butt. Whoever designed the remote control must have been drunk, there is nothing intuitive about it.

The manual is sparse, it gives the basics, and i reccommend you read it front page to last page as there are some features that need to be worked before others can be active.

The motion detector capability in the DVR is somewhat shoddy. With the Maxibrite cameras and the motion detect sensitivity set to 4 it barely picks up anything, sometimes it picks up a car from 5 feet away. However stepping it up one notch to a 3 means it is triggered by a flea jumping off a dog 6 blocks away and almost never stops recording.

i hooked up a higher quality camera and it seemed to help. The Motion detection on this is just plain finniky.

That aside, this thing is pretty sweet. once through the headache of setting up and learning how to use it you find some features you wouldnt expect on such a budget piece of equipment, like the ability to set the motion detector to ignore certain areas of the image.

Also, the video quality is better than i had expected. The frame rate is nice, the image is pretty decent, dont expect HD but for $250 +/it is pretty good. Good enough to see faces.

All my gripes aside, the price alone for this thing is awesome. Other DVR's usually start at 300 and dont even have a hard drive.

if you are looking for something inexpencive and dont mind pulling your hair out fine tuning this thing it works pretty darn well.

I will give it 4 stars for the price alone.

Dish Network 612 Dual Tuner Hd DVR Receiver

We own a Samsung PN50A550 Plasma HDTV. When you drive a "cadillac" you don't go cheap with the peripherals; you get good quality. Anyway, we have the DISH Total HD package; nothing but HD bliss. I ordered the 612 to replace the HD receiver that we had that wasn't a DVR as well. We couldn't be more pleased. Great HD/DVR receiver at an Amazon price. My wife loves being able to pause live TV and come back to it after breaks. She also loves to be able to instantly rewind show dialog that she didn't get the first time to hear it again. The DVR HD recording is flawless; no HD quality loss whatsoever. Highly recommend however please note the 612 is only good for one TV. DISH does have other HD receivers that will work for more than one TV in the house.

Should add that you can also rent on a monthly basis this receiver from DISH but at the low Amazon price that I was able to score this at I should have it paid for in a short time. The flip side is that if you rent and anything happens to it DISH will just exchange it. I'd rather own it and pocket the savings; why give it to someone else.

This thing puts out more heat than you can imagine. And it has a fan constantly running to keep it "cool". Forget having a quiet living room. This thing is far out the worst piece of AV equipment I have ever owned. Did I mention when you turn it "off" all it does is turn the front panel LEDs off. The fan is still going, the power is still being used, the heat is still there.

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I have only had this receiver for two days from a new DISH install, but I feel I must post a review here since I was apalled at the low ratings others left. I actually was looking for a diagram/picture of the rear panel layout before the system was installed to get an idea of what I would be getting when the system did arrive and saw it here. When I saw the low ratings and read them, I immediately felt that "buyer's remorse" feeling thinking I would be getting a horrible piece of equipment. When the installer showed up, I immediately asked him about reliability/performance of the unit, and he thought it was one that had the least complaints and one that had some of the better features to date. To the contrary of what most have stated here so far, I found the unit to work quite well. Maybe that will change with time, but so far I haven't noticed any of the deficiencies others have mentioned. The unit responds quickly, doesn't lose any frames that I can tell, hasn't locked up, nor has it rebooted at all. Another reviewer said the unit would shut off after 4 hours but it is supposed to do that under the default settings and that can be adjusted or turned off. As far as power usage, I don't think this unit is any worse than others that are out there. It would be nice to have it completely power down when it's off, but it does still need to be active to get updates such as the guide and record programs that are pending. I'm sure there is some room here for improvement with power management, but I wouldn't consider it a show stopper (pardon the pun) when compared the rest out there. I found the noise level to be hardly noticable from even a foot away from the unit, and I can't hear anything from it in the room even when everything is off and certainly not when the TV is on. I guess some people are just unlucky or overly picky about stuff (or from the competition?) Hope this review helps others dismiss some of the bad impressions I got when I read these reviews. Again, so far I find it to be decent product.

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We are on our second one of these and feel sad that we are stuck in a contract with this model. It freezes daily, which is especially bad when another show was recording at the time and now we can't watch it. Every time I invite friends over to watch a Pay Per View I picture them all staring at the TV in disbelief when it locks up midstream and there's no way to find out what just happened because we'll have to spend 5 to 10 minutes rebooting the system and missing the PPV we just spent $55.00 on.

We're told by Dish Network that to use another model DVR costs $200 plus monthly fee, and that's TO RENT, not to buy. They're obviously aware of the problem based on the other reviews you'll find on this model.

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I have been through 5 612s, and they all have handshake issues with my Pioneer elite sc-07 and my Yamaha YSP-3000. and when you call dish network, they have no idea what I am talking about. I also have a 622 receiver, that I have been happy with.....

Zmodo 8CH CCTV H.264 DVR Security Surveillance Camera System & 8 Color Outdoor IR Security Camera S

I love this system but it is not too easy to install by yourself. I am a high-tech savvy guy and the instructions they give you are not enough. I had to go onto youtube and watched some videos on step by step instructions. Also, when you put your information into the dvr make sure that you restart it, to save the info. The dvr will usually ask you if you want to restart to save info. but while inputting the mobile info, I had to force a restart that saved the passwords. The night vision is very cool and the cameras just plug right into the dvr. They give you a lot of cord to be able to put a camera anywhere in your home...unless you own a mansion. If you are wanting to record audio, then you will need to buy additional rca cable to do so. It is a great system and well worth the price for the results you get. Just understand that a little time might be required for installation.

I give this 5star! Why, the system works great, and the seller was prompt, and corrected any issues I had in a very prompt and courteous manner! Now, my husband feels a more sense of security! Great buy! I will purchase from this seller in he near future again! I can watch the cameras from my laptop, via wifii , from any room at any time! THANKS

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For the price, this did what it was supposed to do. The quality wasn't perfect, but I knew that might be the case before I bought it, based on the price.

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IEEE-1394, 6P / 6P, Firewire Cable, 6 ft

Firewire cables, at least to me, are as overpriced as HDMI cables. When something like this comes along at such a cheap price, it sticks out as if something were wrong.

However, taking a chance proved to be a good thing this cable worked just like it should. I purchased it to connect a Canopus capture device to a computer, and it worked with no issues, just like it should. The cable itself seems to be constructed decently. I'm not planning on using it in a mobile environment, but on my desktop it works fine.

SanDisk Sansa m240 1 GB MP3 Player (Silver)

• Lightweight flash memory digital audio player--weighs just 1.5 ounces
• 1 GB memory holds 16 hours of MP3 and 32 hours of WMA audio
• Microsoft PlaysForSure support for compatibility with wide range of online stores and subscription services
• Integrated FM radio with 20 presets; built-in microphone and voice recorder
• Powered by single AAA battery, for up to 19 hours of usage

I hated my iPOD Mini so I tried a small flash player that was OK but hard to read & use. Then I found the Sansa M240 (1GB) for only $87 (Circuit City) and I'm thrilled with it.

Sound quality is very good with the supplied earbuds and using the Custom EQ. Without the Custom EQ I might not be so happy. A neckstrap with the earbuds would be nice but can be added. There's a hole to add a lanyard.

These 55 year old eyes found the Display easy to read even in the dark with a large, bold font and good contrast. The backlight is good but I'd prefer a lighter shade of blue for even better contrast. Very minor issue and really a matter of preference.

The controls are outstanding and one of the best features! The LARGE buttons are very easy to use and provide good tactile response.

Build quality is typical of similar products and seems well made with good fit and finish. Lightweight and handy size. Overall design is excellent in that they've put a large display and large buttons into a unit only slightly larger than a thumb drive!

I haven't gone through a battery yet but I do like the fact that it runs on a single AAA battery and doesn't need to be recharged with a cable or charger. I always keep a few AAA's in my briefcase anyway for "in-flight" replacements.

Connection to a PC is simple with the supplied standard mini-USB cable (same as for my phone and camera!). I like that there are no proprietary cables or connectors. I prepared my playlist with WMP and synched the M240. The M240 automatically sorts by artist, album and genre.

Although I haven't used it yet, the subscription compatibility is something I will probably use.

The FM Tuner receives even weaker stations and has 20 presets. With that many I can use different groups of presets for favorites in multiple cities. It would be nice to be able to record from FM as some units do but it's not a big deal.

There is a voice recorder funtion that might be handy but I don't really need it.

If you like simple & easy and eschew tiny, hard to use buttons and miniscule displays, you will like this a LOT and it SOUNDS good.

Bottom Line: YES, I would buy it again!

Buy SanDisk Sansa m240 1 GB MP3 Player (Silver) Now

My brother did a little more research than I did and gave me this mp3 player for Christmas, and it turned out to be far better than the one I gave him (oops). I have spent a little time with this since then, and have been downloading large amounts of music to the player with no sign of it having major problems. The sound quality provided by the earbuds is a lot better than I expected, and the easy controls make this pretty simple to appreciate and use.

Included with my package was an offer from two third party companies worth checking out. The first was from audible.com for audiobook downloads (be warned that a lot of them are larger unabridged offerings) that has a huge selection to choose from, and the other was for Rhapsody, offering an $80 rebate if you subscribed for 6 months to their service. I have had a problem getting the Rhapsody website to accept the UPC number from my player required for preregistration, so be aware you might have a problem.

I am planning on taking this lightweight one-AAA battery player out on the ski slopes to have something tolisten to, and think that this will more than capably do the trick. I strongly recommend it if you have never gotten an mp3 player, because until I got this one, I hadn't had one, and using the USB connection and armband plan to get a lot of use out of this player.

Read Best Reviews of SanDisk Sansa m240 1 GB MP3 Player (Silver) Here

I bought the Sansa SanDisk M240 2 months ago and I've been very pleased with the purchase. Here are all the reasons I bought it and like it:

-I needed an mp3 player to use during workouts (both at the gym and runs/walks outside). It comes with an adjustable elastic arm band and a plastic protective sheath for use with or without the armband. This unit is perfect for working out.

-Reasonably priced (around $75)

-Large-ish capacity (1GB) flash drive which also functions as a jump drive to store non music files on as long as you have your usb cord with you

-Runs on 1 AAA battery (!!!) (they say 16 hours of play time and that's about right)

-Features an FM radio

-Hold switch to keep unit on or off

-It's small, lightweight, and quite attractive.

-The display is easy to read.

-It has a microphone but I have never used it so I can't comment on that function.

-Comes with headphones that are probably the best of the 3 pairs I own

-Simple drag and drop file transfer to load/unload music (but not compatible with Windows 98)

The only issue I had was on the first day that I got it, it wouldn't let me drop more than 125 songs on the player. When I called customer service they immediately suggested that I create a folder on the player and drop the files into the folder (instead of directly onto the drive). That solved my problem and I was able to load up almost a full 1GB of music onto it. I was impressed with how knowledgeable and helpful their customer service was.

May I suggest that you buy a set of rechargeable AAA batteries and a charging unit (I like Rayovac) to help save our planet?

I would buy this product again in a heartbeat.

Want SanDisk Sansa m240 1 GB MP3 Player (Silver) Discount?

I've been using my Sansa for about a year now, and considering the current price, I'd say it's well worth picking one up if you're new to the mp3-player game. While it's far from perfect, nor is it iPod-pretty, it's cheap and functional... if you don't mind tweaking it a bit.

Out of the box, the Sansa (not to mention every other Sandisk mp3 player I've used) has an ugly user interface, a lot of hard-to-find features, and one huge, truly infuriating flaw: it plays songs out of order. Even if you put mp3s in specific album folders, the Sansa will jumble up your personal playlists.

I'll start with the interface. Compared to the Nano, which has a nice backlit, multi-line colour screen, the Sansa offers you four lines with scrolling titles and artists. And the scroll is SLOOOOOWWWW. Consequently, if you're trying to figure out the name of the song, you end up staring at the screen for 20 seconds just waiting there's no way of manually scrolling. The Sansa assumes that everyone listens to mp3s the same way with uniform id3 tags. It would be so simple to give the user the option to scroll the filename, but no. You have to deal with an excess of information and chances are you'll walk into a tree or something.

If you want to do anything besides listen to mp3s use the Sansa as a recorder, or listen to the radio first you have to find those features. The interface is highly unintuitive and requires a lot of fiddling before you figure things out. That said, the tuner and recorder functions are nice to have on hand, though I use them rarely. One of the best things about the Sansa m200 series is the introduction of an effective equaliser, with a set of powerful presets definitely appreciated.

The Sansa is also a voracious battery drainer compared to other mp3 players on the market. It takes a single AAA, but if you listen to it for any longer than fifteen minutes a day, you're going to be replacing your battery once a week.

As for the matter of mp3s playing out of order... There's a solution at hand. See, all Sandisk players (for some UNGODLY reason) store and sort files according to FILE DATE. Once you realise this, it's just a matter of downloading a freeware program like SetFileDate and modifying the timestamp on all the files you want to copy to your Sansa. Problem solved. It's a truly idiotic flaw Sandisk should incorporate an automatic file-timestamp when files are copied onto its players, or simply adapt the device to play according to file structure but in the meantime, manually changing the timestamp works just fine.

Once you've whipped the Sansa into shape, the positive aspects become more obvious. The exterior casing is well-designed, and I prefer the rounded shape to the iPod's flat-card appearance; there are no enforced DRM or file-type limitations that I've found so far; the sound quality is reasonably clean; and once you figure out the various settings, you actually end up having a lot more control over the player than your standard iPod.

One last criticism I will make... The headphone jack on Sandisk players wears out like clockwork after about a year. This is quite a common issue with a lot of smaller mp3 players on the market right now, but it seems to hit the Sansa with frustrating regularity. Try to avoid pulling your headphones out of the jack as much as possible and your player should live a lot longer.

I had a weeklong experince with the IPOD shuffle and was horribly dissapointed with it. The Shuffle is like a Yugo while the Sansa I guess is like a Toyota great value with smooth performance.

Pros -

1) You get a 5 band user adjustable graphic equalizer and there are presets too.

2) It can be set to connect as a mass storage device (in settings) and after that simply use Windows Explorer to move songs in and out. It updates library automatically (within a second or two) after USB is disconnected and is then ready to play your tracks. What could be simpler?

3)Clear and sharp display with plenty of pixels to display needed information. The display is backlit but the backlight seems to be disabled automatically when battery is low. Works for me! I see no need for a power guzzling color display in a device like this.

4) The headset was better than expected (surprise).

5) Great Radio (better than the Creative Zen) it is set to Mono in Settings but you continue to get good reception even after changing it to Stereo. I am really surprised at the quality of the radio and it has 20 presets to boot all very easy to program in.

6) Sandisk gives you a clear case and an armband no need to buy one separately.

7) For a small device the buttons are relatively easy to press.

8) Works as a flash storage device for moving files around.. no problem. And costs almost the same as one!

So darn easy to use have not had to read the manual yet.

Sound quality is pretty good.

Cons minor really

Battery cannot be charged inside the device (this would have been most convenient).

The "Sandisk" "Sansa" names are written vertically the device is supposed to be used horizontally. The industrial designers at Sandisk weren't thinking.

I don't like its rounded profile at the back. I think a dinky box makes for a better looking and easier handling device.

Cannot delete songs directly on the device only possible using Windows Explorer.

=========================================

Between a Yugo and a Toyota what would you choose?

75 Ft. Toslink Digital Audio Cable DolbySurround Sound Cable

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Product is as described. Shipping service was prompt. The cable will go around a few tight corner ... I got four. Beyond that there was signal decay.

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Very satisfied with product. Low price and prompt shipment. Would not hesitate to do business with this company again. No problems with order at all.

Sony MVCCD300 3MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

I have used several digital cameras and the Sony MVC-CD300 is the best by far. Being able to burn a rewritable CD at a cost of less than $5 per CD with 150MB is a BIG advantage over memory card style cameras (a 128MB card can run a couple hundred dollars). The electronic storage problem that I faced with memory cards no longer applies (I travel a lot and always have my camera in my hand so you can imagine the number of pictures taken).

I have been able to store close to 100 pictures at the highest resolution on one CD making it very easy to file, catalog and find my pictures. I have not had the problem that the previous reviewer did in being able to delete a picture and reuse the space. He must be using regular CDs (certainly an option) rather than the rewriteable ones.

It was very easy to initially set up and use and has multiple ways to get the pictures to my PC. I usually use the USB hook-up and even use the camera as a rewriteable CD for pictures other folks send me. When I am feeling lazy, I just plop the CD in my DVD drive which also works great.

With 3.3 megapixels, the picture clarity couldn't be better. I have printed out 8 x 10s that look like they were taken by an expensive 35mm camera. The number of options for picture sizing is also enough to satisfy any "normal" requirement.

If I had to point out one issue with the camera, it is size. While certainly not the largest camera on the market, it is a bit bulkier than I would prefer (I like sticking a camera in my pocket and I need to use a fanny pack to carry this one around).

All in all, if you are looking for a camera that can take 35mm quality pictures and still stay digital, I would highly recommend this Sony.

My wife gave me my MVC-CD300 for my birthday. It arrived just in time for our 4th of July family reunion. I took 450 pictures over 5 days and had only one that was not a keeper (credit camera, not photographer). The camera allows you to not only review your shots, but to zoom up to 5X to really check out the details of the photos you've taken. Each evening we would hook the camera up to the TV with the RCA cable (included) and set the camera on "Slide Show". It was so much better than I imagined, beautiful high-resolution photographs of the day automatically displayed for everyone to enjoy (and critique). When the week was over I downloaded slide show software from CyPics and burned a CD for everyone to have all 450 pictures at a cost of less than a dollar per CD. Plus, they can insert the pictures into Word for cropping and printing with almost no effort at all. I have yet to use the USB cable since it is no problem to just use my pc's CD drive. I had planned to archive my photos on the camera's small CD, but it is so easy to copy them to the hard drive and burn a larger CD with about 800 photographs that I have gone to using the rewriteable CDs in the camera. I use the 2nd highest resolution on the MVC-CD300 and get about 150 shots per CD and they give excellent 8x10 prints. The cost per shot (including archiving) is almost nothing, so you feel totally free to snap away. You couldn't ask for a better combination of features.

Buy Sony MVCCD300 3MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom Now

Tired of just taking 20 photos and then having to go home and tranfer th pictures to you computer. Well the sun has finally risen over the horizon of digital cameras. This camera uses an 88 cent 8cm mini cd for its film. You get to take 99 pictures per disc at its highest resolution in the least compressed jpg mode. Each picture is around 1.2 megabytes in fine compression max resolution. You can even take uncompressed photos if you want maximum clarity at print sizes over 8x10 with only 9 megabytes used up per picture. Try that with a dimage 7!!!

The ability to make 15 second 320x240 mpeg 1 movies is cute. the other format for moving pictures is a multi image gif file. sony calls it clip mode. point your web browser at it to see the frames fly by, just like all those moving ads do it

After you buy this camera you should also get a S70 adapter, 52mm lens protector (UV filiter), and a 52mm lens cover (the one that comes with the camera is not 52mm. A .8 netural denisty would also come in handy for those wide apeture blured background shots in the daytime. Since this camera has such a fantastic manual white balance forget about buying the FL-D and the rest of the light correcting filters. just put in one touch mode, point it at your scene and volia the colors look ok.

After using it for a few short vacations i discovered i prefered cd-r discs. With a cd-rw you can only reclaim space on the disc if you erase the last photo taken. otherwise its no different then a cd-r unless you want to wipe the whole thing clean with a format. the only benifit of cd-rw is with rotate which actually rewrites over the existing image rather than burning another.

The key to night shots is to put it in manual mode a=3.5 s=30 is a good starting point. Its cumbersome to keep haveing to switch back to setup mode to change the preset scene mode to a different one. The cameras brain does not automaticly use the flash when you need a fill light. you will have to waste the first photo to notice you subject is a black siluette, and force the flash for your next shot.

The mini cd's are becoming very popular as there are a ton of tiny MP3-CD players commig out which use em

Read Best Reviews of Sony MVCCD300 3MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom Here

First of all, let me say I'm not a professional or even semi-pro photographer. I wouldn't know an f-stop if it landed on me. That being said, I love this camera. It's extremely easy to use. I bought mine in Tokyo, so the manuals were of course in Japanese (which I don't read or speak) but I still figured out the camera with no problems. If you can figure out something without a manual you can read, then the thing wasn't very complicated. The pictures are fantastic, in my opinion. The cd-rw works very well. You have to initialize the disc, then finalize it to be read in your computer's cd-rom. With cd-rw discs you can then unfinalize them in the camera to store more pictures on the disc. Each of these procedures take a couple of minutes, and you have to sit the camera on a flat surface and not move it during that time. If you use plain cd-r discs, you can't unfinalize them. I've read that some cd-rom drives have difficulty reading from cd-rw discs, but mine had no problem. If you have an older cd-rom, you might have to use cd-r discs instead of cd-rw. But since you can get them for less than a dollar and store 150+ images, you're still getting a bargain compared to Memory Stick or Smartmedia prices.

The camera comes with one cd-rw and one cd-r disc, but will work with 80mm discs from other companies. You do get a nag-screen on the LCD saying "Mavica discs recommended" if you use non-sony media, but I figure that's okay with me, considering how much cheaper non-Sony discs are. P>There is very little lag time between pics, much less than I expected. 2 seconds or so, usually less. This is my first digital camera so I don't know if that's a long time compared to other cameras, but I was surprised, considering the image is being burned to a disc. However, I've read that if you use the 'uncompressed TIFF' option, it takes 30+ seconds to write the 10Mb image to the disc. The cd-rw speed is 4x.

One cool thing is that you can zoom in up to 5x in images that are stored in the camera, move around within the image to see the part you want, and crop the pic if you want to while it's still in the camera, no computer needed. You can hook up the AV cable to see this on your TV as you're doing it.

The battery recharges inside the camera there is no external battery charger. So if you buy an extra battery, like I did, you can't charge it while you're using the camera. That's the only complaint I have, and it isn't much of a complaint.

For a long time serious photo hobbyists have turned up their noses at the Mavica line, but I think this should change because of this camera. 3.3 megapixels makes for excellent pictures, and the flexibility allows for a lot of control over the more advanced features. I can't recommend this camera highly enough.

----

After owning the camera for a couple of weeks, I have to make a small addition. There is no optical viewfinder, which is a problem under dim lighting conditions. For nighttime shots or macro work where vibration is more of a problem, you would want to use a remote control, and the only remote control available is the one built into Sony tripods. You can get around the vibration problem by using the timer, but it would still be nice to have a wired remote control. Those are my only nags thus far. I would still buy the camera without hesitation.

Want Sony MVCCD300 3MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom Discount?

... I think the 300 is almost perfect. However there a couple things that could have been done better so I'm focusing on the negatives here.

Things that won't be fixed:

... I dislike the write time for each picture. The run time for a battery is not long enough. At best you'll get about an 1 1/2 hours. Part of the problem is that the lcd is the only way to view. It has a switch to shut off the backlight, but even on the sunniest days, you can barely see your subject with the light off.

Interchangeable lens would have been nice. You can get some attachments, but truly interchangeable lens would be better.

There are some irritating aspects as well. I find that the natural grip causes me to touch the lcd and leave thumb prints on it all the time. I often find that I've mysteriously set the macro button. I've taken a few pictures in macro mode without realizing it. The most irratating is that Sony harasses you for not buying their expensive media (about 6-8 times more costly than the good ones I buy elsewhere). Everytime you turn on the camera you get the message "Sony recommends Mavica CDs only" or some such thing.

Things Sony could fix:

My biggest complaint is that it doesn't come with a cover for the LCD. I primarily bought the camera to carry around on bike trips and I keep it in my front handlebar bag. The lcd is already pretty bady scratched from bouncing around inside the bag.

The battery charger that comes with it is pretty inconvenient. You need to open a little door to plug in the cord. That little plastic door isn't too sturdy. A better idea would have been to give you a charger like the cheaper one they sell that you could also plug into the camera. I bought the charger and a second battery and am a lot happier. The new charger is also more portable.

Like I said up front, I'm pleased with the camera. I plan on taking it on a cross country bike ride and anticipate a small stack of CDs will last me. I'd recommend the MVCD300 to anyone who won't find the above quirks too bothersome.

Sony CD Radio Cassette Recorder Sony CD Radio Cassette Recorder

I have had the Sony CFD-S05 for a couple of months and it does exactly what I need it to. I have it sitting on my desk so that I can listen to a CD, tape or the radio while I am working or moving around. I have used all three media and I love it. The sound is good, and all of the controls are on the front and are at my fingertips. I particularly like being able to set my CDs to repeat so that I don't need to pay attention to re-starting the player occasionally. Since I am in a small space I don't play the unit loudly so am not concerned with the volume that it will crank out. The specifications sheet states that the CD player produces sound in the 20HZ to 20,000KHz range, but I am sure that the small speakers don't produce that range. However, you might get it from good headphones. Still, it is pleasant and more than acceptable. I have played a range of types of music on the CD player and listened to two hours of Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion on tape. I initially tried to play a decades-old cassette tape on it and found it difficult to close the tape player lid. However, I had no such problem with new tapes. A couple of things that could be improved include having the headphone input on the front of the unit, and having a larger indicator for the CD play mode (such as repeat, shuffle or random play) -I need to use a magnifying glass to read the setting. However, I find this to be a good unit and heartily recommend it.

I bought this boombox for my desk at work. The CD portion works great! One of the reasons I bought this model is that it had

a audio cassette player in it. This is the only problem that I have had. It has "eaten" several tapes. Still it is a great player, despite

this problem. Also, I got it for a great price.

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Defender Security 1 UTP To 4 Coax Receiver/Transmitter Ideal For CCTV Applications/Multi-Media

Defender Security 1 UTP To 4 Coax Receiver/Transmitter Ideal For CCTV Applications/Multi-Media

This device must be used in pairs. The photo and descriptor imply the buyer is purchasing a receiver and a separate transmitter. But the purchaser receives only one unit.

Defender makes a good DVR, so I chose this unit to finish the installation, though a price of over seventy dollars for the two ends is on the high end. For only one end the price is highway robbery!

Micca Slim-HD 1080p Full-HD Portable Digital Media Player w/ 2.5-Inch HDD Drive Bay

The Micca Slim-HD is a good little portable media player. I purchased the device for a recent conference overseas the intention was to connect it to a large HDTV screen through a HDMI cable and run it continuously for 4-days with a looping video from a 500Gb Western Digital internal disk-drive.

As time was running short, I decided to purchase 2 devices one to use as a primary device and the other as a redundant fall-back should the first one fail. When the shipment arrived I noted that the design was a little flimsy. I would have liked to see a tougher enclosure particularly given that it is designed to be portable and can easily be knocked around. In any case, I inserted the internal drive and went to power it up as per the instructions. Unfortunately, the first device did not work so I was relieved that I had purchased the second as a redundancy. I contacted Micca support using the form on their website and in a relatively short period of time "Jack" emailed me and suggested that I buy a 3rd device and return the other through Amazon. I did that and within days the 3rd device had turned up only to find that the power supply did not work. I emailed Jack again and he sent me 2 new power supplies. While there were issues, I found the customer support to be very impressive. Jack even called me at one stage to talk through the issues.

As for the functionality The device will play most popular video formats. I found that some perform better than others. Jack suggested using the MKV file format which I found performed the best out of the many formats I tried. Out of these I found a couple that did not work including the high-end Apple ProRes codec . For most users this won't be an issue unless you're planning to use a professional editing studio to produce your own video content.

The most annoying thing about the device is its speed. At this stage I've only used the internal drive which Jack tells me is the quickest out of all the interfaces but it's still very slow. Finding video on the device isn't convenient but it's not too painful. It's about 3-4 clicks to find a video. The slow responsiveness may also be due to the remote. I find myself clicking buttons several times before the device responds to a command. This is probably due to the limited angle on the remote (you must be directly in front of the device for the remote to work) and the slow responsiveness of the device. As an example, several times I've tried to fast forward through a video only to have the screen message tell me something different the actual video is fast forwarding but the onscreen display is telling me it's rewinding. Also, I've also found that on occasion video files do not appear in the folders, so you have to re-copy the file to the device so yes, there are bugs in the software.

I consider myself a demanding user of the device and expect a lot. Keeping this in mind and given that it's more intended for home use, I was impressed with the system it does what it says it will do. The hi-resolution video looked impressive on the big screen and it performed will over the 4-days of continuous use. There are some limitations that are annoying but easily overcome. If you're looking to use this for a simple portable video player you won't be disappointed. I think the price point is a little high given that new devices are constantly entering the market with internet connectivity, more functionality and better interfaces, so I'd expect to see this drop some time soon.

All-in-all it's a good device which is well supported by Micca's customer service team.

This little unit plays all the major video files and plays them well. With the bonus of being portable. One connection using HDMI and your good to go. Remote is very well desinged and the unit looks fantastic. I added a 320GB hard drive but also tested both the SD card and the USB for playing video. I tested every format that is listed except RMVB and all played with top quality full HD. (Did not have an RMVB file to test). None of the other players I've owned could do this. I've been building HTPC's for about 10 years and have experienced the progress of many portable media players. I have the Xbox and used it to stream video: Too much trouble. Owned the Avox JukeBox by Vantec: Very limited file formats and remote is terrible. I've owned the Dlink DSM 510: Great product but very finicky. Locked up a lot and no internal storage. Owned the Galaxy Metal Gear Tvisto Mini: Nice product but limited formats and took a mess of cables to connect.

Nothing beats a Home Theater PC for quality and usefulness but this Micca slim is kick ass for a portable player...

I would recommend for anyone needing a portable video player. In fact, if you don't need the full features or expense of an HTPC then this unit would make a good HTPC alternative.

Buy Micca Slim-HD 1080p Full-HD Portable Digital Media Player w/ 2.5-Inch HDD Drive Bay Now

I give the Micca Slim HD 4 big stars! A super small, portable, capable media player. I updated to the latest firmware available. I withheld the last STAR for:

1: A few playback issues It cannot play older DivX codec and WMV8/7 codec.

Re-encoding those older files will be a waste of time.

It cannot play VOB files at all

2: The remote Micca needs to improve or boost the IR signal of the remote control. If you

don't point it correctly it's very sluggish. If you're going through contents of

a 1TB external hdd, you will soon find your arms getting tired because of the need

for you to point the remote just at the right level.

Micca also needs to add more functionality on the arrow buttons

(up,down,left,right). I would be nice if you can use the left/right button move

forward/backwards within directories, instead of tirelessly depressing the

"Exit" button to move from one folder to the next. Also the exit button

needs to be just as big as the OSD button since it's constantly being used.

Powering "OFF" the device with the remote is fairly easy but for some

reason powering it "ON" via the remote can be quite a challenge . I have to

point & press at least 3x before it powers on.

Lastly, for some weird reason the DOWN arrow button of the Micca remote

can power ON/power OFF my old single DVD player(I removed the old

DVD player to solve the conflict)

3: Micca's LED power light should turn on/off, a better indication to let you know if the unit

is on or off. Instead it remains on 24/7.

4: File description function does not work: When browsing files, on the top left there is a file

attribute section. Good idea but it does not work. Selecting a file does not

display any information on that file. It would be nice if the file info section

would actually display file info, an icon or a thumbnail for easier browsing.

Back to the Micca Slim HD: This tiny device is an excellent media player it can play many different video formats that you throw at it. Contrary to other reviews, the player itself is very responsive and quick to locate files on a USB external hard drive, flash drive, or an SDHC card (have not tried the internal drive yet since I don't have a 2.5" drive)

Without an internal drive, the Micca Slim HD is very light. I have to twist the HDMI cable so it doesn't keep the player slightly tilted to its side.

I tested several 720p/1080p video contents ranging from 5mbps 35mbps(HD-WMV,HD-DivX,HD-XviD,HD-MKV) all files played without a glitch. Many SD video contents played very well.

All in all I highly recommend Micca Slim HD player if you want to watch all your media collections on your HDTV via internal/external HDD.

On a side note: It would be nice if Micca included a simple HDMI cable instead of the very useless composite cable.

05.28.2011 -

UPDATE: I finally bought a 2.5" 500GB Western Digital 'green' hard drive. I copied all my encoded mp4 & mkv files on it, installed it in the Micca slim HD player and I'm glad to report that it recognized the 500GB internal hard drive with no problems and played all my movie files just fine...

11.07.2012 -

Another UPDATE: THE GOOD: Yes, my Micca HD-Slim is still alive and kicking...THE BAD: It's sad that I cannot update the HD-Slim firmware to the latest one because the one posted on the Micca site is just a patch for v120107.. The instruction said I need to have v120107 installed before I can install the latest update. Micca support is unresponsive. I contacted them 3x but no luck, they will not send me the download link of firmware v120107.

NOTE to MICCA Store --Why in the world are you guys hiding the firmware updates?

Read Best Reviews of Micca Slim-HD 1080p Full-HD Portable Digital Media Player w/ 2.5-Inch HDD Drive Bay Here

This is a hard one, because the product is really great. I do read among the other reviews that there are quality control issues, however I haven't run into that.

This is a product I have long dreamed of. A portable device that I can use as a good travel hard drive and also plug into any hotel TV and watch my media with a remote. I say any hotel TV because some hotels have LCD TVs and HDMI but some have old TVs and need composite. Before the Micca, I was using an Archos for this duty, along with a Wii controller for remote control. Before that, a SageTV HD200 and portable hard drive (bulky as heck). Before that another Archos with no remote control (really long cables instead) and before that my laptop with a bulky MCE remote and an expensive bulky box to convert VGA to other output types. So you can image, seeing this product was like a dream come true.

As a Portable Hard Drive

The Micca excels as a normal portable hard drive. It plugs right in and uses USB for power, no power brick needed. I put in a 1TB hard drive and this fit fine. Be careful, as there are hard drives that are too thick. You need to make sure the hard drive is 9.5mm thick, no more.

As a Media Player

It will not play everything, but it plays most things. A bit annoying that it doesn't play mts (HD camcorder format), but if you have a laptop, you can just change the extension and then it plays (no need to convert format). It plays most mkvs and handles 1080p well, however you will run into some it won't play for whatever reason. My SageTV HD300s don't play all my MKVs either, so I expected this going in. There are some advanced sound codec support missing, but again, as expected. Subtitle support is great (PGS missing of course), but I wish I could control the size of the subtitles and I wish embedded subtitles were supported.

The interface is unattractive and plain. Its also a bit annoying, requiring more clicks that it should, but its functional. I'm not a big interface person, I just want to watch my media on the road, so not a big deal for me.

The Bad

The remote range is very short. I don't care which way you turn the unit, some of these other reviews are way off base on this issue or my unit is malfunctioning, because I've tuned it every which way and the range is short. I can prove its just weak IR because I use an IR adapter for my phone and control it that way and do not have any IR issues any more.

It gets hot. I carry a portable laptop cooler with me when I travel (for my laptop) and I stick this on top of it to keep it from overheating. I am not saying it will, but everyone knows heat is bad for electronics.

The biggest problem is Micca! This company is totally unresponsive. I emailed them before I bought the Micca, they did not reply. I emailed them after I bought it, no reply. I emailed them again, no reply. I emailed them again and warned them that I had not written my Amazon review yet, and then they replied! Sheesh!

I do not expect any firmware updates or improvements, as this company is totally unresponsive. You can buy this device from a huge well known Chinese internet vendor for 1/3 the price. You won't get any support when you buy it there, but then Micca doesn't give you any either.

A 4-star product ruined by a 1 star company. Such is the world. However, this device fills a dream product for me, so I couldn't take off any more stars. I wish I was happier about it though, why do good products have to be ruined by bad companies?

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I can't understand why the bigger brands are getting more raves and kudos, when a cheap, unknown chinese brand is able to pull all the strings effectively. I had trouble running certain mkv and flv files on both the Patriot Box Office AND the Western Digital Media thingi. This thing plays every damn file on the planet, I kid you not! Granted, the UI may not be too flashy, but it is adequate and easy to use. Very rarely, there may be a video/audio sync, no issue, just stop and start the file from beginning. Doesn't heat up, is very portable, I am using it as en external HDD enclosure too, and it's a brilliant utility when you need to show something to people on TV.

Plays .m2ts, MPEG4s, MKVs, DVDs, FLVs, WMAs, AVIs and every other video file extension I am yet to come across. You can believe the reviews for once, and if there was anything money can buy best, pick this up!! Don't loose the remote folks, or it's a gonner (no physcial buttons).

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Insignia NS-2BRDVD Blu-ray Disc Player with 1080p Output

• Blu-ray Disc format compatible: For high-definition movie playback with resolution up to 5 times greater than DVD.
• Delivers greatly enhanced video performance with standard DVDs: By upconverting their video resolution to HDTV compliant 720p
• Plays BD-ROM discs: Backward compatible with DVD, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, CD and CD-R/RW discs. Compatible with MP3, WMA and JPEG formats.
• Built-in decoders: For next-generation Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD high-resolution surround, plus lossless Dolby TrueHD (2-channel).
• HDMI output: Provides an uncompressed all-digital audio/video link for the highest quality connection and supports

I used to own a Roku and I used it almost every day for my daughter who loves all the children's programs that are available. After about 1and half years the roku broke I did a little research and found out that insignia made a blueray player for $100.00 that would stream Netflix. I got it home, did the software update, which only took 2 min, and started using the streaming video from Netflix. I love the menu for Netflix that insignia created. It was a big improvement over the Roku. The only thing I miss is that Roku also allowed Amazon videos on demand to be rented and streamed also. No I no longer have this option. I hope they upgrade it to add this option.

Buy Insignia NS-2BRDVD Blu-ray Disc Player with 1080p Output Now

I purchased this unit used to have a Blu-Ray player and an upscale DVD player. The first movie I put in the system told me that I may have to upgrade my firmware in order to play the new content. For giggles, I went to the Insignia Website and downloaded the latest firmware, created a CD and within just a few minutes had the unit working.

It is not the fastest Blu-Ray available of course, but it works great, sounds great through the optical port and is overall a great deal if you can find it for about $100 used or $150 new. Anything over that cost you can probably find a newer, faster version. Overall, I recommend this purchase to anyone looking to get into the Blu-Ray game for $100. Hope this helps.

Read Best Reviews of Insignia NS-2BRDVD Blu-ray Disc Player with 1080p Output Here

I found a great deal on the wireless version of this dvd player & bought it to stream netflix. When I bought it I had high speed internet & it worked great! That same week I had fios installed and could no longer get netflix to connect. After many phone calls & frustration trying to get netflix to work, I was told by insignia tech support that their player is not currently compatible with verizon fios & that I should return it. They are working on a fix to the problem, but was told not to expect it anytime soon.

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I did not purchase this item on Amazon, but I used the reviews on Amazon to make my purchasing decision. I feel it necessary to correct one glaring inaccuracy I found with another review, however. THIS MODEL OF BLU-RAY PLAYER DOES NOT PLAY NETFLIX OR ANY OTHER STREAMING CONTENT!

After fooling with a Samsung BD-P1600 for literally a week trying to get the wi-fi to work, I took it back and got this Insignia for a little less. And within 2 minutes of getting it out of the box I had it hooked up to my TV via HDMI and my internet via wi-fi and was streaming a movie from Netflix. The Netfix is my favorite part about the player. It works well with my 3 MB/sec DSL connection. The movie takes about 30-45 seconds to buffer and start playing, then it works flawlessly the whole movie. Netflix has a lot of children's movies/shows for my 3 yr old, and the movie selection is not bad and growing every day

Standard DVD playing is fine with great picture quality. I haven't played a blu-ray in it yet, but if it's any better than the DVD quality, it is excellent. I have had it for a couple of weeks and all is good. I would recommend this player over a more expensive Samsung (kind of ironic that Insignia is made by Samsung).