Zmodo Surveillance System with 8 Weatherproof IR Cameras PKD-DK0865-(No Hard Drive)

This Zmodo Surveillance System works well for my needs and is also a great deal at $200 and Prime shipping (at the time of this review). To be perfectly clear, this is not a high-end system with high definition cameras, but it isn't priced like a high-end system either. This is a budget system that exceeded my expectations for what you get and how well it works. Here are my observations:

Our Use We recently bought an old but very large building for my wife's business and needed a way to monitor the six exits and the retail shop space.

Included:

* Main Control Unit this is a fairly small unit (smaller than most DVD players) that is has button access for most functions

* 8-Cameras these are also fairly small, good physical quality and include mounting hardware

* USB Mouse connects to Control Unit

* Remote Control gives access to all menu functions (batteries included)

* Required Cables 60' Video/Power cables

* Power Supplies one for the Control Unit and two for the cameras (uses splitters to distribute the power between the cameras)

* Instruction Manual

* Software CD

* Hard Drive Mounting Screws (Hard Drive not included)

Features:

+ Camera; IR Illumination for night vision

+ User configurable Options; Privacy Zones (blackout areas in the display), Motion Zones (areas where motion triggers an alarm)

+ Network Access; Can be viewed on local network using Internet Explorer (required allowing ActiveX and would not work with Firefox) and remotely via a DDNS service (often an extra expense for a reliable service)

+ Alarm Notification; Audible alert and E-Mail capability

+ Display Options; Includes a VGA monitor connection and BNC/video out for TV viewing (we use Q-See QSRCBN6 6 Pack RCA-BNC Connectors)

+ Remote Control; Really makes it easy to quickly access features

Pros:

+ Setup; Basic configuration is surprisingly easy

+ Image Quality; Good enough for basic security needs in both bright and dark settings (but see "Cons" below)

+ Value; Lots of cameras and features at a reasonable cost

+ Options; Can be made to do everything we need it to do

Cons:

No Hard Drive; Can use external USB drive or add your own Hard Drive to add recording capabilities (we installed Western Digital Caviar Blue 500 GB SATA III 7200 RPM 16 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Desktop Hard Drive WD5000AAKX in less than ten minutes)

Washed Out Colors; Colors are somewhat muted, but can be individually adjusted in the controls to get the best possible picture for the lighting conditions

Night Vision; Limited range, less than 20'

Hints/Notes:

* With the Hard Drive installed, Alarmed Events can be recorded and searched on later

* A 500GB Hard Drive can record 168 hours of video (according to the manual)

* Placing a camera too close to a window will cause the IR to reflect and blind the camera when it shifts into night vision mode

* Display can be set to show 1, 4, or 8 video feeds at a time

This system covered my needs very well and provides a lot of advanced features that were unexpected in a budget system.

Highly Recommended!

CFH

Simple to hookup. Plenty of cameras. Lots of options to monitor. Quality seems good (everythings from China). The manual can be a little hard to read and lacking, but it covers the basics.

You get 8 cameras. Daytime range and color is good. IR range at night is pretty limited, maybe 20 feet. If you are just covering a door or hallway it works pretty well. I have one in the garage and you couldn't see much of anything at night without an extra illuminator and a couple more outside for the driveway and yard area and they are completely useless at night. Probably need to supplement with a motion light or some other means.

The DVR comes without a HD. I added a 500GB, which was a simple task. The user interface is adequate and simple enough to figure out. There are two BNC type video outputs. I got some adapter plugs from Monoprice to convert to a RCA type plug so I could plug into a TV input. It also comes with software that you can install on your computer to monitor the DVR remotely over your home network. That works really nice and lets you make all the adjustments to the DVR settings from any networked computer without having to be connected directly to the DVR (except for the first time setup of course). Not much for instructions on how to use the s/w though, so you have to wing it on your own.

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Purchased this system DVR works great easy to set up, cameras are poor quailty, colors are way off If you expect correct color get different cameras. green looks pink. Called their customer support after 15 minutes on hold I was told this model camera is a texture and not color they are what you get Was told if I want better color I need to upgrade cameras.

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I own five Zmodo units working in different buildings for 2+ years, so after one of my evicted tenants decided to steal it, this was the best price I could find. After we tried to install two different hard drives (WD and Seagate, both 500GB), we discovered that this particular DVR model (D9108BH) has one fatal flaw: it doesn't recognize a hard drive after a hard restart. Apparently, when a power is lost during HDD writing operations, the file system is messed up to such a degree that the operating system is incapable of dealing with this mess. Power goes down every week in S. Florida, so we cannot afford to dismantle the unit and reformat the hard drive in a computer every time it happens. We returned it.

Some thoughts to share with those who may consider purchasing a similar system:

1) As far as my experience with other, older units is concerned: they need to be connected via a surge protector because otherwise they die very quickly, being very sensitive to voltage fluctuations. We have them all hooked via UPS, so a thief wouldn't benefit from a simple act of switching the power off.

2) Cameras have a random short life, and the quality of picture deteriorates significantly in the first two months (which you discover when you replace those which died, and compare pictures from new and old cameras). We have to replace 10% of cameras every year.

3) Cables are of poor quality, they need to be tested before installation and treated like a rotten egg during installation. Make sure you install them in the right direction check the power plugs before you install, they are different on two sides! Don't cover them until the system is tested, because at the end there is always at least one cable that doesn't work and needs to be re-wired. The connectors are prone to corrosion, and they loose electrical connection in a matter of months, so most service calls boil down to cleaning the cable connections.

4) The setup of the DVR unit is as counter-intuitive as it gets. What we normally need is a silent system that would record video for several seconds from those cameras which detected motion, while watching all the time. Sounds simple? You won't find it in the manual, and it's not the default configuration in most of these units. Some settings overlap in different menus of the setup, and you never know which one overrides the other.

5) Manuals are seldom pertinent to the model they came with, and they don't address the normal setup issues we normally see.

6) Sound. We hide the DVRs in inaccessible locations, to prevent stealing them by thieves, so one more inherent flaw of all of them is the buzzer which goes off whenever anything happens: a camera was disconnected, power was connected, etc. The only way to silence the buzzer is to physically destroy it with pliers I am not kidding, we have already tried all menu options with Zmodo support. The buzzer is sometimes well-hidden inside the front panel mainboard.

7) Hard drives tend to overheat in those units which do not have fans.

8) Most units come without hard drives; however, you may have a hard time finding any disclosure of the fact prior to the purchase.

9) Once something happens, you would probably need to convert the video files i.e. in the convenient AVI format. With the software Zmodo provided, It takes half a day to convert these video files into any common format, and it is very inflexible, and doesn't support batching files.

We overcome all the technical difficulties, because we have boxes full of replacement cameras and cables from several units which died, and we spent enough time with the Zmodo tech support (average waiting time 20-30 minutes nice folks), to learn how to set it up.

One major advantage of having a surveillance system is recording criminal activity, which is quite common in Liberty City, where they are installed. The video is not of good quality but it can tell you, what items the perpetrators touched, so the fingerprints theoretically could be taken from these items in order to identify the thieves, (if the police ever cared to take the fingerprints). I.e. in our case, we had half-an-hour footage of the theft of the AC unit, where one of the thieves unscrewed a light bulb in front of one of the cameras. The trouble was, the police (NW Miami Dade) took two weeks to arrive to collect fingerprints (which were gone by then) and they disregarded the video, which we converted for them into the convenient AVI format (this is another issue it takes half a day to convert these video files into any common format with the software Zmodo provided). The police officer in charge of the case did not know how (or did not want?) to open AVI video files, so they have never even tried to use them to solve the case. We printed and posted fliers containing the best still pictures (surprisingly good, including tatoos on the bodies) captured from these videos, and one of our neighbors recognized the perps, but was too afraid to speak up, so we only learned about it one year later. No surprise given the quality and speed of the Miami-Dade police.

These systems are useless in rain, so when the next time the house was burglarized in the middle of a rainy night, we didn't get any footage. Generally, in the night, the video quality of these cameras deteriorates very badly, so we learned to install them paired with motion spot lamps (the cheap solar ones from Harbor Freight). Also, they cover a very narrow field of vision (approximately 20 degrees regardless of the claims written in specs) and the resolution is good up to approximately 20-30 feet in a bright day, so you need at least 8 of them to cover an average small house, and it takes a lot of design to place them right.

Update: We returned these and ordered two Zmodo units from Newegg instead. Newegg sent us the same model D9108BH, which exhibited the same flaw: after the power was turned down and up, the hard drive was not recognized any more, not even available for formatting.

One more update: Another disadvantage came up to my attention when one of my systems recorded a murder next door. Police detective made me dig the DVR out from the attics, and rented the unit for one month, and months later I got a subpoena to the court, which is extremely inconvenient for someone who is abroad every week, and who has not really witnessed anything.

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I bought this unit to upgrade the security around my house. I love the eight cameras and had everything up and running in a few minutes. My tech friend suggested I temporary install it all and just leave the wires laying on the floor and experiment with placement, etc. So I did this over several weeks. I put mine in a secure location and connected the video out on the DVR to my big screen in the family room for faster checks of the live video using a 150 ft video/pwr/aud cord off of Amazon for $15. The instruction book is translated from chinese and of course has broken english and jargon lost in the translation, but its not as bad as other reviewers have noted. It came with the default of recording 24 hours a day but I changed this to just recording motion, which makes a search so much faster. It took two weeks to get a feel for it. I learned more from reading the reviews on Amazon then in the manual. Never had to call tech support yet, but they seem good if you get the domestic staff (from the reviews).

The unit first arrived without the 500 GB hard drive in the DVR, but Amazon replaced the whole system in a timely fashion.

PRO: Great eight camera unit for the price. It works fine, the IR works to spec's. I combine the IR Cams with an extra IR Spot Lite, from Amazon for less than ten dollars to increase visiability I'm still experimenting with it but other reviewers had good luck with it. The second box of 4 cameras has a spare 12 volt power unit that I am using for the lights.

CON: Wish I had the 16 camera unit now.

Modification: I will combine the whole unit to a UPS which should keep it going during power failures for some time since the normal monitor attached to the VGA output is turned off and on an outlet not connected to the UPS. Now that "cloud storage is readily available", off site storage is easier. I may also ad a few false cameras to give it a beefer look.

Night Owl Security LB-8DVR10-8CM24 8 Channel H.264 D1 DVR with 8 Pack 420TVL Cameras with 45 Feet N

No problems to report. The system arrived a day before expected. I plugged in all the cameras and everything worked perfectly right out of the box. A very nice system for a good price.

Great video system for the money, and cameras are fair.

The DVR is easy to setup, but as you would know you have to give up something for the price. That would be the cameras, simply replace some of the cameras with a good 600tlv camera and you will be over joyed.

Buy Night Owl Security LB-8DVR10-8CM24 8 Channel H.264 D1 DVR with 8 Pack 420TVL Cameras with 45 Feet N Now

Worked great out of the box. Was easy to setup. Even though the interface was a bit clumsy but all options worked. It was recording 24x7 and then after 4 months, it just stopped working. since I had installed it outside the US and the hard drive was working fine I just dumped the DVR and got another night owl DVR all is well so far! I had setup the LAN, ActiveX control, port forwarding DDNS, remote viewing using iPad etc perhaps that did it in! This time, it is just record and that is...will review after 3 months!

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Sony DVP-NS50P/S Single DVD Player, Silver

• Precision Cinema Progressive Technology
• 12 Bit Video DAC with 108Mhz processing
• Precision Drive 3 System compensates for flaws in DVD Discs
• 192 kHz 24 Bit DAC
• DVD-RW (Video Mode/VR Mode w/CPRM)/DVD-R/DVD+RW/DVD+R/ + R Dual Layer Playback1

I recently purchased this DVD since mine broke, and this thing is nothing short of amazing. I had an older Sony dvd player I got in 2000 and it finally went, and after having so many years out of my first Sony dvd player I thought I should stick with them, and I am glad they did. First off when it says it plays all those formats it really does. I have burnt DVDs along with some VCD and SVCD and it never flinched at any of them. Also the startup time and the disc recognition time is very quick. Plus on top of everything else for all this the item costs roughly $75, and to think my first Sony was $299.99 and it wouldn't play anything but store bought CDs or DVDs. If you are looking into DVD players in this price range I highly reccomend anyone purchasing this, you will not regret it.

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I'd read reviews here & elsewhere for various brands of players and decided I'd get a Sony.

I was surprised at how small this thing is, I've got books bigger than it is!

My brother & I set it up, not too difficult altough the manual could be a little clearer on some aspects (to me anyway), leaving the settings on factory default (except for setting the screen for my standard 4:3 TV and turning off the progressive scanwhich the manual tells you how to do)and have found the picture to be fine just as it is.

The sound, I think the manual says something about this, does seem to need to be turned up but is good. The picture has been good on everything I've looked at with the occaisional exception of the movie "Purple Butterfly", dark scenes needed some adjustment on itnot worth trying to reset things for.

The remote isn't bad to use either, you likely won't use half of the functions even after you understand them so don't be bothered by the sight of all of those buttons. You get a zoom function, kind of a joke as it is 2X and 4X, but you can get a little closer look at parts of a scene, the quality depends on the original of course. There are a couple of buttons marked stepreplay or advance, replay means what it says, advance speeds you through a short bit of the scenenot worht much to me. You also have the usual next and previous buttons. A couple of odd features are the slow play & fast play buttons, you use them to go slowly or quickly through a scene with (appropriately affected)audio, not worth much to me.

Every CD or DVD I've tried so far has been flawless on the part of the player. I do wish that there was a means of having my TV go blackscreen as if you run a CD more than 15 minutes it goes to screensaver function which is a blue bar reading Sony DVD Player moving around a black screen.

Most places don't mention that when you buy this player you will get an audio/video cable as part of the kit. Depending on your own placement of the TV/player you might want to go ahead and get something longer. That little cable seems to produce a good picture but it's only about 3 feet long, if I get tired of that I may go ahead and use the 6 foot S-video cable I already had. You should be sure of what your own TV can use before you buy anything.

Other than the almost too short cable I don't really have any complaints and I'm glad I made this purchase.

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Our first ever DVD player was the Sony DVP-S717D, bought almost 5 years ago for about $1,000. It was just under their flagship model at the time and it was one heck of a player with all the bells and whistles. Unfortunately, it just wouldn't play DVDR media.

After going through catalogues to find a player compatible with most DVDR media, we settled on the DVP-NS50P. I was a bit hesitant at first because of its small size and the fact that Sony is known to have compatibility issues. But I went to the store armed with all kinds of DVDR and it came through with flying colours!

It plays everything it says it will (DVD-R/+R, DVD-RW/+RW) AND it also plays DVD+RDL which many players fail to read. This wasn't noted in the specifications. I haven't tried DVD-RDL so I don't know if it plays this type of media but I wouldn't be surprised if it did. But even if it didn't, I'm more than satisfied.

Another bonus which I accidently found out was that it plays DVDs with other region codes! I live in Japan and our machine is rated for region 2. It plays our region 1 movies without a hiccup. It's a handy feature if you have a DVD collection with different region codes.

The picture quality is nothing short of superb. This machine comes with component video outputs for both coaxial and digital. Definitey use one of these outputs instead of the S-video. You want to take advantage of what Sony calls Precision Cinema Progressive (PCP) Technology. According to the blurb in the specs, most players pick up the images on the DVD at the scan line level, whereas the DVP-NS50P picks them up from the pixel level. This means the images are more faithful to the original source whether it be video or film. You'll notice this feature when watching images with fast motion like action scenes or sport scenes. The background is very sharp and moving objects are free from motion artifacts.

Sony also implements something called Precision Drive 3 (looks like they like precision). This allows slightly warped or scratched discs to be read. You'll have to read the specifications to understand the mechanics behind this new drive but no more wiping or buffing of DVDs! It reads everything in one go.

The sound is great too. Obviously it has analog outputs but the optical digital output rated at 96KHz/24bit is what you want. Just hook it up to an amp with a built in DTS/Dolby Digital Surround decoder and you're good to go.

I've concentrated this review mostly on its features concerning DVD playback but it also plays CDR, JPEG, MP3 (which most, if not all of the new players read also). The menu screen when accessing images or mp3s is very easy to navigate. The folders come in blue background and navigate to the one you want with the remote. The files in each folder are highlighted in green. Plus, the file names support both Roman alphabet and Japanese kanji characters. All the other players I know of only read Roman alphabet.

The only negative comments I can leave to balance this review (and I'm strecthing here) is that the Video DAC is 108MHz/12 bit. I would have preferred 216MHz/24 bit but I've only seen that in the flagship models. Loading time seems to take a smidge longer than our previous player but I'm not losing any sleep over that extra second. Also, it would have been a bonus if it played DivX files and SACDs. But I'm not complaining here. For the price and the featured functions, I don't think you can beat this great DVD player!

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For the money, $79, this machine more than delivers for the price. I've had the player for about three months now and I have three other newer players in the house I can compare it to. First the goods:

1. It playes just about everything I can throw at it. It plays my DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RDL, SVCD, .jpg, etc.

2. The player has what is called "Precision Drive 3", meaning it can play pretty trashed disks without skips or distortion.

3. It has progressive scan and a multitude of set-up's for image and sound manipulation to adjust these parameters to you liking.

4. A very nice touch is it can remember where in the movie it left off for the last six disks it played. In other words you can remove a disk halfway through the movie, watch another movie, put in the removed disk and it takes off right from where you last ended.

The Bads:

1. Very long time to read a disk and prepair it for play after it has been loaded. This is the case with all disks I have tried, especialy DVD+RDL (but most players can't play this type of disk anyway)

2. Butttons on the unit are very small and incomplete in terms of accessing the players features. In other words, your in trouble if you loose the remote.

3. Has just a coaxial digital output, if you must have optical look elsewhere.

4. Just plain feels cheapy

Bottom line; I'm picky, but for $79 this player is a bargain. Great picture and digital output sound quality. Plays just about any kind of disks and most formats. Most surprizing is it's ability to play my DVD+RDL disks, something only one other machine in my home can do. Lastly it can play pretty trashed disks with it's precision drive that most of my other players can't. It only looses the fifth star to the small buttons, the fact that it takes forever to load and start a movie, and if you loose the remote your hosed in terms of accessing the players settings.

This is just a basic DVD player, not for ones who are little tech savvy and create their own DVDs and watch various media files like MPEG 1/2/4, VCD .dat , .avi files etc.

I bought this to replace my 3 year old Philips 724 DVD Player.

It does not play most of my DVD+R disc

Does not play any MPEG1/2/4 files

Its sleek but little noisy

Display is sloppy

The thing is that Sony products are designed to play standard stuff and Sony proprietary technology, like a memory stick for a Sony Digital camera. In this case it playes only a standard DVD or VCD disc. So if you are into making your own personal DVD discs from your MPEG media files, VHS tapes etc then this is not the DVD player you want.

Later I bought Philips DVP642 DivX-Certified Progressive-Scan DVD Player and ... woh ... it played all my DVD+R and media files like DivX, MPEG 1/2/4, VCD .dat, .avi files etc on my customized DVD+Rs.

Egreat R6S 3D Full HD 1080P HDMI 1.4 Blu-Ray ISO Media Player, Realtek 1186 Chipset, 3D Movie Decod

• Adopts Realtek RTD 1186DD 3D chipset
• Full 3D supporting, Android OS and improved web browser
• Enable truly decodes, playback and outputs high definition 3D/2D 1080p videos through HDMI 1.4 interface
• Able to play Blu-ray 3D ISO(Frame Packing), SideBySide and Top/Bottom format 3D movies, HD MPEG2, HD VC-1, HD AVC/H.264 movies from external USB/internal hard drive devices to HDTV screen
• The enhanced network function can even stream videos from your iPhone/iPad/Android Tab to your TV

If all you want is to play your video/music (including 3d), it's a cheapist deal.

Egreat R6S doesn't take you to the features or net , just takes any format thrown on it and provides a pichure/sound.

For me that was all I needed so I am happy. I had an Extreamer Sidewinder before but wanted to have a 3d option for cheap.

Panasonic DMR-EZ27K Up-Converting 1080p DVD-Recorder with ATSC Tuner

• Multi Drive Ram + others Receives all HDTV/SDTV broadcast formats -- records and displays in standard definition only
• DV Input for transfer
• HDMI out put, SD card slot
• 1 Sec Quick Start
• Recording Time Slip

I bought this from Best Buy not Amazon.

Things I like:

1) Scheduling for recording programs is pretty intuitive

2) Creating the DVD top menu is easy

3) Playback of DVDs with HDMI cable is very sharp with upconversion

4) XP (1hr) and SP (2hr) are very good...better than VCR quality

5) Has Flexible Recording mode (FR) which you assign the hours to record.

6) To my surprise, when I record a 16x9 broadcast on a +RW, it actually plays in 16x9 on my TV. It's not supposed to per the manual.

7) Although not advertised, it has a QAM tuner. Will deciper any HD/digital channels from my cable connection. The quality isn't as good as the built in QAM tuner on my TV though.

8) Remote layout is good and feels sturdy.

9) Can use TIVO like features if recording using a DVD-RAM.

Things I dislike:

1) LP (4hrs) mode is very pixeling when played back on my 56" widescreen. Way worst than VCR quality. I don't even use this mode. EP (6 or 8hrs) is practically garbage. My old reliable VCR could tape 6hrs which was good for a week of shows. Now since I only use the 2hr SP mode, I have to keep remembering to switch out my DVD+RWs and label them. A big hassle, which I'm not sure outweighs the benefits. Very bad if you have to tape 4 hours or more during a day...i.e. a long sporting event.

2) If I set the recorder as hooked up to a 16x9 TV, which it is, and I record a 16x9 broadcast, it plays fine on my HDTV. However, if I play back the recording on a 4x3 TV, the image is scrunched into the 4:3 TV making everybody appear narrow. No setting on my 4:3 TV or DVD player can change how it appears. Can't get it to go widescreen on the 4:3. If I set the recorder as hooked up to a 4x3 TV, then it will play back okay on a 4:3 but won't go 16x9 on my HDTV. Ugh.

3) The QAM tuner when auto programming channels isn't intelligent. It will pick up every digital channel going through the cable feed, whether encrypted or not. Thus, you'll end up with about 100 digital channels that are encrypted and you can't view (blue screened). You have to manually deleted these channels from the recorder, which after doing about 10 took way too long and I stopped. Slow channel changing.

4) No Open/Close button on the remote.

5) Cable signal quality on analog channels through this tuner isn't the greatest.

6) I have a Samsung 1080P DVD Player and when playing back recordings with the Panasonic, I can't get my "instant replay" or "instant skip" features to work on my Samsung.

7-15-07 UPDATE:

Two weeks after purchasing this recorder and 1 week after posting this review, my digital (HD) channels disappeared from the unit. Resetting or re-auto programming the channels didn't work to get them back. I called Panasonic tech support who's supposed to send me a firmware update for the unit. Supposedly, I'm not the 1st to report this issue. The firmware update isn't on the panasonic website though. This now lowers my rating to two stars. If the firmware doesn't fix the issue, I will update this.

7/30/07 Update: Well lame-o Panasonic finally mailed the firmware update about 12 days after I first called them even though they promised it with 3 days. The firmware update has brought back my digital channels. I'm crossing my fingers that they will continue to remain. The firmware update's biggest feature, however, was that it made the LP (4hr) recording mode much better. Before, I couldn't even tolerate the quality of the LP mode because there was too much pixelation. With the firmware upgrade, it's actually tolerable...at least when watching a regular TV show. I have to test it on a sporting event before I give my final opinion. I'm taping the Giant's game tomorrow (in case BB ties HA) so I'll let y'all know later.

8/6/07 and FINAL Update:

Well, I lost my digital channels twice since my last update. Once after the unit froze on me...another time for no apparent reason. I have to goto through the tedious 10-15 minute process of reloading the firmware update and the the long auto-channel setup to get my digital channels back. I have no faith that my digital channels will remain indefinitely. There seems to be quite a few bugs in this unit. I called Panasonic Tech Support and they told me to ship the unit back for their Techs to inspect and repair. Although the shipping and repair is covered under the warranty, I've already paid this unit in full and will be out of a recorder for at probably 3-4 weeks if I went this route. Unfortunately, I've owned this thing over 30 days and can't return it anymore. I'm crossing my fingers that my digital channels won't mysteriously disappear anymore or that Panasonic will come out with yet a better firmware upgrade....but I'm not holding my breath. It's been very disappointing that this unit has a lot of glitches.

Buy Panasonic DMR-EZ27K Up-Converting 1080p DVD-Recorder with ATSC Tuner Now

Finally, DVD recorders with ATSC tuners have arrived. For those of us who receive our TV over the air, and who want to (a) upgrade to digital (b) replace an old VCR and (c) reduce component count, they seem like the perfect solution. I bought the DMR-EZ27K with high hopes.

Well, I'm a bit disappointed. On the good side, the unit has an excellent digital/analog tuner that has no problem pulling in local stations via my rooftop antenna. It downscales digital broadcasts to 480i over the S-Video output. As I understand it, it also downscales digital broadcasts even when using the HDMI output, i.e. it doesn't pass the broadcast signal through unscathed. However if you are using the HDMI output, you probably have a TV with an ATSC tuner in it anyway, so this seems like a minor quibble.

Also on the good side, it plays just about every 5-inch silver disc format out there, including DivX. I tried the DivX functionality and it worked very well.

The unit makes excellent quality recordings off-air and has a clever feature that fits the recording to the disc space available, maximizing quality.

However, the unit has problems. Here's why I'm not planning on keeping it:

(1) Changing channels is incredibly slow about 5 seconds. This becomes quite tiresome.

(2) There is no electronic program guide. You have to set the recording manually, VCR-style. There are other DVD recorders which have EPG for about the same price.

(3) Chasing playback only works with DVD-RAM discs. They are very hard to find, so I haven't been able to try out this feature.

(4) Many (idiotic) broadcasters broadcast in 16:9 constantly. When the program material is 4:3, they put black bars at the sides, so there's a huge bar all the way around the picture when watching on a 4:3 TV! This DVD recorder offers no zoom to deal with this you are stuck with a postage-stamp-sized image in the middle of your 4:3 screen.

(5) The unit has frozen up on me, requiring a power cycle.

(6) Sometimes the channel being shown and the channel information are out of sync. This happens quite often if you are trying to change channels faster than the unit. And this happens a lot (see (1)).

(7) There seems to be a bug in the firmware which causes the 5.1 mixdown to switch modes unexpectedly. Sometimes it will be a genuine stereo downmix, and other times it won't be. This leads to strange audio artifacts.

This is all rather unfortunate, because the concept of a DVD recorder with an ATSC tuner is great. My impression is that these early units (and this may apply to other manufacturers as well) are a bit half-baked, and that the next round will be better. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Read Best Reviews of Panasonic DMR-EZ27K Up-Converting 1080p DVD-Recorder with ATSC Tuner Here

It being a Panasonic product, I had high expectations from this DVD recorder and waited few months for it to come to retail stores. I was expecting the digital tuner to be HD tuner, however it only display pictures in 480P (EDTV) format. If you want a really good HDTV tuner, then go for a dedicated external tuner like Samsung DTB-H260F.

Overall it has not meet my high expectations. Here are some of my findings:

1. Although the Digital tuner is rated as 480p (EDTV), picture quality is definitely not as good as commercial DVDs (also 480p). I would rate the picture quality of Digital channels (HD broadcasts), somewhere in between analog channels and DVD quality.

2. Quality of DVD recordings is pretty good and sharp. As I said earlier, not as good as DVD quality, but much better than a Analog broadcast.

3. I have a Canon MiniDV camcorder and could not record my miniDVs to DVD using built-in firewire interface. Recordings would stop intermittently without finishing.

4. Non Random mode for playing MP3 files.

5. Product build quality looks good overall and supplied remote is good too.

6. A Sample DVD-RAM media would have been good to include, to test those advanced recording features.

7. Unit is bit pricy and the price difference of $50 between models EZ17K and EZ27K is not justified.

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This product quit working 20 days after it was received, will not show on TV and the DVD door will not open.

0 Stars if amazon offered that choice

fortunately amazon took it back

the unit froze during recording with a good commercial dvd blank (memorex) which is advertised on the amazon site.

I did everything that the manual stated and then called panansonic, the tech department told me the unit needed to be returned;

I can see from postings that other people have had this problem,

The unit goes into power cycle every two minutes and then goes off and on and recylces; according to the manual this is supposed to be self correcting; after 2 days it did not correct; the drawer would not open to eject the disk.

Something is wrong with their software.

agree withn other comments regarding the long delays in firing up

had pioneer recorder for 3 years excellent but was unable to find one on line possible change of models or they decided to get out of the market

Panasonic VDR-D100 DVD Camcorder with 30x Optical Zoom

I did a lot of research before buying this camera. We could have bought a higher quality digital camcorder for less or higher quality MiniDV camcorder for the same price. What led to our final decision to purchase this camcorder was the fact we could record straight to a 8cm DVD-R, finalize the disc on the camcorder, and play it directly on our DVD player or DVD-ROM player on our computer. We didn't want to deal with sticking cables and wires into the TV, electrical outlet, and camera to playback footage. And we also didn't want to deal with the cost and trouble of transferring footage onto DVDs to keep in our video library for the future.

For those of you who like to edit, re-record, create effects, etc., you need to purchase special software separately, but with a DVD-RAM disc, you have the ease and convenience of doing it all from your DVD-ROM on your computer. You can also download it with the USB cable, but it is nice to be able to just pop it in the DVD drive and get started.

If you are only interested in playback, DVD-R discs are sufficient; however, you can't erase or record over footage on DVD-Rs, only DVD-RW and DVD-RAM discs.

The picture quality of the camera is adequate. It isn't grainy, but smooth and actually very nice in the right lighting, especially outside on a sunny day. It doesn't have a built-in light, so you have to be aware of the right surroundings and environment for recording. I would give the picture quality a 3.75 out of 5. If you want better quality, you will need to buy a more expensive DVD Camcorder. Considering how far we have come over the years with home video technology, it definitely beats those days images were out of focus and grainy. You can't compare it to TV and movie camera quality, but I think it is pretty darn good for home videos. The zoom is good, but of course it takes some time to focus if you zoom in or out too quickly. The stabilizer is pretty good, but I keep it off for the most part to get better picture quality. If you plan to move around a lot, use the function, but expect to lose a little quality in the process. What basically happens when using the stabilizer (with most cameras, I believe) is that the image movements are slightly delayed. The sound quality is adequate, but if you are recording when it is windy, you will pick up a lot of the wind sounds unless you block the microphone with your hand.

The only problem I have had so far is with the discs. We bought Panasonic DVD-RW discs and can't get them to play on our computer or in our DVD player. We ended up purchasing Sony DVD-R discs and they play with no problem. When I called Panasonic about their DVD-RW discs, they didn't have a good answer. The representative told me to make sure the DVD-RW discs are compatible with my players. I told her they may not be compatible with my DVD Player, but it should be with my new computer software. The representative just repeated herself and eventually said there isn't any difference between Sony and Panasonic discs (interesting). They make the claim that Panasonic discs work the best in the manual, but now I know better.

Overall, this camcorder is a great value (you can't beat the price for this DVD technology), average to good quality picture and functions, is excellent for the ease and convenience of DVD playback and storage, and is really easy to use.

**UPDATE: We were having trouble with playback of a few discs again, so we took some of these discs to a video recording shop to have them transferred to a regular DVD. The manager there explained that with this DVD Camcorder technology, people are getting errors on their discs when they move around too much when it is writing. For example, you film and then you either shut off the camera or switch it to playback mode, right? Well, apparently during that particular time if you jostle the unit too much, you may get a disc error that could be unrecoverable. He recommended keeping the unit very still when you switch to playback mode and wait for it finish writing to avoid this problem. Unfortunately, their company has had to transfer many camcorder DVDs to regular DVDs and this is not a problem unique to this Panasonic camcorder, though higher quality and higher priced ones may have less problems. Bottom line is that DVD camcorder technology in general is still developing and improving and there are still a few bugs in it.

The picture is fine at this price.

I bought the Panasonic VDR-D100 for my daughter because she usually doesn't want to do anything with the computer like edit video. When we gave it to her the first thing she asked was, "can I edit the movies?"

I did a quick test to make sure the DVDs would finalize and work on another DVD player with success on 3 computers and 3 DVD players. I didn't find anything the disc wouldn't play on.

Then I started up Vegas Movie Studio Platinum which I use to edit my miniDV movies. I selected IMPORT from DVD and it went straight to the miniDVD and loaded in the files where I was able to edit and add titles, music, sound effects and a voice over if I wanted to.

Since I already bought DVD-R/W discs she will be able to reuse them if she ever edits the movies because you can unfinalize the discs and reformat them.

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You can do better for the money. The image quality is below average and low light is really bad, even for a novice camcorder. I'm glad to see the price has come down. The camcorder did not come with the software needed to capture video or even play the dvd on my computer(it really should have). I would do more research and choose a camera that is right for you. I found many online camcorder review sites very helpful. I returned it and bought another panasonic with 3ccd technology. It has much better picture quality. If you want really good night vision go with sony. I would not recomend this camcorder to anyone.

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We purchased the Panasonic VDR-D100 as our first video camera after the birth of our daughter. We wanted the ability to record directly to DVD, playback on our DVD player and be able to edit on our computer. Just as the last reviewer stated; getting the DVD-RW discs to recognize on our computer was the main problem. We wanted to be able to do this so we could do the simple editing functions like dividing and combining on the camera, but then embellish a little with transition shots and cleaning up the video on our computer. We also wanted to upload the video through YouTube online to our blog.

After a little research and working with the CSRs at Panasonic, we were able to figure out we needed 1) a Driver 2) authoring software and 3) software to recognize and play the DVD-RW on our computer. For less than $20 (including shipping) Panasonic sent us DVD-Movie Album SE 4.2, which included the driver (reads the DVD-RW, but no editing is allowed) and DVDFunStudio 2.4 (authoring software, which allows editing).

After tinkering with it for about an hour I realized the manuals (in PDF on the program) are not very easy to understand for a novice like myself, so I opted to forego the authoring software for Microsoft MovieMaker. I needed the DVD-Movie Album SE 4.2 though regardless to be able to recognize the DVD on my computer. For less than $20--that wasn't bad at all.

My review was editing focused because that is the major downfall of the camera. I wanted to share how we got around that downfall and how pleased we are with the result. I created my first edited video of our daughter and was able to save it to my computer, upload it through YouTube to our blog, then save it to a regular DVD (to get it off our computer) and re-use the DVD-RW disc to save us a little cash.

I don't know enough about video cameras to tell anyone if it is good or not, really. It was inexpensive and it does well with my shaky abilities, so we are very pleased. It has a decent mic and is fair in low lighting situations.

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This camcorder is awesome!! Easy to use and the instruction manual breaks things down for you Barney Style:)

The battery only lets you record continuously for about 2 and a half hours (more than I need) so you may want to have a standby battery waiting if it's nessasary.

Panasonic DMP-BDT310 Integrated-Wi-Fi 3D Blu-ray DVD Player

• Twin HDMI output for Video/Audio
• It has SKYPE video calls
• It has built-in Wi-Fi
• VIERA CAST has been further enhanced with CinemaNow and VUDU, which allow you to stream movies

I have had a weekend to play with the 310, and was very impressed with picture and sound quality. For the record, this is my first Blu-ray player, and I think it was worth the wait. With this player, BD's load as quickly as DVD's do on my Denon DVD-1920.

It is nearly identical to the 210, except it has a second HDMI output so you can bring HD audio into your non-3D-ready receiver. If your receiver has HDMI spec 1.4 (or if you don't care about 3D), then go with the 210.

The setup process was simple with the exception of the trial and error process of getting the right audio signal to my receiver. First, make sure that you send the 'main' HDMI to the TV and the 'sub' HDMI to your receiver. In order to get full resolution, surround sound audio out of the second HDMI output you will need to disable the second video signal. Which means no video going to your receiver. This is less than ideal since I will rarely be watching 3D content and would have preferred to route video through the AVR most of the time for simplicity. I guess they set it up this way to save a few pennies per unit but it stinks.

I have watched a couple of movies so far, and was truly blown away by the sound. I don't want to neglect the picture quality here, but honestly while the picture was quite clear and detailed, it didn't impact me quite as hard as the jump in sound quality did. I probably fall into the audiophile category, and have invested a lot in my surround sound system. The clarity of the dialog, and the raw impact of the effects and soundtrack are truly outstanding.

Some Blu-ray discs (including the two I have watched) include DTS-HD Master audio tracks. To compare, the audio on DVD's tops out at 448kbps* (data transfer rate) and standard Dolby Digital on Blu-rays is about 40% better at 640kbps. But DTS-HD Master streams at 25Mbps (25,000kbps). That is 50 times as much detail in the audio signal! Check for the DTS-HD Master logo on the back when you buy or rent BD's.

To enjoy the DTS-HD Master audio stream, you will need a receiver that can decode the digital stream. Since the new panasonic blu-ray players don't have 5.1 analog outputs, you will have to use the HDMI cable to send the digital signal to your receiver for processing.

I will probably do a bit more tweaking with the settings, and as I learn more I will update my review. I will play around with 3D soon, as my glasses should arrive tomorrow. I also do not have Netflix at this point but plan to add it in the future.

All and all, I couldn't be happier that I chose this player as my first dive into Blu-ray. It isn't as big a jump as VHS to DVD was, but if you want to take full advantage of your flat screen HDTV or surround sound setup then I highly recommend taking the plunge.

*Source: wikipedia "Comparison of high definition optical disc formats"

*Here is a tidbit from the Netflix blog "Currently, our top HD streams are about 4800 kilobits per second" (kbps). If you are picky about your picture or sound, keep in mind that this is about half the fidelity as a standard DVD. I'm not a netflix hater, and I'll join for the unmatched convenience but this is one reason I haven't joined yet. Low-fi is fine for sitcoms and cartoons but for movies and shows like Lost and Heroes, quality trumps convenience in my living room.

***UPDATE***

Still loving this player. It is quick to start up, and resumes playback on discs that don't have blu-ray live content (such as Advertisements on the menu screens......yuck!)

I have also joined Netflix and tried out a couple of streams. One was a Thomas the Train movie for the kiddo. The SD picture was okay, but motion was very jumpy (really bad with moving trains!). We are currently watching Heroes S4 in Blu-ray. The other night we finished a disc and wanted to watch another episode so I streamed it in Netflix HD with 5.1 Dolby Digital. The picture was quite good, though obviously not as crisp as the 1080p from the Blu-ray. Same was true with the audio...The dialog wasn't quite as clear and we had to turn it up a bit louder to catch everything that was said. Missed out on some of the "thereness" experience of Blu-Ray discs, but still quite good. Keep in mind this is coming from a certified audiophile, my wife didn't notice the difference (but asked me to turn it up and rewind so she could hear the dialog).

This player continues to impress me with its features. On my son's 'movie night' we pulled up youtube, watched some trailers of 4 or 5 kids movies, and let him choose which one he wanted to watch. Jumped straight over to netflix (dedicated button on remote, but you have to be on the home screen (?) for it to work) and had the movie running by the time the popcorn was finished popping! Very nice!! Still highly recommended

***UPDATE***

Update on the 'resume' feature of Blu-Rays. Since discs with online content won't automatically resume, Some studio (ABC?) has come up with a nice feature (I forget what it's called!). The only disc I have seen this on is Lost season 5. It allows you to set up a viewer profile (takes 5 seconds), and when you get to the main menu there is an option to continue where you left off. I haven't tried it with multiple profiles, but that is a nice feature for if the wife and I were watching it separately. Another nice feature is when you finish a disc and put the next one in right away, it will skip all the legal stuff/menus and jump straight into the next episode! Nice!! Too bad this isn't standard!?!

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Using this blu-ray player with a non-3D HDTV and a Sony receiver that doesn't handle 3D signal passthrough but does playback HD sound, I was a bit concerned about the 2nd HDMI connection for legacy receivers like mine. No worries, I just used the HDMI main out to the receiver's HDMI input, then the receiver's HDMI output to the HDTV. Worked fine, but to get HD audio, I had to switch the audio to PCM, not bitstream. The reason I bring this up is because the instructions ignore those who don't have a 3D HDTV. But this works fine without 3D.

"Easy Setup" involved location of my wireless network and a few other minor settings. Easy setup was truly easy. I went directly to the setting to upgrade the firmware. Updating the firmware (highly recommended) which took about 10 minutes total, is essential for proper function. I cannot emphasize this enough.

Pressed the red Netflix button on the remote, and it took me to the main VieraCast screen. It does this only the first time, since you have to agree to some terms and log into your Netflix account. Easy to do, no issues (firmware 1.6.3 needed for smooth operation). On my 802.11n wireless network, HD Netflix movies played back okay, except for a few black flashes. Can't imagine that being my network. Also tried Pandora and it worked flawlessly. Weather was quite nice, as was several other apps. Nice collection, and VieraCast menu is easy to customize. Didn't try Skype. Gotta buy Panasonic's cam? Forget it.

Blu-ray 2D was gorgeous and disc boot up was faster than Playstation 3. Believe it. That is, if you enable the quick start feature, which makes the player use a bit more electricity. HD audio was supreme, but had to adjust the audio setting to PCM output from the Panasonic. My first test disc was Billy Joel Live in Shea (2011 release). Haven't tried a DVD yet, but I anticipate the usual.

I don't have 3D anything, but wanted a new blu-ray player to reduce use of my Playstation 3 and its noisy fan. This Panasonic is quiet, quick, tiny, and works with old and new. If this 3D thing does become mainstream, at least I am future proofed with this player. Highly recommended.

Read Best Reviews of Panasonic DMP-BDT310 Integrated-Wi-Fi 3D Blu-ray DVD Player Here

I was expecting to replace my media player (ASUS) using this one. I believed that it will be faster, easier to use and would support everything I need. So to cut the cr** here are pros and cons.

PROS:

Fast. Boot, MKV rewind, Network Access.

HDMI CEC together with Viera TV works perfectly! There is much more than it is required according to CEC standard. Navigation, options works using TV remote.

Works fine with Windows 7 shared folders and DLNA.

I thought touchless sensor is not relevant, but my kids like it a lot and they do not touch the equipment :)

MKV and DTS combinations are supported.

SETUP IS EASY. If you have normal TV (HDMI CEC and HDMI ARC) then setup of TV/AV Receiver/Player can be done using wizard. No additional settings need to be changed.

Option to turn off TV while playing music. Works correctly and does not turn off AV receiver.

BD-RE with movies works fine.

Completely silent. That is awesome.

CONS:

"Play to" aka Media Renderer function is buggy or maybe it is router. Don't know. Stops playing after couple of minutes

No MPEG2 support in MKV.

USB supports only divx and mkv videos. That is nonsense, cause to backup your DVD collection you will need pay additional $ to divx. This is hidden and you will discover the fact only when you buy the player.

It is nonsense that there are different formats supported on BD-RE and BD-R disks. MKV is not supported on BD-RE. Even VOB files are not recognized on BD-RE, though they claim that "Video" is supported on DVD/BD-R/BD-RE discs.

USB sticks with exFAT are not supported. So if you have larger file you will have to buy expensive SDHC cards or use hard drive. It is stupid, but USB HDD with exFAT are supported, but USB sticks are not.

No MKV chapter navigation, so you have to rewind the video.

Changing subtitles or audio channels is incovenient. Really inconvenient.

Overall: Good quality and almost easy to operate, but inconsistent/incomplete format/external device support.

UPDATE AFTER ~2011-09 firmware:

+ Now it has normal support for MPEG 2 in MKV with multiple audio tracks and multiple subtitles. There is still no support for PGS subtitles and chapter navigation, however player now seem to ignore unsupported things instead of throwing error messages.

+ It seems that "Play to" bugs are gone, but it is hard to say for sure.

MKV with VC-1 streams still not supported

HDMV PGS subtitles in MKV are not supported.

"Play to" works with LAN cable only. This just doesn't make sense. Why would you pay extra money for integrated wifi if you still need cable.

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After reading all the reviews, and the warnings that some of the reviews post, I went ahead and bought this unit anyway. It is rated as the top dog in blu-ray players. It is, but first the warning/advice:

Out of the box, this machine will not access Netflix, just as some of the other buyers warned. Performed the update with the latest firmware, and still had problems (make sure that the minute you connect it up, do a firmware update). What I did was to contact Panasonic customer service and then was routed through to technical service department. This took some doing, but finally I was in contact with a wonderful and very knowledgable technician. She walked me through reprogramming the network settings, which has to be done to get this player to talk with your wi-fi network. She walked me through the re-programming codes and entering into the player's software, and bingo; Netflix!!!

Once the player's network was reprogrammed to conform with my wi-fi, there was no problem. ATTENTION!!! Make sure that you write down the codes and store them somewhere safe, most likely with your owner's manual.

Now to the machine. It is a wonderful hi-grade player, and I recommend it highly. It produces and incredible crisp and clean picture, on any television. But what it does to a high end Plasma (most specifically a Panasonic 50" Viera) is beyond words. Just like being there, in the theatre. Other than the re-program, easy to set up. Actually, once you know how to re-program, it too is an easy set-up.

Definitely worth the money (I got a great price here at Amazon). As good, if not better picture than anything else I have seen, even in the showrooms. FIVE STARS!!!

I was at first a little wary about upgrading to the DMP-BDT310 because of its integrated Wi-Fi. The only reason I wanted to upgrade was for its ability to play back 3D content. I had bought the 3D kit for my new 3D-ready Mitsubishi 72" projection TV.

Hooking everything up was a breeze. The TV/entertainment center is in the great room, which is all windows and bright as the sun during the day. I had always heard it best to view 3D DVDs in the darkness for full effect. I wasn't about to wait until nighttime to try out the 3D Blu-ray disk that came with the kit. I turned on the Blu-ray player and inserted the 3D disk. The 3D adapter from the kit automatically turned on. I put the wireless glasses over my prescription glasses and -WOW! The Blu-ray DVD that comes with the kit is really a Disney promo thing that showcases their 3D movies. I ended up buying a few of the 3D titles featured just because they suddenly looked interesting to me. The 3D effects are that stunning. And this was in broad daylight on a rear-projection television set.

My DSL modem is a wireless router. I have two computers that share the signal from the router. In effect, I've set up a very small home network. To be honest, Windows actually set it up for me. All I had to do was enter the security code (written on the side of the router) when Windows asked me to. I did that for both computers and suddenly the two PCs were "talking" to each other and sharing the same signal from the router.

"That was easy," I thought. I decided to press my luck and bought a wireless printer. Setting it up was a bit more of a hassle because I didn't know anything about encryption settings. The only setting I had ever heard of was WEP, which I believe was once the default for Windows. The encryption setting of the router and the setting in Windows must match in order for the router to communicate with your Windows computer. I had no problems setting up the Home Network because both Windows and the router just happened to have the same encryption setting: WPA-PSK (TKIP) and WPA2-PSK (AES).

I was trying to get the printer to communicate with the modem using the WEP encryption setting. The printer asked me which setting I wanted. I had never heard of WPA or WPA2. And I certainly didn't know that WPA and WPA2 were the new defaults for Windows; just like I didn't know the router's default setting was WPA/WPA2. Trial and error and looking at the router's setting made me realize I needed to set the printer's encryption setting to WPA/WPA2. I then entered the router's key into the printer's panel and, yay!, the printer was now on the network. Windows recognized the printer and automatically downloaded and installed the right drivers for it.

So no more kicking sand and saying I would get around to it. It was now time to make the DMP-BDT310 Blu-ray player part of my modest home network. Man, how I was dreading it. I prepared myself to spend hours tinkering with settings. I turned on the Blu-ray player. I used the Blu-ray's remote control to highlight "Network" on the Blu-ray player's first screen. I followed the prompts and the player "found" my network. It asked me to enter the router's key. I did that and -yes, it was that easy -the Blu-ray player joined the home network.

I pressed the green "VIERA CAST" button on the remote. I had heard of Viera Cast before, but I had no idea what it was. But as soon as I pressed the button, WOW! There were literally dozens of "destinations" or sites on the Internet to select from -sites that have video content. For example, you could select YouTube, sign in to your account (if you want), and watch YouTube videos on your TV! Or you can select Amazon, look at your own Amazon video library, or rent an Amazon video, and watch it now or later. I immediately rented "Bridesmaids" and watched it two days later. The picture and sound were beautiful. HULU was another choice, as was Netflix. There were so many to choose from, but I'm new to this, so I didn't recognize most of them.

However, one I did recognize was SKYPE. Long-distance video phone calls for free.

Finally, another thing I had heard of, but never knew what it was, is something called BD Live. Some Blu-ray disks have the BD Live feature, and some don't. Apparently, if you select BD Live from the disk's menu, your player connects to the Internet and downloads additional content that you can watch and interact with (using the Blu-ray player's remote). The content may be games, documentaries and interviews, and even a way to rearrange the scenes in the movie to make your own movie.

To be able to download BD Live content, the Blu-ray player requires additional storage in the form of a SD Memory Card. The front panel opens on the player and the SD card slot is immediately visible. The specs for the SD Memory card are listed in the player's manual, which can be downloaded directly from Panasonic's website. The SD card that you insert for BD Live programming should be empty and formatted, again, according to the manual's specifications.

But if you have content, like pictures or videos, on your SD card, you can insert it into the Blu-ray player and watch it all on your TV.

Oh, by the way, if you have the player in your network -meaning, it's communicating with your wireless router -you don't have to worry about looking at the manufacturer's website for FIRMWARE updates. You can set the player to search, download and install firmware updates automatically, or you can do it manually.

At the end of it all, I suppose what really matters is the quality of the video and audio that the DMP-BDT310 is capable of. With Blu-day disks, whether 2D or 3D, the picture and sound are phenomenal. When it plays regular DVDs, it must up-convert because the typical pixelization artifacts (seen so clearly on a 72" TV) are not there. The picture from a regular DVD is not as sharp as that from a Blu-ray disk, but the picture is clean.

I realize this is a long review, but I hope it's been helpful for people like me -people who want something nice, easy to use, and cutting edge in terms of technology, but want to learn about it without feeling lost ("What's Viera Cast? What's BD Live? What's an SD Memory Card? Where do I get firmware updates?") or intimidated by the techno jargon used by bona fide video aficionados.

Simply put: "Is the DMP-BDT310 a really good player, and does it have features that I can actually learn to use and enjoy?"

Emphatically, the answer to that is "Yes!"

RCA Lyra RD2317 1 GB Personal Digital Audio Player with Voice, Line-in and FM Recording

• 1GB built in memory, stores up to 32 hours of WMA music or 640 songs encoded @ 64 kbps.
• Multiple recording option; Voice Record, Line in Record and FM Record
• Digital FM Tuner with FM Record.
• Full Dot Matrix backlit display for navigating through this product's different features and for navigating through your music selections.
• Dual orientaion LCD screen

Overall, this could be a great mp3 player, but they left out one very critical option. Each time you turn on the player, it starts at the main menu. You have to navigate to the album and song you want. In other words, it doesn't remember where you were last time you used the player. This is annoying when listening to music because there is no natural progression through the albums. It is intolerable when listening to audiobooks. It takes forever to find the place where you left off.

Other than that, the controls are easy to use, the player looks good, audio quality is good, and you can expand the memory with SD/MMC memory cards. It has a line-in jack for making your own recordings. It has an FM radio built in, and comes with an FM transmitter for playing through your car radio. I haven't listened to the FM radio much, but it seems to work well. The transmitter also works pretty well unless you are in a large city. It can broadcast on about 6 different frequencies, half at the extreme low end of the FM band and half at the extreme high end. You just need to find a frequency that is not in use in your area.

Also, this player does support Audible format for audiobooks. If you use Audible, this would be a good choice as these files are bookmarkable. If your books are in mp3 format like mine, I recommend getting almost ANY other mp3 player.

You should also be aware that there is no printed manual with this player.

I tried writing to customer support about the issue I have with this player, but their support page has a canned set of topics geared to sales rather than support. I still would have left something, but they want too much 'required' information about me before I can even do that. Hopefully, they will read this review and take it to heart.

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I read the other reviews and they had some good points.

Yes, when you switch on, your previous audio selection is not remembered, but I have not seen many that do. And I use many Audio book mp3's. Upon power up it takes a moment to read files, this is irritating. My purchase did not come with an fm transmit adapter (as per other reviews). My first issue upon purchase was the firmware. It needed to be upgraded from v1.xx to v3.11. This took me some time to figure out, if you did not read all the small peices of paper in the package. If you don't upgrade the firmware the Lyra does not recognize any subfolders on the SD external card. It was very simple to download and execute the upgrade from the given RCA website. I did write to RCA to fix this v3.11 though. It only supports 520 files. I can easily fit many more files (I tried to load over 800 files). All my mp3's are compressed to 64kbps and Audio books are broken down into many pieces (sub directories). I have been using a 2gbyte sd card with no prob. be carfull not to overload the line-in. the mic is also very sensitve. My overal opinion of the Lyra is great. Not many MP3 players have these features for this price range. A biult in fm transmitter would be nice though.

Read Best Reviews of RCA Lyra RD2317 1 GB Personal Digital Audio Player with Voice, Line-in and FM Recording Here

when looking for my first mp3 player I made a list of requirements my new device should have. I wanted a flash drive with at least a gig of memory, an fm radio, not apple specific and the capability to menu different play options. This player does all that at a very good price, especially consdering the inclusion of an fm player-adapter for the auto. It is surprisingly small and yet the controls do not feel flimsy, however the unit sometimes needs to be commanded a second or third time especially when skipping songs on an album play. The sound is terrific compared to regular cd players when songs are downloaded at 128. The song capacity is only 250 or so at 128 but that is plenty. Music can be downloaded as album folders and played as an album or you can shuffle everything. The battery life seems adequate enough. The controls and menu are all very easy to use and I figured everything out without the manual. The fm radio has decent reception. The car adapter only comes with 3 low and 3 high stations to choose from and in a place like san antonio with stations up and down the dial there was some static bleed through. It has the capability for another gig with an additonal sd card but I have not tried that yet because it looks like the memory card is not too secure in the player and I don't want to lose it. I put songs on it in mp3 and wma formats and it only played the mp3 format for some reason. The only reason I do not give it 5 stars is because I don't have anything to compare it to

Ativa Mini HD Digital Video Camera

I have had the unit for about 6 months. Uses SD cards and Internal (70MB).

It does a great job. I use it to shoot soccer games. I do find that in-doors can get grainy unless you set it for in-door use (They call it Digital Light), but then it works great. The built in light is kind of cool, but it only works out to about 6 ft. but what do you expect for an LED light.

It has many movie resolution settings (5) VGA, WVGA, QVGA(60fps, all other 30) 720P and can you believe 1080P!!). The steady shot is must for shooting action because the unit is so small you just can't hold it still enough. The movies look great, but you can't zoom in 1080P HD. It also has a motion triggered setting so you can use it to monitor for activity.

It downloads directly via USB or you can watch via TV, (composite and HDMI) movies are AVI, pics. are JPEG. And... by the way to does PAL and NTSC. The still camera function works well and the images and movies a piece of cake to transfer via USB since it treats the camera as a USB drive.

The camera and video allow for white balance and ISO 800,1600) changes, 3 still resolutions (high-12MPixel, med-5MPixel, low-3MPixel) and does MACRO and has a timer. The microphone pretty much only picks up close subjects (20Ft).also has a slideshow function for showing pictures. It also loads directly to YouTube.

The camera has special effects..

You can select the mode according to the scene condition.

* Auto: Shoot without any special effect on the image.

* Skin: Shoot with an effect that makea skin tones more natural

* Night: Use Night mode for night scenes or low light conditions.

* Backlight: You can take shots when bright light is behind the subject.

* B/W: The image is converted to black-and-white.

* Classic: The image is converted to sepia look is applied to the image.

* Negative: The image is converted as the negative of the normal

Haven't used these......

COMPLETE SPECS.......

Image Sensor 5 Mega Pixel CMOS Sensor

Operation Modes Movie Record, Picture Record

Lens F3.2 (f = 7.2mm)

Focus Range 200cm~infinite (Normal Mode)

Center: 20 cm (Macro Mode)

Digital Zoom 1080p:1X

Other video resolution:4X

Shutter Electronic

LCD monitor 2.5"LCD

Storage Media 128MB Nand Flash Memory (Usable storage : around 70 MB);

SD/SDHC Card Slot support

Image Resolution High 4000x3000 (12M Pixels)

Std 2592x1944 (5M Pixels)

Low 2048x1536 (3M Pixels)

Movie Resolution HD(1080p) 1920X1080(30fps)

HD(720p) 1280X720(30fps)

WVGA 848X480(60fps)

VGA 640X480(30fps)

QVGA 320X240(30fps)

Light Digital light On/Light On/Off

White Balance Auto/Manual (Daylight, Fluorescent, Tungsten)

ISO Auto/800/1600

Self timer 10 second delay

File Format Picture: JPG

Movie: AVI

Image play Single Image/Slideshow

PC Interface Mini USB 2.0 Port

TV out NTSC/PAL Selectable, HDMI

Battery Lithium-ion Rechargeable Battery

Dimension 100(H) * 57(W) * 17.9(T) mm

Weight 87g (without battery)

The battery lasts for just short of 2 hours on 1080P HD. One of the best features is it tells you how much recording time is left as you change resolutions. It also comes with movie making software (decent). I really couldn't be much happier for the money! What do you expect for this kind of change...

I bought this to use with my students but after trying it out for a few days, I knew it would not be good enough for what I planned using it for.

The camera shoots horrible pictures! Unless the people or scene is absolutely still, you will get a blurry image. The HD recording is good but nothing to rave about. The light does help out a bit in low light situations, but if there is not enough light in general the video looks very grainy.

My other big con against this camcorder is that the video it shoots in HD is a file that unless you install the codec on the cd-rom disc, you will be unable to view the video and/or hear the audio...stupid proprietary file format or something. I lost my disc and now I am having to try to find the codec online. WMP, VLC, Nero and PowerDVD cannot play the audio on the HD videos I have shot with this camcorder now that I need to reinstall the codec. :(

If you don't expect much from this camcorder you wont be disappointed but I was so I wish I had saved more money for a better camcorder/camera.

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The sale from office depot was $99 for camera $20 service plan $20 16GB card. Awesome deal.

Big 3" inch screen, 4hr video, flip view so you can take "myspace pose" pic of yourself or a serious movie.

Audio for the video is loud and picture is so clear. 16x zoom is handy and actually true to its promise just depends on the scape. Touch screen should come with a stylus though. I love this camera. Such a good purchase.

I do not regret buying this at all.

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This a a great little camcorder! It has many of the features of the more expensive camcorders. Color and sound I thought was very good! I carry this little camcorder on a strap around my neck. It's so light you forget it's there after a while. Just remember, this is a small hand held camera and takes a little time to master it's use. A couple of days practice and you will be fine! I have other camcorders,but this is the one I use most. I think the 1080p color was great! When you order this Ativa, you might notice a simularity to the Toshiba Camelio.

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Yamaha CD-S300-RK CD Player Single Disc Rackmount, USB Port, MP3, WMA Playback, DAC Conversion

I wanted a basic but quality CD player for a small equipment rack in my home music studio. Integrating music stored on USB devices was essential. The Yamaha CD-S300 is well made and performs as expected with one exception: you cannot play WAV files stored on USB devices. The manual explains this, but who reads the manual before purchase? Some of us prefer the higher fidelity of WAV. So aside from having to convert my WAV files to MP3/320/VBR or AAC format, this is a good player for the price. The remote control enables extra features and is easy to use. Navigation of folders and files on USB is simple; you see the name of the folder/file on the digital display. I like everything about the CD-S300 except for the lack of WAV on USB. If that doesn't matter to you, the device gets five stars.

The unit works perfectly. CD's that skipped on my old player don't skip here. The unit came with "feet" so it can be placed directly on a shelf as opposed to using a rack. That was important to me because I don't have a rack. The "ears" for rack mounting shouldn't be removed. There is a warning slip with the packaging stating that the mounting ears should not be removed. They're small enough that I don't really have a problem with that. However, if aesthetics or space are all important then consider carefully what to do. Hope this helps.

Ty

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I applaud the excellent service from Pro Acoustics. Our Yamaha CD player arrived nicely packed, in perfect condition, and several days early to boot! We will certainly purchase products from this fine company again.

It has been a pleasure to write this glowing review. Thanks, Pro Acoustics! (P.S. The Yamaha CD player is even better than we had hoped for, and no pun intended, the acoustics provided by the player's DAC lend to a very life-like performance level throughout our entire house).

Read Best Reviews of Yamaha CD-S300-RK CD Player Single Disc Rackmount, USB Port, MP3, WMA Playback, DAC Conversion Here

Plays nicely and never fails, except at every power-on... Then, it totally ignores all the buttons until it loads a CD -orchecks to see if a CD is loaded. This takes the unit considerable time (as it does with most brands). If you push the button to open the drawer when (or before or at the same time as) you power it on, it ignores the button, and goes through it's thing trying to load the CD. So if you turn it on intending to insert a CD, it won't let you do that until it fusses and figures out that there is already one loaded or actually loads any CD you left inside. The microcode should first interrogate the "Open Drawer" button at power-on and perform that function if the button is pressed. It's quite annoying.

WORK AROUND: Before turning it off, open the drawer and then power it down with the drawer open. The problem with this solution is that it allows dirt to enter into the unit. A partial solution to this problem is to (after it is powered down with the drawer open) gently *Almost* close the drawer -until it's about 1/4" or a little less "open". Just leave it open enough so that you can grab it with your fingers BEFORE you power it on again and insert any New CD you want to play. That way when the unit powers up it will have a CD inside that you intend to play -which is what you want the thing to do anyway. It's just a real bother to have to do this every time you power it off, and I worry that it's still not completely sealed, but that's the only fix I've been able to find. [Unless Yamaha wants to send me a microcode upgrade... ]

MY CONCERN: The engineer(s) who did this design were obviously not the swiftest guys on the block. I worry what else they did wrong. Under this heading I have found that if you load any music that isn't a standard CD -i.e. a flash drive or MP3 player or a CD with MP3 [or WAV] files -the microcode only knows how to read a "flat" directory structure. In other words, if you have something with multiple directory levels -with folders and subfolders, if you will -this CD player will not handle 'em. It's not a huge limitation -you can still play a lot of stuff -but if you tried to organize your music with multiple levels of directories/folders (as is frequently the case on an MP3 player) you are out of luck. The thing will only recognize the first directory level it encounters. One would expect more from something that costs a few hundred dollars.

BTW, my old unit did the power-on function quite nicely, thank you.

MISSING FEATURE: This is not a bug, but it IS another function that got left out of the microcode load: How about the capability to display "Remaining Time" on a CD? I can understand why this might be difficult for non-CD (non-.WAV file) media, but why not include this at Least for the Standard CD case (if it's too difficult to make work for all cases). This used to work just dandy on my old Yamaha CD player. Unfortunately that unit finally ceased to be able to synch to and read CDs, so it had to be replaced (after a number of years). I paid good money for a replacement, which sadly was shipped without a design check or review by the team that was supposed to do this. Sigh.

Yes, I'm an engineer... did super computers... and they worked.

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Great CD player. USB+iPod is plus plus. It plays whatever iPod can play and bypass iPod's DAC. That means it can play all the Apple lossless format includes ALAC and AIFF. I compared the integrated DAC with Arcam rDAC. The integrated DAC does a very close job to rDAC.

It's also one of the best responsible retailer I have encountered. They called me when they received my order from Amazon and told me I might need to wait few days. And they called me again on the date I received this item to make sure everything is OK. Seems I am not only one who cared and who's tracking my order.

I was considering to order an AMP from this retailer again. Unfortunate they do not carry the AMP I was looking for.

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Casio Exilim EXZ57 5MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

My local camera store just got their first shipment of Casio's new Exilim EX-Z57 super-slim digital camera, and I eagerly hopped over to check it out.

The EX-Z57 is a very slight upgrade (and one downgrade... read on) of the very popular EX-Z55 model. The Z55 had a 2.5" LCD screen that was considered "huge" just a year ago, but now that so many other digital cameras also sport a 2.5" LCD, Casio decided to release a 2.7" LCD model, hence the Z57. Amazingly, the overall physical size hasn't changed, and the EX-Z55's industry-leading amazing battery life (over 300 even with flash on and LCD on full-time) has been retained, making the EX-Z57 another battery life champ.

As far as I can tell -and from what the sales clerk told me -the internals of the EX-Z57 are identical to those of its immediate predecessor. This means very good image quality from such a small camera. Three important issues to keep in mind as you shop for this camera or a similarly ultracompact model:

1. The tiny lens and tiny sensor necessarily limit the sharpness of the picture. If you shoot at the maximum 5MP and print out at up to 5x7", you probably won't be disappointed by the sharpness of the picture. However, as you print larger pictures, you'll see the pictures tend to be softer and noisier than from larger cameras. This is simply a result of the law of physics, and it's a trade-off between size and quality.

2. The small camera also means a small, limited-power flash, so your indoor pictures when the ambient lighting is dim will not come out very satisfactory. Again, this is entirely due to the small form factor. If you want to use this camera to shoot a small group of friends at a dinner party, it's okay. But you should know that as you near the flash range and go beyond, you'll get horrible-looking pictures.

3. A camera this small makes it very hard to hold it steady. Many people with tiny cameras like this complain about blurry pictures. This is because as you press the shutter button, you'll move the camera ever so slightly. With a larger camera body (e.g., a digital SLR), the much heavier camera body requires more effort to hold which has the side benefit of providing a counteracting force to the shutter-pushing force. Hence, with a small camera like the EX-Z57, you must remember to hold the camera very steady as you press the shutter.

Whereas the older EX-Z55 had an optical viewfinder, Casio opted to remove it in order to accommodate the enlarged LCD screen without changing the overall size of the camera. Yes, the Z55's optical viewfinder was tiny and hard to use, but at least it was an option -and looking through the optical viewfinder instead of at the screen actually helps steady your shots because you hold the camera close to your body (think the principle of leverage). Also, when you are really low on battery, switching to optical viewfinder can squeeze out a few more shots. For a camera purish like myself, it's a pity that the optical viewfinder is no more on the Z57, but for most casual photographers (the Exilim's target audience) this will likely be a non-issue, since they probably would never use the optical vewfinder to begin with.

In summary, the Z57 provides an unbeatable small form factor yet a crowd-pleasing huge LCD screen, amazing battery life and very good image quality (for a camera this size). You can also record movies (albeit only at a stuttering 15 frames per second) as well as sound. It's very intuitive to use, and my friends who have the Z55 are all very happy with it (once I gave them the tip about holding the camera super-steady or on a tripod to avoid blurs). While I don't have money to buy another digital camera at the moment, but if I had some extra spare dough, I would definitely buy this just for the HUGE 2.7" LCD. To a gadget freak like me, it's priceless to be able to impress my friends with something this cool. :)

Well, I broke my 2 year old 3.2 megapixel digital camera about a month ago and have been researching buying a new one since. I finally decided on the z57 and I couldn't be happier. I knew I wanted a point and shoot digital and definitely wanted more than 3.2 megapixels. I narrowed my search down to the Olympus Stylus 500, the Konica Minolta x60 (my old digicam was a Minolta and I loved it so that's why I was considering buying another one) and the Nikon Coolpix S1. I only came across the Casio Exilim Z57 when I was reading reviews on when they suggested this camera, based on the reviews I was reading. I read the review about it first and the thing that really stuck out about this camera was how fast it was. I then came here on amazon and read reviews and the one thing that caught my eye was that someone said it didn't have a 'trick' flash, which means there's almost no shutter lag. My old camera had this which caused a lot of problems for people keeping their eyes open in my pictures. Since I was so used to a tiny camera, I wanted to go see this camera in person. I went in, saw it, held it and was amazed at how small it was!!! The screen is huge and it's extremely fast. One thing that turned me away from the Olympus Stylus 500 was that the shot-to-shot review was extremely poor. If I'm not mistaken, it said that if you used the flash, the shot-to-shot delay was almost 8 seconds. I know that when I'm in a situation where I want to use the flash, chances are, I want to take a picture asap and 8 seconds is a lifetime, especially if you're waiting anxiously to take another pic. I think they said on the review I read about the z57 that the shot-to-shot delay with the flash was something like 2.2 seconds. What a world of difference! The best shot selections make it easy to decide which one you want to use. I thought that after having a digicam without a protruding lens, I wouldn't like that this camera had one, but I can't even tell the difference. I think this camera is a great value (less than $300!) I've only had it for a few days and couldn't be happier. The more I keep playing with it, the more and more I love it. After doing all my research I think I made a great decision going with this camera.

Buy Casio Exilim EXZ57 5MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom Now

It was just a few days ago when I was sitting in the library studying when I thought about "slimming" down my technical gadgetry. After now owning a Motorola Razor and a Game Boy Micro, it was time to choose a digital camera that could in small spaces just like the two mentioned above, it was time to look for a camera that would heed my calling.

I went to the nearest Wal-Mart and I browsed around. I was searching for a camera that fit my budget. It had to have a big, yet decent LCD screen, battery life, great picture taking ability, and of course, compact size.

And there it was. The CASIO EXILIM EX-Z57. I tinkered around with it and I found that it felt nice all around.

The LCD screen was 2.7". It was great to have because when your at a club taking pictures, you would want to have people see how it looked instead of squinting to check it out.

The menus were easy to navigate and simple to understand.

The size is decent. Since this is the first slim camera I've ever owned, it does well. It may not be as thin as a SONY's, but it works for me.

I'm impressed on how there are different modes for your pictures by choosing the right size you need, and the quality. Good!

The flash is great. I'd like to say that it does not have a "trick flash." The flash bulb doesn't flicker or do strange things to make your smile or your eyes do weird impressions. It's a simple straight flash that gets things moving quickly.

Thank goodness! I dislike trick flash.

If you're looking for a camera that has great compact abilities, size, weight, and style, then this is your camera. I would recommend this brand and make to anyone who would like to buy this.

Read Best Reviews of Casio Exilim EXZ57 5MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom Here

1) CAMERA IS COOL TO HOLD AND SHOW OFF.

however ...

2) PHOTO QUALITY IS ABYSMAL:

When I first got this camera, I was so impressed. I took pictures of Queen's Day in Amsterdam where the weather was sunny and everyone was wearing bright orange clothes. The pictures were perfect. Then, I tried taking pictures at night and they were horrible. I took pictures at daybreak and sunset using the so called amazing "best shot" setting. most of the pictures looked grainy and/or blurry.

I kept thinking I was doing something wrong, but the fact of the matter is this camera takes absolutely horrible photos anytime other than in perfect light or indoors. Outdoor photos in general are bad unless in direct sunlight and limited contrast is needed. It seemed like such a cool camera because of the screen size, but as my vacations memories are not at all captured well, the camera is about to go back into the closet or Goodwill. I would recommend people who want to take pictures more frequently than from noon to 2 pm, primarily of people, buy something else.

The screen size is great for showing off to people when you take a really great photo, but don't expect this to happen too often. A smaller screen that takes good pictures would make me a lot happier. I just came back from Prague, one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, and I have few good pictures.

I encourage you to read review on the other sites listed below as these Amazon posters must have posted the day they got their cameras. Mail comes during the day, when this camera actually does a good job. I suspect that if they were polled again, they would probably repeat my review.

One more thing ... While the size makes the camera very cute to use, is also impacts photo quality. Pictures can come out blury due to camera's size... must focus on holding camera steady.

HIGHLY DISAPPOINTED.

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This camera is above all, an attractive and functional point and shoot. It has the biggest LCD screen on the market. It has a solid feel and construction. You will not be dissapointed with the images until you are in low-light situations. With the less than adequate flash, any medium to low-light shot beyond 5-7 feet gets VERY noisy. Otherwise, the image quality is very typical of any compact 5 mp camera.

The EX Z57 has plenty of options for those of us who want more than snapshots. Manual ISO, white balance, and manual focus are nice. Battery life is also unbeatable.

This camera is intuitive, reliable, and an eye-catcher. I have shot over 1700 photos with no problems, with low-light being the only exception.

** the screen is not easily breakable and very scratch resistant

** you'd never use the viewfinder if it had one