RCA RD2780 20GB Lyra Personal Digital Multi-Media Player

• 20 GB hard drive and digital multimedia player
• Plays MP3 formatted audio and is MP3pro ready
• Stores any file type, including word processing documents, presentations, spreadsheets, and more
• Comes with MusicMatch personal music management software
• Uses USB interface to connect to you computer

Last week I bought a Lyra 40GB mp3 jukebox and really enjoyed the storage, how it functioned as a hard drive, the sound, and ease of use.

The one thing that kept nagging me was how the 40GB mp3 jukebox was $299 and the Lyra AV was $399, so why not spend the $100 more and get the video player/recorder?

At first I loved the RCA AV device and spent the entire weekend playing with the features that were available. It was good improvement over just a pure mp3 jukebox, however after a few days the drawbacks and limitations became clear.

These are some big problems:

1. The video you capture is in ASF format and not avi, which makes editing in a common video editor a far tougher task.

2. The picture play back is only for .jpg files and not all jpg compression files worked.

3. Battery life with video only or mp3 only was very close to the same, which is alarming. The battery indicator also would go from full charge to 1/2 to 3/4 and never showed the correct charge. In one mixed function test the system ran for almost 3.5 hours. After another full 6+ hour charge it ran for about 2.5 hours in the same conditions.

4. The latest January 15 firmware adds a few features and fixes some problems, however a large amount of functionality is still missing.

5. RCA restricts users from backing up copyrighted works. People have figured out a work around, however there are several things that could be done to tighten copying, which severely restricts the usefullness of the device.

6. The system OS also runs slow. Checking the Lyra status screen took more than 2 minutes for some reason. At random times switching songs, stopping playback, or performing simple functions gives you 10-30 seconds of lag and it almost appears as if the system locked up.

The best things about the RCA AV jukebox include the nice TFT screen, the sleek form factor, the lower price, how so many accessories are included in the box, and how it forced Archos to lower the prices on their competing products.

If the RCA came out with complete functionality, recorded in avi format, and offered the same functionality as the Archos players it would have been a serious hit.

As it stands the RCA player is functional, has some good points, but it fails in a side by side comparision with the Archos. The promise was there, but the delivery was not.

Perhaps with jukebox 2 from RCA or after 6 more months of firmware updates the Lyra will be better competition, however there is a good chance future devices will be even further restricted as time goes on because media companies will just blame them as tools for abuse, ignoring the fact that any PC or Mac out there is a far better tool for any person wishing to pirate media.

I initially gave the Lyra a 5, but now feel it deserves a 2.5-3 for what it currently delivers. I am moving to a Archos AV340 because after my experience with the Lyra and after further research it appears the additional money is well worth it when it comes to these types of devices.

Buy RCA RD2780 20GB Lyra Personal Digital Multi-Media Player Now

I gave the RCA lyra AV 4 stars only because it is a bold new product that has few competitors and deserves praise for being a high level of versitility out of a 1st generation product. That said, if there were many PVPs out there on the market, then I would not recommend buying this particualr one because it has many quirks.

Cons:

1) Battery life is pretty short. But this isn't such a big deal to me. It comes with an AC and car adapter so the only place you have to wrroy about this is outside.

2) When recording video, it is slightly out of sync. I recorded the Matrix Reloaded onto it yesterday and the lips were slightly out of sync. Just enough to be bothersome, but still watchable.

3) Many JPEGS show up as "format unreadable." For no reason whatsoever the RCA lyra chooses not to read some JPGs while allowing others to be read.

4) Limited readablity of video formats. Simply put, if you dont have a program with AVI MPEG layer 4 codecs, dont get this. It is annoying that it doesn't read a wider range of formats.

5) The included software is NOT Apple MAc compatible. I am an Apple user, and while the RCA lyra AV showed up on my desktop as a disk drive PERFECTLY without installing drivers, the included Musicmatch and firmware transfer sowftware is for PC ONLY. When you recieve your Lyra, you will absolutley NEED to update the system's firmware. YOU MUST have acess to a PC-compatible computer in order to do this. NOT A MAC! But otherwise, transfering movies, pics, and mp3s to the lyra on a mac is a simple drop and drag procedure.

6) You CAN NOT read Text, Excell, Word, PDF, or any other files on this machine. This is slightly decieving, because the description DOES make it seem like this is possible, by saying "view files such as word and excell documents." What this means is that you can LOOK at the file NAME and see that it is there, but cant look at the FILE itself!

7) Not to be petty, but the machine looks GREAT, except for these odd orange stripes ugglifying the back panel. Poor choice of color.

8) Cheap buttons. It has these little plastic joysticks that feel loose. One of mine is not even centered. This machine, for this price, should have touch sensative buttons like the apple iPod. This is only a minor drawback though.

Pros:

1) AMAZING sharp screen. A pleasure to watch video on. I mean, I never thought I could sit there and watch a movie on a little screen like that, but this screen is so crystal sharp that I was blown away.

2) Even though lips are out of sync, the sound and video quality of video recorded directly onto the lyra is SUPERB! I mean, it is just freaking incredible. The sound will blow you away. Again, a pleasure.

3) The look of this machine is great. Except for the buttons, it feels solid. Nice silverish color and black screen. The operating system is flashy and full of colorful graphics and sybols. It looks pretty.

4) Although I dont LIKE the case it comes with, the fact that it comes with a leather case at all is a plus. Any case will extend the life of a product.

5) Lots of great features. Allows you to set the recording time so you can start the recording at the begining of a 1 hour TV show, and it will automatically stop at after 1 hour. This is great so that you dont have to attend to the machine.

Overall, I think this is an AMAZING first generation product with about as many quarks as a typical first generation product has. It deserves 4 stars because I believe that it delivers everything it promises. Dont believe anyones review that says "THIS IS AMAZING!! BEST PRODUCT EVER!!" or "THIS THING IS TRASH!! GARBAGE!!!" They are extremes and dont accuratly represent the RCA Lyra AV. The truth lies in the middle.

My verdict: If you ABSOLUTELY MUST have a PVP, and cant wait a few more months untill the consumer market grows with many more PVPs, then get the RCA LYRA. I promise you wont be dissapointed. But if you are weary about getting a PVP, and are (...) and want a perfected top notch machine, wait it out. Hopefully Apple will come out with one and will blow away all of the competition!

But for now, I say the RCA Lyra AV is just plain fun to use!

-propynyl

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This item is excellent.... i give it 5 stars i have had a long time to review this so i would know...all the problems that people have can be fixed with updates,warrantys, or by this review...(lol)Mp3 sounds wonderful..the movies are good...but

this item has its glitches.. as long as you update right when you get it and before you put anything on it or do anything with it, it will be fine..... a little slow cf transfer and it is picky with the different types of movie files are allowed on it....

here are some helpful tips

HOW TO RECORD A COPYRIGHTED DVD ONTO THE LYRA:

step 1: pick your dvd and plug the cables into the dvd player...

step 2: start recording your dvd and after 6 seconds stop the movie (where you are allowed to resume it) or unplug the connection cables attached from the RCA to the dvd player... the LYRA takes about 9 seconds to determine a copyrighted dvd so after about 7 more second replug the cable back into the dvd player and there you go...BUT NEVER STOP RECORDING ON THE LYRA WHEN YOU UNPLUG THE CABLES...it wont work...

HOW AND WHERE TO REPLACE THE BATTERY ON THE LYRA:

This website i am about to give you sells the battery for the lyra and gives instructions on how to replace...there are screws on the lyra that you need a certain screw driver for (included with the purchase of a replacement battery)..FOR those who said it couldnt be done..you were wrong....(...)

NEW SOFTWARE UPDATE INFORMATION:

Reliable sources from RCA tell me that hopefully soon to be released updates will allow more movie transfers and new features that arent available already.. also they are hoping to come out with a digital camera attachment for the lyra...(release date unknown) the camera is a rumor but RCA said themselves they are going to work with the rumor... Many new things might be available in the next year

-possible longer battery life

-more hard drive space

-more advanced audio features

-for movie buffs, different movie types being allowed....

that is all i have heard so far.. hopefully amazon will post this so all the wondering eyes looking for good reviews can find this .

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As many other reviewers have stated, this device is really cool. Essentially for the same price as the Apple iPod 20GB, you get Video, too!

BUT... RCA was clearly not ready to release this thing. You have to be fairly A/V and computer saavy to fully use this thing. First, you have to update the firmware and the software that came with the unit. Then you have to figure out how to dump video to this sucker. You could always encode off of the line-in, but that's too pedestrian. Most of us want to capture video in my case from a TV tuner card and dump the TV show or clip to the Lyra for later viewing.

The problem is you can't do this with the software that comes with the unit!

So I went and bought a fairly inexpensive package, Roxio's VideoWave, and tried to create my shows. Still no good, because until they update the firmware to support the widely available codecs, you *MUST* encode in AVI format such that the audio is MP3 and the video is either MPEG-4 SP (standard profile) or DivX. I only have MPEG-4 Version 1-3 codecs on my brand new box.

Luckily, you can save yourself a lot of time and hassle by just going to the following site and downloading the *FREE* DivX codec: http://www.divx.com

Now everything works fine, and I only spent about $50 for the additional software, which will be useful anyway for creating videos.

If you already have capture software, the only thing you have to watch out for is to make sure you can specify the audio compression algorithm (MP3) when creating an AVI. Some (many?) packages simply use uncompressed PCM audio, and that won't play on the Lyra! Besides, it will make you AVI file substantially smaller if you compress the audio.

I purchased an RCA Lyra model 2780 in early January. This unit worked as expected for about 2 weeks before it exhibited what I found later to be a known flaw with the model, a faulty headphone jack.

I contacted RCA/Thomson to attempt to find a place to repair the unit, to be informed that it needed to be sent in to the warranty center. So I posted it to the warranty center with the specified copy of the bill-of-sale, and was informed that I would need to wait a week or more for the company to "receive" it.

Once it was received, I was then informed that it would not be repaired, it would be replaced. And that they were allowed one month to replace the unit. So I waited one month. Upon finishing that month, I was informed that the company would be paying me the cost of my unit, that this was the only option. So I re-sent in the bill-of-sale to a fax number. I was then told that it would take 6-8 weeks for them to send my refund.

Yesterday (3 weeks later), I was contacted by a supervisor and informed that I would not be receiving a refund for my defective property because it wasn't purchased from a recognized dealer of RCA Lyras. And today I am informed that I will also not be receiving my defective equipment back from RCA/Thomson.

So far, Thomson has repeatedly misled me about expectations, wasted hours of my time in dealing with a poorly-staffed and poorly-managed call center, and I'm now informed I can receive neither my property or a refund from Thomson.

Not only will I not purchase another item from RCA/Thomson, I will be letting people know through a variety of online and RL connections exactly how poorly their product is made and supported by the company.

Visual Land V-Touch 16 GB Video MP3 Player with 2.8-Inch Touchscreen and 2-Megapixel Camera (Black)

• 16 GB capacity for about 4000 songs
• 6 hours of audio on a single charge
• 2.8-inch color LCD touch screen
• Supports MP3, WMA, and WAV audio formats; AVI, MP4 and 3GP video formats; and JPG, BMP and GIF image formats
• One-year limited warranty

Got this fairly cheap for about $75 but the quality is worth even less than the low cost. Biggest complaint is the sound quality. If you have average ears, there is a very noticeable static noise in the background. Sounds like the radio when it has a weak signal. Tried 4 different headsets to make sure but they all do the same background noise. This annoying sound is worse than cassette tapes after it's been dropped a hundred times on concrete floor.

On top of the background noise, when playing mp3s, there is a very slight distortion like the wrong pitch.

Another complaint is the volume setting. On middle setting it is way too loud. I had to set it at 1/10 volume which compares to 5/10 on other mp3 players.

Changing the volume is a big pain. You have to touch the sound icon, and you have less than 2 seconds to change the sound before it goes back to the previous screen. Since the touch response is slow, I use the +/buttons to change it.

Touch screen is fairly responsive, not fast, more like need to double click and wait a second or two before the selection happens.

They give you a stylus pen but there is no holder for it.

A cheap cotton bag comes with it but just holds the charger and ear sets.

Tried the camera, it's blurry, even worse than a cell phone camera. Make sure you have a very steady hand. Can't zoom, rotate, or do anything with the pictures.

Video movie files have to be converted to a lower quality to play on it.

This can support mini sd. That's old technology, but you can buy an adapter for micro sd to mini sd.

Only thing good about this player is it looks like the ipod touch as long as you don't touch the screen when you turn it on or try to listen to any music.

It also has external mono speaker, but my cheap free cell phone can still outperform this. Oh and turning it on is a laugh too. To turn it on you have to slide a switch to the right for 2 seconds. To turn it off, you slide the switch to the right for 2 seconds.

There are no games for this. Their website also said there are none.

There are many other problems with navigating and finding songs once copied into the player.

They have a calendar and clock, a text reader (only .txt files), video recorder, sound recorder, I haven't tried those but there are just too many problems to even get that far to try. Actually I don't even want to know about how they are gonna mess them up too.

I guess I'll go back and keep using my $10 2gb sandisk mp3 player since it is way better quality than this one until I find another one. Disappointed that I'm stuck with the product and don't know what to do with it.

Buy Visual Land V-Touch 16 GB Video MP3 Player with 2.8-Inch Touchscreen and 2-Megapixel Camera (Black) Now

DO NOT BUY, JUNK, WILL NOT WORK ON WINDOWS VISTA. CAN NOT CALL FOR HELP, EMAIL ONLY WAIT DAYS FOR REPLY. CHARGED BATTERY AND SCREEN SHOWS "PLEASE WAIT" BE WAITING FOR 24 HOURS. POOR USER MANUAL NO HELP, UNIT WILL NOT TURN OFF. WAITING TO SEND BACK WILL NOT BUY FROM THIS COMPANY AGAIN

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I contacted the saler of the product and he was more than happy to repair or exchange product for me and was very apologetic for my inconvenience.

SainSpeed F198 Car Dash DVR With Night Vision, Microphone Built In, 2.5" Rotatable and Foldable TFT

• 2.5-inch 280° Rotatable and Foldable TFT Color LCD Screen, Flexibile to monitor and display
• Good Performance of IR Night Vision For Recording by 6pcs LED Lights
• Recycle Record for Covering Old History To Save Space and Auto Record Once Engine Starts.
• 1/4" Color CMOS HD Fish-Eye Camera with 120 Degree Range Creates Wide and Clear Image and Video

I have this DVR for 4 days.

The video quality is not that bad at this price. Please see my videos.

I use the following setting: SxGA(HD), 2 minutes file length, Transcend 8GB SDHC card (class 6). There are 6 seconds gap between the files. Something will happen in 6 seconds that you may miss.

37 files X 2 min = 74 min; 7 GB memory used.

The day time video is shaking a lot because my wife held it due to the suction cup could not stick on the windshield more than 15 seconds. I though it maybe the windshield too cold (36 degree F) so I tried it on the dress mirror at home with different methods clean both side, moisture the cup with water, with alcohol. It always falls down in 15 seconds.

I took out my Gamin GPS suction cup and tie the DVR on it with rubber band. Gamin suction cup sticks on the windshield like glued on it even in the evening with colder weather and raining time.

I took the night video with the same setting as the day video. You only can see the license plate number that at font of you with HIGH mount on a van or SUV. The license plate on a sedan car will reflect the lights that from your car low beam.

I also took a night video in a clear night with / without the head-light on.

The raining night video shows local and high way.

I can hear the conversation with a little background noise on the playback records.

Once, the DVR suddenly stopped record without any reason while I was driving (cigar lighter power code was connected).

DVR was frozen twice in the last day. I had to take out battery to turn it off.

I decide to return this item and order another. It took a while for me to pull out the SD card.

Updated on 12/30/2011

I received a new one on 12/23/2011 and use it every day without any problem.

I set the record time to 10 min the longest record time, and the gap between the 2 files is 10 seconds. I tried both class 6 and class 10 SDHC cards and got same 10 seconds gap. I have to set it back to 2 min with 6 seconds gap. Lost 6 seconds record is better than lost 10 seconds record.

The video quality is better than the video I posted on Amazon. Because after I cut and combined the footages, it lost the quality during the save time. I will re-post the original video late.

Updated on January 16, 2012

The temperature drop to 28 F last night and this morning the DVR completely die because my wife forgot to bring it home and left it in the car which parked outside. I took it in home and let it seat for few hours to warm up and recharged the battery, but the DVR still could not be turned on. Lucky it still in 30 day return period and I always save the package until 30 day return period past.

Now I use $60 Kodak EasyShare Touch M577 14 MP Digital Camera with 5x Optical Zoom and 3-Inch LCD Touchscreen Black with NAVGEAR Universal Dash Mountas the DVR. The Kodak M577 has 14 megapixels and 5X wide-angle optical zoom, and it easy to record videos in HD (only allow to record 29 min in HD, after 29 min it automatically stop record, you have to press the record button again to start another 29 min record) the battery only last for 80 min, but it enough for 20 min commute each way. The bad is that it cannot record while charging.

Buy SainSpeed F198 Car Dash DVR With Night Vision, Microphone Built In, 2.5" Rotatable and Foldable TFT Now

I have been using my F198 for a few days now [aug 15, 2011]...

In VGA mode it takes a decent picture. This mode is good enough to see stop lights & the cars in the field of view. The wide angle lense provides a very good picture of what is going on, but there is some loss of clarity. You can read the licence plate of cars stoped directly in front of you, and with some time you might pick up a letter/number at a time for moving cars. It is much like a cell phone cam & shows cars pulling in your lane, or crossing the light well.

I set the motion detect mode on. At first it was not active at the time I started recording, but then I stopped the car powering the F198 down & when I powered back up, it was in motion detect mode. The mode is not sensitive enough & is not acceptable for use when driving, so I advise leaving motion detect mode off.

At VGA resolution, it could record three 15 minute clips on 2 Gb. Then it deletes the oldest file when creating a new file. This process takes 2-3 seconds.

The F198 has a car-off detection & will stop recording when the car is off. This requires a switched circuit. The F198 detects loss of power & properly closes the active file using the battery before powering down. When the power input comes back, the F198 automatically resumes recording. If your cigar lighter is not switched... this feature will not work.

The menu is a bit difficult, so read the directions. The IR led mode works well from about 3-4 feet. similar to filming with a flashlight. You do not want to use IR mode for night driving because you will be recording the windsheid reflection... use standard mode.

The mount did not have a swivel end on it, so you end up extending it more than desired to get the correct angle. A better mount willl lower the profile of the camera in the window.

The LCD screen does not switch off when closed. This would be nice, but my battery did not go dead when recording over night.

I believe I got about what I expected because I first looked the camera up on the internet google/yahoo & also saw a video on you-tube. It is useful & of reasonable quality for the very low price.

Updated Aug 1, 2012: This camera has been working non-stop 24 hrs in my car for almost 1 year. The swevil at the camera connection is a bit loose & can't be tightened, so occasionally the camera may get turned if I drive too rough.

Read Best Reviews of SainSpeed F198 Car Dash DVR With Night Vision, Microphone Built In, 2.5" Rotatable and Foldable TFT Here

Using this item for 2 weeks. It creates new files any 2, 5 or 15 minutes of recording (you can choose). It has 3 quality modes (VGA, DL, SxGA(HD)). Tried sxga, but the fps amount is not enough and the picture is intermittent, not comfortable to watch.

VGA has too low resolution but movement is smooth. The best choice for me became DL mode.

Picture quality is not impressive. You can recognize the licence plate number of the cars only near you. And it's almost impossible to do in the night on moving cars. Night vision is pretty good, but the headlights of oncoming cars create large white holes on the picture. The same with the stop lights of the cars in front of you.

Plastic is very low quality, but I didn't expect more for this price.

The dashboard mount works perfect, you just have to make the surface wet a little, and it will hold like with glue.

Not bad device but I'd like it to have better picture quality.

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The uploaded video is a 2 min clip recorded in 720P format.

I have been using this camera every single day, every time I drive, for about 2 months now. The picture quality is nothing special. Its pretty much like watching a video on TV recorded by a police car. There isn't much detail but it does catch whatever happens in front of the car.

The battery does not hold a charge for more than a few minutes so the camera has to be plugged into the 12V at all times. Also the connection between the 12V cable and the camera is pretty loose so sometimes the cable falls out of the camera when going over bumps. Taping the cable to the camera helps.

I use a 32GB memory card so it can record about 9-10 hours. What I like about the camera is that the LCD does not have to be opened all the time. The camera records with the LCD closed. Also, to start recording, all I have to do it hold the power button for about 3 seconds to hear a chirp sound and the camera starts recording automatically. It records in 2/5/15 minute intervals and afterwards it records over the old videos.

Overall I think that this camera is pretty ok. Its cheap but after all you get what you pay for.

***3 Month UPDATE: So it has been 3 months now since I'v been using this camera pretty much every single day. It still works just like the first day when I used it. There are normal signs of wear and tear but nothing serious.

One flaw I forgot to mention the first time when I wrote this review is that the date and time on the camera doesn't save. Because the battery doesn't hold a charge for very long, it resets the time and date. I would assume that if the camera was connected to the 12V 24/7, then maybe the time and date would not reset.

Anyways, I'm actually thinking about getting another one of these cameras for my other car. I just saw a scam attempt video online of how a car backed up into another car on the highway to do a scam. If the second car didn't have a dash cam, he'd be in trouble.

***4 Month UPDATE: I ended up buying a second camera for my weekend car. Although the new camera was supposed to be the same, its actually a bit different... better than the first one I got. When I bought my first camera 4 months ago, the camera was sent from California whereas the new camera was sent from Shanghai (Amazon seller BestDeal777). It seems like I received an updated model because the software looks newer and the power connection is different.

With my old camera, the 12V power connection was round, similar to a headphone jack and easily fell out. The connection in the new camera is USB (mini-B), works great and doesn't fall out. As far as the software in the new camera, the camera turns on a lot quicker and there is no "Welcome" screen. When the camera is turned off but connected to power, it shows a "full battery" icon or "charging battery" icon on the screen. The recording modes are in 2/5/10 minute increments. I use a Transcend 16GB Class 10 SDHC Card (TS16GSDHC10) with the camera and there is absolutely zero time loss between videos. In the video mode section, there are 3 options. One is "720p HD" the other "480" and the third is even smaller... I don't remember. The one that I use is 720p and it records in wide screen mode. On my 16GB SD card, I am able to get about 3.5 hours of video. Although it says 720p HD, it is not HD but whatever.

One thing I don't like is that with the old camera when I turn it on, it automatically starts recording and while recording, the indicator light flashes. In the new camera, it does not automatically start recording and the indicator light does not flash while recording. So in order for me to know for sure if it is recording, I have to open the screen. Not a huge flaw but a bit annoying.

***1 Year UPDATE

Both cameras still work however with some issues. On the first camera, the 12V cable fuse blew after about 8 months and I had to get a new cable. I ended up buying this one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004ZL5ARI/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00. Although it is for Sirus Radio, the connection and power output are almost identical and have no issues with it. The second problem, still with the 1st camera is that the power connection inside the camera is really lose now it barely gets any power most of the time... not many options with this unfortunately. My weekend car camera has zero issues. It ended up falling to the floor about 5 times so far because the suction cup didn't hold well but thankful the camera still works.

Few tips:

+Use 2 minute clips, not 5/10/15 min clips-the shorter the easier and faster they will transfer to PC

+When the memory card is full, Format it! this way you will not have any gaps in between clips. When the card is full, the camera will stop recording in order to erase old clips. This can take several seconds or a minute+.

+Use the lowest resolution. I tried all 3 and there is no difference in playback quality. The main difference is that you'll be able to record 9.5 hrs vs. 3.5 hrs.

+DO NOT leave the camera plugged into the 12V for a week or 2 without driving the car. It WILL drain your car battery.

+Get the camera from overseas (Chine, Hong Kong, etc). It might be a newer model with a better connection and software.

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I bought this as a way of protecting myself in my cab. I have the camera pointed inwards so I can see my passengers, and if needs be (which I hope never happens) identify a run-out or worse, a robber. The picture quality is pretty good, for the price. The night vision feature is decent. The audio completely sucks, sound is really garbled can't understand anything hardly being said, which means I won't be producing my own "Taxi cab Confessions". All in all, the purpose I bought it for, it works well enough.

Eforcity Black Molded 12 Foot Digital Optical Audio TosLink Cable for CD, D/A Converters, Dolby Dig

Wow these cables are great, for the price and come gold plated. They seem very durable also, with plenty of thickness and shielding.

I couldn't believe the price of this 12-foot TOSLINK cable. With shipping, it was still under $6 and it arrived in a huge hurry with standard shipping (Priority Mail got to me in one business day!). At brick-and-mortar stores I have shopped and at competing internet vendors, the price was in the $20 to $50 range.

The only issue is that the ends aren't quite big enough so the cable won't stay in the Optical S/PDIF socket. There is a ten-second fix: simply cut out a 1-inch square of the plastic bag it came in, fold it over once (so it's double-thickness), punch a little hole with a small screwdriver in the middle of the area and stick the optical end of the cable through this. Then, stick the assembly in the S/PDIF socket. The plastic acts as a shim and makes for a really tight, reliable connection that won't ever pull out by accident.

It works greaaaat!!!! and the price is awesome!

Buy Eforcity Black Molded 12 Foot Digital Optical Audio TosLink Cable for CD, D/A Converters, Dolby Dig Now

Screw the bad hype about this product!

I bought a cord half the length and at 5 times the cost of this one and this one works just as great or even better. Idiots claiming it falls out....well then, quit kickin your stuff around! Seriously, what the heck are you peoples doing for it to fall out?!?!? This clicked in BETTER vs the shorter cable (phillips) I purchased at a name brand store!

Product came as pictured with the protective tips that stay attached to the cord after removal. The shorter more expensive Phillps cord i bought? Those tips weren't attached to the cord and have disappeared. Weak.

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12 feet is a pretty good length, and I am having no problems with this. I love it, and the price can't be beat

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This cable works. My cable came almost exactly as shown in the picture, albeit the tip covers were not connected to the cable as is shown in the picture, but as separate easy-to-lose caps. It's got 2 male fiber optic ends, connected by 12 feet of cable. The ends plug in and have a reassuring and positive "click" into both my xbox 360 and logitech z-5500 system, which is sure to not wiggle loose. Sound obviously comes out of all speakers on my 5.1 surround sound system. No issue there, as it's transmitting digital data. I have no clue what, in a home theater environment, could possibly add interference to a fiber optical signal? A star erupting in your living room?

One thing to mention is that the cable part is quite thin (maybe 3.5 or 4 mm in diameter). The only downside of this that I could see is that it's probably easier to destroy the cable if you were to accidentally place heavy furniture over it, but I don't see this being an issue for most people. On the flip side, it's quite easy in stringing from my xbox, out of my TV unit, and to my 5.1 receiver without having to move my TV or TV unit, since the cable is thin and flexible. Some thicker cables, like HDMI or super-shielded fiber optic cable, can be troublesome and require you to move your TV unit in order to actually bend the cable behind your TV.

I'd definitely recommend this cable over more expensive alternatives.

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Blackmagic Design Intensity Extreme HDMI and Analog Capture & Playback Device - Thunderbolt

Blackmagic has some amazing stuff and this is yet another great addition to their product lineup. It could not be simpler: plug in HDMI, get video and audio out through the thunderbolt port.

What's great is that your Mac will see this as a web camera, making it instantly compatible with any application that supports camera input. I've tested it with everything from Final Cut Pro X to the Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder and it has all worked flawlessly. My only caution is that you need to know exactly what resolution and framerate your HDMI is putting out first, and then select the appropriate camera in the driver. For example my Canon HV20 camcorder outputs 1080i, so I needed to select the 1080i 59.97fps option.

I'm using this with the Blackmagic Design ATEM Television Studio Production Switcher and it's working flawlessly. I connected the intensity extreme to the ATEM's program out via HDMI and was able to broadcast to Justin.TV using Flash Media Live Encoder. It carried both the audio and video from the ATEM the moment I plugged it in.

If you're still using firewire to stream high definition to your Mac, this is a great path to using more recent cameras. It not only allows you to live stream 1080p from some of the newer AVCHD cameras and record that video completely uncompressed. Many newer cameras will bypass their internal compression when sending video out through the HDMI port.

Like many other Blackmagic products, simplicity is key to the operation. You'll find it will start working right away when something's plugged in with very minimal configuration. It's really impressive especially considering how inexpensive it is. Just be sure to pick up Apple's overpriced thunderbolt cable as the intensity does not ship with one.

My company has purchased several of these. Here's what you need to know.

First, it's not all solid state. There's a fan. Be prepared to vent it, and not stuff it anywhere. Out in the open, even on a warm day, and it's ok.

Second, these are fragile. Treat this like glass. If you travel with it, protect it well.

Finally, if you're on the road doing streaming, carry extras. I won't go so far as to call these 'unreliable', but I will say that they cannot be abused at all. We purchased 4, and 3 had to be exchanged. No doubt we treated these like regular gear, and that would be a mistake. When they work, they work great. When they stop working, it's a boat anchor.

I would highly recommend this for the cost. I'd pay triple for this, and in the end, I still might. The less often it moves, the more of a bargain you have.

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I purchased the Blackmagic Intensity Extreme for recording in the field from a Panasonic HMC150 to a MacBookPro (running under Lion) via HDMI-out on camcorder and Thunderbolt-in on computer. My hope was to avoid the good-but-not-great AVCHD format/H.264 compression, and to record straight to ProRes. In comparing some footage and color bars shot simultaneously using the HMC150's AVCHD format vs. the ProRes 422 (using Blackmagic's MediaExpress), the ProRes was very noticeably better. Of course you can expect those files to be huge compared to those recorded to the camcorder's SD card.

Also to note (if you're not Barry Green), if yours is the same setup as mine, to get any image to come through to MediaExpress, you need to set your HMC150 to 1080/30P and MediaExpress preferences to HD 1080i 59.94 (or 720P/30P(or 60P) and 720i/59.94, respectively), as the HMC150 seems to record in a 59.94fps container, which I was not aware of. Additionally, a $50 Thunderbolt cable is required not a $10 Mini DisplayPort cable. The TB cable has some necessary circuitry.

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Watch my video review!! (copy and paste link in browser)Pros:

Multiple input AND output options.

HIGH speed with thunderbolt cable.

Clean design, looks great on desk.

No annoying indicator lights.

Cons:

The biggest con is its price+the price of the thunderbolt cable wich is NOT INCLUDED and there is no way to run this device without one.

Another small con is the software can be a little difficult to understand at first, but it is not a big issue once you figure it out.

Wrap up:

The blackmagic intensity extreme does everything it claims to and does it well. The build quality is unmatched and I would recommend it to anyone who intends to get good use out of it.

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I bought this product and had to return it because it was not operating correctly. I was sent a replacement unit that was 100% non-functional. My opinion is this product is absolute garbage. 2 units and both were garbage.

There is at least one upfront caveat. The unit is completely incapable of accepting a progressive signal over component cable. I spoke to a technician on the phone and he revealed as much. He also said that they are having serious issues working with Thunderbolt technology. For some reason they are building devices that are compatible with a new Macbook Pro (for example), but another identical Macbook might be completely incompatible. These things are beta at best.

I bought an Elgato video capture device and it flawlessly captured video from a VCR. The first (semi-functional) Intensity Extreme unit was dropping video/audio constantly with the same material. A product that is less than 3x the price did a better job.

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Sony ICD-PX312f Digital Voice Recorder With FM tuner

This is really a nice product. Many high end features that perhaps I will grow into. Recording quality is top notch. Light, easy to use and the buttons are well positioned. I like the fm tuner so I can record local broadcasts. Fm recording is the main reason I purchased. So why not 5 Stars? Back lit display. My previous Sony was back lit. I figured since this new one was a higher grade that it would be back lit. After opening and realizing that it wasn't backlit I was really disappointed but not enough to send back.

The unit looks great and has many features! However, the operating manual, which in fact is actually about 10 different manuals for various laguages,which are all basically useless, does not give adequate detailed information in English as to all the features you can use. Wth all the benifical features, you are on your own to figure out how ecah feature operates.This is the difficult and frustrating part. If I could figure it out more easily, it would have a higher rating. I guess I'll let my grand son get it working for me.

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Night Owl Poseidon-85 8 Channel H.264 Smart DVR with 8 Indoor/Outdoor Night Vision Cameras

I purchased this system at a local retail store. It came with 4 cameras. I have to say the system is very easy to install and easy to use. I installed the system myself. If you can run wires across an attic and use a power drill you should not have any problems with the DIY.

The DVR is great and remote control clicks me to whatever hour, day or camera I wish to view. I love that I can view my house on my iphone. To set up the web and smart phone view may be challenging for the non-tech savvy. The instructions failed to mention that you need to forward the port used to view the cameras on the smart phone. A little trial and error, however, and I got it working. The smartphone app is adequate you have a live view of the camera but can not see past recordings

In addition to viewing your cameras on your smartphone, you can also view via the web (IE only) but this was a little finicky because you need to install a third party control that may not be permitted depending on your browser security. The web view does have more features than the smartphone app though.

There is also a feature on the DVR to send email alerts but i have not set this up so can not give a review of the email functionality.

The camera's are not so great. They are of minimal quality and are my biggest complaint with this system. No wide angle view and the night IR is very very grainy. My second biggest complaint is that each camera came with 60 feet of cable. This is okay for a small apartment or one room schoolhouse but 100 feet of cable per camera should be the standard in my opinion.

I priced out the individual components separately. The DVR, 4 cables at 100 feet, camera power supply, and 4 better cameras could be purchased for 415.00. If I had to do it again, this is what I would do. I do not regret my purchase but I will be swapping out the poor quality cameras for better ones.

Remote viewing with iphone, ipod, android.

Standard in/out allows connection with other Brands.

4 in 1 power cord consolidators will connect near the outlet.

10 years ago I installed the X10 wireless camera system around my house. This was nice because I didn't need to have wires running around the house. It worked well for the first 5 years, then started to depreciate in quality as the years passed. Lately in this wireless world, there is so much interference that the camera's could no longer receive it good quality picture so I had to search for a new option.

I chose the NightOwl 8 camera system with DVR recorder because I've seen them sold at Fry's and other outlets. I don't know a whole lot about CCTV systems, but Nightowl seems to be around the same level as Swann, Q-see, and Videosecu in my opinion.

I have a 2 story house and wanted to run wires through the attic. This proved to be too hard a task so I created a new solution to use electrical plastic tubing to run the wires from the front of the house, to the back where the DVR would be located. I ran 5 BNC/power cables through 5/8 inch tubes that ran about 60 feet from front to back. On completion, I painted the tubes the same color as the exterior of the house and it blends in perfectly. Looks very nice and it's much easier to maintain if I ever need to get to the wires again. All the tubing and accessories ran about $25 total at the local big box hardware store. I think this is a much better solution than going through an attic. Just cost me a few screw holes into my stucco exterior wall.

The BNC/power cables included with the kit is good quality. I ran all the wires to the DVR, and from there you will use the included transformer with 4 inputs to connect 4 power connections into an outlet. 2 included transformers allows for 8 power connects for the 8 cameras in the kit. This means you DO NOT need power (outlet) at the camera locations. If a cable is not long enough, you could piggy back 2 cables and make 1 long cable. Each end of the cable is different being 1 end male and the other female for the electrical connection. Doing this will of course give you 1 less cable for the other camera's. I had to do this for 2 camera's so I purchased additional cables that included an audio cable for $20 for $100 feet.

After all camera's were setup, plugged into the DVR, I was ready to view my CCTV system. Everything turned on easy and a quick setup completed and I was up and running monitoring all cameras. The DVR is OK. I have nothing to compare it to so I only know what I would have wished for. The motion detection works good and will go to the camera that has motion. After 2 minutes, it will go back to the default, which is the 9 camera view. I don't like this view because the pics are too small to see anything on my 20 inch monitor from afar. I would like if they allow the ability to pick a default view. Maybe the 4 camera screen. Best would have been to go to a camera of my choice. There's also an option to run through each camera for a set amount of time. The bad here again is I can't skip the 4 and 9 camera screens. It would have been nice to be able to have a camera skip option here so it can cycle through only the camera's that I wanted to see. The recording feature is up and running with no setup needed. I have it set to record when motion is detected and this saves alot of space and time if I need to go back to a previous time and search. it takes about 15 minutes at the highest speed to go through about 8 hrs of recording for 1 camera.

The camera's, as in other systems I assume, will be the regular standard focus lens. Where the camera is mounted, you will not see about the first 10 feet, and only about 45 degrees from side to side. These nightowl camera's are also not the best quality. The color is off making my green grass look pink'ish. There is a hue control, but no adjustment fixes the color perfectly. Also, 1 of 8 camera's had an issue. It worked, but for some reason had really bad scrolling lines when veiwed so I switched it with another and it was resolved.

I wanted 1 good quality camera for the main view in front of my driveway to see as much as possible. I purchase the Videosecu dome wide angle camera for $40. This provided about an 80 degree view from side to side, and the view started close to where the camera was installed. I recommend the black one vs the white model which I purchase and ended up painting black. The white gloss paint reflected a glare back into the lens at nights causing a halo that blinded the view at dusk. After I painted it mat black, the camera is perfect. The color on this camera is also perfect, unlike the nightowl camera's.

If you want sound, don't look for a camera that has a mic. They cost too much, and you may never find 1 that has a wide angle lens. Instead, buy a standalone mic made from Videosecu (again). I plugged this into the audio cable of the additional 100 foot cable that I purchased. At the DVR end, I plugged the audio cable into a usb speaker, and I have sound from my driveway. This helps alot cause when you hear something, you will look up. You don't want to stare at your monitor every minute. Sound matters alot.

Now for the hardest part of the setup, remote viewing.

I researched long and hard and read through nightowls manual but still couldn't understand the concept of setting up the remote viewing. I will tell you what I did but it may or may not work for you depending on your home setup.

I have an Internet DSL connection that comes straight in via Fiber. No extra modem needed.

This connection goes straight into my DLINK basic cheapy router.

I plug the DVR network port with included cable into my router's wired port.

All the configuration was done via my router's administration page. Except 1 configuration in the DVR for the external IP address.

The the concept is this.

Choose an internal IP address for your nightowl DVR.

On router set Port forwarding of external IP address to the interal IP address above

Use NightOwl DDNS free service to maintain your dynamic external IP address with a DNS name

My router now knows that BobsHouse.nightowldvr.com maintains my dynamic IP address.

Whenever my dynamic IP addresses changes, I don't care cause I keep using BobsHouse.nightowldvr.com which always points to the latest IP address assigned to me.

On the nightowl DVR network configuration page I entered an internal IP address example 192.168.0.143.

On my router, I setup to tell the router to forward any request for BobsHouse.nightowldvr.com on port 9000 to actually go to 192.168.0.143, which is the DVR.

On my IPOD Touch, I purchased an App called IP Cam Viewer for $5. I enter BobsHouse.nightowldvr.com and port 9000. I also need to enter the camera I want to view. I do this 8 times for 8 cameras. When I view the App, I see all 8 cameras at once, or tap the 1 I want to see a larger view of just that 1 camera.

On our 2 week vacation, I monitored the house daily and it was such a relief to know that everything was fine. I could even see if our neighbors help bring out our garbage can or not. Amazing and well worth it!

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System is decent enough for the price. DVR records, cameras show an image, can log in remotely 95% of all systems regardless of price can do these things adequately.

DIYers BE FORWARNED.... if you place these cameras under your soffits and out of the weather, the cheap cameras will "think" it's nighttime & switch internally to infared 24/7. You will be left with an image that's "different" grass and folliage looks like it has snow on it and the images will be yellowed. According to NightOwl's helpdesk this is called "the woods effect". The only fix is to move / reconfigure / re-mount your cameras to a location that's not under the eaves. Since I've already installed the cameras, this "fix" would require extensive repair of my soffits to fix holes drilled for the wires and camera mounts not to mention having to expose the cameras to the weather. FYI...One of my cameras is a dome I purchased elsewhere at the front door mounted under the soffit and doesn't experience this "woods effect" issue.

I rate this system only 1 star as it would have been nice if NightOwl would have simply FORWARNED DIYers in the manual regarding this issue with their included cameras. Instead the helpdesk's response was "that's why we included a installcard.com card in the box, an installer would've known about this issue and probably not mounted these cameras where you did" FYI....there will most likely be a cost per camera install fee using the included install card. The card covers ONLY labor to mount cameras, run cables, aim, focus and adjust cameras sounds pretty good. But & I quote from the card "Pricing is determined by the accuracy of the answers provided during the activation process, additional charges from inaccurate answers or on-site quotes should be paid directly to the installer" What's the chances you'll be stung with "additional charges"?

Read Best Reviews of Night Owl Poseidon-85 8 Channel H.264 Smart DVR with 8 Indoor/Outdoor Night Vision Cameras Here

I was like you. Just looking and questioning if it maybe is good enough and other are just down grading it because they expected something great for such a low price. It is not worth the time to install it if you got it for free. Well maybe if you only want to look down a hallway in daylight and in black and white. The view angle is very odd. You cannot see anything within about 10' from the camera. You can see images from 10-20' okay and even kind of ok from 20-30' away. I don't care how far away you are looking; you will not be able to make out a license plate. Not a chance. It is of much less quality than the cheap $30 digital cameras you buy kids. During the daylight, everything is very white and doesn't look very good at all. Green leaves and grass are white. My red Japanese maples are also white/light pink. You won't even be able to tell the police what color the shirt is during the day because it is that bad. It is like it wants to switch into night vision 90% of the time and that is even on a sunny day! It is 99% worthless at night. You cannot see 2' unless you have the porch lights on and that doesn't even help much. You can see some objects like tree leaves at about 10' due to the reflection of IR light but you cannot see a person standing in front of it. What does that mean? All you see is a bunch of black screens on your tv at night so you have no protection at all. It does give off a red ring of light around the camera at night which might help keep people away. The angle of the camera sucks badly. My house is 60' long in the front with my door in the center. I must have the cameras on the far side of the house just to see who is at the door, but that is only if they are less than 5' from the door with the camera 30' away. My den is 30'x28' and just for testing, I placed a camera 25' from a couch but could not see all of the 3 seats on the couch. It is a normal couch and room. You cannot put one on the porch to see who is at the door at all because it cannot see anything from 0-10' at all. It is very odd how it zooms past to about 7-10' and things from 10-30' seems squished together; the depth seems more like 6-8' not 10-30' deep. Think of looking through a fish bowl. Ha. As for the DVR, it is okay at best. It is much like a 90's computer. You can only do limited things slowly and it will make you mad that you cannot customize thing in a logical way that you want. For example, turn off the recording or scroll channel 3, 5, 7 &8 only. It will kinda do that but it also wants to show you the first 4 in split screen, then the second 4 then all 8, then 3,5,7,&8. The good news is the DVR is very easy to navigate through. It was a pain to setup the internet but that was due to my network setup. You may have better luck. I did not call support because I didn't want to try to explain how my network has multiple routers to the tech just so he could ask why and not know what to do because of that issue. Still it only took a few hours to overcome. It wires up fast. You only need a drill/screw gun, cock, time and to get into the attic to run the cables. I would suggest you buy a few extra 100' cables for the cameras that are far away and a long Ethernet cable (all cheap online $10 each). I used 3 100' camera cables and ran 2 of the extra 60' to two different TV to watch via RCA with 1 50' Ethernet cable. I had my DVR hidden where nobody could find it if they broke inside my house and take with them the only copy of the video. I also made a mount to hold the DVR down so it could not be easily removed even if found. The plan, maybe the HD will still be in place for the police even if the dvr gets damaged by them. The android app is ok but I expected much more. Another thing is I recall reading or being told it would text me a pic. That was a lie. It doesn't but if you have the mobile app on your phone and up and logged in to the network, then it will let you know. Who would do that 24/7 or would even have the battery on a cell phone to do that with. PC app is much better but still not all the features a person wants. It does email you and will email a few accounts if you wish. It is like they stopped midway on the design and said, "this is good enough, lets sell it."

Just to let you know, I am an Electrical Engineer and teach EE classes at a University, so I know a thing or two about electronics. Overall, I guess it is worth the cost to have a camera. People do see it and turn away. The view angle, color, image, android app, internet and DVR customization quality is poor but the DVR navigation, setup and installation is easy. I wish it had wireless or I could add a wireless dongle for the internet. I wish I could remote record from my android or even the PC but you can only back up the things that are already recorded or tell it to start recording. I'm not sure how or if a remote backup affects the recording. For example, you are looking at your phone watching someone in break into your home. It would be nice to remote record that on to your phone!!! How could they not have thought to design that into the DVR? I have not tried to back-up and convert the files for viewing on a pc. I just have not had the need. I'm going to order the $1400 2TB DVR with 16 dome cameras that have pan, tilt and zoom even through remote access.

PS. I was going to give 2 stars until I seen the quality at night. Worthless at night. My real score is 1/2 of a star but Amazon will only let me go down to 1 star! You are just as well off with the dummy cameras that cost $10-$20 each!

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The cameras do not have a wide video view, but as for that nice product. The support at Nightowl is very impressive. 24hrs a day and very nice and helpful when needed.

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ION Audio Twin Video Portable Recorder

Be sure to set the microphone gain to high, so that the audio part of video recording is loud enough to be heard.

The picture and video resolution is a very basic 640 by 480 pixels, which equates to 0.3 MP (same as most webcams on notebook PCs).

The main attraction of this video camera is that you can switch the video subject while making the video by pressing a button. With other video cameras, you would have to pause the video, turn the camera 180 degrees, then start the video again. It becomes very tiring if you have to do this often, as in an interview situation.

This camera uses a 3.7 volt, 1050 mAh rechargeable lithium battery, BUT it does NOT state what battery type it is on the label. This means if you need a replacement or a backup battery, you'd have to buy it from ION. It costs $20 plus shipping!!!!! The camera only costs $40. I cannot think of a reason why ION chose not to specify the battery type, other than that it wants you to buy it directly from the company, at a high price. A 3.7 v, 1050 mAh battery commonly sells for under $5, including shipping, on Ebay. You'll have to make sure the dimensions and electrical contacts are compatible. It is not difficult, just inconvenient.

Update(8-6-2011):

The battery IS BL-5C. It is available on Ebay at very reasonable prices, even includes shipping cost. Just search for "BL-5C" and you'll get lots of choices. I got one for $2 post paid!

I purchased & received the ION about 2 weeks ago from a Computer store on line. It was about the size of a pack of playing cards & to be honest, I wasn't expecting much, Boy, Was I wrong. This wee little Video recorder takes Great Pictures & downloads them to your PC or Printer for making Hard Prints ( Printer must have Mini-Slot ). It's easy to use & recharges quickly using the USB Port, With Cable connector provided.

The Zoom is small, but usable, About the only Problem I have with The Ion is, The Sound is poor, But at several thousand Still Shots or 120 Min. movies, For under $50.00, Who can complain?

I would & Have recommended this to my friends.

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I bought this mostly because it was small and I could carry it around more easily than my digital DV video camera and it recorded to a removable card so there was less problem downloading the video you shoot.When you shoot a video with the ION it looks great on the cameras small screen but when you put it in your computer and watch it on a full size screen (my 19" computer monitor for example) it is grainy and fuzzy and very poor quality (it records in MP4 format). I mounted the ION camera on a stand (the included stand adapter is actually a really great item) and used it to record my band one night in a club soon after getting it. I expected it to be grainy in the low light but I also found that if you leave it on to record more than a 10 minute clip you lose sync and this is very noticeable and only gets worse as the video gets longer.

A week after getting the ION I saw that Cisco had just announced that they were discontinuing their FLIP video line. I bought a FLIP for the same low price as the ION ($50.00). The difference is night and day. The FLIP is very clear and works great especially outside in normal light (it's not great in low light but I expected that). The FLIP also has no sync problems during longer videos like the ION does. The FLIP also has a pop out USB connector for downloading video to a computer and the software is already part of the FLIP flash drive so you can use it on any available computer.

In my opinion buy the ION only if you are doing short videos to upload to the internet. Buy a FLIP if you want something with much better quality.

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This was a waste of money, the audio is awful, the picture setting is awful. the only good thing is it takes nice video but stop recording on u if your video is longer than 30 minutes. dont purchase, not worth it

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I purchased this product for 19.99, 4.99 shipping. Awesome deal! I purchased the video camera with bicycle touring in mind. Its lightweight and small which is perfect for touring. Also the ability to switch back and forth is a great feature. So far the camera works flawlessly. Other reviews were correct when it comes to sound quality but other than that its perfect for what I will be doing with it. I will update my review once I get out on the road.

Update....5/18/2013

So far I have lost 2 video's. For some reason about 5 minutes into filming it starts to break up and freezes. I can't much complain for only 19.99 but its very frustrating.

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EasyCAP DC60 - USB 2.0 Audio/video Creator Capture High-quality Analog Video

First off, let me tell you This is an amazing deal. I have 3 computers, and while this doesn't work with two of them (It gets a scratchy audio noise, I think it's a problem with NVidia chipsets), it works with the third one. The problem most people are having is that it doesn't "display video correctly". After installing it, it should be recognized as a Syntek STK1160. You'll need to change the video from PAL to NTSC (If you live in America or Japan). Go to Control Panel -> Scanners and Cameras -> and right click on "Syntek STK1160" and select "Video Decoder Property". Change it from "PAL_B" (Or whatever it is) to "NTSC_M" (for America) and "NTSC_M_J" for Japan. You'll know the right one when it says "Signal Detected: 1". Enjoy ^_^

It doesn't work right with VirtualDub, but you can use AMCap (Google it) to record your video, and VirtualDub to edit and produce it.

Enjoy your AMAZING deal :D

I purchased this to try to capture some old VHS tapes and then burn to DVD. The instructions are awful. Since my old VCR can only reproduce a maximum of 270 lines, I did the following: Load the Easycap driver on my XP machine. Insert the Easycap into a USB 2.0 port (without the extension). Go to System in Control Panel and Hardware and locate Imaging device and insure that it is there. Next (don't even load their old software) run Windows Movie Maker, click capture device, go to camera settings and make sure you have NTSB-m selected. Next click video settings (I used 320x240 good enough for my VHS), and continue following instructions to capture your movie.

Note: I did NOT get this to work on my Vista machine!

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I bought this because I wanted a cheap way to get the movies from my DVR onto my computer. Also, I wanted to be able to lend this to my in-laws so they could transfer ALL of their VHS to DVDs. I played around with this thing for a good 3 hours and I almost returned it. I had tried the aforementioned suggestions but they weren't working for me. I finally saw a video on YouTube that showed how to configure it. I was able to get this to work on Windows Vista and Windows XP using 3 different computers (2 laptops and 1 desktop; all different video cards). Here's what I did:

1. I plugged in the device. When windows asked where the driver software could be found, I directed it to the disk.

2. After it was done installing the drivers, I installed the "Video Studio" software they have.

3. After my computer had restarted, I opened up their software (Ulead Video Studio SE DVD).

4. I clicked on the "Movie Wizard" button. (Windows Vista: If you get a message saying the color scheme has changed; ignore it)

5. I clicked "Capture"

6. From the source drop-down, I selected "Syntek STK1150"

7. Then click "Options" --> "Video and Audio Capture Property Settings"

8. Make sure "Input Source" is "Video Composite" (or "S-Video" if thats what you're using).

9. Make sure "TV System" is "NTSC" (or similar)

10. Make sure "Audio device" is "Digital Audio Interface (USB Audio)"

11. I also checked the "Preview audio USB device".

12. If it didn't appear already, you should see a live preview on the right-hand side.

13. From here, I was able to use Windows MovieMaker, AMCap, VirtualDub, Ulead, etc.

Currently, I'm using this to play game-cube games on my computer (as in right now).

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I don't know how the EasyCap works on a Vista machine, but on my XP laptop (with only a 1.8Ghz Centrino processor) it works very well for turning VHS tapes into DVD's or ISO files. The Driver is simple and straight forward to install, and I am certain that the majority of people that have complained about poor audio quality haven't taken the time to set up the Capture or Burn settings correctly. The Audio Capture settings default to 64kbs Mpeg, which will result in poor audio quality. The Audio Capture setting needs to be increased to at least 128kbs, or better yet LPCM Audio. It is easy to overlook this, and it is critical for good audio performance especially for concert tapes. The Ulead software takes some time to master, but it works quite well after learning it, and the quality of the DVD's or ISO files (including motion menu's and chapters) it burns/generates is very good.

It's an amazing hardware/software package for the money. If you take the time to learn the software and configure it up properly, you will be very satisfied with the results.

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This product came out around 2004 to 2006. The program it comes with (VideoStudio SE) is no longer supported by Ulead. I cant even run the auto update after registering it. You need to search the site for whatever old patches there are and it is NOT listed under Videostudio SE. I've yet to find it.

Program from disc itself is easy to install and it is a good price for an old product that does somewhat run (doesn't always pick up a live feed).

However if you want something that's going to last awhile, before you buy this or any other video capture deveice, check its age. Wish I had....

G.Skill 8GB Class 6 MicroSDHC Flash Card with SD Adapter (FF-TSDG8GA-C6)

Excelente producto!! Excelente vendedor... Puntualidad 100%. La entrega fue en el tiempo establecido! Lo recomiendo ampliamente... Gracias...espero volver a comprarles pronto!

I bought two of these cards to use with my smartphones, I got two from different brands, one LG and the other a Kyocera. Both phones are a little picky in recognizing MicroSDHC cards, because none of the cards I already have worked with them, regardless of the file format they were formatted.

I took a chance and purchased these 8GB cards from G. Skill, because in the past the RAM from this company that I used to built desktop computers was always a success.

So far so good, I'm very please with its performance and many uses. I can take pictures and video with any of my smartphones, and afterward use the adapter to easily transfer the files between any device with a card reader. I copied my MP3 collection into one of them, and now I listen to my songs using my cellphone when I'm out of the house.

Also, it come handy when I need to quickly transfer any other type of files between computers, for example yesterday I needed to copy some drivers from a laptop that could read CD discs into a netbook that couldn't, after I extracted the files from the CD, I copied the folder into the card by plugging in my smartphone and later I retrieve the folder by plugging the MicroSDHC card with the included adapter into the netbook card reader. This is an excellent product at a great price.

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The packaging for the micro sd was good and came on time, had its adapter and works very good. I would recommend this product .

Read Best Reviews of G.Skill 8GB Class 6 MicroSDHC Flash Card with SD Adapter (FF-TSDG8GA-C6) Here

hmm not much i can really say about it. it transfers data nicely and at a nice speed. its a nice card especially for the price.

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I bought this for my Nook Color. This was the most economical product and it included the adaptor. Works great!

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Sony BDP-S300 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player

• Full HD 1080/60p and 24p True Cinema Video Output
• DVD Upscaling to 1080p via HDMI
• BRAVIA Theatre Sync (HDMI-CEC)
• BD/DVD/CD playback(4) and AVC-HD with x.v.Color output
• Multi-channel Linear PCM & Dolby Digital Plus Decoding

Not exactly a product review as you already have dozens of them. If you are undecided because of some of the negative things said, let me show you the light. It's blu!

I bought this player with the 2.0 firmware and it was great. Yes, it did take a very long time to load Pirates of the Caribbean almost 3 full minutes. That is due to the disc heavily using Java (BD-J) for interactivity. I flash update to new firmware in about 10 minutes. See Sony's web site for the firmware and carefully follow the instructions. They will even provide you with the disc.

Keep in mind these things are essentially customized single purpose computers. The firmware is simply reprogramming them to include more functions, become more stable, etc. It is only limited by the existing hardware.

After the update, it still takes 45 seconds to turn on, but that is down from about 1 minute. Pirates of the Caribbean now loads in 1 minute 11 seconds. All my non-BD-J movies now start up in +/30 seconds.

BD-J load times may seem outlandish compared to DVD, But remember, future firmware updates can only improve things. We may or may not see further improved load times and that depends on the existing hardware. Any playback issues with movies will always be rectified by new firmware. Sony is showing great support.

In short, this is a second generation player and minor issues do exist. But you won't have to live with them forever. Firmware fixes all, and helps the longevity of your player. Remember that extended load times is normal for some titles, but within acceptable range for this player because it is "The Tank". It's not obsolete, just update the firmware!

Updated Addendum April 2012: The latest 6.20 firmware update further enhances BD-J, and still supports BD-R/RE playback ability. Fastest load times ever for BD-J discs. Some significantly so, others by seconds. Load times for all BD-J movies should improve. Menu selection has never been this smooth and responsive. The newest feature "Adds Dolby® TrueHD Audio decoding functionality". Fixes playback freezing issues with movies like Wall-E. BEST FIRMWARE YET!

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Here is my suggested "Load Time Performance Table".

* Non BD-J loading in 35 seconds or less. Excellent.

* BD-J up to 75 seconds. Very Good.

* BD-J 76 to 90 seconds. Good. (Tolerable Threshold)

* BD-J 91 to 100 seconds. Very Fair

* BD-J 101 to 120 seconds. Fair.

* BD-J over 120 seconds. Poor.

* BD-J over 180 seconds. Very Poor.

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I recently upgraded my living room to a modest hi-def system to prepare for a larger remodelling of my theater room. To weigh out the results, I purchased a 46" Polaroid HD LCD and a Toshiba HD-A20 1080p HD DVD Player player and the Sony BDP-S300 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player. I wanted to see the results of both Blu-Ray and HD DVD before investing in more expensive units.

I must say that the image and sound quality of the Blu-Ray player is quite impressive, but as noted in other reviews loading (waiting) times for certain discs are very slow. HDMI hookup was easy and the menu system worked great. At first sight the DVD upscaling was astonishing. But... there is always a but...

I also had to upgrade the firmware twice since purchasing, which was less than 3 months ago. Out of the box, it needed a firmware upgrade to play most of the recently released movies. Very recent movies, such as Superbad [Blu-ray], Ratatouille [Blu-ray], and Live Free or Die Hard [Blu-ray] needed a firmware 3.30 which stalled and eventually crippled my unit with a permanent "NO DISC" display statement to every attempt. The install did not recognize and since then it refuses to play any discs including standard DVDs, CDs, as well as Blu-Ray Discs. I contacted their 800 number twice and spent about an hour over the 2 days going through system saving steps, unfortunately all failed. Be careful with your firmware updates they are both necessary, yet another root of other more hazardous problems.

If need be you may want to purchase an extended warranty to save yourself from this kind of problem; this is what I should've done. I was lucky enough to be within my warranty which gave me full protection for parts & labor (not including UPS shipping fees to Sony). But, if this had been after the waranty? This could've been a potentially expensive technological occurrence. And, what about next time?

There needs to be a ethernet port or some other way to access updates online direct to this player, a wireless method possibly? My Toshiba HD DVD player has the CAT-5 ethernet port and it makes updating (not exactly simple) more flexible. Sony's website offers the image (ISO) burn to DVDR method for updating, but this seems unpolished at best. The steps for Sony's firmware update are so precise and drawn out, but ultimately imperfect in design. The mail away disc is easy enough, but this takes at least 7 business days. Expect more and more updates too. I originally called on a 2.6 firmware update disc in September and they were backordered. The expected delay was somewhere between 3-4 weeks before delivery. All of this was right before I found out that a 3.20 and even 3.30 were available soon after.

If you are someone that purchases lots of new movies (I.E. the new releases every Tuesday), then beware that the movie content / security updates are constantly driving the player software updates which are so hurried that they may or may not have major glitches. You will most likely need an update straight out of the box, so check the Sony website OFTEN.

Currently my player has been sent off for repairs and is at Sony in PA. In the meantime I have decided to fall back on a Sharp Aquos BDHP20U 1080p Blu-Ray Disc Player. I decided to not purchase another Blu-Ray S300, so that should be a big hint to how I feel about buying this unit. For all of the enjoyment I received from it, there was equal anguish. I can neither say it's the worst or the best, but I can say the possibility exists for problems similar to my own. Honestly I wanted to give a 2.5 stars (somewhere in the middle), but I left it at 2 stars instead of rounding up. The Blu-Ray technology needs more trial and error experience, unfortunately we are the $400-per-unit-guinea pigs.

Update as of 12-10-2007 The Sharp Aquos BDHP20U 1080p Blu-Ray Disc Player that I purchased has restored my faith in Blu-Ray technology. Nothing is ever perfect, but this is proof of progress at least. See my review for details. I really like this player, hands down the better of these two designs.

Update as of 01-09-2008 My player is unfixable. The firmware update 3.30 somehow ruined the hard drive, so it's unfixable. Sony gave me the choice of waiting a couple of months for a refurbished unit or paying $200 more for a new S500 series player (the next cheapest unit available direct from Sony). I elected (and with protest) to upgrade to the S500, which now is unavailable. What was to be a 5-7 day wait now has gone to over a month. Where does this all end? If I was shopping for a Blu-ray player today, the S300 would be my last choice. The price has dropped on Amazon nearly $80 in the last few months, yet it is still only slightly cheaper than some players designed recently The S300's drive is an old design that Sony is currently still supporting with firmwares (but for how much longer?). Sony customer reps told me that they have not been producing this unit for some time now, it's a 2006 design which in this market of ever-changing technology is a lifetime ago.

P.S. Since my first review at least 2 more firmware updates have released for this unit making at least 5 firmwares changes since September of 2007 that I am aware of.

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I have nothing good to say about this Blu Ray player. In my opinion, Sony's products are usually excellent but this is an exception.

I have gone through 2 of these players in the past month. Both had similar problems, the first unit locked up solid while playing DVD's (several different factory pressed DVD's with no defects). When I say locked up, I mean the player was totally unresponsive and had to be unplugged in order to gain control again. After returning the first player as defective, I got a second Sony unit. The second player had similar problems but also it locked up solid while playing Blu Ray discs as well. I checked to make sure the firmware was the latest on both players and it was.

The lock ups are not the only issue that I had with these players. They are very slow to start up and slow to load Blu Ray discs. Compared to the player that I bought to replace the Sony, the Sony's are extremely slow to respond to commands (fast forward, reverse, chapter skip, etc...) and slow loading.

I purchased this player based on the reveiws here at Amazon.com and my personal experience with Sony products. I was stunned when I had problems with BOTH players. Who knows, maybe it was a fluke and I just happened to get two defective Sony Blu Ray players. I would like to think that is the case. I always had great luck with Sony products in the past and have owned several. In my opinion they just didn't get this one model right for some reason.

If you are in the market for a good reliable Blu Ray player, you might want to consider the Panasonic DMP-BD10A listed here:

Panasonic DMP-BD10AK 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player

That is the player that I purchased after returning the second Sony player and I am VERY pleased with it. It's very responsive and has no issues with freezing or locking up at all. The picture quality of the Blu Ray's is superb on my Sony 50" HDTV.

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I just received the Sony BDP-S300 Blu-Ray disc player. I've plugged it into my Sony KDL-40V2500 40" Bravia V-Series 1080p LCD HDTV, set it up and have watched the movie "Flight Of The Phoenix".

Setting up was quick and straightforward no problems here. I noticed that this Sony player weighs much less than the Toshiba HD-XA2 HD DVD player. The Toshiba definitely has a more substantial feel to it. Both players are about the same size and dimensions slim and trim, easily fitting into my entertainment stand.

But the proof is in the viewing, and the Sony definitely delivers. I am very impressed with the clarity, sharpness and rich color of the 1080p image. The picture is as good and in some ways better than the Toshiba. The reason I say better is because the Toshiba, great as it is, has a picture that occasionally flickers quite noticeably. There's no flickering of any kind on this Sony it's rock solid so far. And the picture is beautiful.

One other thing I immediately noticed is how whisper quiet the BDP-S300 is. There is no noticeable fan noise whatsoever. Compare this to the Toshiba HD-XA2 fan, which has a sound resembling the whine of a tiny fighter jet. There is simply no reason to have to put up with a home theater component that adds unwanted noise when you can have the quiet, quiet Sony BDP-S300.

Sony's plastic remote is reasonably good. It's well designed and compliments the Sony HDMI HDTV the remote controls the TV's basic functions too. No more fumbling around for 2 different remotes. The one area where this remote disappoints is that unlike the black aluminum Toshiba remote, the buttons are not backlit. The Toshiba remote stands head and shoulders above all other remotes backlighting should be a standard feature on these high end remotes, especially considering how complex they are and that they are likely to be used in a dark room. When I say backlighting, I'm talking about button/label illumination by lamps or LEDs, not those pathetically lame glow in the dark buttons.

The startup and control response times compare favorably with the Toshiba. It takes about 30+ seconds after power on for the Sony to accept a disc, then another 8 seconds to load and play the disc. Response times for scan (fast forward/backward) and other controls seem almost as quick as on those of a regular DVD player.

Overall I am very pleased with the Sony BDP-S300. I just wish there were more high quality Blu-Ray discs available at lower prices.

I own a Toshiba HD AD1 DVD player and really enjoy it! But, it looks like the HD DVD wars are beginning to favor Blu Ray and added to that the HD DVD discs that I'm getting from Netflix are usually abused and scratched and make the player likely to freeze up and the Blu Ray discs have a protective coating to prevent this from happening. This IS a consideration if you plan on renting. Blu Ray discs hold more information. Plus I recently heard that Blockbuster will stop carrying HD DVDs and only carry the Blu Ray. Compitition is good for home entertainment: remember Beta Hi-Fi gave us higher sound quality with VHS Hi-Fi. As I said, I enjoy the image quality and sound from the Toshiba, but this new Sony is even better than that!! I hooked it up to a Sony 46" LCD as well as a Yamaha RX-V2700 receiver and the results are breathtaking. I just watched "Apocalypto" and all I can say is it WAS the theatre exerience! "Chicago" has never looked or sounded THIS good. Even in the theatre! It's really THAT good! "The Fifth Element" is a revelation! (Be sure to get the remastered Blu Ray disc. They had some problems with the resolution on the initial Blu Ray release. If you order from Amazon, be sure to get this new disc, which says REMASTERED). This is the film that will sell many of these machines. Many. PERFECT picture and sound. The uncompressed 5.1 sound on a GOOD system will send you to heaven on earth. If you love this quirky pop and extreme film (which is definitely one of the best science fiction films ever made), you'll never watch your television again in quite the same way. This is actually better than theatre quality. Every red hair on Milla is seen in extreme detail. Every explosions is so extreme! The colors are just amazing! You've never seen anything like this at home. The picture on both machines approach perfection but this is a far quieter machine and sleeker. The upscaling to 1080p of standard DVDs is something that should not be ignored in this upgrade. Both machines do an excellent job of this, altough this new Sony has the edge. I'd have to say that with this upconversion, it's all you'll need for most films. Don't get me wrong, the HD discs are MUCH better but for most viewing... Sound is fantastic, especially in the uncompressed mode. I really never thought that we'd ever have movies of this quality in our homes. Either machine will enhance your life but keep in mind that it was just announced that "Close Encounter" will be released only on Blu Ray (at least initally and because of special mastering will offer all three versions of the film on a single disc. Pinch me!). Today, to get all the HD titles, you need both machines. But now you can get both for the price of the first generation Sony Blu Ray disc player... at this point, still for the videophiles, but you know who you are. This IS the better machine.

Both machines are just exellent! But...this new Blu Ray machine is just superb! (which is beyond excellent). If you have the right equipment (720p or 1080p monitor & HDMI receiver hookup or monitor), you will...not...be...sorry!!!

Telephone Recorder - Record Telephone / Cell Phone Calls 1GB Spy SD Slot, AC Adapter

It worked for a couple of weeks and then just randomly quit working while I was trying to record an important call. I would spend a little extra and get a nicer one.

If you need to remember exactly what you said and put it on a medium for safe keeping, this set is for you. There is no need to buy any other pieces of equipment. The problem: It is not user friendly. To use it the first 10 times you need to refer to the guide. To use a function you need several pages open at the same time. That said it works well. Buy this forget about Brickhouse.

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Mini Gadgets Inc Video Memo Recorder

I'm satisfied with the quality of the video-it is clear enough. The audio is fine as long as you remember to speak up a little when you're recording. The only problem with this product is that once the batteries were installed, it did not stay up on my fridge and slowly slide off. The light does blink if there is a new message, but only when the unit is turned on. It automatically shuts off when inactive for 10 seconds so you won't know if there is a new message for you unless you turn the unit on.