Factory Re-manufactured DISH Player-DVR 625 - DVR / Satellite TV receiver - Dish Network - 100 hour

Here's some info from someone who had this for 13 months.

This DVR has two modes. In Single Mode, the same video is shown on both TVs at the same time. Use this if you only watch one of the sets at a time, or if you don't have a TV2 plugged in, or if the person watching TV2 just wants to watch whatever the other person has on. You can use Picture-in-Picture in this mode, and do whatever you want as far as using the tuners to record.

In Dual Mode, each TV can operate independently, and each TV has only one tuner at its disposal. When you schedule a recording, you can choose which tuner records it (so you'd select either the TV where you'll be watching it live, or, the TV where you *won't* be watching something else live). In this mode you can also watch two separate recorded shows on the two TVs, or two separate live channels, or a combination one recorded show and one live channel.

There are three different ways of scheduling recurring recordings: Dish Pass, regular scheduling, and Manual. The most important thing to know is there's a limit on how many scheduled recordings you can have (300 if i remember correctly) so keep tabs on that when you read this. Dish Pass searches titles and descriptions for what you specify, and records it whenever it sees a match on any channel. Regular scheduling works a bit differently, and is probably more appropriate for most needs. Regular scheduling can record a particular Title, either on any channel, or one specific channel:

All Episodes Records anytime that show comes on

New Episodes Records only episodes that aren't reruns

Weekly, Mon-Fri, Daily etc. records during whatever timeslot you say ONLY IF THAT SHOW IS ON.

This last one is best for most shows that come on multiple times a day, for example, if you only want the show recorded in one particular timeslot instead of all of them (e.g. I only want my Seinfeld reruns recorded at 5pm, not at 10 or 12:30).

And Manual Recording You can set a schedule (either one-time or recurring weekly, or daily, or mon-fri etc...) and that way it will record WHATEVER is on during that time period, instead of recording only if one particular show is on.

*****

VERY IMPORTANT

*****

If you record shows that come on all the time, it's very important that you don't use "All Episodes" for those! For example, It will find about 50-60 episodes of Seinfeld within the upcoming 14 days or so and this takes up 50-60 slots in your 300 limit that I mentioned above! You will find yourself being told you have too many recordings scheduled or something, and won't be able to add very many recordings. Instead, record a show like that once or twice a day (use two separate timers if necessary, there's no limit that I know of on number of timers), then you will have like 10-15 coming up. Much better.

The good things about this DVR:

* Never fails to record shows. I never missed a scheduled recording the whole year (though I did once lose all my recordings when I had a hard drive crash--Dish replaced my DVR in about 5 days or so).

* Robust options and settings. Dig deep into the menus and get things set up just the way you like it.

* Priorities lets you decide what shows are can't miss (one-time recordings, first-run programs) versus shows you don't care about but record just in case you need something to watch (e.g. syndicated shows etc).

* Very responsive and fast

* Monthly $5.99 DVR fee--lower than TiVo ($13) or what Comcast charges ($10) for their junky thing.

* 30-second-skip-forward button--that you DON'T have to hack to enable like certain other (*cough* Comcast!) DVRs. Nice.

* 2-TV support on one box as described above means you have access to the same library of recordings from both TVs. Sweet.

* Big 100-hour capacity.

* Smart enough not to record an episode you already have of a show.

* Lets you "Edit" in batch mode--so you can select 20 shows and delete, or protect, them all at once.

* Lets you rename shows. Especially great for Manual Recordings.

The things I wished were better:

* No way to get your recordings off there, except in real-time using a VCR or set-top DVD recorder.

* Sound cuts out for about 0.5 seconds when you unpause. You end up just always having to hit "skip back" (that's 5 seconds back) when after you unpause. Still pretty annoying. This was with both the original and my replacement, so I know it's not just a defect.

* 300 upcoming scheduled programs limit before I figured out just what the limit was (the error leads you to believe you are trying to make too many TIMERS when it's absolutely NOT that. It's how many PROGRAMS are set to be recorded in the upcoming couple weeks that's limited). Once I figured this out I was able to work around it (and optimize my drive space usage in the process) by reducing my use of "All Episodes" and "Dish Pass" so I'm not recording so many throwaway programs.

That's all I can think of for now. For what it's worth, when I moved I was forced to switch to cable, and bought the LG LRM-519 (which I'll review here eventually)... It doesn't have any of the bad things about this one, but it lacks a LOT of the good things about this one. It's a trade-off! If I ever find the perfect DVR I'll let you know.

I believe in stable rates, good selection, low cost, and no compromises on features. The Dish network covers me on this, and the DVR unit I have from them only cements my goodwill with them.

I have tried the Cablevision DVR, for about two weeks, and I've used a friend's DirecTV unit as well. I don't claim to be well-versed in all DVRs and I know they are all different in user interface, if not basic function. Dish's 622/625 unit is superior to these three systems' DVR offerings in function and UI.

The 625 can accept two lines for Picture-in-Picture, or if you have to dishes already, you can split one signal and run the split signal into the back. This is a nice feature for people who want to minimize cable runs in the house.

The PiP function is remarkable: it will do aspect-preserved scaled side-by-side, as well as two inset sizes that can be moved to nine preset locations (think Brady Bunch). The DVR records both signals, as part of the "pause live TV" functionality. Basically it keeps two two-hour buffers rolling, which is nice because, well, let's say you're watching the game and your wife wants to watch HGTV, because she's a woman who likes to tweak your home. Instead of switching channels, swap the PiP focus to HGTV and pause your game. During a commercial, you can swap back to the game, unpause, and stay with the action. Nice, smart.

The recording timers can be set to early-start and/or late-stop, so if you think something will run late or start early, or if your programming drifts (local stations especially), this will help catch opening sequences and surprise endings.

One of the best features is the menu. The unit, and almost all new Dish units, are continually upgraded to provide better features. Searching can be done by description keyword (exact or somewhat wildcarded) or title keyword (exact or somewhat wildcarded); results are quick and thorough. The timers can be set with priorities to bump less-important shows for more-important ones; while it won't find the next airing automatically, you can see the skipped events and restore one to keep filling up your DVR.

The list goes on and on, but the best feature of all is the skip forward. It will skip 30 seconds forward, or back 10. So, with some practice, you can blip-blip past just about every commercial in the program. The skipping function is much better than Cablevision's, and although I haven't tried DirecTV's, I can't imagine it being *better*. This, my friends, is how everyone should be watching "24", "Survivor", and "House": saved to disk, commercials skipped. Time-shifting at its absolute best.

In closing, look, I'll be the first to say I haven't seen all the DVR options available, but if my year-old daughter can accidentally program Univision Noticias, you know the interface is easy to access and use. Clear, powerful, and Dish has probably the best technical support of any service I've ever experienced, and that included cable, telephone, cell phone, electric and gas, water, and the State of New Jersey. Try it, buy it, love it.

-Fred

Buy Factory Re-manufactured DISH Player-DVR 625 - DVR / Satellite TV receiver - Dish Network - 100 hour Now

I bought this a month ago, I paid Dish tv to come out and install it and guess what? The receiver could not be used because it was still leased, plus they didn't ship all the parts to me, left out a remote control as well. I contacted them and they didn't respond to me. I am glad that Amazon was able to give me my money back.

Read Best Reviews of Factory Re-manufactured DISH Player-DVR 625 - DVR / Satellite TV receiver - Dish Network - 100 hour Here

Purchased a 625 DVR from satellite oasis DVR was defective still out $95 not to happy this was one of my first online purchases left a very bad tast in my mouth

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Excellent. Excellent. Excellent. Feature loaded! The dual tuner works great. Now, I can be watching one show in the basment, while my wife watches another upstairs, both using all of the DVR functions from the same receiver. Plus, countless times I have recorded two shows at once while watching another on DVR --which used to be unheard of with Satellite TV.

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Insignia NS-DCC5HB09 - Camcorder - High Definition with digital player/voice recorder - widescreen

I wouldn't pay too much attention to the negative reviews on this camcorder. It's obvious they are not using it correctly. Granted, this item does not come with a great manual right off the bat, but the full manual is located online. Just google it.

A couple of things I've noticed people are forgetting to do before making a review on this product. There is a protective clear sticker on the actual lens. It's virtually invisible. You need to take this off before shooting this camcorder. Trial and error on my part. My first few videos looked like web cam footage only a little better. I was dismayed and thought I had crap in my hands. Then I took off the sticker and it made a world of difference. Talk about clarity!

On the side of the camcorder is a switch for macro, portrait, and landscape. I've found the landscape setting to be the most clear, while the macro setting does nicely on your close up shots. I have not had a need for the portrait setting just yet.

The image stabalizer works mostly, if you remember to turn it on. For some reason, for me when I shut down the camcorder and turn it back on, it doesn't stay on. So I have to manually turn it on each time. Not a big problem, and I plan on using a table tripod for many of my shots anyways.

Sound is loud enough and clear, and it'll do for now. Can't get it all for a hundred bucks, you know?

If you're on a budget, but you've got that creative bug inside you, you will really enjoy this product and if done correctly, can put together some real quality videos.

So after long hours of trying to decide between the mino HD flip(209.99$) and Kodak Zi6(159.99$), i went to best buy to actually hold them in my hands and see if that made a difference. I didn't want to pay $210. for the flip, since it's sound wasn't as good and it worked better inside then the Kodak Zi6 but not as well outside. but i liked that the flip was soo small and battery life was supposed to be oustanding. As i am pondering which one to choose my husband, being the curious person he is points out the Insignia 5.0 megapixel camera.

I was a little scared because it was insignia but decided to look at it anyway. (not that insignia is bad, but i had read reviews on here)Boy am i glad i looked at the insignia.

I love the fact that it has a big screen that flips a lot of different ways. UNLIKE the other two it has a light you can turn on or off when recording, It has an 8X zoom, it can be changed from sepia, to natural, to black and white, it also has white balance, sharpness and image stabilization. It is roughly the size of the old flip and extremely light. It also comes with all the cables, to hook it up to your tv, to charge it in the wall or by computer. also you can do still pictures with 5x megapixels, but i won't be using it for that so i don't care. Nice that the option is there though.

I've read that a lot of people don't like it because it is grainy when watched inside. I don't believe it is any worse then the other two (mino HD and Kodak Zi6) plus it's considerbly cheaper. 99.00 and around 20. for a 4gb sd card. The camera may not be AS easy as the MINO hd but nothing of 5 minutes of playing with the buttons won't fix. If you are looking for a superior camera this isn't for you. but if you are looking for a gift for a teen grandchild or somthing to record random stuff for fun then this is perfect for you. i'll update the review later to see if i can find any negatives.

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After spending a little time working with my Insignia (it was a gift), I think that the issues the negative reviewers raise can be resolved.

It does good quality video and sound for a very cheap price. The still pictures are as good as most consumer point and shoot 5.1 mp cameras.

As far as HD or 720 dpi is concerned, it blows up okay on my 32 inch wide screen. Would I call it "high def"...of course not. Is it adequate? Absolutely.

The AVI video format clips can be converted with freeware to another format. So you just convert to a format for which you have a codec.

The one problem I've had is that there is no optical viewfinder, and the lcd does not stand up to sunlight. So shoot carefully. Also, when you use the digital zoom, you get artifacts. So don't use it.

What you get is a camcorder, still camera, mp3 player, and voice recorder for $100.00. With your SD card, you have infinite capacity.

Best gift I can think of. I'm going to use this a lot on my vacation.

Read Best Reviews of Insignia NS-DCC5HB09 - Camcorder - High Definition with digital player/voice recorder - widescreen Here

The product works ok, given the price. All I really want to do is use the video file that it produces in a digital video editing software program. Simple, but after researching online and being on support for an hour, it appears this file format (MPEG4 (H.264) in AVI wrapper) does not work with microsoft movie maker or ulead video studio 11. I downloaded every know codec and still nothing. This is a problem with the file format and codec. This needs to be resolved by the manufacturer or someone who produces codecs for video editing software. If you don't plan to edit this video, good product.

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I bought one of these expecting it to be at best mediocre, I was wrong.

This camera takes great video. I can edit the video with Nero 8, Pinnacle Studio 11.1 complains that I don't have enough graphics memory. I am going to upgrade my video card and see what happens (wanted an excuse to do that anyway). But I have no problems viewing video on my Vizio HDTV.

I am running a sandisk ultra II 4GB card in it. I have tried various light conditions inside and outside and it does well in all of them. I am going to get hold of some cheap sdhc cards and try them.

I have pinnacle studio 11.1 and it really would not edit the Insignia video. I bought a little program called movavi video suite and it does a great job of editing. I also have ffdshow MPEG-4 codec pack installed on my machine.

Philips DVDR3505/37 1080i Upscaling DVD Recorder with Built-In Tuner

• Built in digital SDTV tuner to receive HD boradcasts
• Dual Media play and record in DVD-R-RW and DVD+R+RW
• 1080i upscaling for HD picture performance
• i-Link for easy connection to camcorder for play and recording
• Plays MP3/WMA, CD-R-RW, Video CD's

The Phillips DVDR3505/37 has the best "digital tuner" picture quality out of the two other DVD recorders that I have tested with "digital tuners" (Panasonic and Samsung). The Phillips DVDR3505 produces an amazingly clear OTA digital picture on my old 27 inch Sanyo analog "box" TV using an indoor antenna. The Phillips 3505 and the 27inch TV are connected with regular "composite cables". The resulting OTA digital picture is amazingly detailed and clear with little or no annoying "dot crawl". Another important feature for me in selecting the Phillips DVDR3505 is that it allows you to choose "4.3 pan & Scan" to view OTA digital programs in full screen on a "box" TV (no black bars caused by "HD" OTA programs). In the 4.3 pan & scan mode the OTA digital picture is shown in full screen but is not distorted looking (no long and stretched faces) and the picture framing matches the full screen picture seen on my analog OTA TV in a side by side comparison. In addition the picture clarity/sharpness in the "4.3 pan & scan" full screen mode is superb! The same effect should be achieved when watching a purchased or rented "widescreen" DVD movie on your "Box" TV in the 4.3 pan & scan mode. The cons for the Phillips DVDR3505 are its slow channel change and slow recording set up. One additional problem I have experienced is that the unit looses its channel set up under certian conditions. At this point in my life, the quality of the picture that you see from your cable, Sat, or OTA programs is what is most important to me and my family when watching TV. The truth is that I have put up with poor reception using analog TV with "rabbit ears" antennas long enough, so the amazing picture quality of the Phillips is what sold me. The Phillips DVDR3502 wins hand down in that category and is the main reason that I sent the other more expensive feature rich DVD recorders back to the store. My family and I have been able to work around or forgive all of the "cons" reported about for the Phillips DVDR3505 and because we are basic users the Phillips meets our needs for recording OTA TV programs while providing a "Wow factor" in picture clarity when watching "real time" OTA digital TV through our analog "box" TV. Also, a "Wow factor" is achieved even when watching OTA digital program recorded on DVD using the Phillips DVDR3505. Image reproduction is excellent in two highest image recording modes. Before buying see if the features on the Phillips DVDR3505/37 matches your basic needs. If viewing pleasure has been lacking for OTA broadcasts then get ready to receive the "Best Picture" award from friends and family when using the Phillips DVDR3505.

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I purchased the Philips DVR3505/37 refurbished (the new ones being either too expensive or unavailable) from J&R store through Amazon so I feel obliged to write a review about it because there were a handful of questions I would have wanted answered before I made the decision to purchase it. I was thinking I would, more than likely, have to return it, and lose some money mailing the damn thing back. But as it turned out, I didn't have to return it after all.

Keep in mind that I paired the device with a 42 inch plasma TV and connected the audio out through the coaxial output to my home theater receiver as well. I'm giving you this information because I think it is relevant for people with a home theater system with a free coaxial input or a free optical audio input (you can get powered coaxial to optical audio converters on Amazon if your receiver doesn't have a free coaxial-in but has an optical-in instead. That is what I did and the home theater receiver even displays the DTS or Dolby Digital logos when DVD sound from the DVR3505 is played on the home theater receiver and DTS or DD is selected through the DVD menu. In this case, the sound becomes 5.1 surround sound when watching movies with DD or DTS tracks. TV can also play the sound when watching DVD or TV since it is connected to the TV via an HDMI cable and HDMI cable is able to send both HD picture and sound. Without having the receiver turned on, you get a decent stereo sound on your TV and some TVs have better sound than others. Mine has decent DD stereo and SRS Surround that can produce an OK virtual surround sound but connect the unit to your home theater receiver to get great sound during prime time TV shows which are broadcast most of the time with 5.1 surround sound, or to watch DVDs with 5.1 surround sound tracks.

Others questions in Q/A format.

Is Philips DVR3505/37 an HDTV tuner?

Yes. Using the HDMI connection, it outputs 1080i (720p and 1080i are two different HD resolutions that most HD programs are broadcast today) signal, so that makes it an external HDTV tuner. It will also up-convert 480i and 720p broadcast and send them out as 1080i signal if it is connected to your TV via an HDMI cable.

If it is an HDTV tuner, why does the product description say it is an SDTV tuner?

Unfortunately, most people who make these products don't actually use them themselves. At one point, it might have been more marketable to call it an SDTV tuner since more people had standard televisions and let's face it, most TV stations were broadcasting in SD/Analog formats. And yes, it is an SDTV tuner if you happened to own an SDTV today. Let's say it is an external TV tuner with both SD and HD output capabilities.

I have an HDTV with an unused HDMI input, will this until connect to my TV via an HDMI cable?

Yes, it has an HDMI out. That will connect to your TV's unused HDMI-in.

My TV is a standard analog TV, will this thing work?

Yes. It has AV-out (Yellow video cable and the red and white audio cable a.k.a RCA cable). It will be sending out analog signal directly to your TV. You need not use a government coupon type converter box.

Will I need to make separate connections for DVD and TV?

No. Connect with whatever suits your TV and that connection is used to both watching TV and playing DVDs. Just one connection out from the unit to your TV for everything the unit does.

Will it display analog stations?

Yes. There is a DTV/TV button on the remote control to switch between analog and digital stations.

I have a 16:9 HDTV, how will my picture look like?

Great. Go to the unit's setup menu and set your TV type to 16:9. With your TV's remote control, set your aspect ratio to normal (or natural) and HD programs should now appear wide screen, at least during prime time. ***Important*** Most users have complained that the unit didn't record on 16:9 mode, or rather, it recorded 16:9 programs on 4:3 mode. This is not true in my case. Once you have set your TV type to 16:9, wide screen programs will be recorded the way they were broadcast. Programs broadcast with black bars on the sides of the screen will also be recorded with black bars. You might stretch your screen in case of annoying local stations that are in love with side black bars that ultimately could cause plasma screen burn in if you own a plasma TV.

If it can record shows on wide screen, why does the user's manual say the unit can only record on 4:3 mode?

Again, the user's manual is wrong. Probably written by some underpaid college intern. If your TV is 16:9, and you have set your TV type to 16:9 on the DVR's setup menu, then wide screen programs will be recorded in wide screen and 4:3 will be recorded panned and scanned, unless the station broadcast them with black bars such as letter-boxing and postage-stamping. In this case, it will record the shows with the black bars included.

Will my clock reset itself and record wrong programs overnight?

Yes. But go to the clock setting, set the time, and turn off auto clock setting and turn off daylight saving options. It will stop doing that until you lose power next time.

How much material will it fit on a DVD when recording TV programs?

High Quality (HQ): 1 hour; and Standard Play (SP): 2 hours. I am not going to bother with other lower settings that are supposed to give me up to 6 hours of recording time on a single disc. You might play around with it. Use a Rewritable disc so that you can reuse it again and again.

Will this unit connect with an external device such as a VCR?

Yes. There is one A/V line-in in the back and there is another on the front panel. The front panel also have a DV-in slot for your video camera.

Does the unit have component-out?

Yes, it has the Y/Pb/Pr out and audio stereo out for it. Component and HDMI cables are not included in the box.

Does it play DivX?

Yes.

Does it play DivX through a USB slot on the Front panel?

No. This until does not have USB slot like my two other Philips DVD/DivX players do. You can play DivX files after transferring them to a DVD.

Will it play DivX files that are burned on a DVD Rewritable disc so that I can delete them and reuse the disc later?

Yes! Burn your DivX files onto a rewritable DVD. Burn with 4x speed. I have no problem. I use a free program called IMG Burn and it formatted the rewritable DVD right before it burned them the first time the DVD was inserted into the computer. You might want to try that program. That burning software is amazing.

Will it give me 5.1 surround when I watch shows like 24 or when I watch DVDs?

Yes, if you have home theater receiver with a digital coaxial in. The unit has a digital coaxial out. This option will send 5.1 channels from this unit to your home theater receiver with a use of a digital coaxial audio cable. If your home theater receiver just has an optical-in, use a digital coaxial to optical converter. It works great for me as I mentioned earlier. I vouch for it.

I have a plasma screen. Will this unit give me ghost outlines in place of black colors?

Yes. It is a common problem with plasma TVs. I had crazy ghost images in the beginning when watching channels through this unit, especially when actors were wearing black color clothes. Go to the unit's setup menu and go to HDMI setting and change your color output from RGB to Y/cb/cr. It truly took care of that problem for me and I am very happy with it. If you have plasma screen instead of an LCD screen, and if you can live with it, reduce your brightness and contrast to 50 or less in order to avoid burn-ins or ghosting. Programs with black bars on the sides or top and bottoms also could cause ghosting in your plasma screen. If your TV allows you to change picture size (this is not an issue when watching HD 16:9 broadcast) use it to increase it until black bars disappear. Don't pause movies for longer than 20 minutes if you have your DVD screen saver disabled. If your plasma TV has picture shift option, turn it on. It is meant to shift the picture when it becomes static, preventing phosphor burn-in.

Will this unit record shows on a DVD?

Yes, DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW. It will not record on CDs.

Does this unit have a hard drive on it to record shows?

No. You can only record shows on recording media mentioned above.

What does the record timer look like?

It allows me to pre-program 8 shows, that's it. There's no option for recording the same show daily, weekly, or anything. There are these 8 blank lines that show up when I press "timer" on the remote control, and I just have to punch in the date, time, channel, sub-channel, record begin time, record end time, and recording mode. You have to do this five times if your program is aired 5 nights a week. There is no option for programming something and then choosing "daily" option. The user's manual says something about repeating the program by pressing the side arrow key, but I realize that the user's manual shows the menu different from what I saw on my unit's setup menu. So there must be a couple of different models floating around under the same model number. You might get the matching one with the user's manual. I also got a different (probably worse) remote control from what was shown on the user's manual.

Does changing channels really take a long time?

Yes. It could take up to 7 seconds to change from one DTV station to the other. On my unit, it takes about 4 seconds. You might want to press the channel numbers on the remote control to jump channels. There is no previous channel option on the remote control, at least not on mine.

Does it really take forever to read DVDs?

No, I thought not. It takes longer than a regular DVD player, but it isn't as long as some of the reviewers are complaining about on Amazon.

Do I have to finalize the disc in order to play it on a different DVD player?

No. I put the disc without finalizing into a different DVD player and it played just like it would play any other discs. Some DVD players are pickier than others so try it without finalizing and see what your DVD player has to say. I tried playing the recorded show un-finalized using two different DVD players. Both played without a frown. Yeah!

Can you tell me other things?

Yes. The fan is quite noisy. You can actually hear it during audio-less moments when you watch TV or watch movies. Sort of like a laptop fan. I don't know if you are bothered by that kind of things. It is definitely worth mentioning. DVD pictures from HDMI look great on my plasma screen. Empty out your disc before going to bed so that your show is sure to be recorded on the empty disc at night. Don't rely on the unit to overwrite your existing recording.

Would you recommend it?

Yes. It has some flaws but it is great for what I needed to do, record programs that are aired too late at night for me to watch them. I am only recording one or two programs a day so I am not a heavy user so I am perfectly happy with this until. If you are thinking about recording crazy amount of programs, you might want to consider the one with a hard drive.

Are you happy with this unit?

Yes. I needed an external tuner for my older HD ready tuner-less plasma TV. The fact that it does that plus record shows on DVD RWs and plays DVDs makes this product perfect for me. This unit also gives people with analog TVs a DVR in addition to allowing them to watch DTVs without having to use a converter box.

Explain your 3-star rating. You said you are happy with it, right, so why not a 5-star rating?

It has a few, but significant flaws: a very-very user-unfriendly remote control that is absolutely difficult to see even for someone with a 20/20 vision; very out of place play/skip/ff/stop/pause buttons on the version of the remote that came with my unit; and a noisier than normal cooling fan. I give the product a generous 3-star.

Thank you for reading. Leaving a comment on the review if you have a specific question. I will reply, promise.

Update: As you can see below, someone pointed out that I omitted the fact that it does not have a built-in QAM tuner. Product says it has Built-in ATSC tuner and never claimed it has QAM tuner. It doesn't make coffee and clip your nails either. Should I have mentioned those facts in my review too?

Having said that, the reason I had no reason to mention the QAM part was that I do not have a cable running at my home. However, on the unit's menu, when you first do your channel scan, you have choices of cable, digital cable, or air to scan from. I don't know if that qualifies it as QAM. Not all of you might have this option since there are a couple of different firmware versions floating around under the same model. Even if the unit tunes cable channels, and your service provider uses two or three digits subchannel numbers, the unit won't be able to handle anything more that one digit subchannel number. For example, if you service provider has channel numbers such as 18.233, it won't display. Whereas it will display 18.2, 18.3, and so on. This was mentioned by another reviewer. I have not the opportunity to test it myself.

Please refrain from writing rude comments. I am not getting paid a penny to write this review.

Read Best Reviews of Philips DVDR3505/37 1080i Upscaling DVD Recorder with Built-In Tuner Here

The picture is wonderful. The features are terrific. The ease of use is astounding. FYI I'm a James Bond fan and own a few titles. One of the movie channels had a Bond-a-thon a few days ago, so I decided to put my Philips DVD recorder to the test. I recorded one of the titles that I already own from the movie channel broadcast to my DVR. The next day, I recorded the movie from my DVR to a DVD. I then had my family watch the first 10 minutes from each movie on one of our other DVD players and, based upon picture, sound quality, etc., tell me which one they thought was the store bought version and which one was the recorded version. My wife and all three kids picked my recording over the store bought version of the movie. Truly remarkable. The primary reason that I bought the recorder is to build upon our DVD collection without having to fork over the big $ to buy the movies from the store (the HDMI connection and upconverting were icing on the cake). At $180 for the recorder and about $1 per blank DVD disc, the thing is going to pay for itself with 10 recordings and then it's all gravy from there. Also, I travel a lot and have about 80 hours of programming on my DVR that I never seem to have enough time to watch. Now I'll be able to burn those programs to a DVD and watch them on my laptop when I'm on the road! How awesome is that?!?!?!

Five stars for the Philips DVD recorder no doubt. I had tried a few other DVD recorders before I found this one (including a tunerless Philips) for most, I had paid more and received less. For those of you with complex audio/video setups, beware of DVD recorders that don't have a built in tuner. I don't need the tuner for OTA broadcasts, I need it to make my A/V life hassle free. I'm sure glad that I found this baby...

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Accepts almost all media types, has lots of features, DIVX, HDMI with good upscaling picture quality, and the SD channels come in clear.

This recorder does have an integrated QAM tuner that allows free reception of unscrambled digital programming sent "in the clear" by your cable provider. The instruction manual does not state this fact and neither does most websites.

The only down side is that in my area Comcast provides cable service and ABC, CBS, and NBC are on channels 86-431, 85-433, and 86-432.

This recorder's tuner only accepts two digits of the sub channel number. Therefore if you have three digits like in my area you have no chance of watching or recording any of those stations.

The digital channels I am able to get do come in clearly and picture quality is an A+ on recordings. If you don't have this problem in your neighbourhood then this is a great recorder for the price.

I did end up returning this unit for the Panasonic DMREZ27K because of the problem with the two digit sub-channel.

The Philips DVDR3505/37 DVD Recorder records ONLY in a 4:3 aspect ratio [full screen]. It will NOT record in a 16:9 aspect ratio [wide screen]. Rather, it chops off part of the picture on each end. I had wrongly assumed that it would record whatever was received through the inputs without modifying the aspect ratio. This information was not made readily available or I would not have purchased the unit. I found the info buried in a note box on page 38 of the User Manual. Otherwise, it is a pretty good recorder and has good video quality. But, if you are going to watch the DVD recording on a wide screen TV don't buy this unit. The lack of 16:9 aspect ratio recording is a deal buster for me.

Sony ICD-BX112 2GB Internal Flash Memory Voice Recorder + Accessory Kit

I have had several digital recorders . I always go back to this brand. Whether it is not taking notes for a class , or just to remember something along the way. it is easy to divide the different subjects by folder . Another positive aspect is the battery life is long lasting. I bought my recorder at least 6 months ago and the batteries are still full!

Magnavox up to 387hrs 320GB HDD and DVD Recorder with Digital Tuner Watch, Forward, Rewind or Freez

• 1080p up-conversion
• Watch, forward, rewind or freeze live TV while recording
• 4-way dubbing
• Dolby Digital stream out
• Virtual Surround System

This is the MDR533H/F7, one of three in the 53x Series of std def (480i) HDD/DVD recorders... 535 and 537 are the others. This 533 has a 320GB HDD while the others have 500GB and 1000GB (1TB) HDDs.

More info at avsforum.com > Forums > Video Components > DVD Recorders > Magnavox 537, 535, 533, 515, 513, 2160A, 2160, 2080 & Philips 3576, 3575.

Page 1 there is the only page you need to read and bookmark.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The Mag 533/535/537 (53x) Series is the 8th, and possibly final, generation of simple, family-friendly, durable, std def (SD, 480i) analog/digital DVD recorders (DVDR) with hard disk drive (HDD) that are yearly improvements of the same basic design and operating system.

They're the ONLY recorders, SD or HD (720/1080), available for daily use in North America with:

-NTSC/ATSC/QAM tuners for antenna or cable.

-Easily replaceable/upgradeable/expandable hard-disk drive (HDD).

-Easily replaceable DVD/CD drive for burning DVDs and playing DVDs and CDs.

-Widescreen (16:9) recording.

-Amplified coax passthru w/unit on or off.

-Amplified coax and line inputs.

-DV input.

-Coax digital audio out.

-1080p HDMI upconvert.

-36 timer-rec programs with pre-titling.

-6-hour autorecord buffer.

-Pause & rewind live TV.

-Chase play.

-Skip/replay.

-Simultaneous play/record.

-Record while watching diff. channel on TV via coax passthru.

-Integrated TV/DVDR control via HDMI CEC-link.

-1-2 hour power backup, dep. on whether Auto Clock is off or on.

-Simple editing for your archive copies or home movies.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

FOR NEWCOMERS TO DVDRs OR THIS BRAND OF DVDR

The 53x Series are standalone units that can record from antenna or cable coax. They also have line inputs so they can record from cable boxes and satellite receivers or copy from VCRs, DVRs, cameras and camcorders.

They're so easy to use they can be operated by the entire family, from kids to timeshifters to gearheads.

Timeshifters can reliably record a bunch of named shows, unattended and with NO tapes or discs.

Gearheads can upgrade their HDD or create an "HDD farm" of multiple 2.5" and 3.5" external (E-SATA) HDDs with unlimited storage, Cable (Analog/Digital) to make sure your DVDR sees and memorizes the unscrambled channels (if any).

2. OMITTED MAKING FRONTAND END-CUTS IN EDIT, Pp 93-94.

Frustrates many new users! In the Scene Delete menu, only REW stops on 1st frame and only PLAY and FF stop on last frame. 2160, 2160A and 513 also had a totally confusing and unnecessary auto-Preview after an End Cut that should be IGNORED. At least the 53x Series doesn't have the confusing auto-preview!

3. MISLEADING RECORDING 16:9 WIDESCREEN AS 4:3, pg 45.

This half-truth has caused more misunderstanding than almost anything else in the manual. It's a "deep" technical subject that didn't need to be there! It HAS TO record a 4:3 aspect pic FRAME because the DVD Std was built on the old 4:3 VHS Std, but the DVD std allows a combo of square/non-square pixels, variable horiz. rez, compression and decompression within that 4:3 frame. THAT'S what allows your HDTV to stretch the "non-square" (rectangular) pixels of a WS image inside that 4:3 frame to natural 16:9 WS aspect. You just need to set this DVDR's Video > TV Aspect to "16:9 Wide" and your HDTV on its "Wide" aspect setting. However, this DVDR's DEFAULT setting for aspect ratio is "4:3 Letter Box" so you have to change that to 16:9 Wide during setup or none of your recordings will be 16:9 WS!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

More info at avsforum.com > Forums > Video Components > DVD Recorders > Magnavox 537, 535, 533, 515, 513, 2160A, 2160, 2080 & Philips 3576, 3575.

Page 1 there is the only page you need to read and bookmark.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Disclaimer: I have never represented or worked for Funai or any seller in any capacity... and currently don't work for anyone else! -:)

Buy Magnavox up to 387hrs 320GB HDD and DVD Recorder with Digital Tuner Watch, Forward, Rewind or Freez Now

the pass through was not clear going through the dvd recorder .Also the picture was a small box on the tv not all the way to the sides of my tv .I changed the aspect and other things that the person on the phone from the dvr company told me to try but nothing fixed the problem It makes me sad because i really wanted a good dvd recorder with a hard drive .If the small box problem is fixed i would buy it again .Well not today maybe when all of the kinks are worked out . ! Ken m I was on the phone for 45 minutes trying too get it to go with proffessional help but no go ! :(

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Happy with the performance of this device but..... it is difficult to title the shows. And somewhat hard to navigate around the recorded shows as well. There are numerous details in operating this machine properly and I have not fully read the manual.

However, I am pleased with the quality of the recordings and the price of the unit for what it is.

We only have FREE antenna TV. And that's fine with us. So we record network shows we like, blow through the commercials and enjoy. All in all, it's a good unit. I still have a few things to learn about it.

Uniden UDW20055 Wireless Video Surveillance System, Black, One screen and Two cameras

Looking for a small, rather inexpensive camera system to basically monitor the outside of my property at night I settled on this system. Only a few reviews here about it but it seemed to have all the features I was looking for which were for the most part a wireless system with night vision, and motion censor recording. I must say up until discovering this system's major flaw I was quite happy. Picture quality is very good, night vision quality is pretty much on par with lighted picture quality I really noticed no degradation. Audio quality is pretty good, and the wireless connection was very stable as well, I set a camera up at one end of the house and one in the garage, then went to the other end of the house and upstairs and had no trouble connecting to both cameras.

Now the deal breaker, and I think it might be a deal breaker for a lot of people. The motion sensor capability is quite unless if you plan on using 2 or more cameras. In setting up a recording schedule with the provided software you are only allowed to use set one camera on motion sensor at a time for every given 2 hour period. Meaning unless your sitting in front of the screen manually switching through the cameras, the only camera you're going to get anything out of is the one that is scheduled to record at that time, and if you set the system to motion sensor only that one camera selected for that 2 hr time slot will be enabled with motion sensor, all the other cameras are as good as off and are basically useless (unless your sitting at your computer all night switching between cameras!). This really baffles me why Uniden didn't incorporate motion sensor capability to be enabled on all cameras at the same time, and automatically switch and record when motion is detected on any of the cameras, other systems of this same type and price range seem to have it. So if you have four cameras running on this system and it's set to motion sensor, you're going to have a 25% chance of recording any motion going on outside your house, that's not acceptable to me, and I don't consider that surveillance! So I'm sending this back and checking out the Lorex LW2702 which Costco sells for about $50 more, it includes automatic motion sensor switching between cameras and quite a few other bonuses.

This is a great camera system. I was a little hesitant after reading the first negative review, but I figured I had nothing to lose with Amazon's return policy. I have the cameras mounted outside and the signal is very strong with no interference (distance is about 50-75 feet through a concrete wall). My house is full of wireless devices (cordless phone and router) and I have no problems.

My only grip is that the picture is not as clear as I would like. This system is great for monitoring your property but is not really suitable for facial identification purposes (i.e. criminal activity). I use it in conjunction with my driveway alarm. As soon as my driveway alarm rings I check the Uniden Monitor instead of getting up and rushing to the window. It is especially useful at night when you do not want to get out of bed every time you hear a noise. I live on a busy street with young hooligans and it has given me a little piece of mind.

The software is very easy to setup and use. Just load the included software and plug the monitor into your computer's USB port and your off (XP and Vista--NO Windows 7)! It has a terrific interface and it is simple to schedule it to automatically record. I purchased a little USB 500GB hard drive to record the video on. If you want to monitor your house remotely from work or when you are on vacation you can get something like PC Anywhere and leave you PC on and attached to the Uniden Monitor.

So if you are looking for a easy to use camera security system, this is the one. I have purchased many, and this is by far the best.

Buy Uniden UDW20055 Wireless Video Surveillance System, Black, One screen and Two cameras Now

After having this system up and running for a month, I finally broke down and wrote to customer service.

here is the conversation:

Your Question :

Will there be a software update to allow the motion sensor to capture video on either (Or all) camera(s)?

Right now with V 5.0.0.302, I can schedule ONE camera to record movement, but if the other camera sees movement it will not record it.

----------------------------------------

Updated 10/06/2010 03:41 PM:

So if the 2 cameras are placed to watch for theft, only one will ever be able to record if there is movement? Doesn't that seem less then useful?

Our Solution :

Thank you for using our system.

Unfortunately we have not been told of an update being planned or in the works to allow record any camera that get motion.

----------------------------------------

Updated 10/06/2010 04:18 PM:

I apologize it does not do what you are looking for it to do. Unfortunately it is not designed to be able to do that kind of recording.

You can schedule 1 camera to record. That scheduled camera can either record constantly during its hour schedule, or can be set to motion capture. If camera 1, say at the front door is scheduled, and at camera 2 (back door) someone breaks in...Well, hopefully they leave by the front door. Camera 2 won't catch it.

And WHY would you want to buy _more_ cameras. Seems kind of pointless. You can't only motion capture the scheduled camera. I suppose I could put a sign up sheet for someone to steal from my home: Between the hours of 3 and 6AM please break in through the back door, between the hours of 7AM and 11AM please break in the front.

I'll probably use this unit to watch for ducks. I would not buy it again. I'll have to find a better system, not uniden this time.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

EDIT: I added notes from the last message from Uniden, and lowed the rating I had put for this product. I would now rate it at "Buy something else"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Second Edit: After the THIRD time of not getting a good picture/video of the people breaking into my cars I'm really sick of this camera's software. I can't set how long it records after it hits an alarm. Being able to keep recording for 30 to 60 seconds after it hits an alarm would be useful. The sensitivity is 0 to 100, but you can't change it other then using the buttons. So it either records everything (including the shadows of birds), or doesn't notice someone moving. The picture at 25' at night is poor, but it's night so what can you do.

I would rate it now at: "Don't buy it."

Read Best Reviews of Uniden UDW20055 Wireless Video Surveillance System, Black, One screen and Two cameras Here

We purchased this for our toddler's bedroom, from Amazon's partner woot! it was a cheaper alternative to the baby monitors, and gave us the ability to achieve multiple angles with the multiple cameras.

Number of Cameras Capability: 4 Total, depending on the set/model either comes with 2 or 3 cameras. You can purchase extras, we purchased the UDWC23 to complement our system, which is a portable camera and a rechargeable battery system, I'll review additionally on it's own page.

Picture Quality/Daytime: The Product does produce a very clear Daylight or lighted Picture, however not as clear as the manufacturer suggests or places on the packaging or in their ads, kind of like the nummy food on the menu always looks better than it does when they serve it at a restaurant. It's not too far off, but something you should be aware of if you are looking for crystal clarity as a must.

The Range: is perfect for our 2500 sq ft home, however it is all about what obstructions you encounter so be sure to check out the placement and the signal before committing to that spot you'd like to monitor.

The "Zoom, pan and tilt" feature: is a little misleading, it actually does zoom and it does pan and tilt, however only within the range of the actual STILL CAMERA; meaning, the camera is looking at a single area, you press ZOOM and you can tilt and pan around that zoomed area only, the camera doesn't move to another area of the field. What you couldn't see outside of the original location of the camera you aren't going to be able to see without manually moving the camera.

Night Vision: This works great, the clarity is better than our first version camera that we owned, however the quality is degraded and you can't make out features of say a person's face unless they are very close to the camera. You will be able to make out generalities and it will be on the most part clear, but even on zoom you couldn't see if a person's eyes are opened or closed, small features on their face may not be discernible.

The Remote: is an absolute must to use all the zoom, pan and tilt features, otherwise you must use the software to plugin and utilize these features, in case you lost the remote. Outside of the Zoom features on the remote it handles all the main features the 7" Monitor has on the face.

7 INCH Monitor: The Monitor is a great little gadget, however it is not a sturdy thing and tips over easily so we decided to invest in a TV/Monitor Mount made for 10" to 27" TVs, we purchased it from Amazon (I have reviewed this item separately as well) We purchased the VideoSecu Computer Monitor Wall mount bracket for most 10" to 27 " TV LCD and Display VESA100/75 ML40B B05. With the bracket we did have to make some minor adjustments because the Uniden Monitor is 7" and the minimum the bracket is setup for is 10". There was no drilling involved, I purchased a few 3M Command Adhesive 17040 Sawtooth Picture Hanger brackets to be able to fit the back of the monitor and some velcro for the bottom to ensure it stays on there, and can be removed when I want to take it to another room.

The PC Program: The quality on the PC is slightly more degraded than the monitor, but you can record, it will record in intervals, and also has motion sensor capabilities that will set off alarms if you want, for us, we record cute moments our kiddo is playing in her room for later.. we don't use it for a security system.

Hope this was helpful, for the price this product can't be beaten & with a few accessories you can have yourself quite a little system for less than $250

Hope that helps you with your purchasing decision.

Thanks for reading!

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A quick rundown:

NOT 64 bit compatable!!!

Not a true home security solution...however...

IR Distance was about 60 feet for me slightly less with heavy rain (maybe 40) and worked well, excellent definition...

Build and picture quality was excellent and it was a breeze to set up on a recieve both sound and video to the portable monitor.

Computer use however was a pain, does not wotk at all with 64bit and uniden support was a joke, website is even worse.

Packaging and manuals were easy to understand and walk you through the easy setup...except for the computer set up...it was not clear or helpful. I did try the software on an older laptop that was running xp and it was ok...as others noted recording is limited as is trigger functions.

So for a door monitor or pool or such its perfect....keep an eye on the kids or driveway this is an excellent day night solution at a very reasonable price. For true home security it leaves a lot off the table and I would keep looking

Coby DVD-207 Compact DVD Player

• Slim, compact, easily moveable DVD player Plays DVD-Video (NTSC and PAL), MP3 CD, and JPEG image CD
• Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1-channel surround sound through coaxial digital-audio output (for use with optional AV receiver and speaker system)
• Offers universal (AC 110 to 220V) power supply
• Includes full-function remote control
• Measures 7.8 x 1.4 x 6.3 inches (W x H x D)

I purchased a Coby DVD-207 locally from a retailer because of the awesome price. They had it with a $20 mail in rebate that made it a hard deal to pass up. I purchased one and quickly went back to my dorm room to set it up. While unpacking it from the cardboard I noted that the entire unit feels rather flimsy. I was easily able to get the wires plugged in, and I started it up. I put a normal, store purchased DVD in and turned the unit on. There were some grinding noises from within the unit and it took between 3-5 seconds before it started playback. During playback the audio and video would randomly skip, making the movie all but unwatchable. I put the DVD into my laptop and it played back without any issues. I tried several other DVDs and audio cds and found them all to have the same playback problem. I quickly called the store back and spoke to the manager, they said that several people had the same problem with this model and they would exchange it for in store credit. So, after only owning it for a few hours, it went back to the store. I am glad I dodged that bullet and got rid of it before it died and was not in the store's warranty. If you read the warranty information from Coby when you unpack the unit, you will realize that they don't have any interest in fixing or replacing a defective unit (My unit's warranty required that I pay for shipment both ways and also pay a fee for returning a defective unit...) By that point, to get a replacement for a broken unit, you end up paying more than you did in the first place. Do yourself a favor, spend a bit more money and get something that is higher quality, it will last longer and larger companies have more consumer friendly return policies.

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I bought this DVD player thinking that I would give it as a gift to my friend. AS of March 8/9 2005, it still says pre-order but 5 minutes after a checked-out, it's status is already shipping soon. I guess it was shipped on the same day because I received the item by March 11.

So, I opened the box and set-up it up.. it's so small, I love it. The media that I tried was DVDr and the picture at the TV was ok but there would be some milisecond stop from time to time. It seemed that the DVD could not read smoothly the media on it. And the dvd makes a loud noise. You can hear the disc spinning inside it 8 feet away from it. If it's not the DVD, it should be something else.

All in all I would not suggest the DVD to be your main DVD player. Its performance is mediocre. I'll keep mine however as a spare in case of DVD player emergency :-) . For 32 bucks, it's worth keeping it. I'll try to find another another dvd player for my gift to my friend though.

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I bought this item because I had a special space requirement that benefited from this unusual top load design. The unit would not select tracks, skipped over the menu screen, and made the aforementioned grinding noises. I took the same DVD-R and it played flawlessly on my one year old Sony DVD player. This is my first Amazon return despite many purchases. Not worth your time even for the $19.99 I paid with free shipping and I guess the manufacturer agrees. The in-warranty repair requires pre-paid shipping and $6 to cover return shipping so by the time you pay to ship the item, a warranty repair costs more than half the item cost.

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I purchased this player via the net and in my opinion it's not worth it... but for the price what do you expect.... true to the fact it plays everything...but it skips and sticks alot....i even tried a brand new dvd out of the wrapping and it sticked....it's not worth it.....

i hate this thing! i can't return it or coby won't replace it. when i put a dvd in, it reads the disk and then it will say crazy stuff like 'open' or 'no disk'. no other dvd player will do this, becuase this is a cheap piece of crap! i bought it because it's so small, and the price was really low. well, YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR! this was a total waste of my money, i can't get it fixed and i can't sell it knowing what a piece of crap it is. i would like to break it into a million pieces to relieve my frustration with it.

ZMODO 8CH DVR CCTV Surveillance System with 4 Sony CCD Bullet Outdoor Security Cameras and 4 Sony C

Best you can buy, works super, Have 8 working, wires need to be longer,

Had to have 2 men run wires & it took them 6hrs. Best thing I seen in 50 yrs.

The only problem I had was the wires were just a little short on a couple of cameras. When I measured them they should have worked out but a couple were just 2' shorter than advertised. So I moved on camera closer and then ordered a 100ft wire for the other.

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Todo perfecto funciona de acuerdo con las caracteristicas del equipo. Lo recomiendo como sistema de vigilancia. Precio valor equilibrado. Excelente

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Sony ZS-XN30 Multi-Codec S2 Sports CD/Tuner Boombox (White)

• CD and radio boombox with MP3/ATRAC3plus playback, ID3 recognition, 4-line, dot-matrix display, and 2-position Mega Bass enhancement
• S2 Sports design offers high style, water resistance, and convenient construction with centralized controls and built-in carry handle
• Jog-lever navigation lets you scroll "fast forward" or "fast back" through MP3/ATRAC3plus files and folders
• ESP2 CD shock protection minimizes skipping during CD playback; digital FM/AM tuner includes 20 FM and 10 AM station presets
• Uses two 4-inch powered speakers and 2 passive, bass-enhancing radiators; runs on 6 C batteries (not included) or supplied AC power adapter

(1) Plusses:

By "very clean sound" I mean that the accuracy/lack of distortion is excellent for a unit of its size.

I use it for water aerobics classes, along with several other boomboxes at the same time (that all receive their music via a low-power FM transmitter). In this environment, compared to both the Aiwa CD Boom Box CSD-XD55 and the Sony CDF-G70, the S2 has less volume but cleaner sound, especially when the bass button is on.

(2) Minuses

I keep accidentally activating the Jog-Lever -the joystick on the handle -when I grab the S2 by the handle. "Accidentally activating" means that I knock the FM tuner off its station.

(3) Other considerations

It does have an FM antenna, that completely disappears into the body of the unit.

(4) Summary

"Very clean sound" means that, if you want a true portable, it's worth the price.

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I bought this boombox because it has one unique feature that is hard to find on any other boombox.

My primary use for this boombox is to download very long mp3 files (two hours long) from the Internet(talk radio files). The problem is that I may listen to fifteen minutes of this file in one day, and then listen to the rest of the file later. With most boomboxes (once power has been turned off/on), I would have to start over at the beginning of the file and try to fast forward through fifteen minutes to get back to where I left off.

However, the Sony ZS-XN30 *remembers* exactly where it left off in the mp3 file. So if I listen to fifteen minutes of a two-hour mp3 file, and then turn the power button off I can then go back the next day and the file will start playing exactly where it left off. I even tried unplugging the power chord (with no batteries installed), and it still remembered where it left off. This only works if you don't unplug the power for more than about two minutes. I tried it for five minutes, and the memory was lost. But two minutes is more than enough time to move the boombox around the house and plug it in elsewhere.

I am disappointed that there is no bass/trebble control. Only a "mega bass" button that is either off/on.

Read Best Reviews of Sony ZS-XN30 Multi-Codec S2 Sports CD/Tuner Boombox (White) Here

I've owned this stereo for a couple of months now. I got it essentially for free because of the "Sony points" that I earn by using a Sony credit card. As a result, price was not an issue for me. I do not profess to be an "audiophile," so I do not consider myself qualified to address hyper-technical issues about the quality of the sound that this stereo produces.

First impressions: this thing was way bigger than I expected it to be. That is, it was longer than I expected it to be. All accounts report it to be 16 7/8 inches long (i.e. the Amazon website and the sonystyle.com website), but this thing is probably at least 3 or 4 inches longer than that. I would put my official estimate at just over 20 inches long. I know, that sounds like a minimal difference, but instead of getting a small-ish stereo for my office, I ended up with a large piece of equipment that I really couldn't just stick in an un-noticeable location. (If you're interested, as for the other dimensions, it's about 5 1/2 inches high and just over 9 1/2 inches deep. I'm not sure where Sony got its measurements of 6 3/4 and 11 1/4, and it concerns me that Sony can't seem to take accurate measurements of its products.)

More first impressions: the stereo has a built-in handle in the front of it, and I don't think that the handle was too visible in the pictures that I saw before deciding to purchase it. It's just a stylistic thing, but I assume that it is intended to make the stereo more easily portable. No big deal. Stylistically, the stereo has a kind of cool look to it, even though the model that I purchased is white. I've gotten used to the color of it. As with all (well, most) Sony products, the stereo has a very solid feel; it doesn't feel abnormally light-weight and "cheapy." (How's that for a hyper-technical evaluation?)

Ease of use/functionality: the buttons are all pretty easy to understand. No big tricks, really. EXCEPT for the little scroll wheel thing that allows you to jump to different tracks on a CD. Once you scroll to the track that you want, you push the scroll wheel in, and that selects the track. It gets a little more confusing if you are playing a CD full of MP3s or ATRAC3plus files. In the defense of the stereo itself, however, that's more a matter of how the CD itself is burned, not how the hardware is set up to read the CD.

The display is a bit small. Typically, the name of the album is on the top line of the display, the name of the song is on the second line down, and the third line down contains the track number and the elapsed time of the song. However, each line of text (i.e. the top two lines) allows only 10 or 11 characters at a time. As a result, if the letters in the name of the album or song is over that number (10 or 11), the display shows only the first 10 or 11 letters for a second or two, and then it begins to scroll to the left to reveal the remaining letters. So, unless the name of the song or album is fairly short, you never see the whole name at one time. It's always scrolling. It doesn't bother me that much, unless I want to see what the name of a certain song is, and then I'll have to wait until it finishes scrolling to see the name of the song from the beginning. It can be a little annoying. I can't imagine that it would have been too difficult to put the LCD screen elsewhere on the unit, thereby allowing a larger LCD.

My biggest "ease of use" complaint: there are two buttons on the front of the unit. They're actually on the built-in handle. (That's a separate complaint because, if I ever planned on carrying the stereo around while listening to a CD, as absurd as that sounds, I wouldn't want to worry about accidentally hitting one of the two buttons on the handle.) The button on the left is the "stop" button, marked by the standard "square" indicator. No big deal. The other button is a "joystick" kind of thing. Pushing the "joystick" button IN plays or pauses the selected track. Pushing it forward or backward is the equivalent of pushing a search/skip button on a "normal" stereo. For example, if you quickly push it forward, it will skip to the next track. Easy enough. In theory, if you hold the button in the forward position (i.e. to the right), it should search through the current track; fast-forward, basically. I've found that this "fast-forwarding" doesn't work very well. On most stereos, the rate of fast-forwarding increases the longer the button is held down. Not so on this stereo. Instead, it continues to skip maybe three seconds at the most, and the rate never increases. The same problem occurs when you hold the button to the left, or "backward." As a result, the fast-forwarding and rewinding are not that helpful. (By the way, when in radio "mode," pushing the joystick button to the left and right scans through the various pre-set radio stations. When in CD mode, pushing the button up and down scans through the various "folders" that the CD may contain; obviously this only applies if it's a burned CD that was set up with more than one "folder" in mind. When in radio mode, pushing the button up and down is the equivalent of a scan/seek tuning button on a typical radio. Each of those functions seems to work normally.)

I still haven't gotten to my biggest complaint: if you want to pause a track (because, say, your boss has walked into your office, and you'd prefer that your boss not realize that you are listening to Metallica while trying to get some work done), you have to be VERY careful about pushing the joystick button directly IN. Any slight push to the left or right will cause you to either repeat the track or skip to the next track, respectively. This has happened to me far too many times. This could have been easily solved by making a separate play/pause button next to this problematic "joystick" thing. That is, by far, the most annoying aspect of the stereo (yes, I'm THAT petty).

Sound: I obviously didn't get this stereo to impress the ladies with a huge bass boom. The "megabass" function on the unit is almost laughable; even with said function selected, there's just not much bass here. However, when I decided to buy this stereo, I recognized that I didn't need a unit that would put out huge sound. It does the job, and that's all that matters, I guess.

Software: yes, this comes with the Sony SonicStage software. I really enjoy being able to load hundreds of songs onto a CD. Under the default settings of the SonicStage software, however, you're not going to get 490 songs on one CD. I think I've managed to put around 300 or so average-length songs on one CD, though. As with almost all software, SonicStage takes some getting used to. After burning a couple of CDs, I finally figured out how to make separate "folders" for different albums, which makes scrolling a whole lot easier and less time-consuming. Disadvantage: the ATRAC3plus format is apparently proprietary to Sony and therefore useless to anyone that does not have a ATRAC3-capable machine. It may be better to make an MP3 CD, which will be more useful to someone if they wish to borrow the CD.

The sound quality seems to be fine (remember my disclaimer about not professing to be an "audiophile"). I do have one complaint, however, and this might only apply to the ATRAC3plus format: between every song (and occasionally even during a song), you hear a high-pitched "squeak" kind of noise, which is probably the CD laser or something. I don't know if the stereo makes that noise when playing all-MP3 CDs or normal store-bought CDs because I haven't tried playing either of those CDs yet. One final beef: if you put an ATRAC3plus CD into the stereo, it takes a little while to "load" and start playing. It's like the stereo has to read the CD over and over again before it starts to play it. I don't know why that is. The wait is perhaps only 20 seconds, but you know how annoying that gets when you're ready to listen to some music.

Want Sony ZS-XN30 Multi-Codec S2 Sports CD/Tuner Boombox (White) Discount?

While letting my girls run loose in one of these large electronic stores, I just walked around and ended up in the Boombox section of the store. Even to this day, most boomboxes have the typical generic look. A cassette player with buttons, a radio dial, and maybe a CD player on the top. Usually they are black or gray, or silver. Nothing really exceptional.

But then, I saw this Sony ZS-XN30 Sports CD/Tuner Boombox. It looked so "space age" that it definately caught my eye and tugged at my curiousity. It's sexy curvature was one thing that set it apart from the rest. It's appearance somewhat reminded me of the dashboard of my 1973 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme I once had as a teen, which, to this day, is still my most favorite car that I ever owned.

I never thought that a white boombox would look so nice, but white works with this boombox. This boombox would probably not look good if it were black. Remember those round Panasonic AM/FM radios that came out about 1974 (There's a picture of two of them on the cover of the Rhino CD "Have a Nice Day Volume Eight"). This new Sony boombox looks like the future expectation evolved from that Pop Culture Icon radio. I think this Sony boombox would probably look cool if it were available in the "Happy Face" yellow that my particular Panasonic radio was. I'm pathetically nostalgic, I know.

Anyway, after I left the store, I grabbed a couple of my favorite CD's and went back the day after Christmas, and played these little CDs in this and many other boomboxes at the store. Everything fell together right, because, not only was I obsessed with the appearance of this Sony CD player, but it turned out to also be the BEST SOUNDING CD player that I sampled. It even sounded better than some of the boomboxes nearly twice the price. So yes, I bought and brought this puppy home.

At work, I couldn't wait to push their crappy CD Player aside and put my new Sony on the shelf near my desk.

This Sony CD Player has something else that is totally amazing. It comes with a CD program called "SonicStage". This is a program that you set up in your computer so that you can create, what Sony calls, ATRAC3plus CD's. Which means that you can burn CDR's that can hold from 6 hours of music, up to 32 hours. Imagine 32 hours of your other CD's and MP3's burned onto one CDR. Plus, what's cool, is that I can "combine" songs together. For example, The Beatles "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", and "With a Little Help From My Friends", always appear on CD as two separate tracks. When you "shuffle play" your CD, these two songs get broken up, and, of course, they belong together. SonicStage allows you to combine these two as one song. Pretty cool, huh? Even The Beatles "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End" can be "combined" as one song. I love this feature!

I've mostly made a few 6 hour and 14 hour CDR's to play at work. It's amazing that with an ATRAC3plus CDR, I can allow one CD to play all day at work, and with no hinderances to the sound quality. It is simply amazing!

The only disapointment that I have with the SonicStage ATRAC3plus CDR burning program, is that I can not "normalize" the recordings. (make all the songs play at the same volume). Some songs are recorded too low or too high. You really have to pay attention to what the initial volume of the CD's are that you are burning. Normally, we really don't pay much attention to this when we play one CD at a time. We put on a CD, and we adjust the volume right there, and walk away. But, when you put a bunch of CD's together onto one ATRAC3plus CDR, and then hit "shuffle" (have songs play in random order), you have to jump up and turn the player down everytime a loud (more currently remastered) song comes on. But, this is a totally new program and I'm sure that SonicStage will improve on it's options for allowing us to balance the volumes of the songs on future updates for the program.

My only other disappointment is with the Sony ZS-XN30 itself. It has a Megabass button which you would expect to increase the bass response. I really don't hear any difference with the bass and I do have a pretty discriminating ear for sound. But, as a whole, this boombox does sound nice, and the price is worth it.

I love to play my "Autechre" CDs at work, and the sound of "Autechre" is in perfect sync with the look of the boombox that it's coming from. "Autechre" is a kind of music that represents "Machinery Gone Wrong", which supports the madness that's in sync with the work that I do. All 15 of my Autechre CD's are on one amazing ATRAC3plus CDR. (The volume levels were all the same, Thank God!)

It's good to be Proudly Unhipp, because now, it's just promoted some envy at work.

I bought this boombox as I liked it's design, appearance and most points I given to it's builtin bass speakers not to mention it's MP3 & ATTRAC3 plus capability. So I bought it and after a while, I realized that remote will definitely make my life easier ... and after some time I started feeling MP3 player (or PC) line-in is missing in this $120 worth boombox. These 2 small things (no remote & no line-in) made me to hate this wonderful boombox and finally I returned this boombox and bought Sony ZSSN10PS PSYC CD Boombox (Black). Yet to receive this new one, hope that will make me happy as this new model has remote and line-in (little bit cheaper than ZS-XN30, and not much bass but I think I should be OK with this).

So I felt like small things make big difference hope Sony will realize it soon.

Element Electronics Digital/Video Player 2GB

• LCD Display with 7 Backlight Options
• FM Radio Included
• Voice Recorder Included
• Supports MP3, WMA, WMV and WAV formats
• Built-In Speaker

After reading mixed reviews on this item, I had to post what a great deal it is. Excellent video and sound quality (with better headphones, comes with cheapies). The controls are very touch sensitive and work quite well actually. Navigating through the menus is also pretty simple after using a few times. All the features this player has for about $20 bucks, super deal.

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I had to play with this for a few hours in order to figure out how it works. the directions that comes with it are no help at all.

Sony VMC-IL4615 1.5 Meter i.LINK 4-Pin to 6-Pin Digital Video Transfer Cable for most Sony Camcorde

Excellent method for transfering your videos to your computer for editing and making CD's. The i.Link cable is easy to use. Make sure you order the right cable. I ordered the wrong cable a 4 pin to 4 pin which I believe only works if you have a Sony computer. Most other computers like my Dell will probally need the 6 pin to 4 pin cable.

Also make sure your computer has the capability before ordering. i.LINK is also known as Firewire and IEEE-1394.

It does provide excellent high speed quality video transfers.

This is a must have cable if you're going to transfer your videos to your computer. Sony does not supply the cable with its HD camcorders. If you edit your videos and/or make DVDs, you will need this cable.

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As a Mac user, I can just say that this cable is essential for anyone who wants to utilize the syncing features of iMovie with a Sony Handycam. The USB connector that came packed with my HC40 was completely useless when trying to connect to iMovie.

This is essentially the reason I can't give it a higher rating than three stars. It was definitely frustrating to find that after investing in such a decent personal-use camera, that Sony expected me to buy still more of their stuff to make it even connect with my computer. If I had to purchase it at the ridiculous Sony retail price, "frustrating" would've been too mild a descriptor, but Amazon's discount helped soften the insult.

Beyond that, I can't say a whole heckuva lot about it it's a cable, after all. Ha!

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Works as described. I am just so annoyed that Sony would lure me into buying their video camera for a competitive price without including this cable, making the overall cost of the camera no longer competitive. It's smart for Sony to conduct business this way, but only in order to earn profit in the short term. You can bet I won't be suckered in to buying any more Sony products in the future, now knowing that this is how they run their business.

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I was shocked at how expensive this is so I searched other sites for one. I found a 4-pin to 6-pin firewire at CompUSA's website for $3.99 TOTAL (free shipping!) This Sony cable works great, but I can't tell the difference between it and my cheap one...thus the one star.

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Q-See QC8016-1 Completely Digital 16 Channel Network Video Recorder with POE Solution and Pre-insta

Excellent product for the price. I've been installing closed circuit video for over 20 years now. The recording on this NVR is three time greater than Analog. Its very simple to setup. The problems that I have is only 4 POE ports built into the unit and that the front panel has no functions what so ever. Forget that grainy analog cctv and step up and get great picture quality with this NVR. The product is sold and backed by Amazon so you cant go wrong

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Wearable Camcorder Camera

I purchased this product about 2 years ago in anticipation of arrival of my daughter. In the interim, I used this for a few other things, and its an excellent concept.

If you dont know about it, when its on, its constantly recording and when you press "record" it stores a 30 second video clip of the PRIOR 30 seconds onto your SD card. Its only when you press the record button does it store what it records.

This is great for sporting events. I used it for my older daughters baseball games, as well as her soccer. I used it while in a bowling tournament too. Get a great spare? Hit the button. You dont waste time recording what you dont want, and only record what you do.

The quality of videos are great outside. Inside, you need adequate lighting. Bright homes or lights work well. Outside works best. The audio is good also, and I keep yelling (cheering) which gets picked up loudly on the movie clip) The recording unit clips onto a belt or pocket, and the camera I use with a pair of sunglasses. Run the wire behind you, over your ear and along the eyeglass frame. They include little rubber rings to keep the wire in place and metal clips to hold the camera in place either on the glasses or hat.

Comes with power cables to charge (though doesnt include a car charger adapter) and audio/ video cables to playback on a tv if you cant download to a PC. Buy a SD Disk to get the most recording time out of it. I would say it has about 2 hours of record / standby time. Bring the charger if you are going to be out for a long time, and if you have a car inverter (12 v to 120 v) that helps, so you can recharge on the road.

Downside is the 2 hour record / standby, limited disk space on the disk they provide, no car adapter.

This is great for close up sports, kids and events that you are a part of or close to, and for the $150 price, a bargain. If you have any type of DVD buring software, you can then burn the clips to a DVD showing the highlights goals, hits, homeruns, a first step, or anything else you wished you had recorded. The hands free approach works well and doesnt make your arm tired too!

Panasonic RR-QR170 Digital Voice Recorder

The RR-QR170 Digital Voice Recorder works superbly well, for those people that want to make the transition from traditional tape recorders. Furthermore, it is very small and portable for the "on the go" person, without the hassles of having to carry around a tape recorder with several tapes. The menu is very user friendlyin other words you can just start using it without really reading the manual.

Galaxy CM130 Sound Level Meter

• Frequency weighting: A,C
• Time weighting: Fast, Slow
• Dynamic Range: 30 dB
• Frequency Range: 125Hz to 8KHz
• Battery Life: 9V Battery 110 hours (included)

This device performs very well for the price range that it is in.

All of the fuctions will meet most requirements for basic sound mesurement.

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Helped me set up both my home theater and my car audio system.

Pro'sDoes the job as promised

Easy to use

-Buttons layed out well

Cons -Could be a bit more soild(thicker plastic?)

-Charging me extra for a case?(kind stupid at least give me a vinyl case)

Read Best Reviews of Galaxy CM130 Sound Level Meter Here

Bought this because my son practices his bass in the house. Works well. Nice digital display with large numbers. Battery life is very good. Been very pleased with it. If you have need for a simple, easy-to-read sound level meter, this one would be an excellent choice.

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This works just fine for what I used it with, tuning home theater. It is a bit pricy buy shipped acceptably quick and works just fine.

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Do people tell you that you are speaking too loudly?

Here is a moderately-priced device to help you monitor your outgoing volume.

I do not have a hearing loss but have been told by family members that I was

too loud. This device helps determine "the truth" and helps give you feedback

to bring your volume into mutually-acceptable levels.

You can also protect your hearing by determining if sounds are too high and

put in ear plugs to protect your hearing.

Protect your ears. Some hearing aids can cost $7,000. This device can help

prevent or forestall a hearing aid.

Sanyo Xacti CG6 6MP MPEG-4 Flash Memory Digital Camcorder (Blue)

The clip shown here was shot with my new Xacti CG6 camcorder, it was cut down to 320 x 240 (from native 640 x 480) and converted to .wmv format to make it viewable to most. It retains most of the quality from the original .mp4 clip. This is my nephew Jason and his beloved dog Daisey on Christmas Day 2007. This clip was shot with all automatic settings and zoomed in about 3X 4X.

I was really intrigued by the Flip Ultra video camera. Compact form factor, no more tapes, extremely easy to use and directly connect the camcorder to your PC via onboard USB connector.

Problem was that the features on the Flip Ultra were limited, or should I say non-existent. I wanted to look for a similar camera with just a few more features, without losing the simplicity and ease of use.

Then I came across the Xacti line of camcorders from Sanyo, read a review of the C6 from Steve's Digicams and I was hooked on trying one of these little guys. Then I found the CG6 at Walmart just before Christmas 2007 for $100 less than Amazon's standard price. I bought one for myself, 2 for Christmas gifts for my nephews, one as a Christmas bonus for our babysitter and talked a friend into getting one for himself for Christmas.

Everyone who received this camera loves it! The video is very good and the still shots are excellent. The more I play with this camera, the more I find it can do. If the automatic settings don't give you perfect results, play around and you will eventually find the perfect setting for each type of video or still shot.

I don't know why more people aren't raving about this camera, for the money it may be the best choice in the Xacti line. It is so small you can take it anywhere. Having your camcorder with you most of the time increases the probability that you will capture that perfect shot or video.

One of the best features compared to standard tape based DV cameras is the ease of file transfer. With a standard tape based DV camcorder, you have to capture video in real-time via a firewire connection, then edit the footage and recompress for your desired output. With the CG6, simply remove your SD card from the camcorder, insert it in a card reader attached to your PC, transfer the file to your PC in minutes, then start editing in your favorite editor. (.mp4 is not directly supported by Windows Movie Maker, but Vegas, Ulead and other editors support it)

Stills I have printed from this camera are incredible, as good as photos from my Canon digicams. Check out your local Walmart, if instock it will be at a bargain price!

I purchased this model for use on my field trips and interviews in the Amazon Rainforest and the Philippines. It fits in your pocket, and with the removeable SD cards you can have as much storage as you want. It does what it says on the box. It also takes reasonable quality still shots. All in all it's compact size makes it a winner in my book (which is the reason I bought it). The only gripe is that the battery only lasts an hour (about 1GB of 'footage') before needing a re-charge, however I bought some spare batteries which are not expensive.

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This is a great camera for its size. I wanted it to take on vacations, and already have an SLR camera to lug around, so I needed something really small. Because of its size, it's a bit of a challenge to keep it still while filming. It has image stabilization, so that's great. I can't keep it still while holding it with one hand, but after a little practice, I'm doing well with two hands.

After reading reviews on the CG65, which is what I initially wanted but couldn't find, I was worried about lens flare. Some people had said it was bad even when you weren't shooting into the sun, and when it was overcast. I'm happy to report that, at least on my camera, it's only a problem when shooting toward the sun. And that would be expected. I did have an issue shooting inside once, when there was a light behind my nephew... there was a little blue spot right in the middle of the screen when the light was showing, but then when his body was blocking the light, it changed to a blue line that ran the height of the screen. Strange. But we turned that light off, and then everything was fine.

The auto controls such as white balance and film speed do not work well at all. If you shoot in a dimly lit room with auto film speed, it'll go to a higher film speed which gives you more graininess, but doesn't really look any brighter. I found that setting it on 100 film speed permanently gives you the same brightness, but no graininess. Also, the auto white balance inside a room will look really yellow, but when I set it on incandecent, it looks fine. Just have to remember to change it when you go outside, or it will look blue.

This thing takes great still photos. You can also take photos while you are filming, but it stops the filming for a second, so you'll see a pause in your video.

The battery life is my main complaint. I have filled my 2 GB card only 2/3 full, and already gone through two battery lives. You'll need a spare battery for this one.

You can't play these videos with Windows Media Player. I downloaded a free player called VLC Media Player that works great.

Read Best Reviews of Sanyo Xacti CG6 6MP MPEG-4 Flash Memory Digital Camcorder (Blue) Here

This is a nice video camera for the price. The video and picture quality is as good as any standard camcorders, so don't be fooled by the size or shape of this. This is a fully functional video camera. It takes high resolution still images as well.

The only 2 downsides: MPEG-4 isn't compatible with Windows MovieMaker. It seems compatible with other video software (Sony Vegas, Adobe, etc...), but I was disappointed that the video won't play in Windows Media player or movie maker without converting. I am sure this will change at some point though once MS catches up.

I have a bit of trouble with the camera feature (still image), doesn't seem to want to take right away, etc...but I think that is just a lack figuring it out.

Overall, I'd recommend this camera, especially for the price.

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I bought this camera beause i was looking for something cute and small.

This is definatly Cute, and small.. but it takes grainy videos, which i suppose is expected of a compact camera.

It's not much bigger then a cellphone, and it has quite a few nice features and an INCREDIBLE zoom. My battery lasts for abotu 1 hour to 1 1/2 hours.

Great buy, but if your looking for crystal clear quality you wont find that here.