Victoria GDI-TW3USB 7-in-One Stereo Entertainment Center, Paprika

Being a babyboomer, I came along during the fabulous music of the 50s and 60s. I have a large collection of records and cassettes, but I was running out of ways to play them with the change in technology. With the Grace Digital Audio Tunewriter I can now play the records and cassettes and even cds. As an added bonus, I can copy both records and cassettes to cds and take fresh copies of my music with me in cd format. I love this machine! It took a while to figure out how to copy and convert to cd, but now it's a snap.

We bought this product for my mother for Christmas 2009. She was wanting something that would play her old 78 records, and also record it onto cassette tapes. I have no idea WHY she wanted them on cassette, since let's face it who even listens to cassettes anymore? I mean, SHE doesn't even have a cassette player in her car these days. I was doing some research on this product, and found that it would plug via USB into a computer and convert your vinyl to digital, and I was absolutely thrilled.

We got this for her, and it works just as advertised. We have converted several of her 78s and 35s onto CDs, and also many cassettes. The program is easy to understand, and burns a disc fairly quickly.

The only reason I did not give it 5 stars is that the cassette player door does not close tightly enough. Perhaps this is a malfunction on just our player, and would never happan again on another machine, but to get the cassette to play, sometimes we have to press in on the cassette player door and then push the Play button.

All-in-all, a very good product, and worth the money.

Buy Victoria GDI-TW3USB 7-in-One Stereo Entertainment Center, Paprika Now

I was looking for months for a product that would easily record my vinyl records and cassettes to a CD-R. Then I came across the VICTORIA TUNEWRITER III at a local store. Decided to buy it without hearing any product reviews, but since the store had a good return policy I decided to try it. I am completely happy and have had no problems so far and it works better than I had imagined. I haven't used all the settings and features on the Audacity software but it works great at recording records and cassettes into WAV or MP3 files and exporting them to itunes or my garage band program on my iMac computer. I am also happy with the look of this item. The speakers are fair sounding but I can get better sound by connecting it into my stereo. I choose to play the recorded media through iTunes and the burned CD-R's in my home sound system. The one complaint is that the door that opens and holds the cassette can be tricky at times getting the cassette in to close the door properly, but this is very minor and I have no problems if i take my time doing it. Overall a great buy at under $200.00. I also like that it has an AM/FM RADIO and CD player in addition to the record and cassette playing capabilities. The Teac model similar to this one might also be a good option, but I think this does all that I could ask for with great quality. I found this item easy to use and the directions simple to understand. This product makes recording fun and hassle free.

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We have had the Victoria unit for about a week now, and have found it satisfactory in all respects. We have begun to record our old vinyl records on CDs. The process is relatively straight forward, but be sure to read all the instructions thoroughly. They are very complete. You hook up the provided USB cord to your computer, then use the provided software to record. It is really simple. One thing, however, about the gain level of the recording. You need to go to the computer's control panel to be sure the recording gain is correct. When the instructions say 3-6, they mean it, but if you have Skype or another program that uses a microphone, it may be set on 69, as ours was. The instructions on how to change the setting are step by step and very clear, if you take the time to follow them carefully. Don't know how long the needle lasts, or how to buy a replacement, but am going to email customer service to find out. The sound is good, and the versatility great. Note: when they tell you to let the tone arm on the record player automatically return at the end of the record, PAY ATTENTION TO THIS as there is a note in the manual that if you hinder it you can damage the unit. Everything is working great, so far, so I think this unit with the software that comes with it, great for the price.. Cabinet style is very nice also.

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We were very excited about getting a media player that would allow us to play and convert old records and tapes. We shouldn't have expected too much, considering the low price, but this device was a major disappointment. If you are at all discriminatory about sound quality, you don't want to buy this equipment. Everything about it is cheap. I hooked up external speakers and a sub woofer to the unit and cranked up the bass all the way, but the bass was still practically non-existent. Personally, I'd rather not hear old records when the sound is this bad. The beauty of analog is in the richness of the sound. When it comes to the sound, this product does as much to distract as it does to bring back memories.

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CIB K808AV H.264 8 CH Network Security Surveillance DVR Recording System (No Hard disk driver inclu

This is sold in the USA and video here is NTSC, but the unit is set to PAL. The first line in the instructions say to hook it up to your video monitor with the RCA to BNC connector. This WILL NOT work. I had to hook it up to a VGA monitor and then change the units output from PAL to NTSC to make the video work. For a user without this option, they would be dead in the water.

Other than that, I have it mostly set up without even opening the manual. I do 100% overlap recording, so that is fairly easy to figure out.

I replaced a bad 4 channel CIB unit that failed after 18 months. The hard drive controller is bad, and I couldn't get tech support to give me a price on the part after several phone calls.

Not recommended for those whom looking for reliable recording DVR, the DVR stops recording for several seconds per channel when it setup on alarm recording. I contacted the Customer support. They response saying they would get back to assist me, over three weeks ago no response from this company.

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1. No continuous replay, have to click hour by hours

2. Noisy exhaust fan, and now it does not even run after 2 and a half month of use.

Rule of thumb for a DVRallow continuous replay

I can't ask for more, since this only cost 139$ without a hard drive..

I did expect cheap quality, but not this poor!

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I just purchased it a few months ago. It is set up almost identical to the Swann system and even does some of the same crap. My Swann did not record consistently and Cib is no better. When I do a search it seems to be loosing video over and over. What good does it do to record if it cant keep the recording in order, have a time stamp on it so you can see exactly where you are as you search, and now its not picking up any of my 5 cameras. I also could not get it to switch from one camera to the other based on motion. I was expecting it to be able to do that. It just records all screens the whole time and a little m pops up on the screen. I can be watching someone walk past the camera and the screen goes blank. When I do a search and fast forward or rewind, it freezes or goes blank. The glitches are not something worth dealing with for me. It's not

reliable. Without a time stamp it won't hold up in court and when searching, you can't tell where you are at so you can't mark the time of the occurrence. My only hope is to find a software update on it, I guess. I recommend not buying this unless you have a way of not using the software.

UPDATE: somehow it is back to showing the cameras again, not sure why, so i upped the stars to 3. I still have the other issues to deal with.

UPDATE NUMBER 2: Now I'm getting a time stamp when I do a search after it did it's last reboot. Thank you techs for fixing that issue. It was a big one for me. I have not tried to reset the motion so I don't know if it has been fixed but if it has, I will definitely give it a higher rating. There was an option it does not have in playback that would be really nice. Continuous rewind or playback, and a faster playback time than 8x. It does blackout when I play it back in faster rewings so that would need to be fixed also. Thanks.

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DVR will not control High end PTZ cameras. No coaxitron control. Software has many glitches. While reviewing video, hitting play from fast forward will exit the playback function so you have to search and start all over again. gets pretty annoying when you have to review 20 times before you can get to the point of the video you want to see. if its even there. dvr randomly stops recording channels for seconds or minutes at a time periodically. Not good when you are looking for something and the screen blacks out during the time frame you need to see. Works great as a live view/ multiplexer. DVR functions not so good.

Roku XD 1080p Streaming Player

• Start watching movies on your TV in seconds using your high-speed Internet connection
• Featuring the largest collection of instant streaming movies and TV shows, from Netflix, Amazon VOD, and more
• Built-in wireless (extended-range Wireless-N) and wired Internet connectivity.
• Plays up to 1080p High Definition video. Works with any TV.
• Simply connect to your TV and to your high-speed Internet service. Does not require PC for streaming.

We were a longtime Dish Network customer paying $80 a month for video service. While we had no complaints about Dish, we decided this past summer to take the plunge into internet video to see if we could save some dollars. My family was shocked the day I unplugged all of the Dish receivers and sent them back to Dish Network. "What are we going to watch?" "What about my favorite shows?"

As a 3 HDTV family and not knowing the best hardware option to use, we decided to try a selection of devices. For our main living room TV, we purchased a Roku device. For the den, we used our Wii and for the master bedroom a Sony Blu Ray Internet DVD player.

For content, we have moved our NetFlix usage from DVDs in the mail to internet streaming. We also installed playon.tv on our PC for access to Hulu (primarily), CBS (Survivor and Amazing Race) and Comedy Channel. Both NetFlix and Playon streaming to all of the devices we use work fine. This includes the Roku via playon, despite reports that Roku pulled the plug on playon (continues to work fine to this day).

We also purchased Comcast Basic (Limited) Cable ($14) for local news and sports. This is the plan that just uses the cable, no digital cable boxes required, allowing us to wire cable to all of our TV's. What Comcast will not tell you is with HDTV's we get full HD channels for ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS, CBS, etc. without having to purchase a digital plan or rent their digital boxes.

Comparing the Roku, Wii and Sony Internet DVD devices, we like the Roku the best of the three. In fact, we just installed a second Roku, moving the Wii back to a game system. The reason was primarily ease of use. Some of the reasons include the following:

Roku Remote is the simplest to use than the Wii and Sony remotes with fewer and easier to understand buttons

Roku provides access to NetFlix suggested titles and search. This is also available for the Wii but not the Sony Internet DVD player

The Roku seems to do a better job at buffering the streaming content resulting in less video interuptions

In conclusion, we have a better video experience today than when we were paying $80 for Dish. Netflix gives us access to movies and past seasons of TV shows. Playon with Hulu gives us DVR access to all of the latest TV shows, we love the Hulu favorites Queue and the emails letting us know the latest episodes are in the queue.

Outside of our internet connection (need 2MBPS or more) which we already had in place, our total internet video monthly fees are $12.95 for NetFlix and $14 for Basic (Limited) Comcast Cable. A great savings with a better video experience.

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I recently bought the new Apple TV, but was curious how the Roku XD compared. After all, while I like the Apple TV, it's tied to the Apple ecosystem, for better or worse. Meanwhile the Roku offered a broader feature set, but not as much of an established brand as Apple.

Luckily, I was able to satisfy my curiosity by getting a Roku XD, and I thought my experiences and opinions might be useful for those shopping for such internet-streaming set top boxes.

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Quality/Content

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My first and biggest question was, "How does the quality compare?". 1080p capability is one of Roku's biggest selling points against Apple, because the Apple TV "only" streams 720p. What I found was that it was a mixed bag. Roku has the capability to stream 1080p, but something surprising is that a huge portion of available content isn't HD to start with and doesn't take full advantage of Roku's hardware. Some content you can stream from Amazon and Netflix looks little better than VHS quality, while some looked somewhere between DVD and HD broadcast quality.

The vast majority of Netflix, for example, is SD content including most bigger-name movies that make their way to the library. Thus, the HD capability of Roku is MOST noticeable in Amazon Video On-Demand's vast library of HD TV shows and movies.

Amazon Video On-Demand offers everything you could find through Apple TV's store and then some, but it has a superior pricing model. You can PURCHASE TV shows for .99c vs. .99c rentals on Apple TV, and you may save a buck or two renting older movies, especially if they're SD.

A drawback (maybe an advantage to some) to the Amazon's On-Demand store is its availability of soft-core porn, so parents be ready to tweak parental controls a little more than you'd have to with Apple TV, which limits its offerings to R-rated major studio movies.

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Flexibility

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The biggest selling point of the Roku in my opinion is the flexibility already established with its "channels" store, which is basically like an app store for your Roku. The big-three apps are "Amazon Video On-Demand", "Netflix" and "Hulu+ (coming soon)", but you can also choose channels from "Pandora" (if you like listening to music on your TV), or "UFC" (though the UFC channel is a bit of disappointment since they want to charge you $45 a pop to view past UFC events!).

Apple TV doesn't currently have an app store, though one is probably coming, and it will soon pick up the ability to stream a variety of content from an iOS device via something called "AirPlay", but Roku is clearly a bit more flexible at this point.

That said, a big feature I like about Apple TV that isn't available in Roku is the ability to view iTunes content. I like being able to watch movies on my TV then take them with me on my iPhone for my kids to watch on car trips or plane rides, and Apple has a better, more integrated ecosystem to support such capability.

I also like watching YouTube, which I can do on my Apple TV, but not straightforwardly on the Roku as far as I can tell (EDIT: apparently there's a secret beta YouTube channel if you Google for it, but it's not highlighted in the channel store).

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User Experience/Interface

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I think the biggest disadvantage of Roku vs. Apple TV is in its user experience. The Roku is slightly more complicated to set up (for instance, you need to find the TV settings menu then designate that you have a 1080p TV before you can watch HD content), and the user interfaces for many features, while good, just don't match the smooth feel and responsiveness of the Apple TV. With Roku, you tend to get longish, frequent load animations when navigating between channels. Plus Roku's content suggestion features don't work quite as well as Apple TV, and with Roku you don't have an "Apple Remote"-quality iPhone app to let you control the device.

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Conclusion

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While Roku markets its device as higher quality than devices like the Apple TV because of "1080p", limited content and bitrate minimize any noticeable advantage. The fact is that if you REALLY care about quality, you get a Blu Ray player, not a media streamer from any manufacturer. Nevertheless, the Roku is at least as good, if not better than competing streaming devices if you're viewing the right content.

It lacks a few of the iTunes-specific features of Apple TV, and the user experience isn't quite as good, but if you don't care about those things, the Roku is more flexible, cheaper both in purchase price and content prices, and offers more content than the Apple TV.

Overall, the Roku XD is an EXCELLENT device that's priced to move! For $80, why not try it?

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One can make a good case that with Roku you really don't need cable or satellite TV. With a $10 monthly subscription to Netflix you can get more movies than you have time for over the internet at the time that you want to see them. I doubt that one movie that TCM shows is not available this way.

You can listen to almost any radio station in the country free, meeting your needs if you like any particular kind of music or listen to talk radio, sports, etc.

You can watch Youtube clips on your big TV as well and can send the sound to your stereo system, home theater nowadays.

There are lots of other specialized sites, both free and by subscription, that are available. I like Pub-D-Hub which has movies in the public domain for free, many are poor but others can be quite good, I had never seen a picture with legendary Lillian Gish before.

Roku is a winner.

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I've owned my Roku for 10 months. I'm sorry that that one person had a bad experience. I, myself, have had great experience with their customer service. Wow, last month, when my wifi went out on my old player, the guy trouble shooted it (even though I had told him that I had already done every trouble shoot 19 times), and then he gave me the needed number to write down on the return label and mailed me a box to send it back to them for free. I didn't have to collect a bunch of paperwork and (receipts and stuff) like most other companies require for a full refund. Just the player and the remote! My brand new Roku arrived within the week.

I have never regretted buying this player. Now it's even $40.00 less than I originally paid for it. It's a fricken steal if you ask me. Not only do you get your movies mailed to you from Netflix, but you get to watch, from the comfort of any room you decide to put the thing in, all the tv shows and kids shows and movies and free music and OMG the list goes on and on. Ren and Stimpy, 30 Rock, Lie to Me, Spongebob, on and on and on. The kids love it. When I'm bored at night, I get a huge list of choices to entertain me and I really couldn't live without this cute little tiny machine. I HIGHLY recommend!!

I'm a spartan tightwad, so for me to say that something is worth the money is high praise indeed. Roku isn't perfect, but it's a great idea and well executed.

We have been cable/satellite free for over five years (before we bought our house, our apartment included free cable). I have never paid for premium TV, I just can't imagine doing it. When our tube TV died a few years ago, we tried to get it fixed, but they no longer make the part. So we started watching shows online. After the digital conversion last year, our remaining tiny tube TV became just a DVD watching monitor.

Well, the holiday season of 2010 offered such spectacular deals on TVs that it turned even me, and we bought a 42" plasma for $350 because it's only 720p/60hz. As I planned on hooking up a home theatre PC (much of streaming is still standard def), I'll accept the slightly out of date technology for that great of a price.

I looked at the Boxee Box, a Dell Zino, and laughed hysterically at the price of Google TV and internet enabled televisions and Blu Ray players. But the Roku, starting at $60... that price held my attention.

I bought the mid level Roku for the price of the low end one, $60+ shipping, on their Black Friday sale. Shipping was fastit was here on Monday.

Set up is pretty simple, but you do need a computer or at least a smartphone to input the codes. Choosing the channels and inputting the codes takes ten times as long as actual hardware setup, but you can do this over time, you don't have to do it right away unless you are like me and very Type A.

The Bad: there is still lots of content out there, for free, that Roku can't access. You'll either have to pony up the dough on Amazon's video on demand, wait for the DVD from Netflix, or plug your laptop into your computer with an HDMI cable. This is true even if you have Hulu+. For example, "Medium" moved to CBS. CBS, because they are a network run by and for old people, doesn't participate in Hulu. I can't watch Medium on my TV unless I pay for it from AVOD. Bummer, when I could watch for free on CBS.com. Same thing with Disneyif you have Disney Magic Codes, you can watch movies (as much as you want, whenever you want) online. But not on a TV, at least not through the Roku. Mr. HDMI cable has to come out, or Disney is confined to the computer screen.

I don't need or want Roku to have a full browser, but if it did this problem would be solved. The business model behind Hulu+ would also collapse, though, so I'm not sure what the solution is.

We are not a family of sports fans, so we don't subscribe to MLB or NHL pay channels, but we do have Netflix and Hulu+ for a grand total of $16/mo. There are tons of good, free Roku channels, especially if you bother to look for the "Private" channels, which include YouTube and HGTV.

What is very, very good about the Roku is the price and ease of use. I would have spent an absolute minimum of $250 on a little nettop to use as an HTPC, plus more for a wireless keyboard, and it would have been a PITA to use. You'd have to open a browser and search. If I lived alone, this would not be a big deal, but we have three kids, and if I lived alone, I probably would get along with just a laptop. The primary reason we got a TV was to cuddle on the couch and watch movies. My littles would make mincemeat out of a a keyboard-as-remote. On the other hand, while you can search pretty easily with Roku remote, you don't HAVE to. You can browse. The remote and interface is so dead simple my four year old learned how to use it in about 15 minutes, despite the fact that we've never used a TV remote in this house until about a week ago. My dad could use this, hell, my husband's grandma could use it. It's that straightforward.

Also, Kidlet is AMAZING. It's a kids' TV network that contains three channels and tons of cartoons. There are no commercials whatsoever, which are my main objection to childrens' TV. (Yeah, we get PBS OTA, too.) We discovered "Redwall" through Kidlet on Roku, something that Netflix doesn't even have, and is fantasticwe have the books on hold now at the library.

This is the way TVs and movies are meant to be watchedwhen you want, no discs to scratch, no mindless channel surfing, no/few commercials, no schedule to keep, with a picture that far outstrips everything but DVD. Roku is the future.

SanDisk Sansa e270 6 GB MP3 Player with SD Expansion Slot (Black)

• Sleek, ultra-thin digital audio/image/video player with 6 GB of flash memory
• Compatible with MP3, WMA, and WMA-DRM10 music files (PlaysForSure)
• FM tuner with record capability and voice recorder; bright 1.8-inch color TFT LCD
• Convert most popular video formats (MPEG-4, WMV, DivX) to play on device
• User-replaceable rechargeable lithium-ion battery for up to 20 hours of life

June 15 2006 Unlike some of the reviewers, I couldn't care less about music "services" be they iTunes, Rhapsody, etc.

Why pay 0.99 to anyone for DRM crippled tracks?

The artist doesn't benefit.

I listen to CDs I have bought and ripped.

For that purpose, this unit works beautifully with *any* OS including Mac X, WinXP, even Linux.

The e270 can act like a flash/keychain drive:

just go into the Settings menu and change the USB mode.

The e270 also shows the album art (folder.jpg) while playing tracks.

The e200 series has a beautiful display, better than the Nano.

I wouldn't whine about the design being imitative:

the Nano has better quality buttons/wheel,

the e270's controls are comparatively flimsy-feeling and are harder for large fingers to operate.

Besides, didn't Apple copy from *Creative's* mp3 players in the first place?

The courts are reviewing that question now.

THE ISSUE.

My only issue is that the USB cable is proprietary, mandatory, and irreplaceable.

And, Sandisk is currently unable to provide a replacement if you lose it.

Without the special Sandisk USB cable, you can't even recharge the on-board Lithium battery,

and also there's no wall wart for AC power available either.

By contrast, my previous Sandisk e140 player (a 1GB model) uses an AAA battery

--and the same USB cable most digital cameras use.

Batteryand connection-wise the e140 is a better solution,

but the drawback is a dim monocolor display.

If you have good eyesight, the e140 is a great economy player;

but the e270 is the ultimate luxury toy.

Everyone who sees my e270 is smitten.

UPDATE July 6th -

Sandisk says it is _now_ able to ship me a replacement

"e270 to USB" cable, so give them credit for that.

Also, according to internet rumor, Griffin makes an e270-compatible wall-wart (AC Power) solution.

Finally, no solution is available yet to the "cannot play-tracks-in-album-order" issue,

a problem I failed to mention above.

This might drive you seriously insane when you play Mozart or Beethoven on the thing when the IV movement isn't played fourth.

Or, when an mp3 audio book can't be played

in chapter order!

We're waiting every day for the firmware update from Sandisk that fixes this track ordering bug.

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I was hesitating on buying the iPod Nano because I'm the guy who usually bought something and the next week something newer and better came out. I think this time I finally got it right. The e270 is sexy. I've seen the Creative Zens get cosmetic scratches within minutes of pulling it out of the box, this tiny e270 looks great, appears durable, and I'm confident it will survive my abuse. Dragging and dropping music is a cinch, the iPod and Zen software my friends use took some getting used to...and the out of the box conversion software to put videos and graphics on this baby is just too easy. The variety of accepted formats wasn't impressive, but it took my mp3s and wmas with no problem. It converted my jpgs with no issue. There were 5 out of 40 music mpegs had an error during conversion. And a movie in .avi format was broken down into 12 .mov files. I took this with a grain of salt and assume future firmware improvements might fix this. The menu works better for me and I prefer the e270's dial over other mp3 players. Improvements I would like to see would be the ability to put the videos in subfolders without disappearing from the menu, a different style headphones, a freebie screen protector and some way to wear it other than the supplied carry pouch or lanyard. I'm still trying to pick up an FM station, can't determine if the weakness lies with the built in antenna or the AFN stations in Iraq. The flash memory was the basis for this buy, the drive players were too bulky and sensitive to my treatment. The added feature of a micro SD slot is probably excessive, but not unwelcome. I am VERY happy with this purchase. Now how about making some accessories for this thing!?

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My e270 has been a mixture of the enjoyable and the frustrating...with a few changes this little gadget could be simply outstanding. Instead, the Sansa e200 series falls short of what it should be, but remains a good value for those with the technical savvy and patience to put up with it.

For crying out loud, SanDisk, when are you going to support folders, or creating play lists on the fly? The e200 will organize your music for you, IF your tags are in order. You can create a "go list" list on the fly, but that's it. Your music (MP3, WMA or WAV only) can be browsed by artist, song title, album, genre and a "go list". There is another category, "my top rated", but if you rate your songs with the Sansa, it'll freeze... how much simpler life with the Sansa would be if there was support for folders or multiple play list creation.

The list of EQ settings that the player ships with are also limiting...there is a custom EQ with the latest firmware, but it isn't as robust as the EQ choices on my older e140, and some users report that it's buggy. So far, I haven't had that problem. The sound is good, with good earphones. The earphones the e200 comes with have been relegated to under the pillow use by me...the ones I got with the old e140 were much better, and the Koss KSC75 clip-on's better yet.

Video? Yep, but the MOV QuickTime format is as bloated as a beached whale. The bundled media converter will chop your video in to 10 minute chunks with iffy sound and in widescreen format. All this can be changed (except the MOV format) with some file editing, but why should a user have to dig through the anythingbutIpod forums to find this out? What could have been an outstanding feature with MP4 support is merely a novelty.

Voice recording? Yes, in WAV format. You can record FM on the fly, (when is a Sansa player going to have AM support, anyway?) and there are photos with a slideshow function via the media converter.

Left out of the package as of the 01.02.15A firmwareAn alarm function and a sleep timer.

The Sansa is fine with me from a control standpoint. The voice record button is placed where you can hit it by accident, the scroll wheel should be progressive, and the buttons around the wheel are hard to find with my fat fingers, but for something this size it's all livable. Battery life is as advertised, but you are a slave to your USB port unless you buy an aftermarket adapter. Don't lose the cable, its Sansa only.

I enjoy my e270; the six gigs of storage, plus the expansion possible via micro SD are plenty for my use. A lot of the niggling problems I've encountered have been solved with the use of a good MP3 tag editor (MediaMonkey is great for this) and some searching through Sansa forums.

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I have been using the 270 (6 GB version) for about 3 weeks now, and largely agree with the positive comments on this site. Sandisk just released a v. 1.01.11 update for the e200 series, so be sure that you go to the Sandisk website and download the updater (all updates after this version will be installed automatically when you sync).

I thought about getting one of the harddisk based players which offer up to 60 GB of space, but they seem to have high rates of problems and disk crashes -not suprising given the workout these tiny devices are subject to. So I 'settled' for the 6 GB version. That is a huge amount of music, certainly more than I can listen to at a single sitting. I have the equivalent about 68 of my library disks on right now, say, about 40 hours of music PLUS another 20-30 hours of old time radio shows. So a big flash memory drive is the way to go, and 8 gigs would be more than enough for almost anyone. Remember that the e200 series all accept microSD memory chips. Currently the 1GB microSD is going for about $US 55 in local retailers, less online. I expect that a 2 GB chip will be releases shortly at around $US 100. IMHO, only college students that are skipping all of their classes would have the time to fully use more than 8 GB of storage.

The removable battery is a Very Good Thing. All you need is a SMALL phillips electronics type screwdriver to remove the four tiny screws in the back and the battery removes as easily as a cell phone battery. I'm puzzled by the reviewer who complained that he left scratches when he "pried" it open -no prying is necessary -the case back splits easily from the front. Be sure to put the screws in a safe place (I use a little plastic bag), because they can easily get lost. Which leads me to the next point:

The firmware is improving, but is not all the way there. One of the annoying problems that occasionally reported (and I experienced) is a hard crash and lockup -this happened to me -and the solution is fairly easy, just pull the battery and replace it after 10 seconds (not something you can do on an iPod). I am guessing it's some kind of operating system programming issue that can be easily fixed in a future update. If and when that happens, I'd give the e200 series an upgrade to 5 stars.

Note that the Sansa relies on the internal .mp3 file tags for artist/album/track information. This means that if you have music that was converted to .mp3 with bad tags, they'll have to be fixed for things to be identified and ordered correctly. I had that problem as I used early versions of RealPlayer, which apparently didn't write tags into the .mp3 files correctly until recently. It took about an hour to rewrite the bad tags with a tagging program that used the internet music info database to retag, after which things worked fine. As noted in other posts, the Sansa e200's conversion codecs for video yield a fairly a large set of quicktime files a full length video can take up from 1.25 1.5 Gigs of space. Given that the screen resolution is very small, this needs improvement. However, it actually DOES do video and movies, and they are actually watchable with decent sound. It would also be nice if SanDisk would support some other common formats besides .mp3 and .wma.

Given that the e200 series has been out less than a year, it seems likely that all of these issues will be addressed shortly.

The best part is that it's not an iPod, and I'm not yoked to Apple's iTunes service if I want to buy content from a competitor. With the e200 series' ability to use microSD chips, I'm guessing that Sandisk hopes to sell movies and other content on micro SD chips at retail in the future. But it also opens up the possibility of easy transfer of home video as many camcorders can store SD format as well and with an SD reader and a computer it is easy to transfer all kinds of content.

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I'd have preferred to be able to give 4.75 stars rather than 4 or 5. The reason for this is the placement of the RECORD button. I have made more than a couple inadvertant recordings simply as a result of handling the unit. Other than that, I like the fit and feel of the thing. I don't know that the micro-SD slot contributes much to the user -I think it was meant rather to contribute to SanDisk (manufacturers of same, not coincidentally). I like that the unit will "keep track" of your progress through a long track (I like to use my Sansa for listening to audiobooks, the files of which can be quite long and finding one's place manually can be a rank tedium). The screen is quite nicedisproportionately large for so small a unit. Finally: battery life for mine on the first two charges was between 20 and 22 hours. Not bad at all.

Apple iPod 40 GB White M9245LL/A (3rd Generation) OLD MODEL

• 40 GB model holds up to 10,000 songs; supports MP3, AAC, WAV, MP3 VBR, Audible (6), and AIFF formats
• Mac and Windows compatible; FireWire and USB 2.0 interface for fastest digital transfer available
• Included docking station makes charging and synching easy
• More than 8 hour battery life on a 3 hour charge (1-hour fast charge to 80% capacity)
• Features redesigned and backlit navigation; includes dock, wired remote control, earbud headphones, carrying case, and AC adapter

I've owned all three 40GB players available today: Creative Zen, RCA Lyra, Apple iPod. This is the review I wish I had read before I started shopping. It was a originally more comprehensive but I had to trim it to 1000 words.



For the most part, the Creative Zen has the best features of the three, as well as the best price. It sounds like a no brainer except for the fact that these things break like crazy! If you read some of the other reviews on here, you'll see a few people mention that their headphone jack shorted out when they dropped the player....well mine shorted out while the player was sitting on my desk not moving at all. I don't know a single person who bought one of these players and didn't have their headphone jack malfunction! Many reviewers suggest buying an extended warranty because of this problem. I would most definitely agree with them on that one, but personally I don't have the patience to wait a few weeks every time the player decides to stop working. Those warrantees are supposed to be purchased just in case something goes wrong; not because something most likely will! The Lyra from the moment it came out of the box to the moment it stopped working for no apparent reason, four hours later, was on the whole a piece of junk. That said...on to the comparisons.



PRICE: As just about every anti-iPod reviewer mentions, THE IPOD IS MORE EXPENSIVE AND DOES PRETTY MUCH THE SAME THING. The iPod is basically the BMW of mp3 players...the other mp3 player work like, and cost about as much as a Kia. They all do basically the same thing, but the cheaper ones are cheaper for a reason!



SIZE: All three players are smaller than a walkman, so it's kind of silly to even discuss this, but it seems to be a hot topic in the other reviews. From largest to smallest the players are ranked as follows: Lyra, Zen, iPod. The Lyra is the only one of the three which will not fit easily in your pocket. It is the widest /longest /heaviest of the bunch, and personally, I hated the way it felt in my hand. The Zen and the iPod were both a pleasure to hold.



CONTROLS/NAVIGATION: iPod gets first place here simple because it's touch sensitive navigation wheel allows you to get from the first album in your collection to the last in seconds and it stops on a dime anywhere in between. The Zen's controls are very good however it takes longer to scroll through your entire collection and when it really starts moving fast, it continues scrolling after you release the button sometimes skipping past another 50-75 albums! The Lyra had decent navigation, but the buttons had to be pushed more than once before they responded almost half of the time! The Zen and the iPod can be operated easily with one hand.



PLAYLISTS/SONG RATING: The Zen wins here without a doubt. It is the only one of the three where you can create, edit (even while it's playing) and SAVE multiple play lists on the player itself without connecting it to a computer. The iPod allows you to make ONE play list on the fly, which cannot be edited or saved.



The Lyra allows you to tag songs you like or don't like and it makes play lists of each...yes, it makes a playlist of songs that you tell it you DO NOT LIKE...if that doesn't explain what's wrong with this product, nothing will! The iPod allows you to rate songs 1-5 stars on the player, and then make a play list automatically based on those ratings when connected to a computer.



BATTERY: Again, Zen is the winner here. Not only does it offer a battery that lasts 14 hours instead of iPod and Lyra's 8 hour batt. it is also the only player of the three where you can remove and replace the battery when it deteriorates with age as all rechargeables do. It should be noted that the battery times I listed are the official times given by the manufacturers. The Zen actually lasts about 10 hours the other two go between 5 and 6 before needing a charge.



SCREEN: The Zen not only has the biggest screen of the bunch, it also scrolls the album title in the directory screen allowing you to see the whole thing instead of just the first few words.



TRANSFER TO PLAYER: All three units use USB 2.0, the iPod also can be used with Firewire.



TRANSFER FROM PLAYER: The Zen allows you to transfer music freely from your player to any computer loaded with it's software. The iPod does not allow this however third party software that can be purchased and used to pull songs from the iPod. In all honest, the Lyra broke before I could find out if you can pull songs off of it.



SOFTWARE: iTunes is easy to use and offers tons of ways to organize your music. Creative Media Manager takes a lot of getting used to but is decent once you figure it out. Musicmatch, which comes with the Lyra is garbage. It`s slow, difficult to figure out at times, and constantly badgers you to buy the upgrade to its premium version.



EXTRAS: The only one that actually has extra features is the iPod which comes loaded with 4 different games, the ability to read text documents that are stored on the hard drive on the player's screen, a date book, and an address book. The Lyra's ONLY advantage over the other players is the fact that it comes with a complete car kit (charger/tape adapter)....which is pretty nice, but useless when the player turns itself into a paperweight after just a few hours. All three players come with a case....iPod's is the only one which does not give you access to the player's controls when it's in the case.



Hope this helped.

Buy Apple iPod 40 GB White M9245LL/A (3rd Generation) OLD MODEL Now

The iPod is awesome. That's a fact. So let me dwell on some practical advice here:

1. Instead of this item, buy the newer version of the Apple iPod 40gb (manufacturer cat no. M9268LL/A). The new version costs the same (as of October 2004) but has 12 hours of play instead of 8 hours. They look the same with similar description so BE SURE TO LOOK AT THE CAT NO.

2. Most likely you'll need a carrying case. Budget that in. The Apple one is nice but is around $50.

3. If you import a lot of CDs, your desktop or laptop might not have enough space on the hard drive. We're talking 40gb here! A good solution is to buy an additional hard drive. This can also serve as a backup (it's very depressing to import CD after CD and then have your hard drive crash...).

4. A very cost effective way to get an extra hard drive is to shop at your local computer store (e.g. CompUSA), look for the ATA drive that's on sale this week, and then, if you have a laptop, also get the "enclosure" that makes it into an external USB 2.0 drive. I just got a 160gb Seagate drive + the enclosure for around (...). Also great for backup of your music + pictures + hard drive etc.

Read Best Reviews of Apple iPod 40 GB White M9245LL/A (3rd Generation) OLD MODEL Here

Update: It went dead, probably because of a really bad power surge here, and Apple replaced it without questions in 72 hours. Nice work! My original review is appended. ****************************************************************

In what has to be the slickest execution of a new piece of hardware yet, this Apple-linked but PC-compatible product will make all portable music players obsolete in no time flat. I have been following trends in this area for a long time, and my last big MP3 player investment was in a SONICblue Jukebox. Wow, how fast things evolve! That machine, cutting edge 2 years ago, had a 6 gig hard drive and allowed only for rather slow uploading of music through its balky software interface via a USB 1.0. In addition, its organizational abilities were limited.

The iPod is about 1/10 the size of the old Jukebox, absolutely ultra high tech looking, with backlighting that awes and controls that work intuitively, and it uploads easily through a firewire or a USB 2.0 (optional) connection.

Music can be categorized and recalled quickly, with the scroll control making it all simple to access.

Sound quality is awesome, its earbuds light years ahead of anything similar. Capacity is incredible in the 40 gig model, holding 10,000 songs!(the 10 gig unit will hold 2500 songs, 15 gig unit will hold 3,700 songs, the 30 gig unit about twice that number). Battery life (6-8 hours when fully charged) is just fine. The (optional only in the 10 gig model, included with the others) cradle will recharge and synch the unit to your PC, but I bought the optional car charger for longer road trips. I also bought the FM transmitter that attaches neatly to the unit and allows you to play the iPod through your stereo sans wires, though the cassette adapter works better for that purpose.

A word about Apple's customer service: WOW! I ordered my unit on a Sunday, with the additional $19 for custom engraving on its silver back. In an hour I got an email that my order was being processed, and in 6 hours I got an email that it had shipped! The email included a tracking link, and I watched it move from Taiwan across the world in 2 days. I got it on Tuesday evening (!) and it was factory sealed/shrink wrapped and in fine condition. When I opened it (even the packaging is high tech) and took it out of its protective inner wrapper, I was delighted to find the engraving was there and was done just perfectly.

If delivering a great product and offering perfect service is to be lauded, Apple must be given the highest kudos possible.

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The iPod is one of the first Apple products I have ever purchased...before the iPod the only apple product that I had the displeasure of using was QuickTime. However, with the extremely favorable reactions that the iPod recevied from many different magazines I went out to a store and decided to at least give it a shot. I fell in love instantly with its ease of use and look.

So I purchased the 40 GB model. The first thing I noticed about the product was its rather...unique packaging. After finally realzing how to open it and finding the rather small unit I followed the directions located in the iPod manual and connected it up to my PC. Installation was anything but easy. The software automatically overwrote a newer version of MusicMatch jukebox and any time I tried to open MusicMatch it only would crash on me. Thus, I was forced to uninstall Music Match completely download a new version off the internet and install it. Once this was completed I succeeded in getting the iPod connected successfully and working properly. However, using Musicmatch to transfer files to iPod was a horrible experience in general.

Via a tip from a magazine I installed Apple iTunes which is now available for the Pc and found an excellent very fast product which worked with the iPod flawlessly. If not for iTunes exteremly excellent intergration with the iPod it is quite likely I would have returned the unit however iTunes completely changed my opinion of the iPod and made it actually a pleasure to use.

The actual iPod unit itself is very nice. A exteremly stylish exterior and very easy to use controls and designs make it a pleasure to hold and use. Except for the fact that it can get dirty very easily there is almost no trouble at all in transporting it around. I have gone over quite a few bumpy roads and some quick jogging and found there to be absolutely no skipping even after a 10 minute+ exposure to conditions that make my Sony CD player skip like crazy.

The only problem I really experienced in the use of the product was the lack of ability to create and SAVE a playlist directly from the unit. For example you can select and browse through all your songs and make a temporary playlist using the iPod itself. However, in order to save a playlist it is required that you use iTunes or Musicmatch and import it in that fashion. This can be quite annoying when you are like me and like to make many playlists on the fly corresponding to your emotions. However, this is a small problem when looked at regarding the rest of the unit.

One other small qualm I had was that I have quite a few WAV files that are themselves compressed in mpeg layer 2 format within the WAV format. These files do not play properly on the iPod so if you have a lot of these for some reason (I do) be prepared for lots of converting.

The last issue I had with the iPod was that it only contains 1 Dock connector to firewire plug and this plug is required to both dock the iPod to a computer and also to connect the iPod to an AC socket. If another Firewire plug was connected it would be quite nice.

All in all I was pleasently surprised with the iPod in general. The player works quite well. My main tip to other users is to not even bother with the Music Match jukebox and instead download the new Windows version of iTunes available on Apple's website.

My iPod is the single most-used gadget I own BAR NONE! iPods work with both Macs and Windows machines.

Plug your iPod into your computer and almost instantly every song on your computer is sucked onto the iPod for transport anywhere. The iPod has the capacity to hold every song I own (my entire CD collection and it's a big collection)! I now carry EVERY CD I OWN around with me in a gadget that's smaller than a pack of cards. And best of all, it will play them THROUGH MY CAR'S STEREO SYSTEM, THROUGH ANY HOME (or office) STEREO SYSTEM, or, of course, through earbuds while exercising, hiking, etc. All with remarkably high quality. When I play the iPod through my home stereo, I cannot distinguish the reproduction quality from that of the source CD itself hence, I have not touched a CD since I got my iPod (except to load it onto my computer).

The iPod is the kind of product that puts a human face on technological advancement ... and it's smiling!

Sanyo Xacti HD700 7MP MPEG-4 High Definition 720p Camcorder with 5x Optical Zoom (Red)

I feel the same about this product as the previous reviewer.

I was so excited about this camcorder. I had been looking at the other Xacti models and was about to purchase the waterproof Xacti when I found out that this HD version was coming out in a few days. I ordered it immediately.

When it arrived I was very impressed with the size and feel. It is so small and compact, yet is very easy to hold and operate. Much easier than my large sony camcorder. It is a beautiful piece of technology. The screen is large and easy to view, the controls and buttons are well placed, and the overall build seems to be of high quality.

The first thing I did not like about the camcorder was how narrow the field of view was. Even when at the widest angle, most zoomed back position I felt very "zoomed-in" on the subject. I found myself having to walk farther and farther back to get all of the action in the video. This was frustrating, but I would forgive this issue if the images looked good.

I took several videos and still photos in various conditions inside, outside, bright, dark, etc. and then looked at the results. I was very disappointed in the quality of the videos. The stills were passable (although not nearly as good as from my Canon G9), but the videos were grainy, often out of focus, and overall of poor quality. For this price I expected more, especially of an HD camcorder.

I am returning the Xaxti today, and will either purchase a different, less expensive Xacti or will simply use the video capture of my Canon G9. If you purchase this, I highly suggest you do some tests in the first few days and save all of the packaging materials just in case!

I decided to give the camera 2 stars due to the amazing size, beautiful design and ergonomics.

On a side note, why is it that people find positive reviews so much more helpful than negative reviews? This is a trend I have seen throughout Amazon.com. It seems like people only want to read good things about items they are interested in, but I think it's much more important to hear from people who did not like the item especially if they did a thorough test of the product and seem knowledgeable. Any ideas about this?

Prior reviewers had mentioned the field of view being too narrow, but I bought the HD700 anyway, thinking that the reviews were subjective and my mileage may vary.

I was optimistic that maybe the HD700 had been slammed by videophiles, and that it would be more than good enough for my needs, which largely involve taking family videos.

Out of the box, I recorded a few videos of my three year old bouncing around on the sofa. With the light of 3 sixty-watt bulbs 10 feet above the sofa, the video was grainy. I tried both the SHQ and the HQ modes for 720p, both were grainy. I tried the same modes with image stabilization turned off, both SHQ and HQ were just as grainy. Biggest thing I noticed was how far away from the sofa I had to stand in order to capture the entire sofa (which shouldn't be too hard, since this is a 16:9 widescreen camcorder, right)?

Next, I did a little experiment. I set the HD700 up on a tripod a large distance from a wall, and measured the size of the camera's field of view at widest zoom. To do this, I stuck removeable labels on the wall, staking out the corners of the camera's image, and marked a center dot. The camera and center dot (on the wall) were the same height above the floor. The camera lens was 152 inches from the wall; at this distance, the rectangular field of view was 67.5 inches high and 119.5 inches wide. Trig-savvy readers can verify that the field of view is 25 by 43 degrees, with a solid angle of 1075 square degrees (0.327 steradians). A theoretically perfect fish-eye lens would view a full hemisphere, or 6.28 steradians. We do not expect the Xacti HD700 to see like a fish-eye lens, but it does only see 1/19th of a hemisphere. That's pretty narrow.

I believe this would be a great videocamera if you are shooting small things far away from you, and in bright light. For example, birdwatching on a sunny day. But, if you want to shoot something large, like a 40-foot bus, you will need to stand at least 50 feet away! My next phone call is for an RMA number so I can send the HD700 back. Sorry, Sanyo, I wanted it to work, I really did. Maybe I will try the HD1000.

By the way, the HD700's shoe uses a full-size HDMI connector. If you are buying an HDMI cable to watch your HD700 on your HDTV, buy an HDMI cable with normal-sized ends. There is no way to hook up the HDMI cable directly to the camera itself, the HDMI cable is connected via the shoe only.

Buy Sanyo Xacti HD700 7MP MPEG-4 High Definition 720p Camcorder with 5x Optical Zoom (Red) Now

First, a major problem with a lot of reviews is that people with unknown skills buy things with unreasonable expectations and post authoritative sounding reviews. Most don't seem to even look at the manuals, they just try using the equipment at their own intuitive level and then post bad reviews and take advantage of the return policy. I have a good friend that does this.

The people that read the manuals and actually learn to use things and are too busy enjoying them to bother coming back to post. So, we see bad reviews and think that some really cool things are junk.

Personally, I'm no novice. I own three video cameras and a number of digital still cameras that I know and use well, yet I am constantly missing good to even great shots/videos as I don't have a camera with me. I tried, but just got tired of "lugging" them around unless I had a specific purpose in mind. What I wanted was a pocket camera that I'd have with me whether I planned to shoot or not.

I wasn't sure what I wanted so I stared with pocket still cameras that also shot video and, after playing with a few, decided I'd be happier with a pocket video that shot stills. I did a lot of research online looking at web sites with actual still and video samples. Saw some very nice stuff from a Sanyo CG65, CA65 the HD700. The HD700 seemed to suit my needs so I looked at Sanyo's web site and read all the specs, etc. Sanyo seems to have several web site, but one Japan based one, (sanyo-dsc dot com -click on English on the top) has a "Let's shoot more Movies" which shows some things I didn't know the camera could do and even tells you how to do them. Searched some more and found several user reviews of the HD700 with sample videos and stills that convinced me to try the camera so I ordered from Amazon, in brown.

Camera arrived and I immediately loved the feel of it. It slid into my pocket!!! I read the manual while I charged the battery and ran out to play with it in auto mode. Wow! The still pictures were quite sharp, a bit too sharp for me so I set it to Soft which I really like. The video quality was quite nice. I couldn't get over the fact that I could just pull the camera from my pocket and get that kind of quality! I made a print from one of the still pictures and it looked VERY good. Showed it to a friend who has since ordered a HD700 (red) for himself and he wasn't even in the market for a new camera.

I went out the next day and shot all day with it; indoors and outdoors. I shot in a few stores -garden departments are great for color and close-up tests, at a park, shot some construction workers, etc. The results were much better than I expected. The only glitches I had were operator errors, new camera, I'm still at the fumbling stage.

I don't shoot low light pictures and knew from the beginning this is not a low light camera, neither are any of my video cameras. Not a problem as I don't tend to shoot in low light, but if I did and wanted to use this camera (or my others) I'd add light, a tripod (there's a tripod mount on the bottom) or both. I did do some quick low light tests by bracing myself against a wall holding the camera with my elbows in and in a two-handed grip, also by setting the camera and my hand on something (shelf, shopping cart, table, etc.) to steady things during the longer exposures and the results were nice. I'd recommend a pocketable tabletop type tripod or one of the flexible ones you can also wrap around things to help get steady shots.

I, also, knew that the 38mm part of the 38-190mm (35mm equiv.) lens isn't considered wide, however, it's wider than I'd thought and works fine for me. Found a Phoenix Magnetic Mount 0.45x lens here on Amazon that works WELL with this camera giving you 17mm, now that's wide! Search vimeo dot com for this camera and see the test videos.

My suggestions: Step one, download the PDF version of the manual (or use the printed one -I like PDFs as I can search them) and go through it. Most of the "problems" I've seen posted here and elsewhere are covered in the manual. Step two, check out the Sanyo HD700 tip site. Step three, play and experiment with it. Read up on how to do things (the shortcuts features is really cool) and take it with you and see what you and it can do. Step four, search for some Sanyo HD700 related forums and ask questions.

I LOVE this camera and its new home is in my pockets. Mission accomplished.

Read Best Reviews of Sanyo Xacti HD700 7MP MPEG-4 High Definition 720p Camcorder with 5x Optical Zoom (Red) Here

i bought this (red) on Amazon on Black Friday, for$399.

It is an excellent deal considering the price you pay.

I was a little worried with the reviews posted (some good, some bad), but after receiving the gadget and used it myself, I am convinced it is the best value I have spent $400 on.

My friend camped over 48 hour outside BestBuy to get some nice deals, but I didn't have to suffer the cold nights with someone smoking dope or cigarettes a few chairs down; I still got a great deal online on Amazon.

The picture quality is excellent in mid to well lit conditions.

I shot some footage today while playing weekly badminton in a gym, The result was amazing. It was clear, crisp, and all of the details captured.

The 7.1MP picture quality is not bad either. I have a Sony F828 with 8.1MP quality. I have to say this one, even though lacking much of the functions, the picture quality is not bad.

It's compact size means my 9 year old daughter can play and experiment shooting some videos. I got a 8GB SDHC card and it works wonders. Even though my old SD reader, (7 in 1), couldn't read the new SDHC, by using the cradle, I still can transfer all of the videos and pictures onto my Macbook Pro very easily and fast. Of course the iPhoto and iMovie imported them and offers unprecedented ease of editing.

Some minor improvements or suggestion for Sanyo:

1. the wide angle is not wide enough when you don't use the zoom feature. You need to stand at least 15 feet away to shoot the wide (HD) format.

2. The zoom engages too fast; it doesn't have the pause then fast zoom (accelerate) on the control, so when you push the zoom, it immediately zooms too much. Needs to be more smooth.

3. The picture quality in a darker room, is, I have to admit, not good; very rough.

4. Battery gets hot (not really hot, but begins to bother you a bit), after shooting for 5 min.

5. Wish the playback volume was louder (speaker volume tooooo little).

Don't let the above 5 minor issues bother you. It is overall a very good package for under $500.

Most people, even if they bought the 1080HD camcorder, don't necessary need it or use anything for that quality level. And unless you have a very steady hand or use tripod on everything, your 1080 will show shaking videos very clearly and give you a HD headache.

I am extremely happy with this purchase and highly recommend to anyone.

This one is sure to capture a lot of nice memories for years to come.

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A few days ago, a storm thousands of miles away brought high tidal waves to my town. When I drove by the beach, I had this toy in my pocket. The footage is raw, mostly auto, no extra lens, nor tripod. Just me, the camera and the scene. (Unfortunately, Amazon doesn't support MPEG4. Here's the clip--http://www.vimeo.com/427079)

This the best part about the Sanyo HD700--you can have it with you all the time without being laughed at by those who know you're not a TV cameraman, or without anyone realizing you carry it at all. That means your camcorder is a lot more useful.

It's also a lot easier to use--shoot, take out the SD card, plug it into a USB reader, copy onto computer hard disk, view, edit, convert or delete. All random access, no waiting for tape rolling. A 4GB card gives you ~1h20m recording time in HD. Two cards are enough if you dump the files to a computer quickly enough. You can also dump video to an external hard disk without a computer.

Other things I like--

* A convenient dock to recharge, connect to computer, TV or DVD recorder in a number of standards (USB, HDMI, Component, ...), and with a remote

* Manual control of mostly everything with assignable Shortcut buttons

* Some advanced features such as face tracking, though I usually turn them off for better response/performance but they can be useful

* Construction, finish and ergonomics

* No moving parts in storage means better reliability and lower power consumption

* Video quality: 720p 30fps 9Mbps and MPEG4

Now something I don't like--

* 5x zoom starting at 38mm tele (35mm equivalent)--see update for solution

* Poor low light performance

* Lack of optical image stabilization

* Short battery life (rated 80min for HD recording) coupled with high price (~$40 OEM)

* No ext. mic input (there's a typo in the manual giving false hope)

One function I haven't figured out--using it as a mighty webcam. It would be interesting to capture video to computer directly with this one.

And one feature wish--give us HDMI video input and let us use it as an HD video recorder using flash memory. Sanyo?

Overall, I like the camera. I carry it almost as much as my cell phone for both video and still. If only it can also do wireless phone and Web...

Update: Phoenix 0.45x magnetic wide angle converter works fairly well with no mutilation necessary. It attaches to the ferromagnetic lens housing directly. You can search Vimeo for HD700 and find the clips.

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eForCity Optical Splitter

Worked as expected out of the box. Design and workmanship met expectations. Has continued to provide faultless service for the time we have used it.

I agree with the first reviewer. I bought this to consolidate two sources into one, which it DID NOT do. It is advertised to do the function I intended it for, but it did not live up to that stated function.

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If you are going two into one because you have more sources than inputs, beware. It did not work for me. Could not get any combination to work. I don't know if it would work going the other. Didn't need it for that. It is sold as being able to handle two signals into one source and it failed in my setup.

Seems well made and it might be a quality piece of equipment, but it has to work as advertised before once can comment on that.

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COX SILVER UNIVERSAL ON-DEMAND DVR / PVR 4-DEVICE REMOTE CONTROL with PICTURE-in-PICTURE (PIP) Cont

Just like the one COX provided, Ordered Sunday and it was in my mail Tuesday.

Just an extra because it would not work on the extra TV either. I tis always good to have more than one in case something happens though.

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Arrived on time and it works perfect just like the one you get from the cable company. It even comes with battery.

Read Best Reviews of COX SILVER UNIVERSAL ON-DEMAND DVR / PVR 4-DEVICE REMOTE CONTROL with PICTURE-in-PICTURE (PIP) Cont Here

This does not have codes for typical AV gear. It does not work Panasonic DVRs or Curtis TVs. It probably won't work with many other popular devices either. I'm very disappointed with this "universal" remote.

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Griffin iFM (Dock Connector) / FM Radio and Wired Remote Control for iPod

• Digital auto station scan with wraparound
• Band-Switch function to switch between US, European and Japanese FM bands
• Controls pause, play, fast forward, rewind, next song, previous song, volume
• 6 Station presets per band
• Compatibility: iPod nano (1G and 2G), iPod mini, 3G iPod, 4G iPod with click wheel, iPod Color, iPod Video

Griffin iFM vs. Apple Radio Remote

iFM Pros:

++ arrangement of buttons makes operation by touch a cinch

+ (cosmetic) available in black (only)

iFM Cons:

Lowest volume setting is still a little too loud for certain circumstances/environments

clip is somewhat flimsy

Radio Remote Pros:

++ iPod integration is great

+ volume can be adjusted in much finer detail compared to iFM (64 vs. 16 levels)

+ clip appears more sturdy and usable

+ includes a set of Apple earbuds which a shorter cord

Radio Remote Cons:

arrangement of buttons makes operation by touch not as convenient as iFM

(cosmetic) available in white (only)

Both seem about equal as far as FM radio performance is concerned.

While the Apple Radio Remote seems like the better of the two, I use the iFM (with the shorter Apple earbuds) when skiing because the button layout is much easier to use on the slopes while wearing gloves.

Buy Griffin iFM (Dock Connector) / FM Radio and Wired Remote Control for iPod Now

I love my iPod, and what's more I love iTunes (especially since I have gotten a broadband connection.) One of the things I like doing in my apartment on Saturday mornings is listening to my music, but often, I alternate this with public radio from my iTunes (by way of a streamed URL feed.)

So, when I go out, I wander around town with my iPod, but I chose to get rid of my other portable FM radio a while ago when it broke, and haven't replaced it since.

Until now. I picked up the iFM by Griffin Technologies to test and review for as part of the local Apple User Group, and I was immediately taken with the device.

This is a great iPod accessory. To use it, you need any iPod with a dock connector (such as the mini, the nano, the video or the older generation iPod with a dock connector.) I use the device with my mini iPod.

The connector snaps into place and a cable connects you from iPod to the iFM remote. Then instead of connecting your earbuds (or other earphones) to the top of your iPod in the usual place, plug into the remotes connector. The audio quality is indistinguishable. And with a flip of a button, you can chose between the iPod's selection and whatever's on you local FM radio.

And I found the reception to be pretty good (better than compared to the radio in my car anyway.) I suspect this is due to the remotes cable connection between the iPod and itself, acting as an antenna.

However, for me, this cable was the only detractor of the iFM. And I believe this is just because it was hard for me to get used to having it around (I almost zipped the cord into my jacket a couple of times while using it walking around town.)

Otherwise, I liked the variety (and freedom) of being able to chose to listen to either my music on the iPod and that found on local FM.

The iFM has another advertised feature that I've yet to test -the remote has a microphone built-in. Unfortunately, my iPod is a mini, and it doesn't have the recording capability of the current models of the nano and the video iPods.

However, I found this a non-issue; since I'm not recording with my iPod, I don't miss the feature.

Read Best Reviews of Griffin iFM (Dock Connector) / FM Radio and Wired Remote Control for iPod Here

Functionally, the iFM is great. I like to use it for workouts at the gym to watch FM transmitted TV's. However, the construction is extremely cheap. I bought two of them and both fell apart. One fell apart the second time I used it. The construction is so cheap that I couldn't put it back together because the controls don't line up. I wish there was an alternative but I can't find one. I like being able to switch between iPod tunes and FM, but will have to carry two devices from now on.

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I received the iFM 2 months ago, and while the tuner is excellent -regularly pulling in stations I couldn't always get with other portable radiosthe build quality has left something to be desired.

First of all, the belt clip is made of a cheap plastic and snapped off easily when the cord snagged on something as I walked along. It didn't pull that hard, but it was enough. A metal part in place of the plastic one would have easily withstood the strain without complaint, and if not, could have been bent back into place. It wouldn't have snapped.

Second, I accidentally dropped it from waist height, and the whole unit fell apart. The parts snap together during assembly at the factory, so I was able to snap the housing back together, fortunately. However, it was disconcerting that it should be so prone to break or fall apart from these relatively light knocks or bumps. I emailed Griffin's customer service center, and unfortunately, they do not have replacement belt clips. *Sigh*

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Pros:

Good FM reception

good remote functionality

value for money

Cons:

build qaulity seems to be fragile, it still intact for me.

Eqaulizer button is too small to be usable.

both ipod dock connector and head phone jack come from the bottom, it would have been better if headphone jack comes out of the top

JVC HRS5902U 4-Head Hi-Fi VCR, Black

• S-VHS and VHS recording and playback; Super VHS ET Recording gives you S-VHS quality with standard VHS tapes
• Gold-plated front AV inputs accommodate a camcorder or gaming console
• 1-year, 8-event express programming; VCR Plus+ with cable-box control
• Includes full-function multibrand TV/cable/DBS-compatible remote control with glowing keys
• Active Video Calibration automatically judges head condition and tape quality to maximize recording potential

Okay! I admit I was a bit condescending on my previous comment, but it's only because the review I was critiquing was illogical and the rating unfair. I'll be good this time and try to be less of a smart aleck.

The original review to which I posted a rebuttal was flawed. He bought an excellent, high-end VCR for the wrong reasons. Then he complained when it did not perform better than technologically-possible in his system and gave it a one-star rating. He has now compounded the error in his logic by trying to throw PRICE into the equation. Did I realize that this machine costs 3 times as much as the cost of a standard VCR? Yep, I just purchased an el-cheapo machine for about fifty bucks two weeks ago. But I didn't need the capabilities of this sweet device.

First, a quick technology overview: There are a number of factors that make up how clear and detailed a video image is going to look, but resolution appears to have the most effect so I'll concentrate on that.

The US television standard is called NTSC. NTSC stands for National Television System Committee, or as those of us in the industry call it: Never Twice the Same Color. (NTSC stinks, but this is not the place for that discussion.) Of the 525 NTSC scan lines, only 485 lines are used in the image.

Standard VHS VCRs can record and display only about 220 lines of resolution less than half what your TV is capable of displaying. Your standard TV broadcast (either off the air or cable) will get up to 330 lines on a good day. A DVD player can output 540 lines.

The S-VHS VCRs can record and playback about 400 lines of resolution, or nearly twice what a standard VHS machine can display. But there is problem: it can only display as much data as was originally recorded. If you're playing back an old VHS recording with 220 lines of resolution, that's all you're going to see. If one records programs off the air ON THIS MACHINE, they will look a bit better when played back on this machine -as good as your TV broadcast signal happens to be that day (up to 330 lines) -but still not as good as a DVD.

So why would someone pay the big bucks and buy an S-VHS VCR? Because if you have an S-VHS camcorder, this puppy is going to SHINE. You can record and playback the full 400 lines of resolution even on a standard NTSC TV set. Also, the S-VHS technology allows for much better tape dubbing. Ever try to copy a standard VHS tape? The result appears to have about 100 lines of resolution and the colors bloom so badly it is unbearable to watch. S-VHS machines do not have this problem. Plus, this particular machine has a flying-erase head, which allows you to make beautiful edits. You can take the six hours of video recorded at your family reunion and produce a one-hour tape of the highlights with seamless edits, then add your own narration with the audio over-dubbing capability of the JVC. After that, you can make near-perfect copies to give to all your family members. You CANNOT do that with a standard el-cheapo VHS VCR. No way! No how!

So... If I owned an S-VHS camcorder, would I be willing to pay 3-times as much for this lovely VCR? You betcha!!!

To give my own analogy, the previous writer said that there is no reason to buy a Porsche Carrera because it rides just as poorly as his Chevy pickup truck down the rut-filled dirt road he lives on yet costs three times as much as the Chevy and isn't as fast as a Lear Jet. Substitute the JVC S-VHS VCR for the Porsche Carrera, a standard VCR for the Chevy pickup truck, an old VHS tape recorded off the air for the rut-filled dirt road, and a DVD player for the Lear Jet and you'll see my point. He's comparing apples-to-oranges-to-pears.

And why, you ask, would I waste my time responding to this these ill-conceived reviews? (It's quite obvious from the feedback so far that most people found my critiques much more "helpful" than his criticisms.) It's because I use the reviews and ratings here quite often to determine which item I am going to purchase. If I can help him (or others who read this) to THINK about what they write (state how well the item really operates, etc.) and then give fair reviews, we all profit and this customer review system becomes more valuable.

Thanks for reading this far.

Buy JVC HRS5902U 4-Head Hi-Fi VCR, Black Now

Ever since I bought my Samsung 50" DLP HDTV a few months ago I've been on a quest to upgrade my DVD player and now my VCR player as well. To be brief, if you have an HDTV, and you intend to still keep using VHS cassettes, then you must have this VCR.

Only recently I learned that an S-VHS (Super VHS) VCR gives you a resolution of 400 lines, as opposed to your standard VCR which gives you 230 lines of resolution. Obviously, for a standard TV you might not notice much difference. But for an HDTV, the difference is amazing! Here's a summary of my experience with this VCR:

Pros:

1) Super Video Quality. I tried recording a TV program on a standard VHS cassette (in fact the cassette is very old, recorded over many, many times). Remember, this VCR allows you to get the S-VHS quality even when recording on a standard VHS cassette you don't have to buy an expensive S-VHS cassette (although it should give a little better quality). When I played back the recorded program, it was unbelievable! The picture was clearer than what was broadcast on TV now that's impressive!

2) I mentioned it above, but it really is an additional bonus the fact that you can record S-VHS quality on a standard VHS cassette. You do have to change the default setup to enable this 'ET' mode (that's what JVC calls it).

3) The '24Hr Jog Dial' I really like this feature. With this you can setup to record a TV program within the next 24 hours. You don't have to turn on your TV. All you do is set the start time, the end time, and the channel using the jog dial on the VCR. Very neat feature.

Cons:

1) When playing a tape, the display on the VCR will NOT show the counter. In fact, the display NEVER shows a tape counter at all! If you want to see the tape counter, you have use the OSD (On Screen Display) and then you can see the counter on the TV that's annoying!

2) Auto clock doesn't work with cable They actually warn you about this when you try to set the Auto clock. When I first got the VCR, I left it in for a few hours before finally giving up. I had to set the time manually. By contrast, my Sony VCR can set the time in less than 5 minutes using its auto clock.

3) No memory backup if you have any programs scheduled to be recorded, even a 1 second power glitch will make you lose everything! For a VCR this expensive, they could have added a simple battery backup!

On a side note, I thought it important to mention that when playing tapes that are NOT recorded with S-VHS (like my older Disney movies), the output is not at 400 line resolution, it's at 230 lines. But the picture quality is as good as you'd get with any other high quality VCR. In other words, to avail of the S-VHS quality, you must have a tape (movie, etc.) already recorded in S-VHS to get the full benefit.

Side note no. 2 Also remember that when you record in S-VHS mode on a cassette with this VCR, you may not be able to display it on another VCR that does not support S-VHS. I have that problem with my other Sony VCR it cannot display S-VHS recordings (looks very fuzzy). But that's a fault of the Sony VCR of course, not this JVC one.

So, in summarizing, there definitely are some annoying facts about this VCR. But you may forgive and forget when you see the picture quality it's capable of producing near DVD quality! I would recommend buying this VCR but only if picture quality is absolutely essential.

Read Best Reviews of JVC HRS5902U 4-Head Hi-Fi VCR, Black Here

Many TV newsrooms use super VHS, in their cameras, or for editing & dubbing in the studio... quickly, on the fly.

Flaw, bug, & software free, fool-proof analog video almost as good as DVD, with S-video & multiple inputs & outputs that would make any videophile drool. The more sophisticated a machine becomes, the more sophisticated a user will have to be happy with it. Great pic, great sound, & fantastic for quick editing on the fly... maybe to later be burned on a DVD.

The tuner gets a better pic, than my sony wega's tuner. If you get a bad channel 9, one of you're RF cords may be broken inside, at the end, or it not connected properly. Don't blame JVC. I own this & 3 other JVC s-vhs machines. The tuner is better than any equipment I'm seen... even on channel 9. But really, if you don't have a cable box or satellite, don't buy this machine, it's capable of much more than your system is capable of. If you don't know what a s-video connector is for & why you need it, these machines are too good for what you're capable of. AMF if you don't notice a startling difference in the picture quality compared to ordinary VHS, you're TV or how you got it hooked up isn't good enough.

But these machines also play back ordinary VHS tapes with better quality than ANY other machine. There are pic/filter settings to clean up extra crummy tapes too.

This particular machine I purchased as a back-up & extra. I was expecting it to be the quality of some of their cheapest s-vhs machines. To my surprise the machine works very well & the pic is excellent for s-vhs at this price range.

One minor problem noted. The oscillator that generates the voltage for the fluorecent display generates interference to my Akai DVD burner it's setting on, & my other JCV s-vhs machine I have stacked ontop of it (on top of that I have my Directv TVO box). So with 4 units stacked together some interference came from this machine's fluorecent circuits. I found if I slid it 1" back from the burner, & the other machine ontop of it 1" back, all the interference disappeared. But now they aren't flush with each other. Someday I'll try stacking them differently. Beside them I have a JVC DVD player, Terapin VCD/CD burner, & another JVC s-vhs deck stacked together. Between the 2 stacks is 2 5" LCD monitors (for dubbing/cueing).

Anywho, it's not unusual to have stacked machines interfere with each other. But it's the first time it ever happened with a JVC unit. Some TVs will even interfere with some machines set on top of them. It's not a defect but rather an occasional coincedence that one machine is emitting a certain frequency close to a frequency that another machine is particularly sensitive to. Moving the units a little or the wires behind them usually will clear it up.

Update: I've read S-VHS tapes are harder to come by in another review. These machines use ordinary VHS tapes, you don't need super-vhs tapes for them, but they should be good tapes. My best pix on the come from ordinary t-120 & t-160 memorex tapes I buy in 10-packs real cheap. DVD burners & blank DVDs are getting cheap but the lasers & drives wear out after your 100th to 500th disk. 10 years after your fifth DVD burner has bit the dust your super-vhs machine will still be going strong. I know from experience, I'm a tech, I work on stuff like this all the time. My first 10 year old super-vhs machine is still running like new after extremely heavy use & conditions. It's been banged around overstacked, & used in hot environments that would kill most electronic equipment. It's never been opened or repaired. The newer cheaper s-vhs models only had minor negligible problems, & are still many times better than any ordinary vhs machine.

BTW, I don't work for JVC.

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I've learned a few more things since I wrote my last review. The following are corrections to my previous review:

1) Memory backup Apparently there is some sort of memory backup, even though the manual clearly states there isn't. Quite by accident I unplugged the VCR and then plugged it back in. I was sure I'd have to re-program the timer to record my favorite programs, but I was pleasantly surprised the VCR remembered all my previous programs! In experimenting further, I disconnected power for almost 5 minutes and the programs still remained in memory afterwards! I didn't test further than that.

2) Auto clock I figured out why the auto clock won't work for cable. When the unit is without power for a while (I think the manual says 10 minutes), it defaults all the settings. The default settings for the tuner preset is 'air' not 'cable'. That's why they advise cable users to set the clock manually. However, the first thing you should do after a long power failure is to set the tuner to 'cable' and have it scan all channels. You should now be able to power off the VCR and auto clock should work (for me it took about 30 mins though, but it got it eventually!).

So this is good news. If there's a power failure for a short time (say 5 mins), the auto clock should eventually set the clock and your programs set for timer recordings should still be there!

I think the JVC now deserves a 4.5 star rating and so I'm giving this review a 5 (my other was a 4).

This high-end VCR has many advanced features,such as jog and shuttle on the remote, flying erase heads, S-VHS, etc. It produces a fine picture, and has very good tracking with old tapes.

The annoyances, particularly for editing:

(1) Unlike even simple VCR's that I have had in the past, this machine has no tape counter on the VCR's display. The counter is available only on screen, in "Play" mode only at regular speed, and in "Fast Forward" without picture.

(2) The speed controls are different from any other VCR's:

(i) Pushing the Pause button a second time does not put it back into Play, but into Frame Advance.

(ii) The shuttle feature is also nonstandard: it goes from Slow Forward directly to Slow Reverse, rather than through Pause.

Lorex LW2450 LIVE Video Baby Monitor with Pan/Tilt Wireless Camera (White)

This video home or baby monitor improved a lot in quality and functionality compared to its past models. I still have and use one of Lorex's older models (3 years old). That old one seems likes a really ancient tool now. It doesn't have pan & tilt, the screen is very small, the picture quality is not so good, wireless range is limited, and there are no extra functions, such as temperature meter. All these things are featured in this newer video home monitor, LW2450.

I've been using the new Lorex model for over a month now, non stop, for over a month, and I have had no single issue. The reliability of this monitor is just wonderful. I have more than 10 wireless devices running all the time at home, and this monitor has never interfered with any of my wireless devices. Unlike this one, my older Lorex monitor had some interference with my iPhone 3GS; therefore, I am rather pleased that interference has not been a problem.

The big LCD monitor (3.5") is good enough to identify what's going on in the scene. It is not super clear like the iPhone's retina display of course, but I can tell the picture quality has improved a lot from the past models. Night viewing is limited in color and range due to the nature of the technology, yet I think it's better than any other brands' I have tried. Also, the viewing angle from the lens seems wider than I had expected, and I prefer a wider angle than a normal angle. Pan and tilt is just as great. It works the way it should and as expected without an issue. Among the many features from this video monitor such as two way talk , recording, and expandability, my absolute favorite is the temperature sensor. The wireless camera senses the temperature and displays it on the monitor. This is very useful and the best feature for me personally.

Remote viewing is also a nice feature, and I like the fact that it's capable. However, setting up with Skype for remote viewing is not that simple and functionality is limited. It is not difficult to set up with Skype actually. I just had to make a new account just for the camera and changed the preference Skype to auto answer on the computer. It is not that big deal to go through, yet I can see there are many people just wanting something easy to install and simple to connect. And in my opinion, this is not the simplest solution for remote viewing. There's another way, still not the best, to use for remote viewing. Using iCam app on the smart phones and tablet allows slightly simpler setup with push notification on motion detection. I prefer using iCam app for remote viewing, and it's nice the wireless cam works with the application, not just Skype. But both applications are not able to control pan and tilt.

So my wish for this unit is for it to have a dedicated smart phone app for remote viewing with push notification and pan and tilt control. Lorex's other video monitor series have their apps for iPhones and tablets. This shows the company is capable with the current technology for more flexibility. I know it is nice and useful to have a separate viewing monitor unit, but we are living in a mobile era now, and we will probably never go back to old technology. So it's only reasonable for new Lorex to embrace technology and improve product functionality. The WIFI IP cameras are getting really popular these days because of the flexibility that one can use in his/her current smart phones, which do not need to be tied to a separate monitor unit. If you are technically advanced and have some networking knowledge, WIFI IP camera will be cost effective. If you want something simple and easy to use for monitoring home or baby with some nice extra features, this might be a good choice.

We have owned Lorex baby monitors in the past and they were awesome. This is no exception. It is a little pricey but you are paying for quality. The camera pans and tilts quietly so your little one won't be woken up. The screen is great and you can see everything really well. Everything seems to be solidly built and the monitor holds a charge for a long time. We had a similar baby monitor from Motorola last year and it went out on us after less than six months. It was almost identical to this Lorex system. Based on reliability and my past experience with Lorex I would recommend this video monitor set up over pretty much anything else. Lorex is top notch and worth the money.

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I like that this product comes with a hard copy of the user's guide. So many products these days only come with a PDF version. I prefer to flip through pages to find what I need. This product also comes with a Quick Start Guide, so getting started was really easy.

This monitor comes with one camera but is expandable up to 4 cameras.

This monitor can be placed on any flat surface. It is not the kind that can be mounted on the wall (unless you purchase the optional mount). It comes with 3 wire clips that are backed with an adhesive strip.

If you want to record with this monitor you will need to get a microSD card (not included). You can use up to a 32GB card.

You can also connect the monitor with a usb cable (provided) to monitor using Skype.

The video capture is good. It has a nice large screen. The colors are a bit muted. The camera pans up and down and side to side, which is a great feature.

What I find lacking is the audio capture. I have it turned up to the maximum setting and still I find it difficult to hear unless the sounds are loud.

Also, I seem to get the "out of range" message more frequently than I should. It goes in and out of range what seems to be randomly. (and I am only in the next room)

Read Best Reviews of Lorex LW2450 LIVE Video Baby Monitor with Pan/Tilt Wireless Camera (White) Here

Lorex LW2450 works well, as designed to be without zooming, and the 4-hour battery life seems decent, though insufficient for obsessive monitoring. The quality of the video functions is higher than of the audio. It is expandable and allows simultaneous views from many cameras. Skype works fine on Macs, as the Manual states. However, the personal Skype device needs a speedy downlink (4G) for smooth video reception outside home. Otherwise the connection may drop especially on small portables such as iPod Touch, iPhone 3GS, but unlikely on tablets or laptops connected via Wi-Fi.

The setup is easy and well depicted on just 2 pages of the Quick Start Guide & in the Manual on the enclosed CD; both also available from the Internet. The night video quality is at the top of those from the Internet searched for "video baby monitor night". The day video quality is good considering the max. 320x240-pixel resolution available. Video can be recorded with or without sound.

The operating system ("OS") of the home device sending video to Skype and connected to router/modem must be at least Microsoft Windows 7/Vista/XP SP2, Apple Mac OS 10.5.8 Leopard, or iOS 4 (free upgrade from iOS 3)the most popular now. It cannot be original (1st) Windows XP, Mac OS 10.5.7 Leopard or lower, Android, or else. Macs with PowerPC processors are NOT supported, only with Intel CPUs.

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I have two baby monitors. The Lorex LW2450 LIVE, and the Motorola Blink1 Wi-Fi Video Camera for Remote Viewing with iPhone and Android Smartphones and Tablets, Silver. I only bring this up because I feel the need to explain why I think this product (the Lorex) is going to be better for some people even though the Motorola Blink1 ran away with a big win for us.

Before I do that, I just want to say that the Lorex does everything intended well. The handheld controller/display is comfortable, has its own little 'kickstand' for tabletop display, and the thumb stick control is easy to use, and the camera responds promptly. The camera offers a quality picture whether the room is lit or pitch black, the motor panning and tilting the camera is quiet enough that it's not likely to rouse any sleepers. It is, by all measures, a fantastic product for people who want a self contained solution that they're going to use within the confines of their home.

And this is where the Motorola is different, why the Blink1 is a better solution for ME, but not necessarily for you. The Motorola doesn't have a dedicated device for viewing and controlling as it relies upon your iOS or Android device (phones or tablets). Because it relies on these devices, it offers an expanded range (quite literally) of options insofar as you can continue to monitor and control the device even when you leave your home. Wherever you are, you have the option of connecting and getting audio and video (the quality of which is commensurate, of course, with the quality of connection that device has wherever you are).

I loved the Lorex LIVE for what it was until we got the Motorola. And it's only because we're already toting around iOS devices wherever we are that the Lorex's control screen seems an unnecessary addition to us. That's not going to be the case for everyone else, however. So it seems a relatively simple equation for me, and that speaks to how you're going to use it and whether you'd prefer to have a dedicated screen for your monitoring or have it through a phone/tablet. The Lorex is a fantastic option if the latter isn't appealing and the mobility aspect isn't so important -which is why this is a rare case where I'm giving 5 stars to a product I've shelved because I've deemed a different one superior for my own needs. The Lorex is well designed, well engineered, attractive, intuitive, and smartly functional. It's self contained, you don't need or rely upon anything else, and it does what it sets out to do very well. I can say the same about the Motorola (and have, elsewhere), but even as it's the same type of device, serves the same purpose, they're still distinctly different enough in terms of HOW they do it that I'm cross reviewing each without penalizing or rewarding one or the other in the process.

Highly recommended if your needs are as described above -otherwise I'd take a long hard look at the Blink1. You're going to be very happy either way.

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