Gemini VINYL2MP3 Belt Drive USB Turntable

THis product was very great!I also liked the fast shipping.When I got my Gemini Vinyl 2 Mp3 Dj Turntable from the UPS center.I was so happy I jumped for joy! Thanks,

Toshiba SDV393 Progressive DVD/VCR Combination

So many people from previous reviews complain about this model but mine works PERFECTLY fine. Every DVD I have stuck in there plays very cleary with no problems and the VCR tapes just fine as well. What annoyed me at first when I was taping something was at the beginning the display stayed at 0:00 for awhile but then I realized the numbers change every minute it tapes. I bought this since it was cheap and something I could use in a college dorm...but get this the description says it only plays DVD-R discs. All the homemade DVD's I have are from DVD+R discs and this model played them! I was pretty happy about that. So yeah unlike all the other reviewers before me I am very happy with this DVD/VCR combo.

I received two DVD/VCR combo players as gifts at the same time--the Toshiba and the comparable Sony model (SLV-D360). Based on Amazon reviews, I tried installing the Sony first. The only way to do so is by running the cable through the DVD, which for me caused problems with my cable reception. In contrast, the Toshiba comes with wires that allow for coaxial hookup or hookup through the television's video port, which I did. We've had no problems so far and are very happy with it (no skips, etc), in cotrast to the Sony, which we will be returning shortly!

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This was one of the best gifts I've ever received. The buttons make sense; both DVDs and videotapes play perfectly. I've had mine for a year and a half. I see that other folks have written that they have had problems, but I have had no problems at all. Although I primarily use it for DVDs,I really love this machine, and would recommend it to anyone who still has videos, and who hates complicated buttons and/or directions on their remotes.

12/31/2010 5 years and still going strong! -BK

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I needed a Video recorder with a programable timer to record all my TV shows and now I can watch DVDs at the same time! Good picture, easy to hook up, easy to use. I love it.

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I called Amazon to complain about the description of the item. It does not have the "Up Conversion and Memory Slot" described in the product listing. There used to be a picture of the product, which showed the memory slot, and I was frankly surprised that the unit lacked it. So clearly they had a picture of another unit, as the model number is correct.

P.S. The machine completely died after about a year of very light use.

Polaroid Digital Voice Recorder (PDR302BLK)

I used this recorder for a few days maybe 15 hours of recording total before the record button stopped functioning. Now when I press Record it functions as the Stop button.

The recording quality was decent, the included instructions on paper were poor, but there are better ones saved as a PDF on the recorder.

he recibido el producto y es muy util como herramienta de trabajo, facil de usaar y facil de manejar, interface sencilla

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Panasonic RR-US551 1-GB Digital Voice Recorder

This recorder is great. It isn't too hard to use. Has great pick up and clarity in playback using external speaker or headphones. Recording time is plentiful. It should have a case but doesn't, and I can't find one anywhere to fit. User's manual could be better.

What a wonderful piece of voice recorder from panasonic.Amazing clarity of audio reproduction.I only wish it comes in higher GB.It looks rugged and think it will withstand the abuse I am going to put it through.

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I received this Panasonic voice recorder just a few days ago and eagerly set about using it. Firstly I would like to point out that ones first impression is of a device poorly made with cheap material. It takes two triple AAA batteries and if you don't have any lying about the house you're out of luck. It comes with no batteries which was quite surprising as almost everything nowadays comes with a set of batteries. It takes about 10 minutes to read the pertinent set of instructions about how to set up the Panasonic Recorder and to record your first project. Buttons and knobs are kept to an absolute minimal which is rather nice as there is little to do to make your first recording. I've always believed that manufacturers do little to make devices easy to operate and people have a tendency to love a lot of buttons and switches on their devices believing that the more you have the better the quality is. Now to the punch line. The audio quality is horrible. Little more needs to be said about this recorder. If you are seeking one with reasonably good audio quality avoid this Panasonic. You'll be pleased you did.

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TDK External 4x Multiformat External DVD-Rewritable Drive

I've been watching the price of external DVD writers for over a year. This particular item has dropped from over $400 to a little more than $200 (with a current $30 TDK rebate and careful comparison shopping --not neccesarily via Amazon) during that time. It has many positive points to recommend it, and only a few minor issues.

Strenghts:

(1) The external option is a blessing if you are not comfortable with --or simply don't want to spend the time-messing around inside your computer. Even though my currrent desktop is homebuilt and I'm fine with working inside the case, both of my IDE controller "master" settings are already dedicated (one to the hard drive, one to an existing CD-RW. The latter is capability I'll want to retain for a while longer).

(2) The presence of both USB 2.0 and FireWire interfaces adds obvious flexibility to this unit. Since the data transfer rates are nearly the same, this is a matter of personal preference (unless you only have one type available on your computer, of course).

(3) The ability to write in both DVD+RW and DVD-RW formats spares consumers any painful -and possibly regretable-"vhs vs. beta" type decisions as this market segment matures.

(4) This unit shipped with a surprisingly good printed users manual for both hardware and software operation.

(5) Worked great first time out of the box. Extensive data backups of up to 4.7 GB on a single DVD....how cool is that!

Nitpicks:

(1) The CD drawer operation is a little on the noisy side.

(2) Personal preference issue: The included burning software is Roxio's EZ CD Creator. I prefer Ahead Software's Nero package based on a couple years of experience with both. Your mileage and user experience may vary, of course.

The customers service and quality of service was excellent. I received the order the same day that it was esimated to be shipped. Previous to my order, I read consumer reports that provided positive reviews about the hardware and negative reports about the software that came with it. I had purchased new software and had no problems.

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Motorola KRZR K1 Unlocked Phone with 2 MP Camera, MP3/Video Player, and MicroSD Slot--International

I ordered this from Amazon via Hassle-Free Cell on Monday and had the phone Friday using standard shipping. It was new and even had a fresh battery (manufacture date 8/2008); although manufactured for SE Asia the default language was English and everything works great. I liked my old Razr V3 but it was a little bulky; I loved my moto Pebl but it bit the dust after a nasty fall. The K1 combines the best of both those phones, plus adds a music player. It has a nice solid feel with a rubberized back and a very crisp, high-contrast display like the Pebl and unlike the Razr. One of the things I like about Motorola phones is that accessories using mini-USB work for all their phones, as far as I know. This includes Phone Tools software, stereo earbuds, chargers, etc. so I didn't have to buy all that stuff over again. Call volume and quality is very good and the music player sounds great, although it is a bit quirky and limited and doesn't have external music player control buttons like the CDMA version. The player doesn't recognize a lot of the MP3s I loaded on a 2 gig card, but maybe I just need to wipe it and try again. Like the other Motos I mentioned, the soft keys can be programmed so that there is ready to access to the things I frequently use, like the calendar and alarms. In picking a phone I didn't really care about the voice recognition feature, but it works so well that I use it all the time now. I don't have or need a data plan, so I can't speak to the browser feature, which is no doubt very primitive compared to a smart phone. Overall this an excellent phone for calling, and at a very reasonable price.

Love the phone(second KRZR I own).Charger doesn't work,waiting for replacement.Speakerphone doesn't work well,barely can hear it.

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The phone came without US mms settings but were easily downloaded from the Moto site..It now works great on the ATT network.

The phone came with a foreign charger and the wrong US adapter. After contacting Amazon, they immediately sent me the same thing for exchange.

I ordered a charger from Ebay and am very happy.

The phone is chargable from the mini usb port so I was able to use it until the charger arrived.

I would give it a 5 star if not for this problem. Also hope I don't need the warranty.

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Nice phone and, thus far, seems to work quite well. The operating manual, though, was in Italian and so I had to go online to look for a manual in English.

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1. Very bad key pad design. Guys with big fingers wouldn't operate it properly. Around the ring pad, there are six keys squeezed together, so very difficult to work on them.

2. Vibration is too weak to feel it.

3. Charge up is very slow. Need over-night to fully charge up.

4. ....

When I was wondering if I should return it, the phone cannot be charged up any more. Therefore, I returned it without any more hesitation. Because I ordered many accessories with it, and I cannot/or not worth to return them, so it still costs me a quite lot except for all those inconveniences.

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Hidden Nanny Spy Camera Digital Video Recorder with 8GB Memory

I purchased this spy camera....It is basically easy to use, except, when the memory is full, I don't understand how you erase the memory to start over recording....Does anyone have an answer to that.

ULTRA PRODUCTS 512MB 14-in-1 MP3 Player (White)

• Listen to all your WMA files direct from Windows Media Player -- no need to convert your existing WMA files to MP3
• Record your favorite FM broadcasts at a touch of a button
• Player doubles as an incredibly compact memo recorder - create your own reminders for future use
• Store important files or create new ones - Ultra MP3 player also serves as a power-packed USB Flash Drive
• SD/MMC Card reader for convenient data transfer and storage anywhere you go

Awesome product. My brother has the older model (8-in-1 Ultra player), hence the reason I even know about this item. I've been shopping for an MP3 player for about half a year now but haven't been sold on any until I saw my brother using his.

He let me use it & I found that it was extremely durable (the new one is even more-so) which is my main concern and also that it has the cool feature of having a memory drive.

This device itself is 512 MB but is expandable to 1.5GB.

You can save 512MB to the machine then another 1GB worth of stuff on a memory card. This means that you can have as many 1 GB cards to keep your stuff without having to delete it in place of newer stuff (you can keep all of your song downloads w/o having to constantly delete them when you're sick of them, very cool!! You can have a card for each music genre if you want!!).

I'm just in it for the music but this player can do pretty much anything (14 uses).

Five stars all the way (oh, and up to 15+ hours of battery life compared to the older model's 8 hours).

****HUGE WARNING: YOU CAN'T USE REGULAR AAA BATTERIES TO DOWNLOAD MUSIC, YOU CAN ONLY USE THEM TO LISTEN TO STUFF. DOWNLOADING REQUIRES RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES DUE TO THE FACT THAT RECHARGING OCCURS WHEN THE DEVICE IS HOOKED UP WITH YOUR CPU.****

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Over All Rating: C

Earbud Sound: C

Overall Features: A

Documentation: D

Tech Support: F

Quality: B

I recently bought this MP3 Player because it had a great rebate deal that brought the cost way down. For the price I paid, I am happy with it. If I had paid the standard price, I would have been very disappointed. The good news is that it has some great features. I love the 1.5 Gig expandability and the FM Radio tuner, but I don't think it stands up to the quality you find from companies like Apple.

Customer beware when it comes to Firmware upgrades. I downloaded the latest firmware from the Company's site after getting the product. The "latest" firmware on the site was older than what came with the player and when I tried to load it on the MP3 player, it turned out to be incompatible too. The player went dead and it took me a good 3 days to figure out how to get it to reload the original firmware again.

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This unit does not have a resume feature, which is a must if you use this for spoken-word audio. Other MP3 players from Ultra Products are having their firmware upgraded, and will correct this shortcoming, but Ultra Products has not committed to upgrading the firmware for this unit.

3ft Premium Toslink Digital Optical Audio Cable (S/PDIF)

After I bought this, I thought to myself something I really should have thought of before. Why is this cable gold plated? What a waste of gold, it never even remotely comes into contact with the optical signal. Anyway, its very well made and has a tough jacket.

I used mine on our surround sound, sound quality is great. The quality is very good, it easily plugs in to our STB.

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This is the second such cable I have ordered. The metal tip makes a huge difference--keeps placement solid and sturdy. Anyone using an optical cable is familiar with how "soft" the connection is and this cable helps resolve the problem. Well made product.

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This is a very nice cable for the price. I didn't want just some crappy PVC coated cable. I can't be sure that this cable is necessarily PVC-free, but the connectors, grips, and cable are all obviously not made of PVC.

The grips are a high quality polished "gunmetal" colored metal. The connectors themselves look gold. The braided cable has a very nice gold and black pattern. For a slight increase in price compared to an average cable, you get something that is actually nice to use and look at.

If you have trouble hiding your cables because of your home audio setup, I highly recommend this cable. Even if you can hide your cables, this cable is a pleasure to use and the price difference is slight.

An important thing to note about the 3ft length. With a cable like this it does not bend easily. 3 feet is just enough for two components sitting next to each other. You will have trouble routing this cable any further than about 1ft away because of the way the wire holds its shape.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Multiple input AND output options.

HIGH speed with thunderbolt cable.

Clean design, looks great on desk.

No annoying indicator lights.

Cons:

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

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

Wrap up:

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

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

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

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

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Panasonic RR-US360 Digital Voice Recorder

After reading other reviews and shopping around I elected to buy a Panasonic RR US360. I am very happy with the ease of use, size, and clarity. However, I will NOT recommend this item to anyone due to the extreme difficulty I have had trying to download the recordings to my Dell D600 using Win 2000. What you do not learn until you have purchased and possibly used the item is that Win 2000 will not recognize the device and you are told to access it via the VoiceStudio software that comes with the item. Great, except it has not worked and doesn't recognize the USB port, much less the device. I have tried contacting Panasonic help and I strongly recommend anyone thinking of purchasing one of these to call them at 1-800-211-7262 and cycle thru the options (1,4,2,7) as given to me by the 'audio technician' to get help with the US360. The minimum wait time I have encountered is 21 minutes, but have yet to get a resolution and having been told I would be called and left my number, after 2 weeks I have yet to be called, have sent in emails via their web, and have not received any response. Panasonic again, absolutely NOT!!!! Call for yourself before buying and save yourself the frustration later.

I am satisfied with the sound of this small voice recorder. However, I cannot install the Voice Studio software onto my computer. I noticed the problem at Circuitcity.com, and thought that was associated with Windows 98. However, I am using Windows ME. I have not had any problems with any other software. Therefore, be aware that this recorder may not work on your computer as well. I am giving a two star rating because 1) the claimed selling point is not working. 2) Panasonic has terrible customer service with this product. No support information on this product on their website. No response to e-mail inquiries. Called them, I was put to wait for 40 minutes and then kicked out. Their customer service let me feel angry.

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Very good quality sound recorder for professional (but non-jounalistic) use: dictation of ones ideas, taking interviews, recording what people say at trade fairs etc...

Takes good enough recordings of very long seminars at low quality settings (up to 8 hours), good meeting recording and interviews at medium setting (4 hours) and excellent recordings at dictation setting. However the latter means only 2h20minutes so you need a portable in the neighbourhood for transferring files so that you can delete and continue recording in this mode. The quality is good without a mic but is even better with a small directional mic that one holds in the direction of the interviewees (especially in noisy environments)

The major weak point is the file transfer soft. Voice Studio recently replaced by Voice Editor is a strange software. One has to stay within the program to transfer files to and from the recorder but also between storage devices. Using simple microsoft copy/pasting of files ruins the whole storage system and audio files become unreadable. So one has to make virtual disk-structures to copy onto backup storage devices. The advantage though is that within the Software one can do a lot with the audio file and if the data is sensitive, a common thief cannot do much with a lost/stolen storage diskette since they will need the panasonic software to listen to the content.

However manipulating the files within the software is easy and has some neat functions if one has to transcribe interviews: dividing of long recordings (so that they become more easy to transcribe or organise in subject classes), gluing two files together, flags in the files etc. Conversion to WAV is possible so one can copy the recordings to CD and play the interviews again on a walkman device.

For non-professionals I find the transmission of audio files to friends via e-mail very awkward: one has to send an replay-exe with the audio files which is a bugger now that everybody has a firewall.

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Practically everything I own is Panasonic rice maker, home entertainment system, vaccum cleaner, clock radios. I have three of their older voice recorders and this RR360. The device is great. What isn't great is their software. It's hideous. It's worse than hideous, it's the worst commercial software I've seen in a long time. It's the only package I know of that consistently bluescreens Windows 2000 Pro. I'd love to update it to the latest version and see if that helps, but when I use the VoiceStudio Help -> Update menu it stupidly tells me that VoiceStudio is not installed on my computer. They do not offer the software for download separately, you can supposedly only upgrade it through their menu. All attempts to contact Panasonic tech support are fruitless. The recorder uses a proprietary format and they don't release specs so you can't use it with Linux, older Windows versions or future Windows versions just the ones out now. Right now I've got a rather important 2 hour meeting stored on it that I can't upload because every time I try it bluescreens the two computers I've got their software installed on. I'm going to have to capture the analog audio as a .wav file.

I'm a huge Panasonic fan, but don't buy this one because they won't let you get to your own data and they won't respond to requests for tech support on it.

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I totally agree with Jeff. In fact, I wish he wrote his review before I purchased the RR-US360! My laptop has Windows XP and I can't download the driver either. Windows doesn't recognize the device and I can't even manually install the driver from the CD. I keep getting:

The specified location does not contain information about your hardware

Customer service is really bad! They keep you on hold for a long time and then don't even help you fix the problem. Ridiculous!

Other than the above, the voice recorder works pretty well.

KGuard BR801-8CW154M All-in-One Security System - 8-Channel -500GB DVR, 8 CMOS Day/Night Vision Cam

Had a problem with 2 cameras not working , left voicemails on there phone , 3 emails, someone from china answerd me back and told me to contact California ,i said that's what I've been tying to do, tried doing rma on there Web site just to exchange 2 cameras but after filling form out it says sorry were under maintance and it deletes everything you put in it , wired every thing up with there garbage wire it came with, no one responded back to me, not happy with this .night vision really stinks cant see anything ,will not do buisness with them again. Never

Archos 704 80 GB WiFi Portable Digital Media Player

• Portable media player with 80 GB hard drive stores up to 70 DVD-quality movies
• Integrated 802.11g wireless networking for connectivity to desktop PC, downloading videos from online stores
• Bright 7-inch LCD touchscreen for input from fingers or included stylus
• Plays MP3, WAV, WMA and protected WMA music files; also compatible with JPEG, PNG and BMP image files
• Measures 7 by 5 by 0.75 inches; weighs just 22 ounces

I like this player a lot. 3 minutes out of the box I was connected the home WiFi. 2 minutes later it found my Infrant ReadyNAS (ReadyNAS NV+, 1.0TB (4 x 250GB pre-installed Seagate Barracuda ES SATA HDD), X-RAID, 256MB memory, Silver, SFF desktop NAS) and was streaming MP3s and video to the player flawlessly.

Size:

It's thick and heavy. It has a similar footprint to a Sony ebook reader, but much deeper and heavier. It's just about as wide and tall as a DVD case, but again, much deeper (almost 3/4 of an inch deep).

Formats:

I do not have any media formats that this won't play. I did purchase the optional .VOB codec from the Archos site. It plays my WMV (including DRM stuff), Divx, AVI, MP3(all kinds).

Accessories:

It comes with a nice woven nylon case and a 120V power adapter. It has headphones (with inline volume) and USB in and USB out.

Connections:

It has audio out (headphones), power, USB (mini in, mini out, two Archos plugs for docking and that's it. Everything else needs a dock to work.

Screen:

The touch screen is vibrant and very bright. I have big fingers so I do better with a stylus for controls. The high resolution is amazing.

Sound:

The speakers are "OK" but headphones could be louder. I took this on a plane yesterday and the included headphones were not loud enough to hear over the engine noise. I had to use my Sure E5c headphones to hear anything on videos and MP3s (Shure E5c Sound Isolating Earphones).

Internet:

It comes with Opera and surfing was fine. A great device for webmail or shopping (it comes with am eMusic 50 free MP3s certificate). I will take this (instead of a laptop) on my next vacation.

Sync:

The platey can snyc (USB) as a Windows Media Device or a USD hard drive. I love that option (it asks you each sync).

Issues:

1. I would have liked a place to "plunge" the stylus in the device for storage (the case has a tiny pocket).

2. I would have liked Svideo out without buying a dock.

3. Audio out should be louder.

Wishes:

1. I would love to see this use a bluetooth phone as a DUN to the hit the net.

2. I would love to have and SD Card reader on board to help move media on the road.

Other Issues:

1. Be careful with Unbox video. The resolution of this player far exceeds most mobile players. One of my goals was to start buying Unbox videos instead of ripping my DVDs all the time. Problem: the "mobile" size of Unbox video looks very poor on the screen (please try an inexpensive one for yourself)due to low resolution. And Unbox does not allow you to sync (no snyc rights) the larger video that you download. So I have a video that I "bought" that I cannot use on this device because the low version looks so bad, and the high-res version has DRM restrictions that won't let it play on the 704 Wifi. Not terrible, but it will keep 704 owners from renting or buying from Unbox for sure.

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I orignally purchased this as a companion to my A504 so I can watch videos from a further distance while at a hotel (I travel A LOT). The first thing I learned is that the screen is a fingerprint magnet so using a stylus is the best bet. The included stylus is okay (one extra is included) but I've been using a pen/stylus combo that works just as well and isn't as liable to get lost. The case is acceptable, but could use a little more rigidity for my taste.

Video clarity is pretty good; not as good as the A504 but it is still decent with less glare than the A504. The screen is also nice and bright and can be seen under most lighting conditions (except direct sunlight which I encountered while flying to southern California recently). I was also happy with the embeded speaker volume as it didn't need to be jacked up 100 to be heard in a mildly noisy room like the A504.

Video & Audio out are just as good as the A504 while using the DVR station. One little nitpick would be the adapter for the DVR station could be a little deeper to make the connection more secure.

PC connection is very good as you can use a cable from another AX04 unit or a standard USB mini-plug with the choice to sync as a Windows device or use as a hard drive. I generally use it as a hard drive as the files I transfer are all Xvid or Divx and I don't want WMP11 to re-code my files. The only gripe here would be the lack of USB charging. All other 4th generation Archos units are USB chargeable, but this one isn't.

Using the unit as a web tablet was a real suprise. I didn't think that I would use it in that capacity very often, but I found (on a recent trip) that I could do almost everything on the web with the 704 that I can do with a laptop. It came in very handy during a recent conference where I needed to get to some .PDF files off my corporate website to show a customer. It isn't the fastest unit in town, but it works quite well in a pinch. I've found myself using it at home with my wireless connection almost as often as I use my laptop. One thing I would like to see is the ability to connect a small keyboard for data input as trying to write an email using the onscreen keyboard is a bit of a pain. Also, trying to access streaming video off of a webpage is an effort in futility.

Battery life is very good for a unit this large. I turned it on and let it run through my video folder (at brightness level one which is the default and at 75% volume) and it took just over 4 1/2 hours to deplete the battery. I haven't noticed if using the WiFi drains the battery any faster but it doesn't seem to.

All in all, I am very happy with the unit. I'm a huge Archos fan (except for their customer service, but I digress...) and I look forward to getting the spare batteries as soon as they are available.

Read Best Reviews of Archos 704 80 GB WiFi Portable Digital Media Player Here

I've eagerly waited for a device that could do all the things the 704 says it can do. And believe me I've had all the devices out there. 1st gen I=pod to Video I-pod and the Archos 704 Wifi blows them away. If you are a true techie like myself you'll have to agree that nothing comes close to this little baby. The screen is excellent especially if you have Divx files, not to mention that it can handle almost any video file out there with the plugins of course. Mpeg, VOB, WMV, Divx and even Apple Mp4 files without a hickup. I used to own the Archos 504 but when I saw this baby, wow was I sold. Connecting to my home wireless network is a breeze and using it as a file server took a bit longer than I expected, but once I was up and running it was easy! What I'll be looking for next is the ability to watch streaming video or music and then I'll die happy! In a nutshell, an I-pod is nice to have if you're just into music and paying for one at $299 is not the best way I like spending my money. I hooked it up to my plasma and it was like renting a DVD movie, clear and sound was pretty good. I also hooked it up to my LCD projector and was surprised that the quality was also good.

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This is a great device. As previous reviews mentioned, it took me less then 2 minutes to get on the internet, check weather and read the latest news on the BBC. The browser works a lot better then I expected.

Displaying pictures is extremely fast, even large jpgs of 4-5 MB load under a second. This was for me the main purpose as I often do extensive trips where I take lots of pictures. Bringing 30-40 1gig memory cards is just not practical nor is bringing a heavy laptop.

I had no problems playing DIVX files and jumping to the middle of the movie was extremely fast, better then my current PC. The sharpness of the screen could be improved a bit, but it is far better then my old AV400 (which I am replacing because it only has a 20GB HD) and above all it is nice and large.

There are a few things I wish they would fix/add.

1)viewing PDFs is slow since only one page is loaded at the time, even for very small PDF files.

2) No way to view or type up a quick text file

3) The device is Linux based and has a browser, so I wish they would release some limited utils/games for it. A text/notes editor, Sudoku, solitair... Or at least allow the user to point to the 704's drive to pull up self made web pages.

Oh and I almost forgot, it played my MP3s flowlessly.

I can't wait for my next vacation trip and really test it out!!!

Let me start out buy saying that I have always been a huge Archos fan. This is my third one and it is GARBAGE. It arrived borken (from Archos). Instead of taking the broken unitback and sending me a new one, they insisted on trying to fix it. It came back still not working. I was told to wait 5-6 weeks for a firmware update, that would fix my issues. When the firmware did finally come, it did nothing to address any of my issues. So called them. Still wouldn't send a new one; wanted to try to fix it again. I paid, again, to have it sent out. Came back broken again. Keep in mind, each time you send it to their horrible tech and customer service, it takes 4-5 weeks to get back. So now I called them and told them I just want to return the item for a refund. I was told I was past my 30 days! hahahhaha. I told them I haven't had a working unit for 1 day and the only reason I have held onto the unit is because you guys told me your firmware would fix it. So I now have mailed the unit back a third time and it has been sitting in limbo with them for 4 weeks now. I ordered this unit the day it was released. It is now months and months later, and I still have no working item; even worse, the nest generation 705's will probably been weeks away when I finally do get a wroking unit. This customer support is pathetic. I am a huge backer of Archos, and I am telling people to avoid this company like the PLAGUE. They got to big to quick and can't keep up with what is going on around them. They don't care what their customers think as long as they haveyour money. You will hear a ton of people say that "mine works fine I don't know what he is talking about". Trust me. Go to any Archos site dedicated to Archos, and there is just one horror story after another, talking about broken units and zero help in getting them repaired or replaced. If you happen to get on of these lemon units, the company will acts as if it is your problem and you must have done something to cause it. As stated...I have always been such a huge Archos fan and have heared the horror stories, but now that I am on their side of the fence, I know completely what they are talking about. STAY CLEAR OF THIS COMPANY. Purchasing anything from them is like putting $500 down on black in roullette -you have a 50-50 chance of hitting with a winning unit, but if you don't your out %500. Because they will not give you your money back and it will pretty much become a second job getting it fixed (they put you on hold fo HOURS at a time and then they eventually just let the phone system disconnect you. At which point you have to call over and get back into the waiting line which will take hours again). Please do yourself a favor. Look at Cowon or some other company.

Panasonic DMR-E10 Progressive-Scan DVD-RAM Recorder and Player

• Make your own DVDs!
• Encodes and stores video information in the MPEG2 encoding format using hybrid VBR (Variable Bit Rate) on DVD-RAM discs
• Dolby Digital 2.0 audio recording (two-channel stereo, using Dolby compression to allow greater recording time)
• 3 recording modes: XP (60 min.), SP (120 min.), and LP (240 min.)
• Fully equipped DVD-Video player with progressive-scan video and Dolby Digital and DTS surround audio outputs; 5-speed (up to 100x) crystal-clear scan quality

Please note this vitally important information that you can only know AFTER you purchase this DVD player and read Page 6 of the Operating Instructions: "DVD-RAM discs recorded using this unit cannot be played on other DVD players (including units made by Panasonic except specific players having DVD-RAM playback capability). The only type of blank disc which the unit can record (and play back) is a DVD-RAM/RAM 4.7 (type 2 cartridge recommended but type 1 can also be used)."

Therefore, when you tape on this machine, you CAN ONLY playback on this machine or other SPECIAL Panasonic machines (that have only just been released with DVD-RAM functionality) and you have to use special DVD's as well. Be careful, this is far less useful when you cannot give a taped DVD's to your friends and family to watch without giving them your DVD player as well !!

Good luck,

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Having purchased this item,it seems to do exactly what it was designed to do,which is recording and editing of tape and broadcast material.Although this item does not play its recorded media on most other manufacturers DVD players,it posseses powerful editing features,which allow for creation of a master which is capable of being overwritten and used again.If your looking for something to copy camcorder tapes and send them to friends,this isnt what you need,go to ebay and buy a VCD burner,Video CD recorder:ie OX-DVA 2000, which copies media to a regular 74 minute CDR.If you like collecting and editing old out of print movies and tapes,and plan on buying two units,use this one for making a master and purchase a DMR-E20 or a Panasonic DMR-T2020D and make your final copy on a DVDR.note:DVD RAM discs are expensive and this unit uses specific types.DVDR discs are not cheap,but they are cheaper then dvd ram,but to my knowledge the cheap ones are write once only,and if you spoil the recording your out a disc.this unit also requires some getting used to,my only regret is that if i had waited a few days,I could have paid alot less.hope this helped you on making a purchase decision.

best regards,

ST

NOTE:if you want a unit that records on both types of media the Panasonis DMR-E20,and the Panasonic DMR-T2020D(pro version)are compatable with both DVDRAM and DVDR.

Read Best Reviews of Panasonic DMR-E10 Progressive-Scan DVD-RAM Recorder and Player Here

I didn't read the previous reviews carefully enough. DVD's recorded on this unit can only be played back on this unit. I bought it so I could record DVD's and watch them elsewhere. Since I can't do that, I am sending the unit back. It is too bad that this feature--or lack of feature--wasn't mentioned in the item's description. That would have saved me considerable time and trouble.

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I bought one of these machines in September and liked it so much I bought two more, for two other TVs in the house. I can't say enough good things about it. It works very simply, just like a VCR, only with DVD quality. (No more tracking problems on VHS or S-VHS tapes!) DVD-RAM is great for time-shifting and creating play lists, which basically let you easily re-arrange scenes of the original recording, so you can play back without commercials or play back scenes in any order, etc. You can then transfer that to DVD-R for permanent archiving (if you have 2 units, one to play DVD-RAM, the other to record DVD-R). There is, however, no digital-to-digital connection so to do this you have to use analog outputs/inputs but the quality is still superb. Despite your first impression when you look at the instruction book (it looks complicated) it's very, very simple to use the machine. I don't know what some of these other critics are talking about here, rating the machine so low. I just love it.

For those people who are constantly taping movies, specially when receiving from a satellite dish, you notice how the quality diminishes completely when recorded on VHS, and until now, we had nothing else to do.

So, for those who can afford this DVD recorder and the DVDs you'll have to record on later, this is a dream come true. I couldn't wait for another player, so this is what I chose, and I'm completely happy.

A drawback is that I can't play CD-R.

C2G / Cables to Go 29130 Velocity S-Video+RCA Stereo Audio Cable, Blue (100 Feet/30.48 Meters )

This looks like a quality product and it has served me well. It's not so easy to find a combination cable with stereo audio and S video these days so I was happy to find this one. Excellent build quality. Works as advertised.

This is a well made durable product. I use it with Elgato Video Capture. Video quality is excellent. Connections are very solid

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I use this cable to give me a TV display on a spare LCD panel in my office. I ran the cable from my Directv box in a nearby room. I have to go to the other room to switch channels, but I don't tend to channel surf much.

The video and sound are fine.

Read Best Reviews of C2G / Cables to Go 29130 Velocity S-Video+RCA Stereo Audio Cable, Blue (100 Feet/30.48 Meters ) Here

I Located a DVD player far away from tv on wall. These worked great for that. I was concerned about video/audio due to lenght of cable but the signal is great.

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I purchased this Velocity cable to patch my Dish Network receiver to a SDTV card in my computer. The picture is excellent and so is the sound. Perfect cable for the job, I watch TV in a window on the PC monitor while using the computer.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera (Raspberry)

Check out my sample footage video on Youtube. On Youtube search "djeror zi8 low light"

In my previous review of the Kodak Zi8 I was pretty frustrated at the fact that whenever I used the built in microphone the recorded videos had an annoying high pitch whine that made the audio from my videos almost unusable. Kodak recognized that this was an issue and created a firmware update that fixed the problem. It also fixed a few other things like the previous issue of the image getting darker as you zoomed in. They seem to have fixed all of the major problems with this firmware fix.

I do tech product reviews so I need the following things:

External mic input most of my videos are shot wearing a lapel mic

Macro mode I have to get close to little tiny screens

SDHC memory I go to all day trade shows, I need 10+ hours of video

Power options I need to be able to shoot while AC power is plugged in or use a large external battery.

Under $200 I'm poor.

Because of these requirements no other camcorder can fit my needs. One cool thing about this camera is that it is much more upgradable than the other pocket cameras on the market.

Con:

-The built in microphone is OK now that they fixed the whining noise, but it's still not amazing.

Work-around:

Don't use the internal mic... I use an Audio Technica lapel mic for 1 person interviews.Audio Technica ATR-3350 Lavalier Omnidirectional Condenser Microphone For events I ordered a Sony stereo mic to use instead of the built in mic. Sony ECM-DS70P Electret Condenser Stereo Microphone . Although I wish that Kodak made the internal mic better, for the most part I am kind of excited that the Sony stereo mic will give me much better sound than any of the standard internal mics that any of the pocket cams have.

Con:

-Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS) sucks a lot of juice. Also the Zi8 uses a proprietary battery rather than cheap swappable AA's. Battery life when shooting non-stop is 1hr 16min in 720p 60fps with EIS on. If you turn off EIS you get about 1hr 41min at 720p 60fps.

Work-around:

Use the USB to power cable that comes with the camera in conjunction with an external battery source. This is a must if you are going to be recording for more than an hour with EIS, cause that's about what the internal battery will give you. Tekkeon TekCharge Rechargeable Li-Poly Battery You can just stick this battery pack in your pocket and connect the charging cable to the Zi8. This will allow you to record for a super long amount of time. I haven't tested to see what my total record time with the battery pack will be but it should be around 5X the standard recording time. (about 6 hours with EIS on, almost 9 with it off) This gives you the best battery life of almost any camcorder. Sure it's an extra cost, but when you're at an all day trade show you don't have to worry about running out of juice.

Con:

Image stabilization can't rescue video you shoot while moving around. Any camera motion makes video awful.

Work-round:

Accept the fact you should probably be using a mini tripod with this camera or at least stand still. Also, although it takes a bunch of time to process if you have the new iMovie the image stabilization processing you can do is light years beyond what the EIS in the Kodak Zi8 can do.

One more important note. Make sure you buy high speed SDHC memory cards for this thing. If your SD card is not fast enough the camera will record for like 2 seconds and then stop with an error. It took me a while to figure out why the camera kept stopping recording when in HD mode but worked fine in SD mode. It was because of my old SD card. You need to make sure your SD card has a write speed of at least 9MB/s if you want to record in 1080p. These high speed cards cost more, but you need them for any camcorder that is going to record HD video to them, it's not just the Zi8. I think most Class 6 high speed SDHC cards should work.

If you want to get the most out of this camera plan on spending an extra $100 $150 in order to buy upgrade items. Personally I've come to the conclusion that the extra expenses were worth it. It all depends on what you plan on using the camera for. For a typical mom purse cam this would not be my recommendation, I would say go with a Flip Ultra HD. But for someone with particular needs like mine this camera may be the only one that fits the bill.

I rarely will type/review products but I've been a little frustrated reading the reviews of this product on Amazon and by users at other sites. Many users seem to think that this camera was designed to compete with expensive, professional cameras that cost thousands of dollars and produce full HD quality video. That's not what this is. Also, while my camera hasn't had the 'noise' issue from the Mic, i have seen a camera that had the issue and its BARELY noticeable. Its almost like a very quiet background noise from a Florescent light or something.

Kodak has designed, marketed, and built a camera to compete with FLiP and has clearly produced a FAR better product.

I'll keep it short and sweet and first explain who I am and what I am using this camera for. I use it for:

-Home Videos/Fun stuff with old buddies and friends

-For work when I need some quick video that's easy to upload online, or put in iMovie and edit

-For work when I need more complex videos that may require editing, or somewhat lengthy video but I want the ease of use/portability.

I have seen some of the problems stated with the internal Mic and I have had none of them (I do have the upgraded Firmware that is now standard 1.03, and Kodak says this completely eliminates the issue...again have never had the issue on my camera). A relative of mine was lucky enough to purchase this product when Kodak did an 'early' release a few months ago and occasionally his videos will have a bit of a higher pitched background noise, but it doesn't interfere with the sound from the video -its just a light background noise that, honestly, i've heard on dozens of cameras. Don't forget, without an external Mic the camera only records mono so -the sounds quality isn't going to be great anyway!

The video is great, image stability isn't as advanced as those available on more expensive cameras but it is better than anything i've seen in a FLiP or other Kodak model. It does work and you can see a difference, even if its not huge. Its SO easy to flip between video modes. The 1080p is awesome, but sometimes its nice to move back down to 720 and the 60fps to capture 'action' footage.

One negative -which most people may see as a positive -i do wish there were more settings, or at least the ability to play around with more features/edit modes. Its GREAT easy to use, its a point and shoot video camera -but with the great lens and abilities, it seems like Kodak could have -pretty easily -had this camera competing with much higher end cameras. If all the hardware was put to great use this could compete with $500+ cameras. But I understand wanting to keep it simple.

I like having the SD card. Some people would prefer the internal memory, and yes by the time you buy a decent sized SD card the camera is more expensive than the FLiP, but, the FLiP has a very limited memory. This camera is limited only by the size of the card...Definitely a positive!

Finally, I know people that are both in the TV business and do a lot of Video blogging and they are drooling over this camera because of the external mic capabilities. One reason lots of 'pros' didn't like FLiP was because of the audio issues. Kodak has solved those, not to mention providing better quality video.

Again this isn't something to shoot with if your a young film-maker or a die-hard amateur cinematographer. But if you need something cheap to get some great quality video, or need something super easy to use that is really portable....Take the plunge. And if your considering FLiP -don't bother...

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Instead of shooting a review, I took some video, outdoors in the dark, in a dim room, and various lighting conditions. I erased the audio portion it was just wind and ambient noise. The original video is great quality hopefully Amazon does not compress it too much!

Christmas lights in front of the house, the tree inside the house, and some footage at the local gym (dark, medium and bright conditions!)

I also shot some close-up footage with the close-up setting on and off so you can see how it works.

All videos are recorded by the camera in .mov format.

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So, I read all the same reviews you did on Amazon. Some people love it some people have had problems. I have not seen a product with such a wide range of reviews and was very leery. I bought it locally at a store with a good return record as Amazon was out of stock with no ETA on new stock.

I will start by saying, I have not had any of the problems that seem common here. No lines, no funny squeals/hums, etc. This unit came with the latest firmware installed (1.06).

Reading the 4 and 5 star comments on Amazon, I would say they are in line with my own experiences. For my needs this camera hits the mark on so many levels.

My needs:

Small camera

Ability to record fast action movement of sports/dance activities

Extremely easy to play back on a computer AND television

Zoom. Optical would be great, but not needed for what I do.

A standard video format that could be edited by lots of different software.

Major pluses that tipped the scale to this camera over others:

Removable memory. I don't want to download everything to a computer when I am on vacation. Swapping out the memory card is like loading film...I'll process it when I get home.

Removable Battery. With all of my rechargeable tools/toys, I will use them more if I can swap out a run down battery and keep going. This lesson was first learned with cordless drills, always buy a second battery so you can keep working.

Decent quality video for the size. Look at another reviewer on Amazon. He did a decent job of recording in different lighting conditions to show you what to expect. Similar videos were found on Youtube.

Software:

This seems to be a problem for a lot of people. I really didn't expect much and knew from other reviews that the .mov format was compatible with Quicktime. I would have preferred something I could use on Windows Movie Maker, but if the software did not work it was only $30 to upgrade to Quicktime Pro to edit.

As an aside: I found it interesting that folks complained that only PC software was included. What they didn't seem to understand is this .mov format works natively with the standard iMovie software on the Mac.

All that said, the Arcsoft software loaded fine on an old laptop running XP. Now, like any other video editing software, I had to close all other programs to keep the video from being jumpy when I edited or played it.

The one interesting detour I did not expect was the 8GB SDHC card I bought for the camera was not something the old XP could read with it's built in SD card reader (SDHC did not exist when this computer was built). It worked fine with a newer Vista based computer. That said, flipping out the USB connection from the camera and plugging it into the XP laptop worked great. The laptop treated the camera like a USB memory stick and the movies run in Quicktime.

As to converting the .mov to something I can use (say .avi) with Windows Movie Maker, I did find some free tools listed by other reviewers that worked fine (RAD Video Tools http://www.radgametools.com/bnkdown.htm) .

What would I like to see different? An adjustable focal length so I could get everyone in the shot across the table and still take the long shots. I expect that will be years before this feature is affordable enough to put in a $200 camera. I do look forward to that day as I bet we see optical zoom and detachable lenses to do fun things when that day comes.

I think I got lucky in some areas and had different expectations in other areas.

It appears that the early adopters had problems and Kodak was quick to fix them. I received a newer model with the latest fixes (firmware) and possibly newer ArcSoft software.

I never expected a $200 camera without optical zoom to take pictures of cameras costing twice as much and more.

I never expect included software to be stellar as that has never been my experience with ANY product. It should do the basics, and for me it did, although I probably won't use it given other free options.

I have had video cameras in the past and recognize the need for good lighting, both on the subject and behind the subject. That said, I am pleased with the video even in low-light situations as it is better than what I expected.

If you need a small video camera that is very easy to use and share your videos, I would not hesitate to recommend this to you.

Want Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera (Raspberry) Discount?

I'm friends with a lot of Boston area musicians, and I have been very supportive of them. Near the beginning of the year, I started using a Kodak Zi6 in preparation for a video project involving the Boston area music community, mostly as proof of concept for the use of modern low-cost video technology in capturing music shows in a very naturalistic, unobtrusive manner. There was a long learning curve, mostly to do with processing the raw video and audio -video cameras in general are not designed for the lighting and sound levels typical of club shows, and despite the limitations of the Zi6 -not so good low light sensitivity, a mono-only mic, and the included software was useless for my purposes -I ended up getting pretty good results.

When the Zi8 was announced and that not only it was suppose to have better low light sensitivity and a higher resolution, but also image stabilization and a jack for an external stereo microphone, it was a no-brainer to get one. What was tricker was deciding on the microphone -there were some video reviews on YouTube and such, but nobody was really recommending anything in particular. I did find one video using a Sony ECM-DS70P Electret Condenser Stereo Microphone and that seemed like it would work well: it was very compact, seemed to sound pretty good, and was relatively inexpensive. For the memory card, which you need, I just reused the 8 Gb SDHC cards I had bought for the Zi6. I had gotten spoiled with the battery life of the Zi6 -a couple of cheap, rechargeable 2400mah NiMH AA batteries would be good for all night and nearly 4 Gb of recording. The Zi8 uses a compact lithium-ion battery that lasts maybe only a third as long. Amazon had exceptional deals, though, on both compatible batteries and a charger, so I ended up getting both 2 BATTERY+CHARGER FOR KODAK KLIC-7004 V1073 V1273 M1033 and Kodak KLIC-7004 / Fuji Np-50 / Pentax DL-I68 Compatible Li-Ion Battery. Even though the specs on these batteries give them a higher capacity than the Kodak battery that comes with the Zi8, they've so far been lasting about 80-90% as long. For the price, though, they were/are exceptional deals.

I starting using the Zi8/Sony mic combo back at the beginning of October and the overall improvement over the Zi6 was immediately obvious: even at the same 720p resolution, the Zi8 produced much sharper, cleaner video in a club environment, and the Sony mic just rocked in terms of sound quality. The Zi6 for a long while was reputed to have the best internal mic of all the pocket digital camcorders, but the Zi8 with the Sony just blew it away. The best thing about the Zi6's mic, though, was that it was nearly impossible to make it clip -it was able to handle insane volume levels. The only times it had trouble was with very, VERY high bass volume levels. The only drawback to the Zi8/Sony combo is that it can't quite handle the same volume levels, especially if there is excessive midrange on the vocals. The Zi8 has an microphone input level control, but even at its lowest setting, I've had a couple of instances where vocals cracked due to excessive midrange volume at around 640khz. But bear in mind that is while standing near the stage and by the speakers at a rock show mixed with too much midrange. But so far, for easily most of the rock shows, the audio has turned out superb with the same processing tricks I learned using the Zi6.

There is one proviso with the audio: I now always extract the audio and use a separate audio editor (something like the free Audacity editor) to clean it up before adding it back to the video (which is actually easier than it sounds). I did notice that there was very narrow "dip" (more like a reverse spike) at about 7900khz that wasn't correctable, but it was narrow enough and at a high enough frequency not to be noticeable. I thought that this was a Sony mic characteristic, but I recently upgraded the Zi8's firmware to 1.06, and the "dip" shifted downwards to about 5500khz, and was a little bit wider, but not nearly as steep. You would think that this would be more noticeable, but that it's now much more correctable than when it was at 7900khz, and the audio overall sounds cleaner than before the upgrade.

The biggest weakness with both the Zi6 and Zi8, and in general with all video cameras, as well as cameras that do video, is the software. Pretty much all concert videos need some adjustments for brightness, contrast, saturation and maybe hue, and the audio usually needs to be corrected with something like a graphic equalizer at the least. This is basic stuff, but nobody seems to include good software for this. The Zi8 comes with ArcSoft's MediaImpression, but while it does allow some good basic adjustments to picture quality, there is nothing for audio adjustment. Both the Zi6 and Zi8 save videos in Apple's Quicktime "Mov" format, and there isn't a whole lot on the Windows PC side that deals with this cheaply and easily. I tried Apple's Quicktime Pro, which is relatively cheap at $30, but I found it too slow, too limited, and too poorly designed to bother with for regular use. I also tried different conversion programs, but you always loose detail with every conversion. I ended up using VirtualDub, which is free, and some free plugins for it. But VirtualDub is not able to directly open up MOV without some geeky trickery, the details of which are beyond what I can put here. Probably for most users, another free program, Avidemux, will likely do. It's not really meant for beginners, but you can find beginner guides easily enough online. There are some $99 programs that *might* do, but my experience with a trial version of one of them wasn't the best, and you need a lot of horsepower to deal with a 720p video resolution. Even when using compact, no nonsense VirtualDub for processing, it typically takes my stripped-down 3 Ghz Pentium D system about an hour on average to process a typical 4 minute concert video for uploading to YouTube.

Anyone interested in my personal results can just do a YouTube search for "MelodyMatters" and all the videos there from the beginning of October to the present (except for one), were done with a Zi8. FYI....

KYOCERA OYSTR PREPAID VIRGIN MOBILE CELL PHONE

Please note I'm reviewing both the Virgin Mobile service here and also the Oystr phone.

First the phone. I've had Virgin Mobile service for 2.5 years and have been using an old Audiovox flip phone which is very small. Lately the buttons on the Audiovox are getting a bit dodgy and my eyesight is getting worse too (I'm 43) so I wanted a phone with a bigger, brighter screen. I've been waiting for Virgin Mobile to have some decent phones and I was excited to see this Oystr phone available at such a decent price.

However I discovered that you get what you pay for. To me, this phone was only marginally acceptable. First off, the phone seems very buggy. Sometimes the keypad backlighting comes on, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the screen remains lit througout a call (that surely accounts for part of the battery problems people have been reporting), sometimes it doesn't. Setting the backlighting to turn off after 7, 15 or 30 seconds made no difference on my phone; it always turned off after 2 minutes or so -when it did not stay on throughout a call. The messaging is buggy also -to give one example, the automatic capitalization works after a period, but not after a question mark or an exclamation mark. This latter bug doesn't seem limited to my particular phone. I emailed Virgin Mobile about it and they emailed me back to say they replicated this on their Oystr also. How it is that a phone aimed at young people doesn't have good SMS software is simply astonishing to me -it's not like this is a new technology. I've been using SMS-equipped phones for years in Asia, where most people send SMS messages more than they make phone calls. All of these bugs were giving me a queasy feeling so I decided to switch to the Nokia Shorty, which I am much happier with. Nokia has, in my opinion, the simplest and easiest to use cell phone software. The sound quality of phone calls on the Nokia compared to the Oystr is far superior, in my opinion.

This phone seems okay for someone who really wants a flip phone at a low price. But if you use your phone or SMS messaging a lot I think you will find the annoyances of this phone rather great.

Now let me talk about the Virgin Mobile service. I think it's very good overall. I have a special set of circumstances -I'm often working outside the US for months at a time. Therefore it seems a waste to me to pay a large monthly fee for a phone which I will not be using perhaps half the year. Virgin Mobile's service fits the bill perfectly. So far as I can tell, this is the cheapest large and well-established cell phone service. If you want a cell phone only for emergencies, to keep in the car, to use when you arrive at or are picking someone up at an airport, etc., then I think you can't beat Virgin Mobile. The minimum you can pay with them to keep your phone in service is $80/year -and that $80 goes toward call time. You have to add $20 to your account every 90 days to keep your account active. Then minutes are 25 cents/minute for the first 10 minutes on any one day, and 10 cents/minute after than first ten minutes (Virgin Mobile does not actively advertise this deal anymore, but it is still available if you ask them or search carefully on their website).

In contrast, Net 10 seems cheaper -10 cents/minute all the time -but you have to pay a minimum of $150/year to keep the service active (this is as of Sept. 2006 -plans change frequently, of course).

In addition, Virgin Mobile's customer support is exemplary. Every time I have called them with a problem, I got a knowledgable person who spoke English fluently and was very helpful and friendly. Their website is excellent and easy to use. I explored switching to the Net 10 service when I discovered the Oystr was such a poor phone -Net 10 has some nice phones available. But calling their customer service was a nightmare. It seems clear to me they have followed the trend toward outsourcing their customer service to offshore call centers in order to save money and it was very difficult to get basic information about their service. Net 10 as well has a reputation (do a search on Google) for having a difficult time switching a phone number over to their service. I decided not to risk it and just stay with Virgin and the Nokia phone. I'm glad I did.

Overall I give Virgin Mobile very high marks for their service, but poor marks for the phone selection. I do not know why they do not offer one good solid higher-end Motorola or Nokia phone to attract more adults (and smarter people) to their service. I hope in the future they see that they could reach a whole new market with their good service if they offered phones not just aimed at trendy high-schoolers but also at (slightly) older folks too.

Okay, so all the bad reviews for this phone almost made me not buy it. However, I needed a phone, and this one had nice features, and texting is cheap, so I went ahead and bought it, figuring I could return it if I didn't like it.

So, the first thing I notieced is that it is a nice phone. It is a perfect weight, comfortable to hold. The white case has a pearl-sheen to it, and is solid feeling. It is a study and tight phone, very durable. The screen is 128 x 128, and it looks muay nice. I've seen $50 phones with screens of lesser quality. You can change the brightness and contrast. I lowered the contrast one level, and it looks nice and crisp.

The phone is easy to navigate. It played with it for two minutes and figured out where everything was. It has the standard virgin mobile graphics [pig with wings, donkey, dragon, robot, etc.] and they aren't distracting or anything. The menu's are easy to navigate and see. The fonts are clear and easy to read, not cramped or odd colored. It comes with 4 backgrounds: swirls, diamond pattern, skulls & roses, and multi-colored eagles. On their site you can download more for $2. The phone comes with themes also, and you can download more.

The ringtones are nice. They've now added a 'Euro ringer' because the older generation didn't like the superphonic [song] ringers. The Euro ringer sounds like a normal phone, but just a tiny bit more fancy so as to not be boring. You can download hundreds of ringers on their site. I currently have Super Mario Brothers theme. The sound quality of the ringer has improved, it sounds loud and clear. No more tin box or static sounding.

The text imput is simple. You can disable auto-text and what not, and typing is fast. It is simple to navigate email, text, and inbox. Speed dialing, one touch, etc. can all be enabled, and they are simple to use. You can change sounds, including 'text recieved' alarms. You can add signatures to text messages, and graphics. The phone has both text AND picture messaging, even though the phone doesn't have a camera. Texts are cheap compared to most. A standard text is 5 cents both ways. However, even on the prepaid plan, you can sign up for a monthly texting plan [while keeping your prepaid plan]. You can get 1000 text messages a month for $9.99. Not a bad deal, best you will find for texting anywhere, especially for prepaid.

Web browsing is simple and easy to navigate. With one press of a button, the phone will pull up the number of minutes you have remaining. You can do this 5 times a day for free. If you are low on minutes, you can register your credit or debit card or paypal account on your Account through their site. If you check your minutes and it is low, then you can simply enter a dollar amount to refill, hit OK, and you have added more minutes. Very simple and convient; very nice since you don't have to go to a store to buy a card. All minute plans are 18 cents a minute no matter what, and this includes tax.

Oka, onto the matter everyone cares about: battery life. With the first Oystr's, battery life was terrible. Beyond terrible. Maybe 10 hours if you were lucky. Luckily, after so much complaing, VM has corrected this problem. With the older phones, the backlight stayed on constantly, even when the phone was closed, which drained the battery. Now, you have more options. You can go into Menu > Settings >Display > Duration. By default, the backlight will remain lit even when the phone is closed, though the screen goes off and the backlight dims. The purppose of this is so that if it is dark, you can see a faint blue glow coming from your closed phone, making it sylish and easy to find.

If you wish to stop this, go into Duration and select disabled. This will disable the backlight WHEN THE PHONE IS CLOSED. When you open the phone, the keys will light up just like normal. The difference is, the backlight NEVER stays on when the phone is closed. Battery life goes back to the stated 7-8 days. The only thing is that when the phone is open, it takes a full two minutes for it to dim. So that is two minutes of talking when the phone will be using a little more juice. But it doesn't make a huge difference. If you purchase an Oystr, do what I said [disable the backlight] and the phone still stays lit or the battery doesn't work, you ahve been sold the older, not-thought-out-too-well model. You need to contact VM and get them to send you a new one.

Reception on this phone is good. I'm yet to have a call dropped. The calls go through fast. Since you can pull up reports on your minutes, you don't have to listen to the robot tell you how many you have left. The sound quality is good. I can go into the very lower level of the school library, which is all stone, and I still get reception without a problem.

Rates on this prepaid plan are very nice, especially when you take into consideration the reception quality. Pay by the minute is 18 cents always. Texts are 5 cents always, both to send and recieve, UNLESS you want to sign up for the monthly texting plan [1000 for $10]. You can sign up for the text plan WHILE remaining on the pay by minute plan; VM is the only one with this. Another thing I like about VM is that I can switch between monthly plans and prepaid plans as often as needed. With other prepaid plans, once you switch to a monthly plan, you can't go back to pay by minute. With VM you can.

Overall, I really like this phone. It was dirt cheap, $20, and it is NICE. If it had a camera, it would be perfect. It is strong, crisp, has an Xcellent screen, nice downloads, good ringer, has song ringers which are also unheard of for a prepaid cell at this price, has excellent and strong reception, on-demand minute statitics, instant minute purchasing, etc. I hightly recommend this phone, as long as it is the newer model.

Buy KYOCERA OYSTR PREPAID VIRGIN MOBILE CELL PHONE Now

My husband and I have been pre-pay cell phone users for about 5 years now, we were with Trac-Fone, the only reason we left Trac-Fone was because we got tired of carrying around a heavy phone and for some reason the flip phones available through Trac-Fone didn't work for us, we never had a problem otherwise with Trac-Fone or their customer service, but because I wanted a flip phone I decided to do some research on other pre-pay cell phones out there.

A few weeks ago we decided to go with Virgin Mobile Audiovox 8610 and were basically happy with the phone except the 1 complaint that many have expressed, the sound of the ringtone was way too low, other then that we were happy with the signal and customer service.

I decided to buy my mother a pre-pay phone and saw the Oystr on the Virgin Mobile website, she's not a big cell phone person either and we just wanted to get her the phone in case she needed it for an emergency, I got the phone and charged it and was amazed how great this phone was, the ringtones go to level 7 whereas the Vox 8610 go to level 5, the ring was so loud that I had to put it down to a level 3 for her and that's still loud, so I was happy about that, also this phone is easy to program and the speakerphone worked great, this phone also offers voice dialing, just program it and all you have to do is press the send button and say Home or whatever you choose and it dials it automatically.

We loved this phone so much that we decided to buy 2 more Oystr phones and are returning the Vox 8610's. We were able to buy the Oystr at Best Buy for $29.99. I can't find anything wrong with this phone at all, the outer shell is hard and seems less susceptible to damage, the ring is very loud, we get a great signal, and the phone notifys us if we have a voice mail message. You can also send text messages and browse the web with this phone but since we're not interested in that I can't comment on it.

You can also download ringtones etc. for this phone. I can't say enough good things about it, for the price we paid we got a really great phone. Virgin Mobiles customer service has been awesome also, we had no problem changing over the phone from the Vox 8610 to the Oystr.

Read Best Reviews of KYOCERA OYSTR PREPAID VIRGIN MOBILE CELL PHONE Here

at first, the battery charge didn't last the entire day. the screen stays lit up EVEN THOUGH THE PHONE IS CLOSED. it NEVER shuts off. so i just changed the setting, battery stays charged all day. PENNY TEXTING is awesome! just 9.99 a month for 1000 messages. this is the easiest way to stay in touch as a family. way cheaper than calling and wasting minutes. unlimited plans are awesome too as nights start at 7pm. perfect time for my 12 year old to get home, do homework, eat dinner, and then call her friends. OH you can also text message to a land line and the message gets read to you AND you have the option of replying to that message! that feature has come in handy already. nice, simple, no frills phone with a plan to match. you can also earn up to 75 bonus minutes a month just by watching some ads on the website. it's called sugar mama, try it!

Want KYOCERA OYSTR PREPAID VIRGIN MOBILE CELL PHONE Discount?

The phone has gotten a lot of hits for battery life. I had the phone run down quickly once and quickly realized that if you close the phone on a select few functions it doesnt turn off the screen. It maybe a slight knock on the phone but if you simply look at it you can tell if the screen is on or not. If it is just reopen it and close it and the screen will turn off.

As far as the phone itself it has a few games a few ringtones and a few images. You can buy more, but frankly I dont care.

You can set it to vibrate or to vibrate and have a ringtone. It has plenty of functions for a inexpensive phone, such as web access, texting, speakerphone.

The best part of the phone however is the quality of the calls, my relatives have these ridiculously expensive phones with cameras and doo-dads and they sound like you're talking inside a toilet. This little cheap phone has 5x better sound quality than theirs. This is the little phone that can and I love it.