ReplayTV 3030 Digital Video Recorder

• Digitally records up to 30 hours of programming without videotape
• Pauses live broadcasts and resumes play at your leisure
• QuickSkip feature bypasses recorded commercials
• Instant Replay plays back programming in 7-second increments
• Free programming guide with no monthly service fees

ReplayTV is well worth adopting early and often. It took a while to set up the system correctly -due, I confess, to my anathema toward manuals no matter how simply written (and ReplayTV's is quite lucid). The customer service couldn't be better. They took at least a dozen calls as I worked my way through the setup and each time answered the phone quickly, knew what to do, and to a person exhibited a cheerful Job-like patience with me and the process. Wish that all customer service personnel were so well trained!

Others have already commented on the features... the biggest draw for me is the ease of use and the ability to create theme channels. I found VCRs to be fussy monsters ("plug and play," my arse). This is one technological advance long overdue. I can't wait to see what other innovations lie in the pipeline.

I took away a star because the screen gives off a blue triangle in the lower right hand corner whenever I play a recorded show. It's not a huge distraction, but worth noting.

post script: AOL bought out TiVo, yet another reason to choose ReplayTV.

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I first heard about the ReplayTV & Tivo (is it "tie-vo","tiv-o", "t-i-v-o" or "tee-vo"? I've heard all forms...) products several months ago from Sound & Vision magazine. I got really excited because I tend to travel from time to time & this new, user-friendly technology would definately help me keep up with my favorite shows something that you could never say about my VCR! Unfortunately, the money wasn't really there, especially for the available recording time.

Well, when the prices finally came down for the more capacity (especially consider that ReplayTV was originally $1500 for 28hrs when they first came out...), I started to do comparison research.

While the Tivo product looks pretty nice, I settled on the ReplayTV for the following reasons:

1. No monthly fees! I'm sorry, but I don't want another monthly bill in my life...

2. I'm a little uncomfortable with the idea of the Tivo thing trying to learn what I like it might work for other people, but I like the control that I get with ReplayTV.

3. The ReplayTV interface is a lot simpler.

Anyways, I hope this helps anyone who is on the fence about this Personal Television category. It helps so much not to be at the mercy of some random television programmer as to when you watch what you want now it's all on my schedule!

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Basically both units due the same thing...they record TV programs on to a 20 gigabyte hard disk. The beauty of the systems is that they are a breeze to program, you don't worry about changing or losing videotapes, and you can pause live programming if someone or thing interrupts you, and not miss anything. The Replay was my choice because of the additional input and outputs compared to the Tivo, and the greater cache time (30 minutes versus about 10 hours). What that means is that should you miss part of a program, the Tivo will overwrite that show after 30 minutes of recording versus the Replays 10 hours. The prices are about the same after you pay for the Tivo's lifetime programming charge.

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I've had my ReplayTV 3020 for a week now and thought i would express my views on it.

The box has a lot of different setups, you need to choose the right one for you. Personally I just split my cable feed and ran it to both my TV and the ReplayTV box so i can watch live TV or ReplayTV. Then i have the Svideo out of the ReplayTV to the TV and treat it as a VCR.

First i gotta say, the compression ratings that ReplayTV would have you believe are not exactly accurate. Standard recording quality can be as good as a VCR/Cable tv or worse it dependson the video being recorded. If the images are big and there's not too much movement it's pretty good. But if it's a crowd scene or a sporting event iwth lots of movement, it's worse than VCR. It can be very grainy uniless theres little movement or it's a closeup. It looks like you're watching an internet realvideo playback most of the time.

The Medium quality is a lot better, i'd put it up there the same quality as a vcr using Svideo out. Highest quality is great, but if your'e going to record everything on highest you should get the 3060.

It has lots of outputs on it to go out to a PC for video capturing or a VCR to save to a permanent storage which is nice. Also it has a few inputs, rca or svideo so you could record a DVD movie if you rented one and didn't have time to watch it unlike the Panasonic model which won't let you do this.

The ability to control real TV is nice. It actually records as you watch live tv. So you can pause, rewind and replay a live broadcast that you're not recording. The bad part of this however is sometimes the audio/video get out of sync. I'm not sure yet why this happens but it happens very seldom and it does clear itself.

The one great thing with this box is it doesn't come with the $10/month bill that TiVo has. Who needs another bill? And if you work in the cost of a lifetime membership to TiVo you could buy a replay.

The box itself is pretty quiet and it's smaller than most VCR's. It does have an off button if you want to turn it off, but i'd recommend just leaving it on.

The channel guide is nice. It's really easy to navigate around and select shows to watch or record. You can use this to replace your cable box if you want, then you don't need a TV guide or anything. I wish the channel guide displayed more listings per screen though, and i wish it started back at the beginning of the list instead of your current channel. Overall though it's very easy.

I'd definitly recommend this box, it's been pretty good and i've enjoyed having it over the past week.

I was very impressed with this device. It will tape things you like even if you don't know they're on. I love it except for one flaw but to me a fatal flaw. It runs off of TV schedules which aren't always set in concrete. In the short time I have had it, I taped a football game that went a few minutes past the scheduled time. In this particular case it was no problem but how would you like to miss the game winning kick or TD.

On another occasion, I watched a movie (action) where the finale was cut off also because the movie (actually the previous one) ran a little longer then programmed. Thus in the first week of ownership, two shows that I had wanted to watch were cut short.

I wll buy this equipment in the future when they allow a buffer time for shows to be recorded.

Verbatim CompactFlash 2GB Memory Card (47012)

How many pictures will it store? It is the most commonly asked question from digital camera enthusiast but usually the question that is the most difficult to get a straight answer about. Well, considering I worked in the memory industry for over 7 years I can help clarify this perplexing question and do so unbiased as I have since changed industries.

The Verbatim 2GB CompactFlash Memory Card, like most 2000MB cards, will store on average 2275 pictures when used with a 2 megapixel camera, 1706 images when used with a 3 megapixel camera, 1024 pictures when used with a 4 megapixel camera, 819 images when used with a 5 megapixel camera, and 640 pictures when used with a 6 megapixel camera. These numbers are based off the assumption that you are going to shoot your images at the highest quality JPEG setting available for the camera and understand that they are estimates and may be off by as much as 10 percent due to numerous factors including the complexity of the scene being shot and the compression algorithm used by your specific camera.

One last thing to consider when buying a 2000MB card. Do not necessarily choose the least expensive card available. A 2000MB card should be an investment. You need to consider quality, reliability, and speed with a card of this capacity. Worse case scenario would be you taking this card (and only this card) on vacation with you overseas and for some reason it gets corrupted. Then what do you do? Purchasing a high capacity card changes the game a little, just be mindful of that before you hit the buy button.

I truly hope this review was helpful to you in determining whether this card is the right capacity for your specific needs.

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Sony RBDVP-SR500H 1080p Refurbished DVD Player, Black

• Upgrade your DVD collection to near high definition quality using HDMI connection (cable not included)
• Supports multiple DVD and CD disc formats, plus JPEG photo slideshows and MP3 audio
• Precision Cinema Progressive system for a picture more faithful to the source and artifact-free movement
• Outputs: 1 HDMI, 1 component, 1 composite, 1 coaxial digital audio, 1 analog audio (L/R)

I never purchased refurbished electronics before and was unsure what to expect with this unit. Based on my experience, I will definitely consider refurbished electronics in the future.

This Sony DVD Player is a great basic DVD unit. It will not play Blue-Ray discs but will play everything else including DVD's made on my computer. Setup was incredibly easy. The unit comes with a remote, RCA cables, but no batteries for the remote. I elected to use component cables I had laying around my house instead of the RCA cables. As another reviewer noted, the manual is minimal but you really do not need it anyway. The size of the unit is really nice, it easily fit on a bookshelf. This is a no frills unit that provides minimal feedback on the font panelbut everything you need. Actually reminds me somewhat of an Apple product and it fits into my new "minimalist" effort great.

One key point I want to note is that this DVD player played scratched DVD's my other unit (JVC) did not. That was a nice surprise frankly. For the price, you can't beat it. I could not find a similar unit at the same price in my local big box stores. Of course, Amazon shipping and packaging was perfect.

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I needed a good 1080i dvd player that would play all types of dvds and copies of dvds for our kids' playroom. I wasn't willing to pay for a blu-ray dvd player and this one appeared to be a good option and after using it for a bit, it remains a solid choice and I am happy with its performance.

This Sony dvd player is a basic one but it provides everything you would need for great dvd viewing. It was easy to set up (the included instructions were minimal but provided everything you need to know) and the HDMI connection makes it even easier. I was worried that some of the dvds might not work on this machine since they are copies but it has easily played DVD+R and DVD-R copies as well as anything else we've thrown at it without issue.

For the price listed, I consider this Sony dvd player a bargain. It provides a crisp picture and plays every kind of dvd, even those scratched up library ones. My only complaint is that sometimes, it can be a little noisey.

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I was skeptical about buying refurbished electronics, but so far 4 weeks in it has been working fine playing all the movies the kids throw at it some quite scratched still play quite well over all i am very happy and for the price you could beat it with one of those cheepos at big blue but after buying one a year I decided to see if this will last longer.

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This is the first time I've ever gotten a piece of refurbished electronics equipment. I'm quite happy with it it's in perfect cosmetic condition and it's a factory refurb unit from Sony, so I imagine that any parts that might get worn have been replaced with new.

So far I've only watched about 5 DVD's on it, and everything's worked perfectly. Picture and sound quality are excellent (on 32" 720p HDTV with 7.1 channel surround sound system), and indistinguishable from my other DVD players that cost a lot more. I've got two slightly older Sony DVD players, and I like the fact that this one is smaller; same height and depth, but where the old ones were about 17" wide, this one is a little under 13". It's got a nice weight to it, probably a bit lighter than the older models but definitely not some cheap featherweight thing. The remote is one of those half-sized things that Sony switched to several years ago. The DVD player does 2X and 4X zoom, but there's no button on the remote for it. I'm using a Harmony 880 remote that was programmed for my older Sony player and everything works fine with this new player (that's how I'm able to use the zoom feature). The player also has disk resume, so if you don't finish watching a movie one night, you can start automatically from where you left off the next night.

Overall I couldn't be happier. Great price and the player is indistinguishable from brand new.

Like others, this is my first time buying a refurbished product. Received it a few days ago and it is working fine thus far. I'm using the cables that came with the unit.

Tried to use my 25' HDMI cable but my Sony TV indicated there was no content from that port. Will probably order a new and shorter HDMI cable.

Otherwise pleased.

Update: Purchased a 3' HDMI cable and it works fine.

Movie Edit Pro 17 Plus

• MAGIX Movie Edit Pro 17 Plus is the fastest version of Movie Edit Pro yet,
• With improved preview performance, loading times, and optimized PC performance
• The world's first consumer 3D editor for stereoscopic 3D cameras, or two cameras used in conjunction to create 3D effects in an anaglyph view
• 99 tracks, MultiCam editing, travel route animation, and much more; more than 1000 special effects, cinematic transitions and templates included
• Supports all common video sources including HDV and AVCHD camcorders;
• And integrated synthesizers
• Multi-channel surround sound with Dolby Digital 5.1 Creator, Audio Mastering Suite to enhance your audio, beat recognition tools,

I haven't used this software long, but I come from Sony Vegas and once you learn the typical ins and outs of video editing software, you can get around any software. I primarily got MEP 17HD because it works with the file format of my new Kodak Zi8that being .mov files, not to mention it handles the HD resolutions of those files. Sony Vegas has problems doing so. Granted, I'm on an older version of Vegas. But I'm on a current version of Sound Forge from Sony and it too can't open .mov files. And if you need to work with MP4 files in either app, it's going to cost you money for the plugin. Not so with Movie Edit Pro! Mpeg4 and mpeg2 plugs activate FREE in MEP. That's pretty substantial considering Vegas is hundreds and MEP is NOT.

Early on, I love what I see. It's very impressive how much is packed into this softwarevery impressive. The range of file support is excellentall of them as far as I can see. Even VOB files [VCR to DVD in combo burners], which I've had to re-encode third party to work with onced pulled off the dvd, are supported in MEP. File supportexcellent. Excellent amount of effects and transistions. Tons more than I've had and many are unique. The audio side is excellent too, automatically recognizing all of my thrid party plugins from Waves and Sony, which are DX. It handles VST no problem as well. Nice mixer too. Nice layout as well. Everything is pretty typical in terms of how you use it. There are some differences between software, but it's not all too hard to figure out how titles are handled, or how transition are handled, or how effects are tweaked and automated. A little trying, a little manual reading, and if you know video editing software, you're moving right along.

Things you MUST do after installing the software, [which can take a while so be patient]-

Under the help menu, update the software. There's quite a line up of updates to bring in. Not that I noticed problems right out of the box, but update the software. Manditory.

Go into settings and tweak settings that you need to help things run smoothly for your PC. You can adjust the preview window resolution, as well as cache options for smooth playback.

I have the minimum required pc recommendedactually less on my laptop, at the moment. It hurts. Have a newer dual core at least, if you're gonna do extensive editing and make longer movies. Managing vieo files is a bear on processing power. Don't expect smooth sailing on a marginal pc.

All things considered, this software looks and handles fantasic. Even video screen capture is a huge plus for me. The only thing I don't plan on using is 3D, but THAT'S in there too! For short bucks you can be right up there with the expensive programs. In fact, take the savings and invest in a new pc if your movie making needs are serious. Even if you're just a hobbyist and have a HD pocket cam and you want some real horse power to make pro results, this software fits the bill. Magixyou have a new fan!! Thank you!

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I have a high end Sony video camera that does HD 24mbps/dolby 5.1 and boy oh boy does that test almost EVERY product ive tested over the past 3 weeks !! I tested them all, Corel, Pinnacle, Nero, Cyberlink, Vegas/DVD architect etc and when burning to bluray there are always issues let alone hideous learning curves. I single out Sony Vegas DVD Architect as the most difficult software to learn and use. Sony used to have a program called Click to Disk that worked well, but the new versions are but a shadow of the former program.

All I wanted was 1080i 24mbps Video/dolby 5.1 and slideshows (with random transitions) with a Bluray menu.

I could not believe that no one has the problems solved I saw everything from stuttery video/audio sych issues to crashing without notice (and Im using a quad core i7 with 8GB RAM)

That is until I tested Movie Edit Pro 17 Plus HD.

It is simply the ONLY product that works and is straight forward to use Well done and HIGHLY recomended !!!

it is also the best program for random transitions between pics on a slideshow :)

Only one issue when you are working with Dolby 5.1 surround you MUST reveal all the audio channels or it will be encoded as stereo (this should have been HIGHLIGHTED in the manual also this is relevant for smart copy option where the files are meant to be untouched) Magix needs to make this MUCH clearer in the manual)

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This is a real solid and robust program. That being said it will take some time and a lot of reading to really get the benefits. I have used a few other basic programs that were easy to get going with but without all the features of 17 plus.

Not sure this is really for beginners as it is not intuitive.

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Magix is a company whose software I've purchased for years. For a fraction of the cost of better known brands, I get topflight programs that would normally cost me four to five times more if I'd gone with the usual suspects as far as multimedia platforms.

One of Magix's hallmarks is their video editing suites. Movie Edit Pro 17 HD has raised the bar so high, it's into the stratosphere. For everything you get in MEP 17, you'd be paying at least a grand or more as this is a professional movie creation program featuring a mindboggling array of special features. It's so complete, it would last a decade. Besides Dolby Digital 5.1, 3-D abilities are part of the package. Magix even includes nifty glasses.

While the abilities and functions are dense, Movie Edit Pro 17 is easy to use as long as you follow the instructions. There are plenty of tutorials as well as very innovative video instructions that are part of the customary help file. Sometimes it's best to have a visual demonstration and Magix shrewdly provides that.

I've been able to do everything from preserve deteriorating videotapes to put together dazzling music videos, all within the same program. Movie Edit Pro has the capacity to export in every format imaginable. Even Blu-ray is covered. It's like Magix set about to create the ultimate professional movie software and made no concessions for home users aside from ease of use. Magix thought of everything when they incepted Movie Edit Pro 17. I can't imagine what 18 would include, if they ever get around to offering it as they've come up with a sweeping winner.

The display screens are rich and vivid. The multitudes of functions are astounding. You can professionally mix audio, removing hissing and cleaning signals. I've owned this for months and am still discovering the full range of capacities in Magix's Movie Edit Pro 17.

Yet, I have to come back to the price. It's so low, it's almost obscene, but you won't hear me complaining. Magix consistently offers top of the line products that are an amazing bargain. There's great pride in their wares, evidenced by extensive and well written instructions as well as bountiful updates.

I've used every video editing suite imaginable from a variety of manufacturers. None of them hold a candle to the strength, power and affordability of Magix's latest homerun: Movie Edit Pro 17 HD. It's as good as it gets, so please get it if you need to make great video on your computer.

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I bought this because it's the only video editing software I could find that would let you adjust each color (red, green, blue) individually. It's a bit clumsy interface wise, but there are an unbelievable number of options in this software. My biggest grip is that it takes FOREVER to render a video. I've got a phenom x4 processor and 4 gb of ram but it takes more than an HOUR to render a 10 minute (YES an HOUR for TEN MINUTES). So 4 stars instead of 5.

Philips PB9001/37 9-Inch 1080p Portable Blu-Ray DVD Player

• Blu-ray Disc playback for sharp images in full HD 1080p
• 22.9 cm (9") high density (800x480 pixels) LCD display
• Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA for HD 7.1 surround sound
• Full Resume on Power Loss
• DVD, DVD+/-R, DVD+/-RW, (S)VCD, CD compatible

I've used this player about 4-5 times a week for almost 4 months so far, and it's been completely reliable and trouble-free. I love it!

The audio quality is rich and full, especially when using a headset. The player has dual headphone outlets, so it's easy for two to share (ideal for keeping two kids happily occupied on long family trips).

The video quality is superb; colors are vibrant and deeply displayed; images play back with absolutely no shakiness, jerkiness, or blurriness whatsoever, regardless of the speed of action on the screen. I haven't experienced any skipping, even while viewing with the player bouncing on my knees. The screen is easily viewed from several angles; unlike some players I've seen, you don't have to sit directly in front of it to get a good view of the action. You can play Blu-Ray discs or regular DVDs & I've found that even my own DVD-R home movies play great.

There's a USB port so you can view photos or video or music stored on a flash drive; I've used mine to play back a family slideshow with audio--it actually sounded better than it did on my laptop (& I have a very high quality Toshiba with harman/kardon speakers).

There's an ethernet port you can use for upgrading the software & accessing BD-Live content.

There are only two drawbacks for me, which weren't bothersome enough to lower my opinion of the player:

1. HDMI port is OUT only (which means it can be used to play Blu-Rays and DVDs on your TV). I was hoping the HDMI port could be used as an input to power a Roku 2 XD Streaming Player 1080p to play Amazon Prime Movies or Netflix, but no go. Ah, well.

2. For some reason, there's no volume control on the remote control; you have to control volume via a button on the player (but no real biggie, since I'm generally just an arm's reach away from the screen).

You can, however, use the remote to play, fast forward, rewind, skip by scene (forward or back), access the main menu, access the popup menu, choose audio options, turn subtitles off or on, turn the player off or on, find out where you are in the film (minutes played/minutes total), perform a time search, zoom, repeat, picture-in-picture, and lots MORE. There are even four color buttons (red, green, yellow, and blue) for selecting tasks/options for blu-ray discs.

The player's the perfect size for me; the footprint is just 9-/12" x7-1/4" and 1-5/8 thick (when sitting on a tabletop). It has a nice, solid heft and the laser player is very quiet (no humming!). The DVD's are inserted by opening the player and pressing an "open" button that allows you access to the recessed disc compartment--I like this design much better than one that inserts from the side because it's much easier to feel the "snap" as you nestle a DVD in place. There's a thumb notch to make removing a disc easy.

There's a very small sliding power switch on the bottom (left front) of the player that you MUST turn on to use the player or charge the battery. The battery can be charged while you play (nice touch); if you want to fast-charge the battery, plug in the AC cable and turn the bottom power switch to the "off position." I usually just charge while I play discs (there's a charge indicator light on the front edge of the player--red when needing charging, green when fully charged).

You can play discs either with AC power or just battery power (pretty obvious--it's a PORTABLE player).

Screen size is 8" x 4-3/8" (9" diagonal) & the resolution is excellent. The display can be set to do 4:3 Letterbox, 4:3 Panscan, 16:9 Widescreen, 16:9, and 21:9 Cinema. HDMI Video output can be set at Auto, Native, 480i/576i, 480p/576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p, or 1080p/24Hz. There's even a setting for HDMI Deep Color, which enables or disables vivid images with over a billion colors on Deep Color enabled TVs.

This player can play blu-ray discs, DVDs, DVD-R, DVD-RW, VCD/SVCD, Audio CD, DivX Plus HD media, MKV media.

File formats it can play include:

VIDEO: .avi, .divx, .mp4, .mkv

AUDIO: .mp3, .wma, .wav

PICTURE: .jpg, .gif, .png

The carrying case is not bulky; it's nicely padded and has a divided compartment for storing the AC cable and remote. It's made of a nice black canvas on the outside with a top flap with velcro closure and two carrying handles. The inside is a nice, smooth black nylon.

I really do love this player; my favorite use for mine (beyond movie viewing use) is using it as my "exercise buddy" with my favorite workout DVDs like

Super Callanetics Amazon.com Exclusive DVD, SWAT Workout: Rapid Tone and Firm **RESISTANCE BAND INCLUDED**, and Pure Barre: Pershing Square 1: Ballet, Dance, Pilates Fusion Workout.

Highly recommended for its great video quality, portability, and ease of use. If you have any questions about any of the features, just leave a comment & I'll do my best to find an answer for you. Cheers!

Buy Philips PB9001/37 9-Inch 1080p Portable Blu-Ray DVD Player Now

If you have both blu-ray and dvd's and you don't want to leave your blu-rays at home; this is the player for you. It plays blu-ray, DVD, DVD-R & RW, and pretty much everything else. You can also plug in an USB drive with a movie on it and watch it. It comes with the cord you need to hook it up to your tv. You can hook up 2 headphones for joint enjoyment. There is the LAN hook up, HDMI hook up, a spot to put the USB drive, and comes with power cord and car charger. Also, it comes with a remote, my only complaint would be that you can't control the volumne with the remote.

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I will start off by giving Philips customer service a nice plug. When my first BR player shipped to me broken, they promptly replaced it at no cost to me. Of course this shoudl have never happened in the first place. The problem comes from the flimsy springs they use to hold the disc tray lid. They snap off quite easily I guess, as the player had both of them snapped upon its arrival. It is not preferable to tape the lid closed every time you play a disc.

Once I procured a working product, I found that the philips player did everything I hoped it would, but it didn't do it particularly well. One main selling point to the product was the ability to play downloaded movies on it from a usb port. The player is wildly slow in reading external hard drives and flash drives. Worse, there is no way to navigate within the video file. For example, if you are on a place, watch the first hour of a film and then have to turn it off, there is no way to get back to the spot you left from. This is a massive problem.

On the bright side, the screen is excellent and it hooks up very easily to TVs via HDMI. It is hard to give it a full recommendation though with its cheap craftsmanship (especially for the price) as well as its somewhat limited functionality.

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I've been wanting both a portable DVD player for when I travel as well as a BluRay player for home and I love how this device combines the best of both worlds. The size is convienet and not bulky at all and so will fit easily in my carry on bag for when I travel. It comes with its own little case which fits all the hookups, remote and charger that comes with the device. Although I wish that it was just a little bigger to store some DVDs in it as well or had an over the shoulder carry strap but overall its a good little case for something that comes standard.

When I first got the player I had a bit of difficulty turning it on as I'd never really played with a portable player before and so didn't know about the switch on the bottom. But once I got over that brain fart moment it was very intuitive to use. I watched one movie just on the screen was very clear and the size was just right. I also purchased an HDMI cable to watch a bluray movie on my living room tv. It was super easy to hook up and the remote made navigating the menu options a breeze. I also like how when you turned off the player when I restarted it I was able to pick up right where I left off.

I loved this player far more then I thought I would and know that I'll be using it a lot in the future.

This item shipped fast and was a cinch to start using even for the less technically inclined. Huge points to the company for including at-a-glance, idiotproof instructions all on a single, impossibletomiss sheet!

This literally came with everything you need except your favorite dvd : instructions, cords, convenient carrying case and remote they even included batteries for the remote! Lightweight and the size of many day planners, this will be perfect for travel or curling up with in your favorite chair.

Sound and picture quality were both excellent, and I expect to get tons of use out of this player!

Video Inspection Borescope Endoscope Small LCD Camera

BEWARE OF SELLER!! ElectroFlip never returned my money. I returned the product I bought from electroflip (I bought on amazon for $240) by mail 2 months after purchasing and after communicating with representative about the return. Because it was past the warranty date of 30 days, they offered me only $50 cash back or $60. I chose $50, lost $190. They never sent me my $50 like they said and it's been 3 months. Customer service will not return e-mails. I have sent 11 e-mails with no response. I have no PayPal credit. These guys are rip-offs!!! Beware: DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM ELECTROFLIP!! I lost $240 on it..please learn from my mistake.

Pros

The product is excellent, it has an excellent viewing angle and takes great videos with excellent voice recording.

Cons

Product does not come with instructions or memory card. Instructions can be viewed on the web and sd card has to be purchased separately, i would recommend at least a 8 gig card, it fills up rapidly!

The cigarette lighter charger is useless. Mine has disintegrated and i have had to be conducting repairs on it, presently i have not been able to use device for one week because charger has gone awry. The battery is supposed to give 3 hrs when charged, it doesnt, however it is a blc-5 battery that is used in some Nokia phones, so if u have one you can use it.

If there was not an issue with the charger, i would have given it a 5 star rating.

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Samsung BD-E5300 Blu-ray Disc Player

Excelente equipo. Muy buena calidad de reproducción de imágenes en formato dvd y blue-ray (1080p). Sólo deben colocarle un cable HDMI y disfrutar de películas o videos en full hd!

I am a great Samsung fan. I have 3 flat screen tv's and 3 Samsung Blu ray players and they all work well. Software is upgraded periodically over the internet. I am very happy with this product.

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Toshiba SDP94S 9-Inch Portable Black DVD Player (Black Gloss)

• Portable DVD player with swivel-and-flip 9-inch widescreen LCD
• Multi-format disc support, including DVD-R/RW and CD-R/RW plus MP3 and JPEG playback
• Secure Digital memory card slot (for MP3 and JPEG playback)
• Connect to external TV via composite AV; can also be used as a monitor from compatible digital camera/camcorder
• Up to 5 hour lithium battery life; includes AC and car power adapters

Just got this player over the weekend, on sale for $129.99. It plays everything I threw at it so far, DVD, DVD+r, DVD-R, CD, etc.

Brilliant color and excellent picture quality for its 9" screen.

The speakers are loud enough for the car, and audio through dual headphone is excellent. For the budget, I love the swival option because it really increases reflexibility in viewing. And it is a beautiful player with its glossy black finish and very up-to-date style.

The only down side is that it won't play divx like its previous model, however, everything else is better and since DVDs are so cheap now and renting from Red Box is only $.99, I don't really care nor miss the divx option.

It has a SD card slot and it plays both SD and SDHC formats. This is a good option to play mp3s and pictures for the kids in the backseat.

5 hr battery life is pretty good and enough to play two movies.

It is very easy for me to recommend this player!

Buy Toshiba SDP94S 9-Inch Portable Black DVD Player (Black Gloss) Now

like others who have posted here, I had a battery failure at 10 weeks. That's ridiculous as is the price of the replacement battery, 70 bucks. I regret buying a Toshiba computer now, fully expect it to die a quick death as well, and will not buy any of their products ever again.

Read Best Reviews of Toshiba SDP94S 9-Inch Portable Black DVD Player (Black Gloss) Here

This was the best item I have purchased for in the vehicle. This helps keep my 7 year old and my 2 year old quiet. I didn't think it was necessary to have this in the vehicle, because they do watch more than enough TV at home, but this makes our rides peaceful. Usually once my 2 year old falls asleep watching something he likes then my 7 year old can watch what he likes. I can't believe how a movie can keep their attention and keep them from fighting with each other.

The feature of the tilt screen and the flip mode is wonderful, because I don't have a carrying case yet and I had to hold it for them in the vehicle and the tilt worked perfect. The remote is small and very handy. I still need to purchase good kids headphones so we can enjoy listening to the radio instead of the kids movies. Would purchase another.

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Other reviewers have written about the great video and sound quality, so nothing to say there, other than Toshiba's no mom-and-pop shop, so they put out a very good product.

I'm a features and functions person, so a couple things I like that I didn't see in other reviews is the fact that you can stop the video, turn it off, and when you turn it on again, it resumes where you left off. It also returns to the same point of the video when you switch to listen to songs via the SD card.

And I love the ability to listen to your MP3s or watch video whenever you want. I keep this in the area where I exercise, so I can watch or listen at any time. The volume is more than ample, but I also use a small plug-in amp via the speaker port. And you can use either the controls on the device, or the remote, which is not a complicated remote.

And for the decent price, I recommend it. Haven't used it on the battery power yet.

Over all a nice dvd player. The price was right and had all the features we were looking for. Would have given it five stars but the volume rocker can be a bit flaky.

DT DVR-120IPS, 16 HYBRID VIDEO 500GB HARD DRIVE

Although it states that it is compatible with the DXG it does not fit.Company is sending another so well see!!!!!

This does not fit the Sony DCR-HC52 camcorder even though it is listed as compatible.

Buy DT DVR-120IPS, 16 HYBRID VIDEO 500GB HARD DRIVE Now

This is not my product but its says hard drive but the picture is a data cable for USB port on a computer.

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The cable arrived in a timely fashion and in excellent condition as advertised. It works well and I am pleased. I will do business with the seller again.

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Q-See Q25DVR4ES 4 Channel DVR with 250GB Hard Drive, Motion Detection, USB 2.0 & 4 Color Day/Night

After using this system for about 2 weeks, the saying "you get what you pay for" holds true. The DVR works as expected without any issues, and there is good flexibility in the setup for recording based on motion or time periods. Video playback through a USB port is possible too, and the DVR can connected to the LAN via a USB network hub for reviewing the video on a computer. The camera performance at night is limited to a usable 10-15 feet because of the limited number of LED's. The camera performance is rated 1.5 Lux and 380 lines of resolution which is better suited for indoor security because of the limited range and resolution. I upgraded 2 cameras to have 480 lines and 0.1 Lux for the exterior views with a great improvement in image quality. If anyone thinks buying a entry level system like this will duplicate the performance of systems costing 2 to 3 times more, they will be disappointed. If I had to do it again, I would do more research and work with a vendor to buy upgraded cameras and get the LAN port for remote monitoring. However this starter system will suit my needs until I get the mega-house with the $3K video security system.

Ive had this unit for 1 day. the discription says night vision up to 30 ft. try 10ft maxx, after that, almost total darkness. I need to see whats going on not only day but night even more . daylight the cameras are ok, sending the unit back, disapointed....

Buy Q-See Q25DVR4ES 4 Channel DVR with 250GB Hard Drive, Motion Detection, USB 2.0 & 4 Color Day/Night Now

Q1C1 12V DC CCTV Security Camera Power Supply Adapter with 4 (2.1mm) Channel Connectors, UL Listed

Camera power supply works great!!! Easy adapter for running all my power supply to. Delivery was great as well, on time as mention. Great price and fast shipping . I would highly recommend ordering again

Sony DCR-HC48 1MP MiniDV Handycam Camcorder with 25x Optical Zoom (Handycam Station Included)

The DC-HC48 is a great camera very nicely sized and easy to use. I chose this version instead of the HC38 due to the support for stills and the improved CCD.

The picture quality in good light is great. I actually displayed it on my 60 inch TV and the picture was as good as normal television. I was very impressed with the picture. It was also nice how easy it was to switch aspect rations to either 16:9 (wide-screen) to 4:3 (standard). However as it got darker outside and the light got lower inside I notice much of the "color" from the picture began to fade and the picture became somewhat mono-tone. This seems to be a common complaint for cameras in this price range with low-light.

I took the camera into a dark room (I couldn't see a thing) I turned on the night mode and was very impressed. People and things showed up great in the pitch black. The IR light emitted by the camera was picked up nicely and acted like an flashlight that only the camera would pick up. The subject had to be 5-10 feet away and of course the image was best in the center. The effect was very much like Survivor's night shots, or the Blair Witch Project.

The camera has two modes of operation. Normal node , which allows you to custom set settings like set Focus, Exposure, White Balance, or Effects like Old Film etc or set the settings to Auto. And Easy mode, which lets you basically turn beeping on and off and leaves all settings set to Auto.

The issue I found is in Easy mode the Still Pictures did not work. Also you have to stop recording to switch between Easy and Normal mode. The still photos are a fine quality for considering its a 1 Mega-Pixel camera. I wouldn't recommend using this as your primary still photo camera though its nice to have the option.

The touch screen I found to be somewhat cumbersome since you have to scroll through looking for the choices that you want. So if you want to make a setting change quickly and if you are unfamiliar with the camera it might take a while to find. I also tend to shake the camera some when I use the touchscreen. A nice feature is that you can create your own custom activity list so settings you set frequently are more accessible then those you don't use.

Where I was most disappointed was with the accessories. The standard battery it ships with lasts 1.5 hours, which seems like a reasonable time considering a MiniDV tape only holds 60-90 minutes depending on your setting. But like all batteries the 1.5 is ideal conditions and not real world turning the camera on and off and playing with the features and zooming in and out etc. Additionally the Battery takes an 1 hour and 40 minutes to charge which is surprising. Unfortunately the battery is not the newer ActiForce batteries which charge in approximately 20 minutes (with the actiForce charger).

Also to take still photos you'll need to buy a separate Memory Stick Duo card. (Not a Memory Stick, Memory Stick Duo has a smaller form factor). The USB cable that ships with the camera lets you get the Still photos from the camera (attached to the dock) onto your computer. However it does NOT let you get the video. Instead you need a fire-wire cable which is not included. Sony sells this cable for around $40. Belkin makes that cable for around $12. The fire-wire (i.Link) cable only allows you to download video onto your computer (not the still photos). Again you must be attached to the docking station. If your traveling and wish to download to a computer you'll need to bring the docking station with you (it is pretty small but my be a hassle to bring with you). The docking station is one way to charge the camera or you can connect it to the wall with the supplied cables. Unfortunately there is only one power cable for the dock and the camera so if you plan to just bring the power cable you'll have to disconnect it from the docking station.

In short the camera is great just be aware you might be buying some more cables, batteries, chargers, memory sticks or other accessories that will end up affecting your total price of ownership. And that the Sony brand name versions of these accessories can be surprisingly pricey.

my skill level: beginner

I picked up the latest Canon ZR800 from a local store and tried some shooting with it, since there were no reviews of that latest model but i was totally disappointed with the quality video had granulation & the worst part was it has a motor noise which gets dubbed on the tape :(

so i ordered this Sony HC48 & i am really really impressed with the performace, great video quality (no granulation) & sound too. As some of you are curious, it has infrared light which is great plus point for shooting in night time. Infact, when i tried shooting in dark with the NightShot Plus turned on and i tried to put my hand in front of the infrared light, I could see a patch of light on my hand, i was really thrilled by that, seeing its actually a light coming out of the camera. Ofcourse you probably need to use a tripod to shoot in night light for better stability.

Also, it has various other features/modes that i didnt notice in canon. for instance, it has a color mode to bring out colors more effectively in low light, a shooting mode to capture minute objects like insects etc..

I am glad i returned the Canon ZR800 and bought this one

Buy Sony DCR-HC48 1MP MiniDV Handycam Camcorder with 25x Optical Zoom (Handycam Station Included) Now

I picked up the Sony DCR-HC48 Handycam just three days before heading out for a southern California vacation (had to replace my Panasonic from 2002 because it just wasn't cutting it anymore).

I was expecting about the same picture quality I was used to with my old Panasonic DV-103, boy was I wrong. After returning home from a week in the sun and editing the footage with Premiere Elements 3.0 and burning the finished product to DVD I was astonished. I have never seen such detail in a home movie in my life. The colors were so vibrant I thought maybe I had hit a time warp and ended up back in Hollywood. Truly an amazing camera. Even the paltry sized battery that was included with the unit lasted a fairly reasonable amount of time.

As a general warning to those in the market for a new camcorder I'll include the follwing side note:

My friend, who was with me in Cali, was also shooting with a Sony camcorder. However the unit he was using was the Sony DCR-SR62 HDD Handycam. After attempting to edit the footage on his PC and burning a DVD, the scenes were of poor quality...very shakey with tracers trailing every movement in the frame.

This is (from what I understand) because of the MPEG 2 files HDD (and DVD) camcorders use. Apparantly these files are useless to edit with because of the degradation involved in encoding and transfering MPEG 2s on a PC.

Too bad...wish someone had told my friend that before the trip.

For now anyone who is intresting in editing their video footage on a PC should stick with MiniDV camcorders. I highly recommend the Sony DCR-HC48 Handycam as a quality consumer level camcorder with a decent price tag (especially online).

Neccasary Accessories:

bigger battery (I recommend the Sony NPFH70 H Series)

carrying case

The Sony VF-30CPKXS 30mm Polarizing Filter Kit with protective lens cover (this may seem like an excessive accessory for some but when shooting at Santa Monica Beach I got a tremendous amount of sea breeze on the lens, which had me stopping at the local Office Depot for a lens cleaning kit. A bit frustrating considering I'd owned the camera for less than a week).

Read Best Reviews of Sony DCR-HC48 1MP MiniDV Handycam Camcorder with 25x Optical Zoom (Handycam Station Included) Here

I hope to give a more in depth review later, but wanted to be sure to make it clear to everyone that a Firewire cable (the so-called iLink) is not included with this product.

The camera itself is intuitive and easy to use out of the box but also highly customizable. The video and sound quality are excellent, and the LCD screen is gorgeous and uses touch screen buttons in addition to the button bar beneath it. But Sony has a way of making fantastic products and then alienating the purchasers of those products (a la the PS3). So understand that in order to do the very basic and essential task of transferring your DV images to your computer requires you to shell out $35-70 more to buy a Firewire cable. The provided USB cable is for transferring stills from the Memory Stick only. Thus, this camera can only receive 4 stars due to Sony's cheap skate approach. Caveat emptor...

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Purchased this for my husband we are both happy with the Camcorder. We originally bought a Panasonic upon a friend's recommendation NOT HAPPY WITH PANASONIC! Compared to the Panasonic, the Sony is far more superior: easier to use, lighter, and most importantly MUCH BETTER PICTURE QUALITY AND IMAGE STABILIZATION FEATURE.

Samsung BD-D5300 Blu-ray Disc Player (Black)

• Samsung Smart 2D TV
• Fast booting and loading time
• Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby Digital TrueHD, dts-HD Master Audio
• Touch sensor Control
• Samsung's AllShare lets you sync up many of your DLNA-enabled digital devices so you can access music, movies and photos right on your TV screen
• New graphic user interface
• New graphic user interface; 2D
• Wi-Fi-ready,Wireless-ready

Netflix issues [updates below]

I bought this primarily to stream Netflix, so that's what most of this review is about. I've previously used my Xbox360 to stream but since I don't really play online games spending money for a yearly gold membership seemed like a waste. However, now that I've experienced the Netflix app on the player I'm thinking the extra money on a 12 month membership may be well worth it.

The user interface is less than desirable, but it gets the job done. You can browse titles, your queue, etc. All the major functionality is there. One issue is that any command you send to this app, play, pause, scroll up or down, has about a two second delay. Why, I don't know, but it is annoying. After some use (like watching a couple episodes) the app seems to slow down, like it's running out of memory. One time it was so bad it would take 10 seconds from entering a command to execution. A reboot of the player fixes everything, but give me a break. There's obviously some fundamental flaws in the programming of the app, probably a memory leak. Hopefully this will be addressed by an update to the software.

The way the app buffers isn't the best. When the streaming quality drops down it tries to do it on the fly. This can cause some problems with dropped audio, dropped frames, and a/v sync. The xbox interface stops playing to adjust the quality and buffer, but there's none of the above issues. On the players app there's no way way to see the quality of the feed you are getting, where the xbox shows you a nice graphic similar to wireless signal strength bars.

Another buffer issues is that any time you decide to fast forward it re-buffers, no matter how short you are fast forwarding. I never had that problem on the xbox unless you forwarded a large enough amount to overrun the buffer. Why fast forward? I don't want to listen to the celebrity interview during Top Gear or the opening titles of a tv show. Also, with the command delay previously mentioned you'll probably overshoot where you want to stop.

[update]

I've received the latest software updates and the new smarthub starts instantly. But I've had an odd issue with Netflix where an episode stops playing saying there was an issue. Start it up again and it will continue for a 10 seconds or so and stop again. I ended up watching the episode on my computer with no problems, so I don't know what the supposed issue was. I assume something about the way Netflix encoded that episode caused the Samsung app to have an error. I hope I don't run into that anywhere else.

Player issues [update below]

Not really an issue, but the audio setup for BluRay has some misleading descriptions onscreen. What ever you do don't bother sending either of the re-encoded signals to your receiver as you'll definitely have audio sync issues. I just sent the unprocessed bitstream signal and my 12 year old receiver decoded it just fine. It's not 96 kHz Dolby HD but will do just fine until I decide to get a new receiver.

If you also have a Samsung TV the any-net feature can be a pain with your universal remote (Logitech Harmony). Unfortunately the player only has a power toggle command, not separate power off and on commands. After powering off the player I go back to watching tv as normal, but at the end of the day I power off all my devices with one signal from my remote. My tv shuts down as it should, but because the player only has a power toggle command, the player comes back on. And with the any-net feature it sends a signal to your tv and powers it back on. Why they just can't have the extra lines of code for separate power commands I don't know. My workaround was to use an option in the remote software program to always keep the player powered on, which means it never receives a power toggle command unless I specifically send it.

[update]

I have to downgrade the rating on this unit as I've had more time to play BluRay discs. I'm sending a digital audio out signal from the optical port to my receiver and having A/V sync issues. I've watched an action intense movie like The Matrix with no sync issues, but last night I tried to watch a comedy, The Hangover, and immediately the sound is out of sync. Typically it is the action films that cause sync issues as the extra processing added by your TV causes the lag in the display. I'll see a frame dropped every now and then, and thought that might be the system trying to keep sync but I don't believe that's the case. What discs play better than others seems to be hit or miss. Playing the sound through the TV speakers removes the problem. On some discs I've been able to get sync back by rewinding a little bit, but eventually the problem starts to build up again. I've also had it where that trick did absolutely nothing. The way I see it, the only way you are going to get good A/V sync is if a) you only listen through the TV speakers, b) your TV has a digital audio out port that allows the signal to be passed through without downgrading it. Unfortunately my 40" Samsung 6300 doesn't allow that, it downgrades it to a 2.1 signal. c) you have a HDMI compatible receiver. Even c may not help as I read that often people still need to program in a sound delay, so if the root issue is that the delay varies by disc because of some processing issue inherent with the player you are stuck adjusting your settings for every disc. And that's if the delay stays consistent throughout the movie.

General Info

Here are some times I recorded, all approximate (1 Mississippi):15 seconds to power on. 25 seconds to enter smart hub (app interface)[update, now instant as long as your internet connect has established]. 20 seconds to boot Netflix app. 10+ seconds to load BluRay disc, varies with the disc.

Overall I would give this product a 3[update 2]; a 2 for the Netflix capabilities and 4 [update 2] for the BluRay disc player.

[Update 3] Sometimes a disc would not load, it would just try to boot forever so I would need to power off. Also, random freezing issues with netflix. I returned it and bought the equivalent level Sony BDP-S380. Much better user interface, no issues so far. Not looking back; sad to think of the month lost being an unpaid beta tester for Samsung. Love their TV, but have yet to have a good experience with any of their disc players.

Buy Samsung BD-D5300 Blu-ray Disc Player (Black) Now

This was my first bluray player. I bought it at a local store because it was on sale and it streamed Netflix. I was looking to replace my xbox 360 as I don't see the need to pay for xboxlive and Netflix anymore.

This player is an excellent bluray player. Load times didn't seem unreasonable to me. Picture quality was great. Sound was great. The menus were a bit choppy when trying to navigate the player and the delay between the remote and the action on the screen was noticeable, but not a deal breaker. Nothing was ever instant on this device. The player found my network (wired) automatically and found all the movies on my computer and played them flawlessly.

Netflix worked well enough, but the menu was slow to respond to commands and choppy. Video played back fine and I never encountered a problem. I never tried any other streaming services because it was too much of a hassle to enter my login information with the remote. I registered for Samsung's app store and by the end wanted to pull out what little hair I have left. Between the sluggish response to button push on the remote and the unintuitive layout of the text input it turned out to be more trouble than it's worth.

I only had this player for a week. Off and on during that time it would have trouble connecting to the internet, not just Netflix. On the last day it refused to connect to my home network at all. I messed with it for three hours before I gave up and returned it. I paid the difference and got a better player.

If you want a bluray player, this is a good inexpensive one to start off with. If you want all the other streaming services, spend the money on a higher end one.

Read Best Reviews of Samsung BD-D5300 Blu-ray Disc Player (Black) Here

Bought this player so I could hook it up to my internet and stream Netflix. The blue ray works great and even updates the software automatically, all you have to do is click yes to update. The only complaint I have is that nowhere could I find that you had to have the Samsung wireless adapter to connect wirelessly. I had a USB wireless adapter laying around but the player asked me to insert the Samsung adapter and never gave me the option to use the one I had. Small complaint but I did have to run a cable to it as I was not willing to spend another $80 on the Samsung adapter. My advice is buy the wireless player instead.

Want Samsung BD-D5300 Blu-ray Disc Player (Black) Discount?

The Samsung BD-D5300 Blu-ray player seems like a good player judging by my in-store tests, appealing to me for these reasons:

1. MKV/DivxHD support (H.264, MP4, AC3, AAC, 5.1 Channels)

2. Netflix streaming

3. "All Share" DLNA type network file sharing

4. Decent brand with regular firmware updates (automatic if connected to a network).

Does it support MKV? This was of course my number one question. The answer is Yes!

The blue-shirts at Best Buy were kind enough to hook up a Samsung BD-D5300 to a TV (Samsung UN32D4000) for some testing. I had generated several MKV and MP4 files using Handbrake for Windows and put them on a 4GB Patriot brand thumb drive. I plugged it into the front of the player. Cool new interface by the way and it felt more responsive than the last generation.

The videos played at true size, so a 480p DVD rip appeared to float real tiny in the middle of the screen. However pressing the remote's "Tools" button during playback allowed me to change the video aspect from "Original" to "Mode1" which essentially scaled the video up to fit the screen, respecting letterbox where appropriate. It also remembered the setting after stopping the current video and starting the next video.

6 out of 9 file tests played successfully. Best of all the most important audio/video codec combinations worked specifically MKV-H.264/AC3 5.1 and MP4-MPEG4/AAC 5.1. Here are the test results, five using an MKV file container and four using an MP4 file container and all 480p DVD rips.

1. MKV H.264/AC3 5.1 -YES (Dolby Digital, 5.1 channels)

2. MKV MPEG4/AC3 5.1 -YES

3. MKV MPEG4/AAC 5.1 -YES (Advanced Audio Coding, 5.1 channels, 640 kbps)

4. MP4 H.264/AC3 5.1 -No (froze on frame 1, forgivable as MP4 container is not suited for AC3)

5. MP4 MPEG4/AC3 5.1 -N/A (using ".m4v" file extension instead of ".mp4" player simply did not see file)

6. MP4 MPEG4/AAC 5.1 -YES

7. MKV MPEG4/MP3 2.0 -YES (320 kbps, Stereo, Dolby Pro Logic II)

8. MP4 MPEG4/MP3 2.0 -YES (256 kbps, Stereo, Dolby Pro Logic II)

9. MKV VP3(Theora)/Vorbis 2.0 -No (160kbps, Stereo)

Pressing the "Info" button on the remote while playing a movie file showed the format breakdown on the screen, such as "AAC 5.1 Channel". The player also correctly reported "AC3 2 Channel" in my 2-channel Dolby Surround MKV/AC3 test. 720p H.264 video also worked in my Japanese anime test of a MKV-H.264/AAC w ASS subtitles, however the subs didn't show.

The bad news:

* No support for MKV-infused "ASS" Advanced SubStation Alpha subtitles. Bummer for Japanese anime fans.

* 2.35:1 aspect (super widescreen with top and bottom black bars) H.264 video streams stretch taller. Not fully to 16:9 but enough to cut the height of the top and bottom black bar roughly in half and enough to be notice that the actors are taller and skinnier. [EDITED THIS BULLET 12/7/2011]

* 5.1 AC3 streams are sent directly to my discrete amp/receiver. Be sure to change the blu-ray player audio setting to "Bitstream (Audiophile)". [ADDED THIS BULLET 12/7/2011]

MKV support is an exciting development for Samsung. I have bought Samsung blu-ray players in the two previous generation lines and watched as the number of supported movie file formats has grown. Supporting MKV, the mother of all movie containers, is a huge leap.

Now if only Samsung would resolve the 2.35:1 MKV video stretching problem in a future network update I would add that fifth star.

[12/13/2011 UPDATE -Changed from 4 stars to 2 stars]

Now that I have moved the BD-D5300 player from the master bedroom (where it is only lightly used) to the man cave I have additional feedback to share. I just finished troubleshooting a network problem. The player would not get an IP address from my router. I tried different network cables, tried rebooting my routers, everything. Then I took the player back to the master bedroom and networking worked instantly. I brought it back to the man cave and...networking worked instantly! :| My guess is the fix was the complete unplugging of the device from the power socket and plugging it back in. Not only had I read this fixed other user's issues but now it fixed mine. :( What's more is this is the second time a "power cycle" was necessary to fix odd player behavior.

One other drawback to this player is the time it takes to get to Netflix. First you have to load Smart Hub Samsung's apps interface which takes up to 30 seconds. Then and only then do you have access to the Netflix icon. I am loving my old Samsung BD-P1600 blu-ray player (2009) more and more every day because of it's one-click access to Netflix or Pandora.

Save 23% Off

For the 24 hours that it worked, the BD-D5300 was a servicable, if slow, player. The UI is impressively unresponsive, and NetFlix took a good 20-30 seconds to load, but once the movie started playing it worked fine. However, that was last night. Today, it rarely boots. When you turn on the power, the unit displays "HELLO", and then that's it. Nothing ever appears on the screen until you hit the power button again to turn it off, at that point you'd see the desktop flash for a fraction of a second before it powered down. I'll be taking it back tomorrow and buying another, non-Samsung, player.

Crimestopper UBB-4Q Quad Screen Dvr Monitor

• Digital Video Recording System With Quad Screen Processor
• Provides Around-The-Clock Video Surveillance Recording Of Vehicle
• Allows 4 Different Cameras To Record Simultaneously
• 4 Different Trigger Zones: Ignition, Reverse, Dome Light (Security) & Turn Signal
• Recordings Can Be Viewed On A Quad Monitor In Vehicle Or On Home Computer

I bought this thinking it was the perfect solution for my daily driver. I soon discovered that it is flaky and no longer depend on it. It could be my unit but I waited too long to install it and it is no longer in warranty. I suggest that you steer clear of this product.

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Magnavox ZV427MG9 DVD Recorder/VCR Combo, HDMI 1080p Up-Conversion, No Tuner

I just got this refurb model a few days ago and could not be happier. First, I like refurb units because it means someone had a problem with the unit when new, that now has been resolved. The one I got looks like a factory new model. The one touch dubbing is exactly what I was looking for. I have a lot of old home movies, TV shows, etc... on VHS. I pop in the tape, pop in the DVD ( I use DVD RW but this unit does R+ and Ras well)hit the dubbing button and come back in a few hours. The DVD copy actually looks cleaner than the VHS original. The DVD RW plays in every DVD player I've tried. I think the compatability problems others have talked about is because they didn't finalize the disc. With the DVD RW you don't have to finalize, with other formats you do. I got this unit for under $70 including shipping. The exact unit at a nearby store sells for $149. This is a solid machine that performs just as stated. I think you'll be happy with it.

I, like most people, have always been skeptical of "remanufactured" products. However, this one is definitely worth the price (and then some).

I was in need of another combo unit when the one I had died and I hadn't transferred all tapes to DVD. I didn't really want to spend that much for a unit, but the "remanufactured" option was within the budget.

I have to say that this was money well spent. Not only to do you get a quality 4-head VHS player/recorder, but you also get a stunningly-versatile DVD player/burner. With 6 months of life left in my old combo unit, the VHS tapes played back with lines through the screen; hardly a quality you want when transferring tapes to DVD. Some of the tapes weren't even played that much, and sure "tape" over time will continue to degrade, but you should still get a decent picture from a tape in good condition. The 4-head VHS player brought the quality of the tape back to life.

Perhaps the best feature I'm crazed about is the DVD chapter editing feature. Of course when you record a program, chapters will automatically be added per your selected setting options (every 5...10...15min) from the menu; however, prior to finalizing your disc, you can review the chapter markers and edit them as you choose (add, move to new location or remove completely); something my old unit didn't do.

Finally, when I purchased this item, shipping was slated for at least 5-7 business days since it was coming from a third-party distributor. I ordered it on 1/25, it was shipped on 1/26 and I received it on 1/27 -SWEET!! The shipping time enabled me to receive the unit, set it up, review the features and had me recording and dubbing by the weekend.

Buy Magnavox ZV427MG9 DVD Recorder/VCR Combo, HDMI 1080p Up-Conversion, No Tuner Now

UPDATE: SINCE I WROTE THIS REVIEW THE ITEM DESCRIPTION INCLUDING THE MANUFACTURER HAS CHANGED AND THE refurbished MODEL ATTACHED TO THIS REVIEW DOES NOT HAVE A TUNER ON IT. A refurbished VCR DVDr combo with a tuner that appears to be the newer version of my model (which is still working great a year later) can be found here : Magnavox ZV457MG9 Dual Deck DVD/VCR Recorder

I bought this after returning a similarly-priced tunerless player-only combo product made by Samsung. That one would only output VHS over the composite line. No component. No HDMI. Apparently some upscaling or signal processing is involved in making the VHS play over those outputs, but the Magnavox outputs VHS over all three types of cables. I don't need to use two inputs on my tv, and I don't need to find my tv remote to switch inputs if I want to watch a tape.

Picture quality is excellent for dvd, VHS, and the cable-box signal I'm running through the player. The VHS picture is not as good as dvd, but I didn't expect it to be. It's still a high quality four head VCR/VHS player that looks tons better than my now dead one from 2001.

I tested the recording functions, which I don't generally use, and they work great, even with cheap dvds. Set-up was easy, and I didn't have any trouble figuring out the remote.

The long and short of it is that I was able to replace my dead vcr at a reasonable price with something that suits my current needs and home entertainment configuration.

Please note that I ordered this model refurbished. The manual that came with it indicates that it is a class A. I recommend that you contact the seller to make sure that you're going to get the A model.

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If you want to copy your tape to DVD and to use this DVD in other units, I sincerely suggest you not to buy this product. I have 3 DVD players at home: Panasonic, Element Electronics and Curtis, I cannot play any DVD I copied from this machine in these 3 units.

I followed the instruction P.27 using Sony and TDK DVD+R, P41-42 dubbing Process and P.44-45 Finalizing a Disc, but it did not work. After 6 times try and error, called customer service 3 times, they finally told me "We cannot guarantee the disk you copied can be used in other units."

I would definitely not recommend this product.

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Superb unit. Works as advertised. I have found everything... via the manual. How to "finalize" DVD's (as someone else complained about)... and just yesterday, how to change the format of the outgoing picture (4:3 vs 16:9).

As my wife says, it helps to have an engineering degree... but really, one only needs to read the manual (RTFM). It's all there.

I am VERY HAPPY w/ this purchase. One of the best values for us in the last several years. Love the HDMI output to our newer Digital TV.

PS Very Quick Shipment by the vendor, too!

Opteka Gold Plated high speed HDMI to mini-HDMI 6' Cable For Nikon D7100, D7000, D5200, D5100, D320

Product was shown as new in a sealed package. It arrived in a regular ziplock cover and was used (had scratches, especially at the both the leads).

Hi, It works great! Very happy to have it, very easy to use and I use it all the time. Thank you

Buy Opteka Gold Plated high speed HDMI to mini-HDMI 6' Cable For Nikon D7100, D7000, D5200, D5100, D320 Now

This was one of the most important ad dings to my camera, I loved it and will recommend it strongly

Read Best Reviews of Opteka Gold Plated high speed HDMI to mini-HDMI 6' Cable For Nikon D7100, D7000, D5200, D5100, D320 Here

I use this to connect my Nikon to my computer and it works great and the price was cheaper than going to Target or Walmart.

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The plates are good quality and for the price this was sold, I dont think any other one would have compared. I got this for my Nikon D5100.

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Pyle Home PTTCSM60 Turntable Boombox With CD/MP3/Radio/Cassette/USB and Vinyl-to-MP3 Encoding

• 150 Watts Output - USB/SD Slot - Play MP3s and Encode Your Vinyl To MP3
• Front-Loading CD/MP3 Player - 3.5mm Auxiliary Input For iPhone, iPod, Android, Or Any Digital Audio Player
• Three Speed 33/45/78 RPM Selectable Turntable - Color: Black
• Analogue Tuning Radio (FM) - Dimensions (Main Unit): 12.49'' x 11.39'' x 10.53''
• Double Cassette Recorder - Dimensions (Speaker): 5.73'' x 6.28'' x 8.84''

I was given this system to review and I've had it for about a week now. I've pretty much mastered the controls already. I found the manual to be a bit wordy, so I just jumped right into it. It was pretty easy to pick up the controls without the instructions, but it was still nice to have them there in case.

I like the retro look of this unit. Looks like my first stereo/ boombox, but has the updated features of a modern sound system. It is a boom box, so it's compact in size and the sound. Good for a small space, but if you want a larger sound there is an aux out in the back.

You don't see boomboxes with this many features. The system has a turntable, dual cassette player, cd player, am/ fm radio, and slots for both usb and memory cards for both listening and recording mp3's.

The turntable is nice and compact, but can still play a full length album (33). Having a dual cassette is nice for someone like myself. I have tons of old mixtapes and live bootlegs that haven't been heard in years. Not only can I hear them again, but I can make mp3 copies as I listen.

This brings me to my favorite feature, the built in mp3 encoder. All you need to do is plug in a flash drive or memory card, hit record, and press play. Couldn't get much easier to get mp3's of your old records, cd's, and cassettes.

In conclusion, this system is for anyone who has an assortment of music media. With this boombox, you have a central place to listen to all your music and convert to mp3's as you listen.

Buy Pyle Home PTTCSM60 Turntable Boombox With CD/MP3/Radio/Cassette/USB and Vinyl-to-MP3 Encoding Now

I'm very much enjoying this system. My only gripe is that it is cheaply made. The slider controls, tape deck mechanisms, and other elements are a bit flimsy. I have to question the longevity of the unit, but for now it works wonderfully. The sound quality is also slightly poor because of the cheap speakers, but those can always be replaced. I'm very much enjoying it, and I plan on treating it with care. This is NOT a unit that a kid should be using.

It also looks fantastic. Most retro all-in-ones are recreations of photographs or old radios. I love the 80s look of this thing.

The USB and SD card functionality is cool. The recording features are difficult to use but are very impressive. The remote control is only used for the those features.

For anyone interested in seeing all the features of this unit, I recommend reading through the poorly translated manual. It outlines everything in detail (manual tab):

If you are looking for a unit that is as solid as your old component systems from years ago, this won't cut it re: quality. But if you are like me and simply want to play vinyl, tapes, CDs, radio, USB/MP3 with recording all in the kitchen you will certainly enjoy the convenience. It's a conversation piece.

Read Best Reviews of Pyle Home PTTCSM60 Turntable Boombox With CD/MP3/Radio/Cassette/USB and Vinyl-to-MP3 Encoding Here

I was so excited about getting this little stereo set. I'm a vinyl noob, so I was happy I found this nice all in one set. I'll review each function of the set.

Turntable: Great Turntable works flawlessly (so far..). You can play any size record on speeds 33, 45 and 78. I've tried out all my records and they play fine.

CD: Horrible CDs play fine, put the system seems to have trouble reading the discs sometimes. I usually have to take it out, turn the power off and on a few times and turn it on again. It's a hassle. But, when they do play, it's flawlessly. [UPDATE: It seems like the CD player has no problems anymore, I guess it just needed some breaking in. Bumping the system from 2 to 3 stars now because of this.] [UPDATE #2 (1/19/13): Now the CD player barely reads discs at all, and when it does, it now makes this really loud rattling noise. Must be faulty, so I'm going to return the system.]

Cassette: HORRIBLE I love cassettes and I was super excited about this function. The double decks play fine, until they EAT YOUR TAPES. I've tried three cassettes, and both decks have gotten some of the tape stuck in them. I even had to splice one of my favorite rare ones because of it. VERY DISAPPOINTED. STAY AWAY.

Recording Function: Great This works well. It's nice to have your vinyl on MP3s so easily. It works with CD, Cassette (but don't do it..), Vinyl, but not radio, which isn't a problem for me. MP3s sound crisp and clear.

Speakers: Cheap I'm no audiophile, but even I can tell these speakers aren't that good. They'll get the job done, but I recommend just using a better brand of speakers.

Radio: Okay Radio sounds fine but the tuning knob isn't very good. It gets kind of stuck and you have to turn it a lot to make it go to another station.

UPDATE 1/19/13: Overall, after less than a month of ownership, this system is already breaking down. I'm very disappointed with Pyle. I'm going to try to get a refund and try my luck in getting an Audio-Technica turntable with some Polk Audio speakers. So please, for your own good, do not buy this stereo system.

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The unit shipped immediately and arrived 3 days after being ordered. This compact unit plays CDs, tapes and records with an integrated USB for record to MP3 transfer. Sound quality is poor with the included speakers, but they're easily replaced. The manual is rough in parts likely due translation issues, but still conveys the necessary info. Unit worked out of the box and sounded much better with old Teac speakers. A tidy package for people who still have vinyl, and tapes who may want to transfer them to MP3.

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It is a good product made with quality materials mean, for a person that uses it carefully. it is ok.

Maximo Ip-Hs3 Imetal Isolation Headset For Iphone Smartphones Soft Touch Button Music Control

Maximo's iMetal headset provides high quality listening and recording results when connected to my Nokia Lumia 820.

Unlike several earbuds I've purchased before, the iMetal headset works with iPhone (all the way back to 3G), Blackberry or any multimedia phone with a 3.5mm or 2.5mm headset jack. The iMetal's button control functions are dependent on the features of individual multimedia phones.

Its earphone drivers are 9mm neodymium. The earphones give me 18Hz to 22KHz response. Sensitivity is 1KHz at 0.1V. Microphone sensitivity is 44dB at 1 KHz. In practical use, I get better mic sensitivity from Lumia than from iTouch fourth generation. The microphone's frequency response is 20Hz to 16 KHz.

It is very easy to push the iMetals to 120 decibels so I advise saving your hearing before you know you've lost it.

I use these earbuds when teaching creative multimedia students in Ireland.

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TASCAM DR-05EB Portable Digital Recorder

• Built-In Stereo Condenser Omnidirectional Microphones with sensitivity up to 125db SPL
• Up to 96kHz/24-bit WAV (BWF) linear PCM recording and Stereo MP3 recording from 32-320 kbps bit rate
• Automatic or manual level setting
• Bullet-style Ear Bud Headphones with In-line Phone Microphone and Carrying Pouch
• MicroSD (54MB - 2GB)/microSDHC (4GB - 32GB) card slot (2GB card included)

This is a great recorder. It does what it is supposed to do for a reasonable price. Here are a few notes based on my use of it:

First, skip the ear buds. Get the DR-05 instead. The ear buds are mono only with a temporary stereo switch. That means, to hear any stereo recordings, you have to continuosly press the tiny button. I can't hold it for more than about 30 seconds without fatigue. Also, the recorder sends a stereo signal whether the source is stereo or mono and the buds simply combine this signal into one channel (if you are not pressing the stereo button) which can easily overdrive the speakers. I found the ear buds to be useless.

Second, Beware of the Delete selection on the Quick Menu it deletes the currently selected file, but, depending on how you use the recorder, the selected file may not be the last one you recorded. It changes automagically. I found out the hard way that you really have to be aware of the selected track number at the bottom of the display...

You may want to change the LCD backlight to ALWAYS, or the auto shut off to something other than OFF. I set the recorder aside, the light shut off and I forgot to power down. The next day, the batteries were nearly dead. I know, not really the fault of the recorder, but I don't like the default settings. Ignore this if you're perfect.

Lastly, the mics are quite sensitive and you will most likely want a wind screen for even the slightest breeze. I have a common round ball foam screen that stretches snuggly over the rectangle shape. Not sure if they sell actual custom ones.

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I keep finding new ways to use this recorder. I first got it as a way to record random sounds to sample for songs or sound effects for my film projects and it works great! The sound is crisp, it's really easy to use and the headphones paired with it are convenient for quick monitoring to make sure I'm getting the right levels. I then started using it to improve the audio on my camera and I use it to demo out songs when I'm in a rush or have limited resources. I highly recommend this recorder. I'm a clumsy person, I've dropped it a few times and it still works great. The sound is extremely high-quality, especially for such a small device and I have had no problems figuring out the menu-set and getting it to do exactly what I want it to.

Lorex LH1361001C16B Eco2 Security Camera System with 16 Super+ Resolution Cameras (Black)

Just set this up .. and have to say Not bad for the money!

The web interface is really nice .. better then most expensive DVR'S

The Cameras are OK .. They do not seem to be what they state for the 660TV lines of resolution!

The cameras switch automatically to black and white in low light.

However seem to switch to black and white even if there is a lot of light.

Easy to setup .. nice unit .. cool interface .. low cost!

So over all I would say get it!

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