Full HD 1080P 20M Underwater Waterproof Night Sports Action Camera for Surfing Surfboard Bike Car M

The tiny camera was a purchase for viewing underwater competitive swimming stroke evaluation. Unfortunately, the charging cable came in a Chinese format and could not be immediately charged from American electrical outlets. I would have figured an adapter of some sort might have been included for an international clientele.

Great picture but short battery life. The information/user manual doesn't give a lot of troubleshooting support and there's no company website. If it breaks, I guess it's done. I kept the static lens cover on, because there is no supporting protection or cover for the lens. It does not include parts that allow you to attach to a helmet and/or rifle with a picattiny rail system.

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On Hold Plus Ohp6000 Mp3 Digital Player For Pbx/Ksu Telephone Systems (Telephone Access Packaged /

We purchased this product AGAIN after six years. It's far improved and has very nice music (not the "canned" sounding music), AND there are interruptions with, "thank you for holding, we'll be with you in a moment" interspersed throughout. Well done!

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QC444 Video Surveillance System

I bought this DVR about a week ago at a local store on sale for about $120 + tax, it did not include a hard drive and did not include any cameras, I already had these items around the house and just wanted a cheap starting solution to monitor the house and be able to get the video or at least alerts on my iPhone. this unit had the access I needed and the ability to put the Drive size I wanted into it, so it was a good choice.

Now, I am impressed with this unit! it was easy to install the Drive (SATA Drives are simple anyway) I installed a 250GB drive I had lying around that took all of 2 minutes total with removing the 6 screws and replacing them being included in the time spent. then simply plug in cameras (using BNC connectors, you will need adaptors if your camera is a RCA connector type, like a video camera or whatever.).

once everything is plugged in, you turn it on, log in(using a mouse on a virtual keyboard which is small on the sreen but still usable) and you can setup the cameras to record in any number of configurations, from all the time to using motion detection, and a whole lot more.

if you are on a network you can setup the network and then connect to the device from a Web Browser, or smart phone, again I use the iPhone, and the free version of the application used to connect to the system is enough to get real time video of the system, if you want to get snapshots and some extra features you need to pay $.99 for the pro version of the app. but all-in-all the free one works fine for me.

the web app is free but can be tricky to setup as you need to relax the browsers security to install it, but then it works great! this unit can even connect to other units to link DVRs together, in the web app or the desktop app you can watch more then 36 cameras from different DVRs around the globe if you set it all up. and also IP webcams can be added as feeds!

I am using a combination of old Sony webcams and some older Radio shack B/W night vision cams and the system is Wonderfull with all of them but you can tell it's camera quality not the DVR if your picture is not the best. on one channel I have hooked up a networked Media player with web media capability and I set it to the weater channel and I can monitor my local weather all day from wherever I am from my phone. I cannot say enough good things about this unit (specificly the QC-444 DVR)

if you are looking for a good quality DVR to have some security around the house or office then this is a great cost effective way to go. I really don't think you will be dissapointed. there are way too many features for me to get to them all, but again it's loaded.

I will try and update this review with some pics or video as soon as I can.

10 Slim Clear Double DVD Empty Replacement Boxes with Wrap Around Sleeve #DVBR07DOCL (7mm) (2DVD)

I got these DVD cases because i bought USED tv show season collections (original B H 90210, 21 Jump st) just to name a few Great Shows!! The cheap centers where you put the disks were always broken or missing those terrible little nubs that hold the disk in place! These cases are Wonderful!! High Quality!! The best (& coolest) part is the wrap around sleeve so you can put the DVD artwork in place!!!

Good quality clear poly case with sleeve. just 7mm thick so you can stick 2 cases with 2 in each case in a standard slot.. Sometimes only two discs are related, so instead of using a standard 4 disc case. This is perfect for that.

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I bought these cases specifically because I needed cases that had a staggered holding pattern like is shown in the picture. They do not have the staggered holding pattern as is advertised. I don't know what cases they took pictures of but they are not the ones that they are actually selling. If a staggered design is what you are looking for then go somewhere else because this isn't it. In addition to that, the open/close locks are a bit flimsy. I find that you really have to focus to ensure that they are actually closed.

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I ordered these because a few box sets i have purchased have the generic teeth that hold the DVD n place and some arrive broken or they just break after awhile and these are better made than the boxset DVD cases (most cases)and they don't have the cheap plastic dvd holder inside they have the circle with finger press they also have the sleeve on the outside so if u r buying them to replace a broken case you can slide the box sets artwork right into this case.tjese are the slim cases so be sure thats what your boxset uses if thats the reason for purchases.overall these are good and do what they r supposed to do and better price than I could find on the auction site

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They work great. You can store 2 DVD's in these double cases in less space than just one in a standard case.

2GB LCD Digital Audio Voice Recorder Dictaphone MP3 Player

voice recorder has lots of uses. the instructions are a little vague, but adequate. this recorder even records telephone calls.

I had read the reviews for the 4GB version of this, and read that it is great foreveryday use.

I found that it is very slow to start up, and neaerly 5 seconds pass before it starts recording. There is also no brand, so I had nothing else to reference but the small booklet (which is very unhelpful) that came with it.

The main reason I bought this was for the MP3 fomat, but I couldn't figure out how to change the recording format, and like I said, the booklet that it came with was terrible.

Another thing was, neither my laptop nor my work desktop recognized the device, so I was not able to transfer the files. By recognize, I mean even popping up as a USB device.

I do not recommend this item.

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RCA 7" Portable TV, RTV86073

• 7-inch LCD display
• Built-in ATSC digital/NTSC analog tuner
• Detachable antenna, flip-out stand, AC power adapter, rechargeable battery, and full-function remote control
• Parental control, speakers ideal for public viewing, and standard headphone jack for viewing in privacy
• Weight Without Stand: 0.88 lbs

This is my 4th attempt at buying a portable digital TV since the over the air broadcast standard changed from analog to digital 3 years ago in June 2009. I've already been through the 7 inch VIZIO and two 7 inch COBYs. I had to return them all what a waste of time and energy. None of them was satisfactory (see reviews) but this little RCA looks like a keeper.

In my metro area, I am able to pick up 12 channels with the included antenna.

The picture is bright, reasonably clear and the color very natural.

The screen has a dull, non-reflective surface so you're not looking at the reflection of your own face as is the case with the pricey VIZIO which has a very shiny screen. The RCA display is 234H x 480W PIXELS.

The clarity is quite acceptable noticeably better than the COBYs but not as sharp as the hi-resolution VIZIO which has inferior color and NO tint control.

The sound is clear but tinny and it's consistent in level from channel to channel. The audio is NOT as good as the COBYs but far superior to the very weak VIZIO. There is a headphone output allowing for use of a headset or powered external speakers.

The image scaling is excellent. If you set the aspect ratio to AUTO, the picture is properly proportioned from widescreen stations to those broadcasting in the old standard 4:3 format. Circles are always round and people are NOT stretched wide to look short and fat. VIZIO could not get that right.

Here's a plus unlike the VIZIO, when you power down, the RCA retains the channels you found as you would expect a TV to do.

The RCA has a full range of picture and audio controls as well as closed caption capability.

I have yet to connect it to cable or test battery play time.

I am just so happy to have a decent portable TV again. At this nice low price point, this TV is worth buying.

Though I wish it had a higher resolution screen, this will do nicely until something better comes along.

I've been researching these little beasts for 3 years now and in my opinion, this is the best portable TV on the market for now.

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

1 MONTH UPDATE:

We had a very bad storm come through on 6-29-2012 and were without electric power for almost 3 days. This little TV was a blessing. The battery only lasts about 90 minutes but I previously bought a 12 volt car adapter that allowed continued viewing. I also re-routed our cable signal to the 7 inch TV and scanned for cable channels. It found all 65 analog stations but none of the digital QAM signals. Most importantly, it found the cable radar station.

A day later, I rescanned for the unscrambled digital stations and it found all 16 of them.

Buy RCA 7" Portable TV, RTV86073 Now

The RCA 7 inch HDTV is a good portable HDTV, but it's not perfect. Surprisingly the TV does not have a built in telescoping whip antenna but a short 6 inch antenna which attaches to the TV by it's 30 inch cable. Although a whip antenna wouldn't be great it would be vastly superior to the included antenna. Curiously this set up exists in other portable TV's too. All these 6 inch vertical TV antennas are a joke unless you and the antenna can actually see the television station's transmitting tower, that's all you should expect from these antennas. Face it, would you connect a 6 inch antenna to your home TV and expect reception? This micro antenna also has a very thin coaxial cable. Without getting into the science of it, thin coax loses whatever signal it's carrying very, very quickly even over short lengths like 30 inches. Bottom line the supplied antenna and it's cable is junk. The tuner in this RCA TV is just as good as most home TV tuner's, it just needs an adequate antenna to work well.

The remote works fine but uses what I call bubble buttons. They all feel the same because they all have the same round bubble shape. This is different from most home TV remotes where one can feel the different round, square, or triangular shape of various buttons without needing to look and study which feature is which.

Finally the Li-ion battery is built into the TV. I see no means to replace it if/when it eventually fails.

Otherwise, the RCA works quite well and I like it. This RCA TV also has the standard coax connector antenna fitting that is used with real coax. Some portable TV's use a proprietary micro connector that is impossible to connect to real coax. This unit is nice to have on camping trips and the like but again be prepared to get a true functional small portable antenna preferably using real coax, for any of these portable TV's, these antennas do exist. Something like the Mohu Leaf or Terk antenna should work (I haven't tried them though). Don't buy the old school rabbit ears. They were designed for old analog TV's which operated mostly on VHF frequencies. Today's HDTV's mostly use UHF bands, the obsolete rabbit ears were never designed to work on the UHF band. I could explain the science but your eyes would glaze over after an hour.

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I was replacing an Auvio 3.5" screen w/this unit because I didn't like having to replace batteries as often, and it didn't seem to have a car adapter available, and the home adapter was half the cost of the unit price.

The RCA unit has a rechargeable battery and comes w/both a car and home recharger and larger screen for about the same price I'd paid originally. A secondary benefit was the external coaxial(RF) connector for a better antenna connection, also.

The only drawbacks were the small antenna that doesn't really provide good reception and the really POOR remote control, which almost doesn't work, very difficult key responses, as well as no better reception than the Auvio unit has.

Overall, a better value, but nothing to brag about. It's worth the price, though.

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At some point almost every kid in America has had a desire for a small portable television set that could be sneaked into bed and used under the covers after one parent or the other has announced that it's "lights out" for the night. This RCA 7" Portable TV is just the type of device that so many of us fell asleep dreaming about, wishing that we had one.

On a more serious note, NPR ran a program a couple of years ago, 'Medical Detectives Focus On Myopia,' and in an interview Dr. Don Mutti (College of Optometry, Ohio State University) noted that "near-work" the things you do close up with your eyes, like reading or watching television or playing video games, had been a suspect as one of the causes of myopia for many years. German astronomer Johannes Kepler wrote about it about 400 years ago, and Dr. Mutti's advice was simple: "Don't watch too much TV, or don't read, you know, under the covers with a flashlight."

That being said, I found that this small 7-inch television didn't need to be viewed that closely, and that arm's length was an excellent viewing distance where the picture could be viewed clearly and easily once everything was set up as per the instructions. But let's get past the good and bad first...

Pros:

* Very light weight; about 1.1 pounds (0.50kg)

* Sharp and bright 7-inch diagonal LCD screen; 480 x 264 pixels

* Excellent controls, easy to master quickly

* Easy setup; good instruction manual, easy to follow

* Decent full-featured small remote control

* Built-in Li-ion rechargeable battery keeps it portable

* Convenient flip-out stand on back

Cons:

* The included external antenna is abominable and almost worthless

First Impressions Setup:

This television was well packaged, and was better in that respect than many on the market. It came with the TV itself, a remote control with CR2025 battery, a power adapter, a telescoping antenna with a magnetic base, a power adapter and a user guide. Following the directions, connected the antenna and plugged in the 12V power adapter, then turned the TV on. The manual said to perform an auto scan to search for the locally available channels. And that's where the first problem arose, as in the NYC area there are plenty channels, yet the reception ranged from just OK to very poor, which I found to be quite surprising from RCA.

Long story short, the supplied antenna is just about worthless. After charging the TV for a couple of hours, took it outside to a park area, did another auto scan, and found that reception was reasonably improved, but it didn't help indoor reception. Tried it briefly with my older Terk Technology HDTVi VHF/UHF HDTV Indoor Antenna and the reception improved greatly, but this antenna is somewhat directional and I didn't feel like having to readjust and auto scan for better reception every time the TV was moved. Came online here and read a number of reviews, then ordered the RCA ANT1450BM Refurbished Multi-Directional Digital Flat Amplified HDTV Antenna (reviewed here separately) which was on sale at the time. It arrived a few days later, and once it was hooked up, the reception was excellent. Note that this TV has an industry-standard coaxial antenna connector that enables it to be used with cable television if you like.

In Use:

Once the new antenna was installed and the auto scan was performed, found this television to be excellent in all respects. The size is small yet not too tiny, and the reception on all channels is first-rate. The available controls for setting such items as the picture, audio, V-chip and other controls are quite good, and if you (or someone else) screws them up, there's a reset option to restore things to the default settings.

Thought that the tiny remote control was nothing other than cute at first, but once one uses it for a while it has proven to be the preferred method of controlling this TV. The stereo sound wasn't so good until I plugged in a set of ear bud headphones, and the difference was remarkable.

Summary:

As with anything, how a product is rated has a lot to do with its performance vs. the price paid. In my case, I bought this here on a Lightning Deal when the price was below forty buck, which made it an exceptional value, even with the almost useless antenna. From past experience with televisions over the years, I expected that the antenna would have to be replaced, and was glad that RCA had chosen to not use a built-in telescoping antenna that would have to be adjusted every few minutes. All this being said, will have to say that at the regular price this would probably be a very solid +4-star product, but with an upgraded antenna, it's subjectively worthy of a 5-star recommendation... and don't let your kids use it under the covers late at night.

6/2/2012

I find that this TV is amazing considering the price.

Using the magnetic six inch antenna that was included with the unit, I was able to receive ninety-eight channels including twelve PBS channels.

This TV presents a nice picture with many picture and audio controls and also, it has built-in speakers (stereo) with the option of using headphones or ear buds.

The battery life is indicated to be limited to one hundred minutes but, that should suffice whenever there is a power outage and you would like to check periodic news updates.

I also found that 12 volt car adapter plugs into this TV and can also serve to recharge the TVs' built-in battery.

Panasonic RR-US450 Voice Recorder, Thin Style, PC Software 66 Hour Rec

I've always respected Panasonic quality and reliability -but this was a shock.

It was onsale at Fry's for 39 dollars -1 day sale.

I returned it within hours.

The main reason was neither XPSP2 or Vista wouuld recognize it as a device in My Computer.

While it was detected and identified as an IC recorder in XP -one could never access anything saved on it.

Instructions took about 45 minutes of careful scrutiny just to configure settings necessary to record something.

Playback volume was weak; "buttons" difficult to identify and press.

I expected this device to produce an "open with" or "autoplay" dialog just as one would expect for a camera.

No such dialog ever appeared.

Vista never knew what it was. XP could not see it as a drive.

Their 1-800 support number was inaccessible from California. Their 1-905 number for Canada, was -but noone was available at 2:30pm on a Friday afternoon.

There is no support for this device at their site other than the Editing software updates -which are useless without the ability to detect the unit properly.

No help in the manual for transferring files -just a warning not to disconnect the cable when transfer is taking place.

Kind of cheaply constructed the controls are a bit weird and everytime I pick it up I wonder, "Is it broke yet?" I've been able to record conversations accurately and painlessly. The software is "crappy" but it does the job if you struggle to learn it. My task was to record the conversation, download their format, convert it to mp3/wav for distribution. I used their software to get to the wav, and Audacity to get to the mp3. Their software is pretty good at removing noise to clean up the recording. I've had it about 3 months now, and I still haven't broken it. I keep it in my back pack wrapped in a bandera. (Makes a better case than the sock I was using and people don't react to the bandera as strongly as they did to the dirty sock.)

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I've had this recorder for 3 years and use it for my job to record meetings, of which I then produce written summaries. It works OK, but I have a new laptop for my job and I want to install the driver software on the new machine. I haven't done that because I no longer have the original driver disc and Panasonic wants me to pay for a replacement (no free download). I don't want to waste the money doing that because the new machine runs Vista and the software doesn't work well on Vista. My recommendation is to get a recorder from a different company with better customer service.

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This is the worst bit of Kit I have ever bought, it records really well and plays back on the device fine, which ever record quality you choose it remembers when you switch it on. (That's if you can call it switch on, as you push the hold button to switch it of, and un hold to switch it on.) so if you select HQ for record quality the next time you switch it on its set to HQ. the controls are very good with a Jog Shuttle type joy control, but the main problem is when you plug it into a PC via USB it is unidentifiable, it requires the drivers from the CD. But even after that you cant access the files, it wont show up as a drive, the software cant see it, windows see's it as a Panasonic device but not a drive, I tried to access it via a dell laptop using Vista I gave it to a friend who tried it on a desktop using XP and this could not access the files, so for now its at the back of the draw till my brother goes Clay Pidgin shootingPanasonic RR-US450 Voice Recorder, Thin Style, PC Software 66 Hour Rec

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Sharx Security VIPcella-IR SCNC2700P Wired PoE IP network camera with MicroSD DVR and True Day/Nigh

I purchased two of these products because I needed to keep an eye on my home when I went on vacation last summer. The quality of the video is outstanding; better than any other video camera out there that I've seen. I liked the fact that I could actually see people's faces in high quality, rather than a blur. The night vision is superb and I was able to view my rooms as if there were lights on, when in fact, it was dark. Just a note, my rooms were no larger than 12' x 18'. There are demos of this camera on the manufacturer's website. I would recommend anyone who is interested in this product to check them out first.

A few items to note: if a room is very dark and has no white objects in it, the night vision will not work as well. What I did to resolve that was to place a piece of white cardboard (about 10" x 12") on my couch and then it adjusted the lens to brighten the room a bit. Another thing I noticed is if you mount this device on top of a wall unit, the night vision LEDs will actually reflect off the surface and mess with the quality of the night vision. What I did to resolve this issue was to place a black velvet cloth directly underneath the base of the camera, so the IR LEDs did not reflect off the surface and the night vision worked great.

The networking is very easy to setup. I was able to give it a static IP (you can also use DHCP) so I could view it from my smartphone. I was using a Palm Pre 2 at the time and I could not only see live pictures but also stream video to my phone and see it live. It does offer RTSP.

Probably one of the best features of this camera is the alerting. You can setup zones in specific areas of the camera's view, so that if motion is detected, it will trigger an email alert and start sending pictures. I set this up and also had my email account text me, when mail came from this device. It was great I didn't have to babysit the camera all the time and relied on alerts as they happened.

Support was responsive. They do not have a number to call, but they do have an email to contact for support. I always received a response within 24 hours of sending them a question and they were very knowledgeable.

Definitely a great quality product and I would highly recommend it to anyone.

Great product. I had one issue with setting up this camera and contacted tech support through email. I received a call very quickly and was offered a replacement camera if my problem could not be solved. We have other cameras from this company (model SCNC260) and have been very satisfied with the results. The setup is very quick.

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Top Quality Jensen 3-Speed Stereo Turntable 2 CD System with Cassette and AM/FM Stereo Radio By JEN

The system was nice but there was not enough volume output for my parents. They are older and the volume would only go so high. I am sure it was due to the size of the unit. Though an attractive system, it was just not compatible to what we were looking for as a gift for our parents. Thank you.

Belkin F9D601FC08 6-Outlet High Grade Metal Surge Protector, 700 Joules, 8 Feet Cord

I didn't buy this here on Amazon, just at my local Home Depot. Its seems like quality construction, metal around the sides and top; the bottom is plastic though. Long extension cord (8ft), good for extending an outlet and adding 6 more. Has lights for ground and if its protected; the switch is also lit. 4 of the 6 outlets are close together, the other 2 are far apart, makes room for those large boxy AC adapters. Its likely you will have to replace this surge protector after it stops a surge. I recently ran too much current through it and it broke.

I thought I should add detailed specs (for those who like them):

Electrical rating: 120v/15A/60Hz/1800W

Max dissipation energy: 1080J (although the front says 700J)

H-N, H-G, N-G: 360J

Max spike current: 72000A

H-N, H-G, N-G: 24000A

UL clamping voltage (3-line): 400v

Response time:

Creative Zen V Plus 4 GB Portable Media Player (Black/Blue)

• Product Type - MP3 Player
• Memory - 4GB
• Battery - Rechargeable Li-ion Battery
• Storage Capacity: 4GB (2,000 songs)

In summary why I picked Zen V Plus:

-Good price/performance

-FM radio and voice recorder

-Small, scratch resistant and cool design

-Drag and drop capability

-Compability with different music stores

-Very easy and quick navigation

-Previous positive experience

If you want a more detailed comparison to IPOD-Nano and Sandisk Sansa C200 series, continue reading and scroll down, if not stop here and get back to what you were doing, or want to do or whatever... :-)

First off, this is my second Creative product in less than a year. No, no the old one is still good (ZEN Nano Plus) indeed the best one I've ever had, but I decided to go with something with color and a more navigation-friendly menu. I am not new to digital music.I've had a pleuthora of MP3 players within the last 5 years. Starting with a 32MB RCA (terrible), a 128MB Samsung (Good), a HD based Dell DJ(died on me,) two 6GB Apple Minis (one's Hard drive died, the other's click-wheel gave up), a Zen Nano Plus (excellent) and now this cool 4 GB Zen V-Plus. Before deciding on my new ZEN, I had two other serious considerations :

1) IPOD NANO 4GB or 6GB :

Although I really loved the look and the price (not much above its competition)of the new IPOD NANO, I could not go with it because of previous (baaaad) experience and the required slavery to it's ITUNES software. It just is a pain in the neck when using my own MP3s (non i-tunes songs) and other music stores' products. Plus it did not have FM and voice recording, which are, I admit, pretty cool features.

2)Sandisk Sansa E250 (4GB) or E270 (6GB):

This was my clear favourite before actually going into a store and physically feeling it. Sandisk is the lead flash card memory manufacturer and its memories are really hi-Q.That and its clearly lowest price among peers made me consider this one more seriously. It had the voice recording and FM radio options and did not have the dreaded mandatory music software. Had even a bigger screen (1.8 inches) than Zen V Plus (1.5 inches). So why did Sandisk got eliminated? Easy:

i)Extremely hard to use click-wheel, even if one has small hands (I don't,I am 6'2" and 200lbs, so in my case a total "forget it"). The wheel is elevated from the surface very little, you accidentally hit other buttons while trying to operate.

ii)Overall size and design. Sandisk looks like a fatter and less slick IPOD Nano. It does not have the different (shorter,squarer, more compact) feel of the Zen V Plus.Bottom line it is bigger and bulkier than both.

iii)Icon based menu.That is a total no go for a small screen gadget. Just stick to line-based menu like all the previous and current IPods if your screen is less than 3 inches accross.

So, cheaper, equipped with features like the Zen V Plus, with a bigger screen and comparable battery life, The Sandisk Sansa still got eliminated.

After a month, what do I think about my Zen V Plus (4GB)?

PROS:

-Great size, look and feel.

-Great, optional very easy to use Creative software.

-100% Drag and drop compatible.

-Vibrant colors.

-Easy to navigate menu.

-Easy to use joystick and buttons (except one, see below in CONS)

-Decent battery life.

-Great FM receiver.

-Price

CONS

-Hard to see the screen (OLED's curse) under direct sunlight.

-Charging through USB (the only supplied cable) takes forever.

-The placement of the "back" button. It should be on the left of the "play/pause" button not below. When the unit is in your palm unless you have a hyperextending thumb, it is hard to press this button though possible.

-Screen is not big enough for video viewing. Although video playback is seamless and vibrant, the size is just too small.Don't let the video capability be a deciding factor if you are inclined.

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I purchased the 8GB Creative Zen V Plus player during the first week in February. I am returning it and this is why:

The package arrived from Amazon. I loaded up the software on my computer, then hooked up the player through the usb cord. I let it charge for 6 hours like the instructions state. Then I proceeded to load some of my music onto the player. So after the music was loaded, I disconnected the player from the usb cable and started to listen to the music. The sound quality was good, the player is easy to navigate in the menus, etc... The problem was about half the music I uploaded was not on the player. I could see the folder and menu option for the artist or genre but the actual file was not there. So I plugged the player back into the usb cord, and pulled up the file location on the player through the computer. The file was there and I could play it just fine through Windows Media Player. I tried to access it again through the player and it was not there. Then I accessed through the computer just fine.

All my songs, all 4,500 of them, are in MP3 format from 56kps for my audio books to 192kps for the songs I ripped from cd's. The player just wouldn't read about half my songs. There was really no rhyme or reason on whish songs it would recognize. I would load an entire album of 15 songs and I could only play 6 or 7 tracks. This happened with my entire music collection.

So I thought maybe the firmware was out of date so I uploaded all the updates from creative which did include a firmware update. It did not solve the problem. I then uploaded some of the same songs that would not play on the Zen V Plus onto my 3 year old Rio and original Ipod Shuffle and they played just fine. I was frustrated at this point so I called the Creative Customer Service. It is strange because they do not post the number for there company anywhere on there website and now I understand why. They have the worst customer service/tech department of any computer/electronic company I have ever spoke with. After three calls, never speaking to someone who I could fully understand as English was definitely not a first language, more like a 3rd or 4th language, I arrived nowhere. They kept telling me they were emailing document to me on how to resolve the problem. No email ever came, checked the junk folder and every other possible place. So I tried a fourth call. This guy basically called me stupid from what I could understand, saying "I can't believe you Americans" and then mumbled something in another language. I asked for a supervisor. He told me that he would escalate my call and someone would call me in 2-3 days. Then he hung up.

I was really amazed that a company would treat its customers in this nature. They really have to respect for there customers and do not want to help them in any way. So I am returning the Creative Zen V Plus player and I also don't plan on buying anything from Creative again.

By the way, after all this, the problem never was fixed.

Also, when doing research on this product, I came across a couple articles and reviews that stated this player would play DIVX files. This is not true. This player will not play any files without being converted first. I took an AVI video that was 100MB and it converted it into a 1.2GB file. The format they use is absolutely a waste of space. If you want to upload an entire movie on MPEG or AVI format, it will end up taking the entire 8GB of space if not more. I converted the movie Cars for my son on a short road trip thinking I could have my music plus his movie. I was wrong, the movie took up 7.1GB after being converted.

I would not recommend this product to anyone. As much as I don't like the IPod, I would recommend it over the Zen V Plus because: 1. It plays all my music 2. They have a customer service/tech support that helps you and cares about its customers.

I hope this helps anyone looking at this player.

Jeff

Read Best Reviews of Creative Zen V Plus 4 GB Portable Media Player (Black/Blue) Here

The Zen V Plus is a nifty little device that accomplishes a lot of audio tasks. It is an audio player and recording, and also displays JPEG pictures and small video files.

I found the usability of the Zen to be very good for it's size. You have to hold the "On" button for least one second to activate the player and this prevents it accidentally turning on by mistake in your pocket. The battery management is also well designed: the display dims a few seconds after you press any of the buttons. If the Zen isn't playing, it automatically turns itself after a few minutes. By virtue of these features, I found that I get hours of play before the unit needs recharging which is done by hooking up to a USB port on your computer.

Sound quality is very good: I was surprised given the Zen's small size and very light weight. In fact, the unit is so small and light, you'll want to attach the strap to prevent yourself losing it. The display is bright and readable. One thing I especially like is that Zen only plays one folder of music at a time and then stops: it doesn't keeping playing one folder after another endlessly like other players do. It's like playing only one CD or record at a time. There also is a "set bookmark" function for going back to an exact spot in a recording.

The included software works well for transferring and managing files on the Zen. While the unit is not straight Windows drag and drop, the Creative Media Explorer accomplishes the same thing. This software also rips music from CDs and is supposed to convert video files to play on the Zen but I couldn't get the latter function to work for my video clips.

The buttons on the Zen are a little on the cheap side but work well enough. There is a "lock" button that is integrated with the "On" switch: this keeps you from accidentally pushing any buttons during recordig or playback. The Zen also acts as a line-in recorder at 128 or 160 kbps recording rate, and has a built-in microphone also. Sound quality is good with line-in and decent on the microphone. I think these features alone are worth the purchase price. The Zen plays FM radio, but you can't record from it with this unit.

You can also display your favorite photos one at a time or in slide show format. The Zen also acts as a portable flash drive. To use this function you need to select from an internal menu to decide how much space to give the new data partition.

As far as "freezing-up" is concerned, my unit froze once when I first used it, possibly due to an incompatible music file that I transferred, and I was a bit miffed. This is simple enough to correct but you need a very small pin to insert in the side of the unit. This causes it to rebuild the file list which takes a few minutes. After doing this once, my unit has worked fine ever since.

The paper manual is a bit skimpy, as others have noted, but the online manual is sufficient. Holding down the "Back" button, the one with the little left-facing arrow, on the Zen shows you additional options for each function. One slightly amusing feature is that the Zen shows you messages like "shutting down" or "processing" in a separate DOS-like window superimposed on top of the main window. It's reminds you that the Zen is, in fact, a small computer. The Zen also contains a calendar and a nice-looking clock with alarm that, while not sounding a beep or buzz, turns on the audio player to a random track or the FM radio. It can do this from a completely shut-down state but you need to keep the headphones attached if you aren't looking at the display.

Overall, I like the Zen V Plus and found that it has become a constant companion for air travel and around the house for a variety of line or microphone recording uses.

(Simeon Hein is the author of the OPENING MINDS softcover and audio books, and PLANETARY INTELLIGENCE: 101 Easy Steps to Energy, Well-Being, and Natural Insight.)

Want Creative Zen V Plus 4 GB Portable Media Player (Black/Blue) Discount?

Update:

The player freezes with no sound and with the screen on (displaying album artwork), at random times and for no apparent reason. One of my two units had to be reset so many times that it can no longer be reset: it feels like that internal pad you press on with a sharp pin has now disappeared (it must have broken off). Our only recourse now is to wait 3 days for the battery to run dead, and hope that it will be reset simply by recharging it from scratch. We've only had this unit since August (it's now December), so I no longer feel the reliability level of this product is sufficient to justify its purchase. Buy something else that doesn't have to be reset all the time!

I bought the 2 GB model because the 4 GB version wasn't available yet and it had the largest flash memory of any unit that works with my Napster-To-Go subscription, so it can store the largest number of songs and color photographs. The 4 GB version is identical except for the amount of installed flash memory. This is the V Plus version, so it sports an FM tuner and the ability to display videos as a bonus.

Why did I choose a flash memory based MP3 player? Napster-To-Go compatible hard drive models with much larger storage capacity abound, but I figure they'll break prematurely because they use a hard drive that can't withstand much jogging, accidental bumping or dropping.

I bought two of these players plus the separately sold AC wall charger, and attached one of them to the wall charger for 6 hours, while I attached the other one to a USB port on my PC to charge it for 6 hours.

At the end of 6 hours, the unit attached to the PC was fine until I unplugged it, then it went comatose and would not even revive when the reset button was pushed several times. I had to exchange it for a replacement unit just two days after buying it.

The unit attached to the wall charger was fine, and I went on to load it up with music using my Napster-To-Go subscription. That was fine until 2 weeks later, when my wife charged it on a PC using the USB cable. After charging and disconnecting from the PC, it too went comatose.

This time I was able to revive it by pushing the reset button.

Then I took a look at the other unit, which had been charging on the AC wall charger. It had also gone comatose, and I was able to revive it by pushing its reset button.

The reset button is inside a tiny hole on the left edge of this unit. You can find it by following the thin groove that's below the screen all the way to the left edge of the unit, where you'll find it on the side. The picture in the manual does NOT accurately depict its location.

The hole leading to the reset button is very, very small. The instructions say to penetrate that hole with a pin.

I used the sharp end of a safety pin to do this. When the pin is inserted, it's quite easy to miss the reset button unless the pin is inserted at exactly the right angle. You'll know it's not at the right angle if you don't feel that you're pushing on a pad with a spring behind it when you reset the unit. That pad travels a short distance until it's stopped by a control surface inside the unit; that's when you know it has been reset.

The reset system should be redesigned so that it doesn't depend on the angle you insert the pin to work. I suspect that the first unit I returned could have been reset if I had known that you have to insert the pin at just the right angle to do it. Since I didn't know, my several attempts to reset it were not successful.

Resetting the unit is akin to rebooting a PC: it revives it when the internal software (called "firmware") has frozen by restarting the software. It does not erase your songs or photos.

Make no mistake: this MP3 player looks, feels and works beautifully. However, since the firmware is newly designed, it appears to have bugs relating to disconnecting it from USB or charger power that cause it to freeze, and the reset button is a little hard to use if you don't know about the things I described above that could cause you to be unable to reset it. You may just end up with a unit that's frozen and not be able to reset it.

It needs to be a little more user friendly than that. Hopefully a future firmware update will be available that will lower the occurrence of the unit locking up (freezing), especially when disconnecting from a USB port or AC charger after recharging it. As another user noted, the "safe disconnect" icon is often times not even in the system tray.

If you don't subscribe to Napster-To-Go, your options to get content for your MP3 player are to transfer your favorite songs from CDs you own to your hard disk ("ripping the songs"), or purchase songs one track or album at a time, at a price ranging from 88 to 99 cents per song from Napster, Rhapsody or WalMart.

You can also download books you want to listen to (such as best sellers and classics) or "podcasts" (your favorite newspapers read aloud, or your favorite radio programs like NPR) from a plethora of sites (like NetLibrary or Audible) that make these available, onto your computer's hard drive. Now you can listen to your music, audible books and podcasts over your PC loudspeakers while sitting at your PC.

Then you can transfer your songs, audible books and podcasts from the hard drive of your PC to your MP3 player(s). This enables you to take your MP3 player with you to enjoy listening in your car, in your office, while jogging or working out at the gym, while shopping, or at the pool or the beach to hear your music, audible books and podcasts anywhere.

This player really deserves 4 1/2 stars. I bought one of these to replace a Sansa e260 that I had returned because of disappointing sound quality. The Zen V Plus did not disappoint. Sound quality is excellent, with punchy bass, good volume and no noticeable system noise during playback.

The form factor for the Zen V is terrific. The tiny size and curved shape make this comfortable to hold in your hand or slip in your pocket. And despite its all-plastic construction, it seems as if the Zen V can stand up to some abuse. I've found that it also does not scratch as easily as my previous player, the result of a scratch-resistant polymer coating. I plan to take this player running, camping, to the gym, etc., and don't feel like I'll need to "baby" it.

The interface is what you'd expect from Creative: simple, intuitive and powerful. There are many options for customizing, including choosing main menu options to display, setting photos as wallpaper and rotating display orientation -and corresponding controls -in 90-degree increments, so you don't have to strain your neck to read the display when your player is strapped to your arm. I feel like Creative spent some time figuring out what real users would want in a player. Also, despite its small size, the five-position joystick is easy to use and works well in combination with the interface.

Of course, the Zen V Plus also has a boatload of other features that you may or may not care for depending on your needs: FM radio with 32 presets, voice recorder, line-recording and PIM functionality (you can sync your calendar, contacts and tasks with MS Outlook).

I can really only come up with two negatives for the Zen V Plus. One is battery life, which at 15 hours (less if you use a lot of EQ) is on the low end of the scale compared to some of the newer players. If you plan on taking this on long trips, I suggest getting an AC wall charger. (Hint: the bargain-priced charger for the Zen Micro works just fine with this unit.)

The other possible drawback is the OLED screen, which is small, has lower resolution than most LCD screens and is difficult to see in bright sunlight. On the other hand, if you're buying this primarily as a music player and not a multimedia device, the screen is more than adequate. It is quite vibrant (the colors really pop) and does a decent enough job with photos.

Some also might be disappointed that this device is not true UMS (although you can partition the memory for storage). I run Win XP and am the sole user of the device, so having an MTP player is no big deal for me. I have my music organized by folders, which I drag and drop onto the player using Creative's Media Explorer. (Note: like the Sansa and some other players out there, the Zen V uses ID3 tags to categorize music and display file properties, so it pays to make sure your tags are cleaned up and correct.)

The Good:

Excellent sound, with no system noise

Convenient size and form factor

Simple, but powerful interface

The Not So Good

Small, low-resolution screen

Battery life could be better

Hauppauge 1198 WinTV-HVR-950 TV Tuner Stick/Personal Video Recorder with Remote Control (Black)

I run the Hauppage USB 950Q Tuner on a Windows Vista 32-bit system with a high end Nvidia 9800 640MB PCI-E video card, dual core Pentium 2.8ghz processors and a Creative Xi-Fi PCI soundcard, with 3GB's of system RAM. This is well above the minimum requirements.

My primary use involves plugging in the coaxial cable line directly to the USB Tuner, in order to record certains shows a couple of times a week.

I did some basic research and read the various reviews of what was out there. My video card takes up so much space, that I didn't want to fool with squeezing a PCI card inside the case, a USB card that I could even take on the road with my lap top easily, seemed perfect.

This version comes with (at this time) the latest Hauppage drivers on the CD. It's best to install the CD apps first before plugging the USB device in. If you don't, make sure to cancel the Windows prompt to find drivers on it's own.

I also had to install the WinTV application in order for Windows Media Center to recognize the signal. I prefer to use WMC because of it's very nice guide, genre summaries of "what's on" and the speed at which it operates. I still need to fool around a bit with the aspect ratio, as I have a widescreen 24" flat panel monitor.

After the 10 minutes or so it takes to scan all of the analog cable channels, I played the live TV and the picture was grainy, choppy, and kept stuttering out. It took me a while to figure out it was a bad signal from the cable line. Keep this in mind if your picture is snowy, having blips or a white line running through it intermittently etc..., you probably need a Cable Signal Amplifier. I got a bi-directional cable TV amplifier from Radioshack for $34 and after plugging it in the right way, the signal and picture for analog channels was noticeably improved, and I am now reasonably happy with it. Make sure your fuzzy picture is not a result of this, if you have any splitters on your line, multiple TV's and an internet modem hooked up to your cable lines, an amplifier can work wonders. I haven't seen this obvious remedy mentioned in any other reviews, so wanted to make sure I put it in here.

I also tested the included atenna, and the local, free QAM or HD channels it picked up, looked fantastic, the analog channels were too choppy but clearer than the cable picture, I didn't spend much time with the antenna though. The problem is there are very few of these HD/QAM channels available, even here in a major city where I live, and they are just versions of the local network station (which I rarely watch). Literally 4-6 of these, if that.

If the day comes where everything is broadcast in HD, this card will make the picture rather remarkable, for obvious reasons being you don't have to convert an analog signal and the resolutions match hi-res PC monitors much more closely.

WinTV is very cumbersome and slow, I notice a slightly better picture with it at this point, versus WMC, but WMC's functionality make it the preferred application.

Unfortunately I cannot find a way to easily switch back and forth between the Antenna source and Analog Cable line, without having to re-scan everything which takes 10+ minutes for WinTV, less for WMC. I don't think there is an easy way, even with another splitter.

So, buy a cable tv amplifier, (bi-directional if you use PPV or Indemand services etc..,) make sure you have a powerful video card (more important than your CPU but they ultimately both work together) and at least 2GB of system RAM if you're on Vista ecspecially.

This should give you adequate results and feel this is probably one of the better, more affordable, PC TV with HD/QAM options out there, and should get better with time as broadcasts move to an all-digital signal.

Of course if you have a DVR or hi-def cable box, use the S-video connection if possible, and your HD channels and other digital channels will probaby look and play even better.

Hauppauge Model 1198, HVR-950 does not have Clear QAM as described in the title, and item information.

Buy Hauppauge 1198 WinTV-HVR-950 TV Tuner Stick/Personal Video Recorder with Remote Control (Black) Now

I am using this tuner as part of a Beyond TV setup with multiple tuner cards for receiving OTA HDTV broadcasts. Installing the tuner software was easy, and its tuning sensitivity seems as good as the other brands of HDTV tuner cards I have used. I have not tested the remote control with it, so I cannot comment on that part of it. I did not try the video-in option or the included antenna so I cannot comment on those either. I briefly hooked my analog cable up to it and it seemed to tune those channels well also. The included software suite is adequate and does what it says it does. Its compact size would make it great for travel and/or a laptop.

When you hook this up you may want to use the USB extender cable to minimize strain on your computer's USB port from the cable attached to the tuner weighing down on the port.

Needless to say, the only disadvantage of this type of product vs. a plug-in card or USB box is that you must chooses if you want CATV or OTA HDTV, since many of the cards and USB boxes offer separate F-connectors for cable and OTA signals. Their may be a way to combine both signals on one cable, but I did not attempt that. Video input is separate via a small port on the tuner stick, so that input can be used with either setup. Also, to the best of my knowledge this stick does not have a hardware-based MPEG-2 decoder. Some products require at least one tuner in their setup to have a hardware-based decoder, so you may want to double-check your application to be sure.

In short, this is a great product and I would buy another one. I've used Hauppauge products for years, and found them to be well designed and reasonably priced. This tuner continues that tradition.

Read Best Reviews of Hauppauge 1198 WinTV-HVR-950 TV Tuner Stick/Personal Video Recorder with Remote Control (Black) Here

This product has problems with Windows XP (and possibly ATI video cards). Could not get a picture at all on one computer but had sound. Audio had lots of static on another computer with a great picture. It would not work on one of our laptops at all. But, it worked great on a new laptop with Windows Vista Ultimate. Hauppauge's fix for these computers was an older driver in which the remote control would not work.

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Bought to view cable TV on my laptop computer. Plugged into a coax cable and into usb port it works fine. Only issue is the audio sync with picture. If I work on an application on my computer then come back to TV the sync is off. I need to change channel then back to the show I was watching to fix the timing. But it does work well so I recommend this product.

Toshiba Excite AT305T64 10.1-Inch 64 GB Tablet Computer - Wi-Fi - NVIDIA Tegra 3 1.20 GHz

I've been wanting to get a tablet since last year and have been holding out since they announced ICS and Quad-Core processors. I was going to get the Prime for christmas, but it was unavailable, so I decided to wait and see what came out in the spring. I've stayed away from the Prime due to the higher price and GPS issues, so it came down to 3 tablets while making my decision (Transformer Pad, Acer Iconia a510 and the Toshiba Excite 10). All 3 tablets are very similar and met my criteria for a tablet (ICS, Tegra 3, 1280x800 display, HDMI-out, etc.). I had originally ordered the Iconia a510, but it was back-ordered. Then I saw the Excite was available and in stock early on Amazon last week, so I cancelled my order for the Acer and immediately orderd the Toshiba. What ultimately sold me on the Toshiba model was the Gorilla Glass, the Stock ICS experience and the Full SD card slot. My wife takes a lot of pictures and will love being able to just pop the SD card out of the camera and into the tablet.

I received the device yesterday and it is very fast and slim. I used it for a good 3 hours straight last night with music playing in the background and experienced no lag at all and still had 70% battery remaining after the 3 hours. The Excite 10 is very well built and feels sturdy in the hands. Not too heavy, but just enough that it doesn't feel like you are going to break it. The WiFi signal was very strong and didn't have any issues there. The speakers sound pretty good considering how small they are. The setup took no time at all and with the Google Restore function, I had all of my phone apps (about 100) on my tablet within 20 minutes.

So far I haven't come up with too many Cons for this device. If I had to list some they would be the following:

1. There is a good amount of pre-installed junk on the device. Not that big of a deal since apps can be disabled in ICS.

2. The Charger is proprietary. It would be nice to charge over microUSB, but with the size of tablet batteries, it would take forever to fully charge, so it is understandable why it doesn't.

Overall, I am very pleased with this product and would recommend it.

UPDATE 5/11/12:

1. I wanted to point out that I ran AnTuTu Benchmarking tool and it listed the Excite 10 as a 1.3 GHZ Tegra 3 processor and got a better average score than every other device listed.

2. Some of the pre-installed junk can be uninstalled, but some can only be disabled.

3. I was able to plug the charger into my Laptop and Car USB ports and it was able to charge. It was charging slower than the wall plug, but a nice feature if the battery is running low.

Let me start off by saying that I have tried many, many different tablets. So far, this one is definitely my favourite. Let me break it down here:

1. SPEED: 9/10

I've ran a few benchmarks on it and so far, only the acer a510 has got higher. Still slightly faster than the TF series from Asus (TF101, TF201, TF300) and definitely faster than the first generation tablets (Samsung Galaxy, Toshiba Thrive, Acer a series, BB Playbook). Haven't run into any problems with speed so far.

2. BATTERY LIFE: 9/10

Again, the Acer a510 tablet is the only one I have run into with a longer battery life. The Asus Prime comes close, but not quite there (I would recommend an app called JuiceDefender, which will greatly help your battery life).

3 SCREEN QUALITY: 10/10

One of the best. Most tablets that are android based and 10.1 inch screens have1280*800 resolutions, however the brightness and clarity is fantastic. A little warmer than the Prime or Galaxy tabs (works great for HD TV or movies)

4. COMFORTABLITY: 7/10

An often overlooked attribute is how comfortable the tablet is to hold. This tablet is one of the thinnest, lightest on the market right now, so it is understandably a little odd to hold in landscape, nut trust me, its not nearly as uncomfortable as the Prime or Iconia a200. Once again, the only other tablet that is more comfy to hold is the.

Acer a510.

5. BUILD QUALITY: 10/10

AMAZING! Honestly, the best all around built tablet I have ever experienced hands down. Gorilla Glass, aluminum build, solid.

6. OPERATING SYSTEM: 9/10

Stock ICS is nice to have, and Toshiba throws in some very cool features with its organization. The only reason it loses a point is for the stock programs that can't be taken off. However this will not slow down anything on the tablet.

7: WHY NOT THE ICONIA?

With all the comparisons to the Aer 510, why not it for the same price? Well, I've owned both, and this one is better in almost all regards. I have not run into a bug or hiccup yet. Quite a bit smoother experience of a tablet.

OVERALL SCORE: 54/60

Actually, this is the best score I have given a tablet. Nothing is perfect, but this is quite high up there. Thanks for the time,

Nate.

Buy Toshiba Excite AT305T64 10.1-Inch 64 GB Tablet Computer - Wi-Fi - NVIDIA Tegra 3 1.20 GHz Now

So far I've owned the ASUS Transformer Prime (TF201), Acer Iconia Tab A510, and now the Toshiba AT305. The TF201 had build quality and wireless/GPS issues and the A510 had a "grid effect" to the LCD and some bad heat issues (106+ degrees). And now the AT305, which has light bleed issues. The sad part is that despite this annoying "issue," it's still the best Tegra 3 tablet out there.

As with the Acer and Asus, I've already gone through two AT305's just to make sure these issues were consistent. But let's go into a bit more of a detailed review first on the AT305 that I've been using for a few days now.

DESIGN:

Out of the box, initial impressions are very good. The tablet has a great solid feel to it, it's comfortable to hold, thin, and yes, even light weight. The back has a hard, smooth, plastic feel to it although I hear its aluminum. If so, it probably has some type of coating on it. Basically, it's one nice looking tablet.

I won't go into details regarding where everything is or what feature it has, as you can easily see this from the pictures. Although the one item I must point out is the SD Card Slot, which is on the right side. There is a blank filler card that must be removed when you want to use your own SD card. While the addition of a full-size SD slot is very welcome, there is nothing to cover the slot once your card is in there.

So your hand will frequently rub against the sharp inside edges of the plastic casing. I'm normally not a big fan of plastic covers, but in this instance, it would have been very nice to have. If you're planning on getting a case, this won't likely be an issue.

WIRELESS:

I've tested both wireless and GPS extensively and found them to both perform very well. I'm able to maintain a solid WiFi connection even at the furthest reaches of my Access Point. And GPS can actually pick up a few satellite in-doors, which is always impressive. Outside I can get accuracy down to less than 18ft, within 1-2 minutes. This of course was verified with the GPS Test application.

PERFORMANCE:

Overall the device is very snappy and I haven't had any issues that I didn't run into with the other Tegra3 devices on Android 4.0.3. There are still a few occasional bugs or glitches with ICS, which I hope they'll resolve soon. Otherwise, nothing specific to the AT305.

Antutu scored a 10,313 and Quadrant is right at 4,000. I've seen slightly higher Antutu scores on the A510, which was closer to 11k. Although as I recall, this is the highest Quadrant score I've seen to date. Keeping in mind that both devices I had scored nearly identical. And in either case, the scores are subjective and personally don't put a whole lot of faith in them.

Until they have some new benchmarks that really take advange of the quad core CPU and Tegra3, they're just something to give you interesting numbers to look at. :) Real world tests are where it's at. Speaking of which, playing Tegra 3 games is smooth and they all run expectedly nice. Surfing the web, running apps, and other such tasks are all as expected. Quite good.

After watching movies and playing games, I got temps as high as 93 degrees on the back, right side. This was determined by my infrared thermometer. It's not as cool as the 85 degree TF201 but also nowhere near the 106+ degree A510. So I consider that to be on the warm side, but not uncomfortably so. I think the material on the back Toshiba uses helps to dissipate the heat so it doesn't "feel" hot or uncomfortable.

While surfing or running normal apps, the temps were staying in the 80's where it should be.

DISPLAY:

Starting positive here, the LCD does look very nice. In fact, of the TF201 and A510, it's the nicest I've seen. Even though it's not IPS (it's TFT as I recall), it looks great. The images are very crisp, colors are vibrant, and it has surprisingly good contrast ratio. The best part is that they've found a very nice color temperature balance.

While the A510 was very cool and the TF201 was on the warm side, I found the AT305 to quite neutral. This makes it very pleasing to use whether you are reading, surfing, playing games, or watching a movie.

But of course we can't ignore the negative part of this. There is light bleed, and it just makes me very sad. You won't notice this on any normal colorful image. But if you're watching a movie or looking at a picture that has a black background at the edges, you'll see a very uneven amount of light emitting from the sides. And the more you turn up the brightness, the worse it is.

In fact, just powering on the tablet, you'll see this on the Toshiba logo as it has a black background. It was exactly the same with both AT305's I got. And it's not something I ever experienced with any other tablet I've owned or used. Normally, this is considered a defect and swapping it out would resolve the issue. But based on my experience and countless other reviews/posts on-line, this is quite common with the AT305.

Whether you call it a defect, poor build quality, or a cheap display, it's not desirable.

BATTERY:

Just in general, when you make something smaller, you tend to make some sacrifices. In this case, it was the battery life. To test it out, I started with a fully charged battery. Then basically used it non-stop until I got down to 20% remaining, at which point we were right at 6 hours of usage. This isn't very good. Although keeping mind this is "heavy" usage. I was downloading a bunch of apps, playing games, watching movies, and even ran a benchmark or two during that time.

So I'd say heavy usage, you're looking at 7+ hours. Personally I don't like allowing the battery get much lower than 20%, so that's normally about the time I'm looking for a power cord. And yes, the power adapter is straight out of the 90's. There's no reason it needs to be that big; but it is, and I got over it.

For me, with "normal usage," I'm easily lasting the entire day on a single charge. This is mostly because I don't use it non-stop and spend most of the time checking e-mail or surfing the web. And overall, it's a fair compromise for its light weight and thinness.

SPEAKERS:

As with the A510, the AT305 has down-firing speakers at the bottom, and there are in fact two of them (unlike the TF201). They are backed by Toshiba and SRS enhancements, which are definitely needed. If these sound enhancements are turned off, the sound is horrible. But with them on, the speakers actually sound pretty descent.

I do suggest turning on the "boost" function if it's not loud enough. Surprisingly even with that turned on and volume maxed out, there is no distortion. The A510's speakers still sound noticeably better as there is most detail and they have a fuller sound. The TF305 has a tendency to sound a bit muffled at times, depending on how you're holding it.

I still wish they'd put them forward facing. Otherwise, I find them perfectly acceptable and wouldn't mind watching a few shows or demoing the device to friends.

So let's wrap this one up.

Pros:

+ Looks very nice

+ Light weight and thin

+ Tegra 3 Performance

+ Full-size SD Card Slot

+ USB functionality

+ Descent stereo speakers

+ Gorilla Glass

Cons:

LCD Light Bleed

Only "OK" battery life

No SD Card Slot Cover (when in use)

Considering specs (16GB model), could be a bit cheaper

CONCLUSION:

So how bad is the light bleed? It's annoying enough that this is getting returned. I've been in the IT field for nearly 2 decades and have repaired so many computers and electronics (including many LCD's), I wouldn't even want to guess as to how many. In other words, I know a defect when I see one. :) However, my lovely wife did play with this for a while and she did "volunteer" to take it off my hands even after showing her the light bleed. It didn't bother her one bit, which I'm sure will be the case for many other folks out there.

So my search for a solid Android tablet continues. On the plus side, I think we're getting closer! Just give me all of the good features from Asus, Acer, and Toshiba, and we'll have one killer tablet on our hands. Come on folks, it can't be that hard to spend $400-$500 on a tablet without making compromises.

Read Best Reviews of Toshiba Excite AT305T64 10.1-Inch 64 GB Tablet Computer - Wi-Fi - NVIDIA Tegra 3 1.20 GHz Here

I received this tablet (the 32GB version) on Tuesday and after a couple days to get used to it here's what I found;

Overall I really like the tablet. It's fast, very fast, very thin & light, runs most apps without any issues (some apps won't work with it but this is only because the developers haven't put it on the list of compatible devices. i.e. Lets Golf 3 won't run on it, I'm sure it will be updated to work though. This tablet definitely has enough power to run it). There's no way I've found to root it yet though. I'll keep it as I'm sure someone will come up with a way sooner than later.

Some other reviewers have said the sound is too low. This is fixable by going into the audio enhancement settings and click on SRS sound boost. With this on the volume is just fine. The stereo separation is very good too (two speakers located on the bottom side of the device)

This tablet has a pretty big proprietary connector on the supplied USB cable. It should last a while, it better be tough for the size of it. This brings up an interesting point. When you plug in the tablet with this cable to your computer, nothing happens other than it will charge the tablet. On all of our computers (5 of them) windows wouldn't recognize the tablet was attached. When you plug in the tablet with a micro USB cable the computer will recognize it. It's a bummer they use a huge connector on a cable that only charges the tablet and then only at 5v. Takes a long time to charge. On the upside you can use external battery pack chargers (you can get 10000+mAh batteries for around $60 on Amazon that will provide a lot of spare power.

Toshiba tech support from my limited experience with them is awful. I called about transferring files via the supplied cable and they were no help.

I also had an issue using the USB host functionality trying to use an external hard drive and found via their tech support it will only support drives formatted to exFAT, FAT or FAT32. DOES NOT support drives formatted to NTFS. This is very odd... I had to back up a 750GB Oyen Digital hard drive, reformat it and then transfer the files (mostly movies and TV shows) back to it. Took forever. Now that the drive is formatted to exFAT it works perfectly. Just plug it in using a micro USB host cable (purchased separately) and viola, it shows up on the file explorer (both the stock file explorer and ES file explorer).

PROS:

* It's very light and thin

* It's super-fast. I scored a little over 10300 on AnTuTu benchmark, and this is with the tablet loaded up with apps (my xoom would only do 6700 or so). Once I can root it and overclock it a bit I'm sure it'll be one of the fastest tablets around.

* Full sized SD card support. I'm using a 64GB card and it works great. I'm sure it'll handle a 128GB card. If I spring for one I'll update this review if it doesn't.

* Some of the bloatware is un-installable (the demo app, games etc.). You don't need to unable them, but that is an option if you want to keep them on the device.

* Screen image is sharp (although there is a fair amount of light bleed see the cons)

* Gorilla Glass

* Handles 1080p video well, although the native video players doesn't handle many video formats. Use "MX Player", free on the market and will play anything.

* Screen is very responsive. Almost too responsive, when you go to touch an icon if your finger is moving at all left or right it will start to scroll the page and you'll need to touch the icon again to open the app.

* Very good wifi and GPS reception.

* Stock browser works great. Haven't had a force close yet (this would happen all the time on my Xoom, even after I upgraded it to ICS).

* USB host functionality is great (many devices need to be rooted to get this to work).

* Charging off of a standard USB port is nice, but it takes a long time to fully charge.

* Battery life is pretty good. I've been getting around 8 hours of actual use (mix of streaming vids, checking email, etc).

* Boot time is fast. I clocked 55 seconds from off to the lock screen showing up and then another 10-15 seconds for widgets to load.

CONS:

* Lots of light bleed. Not very noticeable if you're watching something with a lot of light but during dark scenes it's a little annoying.

* Proprietary charging cable that only seems to charge the tablet.

* Charging takes a looong time

* No way to root yet. After some digging around it looks like it might be awhile before a rooting method is released... This is a real bummer.

* Can only handle FAT formats if you use an external hard drive.

* Some apps aren't compatible with it, yet.

* You have to click the notification area a few times sometimes to get it to open up.

That's about it. Overall I really like this tablet and can't wait for a rooting method to be released. If I notice anything else that needs to be addressed I'll update this review. Feel free to ask any questions and I'll help if I can!

Want Toshiba Excite AT305T64 10.1-Inch 64 GB Tablet Computer - Wi-Fi - NVIDIA Tegra 3 1.20 GHz Discount?

Update to this review 06/04/12:

I have had one of those 180 moments where I leaned to the A510, but now prefer the T305 (I have both at the moment):

1. The right side heat of the A510 is getting annoying. Even viewing PDF files results in very warm to hot on the right side. The Excite barely gets warm even when playing 3D games.

2. The USB location on the A510 makes having the nice feature not practical. Having it on the bottom is pure stupid and flipping the tablet upside down still makes using it awkward.

3. After having the 305 a few days I really ntocie the vertical lcd array lines on the A510. The Excite does not have these.

4. Touch response is better on the Excite

5. Having a 128GB sd card formatted to exFAT works well and better than expected.

I am returning the A510 and will keep the Excite. Very ironic.

End

I appreciate the Asus 300 and Prime are also good tablets, but the 300's build is flimsy and needs a special cable for data transfer. The Prime has weak wifi due to the panel design, so IMO it is a current match between the Excite 10 and the Acer A510 (I am putting the Excite first, since this IS the product page for it):

Build = Excite. I thought the A510 was built well, but the Excite is a work of art and design and has Gorilla glass.

Comfort to hold = Tie. The Acer feels better to hold and grip, but the Excite is lighter and does not get hot on the right like the A510 can.

Performance/Speed = Excite, but barely. Benchmarks are a tad higher and seems to have a little better response.

Display = A510 (but subjective). The contrast is better and no light bleed around the edges that the Excite has. Some may prefer the slightly warmer color though. Still, both are 1280X800 and neither in the same league the iPad 3, but no others are.

Sound = A510. Fuller sound and better stereo effect, plus output to TV sounds better for surround sound. Both tablets have sound features that need activation for better sound.

File system = A510. My 1TB NTSF drive works great and can play 1080p MKV movies from it. The catch is can not charge at same time, so good the battery is so huge. I also had a Toshiba Thrive before and like the Excite, third party apps did not work well with files. Comic apps would not delete files either, so had to use the stock file manager. A510 works with everything thrown at it, but constrained to the file manager on the Excite.

Ports = Tie. Excite has full SD slot (nice), but the special connector is needed for charging. No special connector needed for the A510, so easier to find other charging options IF you forget or lose the charger. You are SOL if you misplace the Excite charger connector.

Battery life = A510. No contest here. About three hours longer with similar medium and heavy use (Web browsing, stream Netflix, Amazon on demand, local video, gaming and comic reading).

Though both are nice tablets, I give the win to the A510 due to better battery life and file management. That said, the Excite is a nice tablet.

Added: I wish Toshiba (and other OEMs) used the file system same drivers as Acer. Mobiletech review mentions this too, so not just me going crazy.

Added 2: Both have real good wifi and another plus for the A510 is 16gb more internal storage for the same price as the Excite.

AVerMedia A188 HD Duet - Dual ATSC PCI-E TV Tuner for Windows Media Center

Didn't even try to install the software that came with it, Media Center on Windows 7 works great with this card. I have had various ATI cards, but was looking for a decent true dual tuner (not a hybrid or a combo). This exceeded my expectations.

I wanted a dual ATSC tuner for mainly watching TV, and once a while record TV. I was using this in a workstation, which has no power management in either the BIOS or the OS (WinXP x64), so I thought it was safe to buy this after reading about other users who said theirs disappear from the Device Manager after going to S3 sleep.

I don't use sleep or hibernation, so I thought it would not affect me, but after installing it for three days, it disappeared from the Device Manager on the fourth day. Restarting and shutting down the computer did nothing. I even moved it to another PCIe X1 slot, and it still wasn't recognized. The only way it would get recognized again is if I cut the power to the power supply (turn off the switch in the back) and wait a couple of minutes. Mine disappeared with just about every other restart/startup of the computer, which is extremely annoying!

Based on the serial number, it seems Amazon is still selling older stock. Two days ago, the tuner was there on bootup, but then disappeared after it finished booting. You know it has disappeared because the AverQuick icon on your system tray turns from yellow to gray. Rather than try to deal with it, I returned the POS to Amazon for a refund. Presumably Avermedia has newer cards which fixes this issue, but I don't want the hassle of dealing with it.

I think Avermedia should be made to recall all these cards... The complaints for this disappearing problem was dated back a few years ago...and I had thought all would have been addressed and fixed by now...but I guess I'm wrong. Too bad...it's a pretty decent dual ATSC tuner (especially given the price) when it works.

UPDATE: With the availability of the $25 rebate, I decided to give Avermedia another chance, so ordered another one a couple of months later, and hoping that I would receive a later revision (given that Amazon must have a fast turnover for their products). This time I did received one with a much later serial number. However, despite that, it unfortunately still does the disappearing trick. After installation, I restarted the computer five consecutive times...and then it disappeared from the Device Manager.

Other users have mentioned that this problem is mostly with AMD systems, which my latest workstation is, so I decided to try it on my slightly older Intel Xeon based workstation...same issue there...

Some other users indicate that it might be a problem with heat. I touched it while it's in operation with both tuner working (when it was recognized that it)...and it was just slightly warm. Deciding to investigate this issue further, I decided to underclock and undervolt my workstation to see if it makes a difference. The Duet seems to not disappear. I restarted the workstation many times and it did NOT disappear. Also, the ambient room temperature has been quite a bit colder than the last card I tested because it's now December. I even put this in S3 sleep and then woke it up...and it was still there. It actually operated like this w/o issues for the past two weeks with many restarts and shutdowns w/o issue.

However, just as soon as I set the voltages and clock speeds back to default, the disappearing issues came back. Now, you're wondering why I don't just run my workstation at the lower clocks and voltages. But why bother upgrading to a faster workstation if you're going to underclock it? The other thing was that the workstation (other adapter cards) wasn't 100% stable at 100% of the time at the lower voltages. Besides, you expect 100% stability from a workstation, unlike a gaming rig for example. So back this goes to Amazon again... I don't think I'll waste my time with trying another one (unless they come out with a newer version (not just revision).

Buy AVerMedia A188 HD Duet - Dual ATSC PCI-E TV Tuner for Windows Media Center Now

The tunner works flawlessly with windows 7 64 bit. The tunners also handle weak signals well, much better than my wintv HVR9500 usb. Best off all, you get 2 tunners for $68.99! One important note, this card is digital only. and no FM. If you have any low power analog staions in your area you should add a hybrid tunner. Vista and latter will see up to 4 digital and 4 analog tuners, so adding as hybrid tuner will alow 1 more show to be recorded. A note about how manny tuners you should have. To ensure you don't miss the beginning or end of any shows, (in case of those inevitable delays that ocasionally occure)you need at least 2 tuners to record consecutive shows on different channels. This allows a 5 or 10 min buffer at the begining and end. It is REALLY frustrating when you miss the last few minuits of a show because it was delayed and MC stoped recording to start another. These cards support PIP whan the included software is used, but I haven't tried it yet.

Read Best Reviews of AVerMedia A188 HD Duet - Dual ATSC PCI-E TV Tuner for Windows Media Center Here

I recently dropped dish and installed this tuner on a new Acer Win7 machine. The installation was fairly easy and only took a few minutes to get the drivers installed of the disc. Now it is working flawlessly. I use Windows Media Center as my DVR. I have no complaints so far and love not having the bill from Dish. Any problems I had with the signal came from antennae adjustments. Now that I have that configured I have crystal clear HD signal.

Want AVerMedia A188 HD Duet - Dual ATSC PCI-E TV Tuner for Windows Media Center Discount?

Workes well in Win 7 64 bit and in MCE:

Win 7 64 bit does not automatically pick up this card upon installation. Nothing shows up in Device Manager.

Downloaded Win 7 64bit driver from manufacturer - and installed driver, rebooted PC. Volla! Card shows up in Device Manager without any problem. Driver installation was quick and straightforward.

Picture quality looks OK. HD TV looks good by itself anyway. No major difference I can tell from the Hauppauge Win TV card I have

One of the best velue for DUAL digital tunner, especially considering that I bought used. You really just need to card itself no other accessories/manual/CD are needed if you buy used one

Product limitations:

Limited by only 1 signal input, shared among the two tunner. So, if you want to hook up more than one sources (like cable and satellite) you should look for a different product

Digital only Over The Air (OTA) ATSC broadcasting, or Clear QAM from cable. If you need to tune traditional cable signals, or traditional OTA NTSC broadcasting signals, you need a different product. But why would you want to look at any thing other than the digital TV anyway?

Save 44% Off

Zenith DVD2381 Progressive-Scan DVD Player

• Single-disc DVD player
• Supports DVD, CD, CD-R/RW, and MP3 formats
• Parental controls
• Progressive scan, shuttle control
• Digital TV required for progressive scan feature; remote included

We were given an Apex 1500 as a gift,which died after one week of use. When we went shopping for a replacement we were loking for a unit with more than basic features. Image and sound quality were very important but reliability was paramount. CIrcuit City had quite a wide selection with very little price difference from one unit to another. We selected the Zenith DVD 2381. WOW what a great machine at a reasonable price! The unit has every bell and whistle you can imagine. First it is very attractive. Handsome understated face plate that stands apart from the endless look alike black boxes. But look...what is that button on the right?? It is a jog wheel similar to the controls on the back of a Digital camera. It allows you to control the unit from the machine and not require a remote for basic functions! HALELLUAH! We once had a vcr that had only mininal controls on the machine and demanded the remote to function, If you have ever lost, broken, or had the dog eat a remote you can guess what happened there, and we were stuck. This unit aleviates that possibility and I feft, that the designers are really looking out for the customers needs here. When we set the unit up at home we were not disappointed by the electronics either. Picture is razor sharp, sound is excellent also. The unit has a host of otputs for all the latest formats including progressive scan. The remote functions for your TV also and the button glows in the dark. Thejog forward and advance control is fun. The box says that the unit is software upgradable for future developements, but there is no mention of this in the manual or on Zenith's web site. We are very happy with the unit and would recommend it in a heartbeat!

Buy Zenith DVD2381 Progressive-Scan DVD Player Now

Especially for the price, this is a fine product. I have not had any mechanical problems with it, and the features are more than enough to keep me satisfied. I especially enjoy the zoom function and the ability to go forward or back frame by frame.

Read Best Reviews of Zenith DVD2381 Progressive-Scan DVD Player Here

Lesson learned. I purchased this player without having a DVD disc with me to test it. The main reason that I purchased it was the pirce and the progressive scan feature. I setup this player in no time and played a new movie The One and noticed that the image would pause for about five seconds. I own a Toshiba and it never did this, os I tested the player using The Martix and the player would skip over scenes or skip ahead five seconds in a scene. Someone would be talking and then it would skip to another scend five seconds ahead. I also could not get this player to play a mp3 file and I tried more than one type of disc and different formats and it would not play. I also ran a dirty disc test, by touching my nose and placing my oily finger prints over the disc and inserted in to the player and the player froze and would not open the tray or turn off. I had to disconect the power a few times and pressing the open button it finally open, a good player should play a disc with finger prints on it with no problems. I do like the features on this player, but what good are they if you can't watch a move wihtout it skipping or jumping ahead in scenes or pausing during playback. Zenith states that the player is software upgradeabel, but a visit to the website didn't list any info on this at all and the website didn't list a tech support number to help with this problem. I will return this player and try another.

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We purchased this DVD player last year from Circuit City. It freezes consistently about 10-15 times per movie on all but the newest DVD movie. Rental DVD viewing is so awful, that we can't even invite friends over to watch on our large screen tv due to the embarassment of this. We tried to return it but CC insisted on sending it out to have it repaired vs. giving our money back. The repair attempts were unsuccessful x2, with the technician finding no problems. We are now back to the drawing board and will have to purchase another player. It definitely won't be a Zenith!

My friend recommended this unit and so far it has been excellent. They also have it at Circuit City. I like the little color CD that spins around on the display.