Toshiba Camileo B10 HD Recording with 2-Inch LCD Screen (Black)

I bought the Camileo B10 for it's ability to take still photos along with video. While I love my Flip Ultra HD, the lack of still photo capability is too limiting. While overall I am pleased with the B10 there are a couple cons which I think potential buyers should consider. First the B10 has a small LED video light built in. While the light is fairly dim, it's better than nothing for recording video in a dimly lit room. As for still photos however, this same LED takes the place of a flash and fails miserably. Next, the B10's shiny finish is somewhat slippery so hold on tight while filming. Bottom line, if you want an all around compact device for "both" quality video and stills, look to the "Dual Camera" Xacti line from Sanyo. On the other hand, the B10 is fine for outdoor use or in brightly lit situations.

I bought a refurbished Camileo B10 from Woot (an Amazon company) because, according to the specs, it could do time-lapse. Imagine my dismay when I discovered that the camera will not operate when it is charging, and there is no way to turn off the battery-guzzling screen. This limits any time-lapse recording to the amount of time that the camera will run before the battery runs out, which turns out to be about 3.5 hours. The camera has been out long enough for Toshiba to fix these two issues, but they have turned a deaf ear to the many complaints that can be found on-line (including the Toshiba website).

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Bought it to video horses in training. The zoom is TERRIBLE! Grainy with any amount of zoom. Powers on and off on its own, causing the battery to run down. I didn't figure out what was happening to the battery until it was too late to return it. Definitely didn't like the slick surface of the camera. Had to use stick on bling to have something to grip. Ended up purchasing a Cisco Ultra Flip. It does a great job with the fast motion of the horses.

Read Best Reviews of Toshiba Camileo B10 HD Recording with 2-Inch LCD Screen (Black) Here

I've had mine 3 days. I've made a side-by-side recording comparison with my Kodak Playsport, which you can find by searching YouTube or try this link: . Copy and paste it.

I put both cameras on a bracket and attached the bracket to a tripod. I recorded simultaneously a busy intersection and then cut segments from each camera's total 15minute recording. I played corresponding short segments from each one after the other, so as to give an A-B comparison.

The Kodak Playsport average bitrate was 11,996 kbps, the Toshiba Camileo 9,401 kbps. The Kodak file was 1.15 GB and the Toshiba, 921.51 mb.

The Kodak resolution was better, but the color and exposure on the Toshiba was superior. The Toshiba LCD was more viewable. The Kodak is waterproof, the Toshiba, not. Both have replaceable batteries and both have HDMI ports. The controls are more convenient on the Toshiba because it has separate video and still-picture buttons. With the Kodak, you must enter the menu system.

I like the Camileo B10! I've not experienced any abnormalities in the operation as have some reviewers. Got my fingers crossed because I just ordered a spare battery for it.

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So far so good. Simple and easy to use. Picture and video clarity are good. Haven't yet played video back on a TV yet, just on computer.

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Samsung H200 Full HD Camcorder with 20x Optical Zoom (Black)

This is my video review of the Samsung H200 Full HD Camcorder.

All video was shot with either my MinoHD or the Samsung H200. The video review notes when the changeover happens.

I was pleasantly surprised at the overall quality of this camcorder. First off I used to work around large guns while in the Navy. I have some hearing loss. I did not hear a single whine as mentioned in other reviews. I asked my wife who has no hearing loss and she heard no whine while it was operating. I can only assume they fixed that issue as mentioned in the other reviews.

Video Quality:

It is significantly better than the Flip MinoHD Camcorder 2nd Generation, 2 Hours (Brushed Metal), although its more like oranges and nectarines with that comparison. But, its the only other real HD camcorder I have to compare it to. That being said it is 1080i and not 1080p. I know there are purists out there that insist that an HD camcorder should be 1080p, and yes that is partially true. I do throw this in for consideration that a camcorder with a higher pricetag should be that level and not one geared towards every day use such as this camcorder.

Ease of use +

This camera has very few buttons. I think they took a page from Apple's book with regard to having a simplistic interface. There is complexity to the interface but it is within the touch screen. The touch screen is more like an ATM type of touch screen and not like an iPod Touch screen. Its very easy to use and with generous button pushes the camera responds well. I love being able to pop out the SD card, plug it in my adapter and copy the already encoded H.264 video over to my iMac. It saves me literally hours of compression/re-compression hooha that I really never enjoyed.

Audio: +

It captures the smallest noises from birds chirping far away to leaves rustling. Each sound channel is distinct and well rendered on the final product. I did voice over on the video during the H200 recordings because my kids and dog decided to have a screamfest at the point I was outside recording.

Component Connection AV +

I connected it to my VIZIO HD 1080p LCD HDTV via the AV interface. It was crisp and looked fantastic. Sure it was not 1080p but honestly I couldn't tell. I come from a generation that used to have shoulder mounted VHS camcorders to lug around. This is so good I would almost think its broadcast quality, at least on a 720 channel.

Features not tested:

I did not test the time lapse video yet. I plan on making a video with this to record an outside scene. Once I do that I will post where to watch it here, as I cannot have 2 video reviews up. I did not use HDMI because the output is a smaller HDMI and I did not have one handy.

Recommendations:

Get a class 10 SD Card. Dont mess around with lower quality cards when the video needs speed not only to record but also to transfer. The costs of class 10 are not that bad these days. Here is one to have a peek at:SanDisk 8GB Extreme SDHC Class 10 High Performance Memory Card

Video corrections:

The mailbox is about 200 yards up the road not 500. Also, the ports on the bottom are outputs and or inputs. This camera does not have HDMI input.

Thanks for watching and reading my review. Please post any comments or suggestions. I will do my best to answer them.

I purchased this camera and have been using it for several weeks. The hi-pitched ringing that others complain about is imperceptible to me even in a zero-ambient noise environment. This is an electronic device, so you might hear a soft hum under very quiet circumstances, but just about every camcorder does that... But I can't hear anything worth complaining about. I am using fast class 10 SDHC card, so maybe that makes a difference.

I am a former broadcast news videographer with a few Emmy's tucked away in my closet so I should have some credibility with this review. I was not looking for a pro camera. I was looking for a good quality, affordable, HD camera to record my growing family. I love my Samsung HDTV and refrigerator, so I decide to give their camcorders a shot. Bottom line: This is a great, inexpensive HD camcorder, which easily fits my requirements. And at a cost of $297 out the door (I got a good price + another $97 for the SDHC card) it is hard to beat. Can it compare with a 3-chip prosumer camera costing thousands? No... and Yes. No, the lower-cost components don't compete equally with higher cost components and they are not meant to. But yes, in that all things being equal, a good shooter with this Samsung will shoot the socks off of an average shooter using any high-end camera. No camera, no matter how expensive, can compensate for poor shooting skills. A good shooter with this Samsung can do great things.

Some people complain about blurred or ghost images when shooting in very low-light with this camera. Here are a couple of suggestions: make sure the electronic image stabilization is turned off (this can lead to image blurring in low light), don't zoom in (which lets in less light), use a class 10 SDHC card... and the most obvious throw some light on your subject! Really, if it's too dark to shoot then don't shoot. Or at least accept the lower quality video low-light means low-quality, which is why the pros travel with a light kit and take the time to light properly. This is video, not film. I also shoot on 720p, which seems to produce the most consistent results in a variety of lighting and motion conditions.

Now, some specifics... this camera is small and light. It can feel a little flimsy (especially the flip out screen) and the touch screen is not the most responsive, but I am getting used to it. I wish it had a mic jack, manual audio and better manual focus controls. I wish it had a separate, shielded view-finder in addition to the 2.7 inch touch screen especially since it is hard to see in bright sunlight. I wish the shutter speed went as low as 1/30th of a second (instead of just 1/60th) which would let in more light under lower light conditions. But I guess all those features would make the camera cost more as well. The built in editing software is a nice touch and is good enough for basic editing, including some nice effects. This should be fine because the golden rule for editing is "less is more." I am having a problem launching clips directly from this program for viewing and trimming but I can do so while editing. This makes managing clips more difficult and may be a compatibility issue. Regardless, I will need to buy a dedicating editing package which is disappointing since basic editing is all that I need to do and I should be able to use the bundled package, but can't.

On the upside, it has a 20x optical zoom, is easy to hold steady, has great video quality, has long-battery life (since it not spinning a hard drive, which should also make it more durable), powers-up fast, has built in editing features, is an easy point-and-shoot camera for family use, has robust manual controls even if you have to dig around a little, has "touch point" focus to focus anywhere just by touching the screen and a cool time-lapse shooting feature. And since I travel often, one of my favorite features is that you can charge this camera via the USB cable which is perfect for me. The freedom to ditch the AC charger while traveling is a huge advantage and makes me more mobile. In all, Samsung put some very thoughtful features in this little camera for the shooter on the go. I highly recommend it and am very pleased with my purchase. Update here's a quick video of my son's track day at school, shot off hand on 720p, but compressed for utube:

Buy Samsung H200 Full HD Camcorder with 20x Optical Zoom (Black) Now

The Samsung HMX-H200 series of digital camcorders (HMX-200, HMX-203, HMX-204, HMX-205) provide a robust set of features in an increasingly crowded field of similarly sized camcorders in the under $500 price range. The only difference between the different Samsung models is the amount of onboard internal memory. They all have an SD card slot but other than the HMX-200, the other models offer internal memory as well. The HMX-203 has 8GB, HMX-H204 has 16GB and the H205 has a whopping 32GB of memory.

There are probably as many shortcomings with the camcorder as there are pluses, so let's get started.

I actually purchased the HMX-H205 but since the various H200 series camcorders are identical except for the built-in memory, I decided to post my review to what will be the more widely purchased H200 model. My observations pertain to all of the H200 series camcorders.

The camcorder comes with a composite video cable, a USB cable, AC power adapter, battery and the camcorder itself. For best viewing on a flat-screen TV you'll need to purchase a mini-HDMI to HDMI cable since it is not included.

If you are buying this camcorder sight unseen, that is you've never handled one in a store, you may be surprised, as I was, at how small and light this device actually is. It's extremely light which is not necessarily a good thing because that lightness makes it a bit difficult to keep steady. I know that sounds counter-intuitive but I find it to be true. So it is a good thing that this camcorder has image stabilization which definitely helps but more so at wide angle and minimal zoom. At higher zoom, the helpful effect is diminished to the point of being quite ineffective.

The H205 has a lens that gives you a good amount of wide-angle (37mm) compared to other camcorders and also provides a very useable optical zoom of 20x. Add in the digital zoom and you've got quite a powerful zoom on this camcorder. When you use a tripod, be sure to turn image stabilization off when zooming in all the way, it is really amazing how you can bring distant objects in to view. Of course when you zoom in that tightly, hand-held jitters are magnified greatly so that's why using a tripod is essential since image stabilization has little effect when zoomed in all the way.

The camcorder provides HD video in two flavors, 1920 x 1080/60i & 1280 x 720/60p. I'll let the technicians debate the differences between 60i and 60p (interlaced vs progressive). Let's just say that for an under $400 camcorder the video quality is stunning, particularly if this is your first camcorder or if you are upgrading from an older SD camcorder. I find that video recorded at 1280/60p are just fine for my use and appreciably extends the recording time of my HMX-H205.

A feature that I really enjoy with this camcorder is that Samsung has combined the video and photo function. You do not need to switch out of video mode to get into Photo mode in order to capture still images. Simply depress the "Photo" button, located on the top of the camera just to the right of the zoom control, and the camcorder will capture a still image (even when you are recording video.) Very slick and eliminates the need to switch in and out of video mode in order to grab a still shot. You can even capture a still shot from video already captured by depressing the "Photo" button during video playback. Some have complained about the photo resolution of this camcorder but my feeling is that this is primarily a camcorder that also happens to take still photos. It is not a dedicated still frame camera. Even so, it does take respectable photos at 2880 x 1620 resolution ( 4.7 Megapixel JPEG photos ). I think that's great for what this is... a camcorder that can also take fairly decent stills.

There are two zoom controls, one on the top of the camera body, the other on the left edge of the LCD panel. The control on the top of the camera offers a variable speed zoom but the "throw" is very short and it is therefore difficult to smoothly transition into a zoom regardless if you want a slow or fast zoom speed. If you are very gentle you can do a slow zoom but it requires practice. The zoom on the LCD panel offers only one zoom speed, but it is a slower zoom that may be preferable in many instances. I found myself using it more often than not.

Focusing the camcorder is accomplished in one of three ways. Auto Focus is probably your best bet most of the time. It works pretty well in many situations. In certain situations though it may have a hard time finding the proper focus point in which case you have two other options... you can use what Samsung calls "manual" focus or "touch-point" focus. In manual focus, additional icons representing close and far appear. By touching either one with you finger you can "manually" adjust the focus. But you have to rely on what you can see in the LCD which as I mentioned earlier, can be quite difficult in bright light. For me, I am always overshooting the focus point and have to go back and forth before I can achieve sharp focus. This may improve with practice, but I'm doubtful. The final option is the "touch-point" focus which is kind of interesting. In this mode you touch your finger on the LCD in the area that you want to be the focus point. The camera does it's best to achieve focus using the area you touched. It works pretty well and is useful when you want to get more creative with having shallower depth of field.

The camera also gives you some control over aperture, shutter speed, white balance and EV (exposure value) using the touch screen as the input.

The built-in editing software, Intelli-studio, (PC only, MACS not supported) works better than I was expecting. First of all the camcorder itself offers some rudimentary editing functions. This proves to be extremely helpful to edit the very beginning or end of a clip to remove that little bit of camera shake that you often get when you have to shift your hand to begin or end recording. You can also use the in-camera editing to split a clip. I found this intuitive and helpful. Additionally you can combine 2 clips into one... how cool is that?

You can also use the Intelli-studio software provided in the camera which can be run on your PC. This gives you additional photo/video management and editing capabilities, including the ability to create photo slideshows with some of the coolest transitions I've seen in editing software. They put some thought into these effects and I really liked them. The software also makes it very easy to upload your videos to YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, etc. You can also copy and transfer videos and photos using Intelli-studio.

The camcorder has an OK built-in microphone. Similar to most camcorders in this price range, there is no capability to use an external mic. Nor is there a headphone jack, but there is a built-in speaker that provides some sound... not great but enough to check that you've got audio and enough to enable you to hear the sound in video in quieter environments.

Battery life with the included battery gives me just about 2 hours of recording time. I've also got the larger battery Samsung IA-BP420E Camcorder battery Li-Ion 4200 mAh which gives me much more recording time.

Another feature I find valuable are the "guidelines" that can be displayed on the LCD during recording or photo taking. There are several to choose from, either a crosshairs with safety zone on margins, a quadrant or a thirds grid. Depending on what you're shooting the grids can be very helpful in framing your shots.

I'm saving the best feature (at least for me) for last and that is the Time Lapse mode. This is a really really cool mode that enables you to take time lapse video. In effect you compress hours into minutes by using this mode. You select the interval that frames are captured, in seconds (every 1, 3 or 5 seconds ) and over what period of time (24, 48 or 72 hours). For instance if you wanted to take a time lapse video of clouds, you could set the camcorder to take one frame every 1 second. You usually will want to use the AC adapter for time lapse recording and a tripod. If you record for 3hours, your resulting time lapse video will be 3 minutes long using the settings I described. It's very cool what you can do with this mode.

Cons:

The LCD is very glossy. Consequently there is a lot of glare on the screen in certain situations which makes it difficult to see. For instance in brightly lit situations such as outside on a bright sunny day or inside when there are bright lights behind you which are reflecting on the LCD display. The glossy LCD screen also gets covered in fingerprints really easily. The LCD is a touchscreen and it is by way of the touchscreen that the various menu options are accessed. Therefore you will get fingerprints on the screen all the time and in conjunction with the glare, you will be constantly cleaning the screen.

Concerning the touch-screen, it is not the most responsive screen but it's better than others I have used. A firm but not too firm touch is needed to select menu options on the screen.

I ran into an intermittent problem with my HMX-H205 necessitating that I have it replaced. The problem I experienced is that the camera would display an error on the LCD to "Check Lens Cover" when the camcorder was turned on. Of course this is expected if the lens cover (which is manually operated) is still in the closed position when you turn on your camera. The problem is that when I opened the lens cover, the LCD screen remained blank except for the overlaid textual information. No image of whatever the camcorder was pointed at was being displayed on the LCD. IT was as if the lens cover were still closed even though it was open. This happened intermittently and when it happened, it did not matter if I flicked the lens cover open and closed repeatedly or not. Sometimes I would turn the camera on and off several times too and the error and blank screen persisted.

When I called Samsung tech support, they were unable to offer any fix or suggestion other than to say that the camera was defective and that I should send it in for repair. I returned the camera to Amazon for replacement and that brings me to the next problem... the replacement camcorder had numerous fibers INSIDE the lens assembly. These were big enough fibers that I could not believe what I saw. And since they were inside the lens assembly, there was no way to blow them out or remove them. So I'm sending that camcorder back to Amazon as well. I have posted a photo of the fibers in the customer images gallery at the top of the product page for the H200.

Bottom line is that this is a low-priced camcorder with an interesting feature set that just didn't work out too well for me. Samsung quality control, from what I experienced, is not very good. My experience with their technical support was also very poor. I used both their Online Live Chat as well as telephone technical support. In both instances the technician was ill-equipped to offer any suitable suggestions or solutions.

The camcorder feels a bit flimsy to me and I did compare it to several others in stores, notably the Canon FS300 Canon FS300 Flash Memory Camcorder (Silver) 2010 MODEL (which felt slightly more substantial and better built) and a couple Sony models. Other camcorders to consider are the Sanyo VPC-FH1A Sanyo VPC-FH1A Full HD Video and 8 MP Digital Photos (Black) which offers slow-motion mode and some other notable features.

The ports for USB, mini-HDMI and video are not accessible unless the LCD screen has been flipped open. This is a big disadvantage. If you wish to charge your battery via USB (which is a great feature) you need to leave the LCD screen open so that you can access the USB port. This is awkward and invites disaster due to the possibility of damage to the screen. It would also be desirable to be able to hook up the AV or HDMI cable to enable viewing on a TV without having to have the LCD flipped open.

Based on my experience with two defective Samsung H205 camcorders, I cannot give this more than a 2 star rating and that's being generous. The features don't really matter if the quality and reliability isn't there. If I hadn't had such a horrendous experience with the problems I had I'd consider giving this camcorder 4 stars for what it offers in this price range. But Samsung has to earn that mark and form my experience they have not earned it. My third camcorder is on the way and if it proves to be trouble-free, I'll update my review as well as my stars, but for now this is only a 2-star product.

UPDATE: 11/30/2010 I was intrigued by the prospect of using a wide angle lens on this camcorder by means of a step-up ring. Since the camcorder appeared to have threads in the lens body, I assumed that I could just get a step-up ring and use a wide angle lens that I had been using on an older miniDV Sony camcorder that I had. Unfortunately I learned (by calling Samsung when I could not get the step-up ring to mesh with the threads properly) that the threads are a non-standard size and in fact are -notdesigned to allow a user to add a lens or even a filter onto the camcorder. This is just not right. Using an appropriate filter can help you get dramatic footage of clouds, for instance, and allow you to do other creative things. This is yet another reason why this camcorder is not as good as it could be.

UPDATE: 12/1/2010 I'm a big fan of the Eye-Fi WiFi cards and use them in my digital cameras. I bought a new 8GB Pro X2 Eye-Fi card intending to use it with the HMX-H205. I was greatly disappointed to discover that the Samsung camcorder is not compatible with the Eye-Fi cards and they will not work in the camcorder. Yet another disappointment with the Samsung H205.

Read Best Reviews of Samsung H200 Full HD Camcorder with 20x Optical Zoom (Black) Here

PRO's

~ Small, compact, and light. Almost too small. Large hands would find it awkward to hold if it weren't so lightweight. Button layout (record/zoom/photo) is very well placed and easy to use.

~ Data port covers. All ports have hinged plastic doors instead of a rubber boot/cap. In my experience rubber parts tend to wear out or get lost so I prefer the plastic door.

~ Built in manual lens cover. A simple switch opens the lens cover and you never have to worry about losing it. I prefer manual over automatic as it allows me to leave the lens cover closed while I am viewing videos, transferring files, or charging the battery via USB.

~ Time Lapse. I have only played around with this but it looks intriguing. It's not an option that swayed my decision to buy this camcorder, but it's pretty cool nonetheless.

~ Reversible LCD screen. Like most screens this one folds out and has the ability to rotate so the person being filmed can view the screen. This one can also be folded back into the camcorder in that position so the screen is still visible with the screen closed against the camcorder. This allows you to record without having the camera in such a vulnerable open position. It's a nice touch that shows they're paying attention to small details.

~ Optical image stabilization. The OIS performs extremely well at regular zoom. Performance drops as you zoom of course, but is still well above anything else in the budget category.

~ Video quality. This records in 3 modes: standard definition, 720p high definition, and 1080i high definition. Since data storage is cheap I set the camera to 1080i and SuperFine and left it there. After filming I plugged it into my 50" projection TV. I was pleasantly surprised to find the interior low light performance (the bane of almost all camcorders) was good. However the interior well lit and outside daylight videos were amazing.

~ There is no harddrive. You cannot record without a SD or SDHC card. If you're like me you have several laying around so it's no problem. The lack of harddrive means the unit is lighter, uses less battery power, has fewer things to go wrong, and more importantly is cheaper.

CON's

~ There is no harddrive. You cannot record without a SD or SDHC card. Furthermore, not just any card will do. Class 10 is the manufacture's suggested speed. If you don't have one laying around prepare to drop another $50 or so.

~ Not a lot of manual image control. If you are planning on setting it on "auto" and recording your family reunion or kid's games you won't ever need better control. However more experience users who are creating art will be disappointed with the lack of control. Honestly though, those who require more control than this camcorder offers really shouldn't be looking at budget camcorders.

~ Still images are not great. This camcorder allows you take still pictures while recording video but the resulting still images are nothing to write home about. It's a nice feature, but anyone who has a digital camera or high end phone can get at least the same results or better. Also the software easily lets you extract still images from your videos, so there's really no point in this function. I'd rather they remove this feature altogether and shave some more $ off the already bargain price.

~ The zoom control lever could use some improvement. While it is variable and allows for fast or slow zooming, it is not easy to control smoothly. The second zoom control (rocker switch on the LCD door) is a fixed speed and is so slow that I can't envision ever using it.

~ The LCD screen is bright, but like all exposed screens in direct sunlight, it can become impossible to see. While I'm glad to see they left a viewfinder out to save money, they need to go ahead and include a small detachable hood for the screen. It's a minor issue, but one that the entire industry seems reluctant to admit and correct.

~ The AV, HDMI, and USB ports are located so that you cannot close the LCD screen while any of those cables are plugged in. It's no a big deal for the AV & HDMI since you're watching it when those are plugged in so the screen would need to be open anyway. However if you are just using the USB port to recharge the camcorder you are forced to leave the screen in the vulnerable open position for hours.

~ The battery can only be charged while it is on the camcorder. There is no way to recharge a battery while recording with another one. This wouldn't matter if there were a battery pack adapter that allowed you to use AA or AAA batteries, but Samsung does not offer one. If you want to record more than 2 consecutive hours you have 2 options; plug this into a wall or have an extra battery already charged. Going on a weekend getaway with no electricity? You had better buy and pre-charge a battery for every 2 hours of recording time you want. At about $50 per spare battery it can get expensive quick. This is a severe oversight and the only reason this does not get a 5 star review from me.

CONCLUSION:

It appears with this camcorder Samsung tried to carve out the "budget HD" niche. By shaving features here and there they managed to produce a camcorder that has incredible bang for the buck. The basics that they settled on are anything but basic at the price point they are offering. This camcorder gives you the ability to record in 1080i HD, optical image stabilization, 20x optical zoom, and a 2 hour battery for a best in class price.

Not only does this package perform exceptionally well as a camcorder for the entry level HD market, I can't help but think it helps put the nail in the coffin of standard definition camcorders. HD technology made SD obsolete, but cheap prices kept SD camcorders relevant. The comparable low cost and untouchable performance of this Samsung HD camcorder finally shoves SD camcorders over the edge into the graveyard of electronics past.

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I did a lot of research before getting this camcorder, comparing with Sony, Canon, Panasonic, Sanyo and JVC products in the market. There is no other camcorder that provides the same video capabilities in the price range, other camcorders with same level of video quality and optical image stabilization would cost at least $200-$300 more.

Pros.

Excellent video quality, good color reproduction, ease of use, small size, Optical stabilization works very well

Cons.

You do not have a great level of control over settings.

Some issues with focusing on a subject against a busy background

A separate note on low light: looking at all the consumer level camcorders in the market, there is hardly a camera that will perform exceptionally well in low light, you either need to increase the light or avoid taking videos.

I used this for some indoor videos in average light and some concert videos which came out fairly well, so overall I am satisfied.

My need for this camcorder was to record family events and I am quite satisfied with what its delivered. for more advanced needs this may not be the camcorder.

Best results I got was with 720p and 60 fps

SmartShopper Grocery List Organizer with Embedded Thermal Printer (SS-101)

I saw this on QVC and thought it was a neat idea. So I mulled over it for a couple of weeks.

I decided to order it from Amazon something about the free shipping and cheaper price that won me over. hahahahaha

It was on backorder at the time and I was surprised when it just showed up one day.

We love it. My hubby, who is always skeptical about my gadget purchases, was surprised when he used it. He thinks it's a neat idea and the fact that it organizes everything by category on your list automatically is simply GENIUS!!!

Press the button say the item you need to add it shows up select it from a list of options and it adds it to the list. When you are ready to go shopping simply press print and it prints out the list. Easy as that.....

No more sitting at the table trying to remember what you need just add the items to the list as you can think of them. The list stays until you delete it.

Plus it even lists errands another added bonus. Need to run to the bank, atm, cleaners, lawyer's office...

Another plus is that you can add your own items, or errands, if they aren't listed.

If you have problems with it recognizing your voice or speech you can TEACH IT to understand your diction. Talk about a HOT MESS!!1

As you can tell I LOVE THIS THING!! Best gadget I have ever bought!!

Try it you won't be disappointed!!!!

When this thing works it's wonderful, but I have had some problems. First a note on troubleshooting problems. Don't talk TOO LOUD. I had to turn the sensitivity down on mine. This unit is so sensitive that it sometimes hears too many sounds to accurately understand what you are saying. This is the opposite of what most people would instinctively do. Most people try to talk louder if they think someone can't hear them. You may also have to mute the TV if it is too loud.

Pros(Besides the obvious):

1. It has a very strong built in magnet that allows you to put it on your refrigerator just at your speaking level, never gets lost and items stay on list until you remove them, even if you take out a battery.

Cons:

1.There are some words that it seems to refuse to recognize, no matter what you do. (i.e. I tried to add calendar to my smartshopper and no matter how many times I improved voice recognition, it would not recognize it. I even removed collander from the smartshopper so there was nothing similar. That didn't help. It kept coming up with the most rediculous suggestions to what I had said that were not even remotely similar. I finally ended up adding wall calendar instead.)

2. Again, talk softly.

3. Sometimes mine freezes up and sticks on Record Now. I can usually break this by taking a battery out and putting it back and then it works fine again.

So when it works I love this, when it doesn't I hate it. I have learned over the last couple of months to deal with its quirks, so I mostly love it.

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This product really does work as advertised. The pre-loaded list of items is impressive. And it's not difficult to train the device to recognize new items. One tip: Try to speak as naturally as possible. I've noticed that if you over-enunciate, sometimes the device gets confused. Pears sounds to it like jars, for example. I think the device tends to focus on syllables, as opposed to individual letters, so talk normally to it. When my partner taught it half-and-half, he didn't try to say each word. He just said, "haf-n-haf," the way he normally would. Also, don't pre-suppose that there are individual items it doesn't know. For example, it doesn't just recognize "cheese." It knows many kinds of cheeses. The device comes with a book that lists all of the pre-programmed words, but I've found few words that it doesn't know.

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Really love this thing. Saves time trying to remember all what you need to buy. I am surprised it works as well as it does. Sometimes it dosen't compute your voice right but if you have an "east coast" accent it really helps. If your "native" to south of the Mason/Dixon line I would pay to see that! Great invention. Very happy.

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This thing is FFFANTASTIC!!! I just received mine yesterday & it's just like I thought, but better. The voice recognition works fine, besides it does give multiple choice on most things, but soooooooo idiot proof, even I can use it w/o the help of my super high tech husband's help & I am technology challenged! *LOL* I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this handy, dandy organizer to ANYONE! I just think the price is a bit high, but it is very new out there & prices will go down eventually. It's still a novelty. I bought my 1st TIVO at $500 back in 1999 when they were fresh off the market, knowing very well they'd go way down in price, but it was a gift to my husband who's in the technology business and it's often hard to

wait. He gladly purchased this for me now as he was just as anxious to play with it as I was/am. Best toy in the house!!! Amazon was the cheapest I found in price, beating out target & most places that charge $149.99! I LOVE Amazon and they ship fast as well. This was sent & delivered to me within 48 hrs. & that's with free shipping.

UPDATE: SEPTEMBER 13, 2007

A big help would be if they're was a way to edit a long list, as they do tend to grow, with the ability to print out a partial list of the main items for those frequent quick stops in between payday for a few items. Just an idea that I know would help me & others like myself who find themselves with a mile long list for 'grocery/errand days' and the need to make a shorter list without deleting the main one.

Maybe that'll be the next, updated version. I still think it's way over priced for most.

RCA VR634hf 4-Head Hi-Fi VCR

• AccuSearch 4-head double-azimuth system with HQ video processing
• VCR Plus+ Silver programming with end-time adjustment
• Commercial Advance and Movie Advance
• Master Touch universal remote
• Front and rear audio-video inputs

This is my fifth VCR unit. I've had an old dependable 50 pound Magnavox back before remote control when VCRs were new, a JVC, a Sharp, another Magnavox which I still use, and now this RCA. This RCA unit is not nearly as easy to use as my Magnavox. Here are the biggest drawbacks with this VCR. First, you can forget about commercial advance. After recording, it spends several minutes trying to locate and mark all the commercials. The problem is, it never seems to differentiate any commercials anyway, and so it never skips the commercials during playback. You have to resort to manually fast-forwarding thru the commercial breaks using your remote control, which is a real nuisance considering that is a sales point of this VCR. I remember that it did skip one commercial during part of a commercial break one time, which probably accounts for less than 1/10th of 1 percent accurate commercial recognition! Maybe modern commercials don't make themselves easy to detect by these units. Whatever the problem, that feature needs some major work. Problem number two, there is a large bright green backlit button on the front panel -the power on/off -which stays lit all the time and is annoying if used in a bedroom, which mine is.

Third problem -there is no TV/VCR button on the remote control, which is a problem if you just put in a tape and sat down to watch a movie, and you happen to be in the wrong mode. The unit is supposed to determine which mode it should be in automatically, but most of the time, I would say 75%, for whatever reason it does not determine that you need it to be in the opposite position, and you have to jump up and go push the button on the unit itself. Not too smart. Fourth problem. You know how on the newer smarter VCR units you never have to watch static or listen to white noise? Not so with this unit. When changing tapes, or changing between tape and TV, most of the time you will find yourself subjected to plenty of both. Fifth problem, and this is a real irritation with me: The remote control may look rich and full-featured and colorful with all its dazzling buttons some of which are nicely backlit when you press a button, but the buttons you need to use the most are at the bottom of the remote, not at the top where you need them, and where your fingers usually are when holding a remote control. So it takes two hands to operate. In fact most of the buttons on the top half of the remote are not needed during normal TV and VCR operation. Talk about ergonomically located. I guess that's a 90's idea that just hasn't hit the RCA labs yet. I would think that RCA would want to make a simpler, easier to use and maybe even fun remote control to keep their customers from getting so frustrated. I just don't understand their logic here, or lack thereof.

The one exceptional feature on this unit is the clock, which sets itself by downloading a clock signal from the first television station it encounters that includes a time signal in its broadcast. This means that you won't ever have to set the time again, or watch a blinking 12:00, or worry about the daylight savings time change. Nice, but hardly worth all the other trouble you'll have to put up with. It also has VCR+ which is a plus. That works nicely. Programming to record TV shows without using VCR+ is a cinch also. However I'd sure like to see some big improvements on the above mentioned problems with this product before I would consider buying another RCA product.

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I've had three VCR's before this one.I don't want to mention the other VCR's brand name,but RCA has the best one.It's very simple to program,and when the time change takes place in the spring and fall,it does if for you on its own.I've never had my tape distroyed,and at 119 bucks,you can't get another VCR cheaper with all the extra's this one has.

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I have bought a few of these vcr's from Amazon and my biggest complaint is that they don't last very long because the rubber belt in it stretches and I can't find them (rubber belts) to repair them. I tape a lot and then transfer to dvd, so a good working vcr is a must. It dosen't matter what brand name is on them, they all are the same, but for the price I will continue to buy them until they no longer have them.

Toshiba SD4100 Progressive Scan DVD Player

this is one fine dvd player i have 2 my self .man there great . i can play what i want in dvd,s from diffrent countrys and it is the best and the place i bought mine is where you want to buy yours to,amazon .can,t go wrong .from me wess.

Acumen Disc 1 to 3 Target DVD CD Disc Recorder Duplicator Machine with Sony Writers Burners Drives

I like the product. My disappointment is, that from my understanding of the description, I thought it was a combination recorder and duplicator. I was thinking that I would be able to connect it to our tuner and record the spiritual address during church services and make duplicates of the recorded CD to distribute to the congregants upon request. Otherwise, I like the speed and clarity it duplicates pre-recorded Cds placed in it.

Canon ZR80 MiniDV Camcorder w/18x Optical Zoom

There are lots of things you look for in a camcorder. Features, quality construction, and something easy to use are all things to consider. In the lower price range a lot of camcorders are alike and you have to look at some small specifics to figure out what's the best buy.

The ZR80 is a good camcorder, but it has one major flaw that its predecessors did not it has no mike input.

The built in microphones on almost all camcorders, certainly those selling for less than $1000, are notoriously bad. They generally pick up 180 degrees of sound. In a group situation, at a party for example, the audio sounds like utter chaos. Canons also seem to be especially prone to picking up motor noise from the camera itself. Thus, if you're interested in good sound you need to have a camcorder with a mike input.

Unfortunately, Canon chose to reduce the features on their 2004 ZR line by taking away the mike input. Why they did this is astonishing because it makes no sense.

If you want a Canon camcorder with good sound you really need to either get an older model almost any of the older ZRs including the 45, 50, 60, 65 and 70, all of which have mike inputs or forget the ZR completely and go for an Elura or any of their other product lines that have this necessary feature. If you're accustomed to the typical sound one gets from an on-camera mike (or you plan to never use it in situations with lots of sounds), maybe this model will be fine for you.

I purchased the ZR80 mini DV camcorder online, and received it today... one thing I was disappointed about is that this camcorder has no SD card slot like some of the other ZR series camcorders do... still shots go directly on your DV tape (one tape holds about 700 shots) It's not that big of an issue for me because I own a fantastic digital camera, and would prefer my pictures to be taken with that... but it might be an issue for someone who was planning on getting it all in one package (and it can be a big convenience that way!)

The special effects on this camcorder are great, and the video I have taken so far is wonderful... Two suggestion though: PLAY with the settings and READ the book!! I have seen so many reviews of Canon camcorders that say they are no good in low light (BTW the nightshot is simple to use and highly effective)

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Optics, the ability to deal with lighting conditions, and hand-held stability were the important factors in my buying decision. I edit my works on the computer, so effects were not important (and should be used sparingly!) The Canon ZR-80 is lightweight and well-balanced. The ability to return to 'easy' mode with the flick of a switch from anywhere in custom settings is a great feature. The camera turns out nice-looking video with practice. Another plus: I was able to train a cameraman for a family event in less than one minute. I showed him the zoom and the pause, and off he went. As with most digital cameras, there is no video noise between pause and record. If you don't want to edit on a computer, the pause-record method makes for clean segues. Finally, as a previous reviewer writes, you'll need to purchase a firewire cable separately a $20 to $40 item!

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After reading the reviews, I was a bit leery of purchasing this camera. Because it fit my needs without paying for a lot of features that I didn't need (memory stick, S-video output, etc.), I decided to get one anyway to try it out. The result is that I will keep it. One concern was image quality under low light conditions. It's OK. The depth of field is not great under low light which might account for reports of fuzzy images, but I found that it did focus on the item of interest pretty well. For low light, regardless of the camera, if you want good images, you should consider supplemental lighting. The night mode works reasonably well. Audio quality is fine. I had no problem at all with picking up sounds and voices from 15-20 feet away without them having to raise their voices. It doesn't have a mic input which wasn't a drawback for my purposes, but is, nevertheless, something that this camera should have. The biggest disapointment, for me, is that the image stabilization is a long way from what my old Sony Handycam was capable of. Even so, it's adequate for the purposes that I will be using this camera. All in all, this camera will suit most people's needs.

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I scoured the net for a camera (my first). I looked at many brands and moodels, all price ranges (price wasn't really a big factor, but why pay more if you don't have to?) I have had my camera for less than a week, but have been testing it non-stop. I need to make sure I understand it by the time I go on my vacation.

I have read all of the reviews, both good and bad comments. It seems to me that some of the people who are rating this camera are looking ffor some professional heavy duty unit that has every feature on the planet. I really like this cam. It's easy to use, has great features and boasts a pretty great price.

The night mode works pretty good. Does everyone here think they are getting a piece of military equipment or something from StarTrek? It picks up a good picture, and it's in color, unlike many other cams that have a green hue. The zoom (both optical and digital) works great! You can get very close up with the digital zoom, and as long as you are not trying to see an ant from an airplane, it's clear (not much quality degredation). I have hooked the cam up to my TV to see what the footage looks like on something other than the LCD, and it's GREAT! I can't wait to see what I can do with my MAC and iMovie!!

The only CON for now is the power switch. It's a little harrd to manipulate with just your thumb (I'm getting better though).

If you want a great cam for a vacation, or to shoot family footage, this cam is a good choice. Try to take what others say about this cam with a grain of salt. They expect too much.

MiCorder - Universal MP3 Recorder/Player - Ölens Technology - White ****Limited Time Offer - FREE

Great recorder. Wonderful sound & easy to use (even for a senior non-tecky). I just ordered another one. Better than I expected. The CD player in my home stereo & car have been acting up and I was thinking of buying new ones, but both unit have aux plug ins and this MiCorder lets me download songs from internet radio, or my Mac, or from almost anything, for free, then play them on my home or car stereo. It's like Sirus, without the subscription. Now I don't need to tote around all my favorite CD's in my car.

This is such an amazing device I am in the market to buy a backup for the day it doesn't work anymore or one of my kids borrow it and step on it. It is so easy to use and to imagine that anything that has an auxiliary cable you can record from.

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The MiCorder is perfect for the kind of simple recording via a live guitar looping pedal that I do, and it is clear that it can be used for more serious applications (use in conjunction with GarageBand, Frooty Loops, etc to make a polished full-length track) as well. I loved how it automatically uploaded directly to iTunes when I plugged the memory card into my macbook. I love the efficiency (in energy and purpose), functionality, and simplicity of the design. The ease-of-use is second to none!

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Have a lot tapes and music to convert to mp3 format tp put on Walkman. Not had much success in recording loud enough to get good sound. This product did a great job with that and directly into mp3. Only had to trim songs and edit tag info. That was time consuming, but easy now. Now I can really enjoy all the great music again without spending a fortune on cds, basically replacing what I already have.

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The sound is not very good, and the battery does not last no 10 hours at all.....not very hapy with this.

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eMedia Rock Guitar Method

• Over 100 lessons from a Guitar Institute of Technology graduate
• Hosted by radio personality Steve Rock of KISW's "Metal Shop"
• Techniques include movable power chords, hammer-ons, distorted riffs & more
• Equipment tips include using distortion, whammy bar, feedback, wah pedal & more
• Over 90 songs & riffs to learn

Though I've odered many times with Amazon, this is the first time I have been excited enough to review a product! I'm an adult who wants to learn guitar for fun and didn't want to play "Mary had a little lamb" and scales for months. I have only used the software for about an hour, and have already been playing parts of songs I actually like! I have been playing guitar for a total of one week prior to receiving this (without any instruction).This is perfect if you don't have the patience or desire to learn the traditional way. I wish I had this when I was 14, I would have loved it.

I can't vouch for the whole thing yet, since I've only played with it for an hour, so I give it 4 stars instead of five. From what I've seen I have no reason to expect that it will let me down and highly recommend it.

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I found this to be a very good teaching tool to learn to play rock style music. I have never played the guitar before only the violin for eight years while in school. Now I am in my thirties and thought it would be too difficult to learn to play. I have been through the first four lessons and so far it is great. I can work at my own pace, repeat sections I find difficult and play actual songs with lyrics. It is great to play real music not just practice the chords and riffs (although practice is required, it is just more fun). Great piece of sofware. I combined this with a couple of books to study when not at the computer and this worked great for me. Great job eMedia. I look forwrard to additional eMedia song books for rock music.

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I picked this up for my twelve year old son. He is a beginner and has been glued to his electric guitar and eMedia Rock Guitar Method for the last two weeks. The program is a great starter, just in case the kids don't stick with it. It's better than $45 bucks an hour once a week, for now, at least.

Great Product! I reccomend it.

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I began with eMedia's beginner CD-ROM and next moved to the Rock Guitar. One of the things I enjoyed most about the former was that it taught lessons with entire songs. However, in Rock Guitar, you only learn bits and pieces of songs--and fewer ones at that. Many are not titled songs, but something like "a Nirvana-like song." So if you loved the amount of music on the beginner CD, you may be a little dissatisfied. Additionally, some chords are taught with different fingering than in the beginner CD.

All in all, I learn very quickly with emedia. I really enjoy playing along to their riffs and pieces of songs. Putting the voice to the songs to play with is probably my favorite feature (don't tell anybody that I sing along while playing in the privacy of my room).

This is certainly a really great step towards learning the basics of rock guitar, but should not be your first eMedia CD-ROM (buy the beginner one first!).

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This is way better than the eMedia Guitar Basics CD-ROM because you actually know what the songs are supposed to sound like when you play them. They have rock songs that you've heard before, unlike the "folk" songs and spirituals that Guitar Basics teaches you.

Unfortunately this does not work with Windows Vista, so I have to use it on a computer that uses XP.

Sony Ericsson W610i Unlocked Cell Phone with 2 MP Camera, MP3/Video Player, Memory Stick Micro Slot

I did a lot of research before buying this cell phone, however I am disappointed with the photo quality, usually the photos are out of focus or blurry, I hate that, to listen to music it's a great device, I have almost 200 songs in it and it works great, the sofware to add music to the phone, (disc to phone) is a wonder...! So I recommend if you want a nice camera, forget about this phone, its not the best, but for music... its the Best.

Sharp Aquos LC46D64U 46-Inch 1080p LCD HDTV

• 46" HDTV LCD-TV with Full HD 1080p resolution
• 10,000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio
• 4ms Response Time
• Feature at least two HDMI inputs, a PC input
• RS-232C Input for control

If you want a 46" HDTV, buy this one!

I had a Sharp LC42D62U and then upgraded to the LC46D64U recently; the original LCD was great but there are several improvements made to the new 64 series. The 64 series LCD's are incredibly slim and have a smaller bezel. They really look awesome wall-mounted due to the small profile. No other LCD is currently available that is this slim and has this picture quality. The 64 series TV's also add several tone and picture corrections, an analog PC input, a USB 2.0 port for firmware upgrades, an RS-232 control port and three HDMI 1.3 inputs. The picture quality actually seems to be slightly better which is amazing because the 62 series looked fantastic (specifications indicate a better backlight system).

I am a professional AV systems design engineer and part of my job is to keep up on new TVs. This unit is currently the best we've seen for a consumer model and we specify it all the time. I highly recommend this unit or any of the 64 series.

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Compared to Samsung 1080p with tons of reviews and which I returned simply because of lack of picture formats this TV rocks.

In short, Samsung provide you with great and bright LCD panels but with zero technology. so a letterbox directtv movie on a 32 inch Samsung will be actually 22" viewing area on the screen. Try to use the picture formats such as wide and zoom and you get blurry and distorted picture which is to me impossible to view. This is were Sharp step up with it's technology. Picture formats are all viewable so you can super stretch a 4:3 picture without almost any distortion. The only con is lack of brightness (450 nits compare to 500-550 in other popular LCDs) but the blacks are superior. You can increase the brightness by playing with the contrast to full but then it is not like the Samsung whites but less eye soaring. I found that the Samsung brightness is great but after a while watching it sores on your eyes and the Sharp auto dimming feature is great for movies and it is fully controlled by the user.

Aside to that, this TV is probably the thinnest and idle for hanging on the wall. The connections on the back are extremely well thought after for wall hanging. It seems that what people complaint about in the previous models in series 62U is now fully addressed in the 64U.

I am perfectionist and recommend this TV. Most of my comparisons were for regular directtv broadcast.

HDTV and DVDs shows naturally prefect. The colors are well defined as oppose to Samsung and you have tons of options to program it to your taste. Sound from these little speakers is the best comparing to not a few LCDs I had. Very well done!

It needed 2-3 days to break-in and some customization. It is professional TV for professional users but very user friendly and within no time anybody can easily program the brightness, contrast, color and other cool features to its liking. This TV is also ready for the future and I find the 46" great size and very well balanced.

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I bought this Tv on Balck Friday at Best Buy at 50%. I didn't stand in line for 2 days but i went to check out if anything was left at 7AM.

I needed to buy HDTV only so i went straight there. I saw this TV up on the wall and right next to it was Samsung 46"@ $2200+ and this was reduced to $1399. I compared these 2 & Sony(3rd in line). This won me over as i found Shark's eye(Video being played) was richest Black on this TV then Samsung & Sony.

Its beautifull to look at.

Got it at home now installed & running for more than a week.

I hooked it up to my PS3 with 3Pin cable and results were amazing .. I ordered HDMI cable 2 days back and can't wait to check out the picture with HDMI connection.

PROS:

1. Price, BEAUTIFUL & sleek finish with silver speakers at bottom.

2. Picture Qaulity is SHARP & rich. Colours are Vivid, BLACK is Deep black.

3. Easy to setup, thin like 4 pancakes, stcaked.

4. Regular DVDs/Video games look alive on this TV.

5. Tons of HDMI & other connectivty ports.

CONS:

1. Remote is too big.

2. Caliberation is not easy to do & i could find much help online as well.

3. I'm skeptical about Banding Issues(as i have read it all over the net for this TV) Although I've not seen any yet but i'm afraid it might show up on any fine day.

4. TV Speakers are disappointment.

Overall I'm very PLEASED with this product. I recommend this to anyone who's looking to buy a Great 1080P 46 inches TV.

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This TV has pretty good picture quality, a slick design, and intuitive menu, however all this is ruined by a major design flaw -BANDING. Google "sharp acquos banding" is you don't know what I'm referring to. It's basically horizontal and vertical bands of uneven uniformity on the screen. Shows itself the most during panning shots (hockey games, wall pans on HGTV, etc., etc.) It's too bad, because I really liked this TV, but the banding ruined it and I ended up returning it. Bought the Samsung 46A550 instead and it is by far a much better set. (And cheaper too through Amazon.)

I had always spent the extra money on buying TV's with the Sony models. Sony TV's for me had always been great. I decided to go with Sharp because I knew this TV was going to be on sale at a brick and mortar store for Black Friday and wanted to save money this go around. So I went to the store to check out the TV before the sale to see if it would be worth getting up early. After conversing with the sales person and seeing the picture and comparing the picture to the other TV's there it was a no-brainer. I probably would have paid more for this TV. It is awesome. I play playstation 3 games in 1080p and blue ray dvd's and what a picture. Its awesome. The sales guy actually talked up the Sharp which was less expensive than the Samsung and LG tv's. You can't go wrong with this TV.

P-SB7 Spirit Box ITC Research Device

So I bought this box after having interest (but huge skepticism) in the paranormal field for over 20 years. Thought I would buy it, debunk it and throw it in my drawer. The 1st day/night I received it I turned it on and recorded what came out of it. Now, this could all be my brain coming up with this but I have to ask the questions..if these results are from radio signals that this box is scanning through at a quick rate then why do I get the same "voices" over a 2-3 second burst (or longer) when the scan would have passed the channel so quickly. Also, it seems to reply after each question. Some are super clear and do not sound like radio broadcasts to me. So am I a believer that you can speak with the dead using this box? Well, the skeptic in me says NO but I have to say, the more I use this the more intrigued I become. What do you think?

NOTE: At one point in this video you see a black box. That is NOT the PSB7 but a speaker I had it connected to so it could be louder. One fault of this unit is that it has such low volume it is almost impossible to hear when in use. You need earphones or a speaker to hear it. So this review is basically showing this item in use the day it arrived.

UPDATE: After my third session which lasted 5-10 minutes this box had 4 voices calling out my name, AND my dogs name. Something is going on here and my house is NOT haunted. Either this is some hardcore audio matrixing or there are spirits around everywhere at all times. Uploaded a 2nd video to youtube from this last session just search for "Ghost Box Frank's Box Session #2 They know my name, that is for sure :)"

UPDATE: Months later I have has some amazing things happen and some flat out scary things happen. In my home I have witnessed my blankets moving on my bed, heard my name and other things being whispered and spoken in real time with my ears (others heard it as well) and things have been falling and moving in my kitchen. I decided to stop doing this after one night at a cemetery and getting the creepiest EVP I have ever caught. I feel this box, if used daily, will bring things into your home that you may not want. I always thought ghosts, spirits and demons were a bunch of BS I no longer do as I have witnessed, heard and experienced these things in my own home. To this day I can press record on a recorder in my house, ask a question and get many responses via EVP. I have company now and have almost gotten used to it though the 1st few weeks was not so good. You can see some of my stuff at my youtube channel "Huff Paranormal". All real and coming from a former skeptic and professional. My son and I decided to stop for a while but we will be back with more soon. Just BE CAREFUL. This is not a toy or joke. I say that with 100% seriousness. The funny thing is I was warned by many on youtube as they watched my videos. I laughed it off...wish I didn't.

UPDATE: MANY months later, now mid November 2012 and my YouTube page has almost 70 videos of spirit box sessions that prove..yes PROVE that this is the real deal. Search YouTube for "Huff Paranormal" and watch the videos. I have come a long way with this device and others like it and have to say that in the right hands this can produce things that nothing else can. I have had things come through that would be impossible to know. For example, asking for my Father who passed in 2000. The box told me he was here. I asked sho his best friend was, and it is an odd name (buttons) and right after I asked it said 'buttons" I even slowed it down for verification.

Spirit boxes are real and the longer you use it the better results you will get. The very 1st video posted on my current youtube channel is a 10 minute compilation of the best moments and responses. Check it out if you can.

Tried this on the last investigation we went on which was actually upstairs in my garage. There's no annoying background sound, so you won't get a headache after you listened to it and whatever we contacted was answering our questions, so it wasn't like we were getting random jibber jabber. The most creepiest evidence we got was a "Leave us." Such a great device, I'd advise anyone to get it.

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This device is by far one of my favorites to have during an investigation. The fact that spirits can manipulate the sound waves in order to make it so we can hear and understand them is fascinating. This is not an over priced item, the children that posted that clearly missed the point of the box all together. It is of good quality, simple to use and understand. Yeah sure you can make your own, but why lol. Leave it to the people that do it for a living I say. If your an electronics expert.....good for you bucko. We don't care or want to hear how cheap you are.

This toy is like having a psychic, but the value speaks for itself. Because whatever comes through this device can be used as evidence rather than the scattered messages you may get from a psychic. I would and have recommended this product to many investigators. Get one, you won't regret it.

The only down to this product is as the last person said the speaker, the volume just isn't loud enough. I recently picked up an adapter speaker that works great with it.

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This thing is truly AWESOME! I own about 4 "Shack Hack" Radio Shack radios. Most of these had little to moderate results and mostly on AM frequencies. With the P-SB7 I use it on the FM frequency at 100-150ms depending on the amount of radio clips. I find 100ms (the fastest) works the best. I got very clear intelligent responses to every question asked. I used it tonight for the first time at a cemetary that I know that is very active. I asked how many spirits response was an immediate and very loud and clear "8". About 15 min later I asked how many spirits and again I not only got "8" once but three times by three different voices. We got various "Help me" and "Help me please". I then asked why do you need help. The answer was a very clear "I'm Dead". I know there is a spirit named Ruby and I know her distinctive voice from other "shack hack" conversations I had with her in the past. I asked "Is Ruby here tonight?" I got an immediate drawn out "Maybe" The only problem is the "Maybe" came from a Class A EVP that was not from the radio! We know that these spirits like to cuss at us with the "F" bomb and tell us to "get out". We asked like we always do..."Do you want us to get out?" The response was 3 different voices saying "get out" and it was immediate. My wife asked "Is there any message that you would like to pass on? We then got "It's noisy"(male voice),"Too noisy"(female voice), "GET OUT!"(voice was almost yelling at us) followed by another "Help Me!"(same female child voice we had heard all night saying help me. Child sounds about 8-10 years old) This radio is sold out EVERYWHERE! This radio is featured on the show "Ghost Adventures". Watch the episode of it on youtube where they are at an abandoned insane asylum in West Virginia. The kind of results they got on the show were on the same caliber as what we got. (I think it is called Algheny or something like that) To get mine I had to order it from ebay from a company out of "Singapore" It arrives in about 8-10 business days. I spent 80 dollars on mine. My only regret is that I did not order 2-3 of them for other friends in my paranormal group. Oh yeah AM is good at about 250ms but FM is far far better. You will know what is a radio clip and what is a true spirit voice. A long drawn out "Help Me Please" at 100ms will run for about 2.5 seconds covering 25 different radio frequencies. The white noise between stations is amazing. There is no annoying "THUMP THUMP THUMP" noise while scanning. I hope you guys wanting to purchase on can get your hands on one and enjoy the same results we did.

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I had read almost every review on this product and realize I had to try this Spirit Box. My Son passed in 2007 and I have made contact with him in other ways, but to hear his voice has been a quest of mine. I was not disappointed at all the first time I heard him he said Hi Mama. The rest is history now I am a firm believer and this box is great.

Sony CMU-BR100 Camera and Microphone for Skype

This is an awesome camera. The only thing that would make it better would be if it swiveled. Its on the top of a TV that is mounted on the wall so the view is a bit awkward, looking down to the floor. I think the ultimate Skype TV camera would have a swivel of some kind and a remote so we can pan back and forth across the whole room. Anyways, this one is the best you can buy today and we are very happy with the purchase.

This is your only choice for a webcam, for Skype, for your Sony Internet TV (check compatibility before ordering). It can also be used as a regular webcam on a computer.

This small cam/mic is about 6 inches long and 3/4 inch wide. The mounting instructions are pretty much incomprehensible. Once I ignored the helpful little pictures, I was able to get it stuck to the top of my TV. A product at this price point might be expected to have a better mounting system, e.g. a matching peg system that better mates the webcam to the TV. Once you have it stuck to the TV, plug it into the USB port on the TV and you're good to go. Just fire up the Skype app, found under "Internet Video" on your Sony TV remote. You will not be able to text message nor will you be able to send files using the internal TV app, but you may not need to do either. In a typical family room/entertainment room setup, you won't.

If you are using the TV as a computer monitor, as I am, you can plug the Sony webcam into a USB slot on your computer and use the regular Skype app in Windows or iOS (where you are able to select the microphone array under Tools/Options/Audio Settings).

This is a good product for its intended use, and I see that it is approaching a reasonable price after a number of price reductions. If you are looking to maintain the look and feel of your TV, it does the trick. Picture quality and the microphone array are very good, although I would wish for a less wide-angle view. It's great to have Skype video on the "big screen."

I sit about 4 feet from the screen and I find myself to appear on the smallish side due to the wide angle lens. If you were 15 feet away, I fear you might be a mere speck, but that is not my setup and you should look to other reviews on this point. It would do a good job of getting the whole family into the picture, and I guess that is the trade-off.

I use my Sony 32" Bravia Internet TV as a computer monitor, and I use this Sony webcam as a computer webcam (i.e. plugged into the computer's USB port, not the port on the TV). That is pretty much plug and play as well you just have to go into Tools/Options/Audio in Skype to set the microphone to the microphone array in the Webcam if you wish to use that (mic quality is excellent).

If you decide, as I did, that you don't need to actually plug the webcam into your TV, your choices widen considerably and the price point falls. Here is a 4 1/2 star Logitech 720p webcam sold on Amazon that sells for $40 and uses Zeiss glass. It appears that product would be easy to mount with Velcro to the back of your TV/monitor, but it must be plugged into a computer, NOT the back of a Sony Internet TV:

[..]

Summary: This is a snazzy webcam with a crisp picture and a great mic (a 4-mic array) that you can plug into certain Sony internet TV's. It's a bit pricey and the wide angle view may not be ideal for all settings. You can also plug it into your computer and use it like any other webcam, in which case there are other, less expensive choices. It's your only choice if you want to run Skype video on your Sony Internet TV using the built in USB connector and Skype application. That built-in Skype app is easy to use. You may find the process of attaching it to the top (or bottom) of your TV to be annoying, as the visual instructions are unclear.

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This is what you'd expect. It's a webcam. It works fine with my Bravia TV. The downside is that with Skype the image quality isnt super great in general. This uses a wide fov camera to capture the room since it doesnt know where your face is. So unlike with a laptop webcam where your face is really big fillign up the screen with this you appear really small in it. Could be good if a crowd wants to skype, but not so good if it's a single person to a single person. It is fun to be able to see the other person on the big TV though. What it really needs is some kind of zoom/tracking option but that would be more expensive...

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The camera itself may be high definition, but...

All Bravia TVs are limited to 640x480 resolution (), which is standard definition. Confirmed with Sony support staff.

Furthermore, even though Skype debug consoles indeed show 640x480, the picture quality on the other side will be of 320x240 quality. Terribly upscaled.

Checked with ideal network conditions (same room), and confirmed through Skype own debug consoles.

Actually if you go into "see myself" function on the TV, the picture will be suspiciously small... Measured heigh shows a little bit less than 1/4 of the screen height, 320x240, indeed!!!

To sum up, the cam itself may be high definition, but what your Skype counterparts will see will be of very low quality. Regardless of network and TV model year (my is 2011).

Beware.

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At first I was quite annoyed at Sony for restricting the type of cam you could plug in using propriety firmware to prevent third party products but the quality of this cam and its sound system combined with the quality of Sony's TV made up for the, seemingly, inflated price tag. We have had wonderful hours of quality reception from all over the world and a noticeable difference from other cams used through the computer, the quality would, I think, match that of any top-line computer cam available and surpassed that of the Logitech cam I previously used on my Mac through the same TV, which is a Bravia LED, another superior product.

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Sandisk Sansa® ExpressTM MP3 Player 2GB

• It provides you with everything you need to play your favorite music, enjoy your best photos, and listen to your preferred FM radio stations
• Able to play MP3, WMA, WAV, and protected WMA DRM music files, and supports JPEG, TIFF, PNG, BMP, and GIF as import media types
• Screen can exhibit up to 64,000 colors, lets you choose to display album cover art for the current song via ID3 tag support or photo thumbnails
• 2 gigabytes of built-in flash memory allows you to store up to 1,000 songs, MicroSD cards effectively expands your memory capacity infinitely
• Comes in a stylish black, with earphones, a USB cable, and a rechargeable and removable lithium-ion battery

I did quite a bit of research to get this one. and here are the reasons, I arrived at this decision:

Pro:

Size: It is pretty small yet not hard to use the controls

FM Radio: That's pretty nice in such a small MP3 player. Top that iPod

Expansion slot: The micro SD card makes this player future proof. Have more music to upload? get a card and you are done. iPod doesn't have it.

Voice recorder: was not on my wish list, but nice to have.

changable battery: battery goes bad, you can change it. iPod can't do this.

If you hit a button by accident while listening to the music, the button just wakes up the device then you can tell it what to do. Small feature but saves a LOT of annoying moments.

Sound is pretty good, unlike some reviews I have read. It is pretty much in par with other MP3 players especially iPod which is the benchmark these days.

Price: half of iPod Nano.

Con:

The package only comes with a USB charger. I have seen some plugs that have a USB output, or you can get their optional AC adapter.

Memory slot although nice, but there is no dummy card in it to avoid things getting stuck in it, so I just put a cheapy micro SD to fill the hole.

The screen could use some more contrast or better color scheme to display the menu better. You get used to it right away, but I am being super crtitcal here.

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My 3 year old 512k Sandisk developed a lose earplug mount so it was to upgrade. The store I went to was offering the C250 model for the same price as the C240 model so I bought it.

The new unit is nice. The sound is better than my older model and the 64k color display is decent. You can view photos on it if you wish. It has a rechargeable lithium polymer battery which is a minus as they wear out over time, Sandisk makes up for this a bit by making the battery replaceable (although the kid at the Be-st buy store was wrong when he said it wasn't--maybe he was just trying to sell an extended warranty plan--bah). Still, I miss the flexibility my older player had with its AAA battery and the older one had a very similar battery life as my new one.

It has a passable FM tuner with decent reception. It won't work as well as a home receiver but it works okay. Sadly, Sandisk still does not sell a player with AM capability, another minus.

The unit has shuffle play but not random play. (By definition, shuffle play will potentially repeat a song already played, while random play will not). This is an OS weakness that would be easy to implement in the OS code, but most manufacturers don't bother.

Sandisk no longer uses a true FAT32 file system so their newer players have lost an enormous amount of flexibility compared to the older units. Now, I can only play music by "Artist", "Genre", "Song", and "Album". You no longer can pick a folder of music to play so you are limited by the predefined categories.

My old unit allowed the ability to play dance with pop by putting them in the same folder and simply playing from it. With the new unit that would be impossible without messing with the ID tags because now I can only select dance or pop but not both at the same time. It is "all" music or "one" genre, but not "some" genres. Clearly a big weakness.

From what I can tell, the unit uses the contents of the ID1 tags, so you need to have them properly populated. It does use playlists but I tend to not use them. I read that this unit only supports 1 playlist but I have yet to confirm that. If it allows multiple playlists then I could mix dance and pop but it would be pain to create a playlist for that.

In addition, the OS has been greatly dumbed down. You no longer can select the playback, display, or search speeds. You can no longer change the display orientation from right-handed to left-handed. You can no longer set left or right balance. You can no longer delete files from the device unless you are connected to a PC. The display no longer shows how much time is left on a song as it now only displays elapsed time, and you can no longer display what file name.

It is unfortunate that the newer units have been dumbed down as they have lost a number of very useful capabilities. Still, I like the new unit overall and I will adjust to the differences. It's a good unit for the money and the Sandisk quality is still there--my last one lasted 3 years under heavy use (3-6 hours a day) so I can't complain. If this will be your first MP3 player you probably won't be disappointed.

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The contrast level on the display is so low no matter how one adjusts the brightness and backlight that you will have a hard time seeing what feature/song you are selecting. Its genuinely bizarre that they used a very light-blue field against a white backround. Text is black so at least you can see that clearly. Other than that, the sound is good for such a cheap player and it has a built-in equalizer to adjust the sound to your own liking. It will operate in MSC mode, which simply means that you can load music files into the player directly from the My Computer icon. No software of any sort needed at all to load songs into the player. You lose the ability to make playlists in MSC mode but personally I prefer the speed and simplicity of MSC mode. You cannot use MSC mode to play digitally-protected music. Again not an issue for me. If you are looking for a cheap mp3 player, this is worth considering.

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OK. I've seen some of the other reviews for this product, and a few people have mentioned problems with the backlighting and contrast, but I don't have that problem. I have now owned my player three weeks, and I LOVE IT!

This player has incredibly simple menus to follow, the display is adequate for most people who will only use this to listen to music. I've had no problems with the display which does a fairly good job with the photos I've loaded onto it. The song text is in black against a light blue field which makes it easy to see at all times.

Straight out of the box, my Windows XP systems instantly recognized the device and installed the appropriate drivers. I did have a problem (at first) with getting my laptop (running Vista Home Basic) to recognize the device, but I realized that this was due to the fact that I had the player set in the wrong USB mode (it needs to be in MSC mode for Vista to recognize the device) Once I changed the mode to MSC (through the player's settings menu), all of my systems recognize it every time without a single problem.

I like the fact that you can change the battery in the player quickly and easily, unlike an Ipod, and that it has an expandable Micro SD slot, which the manufacturer says you can only upgrade by 1 GB. If you buy this, go ahead and spring for the Micro SD card so that you prevent dust and dirt from getting into the slot; you'll also expand the room you have available on the player. I just received my $20.00, 2GB (that's right 2 GB) expansion card from NewEgg.com today, and again, I popped it into my player, which connects to desktop/laptops through a provided USB cable, and it was instantly recognized by my work system as a separate drive.

Other reasons to like this player is the fact that it features a voice recorder, an FM tuner, an adjustable equalizer with presets (I set mine with a custom setting which sounds better than the presets)and it lets you record FM radio. Try THAT with an Ipod... Did I mention that it will let you plays songs downloaded from the most popular services (another thing Ipod can't do), in addition to .wmv and mp3 files?

A couple of people in other reviews have mentioned investing in a new pair of earbuds, which I would agree with if you're a serious audiophile, but again, for most people, the earbuds it ships with should more than fit the bill.

The only thing this player really lacks is the storage capacity that some other players on the market have. That's ok though, because at bit rate of 128 kbps per song, you can fit up to 1,000 songs. I doubled my 2 GB capacity with the Micro SD card, giving the player a total capacity of 4 GB. Since I use only high bit rate (160 kbps and better) audio, and I have about 450 songs with plenty of room left over for my work files and photos.

If you're looking for an economical, sturdy mp3 player this is the one. The price makes this a great gift for any occasion year-round, and for the money, you're not going to find a better value anywhere else on the market.

I was hesitant about buying an MP3 player because I am relatively inept when it comes to electronic devices. After researching different MP3 players I decided to take a chance on the SanDisk because of its reasonable price plus I had read that it was compatible with Windows Media Player (WMP). I had downloaded dozens of CDs onto the WMP and now needed something small and pocket sized that was inconspicuous to use at work. My profession affords me with occasional down time so I wanted a small MP3 player with ear plugs that would help me pass the time by dusting off a few musical neural networks encoded in the 60's. First of all I was surprised at how simple transferring songs was using the WMP and the Sandisk. You first open up the WMP and once the computer recognizes the "device" you click on the icon, which allows the WMP to connect with the SanDisk. Then you can either right click on selected songs and select "add to synch" or you can right click on the CD title and add the entire contents of the CD to the sync list. The WMP shows you how much room you have left on the Sandisk after each input. Pretty simple. The real surprise occurred when I placed the ear plugs in and listened to my old archaic music. I'm not crazy about ear plugs (can't use headphones at work), but the ones that come with the player are not uncomfortable. The sound quality of the SanDisk is extremely impressive for such a small device. Although the player comes with an equalizer I did not even find it necessary to adjust the sounds. I give this product 5 stars for the musical portion of the SanDisk. I cannot comment on the other options that this product has, but I am obviously impressed enough to leave a review on this item. I should mention that the device comes with a CD that I downloaded and it appears to assist in using the other features of the SanDisk MP3 player, but as mentioned I bought the player solely for listening to music and am simply commenting on the musical portion of the SanDisk Sansa c250 MP3 player. I hope that this helps you in deciding which player to buy. I am very satisfied with this product.