Toshiba SD-2200 DVD Player

• Dual-disc capacity plays DVDs and CDs
• Built-in Dolby Digital decoding
• HDCD decoding and precision filtering
• DTS and Dolby Digital output
• Optical and coaxial-digital output

After going through several DVD Players, I have found the PERFECT ONE -the Toshiba 2200 DVD Player!

This player features everything that one needs to start watching the movies you love:

* S-Video/ Component Video

* Dolby Digital Decoder

* Zoom (3 levels)

* Dual tray

* Coaxial & Digital audio output

It plays every DVD flawlessly, and the audio quality is superb. Do not even think about buying anything else, this is the player to get. It is worth every penny!

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After receiving this DVD player, I was able to set it up and start watching movies in less than five minutes. The picture is excellent, comparable to DVD players that cost hundreds more. The remote takes some getting used to, but is actually quite functional and logical in its setup. The value gets even better when you realize that it supports DTS audio as well. And to those who complain about the lack of an eject button on the remote, it's because if you have an entertainment center like I do, you probably don't want the tray banging against the glass when it comes out of the player. The fact is this player is easy to use, produces great audio and video, and is priced well to match. If you want a good high-end DVD player, the 2200 does the trick in every aspect. Gotta go now, finding more DVD's to watch this weekend!

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This is my first DVD player that I bought, and I was initially very happy with it....great price, great sound, great picture quality.

Then about 3 1/2 months after I received it, it stopped playing discs. I took it to an authorized Toshiba service center in late October, and after a few weeks found out the broken part was on backorder until Late November (suggesting that this is a flaw not unique to my machine). I still haven't gotten it back.... Furthermore, although the parts are covered by warranty, labor is not. A little ridiculous to pay for service to a machine that is not even half a year old.

My recommendation-don't buy as many people are having problems with it (look through other reviews) due to both shoddy equiptment and a dismal warranty.

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I have found this player to be of great value for the price I paid. Nice features include the option for optical, digital, or 5.1 output, easy to use interface, and a dual-DVD/CD changer. The sound is crystal clear, making the perfect complement to my Sony STR-DE835 receiver. All the extra features are great except for the fact that the remote is impossible to read in the dark, and the SD-2200 will _NOT_ play CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-RAM, or other such recordable media. However, it will play all your normal CDs, and even decodes the seldom used, but nice to hear, HDCD, or High-Definition Compatible Digital format, which effectively doubles the sampling rate of CDs (from 44kHz to 88kHz), for an incredibly clear CD listening experience. All in all, this player is a great choice for sub-$400 DVD players.

I've had my Toshiba DVD for nearly 1 year now, and for the last 4 months or so, there have been numerous problems, like frozen pictures, "lost" discs,high pixelation, etc. I finally got fed up and brought it to an authorized Toshiba service center. Firstly, it's only fully warranted for 90 days. After that, it's parts only for 1 year. This repair will cost me $125.00. Nice. Thanks. Also, the AUTHORIZED service center has had my DVD for 5 weeks and counting..."Maybe some time next week," they say. I'm sticking with Sony from now on!

Nokia 5200 Unlocked Cell Phone with Camera, MP3 Player, MicroSD Slot--International Version with No

This was my first cell phone and I still love it! I don't have one anymore, since mine was stolen, but I still love it. It worked great for me, especially as a first phone. It was simple and easy to use, had a good display, though not super digitally awesome. I could use it for texting and phone calls and to listen to music. The sound wasn't as great as I hoped, but using headphones made it perfect. It had a sturdy slide, although the inside LCD screen was actually kind of fragile. I ended having to buy a new one after mine "mysteriously" broke. (I slammed my backpack on top of it.)The plastic covering is lasting. I cracked mine down the side however, when i opened up the screen and then sat on the plastic covering, and it was still stolen! The screen of the phone is also kind of difficult to keep clean. But I didn't mind wiping it with my sleeve every now and then. Like other people have said, the back cover is a little hard to remove, but only because they didn't try to take it out while holding down the latch. Another drawback is the lack of flash on the camera, but that's okay. The other qualities of the phone make up for it and if you have nice bright lighting, the camera works fine. The phone also features bluetooth and other connectivity devices. It has a great battery life. The phone came to me with a charger, head phones, a USB connector cord, and a manual. Overall, I really liked the phone. I think it's a great phone to give to someone who either likes simplicity or is just beginning with cell phones. Plus, the black is a nice touch. The lilac version is also cute!

Phone IS indeed unlocked (per interrogating it from internet) and worked right out of the box. Has alot of bennies that are over my head. Only caveat is that I didn't find it as intuitive as I had hoped, but a printed manual was included and online manual also available for download. I'm happy that slide characteristic precludes unintended "pocket calls" and that audio is fine! I'm VERY HAPPY and only wish I was more sophisticated as to enjoying full features of this fine phone. You CAN'T beat the PRICE! My local ATT store chareges much more for phones that are horrible! Paid close to $100 to ATT for basic basic phone with no model # that I can see, and phone is a nightmare! Text unusable, and volume almost inaudible.

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The picture here is different from the phone I got. Though I bought it as a gift I don't know what the user thinks of it

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Sennheiser MKE 400 Shotgun Microphone - Black

• Rugged all-metal housing
• Integral shock mount for rejection of handling noise
• Switchable sensitivity for long and short distances.
• More than 300 hrs operationg time from 1 AAA battery.
• Fits all camers with a standard hot shoe mount and an external microphone input

I bought this microphone a couple weeks ago to use it with the Panasonic tm700 camcorder. My experience level with microphones is above average. I have several high end larger shotgun mics that were just too awkward to use with a traditional camcorder. My overall impression of this microphone is that it sounds good and functions as intended.

1. The sound quality from this microphone is pretty good and it performs as a shotgun mic should, rejecting sounds and noise from its sides and behind it and

focusing on sound in front of it. (which is why its superior to on board omnidirectional mics when ambient sounds are a problem)

2. Form factor is small. No one should buy this mic if they don't have to have a miniature shotgun mic.

Conclusion: The Sennhseiser MKE 400 works well and sounds good for its intended purpose. It is a shotgun mic. It is not an omnidirectional mic.

It will help if you have a noisy camcorder and want to eliminate the sound of the camera. It is useful in "focusing" on sounds in front of it as

opposed to behind or to the side of it. It is a 200.00$ miniature microphone and won't perform as well as larger more expensive shotguns.

Like all shotguns it will sound better if its closer to its subject like on a boom pole.

A word about microphones.....almost any camcorder you buy new will be worth thirty to fifty percent less in a years time and nothing in 5 years. Any microphone you buy will be worth almost what you paid for it. Quality microphones don't lose their value and the technology hasn't changed in decades. While I am recommending this microphone for its intended purpose I would suggest anyone that doesn't already have another larger microphone to go ahead and get a full size high quality mic first. Otherwise you will be penny wise and pound foolish.

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I need to record some conversation with canon 7D. Tried almost every hotshoe mic available from local stores and this is the only one I kept. It suppresses background noise while improving the voice. Exactly what I want.

All other models I tried either amplify noise along with voice, or don't show any improvement compared to the internal mic.

My original budget is about 150, so 200 is a bit steep. I still bought it because that's the only one that works for me.

(I didn't buy it from amazon. Instead I went to San Jose Camera and Videos local store to try and buy. Very nice store with knowledgeable employees. Only concern was that they don't accept return on this item. It does come with 3 yr warranty though. So we brought our camera to record some samples, went home and listen on the computer, then went back to the store and bought it.)

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Unless you are spending around $2000 dollars on a camcorder, you are likely to be getting a surface mounted camera mike that gets all sorts of extraneous noise that is not coming from your picture subject. if your camcorder has a stereo mini microphone jack, This microphone really changes the sound quality of your recording and is well worth the $200 Amazon is selling it for.

Pros: Small footprint compared to the Rode camera mikes; this is especially important if you are using wide-angle lenses or want to film without calling attention to yourself. Long battery life. Good sound. Functional shock absorber.

Cons: Hard to tell if it's on. Foam windscreen easily pulls off the conical shaped mike and is not easy to replace thru Sennheiser or anywhere else if lost. Umbillical cord is in the way on cameras with a small distance between the accessory shoe and the mike jack.

Overall this is a great purchase for b-roll cameras or home video cameras where the sound is awful using the built in mike.

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I've been using this mic with my Canon 5D mkII for a year now and it's a great little mic, although definitely not perfect. I'll keep this short:

Pros:

Compact

Good performance/sound

Easy to use

Cons:

Fragile

Shock mount is prone to break at the rubber connections (I've crazy glued it back together twice now, once each mount).

A more accurate battery display would have been nice.

Windshield falls off easily, its fallen off many times and lost it the last time it did.

Price for performance (I paid $250 for it a year ago, but at $200 I still feel it's over-priced).

I would give it 3.5 stars if I could but bumped it up to a 4 since it's above average.

I guess I need to try out other mics, but from everything I read and saw this was the best in its class. I eagerly await the next model.

I have a Canon 7D that I use this on since the auto focus noise can be heard with the on board mic. This fixes that problem while producing a crisper and clearer sound than the built in Mic. Battery life is pretty good also.

Magnavox MDR533H/F7 HDD/DVD Recorder

• Records up to 604 hours of content onto 500GB HDD
• 4-Way Dubbing (HDD->DVD, DVD->HDD, DV->HDD, DV->DVD)
• Watch, Forward, Rewind or Freeze Live TV while recording
• 1080p Up-Conversion
• Maximum 36 programs per month

I've been accused of being an "old fart" with a lack of tolerance for technology. It isn't true: I own a cell phone and the kids gave me a Kindle thingie over on the table somewhere. So, you might sense my apprehension about getting another box on the TV, another remote, and a headache setting the darn thing up. (I'm old school where buying a hard drive for your computer was an expensive option, and it took you a week to get it configured to your 8088 desktop.)

I was pleasantly surprised that the MAGNAVOX MDR533H/F7 320GB HDD and DVD Recorder with Digital Tuner was so easy to set up. I went on night shift and couldn't stand the thought of missing Big Bang Theory, Person of Interest, and NCIS so I had to record them. My VCR is packed away in the closet, but I don't have any tapes. Within a few minutes, I set up the recorder to save to hard disk drive (HDD) and scheduled a show. Today we watched my shows just fine. Perfect for what I wanted. It looks like you can also save to DVD, and/or playback DVD's. I played a DVD movie, and see I can eliminate my old DVD player using this box. (I think the kids are getting me a Blue Ray player for Christmas, whatever the hell that is.) Probably another box for the TV & another remote! Do they make remotes to manage all the other remotes? I have a drawer full, most of which I don't know what they go to anymore.

The recorder has RCA, S-Video & HDMI outputs to the TV. It passes the antenna/cable signal IN and OUT to the TV as well. You can "dub" your DVD's using the remote, whatever dubbing is. I think it's adding titles to the recording; I haven't tried that yet. This machine has a lot of options and features going for it. It is perfect, and easy, for my purpose, so I think you would be pleased with it. Especially if you are an old fart like me.

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If this was 10 years ago, it would be Ok, but it isn't

SDTV (standard definition) is long gone (for the most part). Sure, this receives and can record HD stations, but only at DVD quality which is SD (as in NTSC). The editing ability is good without the hassle of a PC, but come on Funai, lets get with the program.

As important, the HDD has been downsized to a 2 1/2" Laptop drive (see below). This is a HUGE disappointment as they went backwards, since the mount for a full size drive is still there. It was adapted to a smaller drive with the associated smaller SATA & power interface that won't allow a full size drive to be used. The power supply was modified to reduce power consumption, which is good, BUT, it was discovered this caused issues with the full size 3 1/2" drive so they did this fast fix.

Pros;

1. Self contained ATSC/QAM/NTSC tuner (see below),

2. HDD & DVR recorder,

3. Able to record from composite, S-Video & DV inputs,

4. You can swap drives between units (yours or anyones) and use as large as a 1TB replacement,

5. Edit out commercials (or any other material),

6. Edit recording titles,

7. Transfer recordings from the HDD to a DVD and vice versa (as long as the DVD isn't copy protected),

8. Low power consumption (21 watts). less than older versions, (but see below).

Cons;

1. This does not record HD, nor does it even show HD when using it as a tuner,

2. HDD has been changed to a smaller 2 1/2" Laptop drive format. This is due to cutting corners in the PS (power supply). This in turn caused issues with the larger 3 1/2" drive, forcing this modification,

3. The tuner is called a 'hybrid' that forces the user to switch between analog & digital channels when operated on a CATV feed,

4. Two ugly oversized and unnecessary buttons on the front panel that should be replaced with full menu & navigation functions. After all, this can be used as an editing deck that can be used at a desk. You don't need a remote to use this,

5. No front panel pause button,

6. No component record ability (no issue with DRM, it isn't digital),

7. No Guide of any kind for recording off air. Recordings have to be labeled to program names,

8. High power consumption when in standby by todays standards (4-5 watts),

9. Can not combine titles,

10. Some operational procedures are confusing causing one to jump back and forth though the menu.

I dropped the rating to two stars due to the downsizing of the PS & HDD.

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I have been using VCR to record TV programs until my digital to analog tuner died. Instead of buying another one, I thought I would look into a hard drive recorder. Price is important to me as I don't want to spend too much money. I found this unit. I have to admit that this is the first time I ended up with buying electronic product somewhere else because the price at Amazon is quite high, around 20% more. It took me no time to set it up. If you need something simple to operate and not having a lot of fancy functions, this is the unit I would buy. In SP mode, it could record up to 124 hours. I do not have any paid channel, I use attennae since I live in an area that has good reception. The digit tuner built into the unit scanned and found all the channels I needed. The timer programming is very simple, it's almost like my VCR. The playback is so much better than my tape. I can even play my DVD on it. I haven't tried the DVD recording feature since I don't have any DVR at hand. It may be too late to buy it as a Christmas present but if your parents are still using VCR for recording, buy them this unit this year. They would love it.

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Only had it for a few days but so far loving it. I used to have a recordable DVD player to save all the tv I missed when out of the house. But when the remote broke and I needed to replace it I found out that just a recordable DVD player was no longer easily available anywhere. This unit has the DVD player/recorder but I'll probably be only recording with the digital part of the player.

I have cable tv, but the setup was easy. Just undid the cables on the old broken DVD recorder, and reattached this new unit. Set up was very simple, I did it without even using the instruction book that came in the box. Set up the recording and it's working fine.

Wish it wasn't so expensive :( but it is what it is, and this was less than other units on amazon.

So easy setup, works great, and is easy to use.

This DVR is great! If you are used to programming a VCR back in the day, then using this DVR is a breeze. The extra functions are just icing on the cake.

Creative MuVo TX FM 256 MB MP3 Player

• Easy to use - no cables or software needed
• FM radio and recorder
• Built-in Mic for 16hrs Voice Recording
• USB 2.0 for super fast music transfer
• Sport arm band and belt clip included

I have read reviews here on amazon.com lots of times before when I had to make a decision about buying a product or not and I thought it was about time to return the favor.

I bought the player (I decided to call it "player" since it is not just a MP3 player) directly from Creative Labs. I live in Georgia (USA) and had to pay tax. The player was $167 incl. tax and shipping. I have had the player for about a week now and I love it.

The package included player, ear phones, quick start guide, CD-ROM with ripping SW, arm band, a white battery module, and an alkaline battery.

Transfer speed: Write: ~2.7 Mbytes/second. Read: ~3.2 Mbytes/second. That means that it only take about 100 seconds to fill the entire memory. Not bad.

Menu system: It is straight forward and user friendly. 3 buttons and one scroller make it very easy to navigate. It doesn't let you stay in one submenu for long before jumping back to showing the song playing though, but that is fine when you are actually using the player, and not just playing around with it to write a review ;-) You can't go that "deep" in the menu tree anyway.

Radio: The FM version has a radio. At first I was disappointed with the reception. That was because I scanned manually. Then I tried the automatic scan and boy did that make a difference. The radio quality is EXCELLENT. I can not distinguish between radio quality (stereo of course) and high bit rate mp3's or wma's. It picks up as many stations as my car radio! You can also record what is on the radio (also .wav format). You can even switch between international and Japanese FM radio regions.

Display: The display is small, but not too small. It provides you with the info you need not more not less. You can switch the display orientation and turn it 180 degrees, which comes in handy when it is on your arm. Contrast and backlight intensity is easily adjusted. When playing music files, the display only shows you the title of the song playing, not the artist. Other than that, it shows you time, battery remaining (3 levels), and equalizer setting. The player can turn off automatically if not used for 1, 5, 10 or 30 minute(s).

Equalizer: Normal, rock, jazz, classical, pop, and custom (5 bands). Custom is easy to set.

Playing modes: Normal, A-B, repeat track, repeat all, repeat folder, track once, shuffle repeat, shuffle once, and shuffle folder. I haven't had a chance to try all the modes out (and I probably never will).

MP3/WMA play back: I have tried both mp3 and wma files with 320 kbps and variable bit rate and it works well. You can't display the bit rate. I found that a bit annoying to begin with, but now I am asking myself what I should use that info for anyway.

The voice recording is easy and the quality is good (.wav format).

Ear phones: The normal ear plug kind, where the right wire is longer than the left, so you can take it around the back of your neck reducing the annoyance of the wire. The ear phones are decent, but not as good as the Sennheiser ear plugs that came with my girlfriends Rio.

Arm band: It is working well. I am not sure if the player will stay in the armband, but a key ring will make absolutely sure that the player, if it should fall out of the sheath, will not fall down and hit the ground.

15 languages: The Muvo can display the menus in English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Danish (I am from Denmark, so Thank You Creative Labs!), Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese and what I think is another Asian language and Arabic.

Battery: I have only used one alkaline (1.5V) battery with the player. Before I ordered the player I asked Creative Labs if I could use NiMH batteries (1.2V) and they said yes. I will let you know if NiMH batteries work when I have tried it.

Software (CD-ROM): I think that the software is good. It allows for ripping CD's and saves as either mp3, wma (constant or variable bit rates), wma pro or wma lossless. I haven't spent much time using the SW so maybe I am missing something out. However, since Windows Media Player and other freeware come with the necessary ripping capabilities, the included software is not that important in my opinion.

Conclusion: It is not the cheapest player around; however, I think it is well worth the money. The Muvo is very small and very light. The TX transfers files faster than the NX series, but I am not sure if that justifies the much higher price for the TX. I don't think you can get the NX series with radio, though. If you are looking for a good radio in a MP3/WMA player you should go for the Muvo TX FM. Even though 256 MB is not that much, it is still enough for about 130 songs in good quality. Since the Muvo TX FM transfers files fast, the limited space is not that important. If you want a player for running or if you want to be the coolest in the gym, this is the player for you. It is light, small, easy to carry, and you can actually read the display and operate the player WHILE running.

I can highly recommend the Muvo TX FM 256 MB from Creative Labs to anyone, especially runners.

I give it 5 stars without hesitation.

UPDATE: 1.2V rechargeable batteries work fine.

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Background:

This is my first mp3 player. I have played around with my friend's iPOD and iPOD mini before so I have some experience with digital music players.

What I liked:

Great value: Keep in mind that you are not just buy a 256 MB mp3 player. THe Muvo TX FM is also a USB hard drive, a voice recorder, and a FM radio. This was what made me buy the Muvo despite cheaper, comparable 256 MB mp3 players being on the market.

Great sound: The Muvo delievers a really nice sound and I find it indistinguishable from an iPOD.

Great headphones: The included headphones are very good and delivers a good range of sound. As an experiment I tried out a cheap $1.99 headphone and there is just no comparison.

Good battery life: 14 hr on an AAA battery. More if you listen to the radio a lot.

Accessories: You also get a protective cover/belt clip and an armband for exercise. The same cannot be said for other mp3 players.

What I didn't like:

Earphone design: The earphones unfortunately don't fit my ears very well (I have small ears) and the left earphone has a tendency to fall out when I'm moving around.

Inability to skip to the middle of a song. The Muvo only allows you to play a song from the beginning. There is no provision for to to skip into the middle of the song.

Case design: The USB part of the Muvo (the black part) is very thick. This means that it can't be plugged into any recessed USB ports. This is not a problem if you have a desktop or a USB hub. Unfortunately, many laptops (including my Sony Vaio) have USB ports recessed into the case with an overhang. This makes it impossible to plug in the Muvo and requires you to buy a USB hub or an extension cable. Before you buy this product, try the following: take a usb cable and grab it with your pinkie flat on top of the plastic connector just behind the metal part. Attempt to insert the cable into an availabe port. If you can do it and not jam your finger, you are fine. Otherwise, you'll need an extension cable or hub.

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I did a lot of research before purchasing the Muvo TX-FM, and one of the things that made sense to me was to consider the manufacturer. Creative Labs has been making quality software and hardware products for years, which puts them head and shoulders above smaller corporations that were just formed to crank out cheap mp3 players for the general public. They seem to understand how to make powerful programs and devices easy-to-use, even for novices.

I had concerns about compatibility with my Sony Vaio, as I have learned it doesn't always like to play nice with non-Sony plug-ins. But this was a snap just pop the device into the USB port and off you go. No cords!

The player itself is very simple; menus are so easy that the instruction book is practically unnecessary. It's hardy and durable, having already survived a tumble to the bathroom tile with no ill effects (the belt clip is good quality but can only handle so much maniacal dancing). I agree with the other reviewers that the ear buds are not the most comfortable, but the sound quality is spectacular!

One thing the other reviewers haven't mentioned much is the accompanying software. The drag & drop capacity is terrific, the MuVo TX-FM works perfectly wonderfully with any software you're already comfortable with a huge benefit. BUT, the software that comes with it is really nice too!! The "SmartFit" feature can automatically convert any tune you want into the smallest possible format so you can fits lots of `em on here. The software can even load songs directly from your favorite CD's onto the player, speedily converting them into mp3's or wma's at the same time. It took about 5 minutes to convert & load an entire CD! Older processors may take a little longer, but that's still pretty impressive. When I think of the DAYS I spent putting together mixtapes back in the 80's, it's mind-boggling!

Bookmark this page and do your own research, but believe me you won't be disappointed with this one.

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This is the first mp3 player I have bought, but I am a techie so I know all about various computer related products. I had spent a couple of weeks looking for a decent mp3 player. I choose a Flash based player because I wanted to use it while I exercise (or when I start to actually) and a hard drive based player is just not a good idea for that. My requirements were that it have at least 256 MB of memory, have a FM radio and be able to carry more than just music. Having said that, I am providing a list of pros and cons.

Pros:

Small Size: Smaller than my cell phone so it can fit in all my pockets and I barely notice its there.

Connectivity: USB 2.0 is so much faster than USB 1.1. Loading music goes quick.

Ease of Use: I opened it and within 5 minutes I had it loaded with music and playing songs. I give it to a few other people who wanted to look at it and they were able to do everything with it right away.

Sound quality: It produces very good sounding music. I connected it to my speakers which have very good bass and all around performance and the Muvo was on par in terms of quality as my PC is.

Buttons: The buttons are nice and big and easy to find. The power button has to be held in for a bit to turn it on and off. At first I thought this was a con but it is actually a benefit as it prevents accidently turning it on or off.

One last thing, some people have said that you can't skip to the middle of a song, well if you press the dial forward and hold it there it will fast forward through a song. Same goes for reverse if you hold it the other way.

Battery: The battery that came with it is a major brand battery and it has lasted a long time so far. I would guess at least 10 hours and its only half way done. Its only a AAA so thats pretty impressive to me.

Cons:

Headphones: These things hurt! I have big ears and they still don't fit me. They sound from them when they are in is good but the discomfort of having them in outweighs this fact.

Included Belt clip: The way the clip is positioned is great if you use it with the armband but if you put it on your belt it kinda digs into your stomach and I'm a really thin guy so its not my stomach causing the problem. It would have been nice if the player could be turned sideways so it is horizontal instead of vertical. That would have made the positioning much more comfortable while I am listening at work.

Belt Clip Case-thingy: The rubber case covers only half of the player. Since it makes it really hard to take the USB part out of the battery pack, it would have been nice if the case covered more of the player to protect all of it or made smaller so its easier to take the player out.

Lanyard holder: Creative could have spent the extra 10 cents and thrown a key ring in with this so you can attach it to a neck lanyard since there is a spot for one.

Did I mention how uncomfortable these included headphones are?

In general, I love this little machine. It has all the right features. It's small, but packed with goodies such as a FM tuner, a voice recorder, a 256 MB USB storage device with an integrated USB plug (no wires), and the sound quality is great.

A few small complaints. First when the clear plastic belt clip holder is on, it's really hard to remove the MP3 player from the battery housing. I guess it's not supposed to be removed with the belt clip on, but I'd like to be able to do that. I ended up cutting a chunk off the clear plastic so I can unplug it easier.

Second, the headphones are poor. The ear buds don't fit well and the sound quality is poor. The wire has an asymmetric joint so the wire to one ear is longer than the wire to the other ear. Ditch the headphones and buy a good one.

Third, I had the unfortunate experience of having the dreaded "File System Error" show up on the screen. Don't know how I got it, but when it happens, you can't turn the beast on. It just flashes the error message and turns itself off. I can plug it into the PC just fine and it will work as a USB storage device. Just won't work outside of the PC.

Formatting it didn't help. Calling Creative tech support didn't help. They told me to return it for an exchange. I did a web search and found some people with similar problems. They were all told to return it to Creative or to return it to the store for an exchange.

By an incredible stroke of luck, I stumbled on a way to fix this nagged problem. I formatted it again (using windows explorer), but this time, I specified FAT file format instead of FAT32. Voila! It turns on and seems to be working just fine now. So those of you who see the "File System Error" message, try that first. You may also try to put a Label on it. Perhaps that helps too.

Overall, I still love this little music machine and would recommend it to anyone.

Sony DCRTRV17 MiniDV Camcorder

After about 2 months of searching for the perfect all around camcorder, I limited down my choiced to three competitors; The Canon Elura 2 MC, the Sony dcr-trv 730, and the Sony dcr-trv 17. Canon has always had a great reputation for delivering top of the line technology and optics in their camcorders, but I was never fond of the lengthy and slim shape of the Elura 2 models. The sony dcr-trv 730 looked like an ideal choice until I actually had the opportunity to use one, I found the shape to be too big for my hand and the picture quality wasn't enough for the ammount of money you had to pay. Some other turn downs on this model were its black and white view finder and its lack of a Carl Zeiss lense (megapixel technology), let me tell you that these let downs alone turned me away from this model. The sony dcr-trv 17 however included the Carl Zeiss lense, as well as a color view finder and 3.5 inch lcd screen. The shape fits perfectly into my hands and is worth the extra two hundred dollars from the price of the 730 model. Some add-ons I would suggest are a uv filter to protect the lense, some mini dv tapes (model does not come with tapes), a carrying case and an extra battery. Please keep in mind that this camera is a proffesional-consumer level camera, and I would suggest a sony dcr-trv 330 for beginners.

I bought a sony trv-730,didnt like it,its too heavy,grainy picture/video quality,returned it and got this trv-17 ,this has really good video quality as well as still shots and the size is really compact and very light,I love it ,wouldnt trade it for any digital 8's,but if you want to get something better and spend few hundred dollars, get the sony trv-30,this thing is amazing ,check it out and you'll say its the best!!!

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With it's image stabalization and all of its other automatic features, this camera makes even the most novice director look good. I can shoot from indoors to outdoors, walking, or standing still and this camera adjusts the video, lighting, etc. to what I am doing. It is more expensive than others in it's class, but accessories are easy to find, and Sony makes a high quality product. One more thing; this camera has a very nice lens, so buy a lens filter for it to keep it from being scratched.

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My wife and I were searching for a camcorder for the birth of our first child, and this one fit every requirement we had. Image stabilization, low-light capabilities, and digital still photos onto Memory Stick made this versatile enough to cover the whole hospital stay and everything since, without needing a whole arsenal of gadgets. And it only took a little of bit light reading of the manual to figure out everything I cared about using.

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Bought the beast in preparation to a one-month trip to Vietnam and quickly mastered its use. The standard features bundled with the package are impressive. It is forgiving and the playback on a tv set is quite remarquable. I think the beast will do a fine job on the road.

Sony DCRTRV460 Digital8 Handycam Camcorder w/20x Optical Zoom

Purchased this camcorder about a week ago. Ease of operation and a great operators manual help sort out technical items. Picture quality utilizing only standard grade 8mm tape is excellent. I can only imagine the more expensive metal particle or metal evaporated tapes may have even higher quality pictures. Have not had time to check out the camera picture quality using the memory stick. I do not expect any disappointments. Sony make a terrific camcorder product. Consumers reports recommends this as one of their "Best Buys" for digital camcorders. Sony & Panasonic both continually excell in the catagory as "Models requiring the least amount of repairs" or "Most trouble-free manufacturers". The battery that comes with the unit gives approximately 67 minutes of recording time on a normal charge. A full charge will give approximately 74 minutes. Recommend purchasing the FM-50 battery for extended recording/playing time and for nothing else, simply to have a back-up. I own a DVD recorder that allows me to transfer audio & video from my camcorder to DVD's . The camcorder has an A/V output for the consumer interested in transfering their home movies/digital images to DVD's. It also features an S-Video output for capturing even higher quality video.

Some of the bad things:

The camcorder does not come with a portable/cordless charger. You have to plug the batteries into the camcorder and plug the adapter/charger into the camcorder to charge. Purchase an additional external charger for simplicity.

The camcorder does not come supplied with a memory stick. Consider purchasing at least 128 M. That way you can get approximately 80 minutes of recording time.

The battery supplied FM-30 (see above) is not adequate.

Some of the good things:

Quality product

Image & sound quality excellent

Auto focus & stabilization also excellent

Great zoom feature

All in all, a fantastic product with great performance and features at a very reasonable price. If you want to get into digital video recording for less that $ 500.00, try this one.

GAC

My old 8mm camcorder died around Thanksgiving leaving me with 15 years worth of home movies and no way to view them. The TRV460 was at a great price point and perfectly bridges the gulf between analog and digital. I wanted to transfer the keepers stuff to DVDs and edit the really good stuff in to movies. I'm far from done, but I've worked with this camcorder enough to pass on some tips.

CAMCORDER: Easy to use. Pictures are so much sharper than my analog camera (I know, no surprise here, but it had a wow factor for me). The camera is smaller than my old one, a little bigger than my two hands wrapped together. The touchscreen is easy to use plan on studying the manual though. It's all in there and it's easy to read, but you have to approach it like a text book. It powers up quickly. Two things to beware of -(1) the tape inserts through the bottom and this that if you use a screw tripod adapter you have to take it off the to insert a tape, (2) there are some features that only work on movies recorded to DV tape vs. recording straight to the memorystick for example when you record to the memory stick it only records in mono.

SOFTWARE: Other reviews are correct when they pan the software that comes with the camera. I bought Adobe Premiere Elements and it is great. I bought the adobe software from amazon they were offering a Photoshop Elements/Premiere Elements combo that I opted for after reading numerous reviews. I've used the full version of photoshop for years and the user interface of elements is dumbed-down but still has a familiar touch and enough features to do everything I want. Wait a minute this is a camcorder review, sorry for the tangent.

FIREWIRE/USB2.0: Elements will capture movies recorded to the memorystick via the USB2.0, but to do the same for movies recorded to tape you need a firewire cable. If your PC does not have a firewire port, you can just add a PCI firewire/usb2.0 card onto your motherboard (costs less than $20 for the card). I had bought the card at retail a year ago. But camcorders need a firewire cable with a 6 pin to 4 pin configuration. Found one on line recently (listing: 6ft IEEE 1394 FireWire Cable 6pin-4 DV ILINK IPOD SONY) for less than a buck. Once you plug the firewire cable into the TRV460, you control the camera from the computer through the premiere software no special settings or adjustments needed. By the way, you can do some camcorder to PC transfers using the USB2.0 cable and the Sony Picture Package software but "clunky" is too kind.

Along with the camcorder, there are some necessary accessories. I looked for low-cost options on all of these and was pretty successful. I'll pass them on here for what they're worth.

DIGITAL TAPES: Sony makes many different types of tapes that are good for recording digital. The Sony Digital8 Camcorder Tapes (at first I thought these were the only ones that would work) costs $20 a pair at retail. There are many other 8mm tapes that are compatible for less than half this cost (check out Sony's website for compatibility).

MEMORY STICK: Again I went online to find a good price on a memory stick. But the stick I bought was not compatible with this camcorder (listing: SanDisk 256MB Memory Stick PRO Duo Sony 256 MB DSC-T1 +). The camcorder would only intermittently recognize the stick (mostly it wouldn't). Searches on the web showed that many people had this problem. The kind customer service dept at SanDisk agreed to check it out and said they would probably replace it. They did and the newer version of the same memorystick works fine. While I was waiting I bought a Sony 256MB memory stick at a retail store and, of course, it works fine. I got a memory card reader to plug into my USB port (listing: USB MS/MEMORY STICK CARD READER) so I could transfer movies to the PC without involving the camcorder.

ANALOG TAPE TO MEMBORY STICK TRANSFER: One cool thing I learned about the camera is you can copy scenes from an analog tape to the memory stick all from within the camcorder. With the touch screen monitor, it is very easy to do. This is great if you want to compile selected scenes (from the huge pile of old 8mm tapes) without sitting at the computer. I did a lot of this analog tape-to-memorystick xfer (using just the camera) while sitting around the fire with my family it made me a little more sociable with the family than if I were staring at the computer.

BATTERY: Another reviewer posted some tips on non-Sony batteries. I took an even cheaper approach that worked great. On line I bought a charger (listing: CHARGER for SONY NP-F550 NP-FM50 NP-QM71 QM91 BATTERY) for less than a fiver and a high capacity battery (listing: SONY NP-QM71 NP-FM70 DCR-TRV950 2800mAh BATTERY NEW) for less than fifteen bucks.

So that's it. I feel like the only splurge was on the tape editing software. I could have stayed with the free Sony Picture Package but the Adobe is so much easier and does tons more. If you amortize it over the hours you spend on editing, the $100 bucks or so is not that much.

My PC is a off-brand clone with a AMD Athlon 2800+ CPU running at 2.07 MHz, wtih 512MB ram, running XP Home Edition SP2 and a ATI AIW 8500DV videocard. I like this camcorder a lot!

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Referred to by some salesmen as a "dinosaur" this 1.5-pound marvel is a great beginner's camcorder with an easy to read and follow owner's manual. With the unit's "Easy" button, everything becomes automatic and the first movies are really great. The 2.5-inch LCD touch screen contains all the menus for setting up the camera, instead of numerous mechanical buttons. The camera has 4 methods of video transfer: An A/V cable that will plug directly in to a VCR or the front panel of your TV for viewing directly from the camera, "S" video transfer, USB and Firewire. I highly recommend using a firewire port as the preferred method of video transfer into your PC as the USB transfer has too many frame dropouts, resulting in jerky video. The still picture resolution is around 1 mega pixel (MP) and is stored on a memory stick, so if you currently use a digital still camera at 2 MP or above, you might be a bit disappointed. The viewfinder has it's own focus adjustment which is really good if you wear glasses. Some hints-Don't bother to purchase a separate battery charger if you purchase a spare battery, the camera does a fine job of charging the battery and the charge indicator light goes out after a full charge. A 64MB memory stick will store 980 pictures at standard resolution and 390 at fine resolution so resist the temptation to go with a more expensive 128 MB or larger stick. One last note, Windows XP along with Windows Movie Maker V2.0 (which is free from Microsoft) has the capability to capture and edit the video from this camera.

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I primarily bought this Sony because it is backwards compatable with HI8 tapes, plus has the functionality to upload digital 8 to my computer.

I previously had a Sony analog HI8 camera purchased new 4 yrs ago that had problems from the get go. It had several warranty related issues relating to sound. The most recent problem (on/off switch related) would cost me about $200 to fix. This camera has seen low usage and has not been abused.

Nevertheless, I decided to stick with Sony on my upgrade to the TRV460. I purchased the unit 3 weeks ago and haven't taken any video yet. However, I can tell you that uploading my HI8 tapes to my PC based computer couldn't be easier. You will have to purchase a firewire cable, which Sony should have included instead of the USB, because otherwise quality in transfer suffers. I did not opt to use the Sony software that came with the unit (didn't even bother loading on my computer). They might make good electronics, but I'll stick with another leader on the software.

I have sever old BetaMax tapes which I first transfered to the camcorder using the Sony supplied cables. Then I used the firewire cable with Microsoft Movie Maker 2 (which is free) to upload them to my PC. What a flawless operation. I have read of many people having problems with this step. Being able to accomplish this and get into video editing will greatly improve your videos. I may migrate to Pinnacle Studio for more video software options, but for now as a beginner I should be able to get myself started.

In summary, I expect Sony's video capture quality to be excellent (see other reviews since I haven't taken video yet). I am very pleased with the video transfer process, which was a big factor in my purchase. I only hope I won't have repair troubles with this camcorder.

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Here you have some options for the battery monopoly:

Power 2000 ACD701 1800mAh $34.99 Sony NP-FM50 $50.58

Power 2000 ACD702 3600mAh $59.99 Sony NP-QM71 2760mAh $69.94

Power 2000 ACD703 5400mAh $69.99 Sony NP-QM91 4140mAh $107.99

Power2000 Batteries have an awful white color but much cheaper.

The charger for these batteries is the POWER 2000 QP7400 AC / DC Turbo Charger for SONY Batteries for $29.99 comes with 100v-220V inputs and car adapter. The Sony equivalent is the Sony bctrm Compact Battery Charger for M for $46.95 without the 110v 220v input and car adapter.

I hope this will help to solve the battery problem. This will also work for TRV-328, 260, DVD101, 201 and PC-109, 330 among others.

mediaxpo 1,000 Black Paper CD Sleeves with Window and Flap

I've ordered 1000's of sleeves because we split it among 3 of us.

These sleeves are of heavier construction and looks much classier than

your normal 'white' tissue paper.

I ordered these sleeves to hopefully get a little more organized. They are made very sturdy. Since they are all black they will also look much more professional when I sell or give away picture CDs.

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When I look for a CD sleeve (I use hundreds of them) I want a heavy paper and the window to be made well no wrinkles or creases. Those from CheckOutStore always meet my expectations!

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I went against my better judgement and chose the little bit more expensive option for this product thinking that if it was being sold by Mediaxpo then it would be the better product. I hope this isn't the case. The paper is decent, but the plastic "window" is very cheap. If I had to buy this product over again I would strongly consider going with another brand before I bought from this seller and this version again.

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I once bought black CD envelopes (from a different company) but the plastic middle was sort of crunched. This time plastic was smooth. The envelopes is also very good quality. I'm glad I got it!

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DXG DXG-506VP 5.0 MegaPixel Multi-Functional Camera with MPEG4 Technology (Pink)

I like this camara and got what I expected for $100. The video option I think works better then the actual picture taking option. The picture taking mode has a pretty significant delay which can make it difficult to take pics... also the lighting needs can be a problem. But over all I like the camara and the video mode is fun and easy!

I bought this camera about a year ago mainly because my old camcorder was outdated. I love it from the beginning. The pictures are not perfect (color wise) but they are better than average. The lag in the cam between pressing the capture button and seeing the photo is annoying.

The camcorder feature is amazing. The videos are very nice and you can change the format that you can record in. The webcam feature is pretty good, too. The webcam images are extremely clear and not dark at all.

The only bad side to this camera is that if you're using it for a webcam you still need batteries which die frequently. But I love my cam so much and wouldn't trade it for the world.

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I like this little camera. It does lag in picture mode but the video mode is great. The lighting is the problem though. You have to have great lighting indoors if you want to be able to see the video. The video may look bright on the lcd screen but when you put it on a computer the video is actually darker than it looked. The video mode works best outside in the daylight hours. Other than that, it's a great camera for the price.DXG 5.0MP Compact Digital Camcorder Pink (506V)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

my skill level: beginner

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Neccasary Accessories:

bigger battery (I recommend the Sony NPFH70 H Series)

carrying case

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

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

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

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

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

HP 2000-2b49WM 15.6-Inch Laptop PC (Black) Windows 8 - 320 GB Hard Drive - 2GB DDR3 RAM - SuperMult

I got it. For now, I have no trouble. It replaces my Gateway that was causing me daily headache. It is fast and very light. I like it.

I love it, its pretty and shiny black, nice size screen nice designs, love all the features it has,I am happy I read the previous reviews and selected this notebook.

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I got this computer and it is a very nice computer, it is very shiny on the cover, and around the mouse area. I didn't et this computer from Amazon so I cant say when it arrived and in what condition it was in, I got mine at Wal-Mart. but none the less it is a great computer. its windows 8 so it is different then windows 7, you may find it difficult at first to move around but after about 2 hours of just messing around I know my way around. the camera is very nice, it is very fast moving so you wont blink and 3 seconds later "you" in the computer blink. its more like .5 second delay, if not less. all in all I would definitely recommend this to anyone, this is my first laptop so you know it is a good one for beginners. I love this laptop and if you decide to get it I guarantee you will too :)

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Came on time love the product. Just thought it would come with a disk and was going to have Microsoft already installed other then that good service and a great computer.

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My 17 yr old son use it all the time, he said he really like it! Hp laptop you rock

Creative Zen X-Fi 8 GB Video MP3 Player with Built-In Speaker (Black/Silver)

• A firmware bug could result in the player locking when playing the FM radio; to fix the problem, upgrade the latest firmware (1.04.08) posted on support.creative.com
• Capacity: 8 GB (2,000 songs or 30 hours of video); up to 30 hours of continuous audio playback or 5 hours of continuous video playback on one charge
• 2.5-inch TFT LCD with 320 x 240 pixel resolution: 16.7 million colors
• Supports MP3, WMA, AAC5, WAV (ADPCM), Audible 2,3,4 audio formats; MJPEG, WMV, MPEG-4 video (including DivX and XviD); and JPEG photo formats
• 1-year limited hardware / 90 days service warranty

First, an introduction: Recently I've owned and used and liked an iPod 4th gen 80gb, zune 80, iPod 5th gen 80gb, creative zen vision: m 30gb AND 60gb versions (the holy grail to so many mp3 player fans), and I am a power user with a music library of 35gb, all tagged using the free Media Monkey software. I know what I'm talking about. (If you're curious, the two ipods were returned, the ZVM30 was given to my cousin when I got the 60, the ZVM60 was destroyed in iraq and so was the Zune80)

Looks extremely sexy, definitely on the iPod and Zune level of sexiness.

It's ridiculously lightweight and weighs just a bit more than a nano and about half as much as a harddrive bearing zune or ipod.

Video transfer/conversion does not apply to me, so I will not be reviewing it.

IM chat gimmick is worthless, move along.

wifi connect works and is easy to set up, but there is no link to shoutcast or icecast directories. Instead, creative "media box" will show up with internet access, but has a very limited selection of podcast streams, and almost no streaming music.

Streaming music from a local wireless network is very cool, but chews up the otherwise good battery life, limiting its usefulness.

SD card support is hardly seamless, and has a limited set of browsing functions, but this may be nitpicking as most players don't bother to include ANY expandable memory.

x-fi sounds "different" but not unanimously "better", and uses more battery, not really a selling feature then

The headphones are awesome and while they're compared as worse than the zune 80's included headphones, the zen's fit more comfortably (to me) and sound just as good.

The built in speaker is very cool and sounds surprisingly good for its size, there is never any distortion even at maximum volume (distortion is what makes speakerphones and other bad+loud audio sources sound so horrible). It is perfect for showing a song to a friend or friends or playing a little background music in a quiet room.

No line out, but using the headphone jack at full volume sounds just fine on my car stereo and home stereo, with no distortion.

Software:

A lot of people complain about the Creative software but you really never need to use it except for video transfer. I use Media Monkey to sync my music and it works flawlessly. Everyone has Windows Media Player and that syncs just fine with the player. It's an MTP device and that means that a lot of different programs can sync with it. So except for video issues, you really have no reason in the world to complain about the creative software.

Buttons:

The nine button grid is 4 directions and a center "select" button, and on many menus and lists the diagonal four buttons act as home/end and pageup/down, but on many screens they are useless. If they were customizable they could be very powerful! Faster seeking, view toggles, many possibilities, if they were customizable. Firmware update maybe?

I have long fingers and big hands and the player is comfortable to hold, but the buttons are small and indistinct, you have to concentrate a little to be sure you press the correct one if you are fishing for the next/prev track or the volume up/down buttons in your pocket. The pause button is unmissable though, and that is most important.

The zen vision:m's vertical slider with side to side rocking and touchpad tap for select was really perfect for an audio player, and I find myself missing it a lot (but I don't miss that player's poor battery life, large size or ogreish looks)

A disappointment: On no screen are the grid buttons used to refer to a specific function on a grid on the screen (which would have opened some very quick and intuitive menu options), they are ALWAYS arrow buttons with a center select, and sometimes other use diagonal buttons.

Creative have dropped the ball a little by adding four new buttons and not using them to their full potential. The most notable example is that the IM chat function could have used a cell-phone style text entry, but instead uses a very obtuse method that keeps the buttons as arrow keys. Once you've moved past the chat function and removed it from the main menu, you'll then notice that on the 'now playing' screen, the most common and important screen, the four diagonal buttons don't do anything at all. :(

The customizable shortcut button is still here and still awesome, easily settable by simply holding it down. It comes preset to the x-fi settings screen, which should have been integrated into the EQ screen anyway. Mine is set to jump to 'now playing', perfect for changing volume or next/prev track quickly from any menu, and then you can press back to return to wherever you were.

The menu button (or "right click" button as I call it) shows the list of options for most screens, but the list sometimes runs off the top and bottom by just a few lines and could have been scaled down to fit them all. Would have been nice to enable the 'diagonal' buttons to be shortcuts for some of the common menu items, while the menu is open.

The Interface (the most important part of any mp3 player):

It may sound like I'm pointing out a lot of flaws in the device's usability, but let me assure you it really is fantastic to use. The device interface is the same as the venerable ZVM, and is powerful, attractive, and simple. The 'right click' menus offer a lot of functionality while being intuitive to any computer user; rather than hide a cluttered pile of settings in the main menu settings screen, many settings are accessed from the screen they're related to. I'm a big fan of the ZVM interface and am glad they didn't change it. On the Zen the graphics have been given quite a boost since the ZVM days, and the gui really is pretty.

Useful things the Zen players do that ipod and zune do NOT under any circumstances support:

[zune] sync with 3rd party software

'now playing' playlist access

creation/saving of playlists on the fly

ability to add a track to the 'now playing' list allows you to build a playlist and not interrupt currently playing track, great for playing music for others

bookmark track positions (great for podcasts, audiobooks, long music mixes)

switch between view of albums, artists, or track in the music menus

rearrange items when you customize the main menu

"dj" menu with options like "play popular" and "play highly rated"

delete actual tracks from within the player

record voice

hide photos/video easily, obviously to hide porn when showing off your player to your mom

actual usb port, no proprietary connector

built in speaker

wifi network access

I see this player is squaring off against the ipod and zune, and is already going above and beyond them both, feature by feature.

PS:

Nitpicks:

no rapid way to seek in a track

no "go to album" or "go to genre" for a track, only "go to artist"

pageup/down buttons stop working when you move "right" to the list of letter shortcuts on a long list, and they don't work on the 'right click' menu

speaker should have been put on the left side, your hand ends up covering it up sometimes, when you hold it right handedly

Buy Creative Zen X-Fi 8 GB Video MP3 Player with Built-In Speaker (Black/Silver) Now

I bought this because I was jealous of my wife's Creative Zen 8 GB player.

But really, I bought this because of the promised X-Fi sound quality. I have an X-Fi audio card for my desktop PC and I really love the enhanced MP3 sound quality and was hoping for more of the same in a portable unit. The Creative Zen X-Fi does not disappoint, straight out of the box I found the sound to be full of the bass tones I love so much. The X-Fi settings add some nice quality to my tones and vibrate my little eardrums with heavy beats. With the included headphones the bass was almost overwhelming for me, but with my Bose Triport IE's I found the sound to be very satisfying.

So lets get down to brass tacks here. So far here's what I love:

*) The new iPhoney sleek look is very nice, an improvement I think.

*) The buttons have a nice tactile feel. With very little practice I can easily find the play button and volume adjustment without looking. Visually its a little harder to figure out which button is where.

*) Even better, the buttons never get pressed unintentionally. This is a big plus since I use it for working out and yard work where I'm often bending over; my clix was constantly getting paused or fast forwarded unintentionally which has been a constant source of annoyance!

*) I found it virtually effortless to hook this up to my PC, connect to my existing MediaMonkey library and download all of my songs and playlists.

*) Great sound for bass lovers. X-fi crystallizer makes for a crisper quality if thats what you like.

*) Wi-fi connection, hooked up to my network easily and I was browsing the Creative Media Center in minutes.

*) Very lightweight compared to most of my other players.

*) User Interface: If you are familiar with Creative players then you will find the buttons easy to understand and use. I find the basic menu system easy to understand and navigate. Lots of nice background images to choose from.

*) Easy firmware update, I downloaded the latest firmware from Creative website and easily installed it.

*) Decent headphones included -possibly the best I've ever seen packaged with an MP3 player.

*) Lightweight, easy to carry, seems to be pretty rugged construction, fits nicely in a pocket.

*) Nice battery life: compared to my Clix 2 (4 ish hours) or my iPod Touch (about same!) this thing lasts forever at about 10ish hours.

*) Big bold colorful screen, which I find easy to read even in daylight.

*) I love the way it pops right back to where I left off even after a power off, it comes right back to the Now Playing screen and resumes my playlist. Most of my other players don't do this very well so its a plus when it works the way I think it should.

And the things that are not so great:

*) Well, as is the "case" with many non-Apple players, accessories are not easy to come by. This seems to be a bit thicker than its predecessor so I don't think the old Zen cases are going to fit very well. Also, the power button has been moved to the back of the player which will mean you need a special case to be able to access the power button. As of this writing, I can't find a single X-Fi leather case out there, not even from Creative. -Update: I just ordered a leather case direct from Creative, hoping its a good one! Update: Found an i-nique case which is very nice, with the only problem being hard to access that power button on the back... still waiting for the perfect case!

Thats about it, I highly recommend this player as a heck of a lot of MP3 player for the price (I paid more for my 8GB Clix 2 and a lot more for my 16B Touch!). In many ways I like it better than the Clix 2 although the Clix does have the crispest sound I've ever heard from a player. The Touch of course is a wonderful unit but it is bigger, heavier and more expensive.

Read Best Reviews of Creative Zen X-Fi 8 GB Video MP3 Player with Built-In Speaker (Black/Silver) Here

Hi.

This is the Zen X-Fi in action, player seems very good (for me at least) its got many features which I like, the only downside for now has been the software that is bundled with the player which for me it is not a very good software, anyway if you want to see it in action check out the video.

Want Creative Zen X-Fi 8 GB Video MP3 Player with Built-In Speaker (Black/Silver) Discount?

In the nearly four weeks that I've had the Zen X-Fi, I'd have to say that the player itself is an excellent device. It's certainly one of the best sounding players available, although personally I think that the X-Fi signal processing is more gimmick than benefit. The built-in speaker is cute, but it seems hardly worth it given its transistor radio-like fidelity. Coming from a wonderfully frustrating experience with its predecessor, the Zen (bricked in less than a month), I knew the design of the onboard UI pretty well already. It's a breeze to learn and navigate, and aside from quirks with playlist generation, is as easy as the interface on an iPod or Zune.

That said, the X-Fi is saddled with some major hindrances, not the least of which is the unstable client software that you use to manage the player. A lot of video formats have to be translated before they will work on the X-Fi; this is done through the aforementioned software known as Creative Centrale. Unfortunately it also has this irritating tendency to lock up on my media machine and destabilize XP Pro when doing so. You also need this software if you want to use any non-DRM AAC files, like those often found on iPods and as well deeply entrenched in my own digital library. These M4A files also need "processing" before an X-Fi is able to understand them, so unlike my experiences with my Sony NWZ-A818, where drag-n-drop management through Windows Explorer is conveniently possible. On the X-Fi (or the Zen, for that matter), drag-n-drop via Windows Explorer or any other file manager is only available with MP3 and WMA files.

The X-Fi also is limited to compressed audio files; it will not understand lossless formats, which is unfortunate given the available storage capacity. Indicated battery life has been disappointing as well. Supposedly good up to 30 hrs of audio listening, by about 4 or 5 hours the charge indicator is down to 50%, making anything close to 30 hours seem like wishful thinking. The nine-button main control array does take a bit of time to get used to, even though it's very similar to the Zen's main control configuration. The nagging irritant is the small size of the buttons, which can be easy to mis-hit even with my smallish fingers.

(Added 8/26/08: the X-Fi is also currently saddled with a problem with how well it actually executes 'random play', which in practice it isn't anything close to well at all. Unfortunately for my initial review I didn't use random song selection mode much with my X-Fi in the first month of ownership so I didn't catch onto this malaise until a couple of weeks ago. Simply put, the X-Fi in random play mode has a habit of repeating song tracks that it just played, sometimes several times. Fact is, even when it's not repeating songs the random play mode isn't very random anyways, often playing multiple songs from the same album in succession even though there may be hundreds of albums available for it to choose from. The 'repeat' problem seems to have improved with the most recent firmware update, but it's just another irritating flaw that gives pause in wanting to rate this device higher and really is limiting it from its potential as a truly superb device. We X-Fi users can only hope that Creative will finally get the firmware corrected and distributed, hopefully sooner than later.)

Voice recording is a nice feature, although I doubt that for myself I'll use it all that much. I've yet to have the need to add an SD card, though I do have misgivings about the X-Fi firmware's inability to consider the card's contents as being integral with the content stored in the on-board flash memory, since the SD card--and subsequently its contained contents--shows up as a separate folder item at the root menu level, apart from the Music, Video and other folders. I pretty much feel the same ambivalence about the 32GB X-Fi's Wi-Fi capability; the pseudo multitap-fed Chat texting function is useless to me, and streaming from my media PC doesn't do me any favors since 95% of my use time with the X-Fi is far away from home with no available means of access to my media server (the X-Fi only searches for media content servers that are on available wireless networks nearby to it).

I'm still more than a little apprehensive when it comes to the topic of durability; my experiences with the Zen and its problems weren't enough to stop me from trying the X-Fi, but they did give pause when it comes to trusting that this device will last until I again get the itch to sample another player. FM radio reception is spotty in my area, and seems to work better (or worse) depending on which set of aftermarket cans I choose to use with the X-Fi.

I didn't care much for the standard in-ear buds; they sound excessively thin and bright to me and also transmit a fair amount of microphonics through its cabling. Instead, I primarily use my Shure SE530 canals with the X-Fi, and the sound created between the two is indeed excellent. My multiple pairs of Sennheiser PX100s (each chosen for use depending on how broken-in I want the sound to be) also sound great with the X-Fi. I've also used my less efficient Sennheiser HD650 and recently purchased Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7 with the X-Fi. With more demanding, less efficient sets like these, the X-Fi does struggle to provide enough amplification, but in a pinch they do work without me having to resort to using one of my headphone amps.

Other nitpicks: I thoroughly dislike the move of the power/hold switch to the back (the Zen had it on the side); it's simply a less convenient location. Ambivalent about the iPhonesque type styling, although it does lend an air of classiness to the device. Hate the smudge-filled fingerprint magnet of a front face, and dislike the cheap-looking silver back (the Zen's matte black back is more appealing to my eye). The added thickness over that of the Zen isn't TOO much of a disappointment given the increase in features, but it does give the X-Fi a slightly chunkier proportion over the svelte Zen. The reset switch is an improvement over the one on the Zen; unfortunately, I've already had to use it a number times as well.

That's basically it; despite its flaws the 32GB Zen X-Fi offers superb audio and video performance, which for me is still far more important than all else. In the end it's largely a four-star device contemptuously held back by wretched, one-star software. I know full well that Creative has their loyal supporters, but aside from their excellent sound cards I'm still not sold on the overall goodness of the rest of their product lineup. The four-letter curse words seem to come hot and heavy nearly every time I hooked up either the Zen and especially the Zen X-Fi to the computer; none of my remaining current hoard of devices brought on that sort of onslaught, including my once-dreaded Zune 1.0 player. However once I got the X-Fi loaded for bear, it becomes one of the sweetest performing devices I've ever used, although I did find that it has issues with (not-so) random play. Videos looks great. Songs sound fantastic. If only the software wasn't so BAD...considering all of the intervening years between my first Creative player, the venerable 20GB Nomad Zen and this one, is it too much to ask of Creative for them to finally GET how to write a decent software application?

I am a big fan of Creative Lab products and the customer support I've received in the past from them. My requirements from an MP3 player are pretty simple, I want my music to sound good, I want to be able to listen to audio books, and if I can watch a movie on it I want the movie to look good. You'd think every MP3 player would be able to do at least two out of three. I find the sound quality in Creative products to be exceptional, even the modest Zen stone with its very limited features has great sound quality. The x-fi series goes a step beyond. Crisp and pristine high range, subtle and pure mid range, and faithful, clear bass, even without customizing the EQ, the presets play exactly as you'd expect from your higher end home theatre.

I agree with the reviewer who didn't like the software, but I don't really like the software with any MP3 player. As much as I have respect for Apple as a company and have rooted for them since the late eighties and groaned when they've sunk money into a product that tanked (like their early PDA) I really personally don't like the iPod and in a large part because of the proprietary software, and though I appreciate that unlike their ill received PDA the iPod is priced to make a profit, I think it's too expensive at each price point. In that respect I am willing to suffer through the clumsy software with Creative Control center, clumsier than the media center that came with the other Zen I have. The video converter, however, is excellent, intuitive and quick.

In this price range I have yet to hear any other mp3 compare favorably to the faithful sound reproduction or exceed the quality of the video. I worked for the doomed Circuit City for eight years, was fired for being a good salesman (the first time they got rid of commissioned sales they fired their top twenty five percent for making too much money) and have had the opportunity to test drive a great number of MP3's, prior to 2002, then worked for Dell for a while, again with the opportunity to test drive mp3 players, and have owned several. I cannot stress this enough, for the money, the features, the sound quality, compatibility, limited proprietary issues this is the best product on the market imho.

I realize this review is all personal, but that's the point for these reviews. If you're interested in tech specs go to creative's web site. I find all the specs in the world don't compare to a test drive. Ohm impedance for instance never looks like a good stat on an MP3. My opinion is that the x-fi series is incredibly faithful in sound reproduction and for the consumer is a great value.

TiVo Series2 and Series3 Replacement Internal Fan

Fan in device had gotten very noisy. This replacement was exactly the same item as the original fan. Went in easily and has done its job quietly, as intended.

Really appreciated the clarity of instructions -though it was just as I expected, with electronics it's always great to be precise, because one mistake can ruin not just the part but the entire unit.

Fan is silent, looks like the factory one installed, and was a breeze to install. No pun intended. Highly recommend this.

Buy TiVo Series2 and Series3 Replacement Internal Fan Now

Battery-Operated Analog Alarm Clock with Smartlite Technology

I purchased this clock about a year ago and was very surprised at how well it keeps time. It has never lost a minute until the batteries started going down. The one drawback is if you are looking to accurately set this for a specific time to wake up too, then this may not be for you. Since it is analog and not digital it is difficult to get it set to an exact time. I got it within two minutes of my wake up time at my best try by playing with it a few times. Over all this was a good buy and very happy with it.