Looxcie Wearable Bluetooth Camcorder System, Android Compatible (Black)

As a gadget nut, I ordered this the day it became available on Amazon and had it shipped next day (ok, so an impatient gadget nut). The concept is awesome capture and share those expected or unexpected moments in life as I see them, how I see them. The videos you see on youtube were promising and I was in need of a new bluetooth headset, so I bought it.

First thing that I noticed was how nicely everything was packaged. I took the Looxcie out of the box and set it to charge via the wall outlet adapter Don't want to run out of batteries on my day out! I love the design of this thing, looks so slick! After it was fully charged, pairing to my Android phone is a breeze. With the Looxcie software downloaded, it was time to put this thing on my ear and see what it can do!

...And that's where things started going downhill! First of all, the Looxcie does NOT fit on my ear correctly. I tried all 3 sizes of ear buds and on both ears (in case I had a deformity in one ear of which I wasn't aware) and with my glasses on and off. I read the instructions and my Looxcie did look bent as shown in their images anfter several attempts. Perhaps its the weight of the camera boom, but the Looxcie just droops down such that the camera is not eye level (aiming more at my jaw line). I would have to walk around with my head tilted up in order for the camera boom to be level with the ground. I had my wife try it as well, maybe its the size and shape of my head and she experienced the same issues, no matter how we shaped the flexible ear-piece.

After much fiddling to the point where my outer-ear was a bit sore, I managed to get the Looxcie on at an acceptable viewing angle. Any quick head jolts and I risk having the camera boom shift slightly downward again. Now comes the other fitment issue Being that the Looxcie was on my right ear, anything that was happening to my left would not be picked up. If I held my hand out in front of me, the camera eye would not see it until my hand was about to cross my nose. They really should have included some sort of curvature to the camera boom to contour to the face because as of now when it is at eye level, it points to the right (on my right ear).

I love the fact that I can use my phone's screen as a viewfinder! Going into it, I knew the Looxcie's recording specs and frame rate so my expectations were low but the resulting videos I took were even worse than expected. I tried several activities from driving, to walking to just standing and panning my head back and forth. The video I get from the Looxcie is very choppy, I would say even worse than the 15fps they claim. I was walking through the mall in one video clip. I turned to look at a dog that was there and turned my head back (more than a 1 second look) and in the captured video, I don't even see the dog because of the choppiness of the video (although I can clearly hear myself talking about it).

The other thing is battery life the Looxcie is rated for 4 hours but after a full charge and playing with the unit, I would say its more like 2-3 hours of video use tops. This should definitely be improved.

I do have to say that I like the ability of reviewing and editing video clips on my phone, then e-mailing or posting to Youtube, Facebook, etc without having to be at a PC. That is a key feature of this device!

I would have to say my expectations have not been met with the Looxcie. The concept and idea is there, but due to the lacking design, ergonomics and quality of video I am fairly disappointed. The price-point is good if they can deliver a quality product that will actually fit, stay on my ear(aimed properly) and take video where I don't miss any of the action (true 30 fps PLEASE!). I honestly wouldn't mind the low-resolution of the video if the frame rate was there and I could record for an actual 4-5 hours as claimed.

Once these issues are resolved, perhaps they can look into adding features such as retaining the last 10-30 seconds of video before the record or instant-clip button was pressed. :D

Likes:

-Concept of sharing the every-day

-Visually pleasing design

-Mobile editing/emailing of video thru an Android phone

Dislikes

-Device Fitment/Aiming of camera boom

-Recorded video quality lower than expected

-Battery life

UPDATE: As of today Looxcie updated the firmware on the device and added a new phone app and new desktop app. This is a major improvement to the device as it now adds the ability to record in 480p @30fps which I've tested and is a HUGE improvement. You can also save clips directly to the phone's SD card now instead of just on the Looxcie device. They also allow livestreaming now which is awesome.

Ok, so I was extremely excited to get this product and ordered it as soon as it became available. Since I've had it I've probably recorded about 2 hours of video with it at various places with varying noise levels. So here's my impression.

For the price it is a really nice piece of hardware, I've had no trouble with the build quality, it's comfortable and very light when wearing and adjusts to fit virtually any way you want it. The video quality is exactly what I expected it to be. Nothing great but not horrible considering the size of the device. I love the Android app that this device utilizes, you can use your phone as a "viewfinder" and Looxcie is very easy to pair with your phone (Nexus 2.2 in my case). You can save notable clips on the device by pushing the clip button making 30-second clips or make custom length clips through the app. Once you make the clips you can hook Looxcie to the computer and do what you want with them there, or upload them to the place of your choosing through the Looxcie App. Playback in the app is a little choppy but much more smooth on the computer. Using the device as a bluetooth headset has been great for me. I usually run into problems where the volume is never high enough but my Looxcie is so loud it hurts (luckily you can turn it down). Call quality is good and I have no problems hearing anyone or with them hearing me when talking through it. It's very useful to be able to use this as a "dual-purpose" device.

My gripes:

-As of now the clips you "save" are saved to Looxcie and not your phone's SD card. So viewing clips while away from your Looxcie are impossible unless you've uploaded them somewhere through the app. Now this can be fixed through an App update but just something to be aware of.

-Audio: While playing back my clips on the computer what I've noticed is that (since both microphones are on the bottom of Looxcie) I can hear myself talking fine, but whenever someone else in front of me is talking I find it difficult to make out what they're saying. I CAN hear them but if you're anywhere but in a quiet room with a couple people it can get difficult to hear anyone other than yourself. This is the only real problem I have with Looxcie.

My likes:

-Easy to use App interface, easy to pair

-Portable, wearable camcorder, letting me have my hands back. Great for when I go fishing/snowboarding or anything else.

-Look/Build quality of the device is wonderful!

-Battery life is very good considering the size of it.

-So many adjustment options makes it very comfortable and adjustable for any size/shaped head.

-Recording length (5HRs)

-First of its kind/cheap for what you get.

Overall the Looxcie is definitely worth the price and I would recommend it to anyone who is tired of always "holding the camcorder" and missing out on the action. Very useful, easy to use, and fun device even though placing one of the microphones in front would've been a wise decision. (And no I don't work for Looxcie in case you're wondering)

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Yep jumped right in the day it was available. Not a bad price for bleeding edge though I'm sure it'll drop soon enough. Conceptually great! I love the potential! Paired immediately and Android app installed and works though the images have a pixelated quality along edges. Very cool app though! Only had for about 2 hours now. First thing was to rotate for left ear. Manual doesn't make clear what exactly rotates. Figured out it was just the earbud itself (makes sense) however when rotating it gently and smoothly the top half of the earbud clam-shell fell off. It was glued so technically its broken but a few drops of plastic adhesive fixed it. I'm not ready to return it without playing. Maybe later if anything else happens. Going to play with the actual video functionality now and write more later.

Day two. Played more with the video. Other than the previously mentioned edgyness everything seems as described. This product DOES NOT stream to or thru the handset. The real issue today is the audio quality. In a word it's atrocious! I have many many Bluetooth headsets including some real bargains and this is by far the absolute worst incoming quality I've ever experienced (that's why the stars dropped). I think there must be a defect with my unit but I'm not ready to return it yet. Again audio quality is lower than anything I've ever used. I am still so enamored with the potential of the device I will keep playing until I must decide about returning/exchanging it.

Third and forth day. Looxcie has GREAT customer service! One of the engineers was reading the reviews here and jumped right on it and contacted their customer service (on Sunday) and made arrangements for a replacement.

Before the replacement arrived today. I was able to spend a lot more time with the video functionality. Again the Android app is great! I clipped the 'my girlfriend almost hit 2 baby dear' clip that of course no one ever gets. Looxcie is gonna be great for accidents, and once in a lifetime stuff! I agree with Nathan's comments on the microphone placement and clips being pushed to the app as soon as possible but of course that could use more power when you're not necessarily close to power like you probably would be when intentionally sitting down to review clips (maybe a check box option). It's certainly ok the way it is now. And also that the video quality is more than I expected from a device this small and cool. Really haven't seen anything better at this resolution.

Replacement unit: audio is far more normal on this unit and though it still sounds a little hot it is absolutely fine. Nathan is also correct that the volume can go way up. Even to the point of distortion which was at least some of the problem with the audio experience of the original unit.

Something I didn't quite get at first but makes sense now. Looxcie is called an always on camcorder with the ability to clip the last thirty seconds. What that means though is its always on once you turn it on with the app or the capture button. Not a problem once you realize it. So battery life has multiple modes. Standby (un-connected to phone), headset mode (connected not in use w/wo capture on) and active (in a call w/wo capture). No un-met battery expectations so far.

A useful thing on the site would be audio clips for each signal tone. I hear some but not sure what it's telling me because there are some I haven't heard to know the difference (for instance there are 5 different 2 tone signals). Not too hard to force them so I've learned the difference now.

Stars go to 5+ and I love my Looxcie! Can't wait for all those clips I wished I had an always on camcorder for and of course upgrades to the device and app for even more features! I'm geeked!

And thank you to Rob and Michael.

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The Android app for Looxcie (without which you can't really use the device) is infuriatingly unpolished:

(1) it does not use Android Intents for sending email or uploading videos to Youtube (ie rather than using the Android-provided facilities for this they implemented their own; for example they require your Gmail password; the only way around that is to create a separate Gmail account just for the Looxcie app)

(2) the UI for browsing the circular video buffer has many issues: it is sluggish, the position slider is too inaccurate to easily select a scene within the 4 hours of recorded video, when you click "create new clip" the position jumps so if you had carefully navigated to the beginning of an interesting scene you have to start over again)

(3) when uploading the video fails, retrying means that the app downloads the clip yet again over Bluetooth

(4) when you create a new clip and give it a title, the title is not reflected in the file name on the flash disk presented to a connected computer

This would all be tolerable if the app were open source or at least the Bluetooth protocol documented -as it stands, Looxcie officially says that they have no intention of opening up the product but instead intend to keep it a completely closed system.

Regarding the hardware: there is no motion stabilization and no wind protection for the microphone. This means when you take a movie while bicycling, you can all but forget about the sound and watching the video clip is bound to make you seasick. It also appears that the Looxcie has a hard time keeping up with rapid changes of the pictures -you'll see the image shearing.

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Ugh If you have 5 hours to waste and disappointment galore this is the product for you This is the iPhone version

1st A firmware upgrade

2nd press button 1,2,3 no no press 3,2,1 no no no press 2,1,3

3rd Plug it into a wall socket, no plug it into the laptop

No first press 3 buttons then it will reset then plug it into

the wall socket

After five hours four calls to the support hot line and three emails

I returned it disappointed upset and aggravated

The product is not yet mature

In my case the device could not hold a charge

I tried literally everything and even their support people could not get it to work

Was it just a bad unit My sense is "No"

Why

On the phone they relayed to me that I had to do a firmware upgrade

then I had to do a complete system reset back to the default mfg settings

My sense is that they have not worked out all the kinks for the iphone yet

Oh and by the way (a little untold fact) the transfer rate between the

device memory storage and your iphone is 300kbs that means if you recorded

20 minutes of video (which equated to a 500 mg file) It will take you

4 hours (yes 4 hours) to transfer that file using blue tooth Now that's what I call real time

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DVR, 8 Channel, 500GB, H.264, 60FPS@ 2CIF, 240FPS@CIF, DVD

This is a great product. I replaced an older one that was 12 years old with this one. The Samsung is easier to operate however the old one had a feature on it that I really enjoyed & this one does not. On the older one, when you had activity on the cameras a light would come on as a warning. This one does not have it. We always knew when someone was outside because the light would come on. That was great for it to warn us when someone was on the camera. Overall this Samsung is a better unit.

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CIB K808AV H.264 8 CH Network Security Surveillance DVR Recording System (No Hard disk driver inclu

This is sold in the USA and video here is NTSC, but the unit is set to PAL. The first line in the instructions say to hook it up to your video monitor with the RCA to BNC connector. This WILL NOT work. I had to hook it up to a VGA monitor and then change the units output from PAL to NTSC to make the video work. For a user without this option, they would be dead in the water.

Other than that, I have it mostly set up without even opening the manual. I do 100% overlap recording, so that is fairly easy to figure out.

I replaced a bad 4 channel CIB unit that failed after 18 months. The hard drive controller is bad, and I couldn't get tech support to give me a price on the part after several phone calls.

Not recommended for those whom looking for reliable recording DVR, the DVR stops recording for several seconds per channel when it setup on alarm recording. I contacted the Customer support. They response saying they would get back to assist me, over three weeks ago no response from this company.

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1. No continuous replay, have to click hour by hours

2. Noisy exhaust fan, and now it does not even run after 2 and a half month of use.

Rule of thumb for a DVRallow continuous replay

I can't ask for more, since this only cost 139$ without a hard drive..

I did expect cheap quality, but not this poor!

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I just purchased it a few months ago. It is set up almost identical to the Swann system and even does some of the same crap. My Swann did not record consistently and Cib is no better. When I do a search it seems to be loosing video over and over. What good does it do to record if it cant keep the recording in order, have a time stamp on it so you can see exactly where you are as you search, and now its not picking up any of my 5 cameras. I also could not get it to switch from one camera to the other based on motion. I was expecting it to be able to do that. It just records all screens the whole time and a little m pops up on the screen. I can be watching someone walk past the camera and the screen goes blank. When I do a search and fast forward or rewind, it freezes or goes blank. The glitches are not something worth dealing with for me. It's not

reliable. Without a time stamp it won't hold up in court and when searching, you can't tell where you are at so you can't mark the time of the occurrence. My only hope is to find a software update on it, I guess. I recommend not buying this unless you have a way of not using the software.

UPDATE: somehow it is back to showing the cameras again, not sure why, so i upped the stars to 3. I still have the other issues to deal with.

UPDATE NUMBER 2: Now I'm getting a time stamp when I do a search after it did it's last reboot. Thank you techs for fixing that issue. It was a big one for me. I have not tried to reset the motion so I don't know if it has been fixed but if it has, I will definitely give it a higher rating. There was an option it does not have in playback that would be really nice. Continuous rewind or playback, and a faster playback time than 8x. It does blackout when I play it back in faster rewings so that would need to be fixed also. Thanks.

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DVR will not control High end PTZ cameras. No coaxitron control. Software has many glitches. While reviewing video, hitting play from fast forward will exit the playback function so you have to search and start all over again. gets pretty annoying when you have to review 20 times before you can get to the point of the video you want to see. if its even there. dvr randomly stops recording channels for seconds or minutes at a time periodically. Not good when you are looking for something and the screen blacks out during the time frame you need to see. Works great as a live view/ multiplexer. DVR functions not so good.

iTEKIRO 1100mAh Replacement Battery for Vivitar DVR-840XHD DVR-565HD DVR-390H DVR-530 DVR-545 DVR-5

. After i lost my vivitar DVR battery i was worried that i would have to pay too much for a replacement . But happy to that i pay so little . and its working just fine.

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ZMODO 4CH CCTV Security DVR Recorder With 4 Outdoor Waterproof Day Night Camera - 500GB Hard Drive

Package arrived a day early. No missing components, but wished it came with a VGA cord.

Not a problem, just uses my PC monitor for time being until buys VGA cord for TV hook up.

Easy install, everything works great!

DVR is small, compact-which is nice.

Cameras are built in a heavy-study aluminum frame. With proper lighting the night vision works great.

Came with a USB mouse and software.

VGA cord not included.

Very happy with the product and shipping time frame.

Will be purchasing more item from this seller in the future.

The DVR and cameras are easy to setup. Remote viewing was a little more of a challenge. The only bad thing about this system is the cameras at night. They are pretty much worthless for night viewing. If I want night viewing now I will have to purchase 4 better cameras. Not sure why they are not very good. Suppose to be up to 30' viewing. And also read all the description that says no monitor included. I did know this but thought I could hook it up to an old tv. I ended up purchasing a used flat panel monitor for $35.00 and it works great.

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Got all this set few days ago, all work perfect except 1 thing, I cant change cameras view at all, not manually and not remotely. any ideas about how to set camera view at least first time ?

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This is just what i needed but found one for a better price. I ended up buying this one because I thought it came with a screen which it didn't. The pictures of the item showed the screen so it was a bit misleading. It was partially my fault for shopping on mobile phone where information wasn't read easily,

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I have since upgraded to an 8 ch system, but it is from Zmodo also. Great system, easy to set up. Transferred files I needed to a usb and then to my pc to print out.

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AVERMEDIA AVERTV HD USB DVR TV Tuners and Video Capture C874 Sleek Black

I have bought a lot of stuff, mostly electronic goods, both good and bad. After a while the bad stuff makes me wonder if it is the products or my computer setup that seems to make this stuff quirky and unreliable. I built my own setup and am not averse to trying shareware and other types of programs. I had the Hauppauge HD PVR for about a year and a half. It produced a great captured video. Problem was that it was not very reliable. It would "hang up" frequently for no decipherable reason that I could find. The scheduling software was OK, I did not have the WINTV 7.0 as that came out later, but it didn't much matter because half the time I had a program scheduled it would have locked up at some point and would not capture anyhow. Finally it got to the point where I had reloaded, formatted, my computer for this and other reasons to get a fresh start and hopefully fix the problem. I would load this first before other drivers, after the video driver, and a few other sequences. I don't mind redoing my drives as it gives me a chance to get rid of the junk that has accumulated over time. The Hauppauge never performed reliably no matter when the driver was loaded. Finally the last time I attempted this I ended up using the wrong AC adapter to plug in the Hauppauge got a burning smell from the PVR. Oh well I never cared for the thing anyhow. I did still want to capture video to the computer and did appreciate the high quality the Hauppauge put out. I did some research and finally decided on the Aver USB HD PVR. I hesitate to say this as it's only been a couple of weeks but what a godsend. It's been performing now and the only time it has locked up was once when I was doing something else with another program and must have affected it somehow. Video capture is of the same quality as the Hauppauge and it actually has a video for me when I get back on the computer and look to see if it is captured; every time so far! I've never written a review for anything that I have bought but have been so impressed with the operational difference between these two products that I just felt compelled to do so. Running AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4GHz (Quad Core) 45nm, AM3 6MB Cache 8 MB Ram and an AMD Radeon 5700 series video card. Mostly do a lot of video editing. Running Win 7 SP1.

C874's capture quality is great, but the bundled capture app may needlessly burden low-end machines. There's a workaround which may help somewhat, so if interested, read on...

The whole point of the USB external device is to offload encode and decode (to TV) functions from the computer. As shipped, the software requires more CPU/GPU than the USB device really needs to perform its built-in hardware functions. So they just increase the computer hardware requirements to use the product. Clever.

The C874 should include a lightweight tray-dwelling capture app with full hardware settings and NO preview function or a selectable minimal one.

It would also be useful if the device could downscale any video input and do lower framerates and bitrates. The SDK info on their site indicates the C874 can do this and more. Strange that it is not standard with the product.

An HDMI-out player that has a responsive slider navigation feature and low CPU/GPU overhead would be a main selling point of the product. Preview on the computer isn't required if the PVR is doing the decoding, but maybe subsampled keyframes could be shown with timecode for navigation. The ability to put up a still image or colorbars on the HDMI-out when a clip isn't playing, and the ability to schedule playlists would make it very good for presentations or custom TV viewing.

Standard-issue should be a keyframe-cuts stream editor for basic trimming, excerpting, and joining of the native stream format. Even looking for a compatible editor online is a nightmare. Transcoding or re-muxing shouldn't be required. Perhaps the HDMI-out player could double as the editor with the addition of a few buttons and a save-as dialog. That would make edits a snap!

Capturing:

The ArcSoft capture module that is invoked manually or called by the scheduler appears to force the machine to decode preview video/audio, even when the preview is disabled during recording. There is no option to totally shut off preview at all times. It'll eat your netbook CPU alive.

There is a hardware acceleration toggle, but that doesn't support the Broadcom video decoder that some netbooks have or can be outfitted with, which has a high-priority h.264 decoder. I guess the hardware toggle is for GPU on high-end or newer machines.

On older Atom-based netbooks under XPsp3 or Win7sp1, a 720p or 1080i input results in nearly 100% cpu utilization at all times in CaptureModule. Even sitting there waiting to capture, the preview may lock up. Any recordings may truncate at less than a minute, even with preview supposedly off. 480i on the front input is more reliable, requiring less (but still significant) CPU.

There may be ways developers can provide preview video at lower overhead by sub-sampling keyframes or otherwise not completely decoding all frames, or even sub-streaming a tiny low framerate preview from the USB device. That's for the engineers to figure out.

So in the meantime, and counter-intuitively, we have to "back-burner" CaptureModule's access to the CPU for a netbook to get 720p captures to work (and only for manually initiated caps).

Copy below as 115 character single line to a text file, and rename it with a .cmd extension (cap-low.cmd)

start /low "" "C:\Program Files\ArcSoft\TotalMedia Extreme 2\TotalMedia Studio MV\CaptureModule.exe" /@RecordVideo@

Put the file somewhere out of the way and create a shortcut to it on the desktop. Then go into the shortcut's properties and set it to run minimized and change the icon to point at CaptureModule.exe at the path shown above. Rename the shortcut something simple like CapHD.

Now you've got a much better behaving CaptureModule that may actually record clean 720p if nothing else is running. The command script sets the cpu priority to LOW, so CaptureModule's preview decoding doesn't eat-up all your cpu cycles, and the stream can be recorded to disk with what's left.

That leaves open the possibility of dramatically lower CPU overhead during recording by omitting preview entirely. [see addendum below!]

Unfortunately, there's no way YET to make AVerMedia Scheduler call CaptureModule with the /low switch, so no unattended HD captures on low-end machines unless CaptureModule is fixed or replaced someday.

1080i is still too demanding even with that workaround. 720p is preferable for most things anyway no field order issues with different decoders, for one. 720p with 8000K video, 128K audio set to level 24 seems to be fine for most TV. Cable boxes can be set for fixed format 720p, although most default to 1080i, or a pass-through mode that can switch formats on you.

So, yes, you CAN do 720p HD recording on a low-end netbook! (to some extent)

The hardware in the C874 is good, but they won't let us use it efficiently.

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

Addendum 11/25/12:

Sysinternals Process Explorer shows what's going on with CaptureModule.exe

Running CaptureModule with /low switch, minimized to taskbar, preview turned off during recording, CaptureModule still has _two_ HUGE threads of this running:

ASH264Vid.dll

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

H.264 video decoding core

ArcSoft Inc

Properties comment: "work with ASVID.ax to decode H264 bitstream"

ASVID.ax is ArcSoft Video Decoder.

So now that we know for sure what's happening, we can try stuff:

I started a capture with preview OFF, then manually suspended both threads of ASH264Vid.dll, and the capture CONTINUED right along, while CaptureModule's CPU use dropped to !!!!! 3% !!!!!! (have to resume both threads to stop capture)

Now we're getting somewhere!

Another less impressive result was simpler to try: Start a capture with preview ON, then toggle the preview checkbox OFF during the capture, and the CPU drops to around 25% and the decoder threads vanish. Not sure why the vastly different numbers vs the direct suspend method... ???

So if AverMedia and ArcSoft just release a CaptureModule that can turn off preview properly, during recording and full-time, the product would work with almost any PC. But really, they should support the Broadcom codec as well, to get full functionality.

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I've been looking for a product that will allow me to copy some of the recordings I have on my AT&T Uverse DVR to my computer without losing any picture quality and this does the trick. I have my Uverse box set to output 720P and I hooked this device up using the included component video cable. I installed the drivers and software and I was able to play one of the shows I had on my Uverse DVR and save it to my computer. Of course this is all done in real time, so it takes however long the show is. When I played it back on the TV (form the computer) it looked as good as the original from when I play it from the DVR.

Now I can free up space on my DVR without losing any shows that I want to keep.

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Amazing item, only difference between the hauppauge hd pvr and this that's the hauppauge has optical cable for audio, other than that the capture is exactly the same plus the avermedia has better look that fits any entertainment centre

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Although there are some issues with the guide and Dish Network, it's the best USB tuner I've used. The IR blaster is very handy for universal remote use, and it works well even on a weak system. The HTPC I have it connected to has an Intel D2500NH and 3GB of Ram, and it works flawlessly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Max spike current: 72000A

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

UL clamping voltage (3-line): 400v

Response time:

Lascar EL-USB-1 Temperature Data Logger with USB Interface

I needed a data logger to monitor the fridge temperature in my restaurant and this low-cost unit seemed the best choice. Software is supplied with unit which is great.

Installation on Windows 7 was straightforward. After plugging in the data logger you use the software to set the data logger up. This is easy to do using the software which follows a wizard based format. You then leave the data logger where you want it to pick up the temperature (in my case the fridge) and the use the software to download the data a few days later. It shows you a graph of the temperature over the time the data loggers been in the fridge fortunately mine seems to be working correctly!

So far I've been using for 2 months and had no problems. Would recommend this to anyone with a similar requirement.

I couldn't install the driver on Win XP SP3 and had to email the manufacturer, who answered promptly and suggested I do the installation in Safe Mode, which worked OK. Once the software is active (three days after receiving the logger), the product works just as advertised, although I've not tried to calibrate it.

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We have used this item for about 3 weeks to monitor temps where medications are stored. It is simple easy to use: the software is basic but functional and allows exporting to Excel; you can quickly set up new temp logs, including changing the frequency of temps taken; it is very small, so it fits anywhere. People in the clinic next to us also use the same product (and are the ones who recommended this one to us). They are very satisfied with it as well.

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I purchased this data logger to use with an XP SP3 computer. Other reviews suggested problems loading driver. I went to the company website and downloaded the latest software version, and it installed perfectly. I quickly discovered that this is a wonderful device, very well designed and simple to set up and use. Great flexibility. Put the device into a USB port and the data is immediately downloaded and charted. There is also an export function, when you click on that, the data is put into an Excel sheet, along with a chart of the data. Complete flexibility within Excel to manipulate the data. Considering the quality of this product, the price is very reasonable.

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The plastic must have been flawed at the time of manufacturing because the battery compartment cannot withstand the tension of the battery spring. When one broke after a couple of years I thought it was a fluke but after the second one broke I was upset.

The EasyLog USB program exports data into a txt file but it doesn't repeat the serial number for the device on each line. I store my temps so I had to write a little code to make sure that the serial number stayed with every record.

Cannot stop logging so that you can pick the device up and take it to a USB port. This cases bad readings that you have to remove.

Seagate Pipeline HD 1 TB 5900RPM SATA 3Gb/s NCQ 8MB Cache 3.5 Inch Internal Bare Drive ST31000322CS

Another reviewer gave this drive only 2 Stars and complained that it was too slow to install Windows 7 on. Well, DUH ! Read Seagate's description it's intended for use as video storage in a DVR-type situation. And it can stream several recorded programs at once! That's what you pay for, plus it's intended to run 24/7 unlike a regular PC hard drive, OK?

THE GOOD:

This drive runs very cool, is quiet, and is designed to run 24x7 under harsh conditions (Seagate says it is rated to operate for prolonged periods of time at up to 75 degrees C).

THE BAD

So slow that it's almost unusable as anything other than a secondary drive for storing content. You really don't want to put Windows 7 on this thing. Trust me.

I ended up buying an SSD drive for the operating system, and keeping this drive for storing recorded TV shows (Windows Media Center). Seems to be good for that.

Overall this is a good drive if you know what you're getting, and don't intend to use it as a fast desktop drive for your OS.

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I bought a "used, like new" from the warehouse and it had almost 2 years of 24-hours-a-day usage according to CrystalDisk. NOT like new; I returned it...it may be the used one for sale... Buyer beware.

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Sony SLV-N88 4-Head Hi-Fi Stereo VCR

• 4-head hi-fi VCR with plug-and-play setup
• Commercial skip, 60-second flash rewind, and multilingual onscreen menu
• Digital autotracking adjustment; 8-event/1-month programming timer
• Front and rear composite inputs, 1 set of composite outputs, and coaxial connector
• Hi-fi stereo recording and MTS stereo broadcast reception

First of all. Reading all the previous reviews about the clock being 21 sec in a week late and others gets me thinking. Personally , don't care about seconds per week ratio.

Nextplayability of some tapes. I used to own a video store so I still have lots of tapes left: old, used, retaped. Everything works. But one thing is for sure. I paid $89 for this VCR and I know what to expect. I also have Mitsubishi top of the line , bought 4 years ago for almost $360. And tell you the truth, you cant expect your Mercedes 290 to perform like Mercedes 500. The same with this VCR it gets the job done. It even played the tape that I couldn't play on my Mitsu(the screen was blue, because this Mitsu it very sensitive to some kind of tape imperfection). So it's well worth the money and don't wory that it doesn't have S-VHS. All the tapes hollywood still makes is VHS , because it's standard. and there will not be otherwise.

So if the price is right for you , just get it.

I'd give it 5 stars but it's just not a five star product.

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i have used a vcr just like this one for about a year with no problems it is a good machine for the price. i have read other reviews saying it cant play certian tapes i have never had that problem. i really had questions about what they were talking about. the only thing i can figure is maybe they got ahold of a defective machine.

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I bought this unit because the reviews I'd seen online suggested it had the best picture out there. The picture is good enough (though I haven't yet tried to play older LP tapes), but I'm not sure it's worth buying. The only feature (not counting head quality and the like) that it has over my 10-year-old Hitachi is VCR Plus+, which requires a lot of setup to remap the stations to local cable services. Compared to the old Hitachi, the features are generally harder to use and the menus are just as clunky. Unlike the Hitachi, this unit cannot be set to display the current time if a tape is loaded, and its timer display options are surprisingly sparse.

Worst of all is the internal clock. The time must be accurate for any programmed recording to work correctly, whether that be a VCR Plus+ recording or a manually-entered one. In theory, this unit automatically checks its time against a broadcast time signal whenever it is turned off. However, despite numerous attempts to use the auto-time setup, it never did find a time signal on my cable service. It may be that there is none, despite the two good PBS stations in my area; setting the clock manually is not all that difficult. However, the clock *loses time*. In my latest check, it lost 21secs over 7 days. This is not a great amount of time at once, but over the course of a full season it will play havoc with program recording.

The customer service people were very friendly, but since I am able to read the simplistic manual, they were useless, as their "technical support" seems to consist of people reading the manual to callers and trying to find five different ways of telling the caller to try the same thing. In several calls, and speaking to several people in each call, I did not once get connected to a person with any degree of actual technical knowledge. The unit is warranted on parts for one year but only 90 days for service, so I was told that to get my unit "fixed" I would have to pay $59 and they would give me a refurbished replacement. (I neglected to see if asking for the "resident geek" might have gotten me someone more helpful.) Their website is a textbook example of uselessness its idea of a FAQ is to enter the "troubleshooting" options from the manual as if they are real questions. The "knowledge base" isn't any such thing.

It's a shame. This unit has a lot of promise, but it doesn't quite deliver. The support just isn't there. If you do elect to purchase it, compare the time to a neutral source (such as the Weather Channel) at least once a week. It's a good enough performer, with a good picture, but do be careful.

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I have bought much audio, video, and other gear over the years. I run a recording studio, and I edit video for a living. This VCR is in my living room, though... this is NOT part of a studio, just home use.

This VCR is a piece of junk when it comes to playing VHS tapes. Tapes are hit and miss. I just recently purchased a brand new tape which won't play properly at all, manually adjusting the tracking doesn't work either. BRAND NEW tape.

I thought it was the heads, I thought it was defective tapes, until one by one tapes wouldn't work, or maybe they'd work for a little while and then stop tracking properly.

The worst part is it took me until the unit was out of warranty to realize it was the VCR and not the tapes, due to the fact that it's rarely used in this era of DVDs.

I have been a user of Sony gear for a long time, both their professional gear and their consumer gear... and honestly, if they care so little about their customers to release a product THIS bad I'm going to think twice next time. It doesn't matter that it's a cheap VCR, it STILL should play prerecorded tapes. There is NO excuse.

At the very least, DO NOT buy this VCR. I understand some people don't have problems, and I respect that, but there are enough negative reviews here to give you pause. BUY another brand.

The unit is a little over one year old. Realistically used about three dozen times in that span because it is in our den and we have other units in other rooms we typically watch TV in. At about nine months old the video playback became awful: it was very "scratchy" and the audio disappeared. I thought it must have been my kids' Disney tapes or perhaps just needed a head cleaning. Tried new tapes and cleaning the heads with a dry cassette that also demagnetizes. It didn't cure the problem and I wrote it off to the fact that the head cleaner was several years old. Unfortunately, I didn't purchase a new head cleaner until after the warranty expired and met with the same results. Called Sony, explained the pre-warranty expiration problem and was told I could get a refurbished unit for a flat rate; about $89 (for a freakin' unit that costs about $100 new!). Unbelievable! I pressed the tech to speak with his supervisor to overlook the expiration in light of my house being filled with Sony products and my long history of purchasing only Sony. I was told they would review my claim. Still waiting three weeks later I called to follow up and was told they do not have any record of my complaint. What a joke for this company. They again said a senior customer advisor would review my claim and get back to me. Still waiting and they won't answer my e-mails. {Gave up on the phone totally useless service.) Well, Consumer Reports rates Toshiba highly. Bought a DVD/TV combo that works great. We'll see in a year.

Tascam US122MKII USB Audio/Midi Interface

• (2) XLR microphone inputs with phantom power
• (2) 1/4" balanced line inputs with switchable guitar input
• MIDI input and output
• Aluminum case construction
• Steinberg Cubase LE4 48-track recording software included

In September, Tascam "officially" certified all of its audio interfaces for use in Snow Leopard, saying the devices were "fully functional" in the operating system. They lied. Neither the Tascam US-122l nor the Tascam US-122MKII is fully functional in Snow Leopard.

I bought the Tascam US-122l based on Tascam's "certification." I have a mid-2009 iMac (not the brand new version) and am running Snow Leopard. After receiving the interface I downloaded the most up-to-date drivers and firmware. However, the interface was not recognized as a in/out sound device in either Snow Leopard's "system preferences" or its "Audio MIDI Setup." I called Tascam customer support and talked to a very friendly and informative representative who basically told me that there was nothing that I could do about it, and that a driver might (eventually) be released that offers full support. I asked if the US-122MKII was fully functional in Snow Leopard (it had been released right after I bought the US-122l), and he said that on his computer it showed up in both system preferences and audio midi setup. Based on this information, I bought the US-122MKII, only to come across the same exact problem.

IMPORTANT: Both audio interfaces are fully functional in the audio programs I have (Ableton Live, GarageBand, Audacity). If all you want to use the interface for is audio in-out for such programs, you won't have any problems. However, if you want to be able to use the interface as your computer's main soundcard (ie:, to output all sound through the interface) you should not buy either interface for use in Snow Leopard. This ability is a big plus: for example, your iTunes music will likely sound much better coming through an audio interface than straight from your onboard sound card. Additionally, the ability to output all your sound through your interface means that you can keep your speaker cables connected to your interface at all times, without having to switch back to your computer after you've finished recording.

I don't know if there are any audio interfaces out there that are fully functional with Snow Leopard yet, but Tascam's are NOT and the company should not be claiming that they are.

***********UPDATE***************

Tascam has finally released a driver that makes the US-122mkii fully functional in Snow Leopard. The delay was frustrating, but now the interface is a great value for Mac users. I've changed my rating accordingly, but Tascam needs to be more honest about compatibility in the future if they want to maintain their customers' trust.

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I had enough problems with this when I was using Windows XP, but it worked "well enough." (Problems with WMD not ASIO which is what I used for work). Should've returned it immideately. When I upgraded to Windows 7 64 bit, well then forget about it. Even though I have the Win 7 64 drivers, it won't work for longer than 20 minutes. Just stops making sound (though sometimes I get a strange bit crunching going on before it stops).

Tech support wasn't very helpful, and they won't RMA, and if I return for repair I have to pay for labor (I purchased over 90 days ago), even though I don't know what there is to fix and I don't think it is hardware issue at all.

Avoid this.

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Very economical and wise choice to connecting both large diaphragm condenser microphones (using phantom +48 Volts) and other music gear.

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I purchased it to use with Ableton in my home studio.

With buffer size of 128 samples, it has:

Input latency 5.99 ms

Output latency 10.00 ms

Works fine!

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Now I know this isn't a $400 device, but it is Tascam, a very reputable brand for several decades. This device does a good job but every now and then I would have reinsert the usb into the computer because for no reason that I can see it starts to distort the audio. Once I replug it, it works fine. ....until tjr next time. I can deal with this but it is annoying a little.

AMERICAN RECORDER CO-2/6 6 Pack Replacement CO2 Cylinders

I purchased 2 sets of these 6 packs as replacements for the ones that come in the American Recorder kit. I've used this product in the past (12 years ago) and it performs well for cleaning cameras. These packs will last me years for the application I use them on. (See my review on the kit)

This is a great item for camera sensor cleaning and other sensitive electronics. Much easier then pumping a air pump and stronger too.

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I got this for the reload able keyboard duster I got from staples and it is not the correct size, furthermore the duster itself is not worth any price other than free

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CE Compass 6Ft Digital Toslink Audio Optic Cable Optical Fiber S/PDIF Cord Wire HDTV DVD PS3 Xbox

With simple items like this, usually all you can say about it is either it works, or it doesn't. Well, it works.

Bought this one so I can hook my new HD TV to an older version of receiver, and this one works as expected.

Price is fair, and it does what is needed.

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I remember when these came out. For the price you paid you'd expect they were full of gold. Now, the price is ridiculously low and it works as good as a TOS link 10 years old that cost 20x the price. I am using it on the audio out on my Panasonic VIERA TC-P60GT50 60-Inch 1080p 600Hz Full HD 3D Plasma TV to connect to a C2G / Cables to Go 28733 Digital To Analog Audio ConverterDAC Black so I can listen to my Ultrasone HFI-780 S-Logic Surround Sound Professional Headphones and not disturb the house late at night.

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It snaps into socket firm and works flawlessly. I wiggled it around some and never lost sound at any time.

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Prompt delivery, DVD player was as described. I like the USB feature, Now other cables required. I would recommend this for a first or second drive. I am using on a 10" laptop that came with a DVD drive.

Sony NWZ-F805BLK 16 GB Walkman Digital Media Player

• S-Master MX & sound technologies for unparalleled sound
• 3.5-Inch WVGA LCD anti-reflective touch screen display
• Google Android version 4.0

Well once I go to work for a couple weeks this summer, will buy this because out just looks like the only one that could possibly compete against the iPod in the Android world. I can't wait! So so far, 5 stars.

Lorex ECO2 Security Camera System with 8 Super Resolution Cameras (LH138501C8B)

I'm impressed with the quality of this item, it was pretty easy to install, has decent quality cameras (at this price point), and works with everything I've plugged into it so far!

I recently purchased this to keep an eye on things going on around our house, we have had several instances where someone is 'tinkering' with things -not really vandalism, just messing with things -so we decided to bite the bullet and purchase a good quality observation system which would record and possibly capture the culprit. So far we haven't captured any out of the ordinary stuff, and it may be attributable to the fact that we installed this in the first place, it's a pretty big deterrent.

I'll try to walk you through my experience with this kit:

📦 UNBOXING

All items are well packaged, and everything advertised is in the box. The boxes had security tape seals on them, to let you know that the system has not been tampered with (nice little touch, though possibly not needed). The cameras and DVR all seem pretty durable and are aesthetically pleasing. The mouse on the other hand is cheap and you can tell it (more on what I did later to fix this), also the remote control is rather cheap and you need to be near to the DVR (within 4 or so feet) for it to work properly. This was a small issue for me as I put the DVR on an entertainment stand which is about 8 feet from my standard couch position :)

🔨 INSTALLATION

First of all -I am a home owner, I mention this because it is probably relevant to anyone looking to buy this for home use. You will have to run wires from outside of the house to inside the house, and to do that you will need to drill at least one rather large (5/8" to 1" hole) from outside to inside, unless you can utilize an already existing hole. This kit does not come with any of the tools you will need for installation (large long drill bit, screwdriver, cable clamps, cable ties, etc...).

Installation was pretty easy for me, after mounting the cameras I used cable clamps for the first few feet where the camera BNC wires make connection to the longer run of BNC wires (wires all included), that way if I have to change a camera out, it will be pretty easy. Then I used 5/16" staples to run the wires along the edges of the house. Once the wires "met up" with existing wire runs around the house I simply used cable ties to join them and run the rest of the way. It sounds complicated, but it was really easy other than going up and down the ladder... I sealed all connections with electrical tape also, to keep the connections dry and keep someone from disconnecting.

This kit includes 60' BNC cable runs, one for each camera. I wound up having to use two wires for two cameras, so I didn't use all eight cameras, it was fine with me as I didn't need eight observation points and having extra cameras will allow me to replace cameras as they go out (which they will). In order to use two cables for one run you will need to buy female to female BNC adapters, available here on Amazon for CHEAP or at the Shack as I got them from.

The hardest part of installation was drilling the hole and patching it when I was done running wires.

📝 List of tools I used for install:

○ Cordless drill with 1" bit, you could probably get by with a 5/8", I just didn't have one and didn't want to go get one. At the end of install I was happy that I had used the 1" bit because with so many wires going through, it gave me room to easily move the connectors through.

○ Staple gun with 5/16" T-50 Staples.

○ Cable clamps (small ones for single cables, medium for two or more). These can be bought in a kit at retailers, so you have different sizes. You'll need the small ones to hold the single cords in place.

○ Cable ties (also called Zip ties), for joining to existing cable runs. This causes the least amount of damage to the house if you have existing cable runs outside.

○ Lots of small wood screws.

○ Female to Female BNC adapters.

○ Silicon caulk for filling in and sealing the hole.

○ Some kind of faceplate for the inside wall, I used an old switch faceplate and just drilled it to make it bigger, you might be able to find something better.

○ Black electrical tape.

○ Wire cutters for cutting the cable ties once tightened.

🔩 BASIC SETUP

The DVR runs on an embedded Linux and is pretty straightforward, although I found some of the settings to be not as intuitive as I would like them to be. The cameras just connect to the back with the BNC connector, and a power connector, and they are on and working. The image quality is pretty good, it's not HD by any means, but it is good enough for what I'm trying to do with this system. During the day the image quality is great, but at night when the light is low, the image quality is also low. It's still enough to capture a reasonable image, and the DVR records at a high enough frame rate for the footage to be admissible in court.

The mouse was a disappointment, it was cheap as I stated before, and the cursor was fairly erratic --making it difficult to select and deselect items on screen. I decided to try using an optical wireless mouse I had, I plugged the dongle into the USB port, pressed connect, and to my surprise it works perfectly! It is significantly more accurate than the mouse included in this kit.

It took me a little while to get all of the settings perfected, and some of the menus are not as well organized as my mind logically thinks... for instance you have to enable each camera to record (from the Record menu), then go to another tab to tell it when and how to record (manual, continuous, motion activated), in my case I only want to record motion, to do that you will also have to go to a completely different menu (Alarm menu) to set up the motion areas. That doesn't make very much sense to me, seems like that would be another tab on the Record menu item. Tisk-tisk.

Anyway I would say for the price the basic setup is reasonably intuitive if not perfect.

📼 RECORDING AND PLAYBACK

Once all set up (motion areas, recording times, etc...), this works great. So far I've only captured deer, the neighbors cat, and my family members, but it is working and works as advertised. Playback is pretty simple and of course you can fast forward so it doesn't take that long to review a night of footage. The included hard drive is 500 GB, it claims to be able to record six months continuous footage from eight cameras. I don't think that's overstated based on how much footage I currently have, and how much hard drive space is remaining.

📡 ADVANCED SETUP

DDNS: Ok, this is where I had some problems... I have an Apple Airport Extreme base station (router) and have mostly Apple computers. The included software to make your wifi router easily work with this system for mobile viewing is all PC software, and only works with selected routers (mine not included). I'm no expert at networking, in fact it confuses the heck out of me. I youtubed and googled help with little success, so here I go, trial and error until successful...

To make a long story short I wound up getting it to work by setting up a dedicated DHCP, and using the built in template for file sharing, then adding the other necessary port forwards. It wasn't too hard, but as popular as Apple products are I would hope that in the future Lorex includes support for their routers and computers. I can see some people not being able to set that up, and it is part of the marketing.

Anyway once set up the DDNS works like a charm, I have my Android phone and iPad set up with the Lorex app, so I can view around the house from pretty much anywhere.

🆚 COMPARING TO OTHER PRODUCTS

I had previously bought X10 wireless cameras (the 2.4gHZ kind) and had them installed in certain areas around the house, but they just never worked very well so I wound up not even using them, even though I left them up as a deterrent. When new neighbors moved in next door I found that they also had some of these 2.4 gHZ cameras, and to my surprise I was able to inadvertently view the signals, so I made sure my cameras were off (if I could pick up their signal, they could pick up mine). The camera system I bought from X10 costed about $400 and never worked right, this system I bought from another retailer (not Amazon) and paid $499 and it works as advertised. Enough about X10 though, I have other products from them that work great so it might just be the surveillance systems of theirs that have issues.

✅ OVERALL

This is a great budget system, the price and quality seem to be well balanced for a typical home owner. Could it be better? Yes, but it would undoubtably cost more. I would say, for me at least, it is a solid system and is easy enough for an average home owner to install and set up themselves.

✯✯✯✯✯

Highly recommended!

I own 6 Lorex systems.... lower priced ones like this one, and their more expensive versions...

I will say this about Lorex, you get a lot for your money. Unfortunately, you get a lot of Chinese made products that rarely do what they are expected to do. You are never exactly sure what they will or won't do, as the models change so fast, there is never time to get the marketing materials accurate on the hundreds of iterations they have on every product. And when they do work, its often can be temporary, as the products are quirky. And if you don't have 12hrs min. to dedicate to set up (after all the wiring is completed) then hire a professional. I have set up a lot of these, and still can't complete a complete set up in less than 12 hrs, and then the following day, following everything in the Lorex literature, expect to be on Lorex 800 help line, on hold for up to an hour, and then the service reps are very short with you, they can't be bothered....and it seems like USA support.

Want this to work on your Android devices? Good luck. Yep, after 4 hours, got it to work on all my Android devices, within my WIFI...of course, you can only view 4 cameras...is it that hard to offer at least 2 screens of 4 cameras???? But then, it will not work when you leave WIFI, which is where you really NEED IT ! As many posters noted, the instruction manuals are not complete, so much missing information, and often, even after doing everything, and calling tech support, it simply does not work... Want it to talk to your Apple Devices? Manual says download Apple IPAD Lorex Mobile Eco app...sounds reasonable, except app does NOT EXIST, no mention of why. I later found it under Iphone apps.

all this... and yet, you can buy some Foscams, and a $5 app, IP Cam Viewer, and whamo, you have amazing access from your remote devices, as well as the ability to move the cameras around from your devices or PC...you can record on 3rd party sites as well. Wondering if this entire centralized DVR method is dated, or at least, not necessary, as they simply have not put the R&D into these products to benefit from the centralized control... or Lorex doesn't have the foresight, not sure. 6 years ago I thought, wow, they should have this system perfected in a year or two...well, 6 years later, still quirky. I think this will be my last Lorex system I buy...need to buy a better built / designed / supported video system. However, if you are on a tight budget, I can't deny, Lorex gives you a LOT for your money...like all things in life, its a set of compromises you deal with.

Update.... got very ambitious and determined to make this system work, called Lorex tech support again... wait times...

40 minutes on hold, to get level 1 tech on phone

50 minutes, level 1 tech transfers to level 2 tech...

90 minutes on hold for level 2 tech...finally I surrender...

you need to be retired, and be patient, sit on phone all day with these overseas tech support. I asked the first tech today where she is located, heavy Phillipine accent, she claimed Toronto.... oh well, so its not USA, whatever... they don't fully comprehend English, which is always part of the problem trying to resolve technical issues. When both parties have the same native tongue, it's still quite hard, add the language barrier, hold times, limited knowledge of level 1 techs, and its not easy getting these products to work FULLY.... its our new world order of Walmart and Costco dominating retail sales...

Day 3.... finally got Android running on 3G, took 6 hours to figure this one out. and, still wanted to get the Video OUT (remote) display to show what I wanted...I thought it could do it, but no information in the manuals. The 2nd level tech (2 hrs again) started probbing me, try this, try that, does this work, etc. Meaning, we both were playing a guessing game, his information was as limited as mine. Then, by sheer random luck, I hit on a formula that worked and remarkably I could control which cameras (4 options now avail, 1-4, 5-8, 8, Sequential) that display on the remote display. Again, you need tremendous patience, accept that many features are NOT documented in the users manual or in the high level teck support manuals... be willing to gamble a day or two hounding Lorex tech support (at times), or just experimenting... I guess its safe to say, the set-up is far from, plug n play. This is prob. why Lorex has some simplified systems that monitor only, which reduces the number of variables that must be set up, documented, supported, etc.

At least this system had no defective parts. The last two Lorex systems I installed, all needed the DVR to be sent back to Lorex as tech support determined they were defective, again, after 6 hours of trying everything on the phone with them. Often its not easy to decipher between a hardware and software problem.

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My best friend bought this for me. We checked out the system before installing it. Everything worked fine. Took all day to install it. It looked simply beautiful Saturday night. Got up Sunday morning and there was no color at all. Checked the monitor, and it was fine. So the brain's color processor went out after only 12 hours of use! I have to go return it, but he has the receipt 60 miles away A real hassle! This unit does not have sound either like my last two units had. Lorex is getting skimpy with their engineering. Also the mouse is super cheap, they could have done much better for one dollar more.

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I paid a company that Lorex recommended, to come in and set this system up. I paid to have the camera's installed only it seems. After they left I contacted Lorex about this and never received a response.

After letting the system run on it's own for about a week I went to look at what was recorded to find out that nothing had been recorded. So, I sat down to set this up on my own and was dumbfounded at how difficult it was. That or the DVR is broken because I cannot get it to record at all. So now I guess I paid $700 to have fake glowing cameras all around my house.

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Sharp VLAH50U Hi8 Viewcam Camcorder

A few weeks ago I was shopping around for a a new camcorder to replace my sony video recorder from 1985. Since it had been so long since I had done any shopping I carefully weighed my options. Hi8 creates an almost 40% clearer and sharper image than regular 8mm. I don't have the equipment to connect my pc to a dv camcorder.After careful consideration and a few visits to my closest electronics shop I realized that this product was the easiest, most affordable Hi8 and I love using it. I would recommend this to anyone on a budget that has a desire to create quality video with ease and precision.

This is my first camcorder. At this price I had no choice but to finally break down and buy one. The camcorder is small and lightweight. Instructions are simple. After charging the battery I was shooting right away. The picture quality is outstanding, the auto focus works great. The zoom is great too, providing you don't zoom in too fast...it takes a second or two to catch up to you. I love how easily it connects to my TV set for easy viewing on a big screen. I'm getting ready to go on vacation and looking forward to taking some great footage without lugging around something big and heavy.

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This camera is a great buy, I love it!!! It's easy to use and the picture quality is awesome.

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I actually got this camcorder 2 1/2 years ago as my first camcorder in anticipation of the coming birth of our first child. It offered a lot of great features for the price, and I thought the 3" viewscreen right on the camcorder was a big improvement over viewfinders and pop-out screens.

And lo and behold, when we got it, it worked exactly as we thought and we got some great memories.

But then the lens cap broke. And it started to jam tapes regularly. And put dots and speckles into some recordings. And after 3 months of use my battery wouldn't recharge anymore. I brought it in for a repair and a replacement lens cap/battery, but 9 months later all 3 problems happened again.

The first repair was under warranty, I paid for the 2nd one. But last month was really it. My sister, who lives 400 miles away from me, had twins around the same time our son was born and we went up to visit them for their 2nd birthday. My wife took (or I should say tried to take) an hour of video of me playing with all 3 boys and another 2 hours of video of all of us going to the zoo together. Well, you know what, nothing came out, because THE TAPE WAS JAMMED AGAIN! Only this time, the camcorder did not give me any message warning me of this during her attempted recording, so we thought all was fine.

So today, 2 weeks before our 2nd child is due, I threw in the towel and bought a Samsung DV camcorder. Cest la vie....I have 2 Sharp TV's that work great (one is almost 20 years old!) so I don't know if I simply got a "lemon" or if their camcorder standards are just lax compared to their other electronics.

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I loved the large color 3" LCD screen it rotates 360 degrees for shooting at any angle. Overall it is a simple and elegant camera with impressive durability and quality of workmanship. Controls are well thought out and easy to understand. Image quality is great in all but the very lowest of light. A 10+

Coby DVD298 Upconvert DVD Player w-SD Card Slot

• Coby DVD298 1080p Upconversion DVD Player with HDMI and DivX Playback
• DVD, DVD±R/RW, CD, CD-R/RW, and JPEG compatible, Official DivX Certified product
• Plays all versions of DivX video (including DivX 6) with standard playback of DivX media files
• Plays digital MPEG-4 video files (XviD), plays digital media files directly from USB drives and SD/MMC cards

Bought this as an alternate DVD player for playing DVDs & MPEG4 media files on USB devices (my primary player for which purposes is a Philips DVP5990).

A decent player overall, and I have no major complaints so far; but I have noticed a few things that could stand improvement, which I'll mention soley for the benefit of anyone who may be contemplating buying one for the same uses I did, and would have liked to have known, before purchasing this unit (over, say, the Philips DVP5990 for another $10 or so, which I can compare it to first-hand).

1) Case construction seems a bit delicate, as if it might be easily damaged in transit (don't know if it really *is* more susceptible to damage, it just feels much less solid than, say, a Philips DVP5990 case does).

2) Remote codes for this unit don't seem to be well-covered by aftermarket universal remotes; none of my remotes had a preset code that covered this unit, and many of its functions couldn't be "learned" by programmable remotes, either. If you prefer consolidating all your remotes into one for daily use, this might be an issue for you (the Philips DVP5990, conversely, is well-represented in most aftermarket remotes' presets, and all it's specialized button funtions are easily "learned").

3) Media file (music, pictures, video) playback, on either disc, USB, or SD Card is generally pretty good (basically, anything that would play on my Philips DVP5990 will also play on this unit), but some minor playback features are not present, such as "stop resume" (if you stop mid program, pressing "play" will begin from begining, not resume where you left off) and continuing play (play stops after each file ends, rather than automatically continuing to the beginning of the next file, meaning you'll be pressing "play" for every item on your media, instead of being able to just watch everything in sequence nonstop), features which you do see on the Philips DVP5990.

4) USB media port power output is too low to support external 2.5" portable drives. This means, if you want to play media on your USB devices, they'll have to be flash drives, or powered (wall-outlet) hard drives. Compare to a Philips DVP5990's USB port, which can power (most of the time) a 2.5" portable hard drive.

Overall, a functional and versatile player at a reasonable price, and I'm fairly satisfied with mine, but a few minor quality/feature niggles prevent it from being a "great" player at this price. For what I use these things for, this player works OK, but if you ever see Philips DVP5990's or comperable players on sale at similar prices to this, my advice is to go for those instead the difference isn't great, but if you own both as I do, you will end up noticing them.

UPDATE: with a bit more daily use, I have discovered: 1) there *is* a "stop resume" feature, but for some reason, it only operates for media on disc, not on USB/flash, which is an odd omission; and 2) on some DVDs, video occasionally begins stuttering (while audio continues to play smoothly) scanning backwards briefly restores normal play so it's not a huge problem, but it is annoying, as it can break your attention to what you're watching. Still a useful player, but with odd little quality gaps.

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This is a surprisingly good DVD player. It plays both pre-recorded and home DVDs very well. Picture quality is very good.

Features that I couldn't find on much more expensive players---like USB and SD readers---these save a LOT of time and effort.

Well worth the money!

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I owned Philips DVP642 (4 years old) that could also play DivX, but wasn't very satisfied. After it stopped working, I decided to try a different brand, rather than upgraded to a new Philips. Coby DVD208 made me proud.

Lots of great Pros and lots of minor Cons:

1) Play most Mpeg4 video I tried. Also play MJPG (most digicam uses this). However, it didn't play the 720p HD Mpeg4 I have. Didn't have time to investigate why. Only play *.avi, not *.mov and others, but this is expected. I'm a PC, not Mac so this won't affect me much. There are lots of software out there to convert *.mov to *.avi.

2) It can read *.srt subtitle file while playing mpeg4. It does not read *.sub. The subtitle font color, though, is not configurable and hard to read.

3) Play from USB or SD fine, also support SDHC (mine is 8GB) BEWARE: you need to insert the SD card upside down!! I was trying hard to push it in the normal way and it went in almost completely, but I had to use a plier to take it out.

4) Can change region or make region free

5) Has auto resume function, it can resume playing at the point where it was turned off

6) the remote has a reset button, which reset everything back to default. I used my programmable remote and got rid of that scary function. Also, make sure your remote has a learning function. You won't be able to use a generic programmable remote with this.

7) When the sd card contains both pictures and videos, it doesn't have an option to play both pictures and videos at the same time for a combined slide show. Have to choose one mode or another.

8) It's cheap, got mine for about $40.

I hope Coby will release some firmware update in the future to add more features and correct some of its minor flaws. Overall, I'm very happy. Only need to see how long it will last.

-----------------Update Jan 2011 ------------------

Sadly this box died for no reason just a little over a year of use.

I checked the warranty document and was surprised to see 90 days labor, 1 year part warranty, shipping extra! That tells you how confident Coby have with their product. I no longer recommend this.

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I bought the Coby DVD298 DVD Player less for its 1080p upconversion of standard DVDs to 1080p than for its ability to be easily hacked to an all-region DVD player. But for those who don't have the need for that and just need a player that will make their standard DVDs look hi-def on their HDTVs, fear not while it's not the best 1080p upconverting DVD player I've seen (that would be the Toshiba SD900, which is stunning!), it's still an extremely good one that's inexpensive and easy to use.

For those who DO want to watch DVDs from around the world, though, the DVD298 shines. It plays NTSC and PAL DVDs right out the gate but as anyone who's bought a foreign DVD and tried to play it on a US player knows, there's a little thing the movie industry stuck on all DVDs called "region encoding" that is supposed to make that impossible. However, some DVD manufacturers (like Coby) make players that are global at the factory, then write the region encoding into software because it costs less than to build region-limiting into the hardware. These can be hacked to become region-free, and how to do this for these players, including the DVD298, can be found with a simple Google search. Once you've done it, you can take DVDs from anywhere in the world and watch them from BBC spy adventures to obscure Japanese horror movies and Italian thrillers to Indonesian martial arts movies, all unavailable in the US.

The DVD298 also has the ability to plug in a USB drive or SD card and look at either images, listen to MP3s, or watch downloaded videos files from online. I haven't had much luck watching MP4 video podcasts this way, though I have both listened to music and viewed photos and a friend of mine with the same model was very impressed at its ability to show "Internet videos".

Its biggest flaw, as others have pointed out, is that it's kind of flimsily-built, as you might expect from a bargain DVD player. But put it on its own shelf rather than stacking DVD players and monitors below and above it, and it shouldn't give you any problems.

If you want the ability to watch videos from around the world and also have regular videos look "hi-def" on your HDTV, I can recommend Coby's DVD298 highly.

Guys, the unit is pretty nice for the price, but I have to factor in the 90 day warranty. A product like this, which more or less sits on a shelf and spins discs, should have a better manufacturer's warranty than 90 days. Why is this especially poignant to me? Because mine stopped reading discs (but for some reason I blamed the discs for a couple of days). I just called two days ago and guess what? I'm on day 92 and so my Coby DVD player is not covered and I'm out what I paid.

Anyhow, all I can do to make Coby feel my pain is post this one star review. Hey Coby! I would have bought more of these if you just offered reasonable support for what you sell!

VUDU Set Top Box for Movies On Demand

Vudu's combination of solid Standard Def and High Def video performance, stable hardware/software, easy to use interface, ease of setup and instantaneous playback make it the closest product yet to the "killer" internet based movie delivery platform. But for a few small improvements and one very critical issue with the studios, vudu could be the next way most of us watch movies on demand.

First the good news:

* Video quality is excellent on the SD content and outstanding on the HD. On Hot Fuzz (SD) there were NO discernable artifacts and the upscaled pic (1080p) on my RS1 FP was as good as the same movie I saw upscaled on my Toshiba XA2. The HD on the Bourne movies was very good and compares favorably to any HD DVD or Blu-Ray that I have. Video quality is nailed on this product.

* Interface is excellent. Quick to browse. The search function is fast and filtering results are relevant . Interface is the best I have seen for a video service.

*Setup is very simple. I would have no problem giving this to any tech challenged family member who has the prerequisite network requirements. Also it comes with all the cables you need to set it up on your HD tv, including HDMI and cat 5 network patch.

* Customer service is readily accessible and responsive by both phone and email. They seem to be solidly behind their product.

*The software and firmware on the unit is being updated regularly. It appears VUDU is commited to making requested changes and fixes on a regular basis. New features (such as TV and HD content) are being rolled out quickly to customers.

*Movie load speed is instantaneous on the features I have watched so far. No lag or glitches in playback.

And the areas that are pretty good right now but need improvement...

* Sound is hit and miss. A good number of films are only in stereo. Vudu says this is what the studios have given them. New releases are coming in with 5.1 but not all.

* There is no Closed Captioning right now in the box.

* The remote is compact and simple, consisting of only a few buttons and a down-click scroll wheel. Even though it is a joy to use, it is RF only. I wish that I could integrate this with my IR Harmony remote.

* HD content right now is limited to the free Bourne Movies. As I mentioned the quality is excellent for both video and sound. More HD content is promised and would be the SELLING point for this product if they could have well encoded, quality new titles available for rent in DVD release time window.

* Price for entry is still to high. Vudu will need to come down to the $49 $99 range for the initial hardware setup to be competitive. Indications are that the price is dropping.

The critical issue for Vudu? Studio release policies! Vudu is hamstrung right now by the fact that:

* some movies are not for Rent on first release but rather must be purchased. Movie purchase, even if a feature is in HD, is NOT where Vudu will attract customers. I don't go to Blockbuster to buy a film, and likewise I won't be buying a film from Vudu. However, I will pay more for a day/date release with the same DVD as Blockbuster has if I can just get it from Vudu. Even more so if it is in HD.

*New releases must rentable on the same day as they are released to DVD. This is THE market that Vudu will compete in. Catalog title rentals are great for the occassional view, but are not where Vudu's success will be made.

*HD content will be a HUGE driver for success. More HD content, especially HD new releases are necessary.

Vudu is a well executed, easy to use and stable product out of the gate. It is poised for greatness. If the above issues can be addressed, it will be under your TV sooner rather than later.

-Alex Baird-

Vudu Evangelist

*********

Update to review: 11/03/08

I wanted to update my review after living with and using the VUDU system for a year or so.

After this first year, Vudu is still being used extensively in my home theater. Vudu has consistantly updated and upgraded their product through both the interface and the quality of the movie software they deliver. This has improved the ease of use of an already great interface. For instance, they have grouped all their versions of a movie (Standard Def, High-Def, HDX (their blu-ray quality version) into a single listing so you no longer havea a confusing multiple list with each title. Sorting and finding movies has also been improved with the added bonus of "recommended" titles (think tivo recommendations) and a listing of the most popular rentals and purchases. In addtion they have instituted an archive feature where purchased movies can be stored on their servers to free up room on the local drives. Extended rental times and of course a much larger library of movies rounds out the changes to the interface.

The biggest and most important change for me though has been the quality of the movie software. The number of HD titles has been greatly increased. But more importantly is the release of many new films on the HDX format. This high bit rate codec is NOT a purchase/rent and immediate view format. It takes about two hours to download an HDX encoded title. However, the quality is truly the best of ANY downloadable service to date and is indistiquishable from a HD-DVD or Blu-ray. When I compared the HD-DVD version of "Chronciles of Riddick" with the HDX version it was impossible to tell the difference even on freeze frames swtiching back between the two. A similar comparison of the Blu-ray version of "The Spiderwick Chronicles" and the HDX version confirmed this. It is simply amazing to be able to get such high quality video through a download service! There is a difference in the audio quality between the HD disc formats and the HDX, with the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray having the more advanced lossless codecs (Dolby Tru-HD, DTS-Master HD or PCM uncompressed) with richer sound. But HDX is encoded with a high bit rate DD soundtrack in up to 5.1.

Overall the Vudu is the internet based movie service to beat. Vudu has done an outstanding job of upgrading their product and seem hard at work on delivering even more features in the future.

I received my Vudu last week. Set up was a breeze. Just make sure you have an ethernet/power/HDMI or Component connections nearby.

As far as looks and functionality, they are spot on. This box is made from the same guys that brought you Tivo, which is a GOOD thing. Simple and intuitive menus make toying around on the unit a joy. The remote, while funky looking, feels great in the hand and works like a charm.

As far as content goes, while large at 5000+ videos, was lacking a little in the new release category. I'm a big movie buff, so perhaps its because I seen alot of them already. Xbox Live has a much better selection right now of newer movies... and movies in HD.

Another quibble was the purchase/rent options. Some movies are only for rent, some movies are only for purchase. There seems to be no consistency here. You just have to hope you get the right movie with the option you are looking for.

I am a huge Mac fan. And I purchased this unit over AppleTV. Why?

Because of content!

I firmly believe, that whichever of these companies figures out how to get HD content onto their boxes first, with good studio backing, will not only be the clear cut winner of home movie boxes, but be the winner of the HD format period. And yes, I'm talking about YOU HD-DVD/BluRay!!!!

So Vudu... get it done. You are in the perfect position to do so.

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Having lived with a VUDU for the last couple of months, I can honestly say it has changed the way we enjoy our video experence.

Being able to select a movie to watch at the moment you start to watch is a wonderful experence, If the guys come by we can pick a "guys" movie, if the wife wants to see a "romantic" movie we pick one. If we are lucky to have the kids with us we can pick one that satisfies them.

With over 5,000 movies there is something for everyone.

The quality is great on my 52" LCD tv, better than DVD, plus no trips to the video store or waiting for the mailman, they are all in my VUDU.

This is truly a great product.

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First off...I really do like this box. It has a wide selection of movies available for download, movies look good for Standard Definition (more on that later), and the navigation is better than all other products in this category. Here are my areas of concerns that VUDU could (and probably will) improve:

1. HD content. I know it is coming, so I won't dwell. But, it is lacking right now in this area.

2. RF Remote is great if you are placing the VUDU in a room out of view. But, If you want to use one remote for your whole theater, you are out of luck. I think having the ability to accept IR and RF would be a nice (and let's face it, inexpensive) option.

3. The remote that you are forced to use fits nicely in your hand, but it rolls away when you set it down. It is shaped like a flawed fortune cookie.

4. Also, I know this is a studio thing, but the ability to stream the purchased video to another piece of hardware is almost expected now from new, cutting edge devices. Streaming video from your computer to the VUDU would be nice too.

Don't get me wrong, the VUDU is great and kicks the butt of my MovieBeam (except in the HD department for now), I just want more.

As a final note. The VUDU actually comes with an HDMI cable! NONE of the HD products sitting under the tree this year come one, so roll that into the price when making your decision.

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I got my Vudu for $399, a few weeks later it was $295. Smart move for Vudu, since Apple TV is trying to crowd them out of the market. Vudu is far better than Apple TV, it has more movies and a better platform for delivering them. I'll stick with the new kid on the block. The new price makes Vudu the better buy (more movies, more storage space, brighter horizon). I noticed that Vudu also dropped some vudu dollars in my account, maybe to compensate current owners for the price reduction in the box. Smart marketing.

The other big plus is that netflix and blockbuster are in my past!!!

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