Jazz DVX50 Video Recorder with Camera, LCD Color Screen, YouTube Ready, facebook, flickr, & myspace

It's very good, but it's got this strange buzzing/squeaking/screeching noise in video. Also, it doesn't seem to have flash for still pictures. Those are the only complaints that I really have.

Yamaha DVX-CSC1 900 Watt 5.1 Cinema Station System - A/V Receiver with Integrated 5-Disc DVD/SACD P

I just love it!

This is the best way to get a fine SACD player if you can't spend too much.

And this ain't no cheap sound you get from it.

The disc tray is unique. It's not common to get a 5 disc tray where you can put cd, sacd and DVD.

You can play DTS-CD and DVD Audio, try them...

Philips PD703/37 7-Inch LCD Portable DVD Player with Wireless Game Controller, Black

• Enjoy the gaming feature with the portable PD703 DVD player. Let your kids have fun with wireless game controller.
• Comes with wireless game pad and 10 pre-loaded games. Movies and games travel with you
• Play your movies, music and photos on the go
• Game-ready for extra fun with 7" TFT color LCD display for high quality viewing.
• Extra touches for your convenience upto 2.5 hours of playback with a rechargeable battery.
• Wireless game pad for hassle-free fun. Games CD provided for instant fun

I have a Memorex 10" portable DVD player (Memorex 10.2-Inch Portable DVD Player), so I thought it would be interesting to compare the two in some aspects of this review.

The first test run for this unit was a 2-hour car trip, and I thought it would be a good way to check out the portability (size and weight), as well as battery length and the car power cord. On a full charge, I would say that the battery lasted about the stated 2-hour duration. My kids watched The Polar Express, which is approximately 100 minutes long, and we did not have to plug it in during the movie.

When it came time to plug the player in, a message on-screen informed us that the battery will not charge while the player is on, which is unfortunate. It would be nice for the battery to be charged, even if it is a little, while the player is being used, but at least the notification was there to let us know what was happening.

From a portability standpoint, this 7" player is more portable than our 10" unit. Its smaller dimensions made it easier to take a long, and its lighter weight made it less cumbersome to carry, but I had issues with the quality of the screen (which I'll elaborate on shortly).

With any portable device, durability is a factor. No matter how gently you treat your devices, gravity happens and they end up falling to the floor or ground once in a while. This happened while it was on a table and plugged in. Someone walked into the power cord and the player went flying while it was playing a disc, falling onto a wood floor. Fortunately, the player was not damaged in any visible way, and it still plays discs just fine.

Audio quality is fine on this unit. There are stereo speakers, but they are so close together, that little separation is going to be evident during playback. A simple dial volume control provides plenty of volume range to overcome room noise and road noise, without being tinny or distorted.

The aspect of this player that I was most disappointed in was the quality of the screen. As soon as you power it up, you get an indication of the low quality of the screen from the first message that appears. The menu text is pixelated, which left me hoping that it was just because of the text used for the menus.

Unfortunately, I noticed the low quality of the screen while playing back DVD's as well. DVD menu text is fuzzy and poorly defined. I've uploaded photos of the DVD menu for The Polar Express to demonstrate what I'm referring to. Those photos are unresized, unretouched photographs taken with a Canon SX110IS 9MP camera at a distance of approximately 9" from the screen with no zoom applied. There is a distinct lack of detail in the displayed image that is noticeable when compared with the 10" Memorex unit. There is also more overscan on the Philips display than on the Memorex. If I had to estimate, I would say perhaps about 10 pixels.

Comparing this player's 7" screen to a player with a 10" screen may seem unfair at first glance, but given that the resolution of the source is the same, a 7" screen should look better than a 10" screen with the same resolution. The pixels on the smaller screen should be closer together, making the pixels per inch value greater. In contrast, the pixels on the Philips display are very distinct, giving the image the effect of looking through a screen door. You can see this in the sample photos as well.

Given the large quality difference, I would assume that the Philips model does not have a screen capable of the full 720x480 pixel resolution of the DVD format. If I had to guess, I would say that half that resolution might be about right.

Does the screen quality matter during actual viewing? After all, it's one thing to see it during a brief visit to the DVD's menu system, but the issue is only significant if it's noticeable during movie playback. Fortunately, it's not all that noticeable for casual viewing, especially if you are doing so while it is on your lap or strapped to the back of the seat in front of you.

I asked my kids to try out the games disc and the battery-operated controller, and they played with it for a little while, but the games are quite basic, and I don't think they would hold their interest very long compared to those available on an iPod Touch.

On a packaging note, I echo the comments of other reviewers about the sticky adhesive used on the disc lid. It's nearly impossible to remove, and causes the clamshell lid of the display to stick to the lid of the drive bay. That should be an easy fix, but it's surprising that no one at Philips noticed this before the product hit full-scale manufacturing.

Overall, how does this player stack up? Against, the 10" Memorex, not very well in the picture quality department, but it is lighter and smaller. For casual portable use, it's decent enough. The kids preferred the 10" screen over the 7" because it was bigger, and therefore easier to see. This player would be a slam dunk if it were $50, but at $100, I suggest evaluating other alternatives before making a purchase.

Buy Philips PD703/37 7-Inch LCD Portable DVD Player with Wireless Game Controller, Black Now

I must admit that acquiring a portable DVD had never crossed my mind but I was offered the Philips PD703 for review and decided it was worth a shot. Impressions follow.

The Philips PD703 has a 7" LCD screen and comes with a wireless game controller that assumes the end user is familiar with its operation (i.e., it has no instructions), a DVD containing a number of games (the instructions for which, unlike the excellent instruction booklet for the unit itself, are provided both in hard copy and on disk in a truly execrable attempt at English), and--I was truly appalled to discover--the means of attaching the unit proper to the back seat of an automobile--what on earth happened to kids looking out the window, listening to the radio, and/or talking to each other and their parents?! ("I see something...green," anyone?) It's no wonder we're in trouble if a ride in the car without some sort of video pacification is impossible, But I digress.

DVD playback, with regard to both video and audio, is surprisingly good. I played both an "Academy standard" and an anamorphic widescreen disk to test the setup: if left on the standard setting, the widescreen disk's image plays in the correct format but doesn't fill the screen and is somewhat vertically compressed as well, hence manual setup is necessary for each title unless your disks are all of similar AR. Setting up and operating the Philips PD703 is very easy.

The games are cute but ultimately dumb. The stickers on the unit REALLY stick; I still haven't decided how to go about trying to remove the residue mine left (some of it on the border near the screen). The battery is rated to last 2.5 hours which I feel is rather short--perhaps they based it on the perceived attention spans of the backseat passengers who comprise part of the target customer base.

Bottom line: for what this is, it seems okay. I used to be a huge fan of Philips--a Dutch company who have never been properly credited for their innovations over the years--I only wish their manufacturing base was still in the Netherlands. I'm not really sure, in these days of inexpensive laptops, why someone would really need this but for those who do, this one seems just fine.

Read Best Reviews of Philips PD703/37 7-Inch LCD Portable DVD Player with Wireless Game Controller, Black Here

As a relatively new parent with family in some far-flung destinations, it was nice to acquire a portable DVD player for those upcoming car trips. The Philips PD703/37 7 inch LCD portable player is extremely lightweight and travels well. I thought the sound and picture quality were very good, considering that it is not a large screen. I had no problem playing a variety of DVDs or navigating through the menus and buttons no the unit itself. The instructions for the device are very well-written.

However, the "extras" the video games are a bit ludicrous, and so is the set of game descriptions for each of the ten games included which read as if they were translated from a foreign language into English by someone who doesn't speak English. While they somewhat defined the intent of each game, the player must figure out how to play it and the battery life for the controller was next to nil. The battery life for the DVD player averaged between 2 to 2 1/2 hours perfect for shorter jaunts, but maybe not so for the longer hauls since the battery won't charge while the unit is playing. All in all, the Philips PD703/37 is a great compact portable DVD player for those "just in case" or "last resort" moments.

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Very good quality playback and the added versatility of being able to strap it to the back of a car seat makes this device a very good buy. If all you need (or want) is a small DVD player this is highly recommended.

The games that are loaded on it are pretty lame and you have to figure out how to use the game controller, so don't buy it for that part.

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Over all I love this item. I bought it to replace an old portable dvd player we had for our car. I had to rush to purchase it when taking a 12 hour road trip to Disney World. But I had already did extensive research on a new dvd just in case our old one died. The battery lasts around 2 and half hours. The games are simple and took my daughter (3 1/2 years old) a few weeks to learn the games and use the control (you only use half the buttons on the controler when playing the games) with me coaching her.

Only two draw backs:

1. The thin vehicle power adapter cable. (may break after a while) but that is common for portable dvd players to have thin cables.

2. Which is a big draw back for me is the fact you can't charge up the battery unless you turn off the dvd player. Would be better if its just charges the battery like a laptop computer so when you do turn off the power the player continues to run. (like when you are pumping gas, etc) This would also help for those vehicles with only 1 power outlet which they can switch electronic items out without fear of losing a movie or a game if not fully charged.

Nokia N97 Unlocked Phone with Touchscreen, 3G, 5 MP Camera, A-GPS, 32 GB, MicroSD Slot, and Integra

Hello, I shared this review with the black version of this phone, but I wanted to share it with this one as well so we who bought this version can get some insight. :)

I am a phone app developer and have had some 'face time' with the Nokia N97. I'll let you know some of the more in depth details so you can decide if this is the right phone for you or not. There are many positive features about this phone, but a few potential pitfalls for power users as well. Average users will probably never notice any of the pitfalls, but probably will never use some of the best features of this phone either to justify the cost.

This is the new Nokia flagship phone and it packs almost every feature anyone could ever want. It has a DVD quality camcorder with sample videos found here:

http://www.vimeo.com/4352001

Notice how well the mic picks up the creeks of the boats in Monte Carlo, and how rich the colors look. That is due to the Carl Zeiss lens Nokia has put in. The quality is also great and can be sent directly to the TV via the TV out cable, but I would recommend making a DVD from the memory card as the quality of the cable isn't as good as the DVD quality this phone provides. Video starts up quickly, which is an improvement from the previous versions.

The pictures taken by this phone are of very good quality. Many consumers are fooled by 'megapixels' (mp). Well folks, after 5mp or so, mp doesn't mean much. All it does is make your picture size better, it does NOT increase the QUALITY. I assume most of us aren't pro graphic artists that need huge pictures to zoom in on the most minute detail, and if you are, then you probably don't need this review :P

The lens and picture quality of this phone is superb, but not as good as the Samsung 8 sadly. It is by far tho, one of the best mobile phone cameras around. You can notice some problems in darker areas and they went with a dual LED flash instead of the Xeon gas flash. The Xeon gas flash would have provided much better lighting in low light situations, however as a phone enthusiast I feel it's good enough.

View sample images from thesymbianblog.com:

http://vaibhavsharma.wordpress.com/files/2009/05/nokia-n97-camera-photo-sample-01.jpg

and

http://vaibhavsharma.wordpress.com/files/2009/05/nokia-n97-camera-photo-sample-03.jpg

Judge for yourself.

This phone is a TRUE smart phone OS which means you can download apps for it such as VPN software to connect to your office network and apps such as PUTTY or RDP clients to remote control real computers at the house/office. With 3G speeds the potential is limitless.

Now for the bad. Nokia decided to use the old ARM II CPU found in the N85, 95, etc. phones but increased the clockspeed (mhz) slightly. We were looking forward to the new TI cpu which would have provided much better speeds, at the cost of battery life. They also stuck with 128mb ram with about 80mb available after boot up. I don't know about you but after I load up all of my apps and get cranking, I eat that up. I was able to notice some slow down in the pre-build when I:

-opened up several websites w/ flash content

-ran the music player

-opened up 'widget' applications

-tried basic functionality

Most users will probably never do that. If you are a power user, then you probably already know about the Samsung Omnia HD which boasts of similer features, but also the new faster CPU and dedicated GFX chip which means you can play Ipod type 3d games with ease. The final point is with the potentially underpowered CPU, you will not be able to play the super high resolution videos the Samsung can play.

Finally this phone has the slower 3G speeds which don't reach 7mbps, will you need 7mbps? Probably not. I think for 99% of users, the current 3G speeds offered by this phone are fine.

I tried out the phone and pre-ordered, I can't wait to get it. I can't wait to develop some 'widget' applications for it and really see the power of this phone with the newer more stable build.

Thank you for reading this, feel free to respond, yell, scream, or ask any questions!

When I first learned of the n97's release, I was excited. I had been waiting for Nokia to release another ground-breaking phone, like the n95 of years ago. The n96 wasn't it, nor was the n85. Then the n97 came with a touchscreen and QWERTY keyboard to boot! I was sold at once, but did all of my research anyway and found it to be full of innovative ideas and modern must-haves. I bought it nearly two weeks ago at a reasonable discount from NokiasUSA after Amazon ran out of stock and jacked up the price.

**If you read the specs, you will find all of the high points, but here are some more:

-I found the phone to be fast and responsive when given input. The keyboard is phenomenal the key spacing and feel is just right and the offset space bar is not as big of a deal as it is often made out to be. The only thing I could ask for is a little click to acknowledge the button was pushed, though if the sound is on the phone makes a small noise. The keyboard could have been even bigger yet if they dropped the D-Pad, which I rarely find myself using as it is a touchscreen (maybe make it a secondary feature for other keys?).

-The GPS unit quickly finds a satellite signal (faster than most Tom-Toms) and accurately places you on a detailed map. The turn-by-turn voice directions work well, except they do not read the street name. Best of all, it doesn't make you agree to do-not-drive-as-you-use-this-device waivers every time the program launches.

-The call quality is excellent.

-No contract and not bogged down with un-deletable carrier apps and tacky logos that remind you who bought your soul.

**The bad and the ugly:

-My first thought when I handled it was, "a little chintzy, eh?" It does give off the impression for a little while, primarily because of the battery cover. They used a plastic, snap-on/ pry-off cover whose snaps are easily bent out of shape, but did not break and easily bent back. The rest of the construction, especially the hinge, seems to be very solid now that I have used it extensively.

-The 5MP camera takes remarkable photos and videos, unless you want to use the flash, which is too close to the lens and whites out a third of the image. Thinking about this more, I decided Nokia has used a very similar camera since September of 2006 when the first n95 debuted and such a quirk is unacceptable in something that has been around the technology world for so long.

-The battery life is terrible. With normal use, it will most likely get 24-30 hours.

-Reception is bad. The internal antenna does not pickup signal where my Blackberry does and my Samsung (4 years ago) before it did, to include my apartment in Boston (not exactly East Reeve, Wisconsin).

-The FM transmitter is hardly worth having. After trying numerous stations I know to be unused in my area, the reception in my newer Audi with rear-mounted antenna was terrible unless I held the phone out the sunroof. I assume if you have a hood mounted antenna, it would be a little better (does anyone know?).

-The resistive touchscreen is outdated and somewhat unresponsive. Resistive touchscreens are great if you wear gloves, and if they are huge, but that doesn't happen on a mobile phone. Resistive touchscreens use a grid-like system to figure out where they've been touched, as they have invisible lines that make a grid across the screen. When the selected area is touched, the corresponding up/down and left/right lines are pushed against sensors on the screen's edge and send the information to the processor. Capacitive screens measure minute differences in its electric field cause by the conductive human body and are generally much more accurate.

-The inertia scrolling is not as one would expect, probably because of the aforementioned screen. It does not matter how fast the screen is flicked, the information displayed travels the same measly distance and stops rather quickly no matter what, if it works at all. Navigating web pages is probably the only reason I would use the provided D-Pad just because the scrolling with the touchscreen is so terrible.

-The accelerometer, which detects the direction the phone is tilted, is often incorrect and the phone is very slow to change the screen's display between portrait and landscape.

-Oftentimes, the phone must be unlocked 2 or 3 times to get the LCD's backlight to turn on. This may be a software or a hardware malfunction, I do not know.

-The talk and end button are not raised but should be, especially because the phone does not acknowledge them having been pressed for a second after. Plus, real buttons are always preferred.

**Then there's the software:

-The user interface is not so good. Every application has an options menu, but after the application has been customized, you probably will not find much need for any of the other options except exit, which is buried at the bottom of the menu and needs to be scrolled to.

The phone screen is inefficiently laid out. On the screen there is a "Call" and "End" button, both of which are physical keys on the phone itself, as well as a "Contacts" button which can be found on the previous screen. I would rather just see bigger numbers. Also, the phone is setup to display two lines of numbers and forces a single number from the area code on on the second line when I would rather like to see bigger number buttons and ALL US numbers on a single line.

-The homescreen widgets do not update as freely as one might like, the AccuWeather is rarely connected and my Hotmail account will ONLY refresh manually. The FaceBook app is good.

-The homescreen has a button on it to change the sound profile, but tapping the power button brings up the same menu Nokia should just get rid of the redundancy and dedicate the space to, well, uhhh, anything else.

-No QWERTY keyboard option on the touchscreen.

-Being able to run multiple apps is great, but switching between them shouldn't mean a fight with the options menu, there should be an external button to switch between them.

-The homescreen has an option to compose a new message, but not one to read old messages. The button should be dedicated to going into the messenger application instead.

-Half of the menus require a double touch while the other half require a single touch.

-Plus a dozen smaller "Oh, that's silly" features not worth mentioning.

-My phone has needed to be reset because one or more different things were not working correctly at least once a day, though it has never frozen completely. Once, strangely, the touchscreen would highlight the selected app/item, but fail to execute the command completely.

Overall, it is a good phone, but certainly not worth the money. I recommend you wait for the first major software update to be released and reviewed before purchasing.

UPDATE (4 July) I've made updates on the n97 (Black) page.

Buy Nokia N97 Unlocked Phone with Touchscreen, 3G, 5 MP Camera, A-GPS, 32 GB, MicroSD Slot, and Integra Now

Have had a world of problems including roaming issues (popped my SIM into another phone and it worked so was not the provider), constant issues with the software locking up (often had to pull the battery to wake it up --and that takes ages for it to reboot), battery life not typical of Nokia (sadly lacking), flash failed after a few months ... pictures all foggy .... major disappointment. Plug in charger died after a couple months ... USB charger problematic, had to source another.

I don't know if i simply got a bad phone. But since I shipped to a location out of the US, trying to get it returned was complicated .... so suffered thru! I really loved my N95, but this felt like a step back. Had I the option to do over, i would choose otherwise! Sorry Nokia, this one just didn't cut it!

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I have this phone since it came out. After more than a year i know all the goods and the bads of this phone. Unlike other reviewers having this phone for a week or so.

Out of the box this phone was not working properly. The backlight won't go on when i would unlock the phone. I did research and find a new firmware wich fixed the issue.

Here is all the bads:

-the photos made with flash look awfull.glare shows in almost every picture.

-bad design for camera slider. Lots of dust gets there. Also sometimes it slides by itself in my pocket.

-photo gallery is slow and still doesn't have option to upload photos to facebook. There is an app for viewing the pix wich after one year is still in beta. Can't be set as a default photo viewer.

-in one year and still didn't get used to this keyboard. At the beginning of a sentence i have to press twice for a special character & number. In the middle of the sentence only once.

often i would not be able to answer a phone call. The screen is unresponsive.

-The answer call and hang up '' buttons'' to close to eachother. hard press buttons woud be better instead of touch ones. I could answer a call while driving without looking at the phone. Than slide to activate loudspeaker.

-the shiny silver frame peeded off showing cheap platic.

-No stopwatch and countdown.

-i had like 10gb of music in it (out of 32gb max) and it takes forever to scroll thru the music files.

-Nokia maps is a joke. Would never find my location where google maps find it on the spot.

-bad memory management. I have to delete all the time cookies and cachee to make like 20mb space in the phone.

-it takes like 5 seconds to open a simple sms.sometimes even more.

-slow browser. I have opera installed so i stop usind the default one. It would be nice to be able to set the opera browser as default

-ovi store is a failure. no usefull programs to be found there .

I had to send the phone back for repairs last year in august. The headphone was not connected to it but showing that its connected. So the only way to hear someone on the phone was to activate the speaker or connect some headphones. They fixed it , did a factory reset and installed the latest firmware. No change on performance. I guess symbian sucks.

Yes. The operating sistem is worst out there.

I could go more and more but i have to go. This review was written from a HTC my touch 4G. Sorry for the typos. I will never buy a nokia again. At least until they catch up with samsung, htc and apple.

Peace.

Want Nokia N97 Unlocked Phone with Touchscreen, 3G, 5 MP Camera, A-GPS, 32 GB, MicroSD Slot, and Integra Discount?

Having bought this for my wife, I have lost all respect for Nokia. This is their flagship??? She is ok with it but isn't very technical minded and doesn't tend to use it for much except calls. Call quality is terrible. FM Transmitter does NOT work. 32 Gig harddrive, yet you can only store a couple apps on the phone at a time. I absolutely abhor this phone, and yes I've done an update to the OS for her. BAD BAD BAD in almost every way. Shockingly bad in my opinion for the money spent! Better off with Blackberry, iPhone or Android. I have almost never given a bad review to a product bought from Amazon. But seriously, this is the worst product we've ever had the misfortune of spending over $500 on. Never again Nokia!

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Ematic EM638VIDRD Touch Screen MP3 Video Player with 5MP Camera with LED Flash and Video Recording

This ematic 4gb player is so cool. I got this for my work outs specialy, I have used this instead of my bulky old player. The Usb Cable was great. just Plug And Play. It was perfect all my file folders opened and i started placing my music on it right away. I put about 150 songs on it. 9 albums and 4 list. It came with the cd to install. Tha Packaging was very easy to open. I like the light weight of it.

The package came with:

1 usb wire

1 video cable

1 stylus

1 install mini cd

1 cool comfy ear bud

1 microfiber cleaner for the screen.

Over all it was very easy to use.

I even used the web cam feature as well to skype.

This is more than a MP3 its a All in 1

I would recommend for any one who likes great priced and easy to use products.

Bought this for my soon to be 13-year-old son. He wanted a "touchscreen" mp3 player for Christmas, but no way are we in the market for an iPod. He is thrilled with this. Touchscreen, takes photos and videos and plays music. Also has Minesweeper game included and a notepad/drawing feature. A good little device for the price.

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This was a gift for a teenager. Very glad that they loved it! Good price and features, especially since this is considered "disposable technology" because new model/versions are created several times a year.

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My granddaughter got one of these for her birthday last year and it worked fine for about 5 months and then died and would not turn back on. Seems very unreliable. I wouldn't recommend it.

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Sounded perfect for my son, but the touch screen stopped working. The company said that after 90 days, I would have to pay 40 dollars to get it repaired/replaced. I asked their representative, why they list their warranty as being for one year, he said between 90 days and 1 year they would replace the Ematic E6 8GB for $40.00. On top of all this my son was constantly having to reset it and even though it has 8GB of memory built into the device, that memory is worthless because it get's wiped when you reset it the E6, so you are stuck with keeping everything on your purchased separately microSD card. Why would anybody want to pay $40 to replace an item that costs $40-$60 to buy new, and I would have to pay shipping and handling both ways, what a bargain. I absolutely DO NOT RECOMMEND the Ematic E6 8GB MP3 Video Player or purchasing any of this company's products. The telephone customer service representative did not seem surprised that it did not work or that I was unhappy with Ematic's products, this not a good company or product. F.Y.I. Ematic and XO Vision are the same company, so don't let them trick by slapping another name on the same bad product.

Besides all that there isn't a 16GB E6 and even under "Product Features Technical Details" right on this page it says.

"Flash Memory 8 GB, stores up to 3000 songs, or 34 hours of video or thousands of photos"

Nikon Coolpix S5 6MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

I recently purchased the Nikon Coolpix S5 to replace my ailing Sony Cybershot P-8. The P-8 was my 3rd Cybershot and I'd never had a Nikon before.

While browsing for new cameras, I'd settled on the Canon IXY 700 as a replacement. However, my friend motioned me over to look at the S5. I'd looked at some of the other Coolpix models and didn't like the menu setup. I figure the menu is something that is going to be used a lot, so I wasn't going to consider any cameras with hard-to-use menus. I'd disqualified a Kodak EasyShare model earlier for that very reason; wanted to buy American, but alas, the menu was horrible. First impressions make or break a sale. And my first impression upon seeing the S5's menu was that it was very easy to use. And it has been.

The camera takes fairly decent pictures. However, not much of a difference vs. my previous Sony P-8 (3.2mp). I was hoping for a bit of an improvement, but didn't really see anything that impressed me overall that was "different."

The root of my review, though, is the design flaw that I believe this camera has. I'd taken several pictures at a going-away party recently and noticed that it looked like there were water splotches on the lens as there were white stars in the pictures. I took the camera to a photo lab and they blew the lens off in the case of any dust being on it. No water marks were visible on the lens (and the white splotches/stars in the pictures were never in the same place twice). When that didn't fix the problem, a photographer friend suggested that there might be dust on the sensor; although that doesn't explain the spots being in different places in each picture. I should note that not every picture has these spots. The common element seems to be that they are all evening, low-light situations using the red-eye flash function.

I took the S5 back to the place of purchase and exchanged for an identical unit. However, the problem has not gone away. A fellow from work noticed that the majority of the spots appear on the right side of the photos. Rarely are any (or any significant number) on the left side. Also, we were speaking of distance to object regarding the different photos, but near (~3 ft.) and far (~15-20 ft.) both resulted in similar splotchy problems. At this point, I suggested that perhaps the flash was too close to the lens and the rapid multiple flashing of the red-eye flashes was causing the bursts/splotches. My co-worker also suggested the lens being small may have played a factor in that, too.

That's where I'm at now. I believe my theory about the flash being too close to the lens is pretty close to the mark. I've never had this problem with any of my previous Sony Cybershots (and their lens to flash proximity was greater than the Nikon S5's).

As a result, I believe I'm going to request a refund and go with my original choicethe Canon IXY 700.

I did have one more nitpick regarding the menuit takes a little menu jogging to turn off the photo info details on the viewer (something that was a one-button deal on the P-8). But other than that, the S5 has been very pleasant to use. I'm disappointed to have found this flaw as the Canon's a little heaver and little thicker than the S5.

So overall, it's a very nice camera. If the red-eye flash + low-light problem was fixed, I'd have no problems recommending this to anyone. As it is, I'd suggest finding a different model in the meantime as this is definitely a deal-breaker to have splotches/bursts/spots in one's photos. Simply not enough time in the day to digitally airbrush every single picture with these problems.

I've had the Nikon S5 for about three months now. I bought it because I'd been looking for a slim digital camera that had a decent resolution, good battery life and was easy to use and carry around. I also thought Nikon, being a camera and optics company would offer me a product superior to the many other digital cameras offered elsewhere. I'd be the first to admit that I'm not super-savvy when it comes to photography but I've had my fair share of cameras, both digital and film.

I would NOT recommend this camera.

1. The picture quality is substandard to say the least. My Sony DSC-P10 from 4 years ago with a 2.1 mega-pixel resolution takes better pictures. Pictures are very grainy.

2. This camera is loaded with features. However it's extremely difficult to coerce the camera to capture a decent picture. I took it on a ski trip, set the camera to the "Snow" mode and resulted in a bunch of underexposed pictures (at different times of day, with varying levels of sunlight)

3. The camera takes an excessively long time to auto-focus resulting in one missing even the simplest of opportunities.

4. CUSTOMER SERVICE IS LESS THAN ADEQUATE

My camera hung at some point during the second month. By hung I mean it wouldn't move beyond an error screen (in Nikon Customer Service rep's words... something he had never seen before). I had to mail it in to get it fixed. Nikon Service refused to pay shipping because that's their policy (even for a two month old camera that suddenly refuses to work). It took numerous phone calls to locate my camera and the status of service. They mail (snail-mail) you your service order number that is used to locate the status of your service request.

I received the camera back two weeks after I had sent it in to their NY facility. The error was gone but now each time the lens moves back and forth to focus (either auto or manual) there's a loud ticking sound. One that can be heard at an arm's length away, one that would put a grandfather clock to shame. Another call to Nikon Digital Tech Support center resulted in me being informed that since there were moving parts in the camera, noise is to be expected (even though the noise did not exist prior to sending it in for service). The clicking noise is so loud that the Nikon rep could hear it through the phone. He insisted that since he had the same camera with him and it too made the clicking sound that this was normal for a digital camera. I pointed out that this might be a design problem or a flaw with the camera which was something the rep was not willing to entertain. An argument and call transfer to a supervisor later, I was told that I would have to call Nikon Service directly and arrange for the camera to be shipped back to them (presumably, again at my cost).

Also, the many times I've tried to contact Nikon Service, their phone lines are incessantly busy. I was advised by Nikon Digital Technical Support that I could either keep trying for 20 to 30 minutes or if I could wait I could try back in a couple of hours.

Bad camera, EXTREMELY BAD customer service. I WOULD NOT recommend this camera.

Buy Nikon Coolpix S5 6MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom Now

I've had the S5 about two weeks now and payed about $150 less than the S1 I bought a year and a half ago...that one went swimming with me by accident. So far, I've notice a few substantial improvemements. 1) faster time from button pushing to picture. So much so that I've been waiting for it to take the picture long after it already has and I'd missed it. 2) Considerable improvement in the movie mode (15fps before to 30fps now) and the playback no longer requires a microscope. 3) the definition has improved even more so than the 5.1mp to 6.0 megapixel bump would suggest. Lastly, the controls are far better positioned and thought out for ease of use.

OVERALL: When the D200 is too big, this S5 is pretty durn close to perfect

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Yes, I was seduced by the "Nikon" moniker. A very nice little camera with a fatal flaw. In flash mode (which it uses a lot, given the slow lens and slow ISO ratings), approximately 1/4 of all images are ruined by white blobs, white halos, white circles, white comets, or other white artifacts that cover portions of the image. They show up randomly, with little rhyme or reason. Appears to be some sort of camera design flaw that allows flash light to bounce around inside the lens system. The artifacts move around in location from photo to photo, and are not the sort of thing you can fix easily in a photo editing program, so it's a deadly flaw, particularly when they pock-mark your subject's face. I received mine new from Cameta via Amazon, and the problem was visible within the first few photos. A test of the camera over a few hours' shooting had me tossing out dozens of photos. I'm kicking myself that I believed the "professional reviewers" of the camera, who seem to have remained blissfully unaware of this basic and glaring flaw. I noticed, but wishfully ignored, other users posting to Amazon who warned of this problem--what a sap! Next time I'll put more weight on the Amazon reviewers' opinions. PS: Since writing this review, I've had a reader contact me to tell me, in all seriousness, that what are appearing in my photos are likely the souls of dead people and ghosts, who show up as white orbs, splotches, and artifacts! (Who ya gonna call? GHOST-BUS-TERS!) This has left me puzzling over why dead people only show up when the flash is turned on? And why can't my Canon Digital Rebel SLR see souls of the departed--do only Nikons have the ability to photograph ghosts? Well, who am I to say, I don't know much about the hereafter or the ultramundane--but if you want a camera for ghost hunting, the S5 is your huckleberry. You'll have more "ghosts" than you'll know what to do with!

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I just bought a Nikon S5 and it hasn't been out of my pocket since it arrived in the mail. This is my 3rd Nikon but first digital camera. I am struggling with the limitations of digital over film but I think this camera is great. It produces beautiful images and I find it easy to manipulate. The camera is small and the photographer has to be careful not to get fingers in the photo as it has limited space to keep hold of it while taking the picture. A person with big hands might not be comfortable with this camera. The LCD is huge which is fantastic, but the biggest drawback is that the LCD is difficult to see in bright sunlight. All of the features are easily accessible, and the menu is reasonably intuitive. Like most digital cameras there is a maddening delay between pressing the button to take the picture and the camera actually capturing the subject. After the 2-3 flashes for red eye reduction, many of the people in my photos have moved onto a different expression or react to the intensity of the flash. The body design and the metal case make it tough, I have smacked it around kayaking and rock climbing and it is holding up under the abuse. I gave it 4 stars because it's not perfect but it's a nice little camera.

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Sharper Image HD920 Touch Screen 1080P HD Camcorder, 5.0 MP CMOS, Motion Detection, 3-Inch Touch Sc

This is NOT a camcorder, but a digital camera pretending to do more. The video quality is so poor that it's not worth owning. All you see is blurs, distortions, and pixels everywhere. The sound also sounds like the quality of an old telephone; mono and "tinny." Don't waste your money on this!

I recently purchased the The Sharper Image camcorder HD920 from Amazon and would like to say it is a good buy. The camcorder does not have all the "bells and whistles" of a much more expensive camcorder such as image stabilization; however, it is a great buy for the money. I can use it for security and nanny cam in my home (I really like the motion detection feature). After working with it, I am totally satisfied with the camera (especially considering what I paid for it).

Buy Sharper Image HD920 Touch Screen 1080P HD Camcorder, 5.0 MP CMOS, Motion Detection, 3-Inch Touch Sc Now

perfect camera great quality built to last touch screen hd and it is perfect for a skater may not be a cannon or a sony but its def at the top of my list for amazing cameras

Read Best Reviews of Sharper Image HD920 Touch Screen 1080P HD Camcorder, 5.0 MP CMOS, Motion Detection, 3-Inch Touch Sc Here

VideoSecu Full Motion TV Wall Mount for Most 37"-65" LCD LED Plasma Flat Panel Screen, 21" Long Ext

I bought a VideoSecu Full motion TV Mount (37" -55" with 27" long Extention Arm with DVD DVR VCR Mount bracket & a 7 FT HDMI cable , A conbination deal.TV Wall moount worked perfectly with my 50" Samsung 3D Plasma TV. I was able to hang it by myself.It was heavy, I would not recomend that people would try to do it alone.2

people would be fine. I am a handy man that's why I was able to do it alone ( don't try it alone, be safe for you

and your HD TV LOL).I give a 4 star for the TV Mount. The HDMI Cable is a 1.3 version come in a bubble wrap and it is good for the older DVD players , I won't recomend it for your 3D TV. I think you need a 1.4 HDMI cable

for your 3D TVs and your 3D Blu ray players ( better picture, sound,3D & speed Etc.However if you have older DVD

player a 1.3 would be fine.I can't complain about a 1.3 cable that was in the package.It's would be nice if it was a 1.4 cable. I give HDMI 1.3 cable a three star.It's look brand new even though it come in a bubble wrap.

and for the DVD Mount Bracket I can't rate it becuase the seller never send it to me yet. I tried to contact the

seller via Email. Each time the seller had issue with it , this and that Etc.I don't know if I ever going to get it eventually. I should try to contact Amazon and inform Amazon that this seller did not fullfill his obligation.

I hope this review would help. 4 star for TV Mount, 3 star for The 1.3 HDMI cable. No star for The DVD Mount bracket ( never got one).Amazon emailed me that I should write a review for this product. Thanks for reading this review.I bought a DVD mount from Amazon and will rate it here for you guy once I got it.Also update Amazon credited

my account for the missing DVD mount. Thanks.

Great product and good customer service. Somehow I accidentally ordered 2, with one going to my old address. When I noticed the mistake, the company was very responsive and cancelled the wrong order without any problems.

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Sylvania SDVD1030-BLUE 10-Inch Portable DVD Player with Swivel Screen and USB/SD Card Reader - Blue

• Sylvania Portable DVD Player with 10" TFT LCD Swivel Screen
• Built in Card reader: SD/MMC/USB
• Plays back DVD+/-R/RW, CD+/-R/RW, JPEG and MP3 formats
• 3-Hour rechargeable battery; Built-in speakers
• Multiple angle viewing; includes, AC/DC adapter, earbuds

We purchased this player after researching and reading reviews from a couple sources on a number of different players. The player we have is labeled model#SDVD1030 and is blue. Ours was purchased from "Wallyworld" online for about $100. Knowing how they work it was probably an exclusive online offer for that retailer only. We bought a "car-bag" separately.

It has a very large 10 inch screen. VERY high quality picture. The swivel capability is the biggest reason we took a chance on this player and so glad we did. The bag we bought hangs between the car seats in the middle of the car. Our toddler sits in the rear passenger seat and we are able to angle this screen directly at her. It stays in place well also. The screen actually swivels 180 degrees to face the other way and then flips back down to cover the buttons. It looks almost like a thick Kindle in this configuration. Our daughter loves to use it like this while on the couch. The screen is anti-glare rather than glossy so you are able to view it from the side too pretty well.

The remote works nicely from the back seat but not so good from the front due to placement of the infra-red sensor. I think it's easier to navigate DVD menus with the remote rather than the buttons on the player itself.

The volume is loud enough to annoy you depending on what your child is watching so the included ear-bud is nice if your child will wear it. We're going to try earphones.

The battery has lasted close to 4 hours before dying and that seems adequate for our needs. We keep it plugged in while in the car and that's mostly when we use it.

Make sure to turn the on/off switch off as well as hitting the stop play button before you put the player away or leave the car....otherwise it will self drain the battery. We left the player switched on but not playing a couple times while we were away from the car. Each time when we came back it was dead and we had to start the car back up in order for it to play. The switch is located on the right-hand side along with the volume, SD slot and some inputs.

We've been using this player for almost 6 months now. Our 2 year old daughter watches this player nearly every afternoon for a couple hours. She carries it all over the house and it doesn't skip a beat unless she actually drops it. On the few occasions she has dropped it... all we had to do was re-seat the DVD and start it over. It hasn't ever scorched a DVD so far. It travels 4 hours round trip twice a month and still functions [and looks] like new. This is the only portable DVD player we have ever owned and I would happily purchase it all over again.

Thanks for reading.

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When I received this DVD, I insantly put a movie in it. THe movie continued to load until the words "NO DISC" appeared on the screen. I was not able to watch a movie on this DVD or use it. The quality looks cheap. I was very disappointed with the the way the DVD was shipped. A label was put on the outside of the DVD box. It was not packaged in a cardboard box to protect it from being damaged in the shipping process. Very inferior packaging. I would not recommend this DVD.

Sony HDR-CX110 High-Definition Handycam Camcorder

I was looking to replace my JVC Everio, that had a 60GB hard drive in it. I loved the convenience of the hard drive, since that replaced an older unit I had that used the small tape cartridges. But the prices for the HD capable units are more than I was willing to pay for a camcorder, so looked at the units that just used memory sticks.

I have the Sony DSC-TX1 digital camera and was blown away by its optical quality, and it even took 720p movies which were just insanely clearer than my 1 year old JVC camcorder. That was when I realized I needed to lose the JVC. Almost all the movies I do are of my son, now 6 years old, so the better the quality the happier I would be. Too many artifacts with the low definition JVC, panning was just ugly ugly ugly, and while it had a great response in low light, the picture quality was just not what I wanted considering how good everything else with my TV and still camera.

I was initially going to get the 100 version of this, since it was so insanely cheap for a 1080 capable camcorder, but the bad low light capability put me off, since most of what I record is in my house. And the very low numbers for optical zoom also concerned me. But amazon conveniently puts little links under the initial product listing if there's a new version, so I saw the 110 and the price was good. I did some digging on Sony's site, somewhat confused that the cheap little 100 had 16GB built in but the higher end had none, but when I saw the rest of the specs in comparison, I felt it was a very good unit to give a test run with. My local brick and mortars didn't have it in stock, so I ordered it from Amazon and got the Saturday delivery early on Saturday, plenty of time to charge it up and try it out.

I left all settings at default except for the quality setting. That was easy to find, and the touchscreen on this unit makes it very easy to operate. As with my sony still camera, it has a "user" screen too where you can pin the six most used functions to save you from having to navigate into submenus. I love this feature, as it made my touchscreen still camera so simple and quick to use.

So I did four test movies, all of the same thing (my 6 year old playing with a huge Geotrax set), at all four of the options for 1080p resolution. The camera is smaller than I had expected, very light and fits well in the hand. The only real buttons to deal with in normal operation are the zoom and the start/stop recording, which are placed well despite the small size of the unit. If you want to grab a still as well, which you can do while recording, that button is on top right behind the zoom, so it's easy to get at. So use is great, no problems.

As I said, touch screen menu is great, so changing settings as I went was a piece of cake.

Started with the highest 24Mbps, then the next down (I think it was 17Mbps), then the "default" one they start you out at, 9Mbps, then the lowest. When I was done, I pulled the card out (nice, quick access on the bottom with a great, sturdy, hinged door). Went into my macbook pro just fine, and i started playback.

I have a 13" macbook pro, the aluminum unibody, that I got about four months ago. So new core2 duo processor, nvidia 9400 graphics... And it could not play the highest or second highest quality movies raw... Which told me that they were going to be great on my windows 7 media center. The third and fourth files played, but since the laptop is not a 1080 screen, it didn't look that good. So I went ahead and pulled the memory card out of the laptop, put it in my Dell Zino that runs my beautiful 46" Samsung HDTV, and played them all.

One thing I hadn't realized is that when it creates the files, it creates them in a native bluray playback format, the folder structure and all. So that should make it easy for people who will want to burn to Bluray.

Anyway, on the media center, i played the highest quality one first. And my jaw dropped, and I nearly had to go buy some adult diapers. WOW. That was all I could say or think. WOW. It was just outstanding, WAY better than I had expected. And it's not like I'm so unfamiliar with HD that even bad HD was impressive to me my first HDTV was purchased back in 1999, a huge 60" Mitsubishi diamond line TV. So I've been using HD for over 10 years now. And this just knocked my socks off.

I had nearly no artifacting or blurring or anything with the movement of the camera as I've come to expect from camcorders. Even the blurring was minimal. And the shots of things were just crystal clear. I had a 1080p version of the movie BOLT running on the TV as he played with his geotrax, so I zoomed in so that filled the viewfinder, and recorded some of the movie. During playback at that scene, I couldn't even tell it wasn't the original playing back, that it was a recording of the TV from earlier, it was that clear.

I was indoors, in Wisconsin on a winter day with snow falling, so there was no direct sunlight, just all clouds. Only one window's curtains open, and no lights turned on inside. And the clarity and lighting was excellent. Every bit I could hope for.

So I tried the next down quality, and it blew me away. As did the third and then the lowest quality. All looked stunning. When I got down to the lowest, I could see some difference between it and the highest, but for what I was, and will be, shooting (my son), I think I'll end up using the default third lowest setting because it was still jaw droppingly good on my HDTV.

I got the 16GB card since the 32GB card was still in the three digit price range, and i have a habit of transferring the files to my computer as soon as I'm done shooting anyway. And at the third quality setting, the default 9Mbps one, a 25 minute clip used just 1.9GB, so I should get about 3 1/2 hours on this card at this rate, so I'll not have to worry about running out of media for my normal use.

The display is crisp and clear, widescreen format, and not cluttered when recording. Response to touch was very good, only once when selecting something from a bottom of a menu did I have to touch it twice, since the first didn't register. Didn't take any pressure to get it to see my pressing.

The still picture while shooting video worked easily enough, but they're not great quality, so it won't replace your digital camera if you have a good one. But it may give you a decent still shot of something you would have missed otherwise...

All in all, this is waaaayyyyy better than I had expected, and more than I had even hoped for. 100% satisfied with the unit.

I can't attest to battery usage yet, since I have only had it for five hours, and only ran about 40 or 45 minutes of recording through it so far. In a few days I'll pop back in here and edit this with the results I've seen with regards to the battery life, since this is evidently the first review of this model.

This is the cheapest high-def camera from sony, has exactly the same quality and specs than the other more expensive HD handycams but it doesnt come with any memory at all (that's the catch!). I also purchased the sony pro duo 16GB mark2 memory, that provides enough space to save up to 90min on full hd (1920x1080) quality for less than $70! When I first opened the box I couldnt believe how small this camera is and I thought it would be a problem since I have big hands, but I was mistaken, I have full access to all the buttons (rec zoom mode) with only one hand. Once connected to an HDTV the recording/play back quality is amazing. Steady-shot technology makes it really easy to take great and stable shots even when zooming in and no tripod. Highly recommended!

Pros: excellent video recording quality even on low-light shots, stereo microphone array, 25x optical zoom, touch screen has good response (even for big fingers like mine!), user-friendly menus to configure settings, Carl Zeiss Vario Tessar lens, stock battery (NP-FV50) has good charge above 100mins, steady-shot works great (image stabilizer).

Cons: no memory, no case, no view-finder, no batt-only AC charger (will have to charge the battery while mounted on the camera), lcd has to be open or the camera will turn off (but you can turn the lcd 180deg, close it and that works!), no mini-HDMI to full-HDMI adapter cable.

Important/recommended accesories:

Sony PRO Duo 8/16/32 GB Mark2 memory stick

HDMI Cable, mini-to-full (Part No. VMC-15MHD)

Travel AC charger (Part No. BC-TRV)

Carrying case with extra-battery (Part No. ACC-FV50A)

Shooting grip with mini-tripod (Part No. GP-AVTI)

Hope this review will be helpful!

Buy Sony HDR-CX110 High-Definition Handycam Camcorder Now

I purchased this camera a couple of weeks ago after someone I now had also picked it up. It was to replace my old Sony Hi-8 camera that recently quit working. I must say right off the bat that anyone looking to buy a starter, entry-level, low price high definition camera this is the one for you! At under two pounds, it's extremely light, compact, and portable. (Having longer fingers I almost have a hard time working the trigger and zoom.) As an entry level camera, you must be prepared for the fact that things like memory cards, cases, HDMI cables, and other bells and whistles will not come with this camera hence the low price.

What you do get is an incredible 1080 24bit HD picture that will blow you away. My first outing was to our local Desert Botanical Gardens to view and film the colorful wildflowers, cactai, and butterflies. I used the HD FX (highest quality video setting) for video, as well as taking 3meg pictures. When I returned home and viewed the footage and photos, my jaw dropped at the clarity and vivid, rich colors in beautiful 1080 on my 52" Sony TV. The details were very crisp and no artifacts were present in the movies. It was amazing.

The camera was easy to use and operate with the simple touch screens, as well as the I-Auto feature to help with the proper contrast and exposure. It was great to pick which scene you wanted without having to fast forward or rewind ever again!! The only drawbacks on the camera that I don't like are the low life battery that comes with it, as well as having to purchase your own HDMI cable separately. All in all, this is a great camera for the price!!

Read Best Reviews of Sony HDR-CX110 High-Definition Handycam Camcorder Here

We really do like our Sony HDR-CX110 high def Handycam camcorder. It is easy to use and takes beautiful high def videos. Unfortunately, our camera had to be returned to Sony for repair during the 90 day warranty period. This is the description of the problem I provided to Sony with the returned camera: "When viewing door of Handycam is opened, it responds with a message: "the viewing lens cover might be closed, check the cover" regardless of whether the lens cover is open or closed. The viewing area of the screen is dark even with the lens open (not covered), but in other respects normal. It will actually record videos and take pictures but the picture and video recorded is blank/dark. Audio (when recording a video) does record and play back."

I hope the camera they return to me is more reliable. They will provide a new 90 day warranty period. I have to pay shipping to the Sony repair center but they will pay shipping when they return a functioning camera to me. Luckily the problem started just before the 90 day warranty period expired. They will cover both parts and labor. Given this experience, I would suggest purchasing an extended warranty for this camera.

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Video quality on this camcorder is fantastic. I did many research and debated between Canon and Sony. I didn't like the model CX100 because of the fact that the poor quality in low light condition. I almost decided to buy canon HF200. I went to bestbuy to buy this canon. I saw this new model CX110 and bestbuy representative explained the features. This CX-110 is a major upgrade from CX100. New sensor Emos "R" and 25X optical zoom were the best one. I then decided to buy this Sony new model instead of Canon.

I am very happy about my decision. I took shots in day light and also in low night, the video is excellent. Amazon.com is very good and i got it within 4 days after placing the order.

I read the review comment of the person who rated 2 for this camcorder. I am surprised to note the reason for the low rating. Even though the specification of this camcorder clearly says no internal memory, i don't understand why people buy and rate low for their mistake.

Bottomline, my prediction is Sony will break-through and out beat other competitor in 2010 in camcorder.

Yamaha CD-C600BL 5-Disc CD Changer (Black)

• Yamaha's patented PlayXchange for enjoying uninterrupted music
• Full opening disc tray for changing 5 discs at a time
• USB port on front panel for iPod and other devices
• CD-R / RW disc playback compatibility
• MP3 and WMA compatibility

Bought the Yamaha CD-C600BL as a replacement for currently offered Denon DCM-390 5-Disc changer which I listened to everyday for 2 years. The Denon, while excellent, is bested by this Yamaha in most ways. However, the differences in sound quality between these two players, while discernible, are less than 5% according to my ears. That being said, I would characterize the Yamaha as being fuller in the bass and smoother in the vocals and highs than the Denon. Additionally I would say the Yamaha has slightly better timing and cohesion of sound staging. The only thing the Denon has going for it that the Yamaha doesn't is the HDCD decoder which isn't a big deal because few discs are recorded with the HDCD embedded code that allows a 20-bit resolution playback.

My office stereo system is a pair of Wharfedale Diamond Standmount speakers, with a Yamaha RX-797 100watt receiver with high quality interconnects & bi-wired speaker cable. I play jazz, new age, pop, vocals, etc all day long as I am a massage therapist. When you listen to music all day long as I do, that 5% difference in sound quality makes a big difference in taking the edge off listening fatigue--I really appreciate it.

Functionally, the Yamaha's changing mechanism is faster, quieter, and more graceful changing discs than the Denon. I disagree with one reviewer who thinks this player is slow. All the 5 Disc changers are sloooooow. This one is relatively fast in my estimation. The Yamaha remote could be a little better: The disc skip and the track skip are quite a distance apart and the labeling is small for my 46 yr. old eyes.

The really, really, big deal about this Yamaha is the front panel MP3 player USB port! This was the feature that sold me. I can load 300 cd's converted to MP3's loss-less format onto my iPod Nano (16Gigabytes) and enjoy a cd quality playback without ever having to change a single cd in the changer. The Yamaha takes the data from the Ipod without using the Ipod's inferior DAC/amp/preamp circuits and uses instead the cd player's superior DAC (digital-to-analog converter)for playback. The Ipod is fully a high fidelity component in my system! My how times are a changing.

This piece of equipment is a delight at the Amazon price. I got it sent overnight for a mere $4 shipping upgrade with Amazon's free 30-day trial offer: Free second-day-air-for-a-year-program for $70 per year. Heck, the clerk at FedX told me it would have cost approximately $100 to overnight this shipment. I got my money's worth in the first shipment so now it's free 2nd day air for a whole year anytime I order through Amazon. What a bargain! I'm thrilled all the way around. I highly recommended this Yamaha CD player and Amazon. Thank you Yamaha!

Buy Yamaha CD-C600BL 5-Disc CD Changer (Black) Now

The only reasons I wanted and bought the Yamaha CD-C600BL 5-Disc CD Changer was for its 24-bit digital/analog conversion rate and the 5-disc capacity. I never had better than 16-bit D/A cd or dvd players; I read reviews here that convinced me to get a 24-bit D/A player. I have two new Denon AV receivers and older NAD stereo equipment, plus high-quality loudspeakers; so I was eligible to notice very superior sound.

I can't compare the Yamaha CD-C600BL 5-Disc CD Changer to any other 24-bit cd player because I haven't listened to others with my systems.

The package includes a stereo RCA phono cable, a remote w/batteries, and a bare-bones user manual that covers everything in direct and simple language. The connections include one left/right RCA phono plug output, one optical (Toslink) digital output, and a RS-232C terminal. However, the optical cable isn't included with the package (nor is a serial cable for the RS-232C connection).

I've connected the player via the ('analog') RCA cables and also using the optical Toslink cable. I notice no audible difference between the connections. Why should there be any difference, anyhow? The digital information on the cd has been converted to analog by the player so that the preamplifier and amplifier can process it, and then send it in analog form to the 'analog' speakers.

If the cd's digital signal is destined to be input to another digital processor or device, the optical digital cable would be the best way to make that connection (well, there's also a RS-232C terminal, but it's not as pure as the optical handshake).

In essence, connecting with the RCA plugs makes a perfect connection, just as perfect as the 'digital' optical cable makes.

The sound is obviously superior to 16-bit D/A players. Some meaningful sounds that weren't audible are now audible; previously audible sounds no longer have any masking.

There must be one of those laws that applies here, but I don't know of it: For each improvement in quality more watts in a high-end amplifier, minimal harmonic distortion, full frequency response, precise loudspeakers, 24-bit digital-to-analog conversion rate you can listen to the full sound at a lower volume. It saves your hearing in the long run.

Sure, the changer makes its mechanical noise when it rotates each disc into the laser reader. Vinyl record changers made more noise than that when the needle reached the label and jerked off the record (haha), when the tone arm swung out of the way and the next record plopped down hey, if you couldn't hear anything mechanical, your heart would be in your throat hoping nothing is broken. As I write this, the Yamaha cd changer is only some two feet from my ears, and I happen to like the sound of its carousel.

Be careful, though, when the tray is open as you're adding or removing discs the tray could close from your inadvertent pressure; it spins and closes fast; you could break a valuable fingernail on a guitar-playing finger.

Being an old hand with home audio gear, I can't say if there's anything difficult about the Yamaha's set-up and use. I'd say it's designed and made to be as plug-and-play as possible. For anyone who has passed the Audio 101 course, the Yamaha CD-C600BL 5-Disc CD Changer is super-intuitive. You know, buttons with arrows this way, arrows that way, and so on (or off). The product's name speaks for itself: Yamaha Natural Sound Compact Disc Changer.

Read Best Reviews of Yamaha CD-C600BL 5-Disc CD Changer (Black) Here

We purchased this 5-disc CD player to replace an old 1993 Sony 5-disc CD player that did not play MP3 CDs and was very particular about the CD-R WMA recorded CDs. This unit plays all of them and so far we have had no problem with reading the CD.

An added bonus is the USB port that allows you to connect an I-Pod or even a flash drive, SD card, etc.

One of the features that we like is the memory that stores the last play and resumes playback the next time you turn it on.

Want Yamaha CD-C600BL 5-Disc CD Changer (Black) Discount?

I decided to purchase this model as an upgrade from the CDC-697 (still working like a charm)I had in my main home theater system, primarily for the Burr-Brown DAC's. The addition of the USB port (although incompatible with my iPod) is a nice touch, as well as the elegant styling and "Pure Direct" mode. On the debit side....This unit loads disks much slower than either my CDC-697 or CDC-506 (which is also still working like a charm). It also doesn't display the number of tracks on each individual CD with the disappearing function and it seems you can't lock the display to show CD-Text for each track (you have to toggle each time).The sound,while more detailed seemed quite bass heavy (compared to my prior units). So overall I expect this unit to have the same (or better) quality than my other units and do recommend it.

Review update 5/20/2011

After contacting the people at Yamaha I found the reason for the less than stellar audio performance. It seems Yamaha is no longer using the Burr-Brown DAC's advertised but their own proprietary unit as seen in my e-mails to them:

Good afternoon John

I find it disappointing that the Burr-Brown DAC's are no longer installed in the CD-C600 units. After reading the description on Amazon it was the main reason I choose to upgrade from my fully functional CDC-697 in my living room system. Is the new DAC a single or dual unit and is is it 192kHz/24-bit ? Had I been aware of the substitution prior to my purchase, I probably would have continued my search for a high quality changer and I wouldn't have convinced 2 other friends of mine to buy these (which they have). Although I find the CD-C600 to have a more detailed sound, it also seems quite heavy handed in lower frequencies (bass region). This condition seems to be moderating with more playing time and I hope it continues . I am presently considering an outboard DAC and using the 600 as a transport (which I hoped I didn't have to do). I've since placed the 697 in my home office and sold the CDC-506 that was there so, I guess I'll be keeping it. It's just not what I paid for.

Russell Henry

----Original Message -----

From: John

Sent: 05/20/11 11:28 AM

To: dangeruss@mail.com

Subject: RE: Re: Yamaha Electronics Support Case #00916531 [ ref:00D3F1z.5003EByEQ:ref ]

The Yamaha DAC's used are still very high quality they are not Burr-Brown branded they are Yamaha branded.

--------------Original Message ---------------

From: russell henry [dangeruss@mail.com]

Sent: 5/20/2011 6:17 AM

To: supportreply@yamaha.com

Subject: RE: Re: Yamaha Electronics Support Case #00916531 [

ref:00D3F1z.5003EByEQ:ref ]

Good morning John

So by this am I to understand that the CD-C600 no longer uses the Burr-Brown DAC's ?

----Original Message -----

From: John

Sent: 05/18/11 11:13 AM

To: dangeruss@mail.com

Subject: RE: Re: Yamaha Electronics Support Case #00916531 [ ref:00D3F1z.5003EByEQ:ref ]

The DAC's in this unit are considered Yamaha proprietary components.

--------------Original Message ---------------

From: dangeruss@mail.com [dangeruss@mail.com]

Sent: 5/15/2011 5:33 AM

To: supportreply@yamaha.com

Subject: Re: Yamaha Electronics Support Case #00916531 [

ref:00D3F1z.5003EByEQ:ref ]

Good morning John,

I hope all is well. Anyway I received my CD-C600 player and am quite happy with it. I do however (yet again)

have another question for you. What model DACs are used in this unit ? I 've searched everywhere in the manual

and on the web can't find it listed.

Thanks again for your help

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The sound of this CD changer is as good as I could have hoped for. The sound is full, warm, detailed, and free from distortion. I learned when I connected the player by using both RCA and toslink cables that the RCA cables gave me the best sound. Why? Because I was hearing firsthand the excellent Burr Brown DA converters. Toslink connections will use the DA converters in your amplifier or receiver. Unless you have excellent DA converters in your amplifier I would highly recommend that you connect this changer with high quality RCA cables. I purchased these cables from Amazon for $28 Monster MC 400I-1M Ultra-High Performance RCA Stereo Cables (1 meter). Not a big investment to insure the best sound possible.

One thing that is missing on the remote control is the ability to select the number of a disc that you would like to hear. Instead you must advance forward or backward one disc at a time. The display is very bright and the track number and elapsed time can be read from a distance of about 6 feet or so. You can't really read the disc numbers but you can figure it out as the circle around the playing disc number makes a mark that is visible from your listening chair. It would be nice if the display was larger.

Loading and unloading discs is not really a problem if you are careful. Poke your index finger in the CD hole and use the thumb slot on the CD tray to position your CD.

The playxchange feature allows you exchange up to 4 discs while the 5th one is playing. There is no button on the remote for this so you must use the button the front of the changer.

Some reviewers have complained that the changer is slow with its operations. I can't really say that I have seen a changer work much faster than this one. I think that the speed is about what you will get with most changers.

The most important quality of a CD changer is the sound that it produces. I don't think you are going to hear much better sound than this with any CD changer. Yamaha created a gem!

Canon VIXIA HG21 AVCHD 120 GB HDD Camcorder with 12x Optical Zoom

Let me start by saying that I've been using camcorders for 20 years, way back to the full sized VHS days. Canon and Sony have been my favorites for many years, starting with their 8mm days. Since consumer HD seems to have stabilized in its second generation, I decided to upgrade from my six year old Sony 8mm.

The Canon Digital SLR cameras are second to none, I own three of them (Digital Rebel, Rebel Xti and an EOS 40D) and they blow the competition away. I fall into the "prosumer" category for digital categories, and the Canon Digic processor is one of the things that has separated Canon from its competitors. So certainly the second generation HD Canon Vixia 21 with the Digic II processor would be a no-brainer, right? Not exactly.

The good:

120GB hard disk drive you can record up to 45 hours of video in LP mode, and about 11 hours in the best HD mode the camera has. The storage capacity will, by far, outlast the battery that comes with the camcorder.

SDHC slot Unlike Sony and their proprietary Memory Stick, Canon has and continued to use SD and now SDHC memory. SDHC cards are available from numerous vendors and they are easier to find and less expensive than the Memory Stick.

12X optical zoom this works extremely well, as advertised. Digital zoom takes away from the quality of the recording, so I prefer to stick with the optical zoom. The controls for the zoom are very fluid and smooth.

Picture quality in daylight and indoors with good light, the picture quality is exceptional. Playing the video on my HDTV is just as good as any broadcast HDTV quality you'll ever see on TV.

Image stabilization very few people can hold anything completely still. With the image stabilization feature, you don't have to worry about it the camcorder handles it for you and does a great job of it.

The bad:

Short battery life the battery that ships with the camcorder (BP 807/808) will give you no more than 80-90 minutes of operation. If you don't plan to use it any more than that on each outing, then it is not a big issue for you. If you plan to use it for a day of on and off shooting, you need to get another batter. The BP827 will give you almost five hours of running time, for a steep $144. Adding to this, you can only charge the battery while the battery is in the camcorder. The external battery charger is another $60 or so. In short, if you plan to use this camcorder for longer than an hour, buy an extra battery and the external charger so you can charge one battery while using the other. This is not a Canon specific problem, every vendor, including Sony, has its limitations with batteries and charging. They also have the "optional" longer life batteries and external chargers for a steep price as well.

Low light shooting The picture quality is grainy and unimpressive. After seeing what the daylight shots looked like on the TV, then watching the low light shots, you will be somewhat dissapointed. Perhaps there is some special low light setting I do not know about I've only had the camcorder for a week. Another reviewer indicated better luck in low light. I will report back if this is resolved.

Despite the additional battery and charger purchase, I think this is a very good camcorder. I hope to resolve the low light issue. Daytime and good lighting recording is breathtaking on replay. Given that this is a consumer grade camcorder, I doubt you'll find any better for the money.

Update:

As promised, I've worked with the camcorder for a couple of weeks now, and not much has changed. The daylight and well-lit room video is broadcast quality HD. Low light is still somewhat grainy. I also purchased a longer life battery and external charger from Amazon, which comes in very handy. I would still purchase this camcorder.

First of all, this is my first camcorder. We do have the ability to use our small Canon digital camera in this mode but this is a far cry from that. I was excited to get one of the first even though I figured I would be taking a slight gamble as I am not exactly that informed on the subject and wonder about the wisdom of getting a product that is not yet proven.

So far, so good...Our grandchild had a birthday the very day this thing came in so I was determined to figure things out in order to capture the event. I figured that we paid a premium price to have the high HD quality so of course I shot in the highest mode. I only had time to charge the battery and skim through the book but I am happy to report that the quality of the videos was simply outstanding. In my opinion, the easy part is taking the pictures...set it to the quality and mode and fire away. Then, the question is, what to do afterwards...This is the hard part.

I have an Intel Mac and IMovie 08 so I read other reviews of similar cameras and figured out how to move the shots from the camera to the computer. No problem. In my opinion, and that is what these reviews are all about, if you are shooting at the highest quality, you better have a lot of room on your hard drives, and, or, prepare to spend a lot of time on the back end moving your videos off the camera and on to disks or the drives. I did not have much hard drive space left on my Mac so perhaps that fact made things seem very slow. On the other hand, because I wanted to shoot in the highest quality, the wait and trouble were worth the investment...Remember, I am just at the edge of knowing what I am doing so you must consider that my skill level is still very low by comparison.

The great thing about this camera, in addition to the fact that the HD videos are breathtaking, is that the built in hard drive is 120 gigs...wow! that is equal to 82 of the smaller 3 inch DVDs! About 45 hours of recording time on lower quality and near 11 hours or so in the highest quality...so, unless you get nervous about hard drive failure, you can go for a long time without having to move them off the camcorder.

After doing a little reading and fiddling around, I hooked the camera up to our HD TV and was pretty much able to use the little remote device and see the videos. Simply outstanding...most shots were taken in the house with average lighting. One of my concerns was reading that low light might cause grainy videos but I did not find this to be the case....I suspect this could be the case when shooting in extremely low light but I cannot see this ever becoming an issue. I was too impatient to actually link into the HD ports of my TV so we settled for using the ports at the front and went to the game port...I do not think this was actually in HD but it still was just incredible. Later, when I played back some videos on our HP Vista computer and just was blown away with the quality...I had gone outside and take videos of the hummingbirds on our feeder and could not believe how crystal clear the shots were.

The 12X optical zoom is very close to walking up to the subject...very nice. The image stabilizer works great as I never used a tripod and still saw no real shaking. I did notice that you can negate image stabilizer when using the camera on a tripod so that was something I was a little concerned about.

One addition thing that may concern some...apparently these hard drive camcorders could suffer damage to the drives if used at an altitude of 9800 feet and above. If you are a serious mountain climber or plan to be above 9800 feet, you might consider other options.

I am very interested in reading other reviews. So far I am very pleased...no camera will ever be perfect and do all things so, regardless of the quality or cost, there will always be some element of compromise. I have already ordered another battery as well as an SD card for it. The battery life is short of two hours so trips out in the wild pretty much would demand more power. Most may not feel the need to have another battery but I cannot imagine missing any great shots...you pay too much for these things not to be able to use them to their fullest extent...maybe another review when I actually know what I am doing!

Buy Canon VIXIA HG21 AVCHD 120 GB HDD Camcorder with 12x Optical Zoom Now

HG21 is probably the best HD Camcorder out there. I say this because I have tried another high end camcorder from Sony with a 120GB harddrive, which (the Sony) was unbelievably disappointing in both color and resolution. Fortunately, we bought it at Costco, and just returned the Sony within a day.

The Canon HG21 has amazing High Def pictures for daylight scenes. The color is very rich and eye pleasing. If you do a good job shooting, it can fool the untrained eyes as if it's professional HD video. I have a Pioneer 50" 1080i Plasma, and the pictures from the HG21 are so refined, the colors are beautiful.

Night scenes are grainy. This is very disappointing. I also have a Flip MinoHD. The $200 little Flip out performs the Canon for night scenes. Canon should be a bit embarrassed by it and catch up on this front.

The Mac/Apple compatibility of HG21 is a big plus. Canon has shipped a software CD with the camcorder, however, the software doesn't work for Mac, and Mac users really don't need it anyway. It was a pleasant surprise to open up iMovie'08 and the HG21 was automatically recognized on the USB port, and the Camera Import Window within iMovie popped out immediately to guide you through the importing of videos. Previously, everyone said AVCHD editing tool is hard to find. The Mac has it built in. Hats off to Apple. Select "Large" setting to import, "Full" resolution will cost you a lot of hard drive space.

Overall, I would give this HG21 a "A-" for great daylight performance, working with iMovie'08 which is a wonderful consumer movie making tool, but has lackluster grainy night scenes.

Read Best Reviews of Canon VIXIA HG21 AVCHD 120 GB HDD Camcorder with 12x Optical Zoom Here

This is best HD camcorder on the market. It takes amazing pictures. The clarity is similar to watching a blue-ray movie. I love the huge hard drive. It takes hours of video without any worries. The best part is the quick and easy transferring of video clips to my computer. I used to spend the whole day uploading DV tapes. Now, through the USB is 10 times faster. The editing software is very easy to use.

Want Canon VIXIA HG21 AVCHD 120 GB HDD Camcorder with 12x Optical Zoom Discount?

I was using a MiniDV camcorder and decided to up grade. I'm not a big Canon fan, mostly because of price but I sure do love this camcorder. There is A LOT of great features on the HG21 and yes it does have a viewfinder (the HG20 does not). Its very simple to use and you have a lot of storage with the 120GB hard. I love shooting in the 24p cinema mode. I definitely would recommend it! If you don't need a huge hard drive or viewfinder than go with the HG20 its exactly the same and you will save some $$$.

Line 6 MIDI Mobilizer

• Capture MIDI data quickly any time, any place
• Email music to collaborators
• Open/edit emailed music within virtually all digital audio workstations
• The easiest way to safeguard your tones
• Compatible with Line 6 gear, and classic and modern MIDI equipment

I made a mistake buying the Line 6 MIDI Mobilizer, I should have bought the Line 6 MIDI Mobilizer2. The difference being, the Line 6 MIDI Mobilizer2 supports core midi on the IOS devices.

Buy Line 6 MIDI Mobilizer Now

Plugged-in it worked right out the package. Very cool to finally use a kybd with iphone app too.

I'd give it 5 stars.......but for one omission in the design a big one imo.;

as I worked on file I wondered how the iphone battery was doing. The app I use is rather hard on power. That's when it occurred to me that there's no way to run this device except on battery power. It uses the same port. Never thought of that before.

One may think that an hour or so is plenty, but that aspect still needs to be noted here I think.

Not sure why line6 didn't add a usb port for power at bottom of device. Or power jack. Maybe they were concerned about hanging too much weight off the bottom of iphone/pad/pod? Whatever the reason, charge-up good before starting a bigger project. Or wait for the snythstation25 product. I believe that one has power at the docking jack. Apps will start appearing for it in the next couple months I've read.

Other than that, again, very cool.

Cheers.

Read Best Reviews of Line 6 MIDI Mobilizer Here

Great idea, except for the glaring oversight-no way to keep it on the charger while you're using it. Consequently, it's not a serious tool yet-just an exploratory toy. I'm waiting for the next revision, it can't be all that hard or expensive to put a mini USB plug in the thing, just for the power hookup.

Want Line 6 MIDI Mobilizer Discount?

Feels like a rushed to market product. Doesn't work with existing apps that support midi out. Has it's own proprietary api. If all you want to do is use the Line 6 Midi Memo app it works just fine. But try to use any of the existing apps on itunes that function as midi control surfaces i.e. Sound Prism it fails. The connector is also too long for the iPad and it'll leave you wondering if it's connected properly.

Save your money and buy the camera connection kit and a usb/midi cable.

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I was really looking forward to this when I ordered it, but it is not as impressive as I had hoped.

As has been pointed about by another reviewer, power is a problem.

It really needs a micro-usb jack to allow you to provide an external power source. Of course, if you have that connector on it, there are other interesting functionalities you could add.

The manufacturer needs to really work hard to encourage software developers to add support for this device. I think a program of developer support, including an SDK, and a free device, made available to anyone with a music related app on the app store would be a good start. Established developers with a music app in development should also be seeded.

Other than that, the SDK and support for using it ought to be offered to anyone who owns the device. If this device does not garner broad application support, it is going to wind up in my (too large) box of "that was an amusing waste of money" items.

Currently I would suggest this for early adopters, with hope that native iOS midi support comes to pass, and that Line 6 develops this product to its full potential.