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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Sony ICDB310F - 64MB Digital Voice Recorder w/ FM Tuner

I suggest that if you plan to invest in a decent recorder this is not the one. Make sure you look for alternatives (make a list of what you want out of a player.) I intended to record my class lectures and discussions and bought it without researching (bad idea). Now I'm in the process of looking for another player.

It keeps approximately 20 hours of recording set at SP (which is lower quality). It has three settings for recording LP SP HQ. If you want higher quality recordings HQ is the highest setting but memory is sacrificed for the higher quality recording. The mic also picks up a lot of back noise. I usually sit far from the lecturer, so I find myself putting my ear next to the speakers a lot when I replay the lectures. A good feature that the recorder has is the ability to pause a recording and return back to recording with relative ease. It took a bit of figuring out the device but for the most part it is easy to use. If you're looking for a recorder for lectures, I don't recommend this product. If you're looking for a product to record upclose interviews, this would be a decent product. This product also does not have a usb connector, so if you want to keep all your recordings good luck. Battery life is alright, though I have not kept track how long it actually lasts...sorry. For a 40 dollars, I got what I payed for, but I was expecting more.

Samsung EPL3PHPBEGCAN Tablet HDTV Adaptor 30pin

This adapter works by allowing me to plug my Samsung Tablet into my tv using an HDMI cable. The only thing that was not mentioned in the product description is that you have to plug the power source into the adapter in order for it to work. So, you will need a dedicated outlet for the adapter to work.

Works great! I am able to see everything clearly. Really satisfied with this product. Very easy to use and to connect.

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It's good but it's pity that this doesn't work with Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7.0. I hope this kind of product will have better compatibility to work with similar devices.

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Good product, easy to use and works every time. Would recommend for anyone looking for the flexibility to watch video from your tablet on hdmi devises.

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Aurum Silver Series Toslink Cable - Digital Optical Audio Cable - 15 Feet

Great feel but the ends seem a bit cheap but it works great so far. IT is long enough and the color is great as well. All in all I would buy this again.

I bought the --Cable Matters Gold Plated Premium TOSLINK Optical Digital Cable w/ Metal Connectors & Braided Jacket 15 ft. --last week from Amazon. It was a big disappointment. The signal would cut out and I got rid of it. Despite my bad luck I thought I would try again and bought this cable from Aurum which works perfectly. I think this cable looks nice in red and I would have purchased it in the first place if it had come up in my original search. I guess it pays to do your homework and the moral here is spend more than a few minutes before hitting the buy button. You are clearly doing a better job than me because I didn't read any reviews..

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Wow, you could use this for many things the designer probably didn't intend (or probably imagine). I am using it to connect my PC to my home theater receiver, and while I know that, like many things in life (I have been assured) size doesn't matter, when it comes to fiber optic... I wanted something substantial, not to mention red, to run along the wall in case there was another vacuum related incident, I mean if I somehow catch this with the vacuum I probably had one too many adult beverages, and you know what they say, friends don't let friends clean drunk... this is a solid cable, and quite attractive, not as attractive as the price, I mean, I have found cables half the thickness for twice the price (one went in my vacuum, but that is another story), get it, you wont be sorry, unless you are colorblind, then it probably wouldn't be a good choice for you!

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I used this cable for the optical out out of my Samsung plasma TV. Loved the braiding as I ran this through my wall and it served as good protection so I would not tear into the wire while poulling it through the wall and plaster. Works excellent, highly recommend!

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Does not stay in the port. Falls out of both tv and audio receiver even though each are different brands. Lame stay away far far away invest in a better/different cable brand

DNT 16ch 16 Channel H.264 Standalone Cameras Surveillance Cctv Dvr Digital Video Recorder Security

I didn't have to contact seller because the product worked as described. This product, however, requires the buyer to have a moderate knowledge base in networking, IP protocols, HTTP, Windows Security in regards to ActiveX, and at the very least, the ability to research online. The only problem I have had is getting an ipad2 to work with the unit. Good unit for the price.

After finding DNT tech on the internet and Amazon, I contacted the company directly since they were in the Los Angeles area. I spoke to the salesperson Derrick Tam, who sold me the DVR and 3 cameras. They offered to install the items, the installation fee alone of which came out to $485. Within a couple months of purchasing their products and having them installed at my home, I began to have problems with either the DVR or one of the cameras, I wasn't sure because it would either intermittently work and not work. I am extremely busy running my own business, and not until we had a break-in 10 months later did I finally do something about it. I called Derrick to ask about having someone come out to check it out. Instead of sending someone out, Derrick told me I should bring the cameras in and the DVR so they could have a look at it. This sounded reasonable, but after a few hours fiddling around on my roof and attic I realized that this was a dumb idea, because the problem could be in the wiring and somebody would need to come to my place to property assess what the issue is, especially since I had paid their company for both the products and the installion. When I called again about getting someone to come out, Derrick got very defensive, not even remembering who I was. I had the impression that many people must call regarding problems because he didn't even listen to me. He didn't offer a warranty on the installation or even mention that he could have someone come out to look at it for a charge, he just hung up on me after a minute of telling me that the sale was a one time thing. A "one time thing!" Be careful when dealing with this company because I'm sure you will get the same excuse when your products begin to fail after a time, I believe they are substandard and company's way of doing business is not what we would expect from a reputable company. Better to go with a recognized brand and company than DNT tech.

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Update: 5-19-2012 THIS UNIT has STOPPED working.

The remote playback 1st stopped working then the dvr would beep and it would start back.

Now the output connected directly to dvr has stopped. If you restart the dvr it will start working again.

This is bad. Leaves my shop and residence vulnerable until I can get a replacement.

Amazon is giving a full refund. I will not recommend anyone buy this.

I had a lower end Q-See qs206 DVR before this and thought I was upgrading. The Q-See is still running.

Please beware. If you depend on this for security it has proven to be very unreliable.

Mine boots up then goes off.

Was working ok for a month ONLY. Too much money for this to FAIL!!!!!!!! Very unhappy..

SOFTWARE says "CONNECT FAILED CANN"T FIND DEVICE" and yes it says it with 2 n's in can't :-/

I purchased the unit on the 8th. package was sealed.

DVR was scratched and had some type residue on the case.

Rubber feet were dirty even though this was in a sealed box.

Attempted to install the hard drive and the holes on the bracket did not line up.

Bracket for the cd drive also does not line up.

After getting the drives installed I turn the unit on and it boots up without issue.

The software is very good and easy to use and navigate. (Full featured)

Remote control does not work!

I'm returning this unit and will try another of the same brand.

Hopefully this was just a bad unit.

Manual is of a different item. PTZ does not work.

There is NO tech support. Please be aware when buying this unit.

I had Geovision and Q see both worked well.

I was trying to upgrade from a Q See unit so I would have the D1 quality. very bad idea.

Many phone calls and emails and no response.

I will not buy another DNT product. BUYER BEWARE

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Lorex 4-Channel H.264 DVR with 4 Wireless Cameras (LH1140501C4W)

The biggest problem with this system is the very reason I bought it. The wireless system is not consistent and drops the connection constantly. I should have known that this would be an issue when I read all of the reasons why it loses communication in the instruction manual. If you have an average size home, you will have this problem. The actual componants do work fine, when it works. If you have a small house or apt,

This system is right for you.

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ZMODO KDH6-DASFZ8ZN-1TB 16 Channel H.264 Security DVR (1 TB hard drive included) with 8 x 1/3" Colo

I purchased this system to keep an eye on my home while at work or vacation. Some planning before it arrived payed off and in only one day I had 6 cameras up and running. After a couple of calls to Zmodo the system was sending e-mails to my phone and I was viewing my home on the net. Nothing bad to say about the system. It performs well especially for the price. To say the cameras can see 80 ft. in the dark is a bit optimistic and if you wanted to make a blockbuster movie for the big screen this might not be the best choice but If you want to protect your home and have some peace of mind when you are away you can't do much better. The downs are few but include night vision that makes identifying faces difficult and a noisy fan on the dvr. My dvr is located in my bedroom and the noise is a little irritating. I am thinking about using a timer to only operate the system while we are not at home. This is not a big drawback for me because I purchased the system for when I am gone anyway. I suggest ordering an extra 50 ft. cable or two. Four of the eight cables are only 25ft! I managed to use two of them but compromised on camera location. I have added a couple of dome cameras inside and using one of the furnished outdoor cameras in the garage. The domes and the garage are the ones that trigger an e-mail due to leaves, birds, cars, etc. and so far not one false alarm. I am confident my home is protected and that was my goal. Amazon delivered as promised as they always do and i have no regrets about the purchase. I can truly say this is well worth the cost and time.

1 star for this DVR system because it sucks! i only bought it because it was on-sale and affordable, and i needed something cheap & quick. Seems like the DVR system has some kind of defect. The bullet cameras that came with it is great. 4 stars for that. The DVR system however, is my real problem! Not user-friendly, very difficult to understand and use the system, the instructions manual is garbage. Needs serious vocabulary improvements. (ENGLISH DAMMIT, ENGLISH!!!). the fan in the DVR box is noisy, and it (the DVR system) runs slow like an old jalopy computer infected with virus. Some of the buttons on the DVR box doesn't funtion, and the remote doesn't work. I have to do everything by using the mouse that came with it. Also, the other issue i have is with the time. i've set it to regular hours and not 24 hours mode, but it still show as 24 hour. For example, when the time is 12:59pm, when it turns 1 O' Clock, instead of displaying "1:00pm", it displays "13:00". Even with the time & date set to normal. It will take a while for an average joe to figure out how to use this DVR system. Eventually, after having this DVR system for almost a year now and messing around with it, i understand how it operates. Also, Zmodo Customer Service is horrible!!! 1 star for that also. Everytime i have an issue with my DVR system and tried to contact support, i either don't get the help i needed, or, i just don't get help at all! it's like they ignore you while you're waiting on the phone for half an hour already. Same for the 24 hour live support online. They will ignore you and eventually will send you a page telling you to leave your email and questions and they will get back to you, well, in this case, they never returned my email. i do not recommend this DVR system from this brand!

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i love it but still dont know how to record to retive to set up user manual dont under stand i may have to pay someone to teach me not as easy to learn as vcr can someone show me ron twosocks53@yahoo.com

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VIZIO VBR110 High Definition Blu-Ray Player with HDMI Cable, Black

• Full HD 1080p playback
• 7.1 Digital Audio*
• HDMI Video/Audio Cable Included
• Backwards Compatible - Plays Blu-rays and DVDs
• 24p True Cinema Video Output

I have owned several Vizio TV's and have always been impressed with the quality, given the price point. I just saw this model of Blu-Ray on Black Friday, and given the incredible price at Costxx, I went for it.

I found out in the next couple weeks that it would play an older Blu-Ray release beautifully, but couldn't play two new release titles.

Tech support was very easy to work with and ended up recommending I replace the unit. While being skeptical, given the pattern of behavior, I complied and found that the new unit played the previously unplayable releases just fine.

So, an initial bad unit, but good customer service (both Vizio and the retailer) made this a small inconvenience and I'm very happy -again, keeping in mind the price that I paid.

Also, note that this unit seems to load discs very quickly something that is worth noting as a differentiator between competitors. Standard def discs were even faster...a plus in my book

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I have purchased many products from Amazon including my new Samsung 42" Plasma over the years. This review will be about a purchase somewhere else. Some things have to be.

I worried over my choice of a lower price Blue Ray player. I wanted quality, but knowing how much my wife and I use the thing, we'd never get to use the bells and whistles such as Netflix and Youtube. Consequently, I looked for good to better reviews on the bottom Sharp22 and the Vizio110. Both were on sale last week in the Orlando area for under $100.

The Sharp had to go by the wayside because there were too many reports of it sounding like a freight train when it started up. I grit my teeth and went down to the "B" club to purchase the Vizio. I am not easily scared away, but there were MANY of these in stock; and they were not returns either. I looked carefully at all the boxes on display (about thirty) and realized that these were players which had not been opened since final assembly at the factory in ...help me....China. I have had a bad relationship with those boys. Malaysia looked good.

The price was the point.

It set up quickly. I managed to correct a mistake that my Bright House installer had made when connecting the HD box. I even went so far as to purchase a 25' LAN cord to attach the player to my router right here in the living room. That would be used later with a special disc.

I turned it on and insterted a regular DVD. Harlem Nights came on quickly and even at that resolution, beautifully. The sound is the thing. I connected it up to the Yamaha Dolby 5.1 (Five Channels at 100 Watts RMS) which I purchased from Amazon about a year ago waiting for this day. I was not disappointed. The picture and sound were perfect.

Then I turned to the Blu Ray disc I had purchased just for the occasion. It is a copy of "Phantom of the Opera". I wanted to test the picture as well as the sound. Fantastic!!! The machine recognized the disc immediately. It took no longer than ten seconds before the menu came up on the screen.

The machine is very very quiet. I have only one thing against the unit. The remote control although a bit confusing has a very slender angle of view. That is to say that some remotes, Sony in particular, can be aimed approximately at the unit in question before something happens. This one has to be aimed (literally) at the player. It will work, but don't expect to turn to talk to someone and get back to a running player; it ain't a goona happen.

Buy this unit. Aside from the remote question, it is a sturdy, quiet, and well-behaved blu ray player. And unlike many reviews I have read over the past month, it plays both DVD's and Blu Ray DVD's without a stop, a hitch, or a glitch. It just plays right through. FORE!!

Get this machine if you don't care about a lot of extras and only require good performance.

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The VIZIO VBR110 Blu-Ray player is a more than satisfactory entry to the world of 1080P Blu-Ray material. As suggested in their advertising, this unit will "upgrade" the quality of your existing DVD collection. What this means is simply thisyour DVD's will play flawlessly on this device and the output will fill the screen of any 1080i/p HDTV. Your DVD's will look pretty much the same as before, but will fill the 16x9 screen with more than acceptable resolution. The bottom lineyou won't need to replace your DVD collection. While not as stunning as the Blu-ray experience, regular DVD's look excellent on this unit and as expected, blow away VHS performance. Please bear in mind that I have only used this player with an HDMI connector. I cannot vouch for performance when connected via component cable. I must assume that composite connection will degrade performance significantly.

To my surprise, Blu-ray discs on the VISIO look substancially better than 1080i broadcast material (at least when connected via HDMI). The difference is in the Progressive scanning, versus interlaced. This is what the "i" and "p" stand for following the 1080. Blu-ray discs look better than any cinematic experience I have ever seenand that includes 70mm prints shown in the worlds finest theaters. Blu-ray has begun to threaten your local movie theater. This accounts in no small part to the proliferation of 3-D movies.

The VIZIO 110 is a solid and handsome device indeed. The elegant piano black front end is housed in a solid metal cabinet. This player has some heft to it, as opposed to many players that can be picked up with two fingers--and dented by the same. Gone are those screaming logos all over the faceplate, as will as useless displays, buttons and idiot lights. In fact, aside from the off-on and eject button, there are no other controls on the front end! Be forewarnedyou'll need that remote control, since the VIZIO is practically useless without it. Programable remotes seem to work just fine.

The only performance criteria that I cannot comment on is the loading speed. It takes 10 seconds or so for your disc to load. Once loaded, the usual commands seem slow to those new to Blu-ray. You do get used to it, but the device will seem painfully slow next to your old DVD player. I understand that this is pretty common among Blu-ray players. Obviously the device is loading significantly more data than the nearly outdated 4.8 gig DVD format can hold.

If your current HDTV does NOT have internet/wifi capability, hold the phone! You'll want a player with internet functions that the model 110 does NOT have. If your HDTV has internet, no problem. Duplicity in this matter is of no use. Yes, WIFI TV is here now, and you are going to want those features--believe me.

Assuming that your HDTV already has WIFI, the VIZIO 110 is a lovely player. The price is right, especially considering that they throw in a HDMI cable at no charge. If you want Blu-ray NOW, I don't think you can go wrong with the VIZIO. A year from now, anything you buy today will be obsolete, so you might as well enjoy your savings and consider this a "first player". The model 110 is sure to be a handsome addition to your home theater system.

One last comment-in my experience, VIZIO customer service is top notch. VIZIO is a real contender in the home electronics world. Don't be put off by the "new guy" label. They're all made in China anyway, so try to put label snobbery aside. VIZIO is here to stay and the design/style is world class!

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Got this unit along with my TV works just fine. Load very quickly friends are impressed with look and speed of unit. Would definitely recommend.

It's apparent immediately that this is a cheap blueray player. The remote's buttons are hard to press and make a loud clicking noise when pressed. Very annoying. The buttons on the actual player itself don't work on mine, I hope I never lose the remote. I use this mainly to watch Netflix. Every single task takes way longer than it should. If I want to stop a movie that's playing I hit stop on the remote and it takes a minute or so until it actually stops. The menus are hard to navigate and figure out. Completely unsatisfied with this piece of equipment.

Samsung Digimax A7 7MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom

i love this camera!

there are a ton of easy-to-use settings (ie portarait, sunset, dusk, close-up, etc.), but you can also set it to manual and do all of that yourself. the photo quality is fantastic, almost every shot is crystal clear.

i took a picture of a flower with dew drops on it, and when i uploaded it and zoomed in, i could see my reflection in one of the drops! how crazy is that?! my photo hosting site says the shots "print best up to 20x30." with my last camera, the site either said, "best up to 4x6" or "not recommended for printing" even though they looked perfectly clear to the naked eye.

in list form:

inexpensive

7 mp

crystal clear shots

able to shoot video w/ sound

lots of settings

compact

rechargeable batteries w/charger included

you will want to upgrade the memory because it comes with only 32 mb internal memory. (if you're looking to buy a memory card with the purchase of your camera online, you will need an 'sd' format card).

I recently got the DigiMax A7, and I knew it was a lower priced 7 megapixel camera, so I expected it to be good but not great. Overall, I would say it is somewhere between good and great.

One thing I recently noticed while taking pictures in the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs is that this camera doesn't take such great pictures in lower light. Maybe I was using the wrong settings, I had it set to Automatic, and I have used cameras all my life. If I was more familiar with this camera, I would have tried more of the manual functions. I do like how you can adjust the f-stop and shutter speed to whatever you want, this may have solved my problem. The low light images came out a little bit blurrier and grainier than brighter light pictures.

In bright light, I can't say how great this camera is. In bright sunlight, which is often ideal for taking pictures, the image clarity is AMAZING. I took pictures of a valley here in Colorado, and literally, I zoomed in on a house about a mile away (after I took the picture I zoomed in while viewing it on the LCD), and although the house wasn't extremely clear, you can tell if there is someone on the deck!

I wish I could give this camera 5 stars, but to be honest if you bought a $700 7 megapixel camera, you are probably going to get a 5 star device. I believe the price paid for this camera was about $200 though, so if you are an average consumer, not a professional photographer, you will probably love this camera. You definetly can't find a better camera in this price range, and I'm hoping this camera serves me well as I would have no problem keeping this as my main camera for the next 3 years (until I beat it up)

One last thing, a friend of mine recently got a camera (6 or 7 MP) and I don't remember what brand, but it could take pictures literally like 2 per second. This camera does take about 3-5 seconds for the flash to charge back up, so it's hard to take action shots since you can't take a quick succession of pictures. That would be nice, but honestly not many cameras can do that anyway.

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WOW!! I'm impressed. I just bought this camera for $177.74 at Sears. (Price match of Target sale price $188.00 minus an additional 10%). It takes great pictures 7MP, and near broadcast quality video (640x480 @ 30fps). It has full auto mode for the beginner, and full manual mode for the pro's. I love the manual mode, you can set the shutter speed from 1/2000 sec. up to a full 15 sec. exposure. With that exposure you can do those really cool night shots of the highway with the car headlights / taillights streaking by, or even take indoor pictures without using the flash. You can record audio sound bytes and attach them to a still image. I recorded the family singing "Happy Birthday" and attached it to a photo of the candles being blown out. It has adjustable white balance, and for color correction, you can choose the type of lighting being used (ie, Flourecent, Tungsten, Sunlight, etc.).

The bottom line is: This is a wonderfull camera even at the $299.00 MSRP. But, if you watch the add's you should be able to find it for under $200.00.

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This camera is the best camera I have purchased yet! The pictures are beautiful, that quality is great, and this camera is no were near as difficult to operate as my old digital camera!!! A must buy camera!

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A friend of mine picked up one of these cameras at Sams Club for $199. He loved it. I tried it and found it was great! Records short video! Zooms so close that you can see every line in the iris of someone's eye, even though they are photographed from across the room! AND you can crop photos right in the camera, e-mail them from the camera (if you plug it into a computer) and even get bigger memory cards. Mine came with a 128 mb card, and it holds about 60 photos when set to highest quality. Also came with a carrying case, a USB cord, and a battery charger. I've loved it since the first time I tried it, and couldn't pass up the deal of just $199 with a 1 year warranty! Best camera I've ever had. May even get better if I read the manual!

Samsung DVD-1080P9 1080p Upconverting DVD Player

• 1080p Up-conversion
• HDMI-CEC compatible
• Super Scan Playback
• BD Wise
• Dolby Digital

For the price point, this is a feature rich player. What you get:

a very sleek looking player that loads fast. Compared to the Phillips I bought at a big box store for the same price a year ago, it is greased lightning.

a functional remote that is comfortable and easy to use.

a USB port on the front of the player to play .mpg and picture files or to rip music to a flash drive or MP3 player from a CD or DVD.

easy to navigate controls on the front panel. This is essential for me because my employees, who will not have the instruction manual available, will also be using the machine.

an HDMI output, as well as the regular RCA type jacks.

a ton of other features I will not use in my particular application.

Setup was a snap, even without so much as a glance at the instructions. I was even able to do a picture slide show from a flash drive without instructions, it is that intuitive. The only reason I didn't give 5 stars:

If you want to connect an old school coaxial cable (the one that you screw on with the little wire in the middle of the cable), you are out of luck

I don't see any instructions on how to get it to control the volume on my TV (and it does not do it on it's own) even though the remote indicates it has the capability.

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I have owned alot of dvd players. I current have a Samsung BDP 1500, Toshiba HDVD, Samsung 1080p7, and LG & Onkyo unconverting players.

The P9 is pretty sweet. It does what it should do. I got it to play regular DVDs and audio CDs instead of using the Blu Ray player. With audio and standard DVDs the upconverting player loads and navigates MUCH faster than a Blu Ray player. I really got the Samsung because it matched my Blu Ray player in appearance and the older Samsung 1080p7 in my bedroom works so well.

Everything works as it should. Having said that, the CD ripper to USB port is the easiest way I've found to rip audio CDS. If I had to nit pick, I would ding it for not having an optical output. The P7 and P8 did, but Samsung must have figured the P9 didn't need it. I don't use HDMI video switching on my receiver and I have 2 optical and 1 coax digital input. Luckily my other 2 devices I use have optical audio outputs.

Overall, it looks great and works well and is pretty inexpensive. Highly recommend.

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If you have a new LCD TV and still are using an old DVD player, and aren't ready to take the Blu-Ray plunge, then this is the product for you.

I just bought a new Samsung LN26B460 (26" 720P LCD), and had it hooked up to my old Sony DVD player through the RCA cables. The picture wasn't as good as it used to be on my old CRT. So I bought this upconverting DVD player and I'm not disappointed. The picture quality improved immensely. It is now better than it was on my CRT. I can't say if it is as good as 720P Blu-Ray, and I'm sure it isn't as good as 1080P Blu-Ray, but it is way better than a non-upconverting DVD using RCA cables. It is most likely that the improvement is only because of the HDMI connection instead of using RCA cables. It doesn't matter what I set the player to, the picture seems to be the same, because the TV will also convert the picture to 720P no matter what. So the converter on the TV seems to be the same quality as the converter in the player.

If I were to guess, I'd say it is just a touch below 720P Blu-Ray quality.

As far as the rest of the player goes, it works as expected. It isn't super fast at loading DVD's, probably about normal. It isn't too noisy. I guess my one complaint would be that I seem to have to press the buttons on the remote more than once for them to work. I have the player at an angle to were I sit, and it doesn't seem to have the strongest sensor. If I'm aiming straight on, it works fine.

If your player already has HDMI or DVI connector, then I wouldn't bother getting this one, I don't think you will see a big improvement.

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I recently received this player through Amazon. It arrived ahead of schedule and was securely packaged. Very important when purchasing electronics, as they can be damaged easily.

I very much like this player. I ordered a Samsung TV, so was going to get a Samsung DVD player, so that I could use one of the supplied remote controls for both (it does this automatically, without any programing or fuss). I just looked at the 4 players on amazon and picked the one with the highest rating.

First, I will say, this is a good looking player. You can not tell much from its picture, however, this has the piano gloss front and looks quite nice. The front is not cluttered at all. A power switch to the far left and a telescoping tray as well. The large majority of the player is clean and open. On the far right is a circular control button, a-la ipod style and a USB port. The LCD screen sits in the center and is unlit when off, and not intrusive when displaying info, even in the dark. It is a perfect match for the Samsung TVs.

I have the player hooked to my TV with a Monster 1000 HDMI cable (yes this is overkill, however it was fantastically priced here on amazon). You can only upconvert with an HDMI cable, and one is not provided, so you must get one if you want the best picture possible. The HDMI can send a signal of 480p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p. I have a 26" 720p TV (newly purchased and reviewed on amazon as well) and the 720p setting gave the best picture for this TV. This is easy to check for your TV as there is a dedicated button to cycle through each setting.

Setup was incredibly easy. Plug the player into an outlet. Plug the HDMI into the back of the player and into the TV. Switch the TV to the proper input. That's it. 5 seconds and your playing movies.

The quality of the player is quite nice. We rented Bolt, an animated Disney movie. It was very colorful and detailed. An absolute pleasure to watch. The player supports autoplay, so discs automatically start with the previews, and then the movie right after (must also be programed on the disc as well). I can not say enough of how happy we were with the picture quality.

The bonus gem here though, and reason to get this over other players, is the front USB port. If you have your own digital movies from a digital camera or camcorder, or digital pictures, you can put them on a USB flash drive and watch them on your TV through this player. There is a USB button on the remote, however, it autodetected mine when I plugged the flash drive in. This was very nice as it also upconverted the digital movies I played. I could not see a difference in quality with pictures, however they were taken with a 15mp DSLR camera on highest quality, so I can't expect miracles. Other reviews discuss that downloaded movies will also play through the USB, but I do not own any, and can't review this function.

The remote control comes with batteries, and is pretty basic. It is not back lit, so will be a bit hard to see in dark lighting. There is a button to press if you wish to use it for the TV. As this does not stop the DVD controls from working, I leave it on TV setting all the time and use this remote for both. Only thing I do not like is that the chapter foward/reverse buttons for DVD operation and channel up/down buttons for TV operation are shared. If you are set to TV and try to fast foward, the channel changes off of input to cable. A minor annoiance, but this design flaw should be noted, even if not cared about.

Over all, I am extremely pleased with this purchase.

Thank you for reading my review :)

If you are still on the fence about investing in Blu-ray, but want to get the the most out of your HD TV, then up-convert DVD players are the way to go. Up-convert DVD players allow you to get the most out of your standard DVDs without the added expense of "new" hardware or the need to purchase (or re-purchase) your favorite movies in a different format.

Now, you may be asking yourself; what exactly does an up-conversion DVD player do, and how is it any better than a normal DVD player? Well, to put it simply, an up-conversion DVD player takes the standard 480p(640x480)resolution, which is standard on ALL DVDs, and up-scales(changes) it to a higher resolution; it then sends the up-scaled picture (digitally via HDMI) to the television. The end result is a picture that may appear to be much sharper and clearer than it would on a standard DVD player. On the flip side, unless you are using an HDMI cable, you may not notice much difference between standard 480p and 720p when up-converted, because the "digital" picture has to then be converted into an analog signal which results in a loss of quality. Unfortunately, there is only so much you can do with 480p "source material" and an up-conversion can "enhance" the picture quality of standard DVDs, but it will in no way look as crisp and clear as Blu-ray.

Now that I have explained a bit about up conversion, let's get on with the review. The Samsung 1080p9 is a fairly inexpensive up-convert DVD Player that comes with a host of features. In addition to playing standard DVDs the player also has the option to play Divx (and Xvid) movies, as well as Mp3, Wma, and JPEG files from either a disc or a USB thumb drive. The USB port is a nice perk, because it allows users the freedom of not having to burn everything to a disc in order to viewed on the television. The USB port also allows users to rip audio CDs ,via the player, into the MP3 format for storage on a thumb drive. A nice perk, but the ripping speed is only 2x, which is pretty slow. The player also comes with an HDMI output, as well as Component (RBG), S-Video, Composite (yellow), and RCA (red and white) audio outputs. It is unfortunate that this unit does not come with an optical audio output for home theater audio. The unit also does not come with any cables other than an RCA audio cable and the yellow composite video cable.

In terms of up-conversion of DVDs, the quality is pretty mediocre, especially when compared to other up-convert DVD players on the market. In fact, Samsung Blu-ray players actually do a much better up-converting standard DVDs than the Samsung 1080p9. This is because the up-conversion in this player is done via software, rather than using hardware specifically designed for up-scaling to high resolutions. Both Sony and Panasonic offer up-conversion DVD players that do a much better job with up-converting, because those players are hardware-based rather than software-based. The resulting picture quality from the 1080p9 is not bad by any means, the picture still looks better than a standard DVD player, but there are players that do a much better job of up-converting on the market, and they are pretty comparable in price.

The Samsung 1080p9 is very easy to use and set up. Just plug it in, and it automatically adjusts itself to the best resolution for your television. Those with Samsung televisions will also benefit from the Anynet feature that allow the user to control the TV and DVD player with the same remote, as well as some additional features like direct connect. The remote that comes with the DVD player does take some getting used to. The button placements feel a bit awkward at first, and the remote needs to be pointed directly at the player with no obstructions, but otherwise it's a very simple set-up-and-use DVD player.

This player does have a few quirks to keep in mind. First of all, the brightness and counter on the front of the display can not be adjusted. This player is also very sensitive to heat, so if it is not well ventilated, the picture will freeze and skip. The player does have a resume play feature, but it is very finicky; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. When the resume feature does work, for some reason the subtitles turn on by default, and need to manually be turned off. Also, when playing DVD-R material, the unit makes a slight constant chirping sound, which doesn't occur when playing retail DVDs, I'm not sure as to why, but the unit appears to play fine.

Overall, the Samsung 1080p9 is a good value for the money. It may not offer the best up-conversion quality on the market, but it does have a host of additional features that make it a bang for the buck. For those who are hesitant to re-invest in a new format, this player will definitely tide you over until your ready to take the plunge into Blu-ray.

Pioneer DV-414 DVD Player

• Twin-laser DVD mechanism capable of reading DVD-Video, VCD, audio CD-R, and audio CD-RW
• Optical and coaxial digital-audio outputs pass Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1-channel surround formats (for use with compatible AV receivers/speakers)
• Pioneer Viter-Bi error correction and high-end digital-to-analog conversion (96 kHz/24-bit audio DAC)
• Component-, composite-, and S-video outputs accommodate a range of TVs and monitors
• Measures 16.6 x 4 x 11.3 inches (W x H x D)

PROS: Full featured for a home theatre system (96KHz 24 bit D/A converter, Dolby Digital, DTS, optical output, component video output), nice price, EXCELLENT image and sound quality, beats other DVDs I've seen on these fields, nice face, LED panel can be turned off, lots of programming possibilities for those addicted to this (not my case, I'm confortable with viewing and hearing its quality). CONS: Remote doesn't have the best layout, may not be compatible with Pioneer's DVD R/RW. With the DV 414, Pioneer has proven that although quality has a price, it doesn't need to be above US$ 300. Bought mine on December 1999 and couldn't be happier, specially considering its price/features/performance/quality. If you like movies and are budget conscious, I can only but recommend the DV 414.

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I noticed the person who gave this player a bad review mentioned it was worst than his inexpensive VCR. That rang a bell. Because of the DVD's copyright protection mechanism, you can not run a DVD thru a VCR to a TV. Although this person didn't describe their setup, the mention of the comparison to an inexpensive VCR might imply that they also have a tv with only one video input. Most people with such a setup would be tempted to have both a VCR and DVD player connected at the same time. Going thru a VCR seems like it should work, but it won't. Any DVD player will outperform any VCR player. When someone says otherwise, there is an error somewhere.

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I bought 525 and it is as good as one can expect it to be. I short listed 525, 414 and toshiba 31xx model and finally went for 525. I heard some complaints on the net that it sometimes freezes/locks ans 414 has a lip-sync problem sometimes. 525 is a new model and we don't have sufficient time to find out its bugs yet LOL but it has been a good experience so far.

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BUYERS, BE AWARE.

I had 2 DVD players made by Pioneer. They are nice machines... for a little over a year. Then the warranty expires. The problem these players seem to have has to do with poorly designed dual laser pick up (one for DVDs, the other one for CDs and Video CDs). The first player I had stopped playing CDs and Video CDs, I got the other one this one stopped playing DVDs.

On the positive side the picture is very good, so if you are after a short-term buy go ahead, otherwise look for another brand.

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.

iriver T9 Silky Silver 4GB MP3/MP4 player

• Continuous music playback up to 24 hours
• FM Radio tuner & recording plus voice recording
• Fitness manager with built-in Pedometer
• High-speed USB 2.0 interface
• Sleek aluminum body

Highly recommended for people looking for a no-nonsense MP3 player.

Especially like the USB design and the 'Shake to skip' feature, very convenient.

And it's actually compatible with Mac.

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Seller is fast, the mp3 is updated with the latest firmware and it saves a lot of trouble to do so. Only wish there's an option for rubber casing to purchase. looks like i need to source it out. Thanks a lot and I LOVE IT!!!

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i had an older iriver but this one is even better. it has a timer, pedometer and radio frequency player. My old one didn't have all these features. I like the fact that it doesn't utilize batteries of any kind which is a plus. My other Cody player takes AAA batteries, real pain when you're out somewhere and it dies because of a dead battery.

OLYMPUS 147036 FOOTSWITCH OLYMPUS RS 27 REPLACES

Having bought the RS27 foot switch we have discovered that it does not reverse more than a few is any seconds at a time and that it often will switch back to the very beginning of the voice document. This has made it extremely hard to work with and I long for the good old days when you bought something and it worked the first time. Call me old fashioned.

This Foot Switch will only work if you have a certain type of Olympus DSS Player Software, not just any version. Just make sure you know which software you have or need to purchase before purchasing this foot switch to make it work. I thought a foot switch was a footswitch but apparently not. Do your homework. The sellers do not mention this fact which I think is a mistake. It should say it take software to make it work and not only software but a certain software.

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I've been doing freelance transcription for almost 10 years now, and this is the first time I've had to upgrade my foot pedal to a newer model. This one is replacing my old RS 25, which still works just fine, but to upgrade to the latest (and better) DSS player version 7, I had to upgrade my foot switch as well. This is pretty much the same thing...standard model with right rewind, left FF, and center play. It works well and had good plug and play functionality. No problems whatsoever. This seems to be another solid piece of equipment, and I'll use it for years to come...at least until they make me upgrade again to use a new version of the player.

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I have found I can only operate this foot pedel with my shoe off--the FF and Rewind are so slightly elevated above the center Play area, I can never hit the right area with my shoe on because I can't feel where the edges of the FF and Rewind are.

The bigger problem is that, totally counter-intutive, Rewind is on the right and Fast Forward is on the left! Why would they do this? After months of using it, my intuition is still to go to the left for Rewind and to the right for Fast Forward.

If there was any other foot controller available I'd buy it, but there isn't, and it does work but could be so much better.

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Most people are unaware that Olympus is the dominant manufacturer of endoscopes (flexible medical cameras pushed into orifices like the sphincter). They are quite respected for this, um... technology, but I must now invite you to consider metaphors apt to those glittering proctological exploits as we put one of their comparatively mundane transcription instruments on the table. Relax and spread your wallet.

The 147036 foot pedal is well-constructed and operates with no mechanical issues that I can see. You could land ass-first on the thing (bluntly characterizing my own acquisition of the device) and it probably wouldn't break. But I have to agree with everyone else contending with the ridiculous software upgrade policy Olympus has put in effect--this device should work with every version of their transcription software, which is overpriced as it is.

Because I am unwilling to fork over $150 for some jainky software upgrade I'm actually using my new pedal as a plugged-in peripheral to the DS5000 cradle. It cannot be set to transcription mode in this context, necessitating a bizarre tap-dancing, butt-chafing protocol to get anything done. And swallow this--if I accidentally touch the left pedal my DS5000 jumps to a new file, requiring a tedious, manual relocation to the abandoned edit point! I have something like 400 pages of text to transcribe and I'm seriously worried about hemorrhoids.

I'm sure I'll squeeze through somehow, but I could have done without this additional constriction to my creative output.

Securityman ClearCam Wi-Fi Interference-Free Mini Wireless Color Camera Kit with Audio

Normally video cameras have automatic gain control that turns up the sensitivity in low light. This camera does the opposite. In any light lower than bright office light it produces very dark and noisy pictures. In fact, instead of turning up the gain in low light it turns it down. I pointed it at a slightly dark area and then slid in a white piece of paper to see how the extra bright area affected the rest of the picture. A normal camera will reduce the gain when a bright object in introduced into the scene. In this case the background should have gotten darker when the white paper was put in the scene. But, it got brighter! It turns up the gain when the light level goes up! Either this camera was defective or it has a serious design flaw. In any case I'm returning it for a refund.

I couldn't really see how this cam works, because I dropped it from about 2 feet and it stopped working properly.

Be careful, this thing is fragile..too fragile I might say. Despite my general knowledge about electronics, I couldn't bring it back on line.Something went wrong with the ccd. From what i got to see, the angle of view is narrow, about 60 degrees.Receiver works ok.I guess for the money (around $50) seems like an ok product.

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Coby MP-C68347 MP3 Player with 1 GB Flash Memory and Stereo Speaker System

• Compact digital MP3 player with 1 GB of integrated flash memory and mini speakers
• Stores up to 16 hours of MP3 files or 32 hours of WMA files
• Pair of mini stereo speakers for out-loud playback; FM radio with recording
• Integrated microphone for digital voice recording; 3.5 mm auxiliary input
• MP3 player measures 2.04 x 2.83 x 0.58 inches (W x H x D); 90-day warranty

I bought this MP3 player for my daughter for Christmas. The reviews were decent, and Coby claims it's MP3 players are compatible with Mac computers/operating systems I do not have a PC at home, so this was important. It also seemed like a reasonably priced option, and the speakers were a big draw. My wife & I did not want to spend $150+ on an iPod for a 9-year old's first MP3 player.

I spent many hours trying to get either of my two Macs to recognize the thing was connected to a computer. There was no software in the box, no real instructions for use, and the whole thing was extremely cheap and plasticky. I knew just by holding it, my daughter would never be able to keep it from breaking if she used it more than a few times. In the end, I had to run out to the Apple Store at the last minute to purchase an iPod. Even the cheapest iPod (Shuffle) is a much better & more substantial option. It couldn't have taken me more than 15 minutes to get the iPod loaded with music. Spend the money. Go with any Apple product. They just work and they aren't junk.

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I just got this today and it is working great. The buttons can be unresponsive, or just take a while when you push them, but that is to be expected for an mp3 player of this value. This is great if you like recording off the radio, like me.

There are 3 recording settings, all WAV unfortunatly. Low is best for radio talk shows. Normal and High are great for music.

Overall a great value player

Panasonic DVDS1 Progressive Scan DVD Player

• DVD-R/-R DL/-RW/+R/+RW Playback
• Built-in Dolby Digital Decoder
• Compact Design
• MP3 WMA JPEG playback
• 108MHz/12 bit Video DAC

Works well, nothing overly complicated, inexpensive. I expect nothing more, and nothing less. It's a DVD player.

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I order this item for my son's birthday..and it appeared after ordering that it would not have arrived until after..however it arrive right on time the day of his birthday..and the product was great no problems with it..and my son love it. go amazon..wish I knew how to use all the discount coupons awarded to us at the same time..but it was great.

Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera (Raspberry)

Check out my sample footage video on Youtube. On Youtube search "djeror zi8 low light"

In my previous review of the Kodak Zi8 I was pretty frustrated at the fact that whenever I used the built in microphone the recorded videos had an annoying high pitch whine that made the audio from my videos almost unusable. Kodak recognized that this was an issue and created a firmware update that fixed the problem. It also fixed a few other things like the previous issue of the image getting darker as you zoomed in. They seem to have fixed all of the major problems with this firmware fix.

I do tech product reviews so I need the following things:

External mic input most of my videos are shot wearing a lapel mic

Macro mode I have to get close to little tiny screens

SDHC memory I go to all day trade shows, I need 10+ hours of video

Power options I need to be able to shoot while AC power is plugged in or use a large external battery.

Under $200 I'm poor.

Because of these requirements no other camcorder can fit my needs. One cool thing about this camera is that it is much more upgradable than the other pocket cameras on the market.

Con:

-The built in microphone is OK now that they fixed the whining noise, but it's still not amazing.

Work-around:

Don't use the internal mic... I use an Audio Technica lapel mic for 1 person interviews.Audio Technica ATR-3350 Lavalier Omnidirectional Condenser Microphone For events I ordered a Sony stereo mic to use instead of the built in mic. Sony ECM-DS70P Electret Condenser Stereo Microphone . Although I wish that Kodak made the internal mic better, for the most part I am kind of excited that the Sony stereo mic will give me much better sound than any of the standard internal mics that any of the pocket cams have.

Con:

-Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS) sucks a lot of juice. Also the Zi8 uses a proprietary battery rather than cheap swappable AA's. Battery life when shooting non-stop is 1hr 16min in 720p 60fps with EIS on. If you turn off EIS you get about 1hr 41min at 720p 60fps.

Work-around:

Use the USB to power cable that comes with the camera in conjunction with an external battery source. This is a must if you are going to be recording for more than an hour with EIS, cause that's about what the internal battery will give you. Tekkeon TekCharge Rechargeable Li-Poly Battery You can just stick this battery pack in your pocket and connect the charging cable to the Zi8. This will allow you to record for a super long amount of time. I haven't tested to see what my total record time with the battery pack will be but it should be around 5X the standard recording time. (about 6 hours with EIS on, almost 9 with it off) This gives you the best battery life of almost any camcorder. Sure it's an extra cost, but when you're at an all day trade show you don't have to worry about running out of juice.

Con:

Image stabilization can't rescue video you shoot while moving around. Any camera motion makes video awful.

Work-round:

Accept the fact you should probably be using a mini tripod with this camera or at least stand still. Also, although it takes a bunch of time to process if you have the new iMovie the image stabilization processing you can do is light years beyond what the EIS in the Kodak Zi8 can do.

One more important note. Make sure you buy high speed SDHC memory cards for this thing. If your SD card is not fast enough the camera will record for like 2 seconds and then stop with an error. It took me a while to figure out why the camera kept stopping recording when in HD mode but worked fine in SD mode. It was because of my old SD card. You need to make sure your SD card has a write speed of at least 9MB/s if you want to record in 1080p. These high speed cards cost more, but you need them for any camcorder that is going to record HD video to them, it's not just the Zi8. I think most Class 6 high speed SDHC cards should work.

If you want to get the most out of this camera plan on spending an extra $100 $150 in order to buy upgrade items. Personally I've come to the conclusion that the extra expenses were worth it. It all depends on what you plan on using the camera for. For a typical mom purse cam this would not be my recommendation, I would say go with a Flip Ultra HD. But for someone with particular needs like mine this camera may be the only one that fits the bill.

I rarely will type/review products but I've been a little frustrated reading the reviews of this product on Amazon and by users at other sites. Many users seem to think that this camera was designed to compete with expensive, professional cameras that cost thousands of dollars and produce full HD quality video. That's not what this is. Also, while my camera hasn't had the 'noise' issue from the Mic, i have seen a camera that had the issue and its BARELY noticeable. Its almost like a very quiet background noise from a Florescent light or something.

Kodak has designed, marketed, and built a camera to compete with FLiP and has clearly produced a FAR better product.

I'll keep it short and sweet and first explain who I am and what I am using this camera for. I use it for:

-Home Videos/Fun stuff with old buddies and friends

-For work when I need some quick video that's easy to upload online, or put in iMovie and edit

-For work when I need more complex videos that may require editing, or somewhat lengthy video but I want the ease of use/portability.

I have seen some of the problems stated with the internal Mic and I have had none of them (I do have the upgraded Firmware that is now standard 1.03, and Kodak says this completely eliminates the issue...again have never had the issue on my camera). A relative of mine was lucky enough to purchase this product when Kodak did an 'early' release a few months ago and occasionally his videos will have a bit of a higher pitched background noise, but it doesn't interfere with the sound from the video -its just a light background noise that, honestly, i've heard on dozens of cameras. Don't forget, without an external Mic the camera only records mono so -the sounds quality isn't going to be great anyway!

The video is great, image stability isn't as advanced as those available on more expensive cameras but it is better than anything i've seen in a FLiP or other Kodak model. It does work and you can see a difference, even if its not huge. Its SO easy to flip between video modes. The 1080p is awesome, but sometimes its nice to move back down to 720 and the 60fps to capture 'action' footage.

One negative -which most people may see as a positive -i do wish there were more settings, or at least the ability to play around with more features/edit modes. Its GREAT easy to use, its a point and shoot video camera -but with the great lens and abilities, it seems like Kodak could have -pretty easily -had this camera competing with much higher end cameras. If all the hardware was put to great use this could compete with $500+ cameras. But I understand wanting to keep it simple.

I like having the SD card. Some people would prefer the internal memory, and yes by the time you buy a decent sized SD card the camera is more expensive than the FLiP, but, the FLiP has a very limited memory. This camera is limited only by the size of the card...Definitely a positive!

Finally, I know people that are both in the TV business and do a lot of Video blogging and they are drooling over this camera because of the external mic capabilities. One reason lots of 'pros' didn't like FLiP was because of the audio issues. Kodak has solved those, not to mention providing better quality video.

Again this isn't something to shoot with if your a young film-maker or a die-hard amateur cinematographer. But if you need something cheap to get some great quality video, or need something super easy to use that is really portable....Take the plunge. And if your considering FLiP -don't bother...

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Instead of shooting a review, I took some video, outdoors in the dark, in a dim room, and various lighting conditions. I erased the audio portion it was just wind and ambient noise. The original video is great quality hopefully Amazon does not compress it too much!

Christmas lights in front of the house, the tree inside the house, and some footage at the local gym (dark, medium and bright conditions!)

I also shot some close-up footage with the close-up setting on and off so you can see how it works.

All videos are recorded by the camera in .mov format.

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So, I read all the same reviews you did on Amazon. Some people love it some people have had problems. I have not seen a product with such a wide range of reviews and was very leery. I bought it locally at a store with a good return record as Amazon was out of stock with no ETA on new stock.

I will start by saying, I have not had any of the problems that seem common here. No lines, no funny squeals/hums, etc. This unit came with the latest firmware installed (1.06).

Reading the 4 and 5 star comments on Amazon, I would say they are in line with my own experiences. For my needs this camera hits the mark on so many levels.

My needs:

Small camera

Ability to record fast action movement of sports/dance activities

Extremely easy to play back on a computer AND television

Zoom. Optical would be great, but not needed for what I do.

A standard video format that could be edited by lots of different software.

Major pluses that tipped the scale to this camera over others:

Removable memory. I don't want to download everything to a computer when I am on vacation. Swapping out the memory card is like loading film...I'll process it when I get home.

Removable Battery. With all of my rechargeable tools/toys, I will use them more if I can swap out a run down battery and keep going. This lesson was first learned with cordless drills, always buy a second battery so you can keep working.

Decent quality video for the size. Look at another reviewer on Amazon. He did a decent job of recording in different lighting conditions to show you what to expect. Similar videos were found on Youtube.

Software:

This seems to be a problem for a lot of people. I really didn't expect much and knew from other reviews that the .mov format was compatible with Quicktime. I would have preferred something I could use on Windows Movie Maker, but if the software did not work it was only $30 to upgrade to Quicktime Pro to edit.

As an aside: I found it interesting that folks complained that only PC software was included. What they didn't seem to understand is this .mov format works natively with the standard iMovie software on the Mac.

All that said, the Arcsoft software loaded fine on an old laptop running XP. Now, like any other video editing software, I had to close all other programs to keep the video from being jumpy when I edited or played it.

The one interesting detour I did not expect was the 8GB SDHC card I bought for the camera was not something the old XP could read with it's built in SD card reader (SDHC did not exist when this computer was built). It worked fine with a newer Vista based computer. That said, flipping out the USB connection from the camera and plugging it into the XP laptop worked great. The laptop treated the camera like a USB memory stick and the movies run in Quicktime.

As to converting the .mov to something I can use (say .avi) with Windows Movie Maker, I did find some free tools listed by other reviewers that worked fine (RAD Video Tools http://www.radgametools.com/bnkdown.htm) .

What would I like to see different? An adjustable focal length so I could get everyone in the shot across the table and still take the long shots. I expect that will be years before this feature is affordable enough to put in a $200 camera. I do look forward to that day as I bet we see optical zoom and detachable lenses to do fun things when that day comes.

I think I got lucky in some areas and had different expectations in other areas.

It appears that the early adopters had problems and Kodak was quick to fix them. I received a newer model with the latest fixes (firmware) and possibly newer ArcSoft software.

I never expected a $200 camera without optical zoom to take pictures of cameras costing twice as much and more.

I never expect included software to be stellar as that has never been my experience with ANY product. It should do the basics, and for me it did, although I probably won't use it given other free options.

I have had video cameras in the past and recognize the need for good lighting, both on the subject and behind the subject. That said, I am pleased with the video even in low-light situations as it is better than what I expected.

If you need a small video camera that is very easy to use and share your videos, I would not hesitate to recommend this to you.

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I'm friends with a lot of Boston area musicians, and I have been very supportive of them. Near the beginning of the year, I started using a Kodak Zi6 in preparation for a video project involving the Boston area music community, mostly as proof of concept for the use of modern low-cost video technology in capturing music shows in a very naturalistic, unobtrusive manner. There was a long learning curve, mostly to do with processing the raw video and audio -video cameras in general are not designed for the lighting and sound levels typical of club shows, and despite the limitations of the Zi6 -not so good low light sensitivity, a mono-only mic, and the included software was useless for my purposes -I ended up getting pretty good results.

When the Zi8 was announced and that not only it was suppose to have better low light sensitivity and a higher resolution, but also image stabilization and a jack for an external stereo microphone, it was a no-brainer to get one. What was tricker was deciding on the microphone -there were some video reviews on YouTube and such, but nobody was really recommending anything in particular. I did find one video using a Sony ECM-DS70P Electret Condenser Stereo Microphone and that seemed like it would work well: it was very compact, seemed to sound pretty good, and was relatively inexpensive. For the memory card, which you need, I just reused the 8 Gb SDHC cards I had bought for the Zi6. I had gotten spoiled with the battery life of the Zi6 -a couple of cheap, rechargeable 2400mah NiMH AA batteries would be good for all night and nearly 4 Gb of recording. The Zi8 uses a compact lithium-ion battery that lasts maybe only a third as long. Amazon had exceptional deals, though, on both compatible batteries and a charger, so I ended up getting both 2 BATTERY+CHARGER FOR KODAK KLIC-7004 V1073 V1273 M1033 and Kodak KLIC-7004 / Fuji Np-50 / Pentax DL-I68 Compatible Li-Ion Battery. Even though the specs on these batteries give them a higher capacity than the Kodak battery that comes with the Zi8, they've so far been lasting about 80-90% as long. For the price, though, they were/are exceptional deals.

I starting using the Zi8/Sony mic combo back at the beginning of October and the overall improvement over the Zi6 was immediately obvious: even at the same 720p resolution, the Zi8 produced much sharper, cleaner video in a club environment, and the Sony mic just rocked in terms of sound quality. The Zi6 for a long while was reputed to have the best internal mic of all the pocket digital camcorders, but the Zi8 with the Sony just blew it away. The best thing about the Zi6's mic, though, was that it was nearly impossible to make it clip -it was able to handle insane volume levels. The only times it had trouble was with very, VERY high bass volume levels. The only drawback to the Zi8/Sony combo is that it can't quite handle the same volume levels, especially if there is excessive midrange on the vocals. The Zi8 has an microphone input level control, but even at its lowest setting, I've had a couple of instances where vocals cracked due to excessive midrange volume at around 640khz. But bear in mind that is while standing near the stage and by the speakers at a rock show mixed with too much midrange. But so far, for easily most of the rock shows, the audio has turned out superb with the same processing tricks I learned using the Zi6.

There is one proviso with the audio: I now always extract the audio and use a separate audio editor (something like the free Audacity editor) to clean it up before adding it back to the video (which is actually easier than it sounds). I did notice that there was very narrow "dip" (more like a reverse spike) at about 7900khz that wasn't correctable, but it was narrow enough and at a high enough frequency not to be noticeable. I thought that this was a Sony mic characteristic, but I recently upgraded the Zi8's firmware to 1.06, and the "dip" shifted downwards to about 5500khz, and was a little bit wider, but not nearly as steep. You would think that this would be more noticeable, but that it's now much more correctable than when it was at 7900khz, and the audio overall sounds cleaner than before the upgrade.

The biggest weakness with both the Zi6 and Zi8, and in general with all video cameras, as well as cameras that do video, is the software. Pretty much all concert videos need some adjustments for brightness, contrast, saturation and maybe hue, and the audio usually needs to be corrected with something like a graphic equalizer at the least. This is basic stuff, but nobody seems to include good software for this. The Zi8 comes with ArcSoft's MediaImpression, but while it does allow some good basic adjustments to picture quality, there is nothing for audio adjustment. Both the Zi6 and Zi8 save videos in Apple's Quicktime "Mov" format, and there isn't a whole lot on the Windows PC side that deals with this cheaply and easily. I tried Apple's Quicktime Pro, which is relatively cheap at $30, but I found it too slow, too limited, and too poorly designed to bother with for regular use. I also tried different conversion programs, but you always loose detail with every conversion. I ended up using VirtualDub, which is free, and some free plugins for it. But VirtualDub is not able to directly open up MOV without some geeky trickery, the details of which are beyond what I can put here. Probably for most users, another free program, Avidemux, will likely do. It's not really meant for beginners, but you can find beginner guides easily enough online. There are some $99 programs that *might* do, but my experience with a trial version of one of them wasn't the best, and you need a lot of horsepower to deal with a 720p video resolution. Even when using compact, no nonsense VirtualDub for processing, it typically takes my stripped-down 3 Ghz Pentium D system about an hour on average to process a typical 4 minute concert video for uploading to YouTube.

Anyone interested in my personal results can just do a YouTube search for "MelodyMatters" and all the videos there from the beginning of October to the present (except for one), were done with a Zi8. FYI....