Scanner Reviews

I've owned this model for about a year and it's the best scanner I've ever had. It's sleek, attractive and fast. It uses USB hookups and consumes little power. I'd highly recommend it. It has high-quality, 600 x 1200 dpi/36 bit color scanning. It's sleek, ultra-slim, just 1.5 inches tall. It has a programable scanning button for easy one-touch scanning. Has a USB port interface for easy PC and Mac connection. It's top quality, award-winning and comes with great software for creative projects.

I don't even need to say anything about this piece . Its very very easy to setup. And above all very fast Scan . And Guess What ! No power input needed , works on USB

I have purchased this printer 8 months back from Amazon. Great price on the net. I have been using the printer for ever since. THe printe quality is very good. Scanner and Fax works great. I even print photographs and a lot of material for home and my child's school projects.

I would recommend this product.

Only had this for 2 days, so I'm sure something will rattle me eventually, but so far this is a great product. Fast, high quality pictures and print. Good copies. Easy to set up. Good deal so far.

I needed a new scanner to use to to scan many journal articles into PDF format for a personal library. This scanner works without any problems. It is fast and the automatic documnet feeder is great. For scanning photos, the reproduction is also great. I have a Mac running OS X and it is compatible without any problems. A very good scanner for the money. No reservations on recommending this product!

Buy it! The scanning is fast, the sheet feeder is unbelievably accurate at feeding paper, the graphics quality is superb, the user interface is easy to use and navigate, and the options available are almost limitless. I have owned 6 scanners in the past and this is indeed the best scanner I have ever owned. Buy It!

This scanner just tears through a stack of documents when scanning. Although it says the document feeder has a 50 sheet capacity, I've found that if you actually put 50 sheets in it, it starts to double feed, so I limit it to about 25-30. I really like the ability to scan both sides of a document with one pass.

For online documents, I'm finding that 200 dpi is more than adequate, unless you are scanning dot matrix printing, then you need either a higher resolution, or to adjust the brightness setting, or both to get a good scan. The worst is scanning dot matrix printing on yellow paper.

It will scan really small documents (like a check) just fine, but if you put different sized documents in a stack to scan, it will pull some of the smaller ones though a bit crooked.

It comes with Acrobat free of charge, ... All in all, I like it, and would buy it again, unless I could afford a faster version like the 4770.

I've installed 2 of these little fellows, in one case replacing an HP 7490c which was my favorite electronic item to loathe. It took forever. It screeched. It locked up PCs. It jammed. It scanned like that song from Rocky Horror: "it's just a jump to the left. Then a jump to the right." I upgraded to Windows XP to please it. It found that rare defect in XP: its inability to recognize some USB scanners, forcing me to un-plug and re-plug the HP Scanner cable every single re-boot. It lived to be loathed. HP will send you a replacement ADF as often as you like, with no argument at all. How's that for their confidence in quality control for this little objection of disaffection?

And then, sigh, I bought the Fujitsu FI-4220c from Amazon. It arrives with one of those oddly phrased last minute insert pages that essentially says don't try to use the USB connection with XP. It's a good warning to heed.

If instead you install the card in your PC (I know, it's been ages since I've opened up a chasis, but it's easier than it ever was in the old days), the rest is straight forward. Small footprint. Quiet. FAST. Startingly fast. Ample resolution. Snap to alter the settings for each scan. Not quite the exact clarity (and lack of slight curving of text) that you will find if you pay 3 times the price, but then you aren't paying 3 times the price. While I suppose it works well as a "departmental" scanner, we use them for single desks with heavy document / image scanning demands. Just keeps keeping up.

I suggest you install it with a current ample PC and have plenty of electronic storage space on hand, because you will find yourself scanning more than you imagined. Little odds and ends of paper just do go away and don't return. 50 page legal size document in a couple minutes, converted to pdf and ready to email. No fits and starts. All pages in order. Lovely.

In addition to Adobe, we also use Paperport as a gateway and editing software for scanned docs.

This Fujitsu is a solid unit. Both units have returned price in peformance within a few weeks of purchase and installation.

Still trying to find the correct ecological opportunity for detroying the HP. Maybe find a Sondheim giant roaming the forest. BOOM. SQUISH!

Most of the title examiners I know cannot figure out why Hewlett Packard has stopped manufacturing this item. I looked at this scanner 3 years ago when they cost 750+ and only a couple of land surveyors owned one. I bought one when the price came down to the 400 range as did just a few other title abstractors; now I have to keep mine under lock and key. The copies are clear enough (although not as good as photocopier copies) and it simplifies my job tremendously to be able to make my copies with a scanner rather than spend my day looking for a working photocopier. The battery works for roughly 8 hours and the charger holds 4 batteries so there's no running out of power. Some examiners download to a pc but I prefer to use a portable desktopr copier (made by HP). Time is money in my business and if HP were smart they would make themselves a lot of money by reissuing this device.

HP has never really known who to market this device to. I do legal and real estate research and when I first saw a co-worker with this device, I knew I had to have it. It was just beginning to sweep the courthouse where I work when HP discontinued production. The price has sky-rocketed for a used device as this little toy can literally double your productivity if you are out in the 'field' making copies. Mine paid for itself in the first 3 months and I have had it for 3 years.

I upgraded from Xerox M940, what a change. No error messages, it actually works without a glitch. Double sided copying is wonderful, fast scanning and printing, document feeder is a big plus for multiple scans/copies.Two trays for different kinds of paper ( I loaded one with legal and one with letter size)
The only conn is that if you turn it off, the computer will not wake it, so you have to manually turn it back on, but who cares... Got it at Office Max for $... Great deal. Big five stars.

I own a small business and I needed to get a copier. Well, the last time I owned a multi-purpose machine it was junk. (expensive junk, too). This was the complete opposite, It copies pretty quickly, but what I love is the paper-feeder. (50pgs...NICE). The printer is also really really nice (2 paper trays...I use envelopes on top and 8.5x11 on the bottom).
The most unexpected part, however, was scanning. I dispise scanning. I've spent hours trying to get 2 or 3 pics in my system. What a pain. Not with the HP. Here's how it's set up: On the machine itself, you click "scan to:" and in the little lcd screen, it has all of the programs on your system that you can scan to. (even ms word). Then click scan. It opens your app and puts the scan in there. (I've even done 20pg faxes!).
Furthermore! I took a document someone handed to me at a meeting and dropped it in the feeder; scanned to word...stood in amazement. It actually mad the document editable.?!?!? even the fonts were correct. I tried this on my old scanner and it was a joke. No lie, it worked. All I have to say is, "I love my new machine"
ps. one negative thing is for MAC users. It is really set up for windows. My client has one on his mac and it [stinks]. However, I couldn't care less about what a Mac user wants. They can get their own special toys with nice colors and pretty icons. Leave business work to HP. So it gets 5 stars in my book.

I previously left a warning that this scanner was incompatible with Mac OS X Panther (10.3.x). However, HP has just released a driver for this scanner, and all compatibilty issues seem to be resolved. If you purchase this scanner within the next couple months (before the newer models with the driver included reach the outlets), you may find that you need to download the driver from www.hp.com. When I downloaded the driver, my computer mistook it as an Adobe Go Live file. If this happens, single click on the downloaded file and open it with Stuffit Expander (or similar program). This should work and give you a folder with several options. Rather than just the Mac OS 10.3 plug-in, select the icon for the general scanjet installer. If you have any other trouble, HP service should be able to help. Now that I finally got this contraption to work, I'm amazed at the quality and speed. You'll be very happy with this scanner.

I have thousands and thousands of family pictures and letters to
sort through and scan in, and my old scanner just wasn't up to
the task. I've been looking around for a faster scanner and this
one is defeinitely it. My old scanner took 80 seconds to scan a
color image at 300 dpi. This scanner takes maybe 8 seconds to do
the same, and the quality is better. I scan directly from Paint
Shop Pro using WIA, because I don't care much for the HP software
that comes with the scanner. I am in love with my new scanner
and have no doubt it was worth the extra money.

After getting this reader and getting use to putting the cards in the correct way I love it. I love the fact that it is powered via the USB port. The quality is great and the text recognition is wonderful. I have scanned multiple business cards from conferences that I attend. I love the fact that I can export the contacts and separate them from the different events. The price is also reasonable.

The portability is a plus and I would recommend its purchase.

I do not have that many cards but I just hate retyping them... retyping 10 cards is a waste of time and I have dozens...
I purchased this product with a "try and see" attitude (I am sincerely a tough customer to please when it comes to theses types of technologies) but I really am very satisfied with this product, not only because it does what it says it does but also because of the special advantages. I discovered this little scanner also scan pictures! I scanned ALL my 4X6 pictures in Photoshop in half the time of a regular flatbed!
Very nice product! At this price, it is a no brainer!

Given that this is my first scanner, some of my enthusiasm for its features and ease-of-use might simply be naivete. On the other hand, having a fairly deep technical background, I think my appreciation of this unit's abilities and organization are mostly based on Uniden's exceptional design. Over and over I find that this unit operates just as I'd like it to, showing that it's the clear result of several generations of refined scanner design.

The BC-780XLT provides both traditional frequency scanning, as well as trunk-tracking. Traditional scanning lets you program frequencies into memory banks, and then scan through them looking for active signals. You can also search ranges by programming the low and high endpoints, and having the scanner search between them for active frequencies. With 10 banks of 50 frequencies each, the BC-780XLT provides reasonable room for even the most crowded airwaves. (And, as discussed further below, the ability to upload and download the scanner from a computer extends this ability significantly.) Individual banks can be turned on and off, and individual channels can be explicitly locked out, allowing you to finely tailor your scan.

Where this unit differs from traditional scanners is in its ability to track trunked systems. In such systems a small set of frequencies is shared by many different organizations (e.g., police, fire, public works), and rather than assigning fixed frequencies to specific units, the frequencies are assigned dynamically as needed. The result is that a single conversation may hop between frequencies as it progresses. Tracking this with a traditional scanner is nearly impossible, as a single frequency will play host to parts of different conversations, and a single conversation is strewn across multiple frequencies. The trunk-tracking scanner is able to use the information on the system's control channel to follow the conversation, just like the radios of the participants. The result is that you follow a single conversation, rather than just a single frequency.

Uniden offers several models of trunk-tracking scanner, including the lower-priced 895, and the handheld 245. The 895 is limited to tracking either trunked systems or traditional frequencies at any one time. The 780 (and 245), on the other hand, can intermingle trunk and regular frequencies within a single memory bank, and be set to scan through both of them, or between banks which contain any combination of trunked and standard frequencies.

For me, where the 780 really excels is in its alphanumeric display. In addition to having an alpha tag for each channel, you are able to set up scan lists of talk group IDs. Talk group IDs represent a logical channel (rather than a single frequency), such as the police department's dispatch channels ("Dispatch 1" "Dispatch 2"). When following a trunked system, the scanner tracks talk groups, rather than individual frequencies, and the labeling will show you an alpha tag for the talk group (e.g., "Tactical 1"), rather than just he Motorola or EDACS ID number. This makes it much easier to know who you're listening to.

Public trunked systems are well documented (either on the Web, or in publications such as "Police Call"), but for those that simply appear out of thin air (you might stumble on a system's control channel while searching frequency ranges, for example), the 780 will also help you find the full set of frequencies. Once you have found the control channel in a Motorola system, you can use a "control channel only" mode to ferret out the rest of the system's frequencies.

The 780 has a serial port through which the unit can be programmed or driven by computer. There are numerous software packages for accomplishing this, available through the many on-line 780 discussion groups and websites. It's a good thing, too, as 500 channels, plus 10 trunk scan lists of 100 group IDs each (1000 total) would be nearly impossible to program through the scanner's front console. By keeping separate frequency files on your computer, you can easily download different sets of parameters (i.e., should you have more than 500 frequencies you want to keep track of).

The front console and menu system are reasonably easy to understand, given the complex function available in this receiver. A novice user can get up and running with traditional frequency scanning very quickly, and the unit come with introductory frequency guides. Getting a trunked system programmed is a bit more work, but still not too complicated. The manual has most of the operational detail you'll need, though it's not always well organized as a reference (e.g., items mentioned in passing in one section may not be repeated elsewhere where you might go looking for it). The manual also contains a few mistakes. The numerous on-line discussion groups can help out if you get stuck.

The reception with the included whip antenna is excellent in dense, urban areas. Where stations are weaker, obviously, an external antenna will be needed. The sound quality out of the bottom firing speaker is very listenable, though an external speaker (for which a connection is included) would improve the audio quality. The unit comes with both a wall-wart 120v adapter, as well as power cords for connection to a car battery and a car's cigarette lighter. Reports of mobile usage have been very positive.

Overall this has been a great purchase. I picked the 780 over the 895 primarily for the 780's sophisticated alpha tagging system, and secondarily for its ability to track trunked and non-trunked systems at the same time. Both features have turned out to be essential to my enjoyment. Hopefully Uniden will get all of these features into a handheld unit!

This scanner is by far one of the best ever! The receive is very sensitive. The display is large and easy to read. The back light can be set to off/med/high. The 780 also does a great job at following the trunked systems. You can also create your own text tags for channels or talkgroups. The WX alert is the best I ever seen on a scanner. You can enter the exact FIPS code for your County. By entering the FIPS codes eliminate false alerts. Great radio for the all around user. Did I mention it also has a computer interface? That is right you can control it with your computer (software is aftermarket, there is some "freeware" on the web).

Given that this is my first scanner, some of my enthusiasm for its features and ease-of-use might simply be naivete. On the other hand, having a fairly deep technical background, I think my appreciation of this unit's abilities and organization are mostly based on Uniden's exceptional design. Over and over I find that this unit operates just as I'd like it to, showing that it's the clear result of several generations of refined scanner design.

The BC-780XLT provides both traditional frequency scanning, as well as trunk-tracking. Traditional scanning lets you program frequencies into memory banks, and then scan through them looking for active signals. You can also search ranges by programming the low and high endpoints, and having the scanner search between them for active frequencies. With 10 banks of 50 frequencies each, the BC-780XLT provides reasonable room for even the most crowded airwaves. (And, as discussed further below, the ability to upload and download the scanner from a computer extends this ability significantly.) Individual banks can be turned on and off, and individual channels can be explicitly locked out, allowing you to finely tailor your scan.

Where this unit differs from traditional scanners is in its ability to track trunked systems. In such systems a small set of frequencies is shared by many different organizations (e.g., police, fire, public works), and rather than assigning fixed frequencies to specific units, the frequencies are assigned dynamically as needed. The result is that a single conversation may hop between frequencies as it progresses. Tracking this with a traditional scanner is nearly impossible, as a single frequency will play host to parts of different conversations, and a single conversation is strewn across multiple frequencies. The trunk-tracking scanner is able to use the information on the system's control channel to follow the conversation, just like the radios of the participants. The result is that you follow a single conversation, rather than just a single frequency.

Uniden offers several models of trunk-tracking scanner, including the lower-priced 895, and the handheld 245. The 895 is limited to tracking either trunked systems or traditional frequencies at any one time. The 780 (and 245), on the other hand, can intermingle trunk and regular frequencies within a single memory bank, and be set to scan through both of them, or between banks which contain any combination of trunked and standard frequencies.

For me, where the 780 really excels is in its alphanumeric display. In addition to having an alpha tag for each channel, you are able to set up scan lists of talk group IDs. Talk group IDs represent a logical channel (rather than a single frequency), such as the police department's dispatch channels ("Dispatch 1" "Dispatch 2"). When following a trunked system, the scanner tracks talk groups, rather than individual frequencies, and the labeling will show you an alpha tag for the talk group (e.g., "Tactical 1"), rather than just he Motorola or EDACS ID number. This makes it much easier to know who you're listening to.

Public trunked systems are well documented (either on the Web, or in publications such as "Police Call"), but for those that simply appear out of thin air (you might stumble on a system's control channel while searching frequency ranges, for example), the 780 will also help you find the full set of frequencies. Once you have found the control channel in a Motorola system, you can use a "control channel only" mode to ferret out the rest of the system's frequencies.

The 780 has a serial port through which the unit can be programmed or driven by computer. There are numerous software packages for accomplishing this, available through the many on-line 780 discussion groups and websites. It's a good thing, too, as 500 channels, plus 10 trunk scan lists of 100 group IDs each (1000 total) would be nearly impossible to program through the scanner's front console. By keeping separate frequency files on your computer, you can easily download different sets of parameters (i.e., should you have more than 500 frequencies you want to keep track of).

The front console and menu system are reasonably easy to understand, given the complex function available in this receiver. A novice user can get up and running with traditional frequency scanning very quickly, and the unit come with introductory frequency guides. Getting a trunked system programmed is a bit more work, but still not too complicated. The manual has most of the operational detail you'll need, though it's not always well organized as a reference (e.g., items mentioned in passing in one section may not be repeated elsewhere where you might go looking for it). The manual also contains a few mistakes. The numerous on-line discussion groups can help out if you get stuck.

The reception with the included whip antenna is excellent in dense, urban areas. Where stations are weaker, obviously, an external antenna will be needed. The sound quality out of the bottom firing speaker is very listenable, though an external speaker (for which a connection is included) would improve the audio quality. The unit comes with both a wall-wart 120v adapter, as well as power cords for connection to a car battery and a car's cigarette lighter. Reports of mobile usage have been very positive.

Overall this has been a great purchase. I picked the 780 over the 895 primarily for the 780's sophisticated alpha tagging system, and secondarily for its ability to track trunked and non-trunked systems at the same time. Both features have turned out to be essential to my enjoyment. I'm looking forward to having these features in Uniden's new handheld (BC-250D)!

I've had this radio for about a year now (ever since it came out). I was initially attracted to it because of the faster scan speed and the ability to monitor both regular and "trunked" frequencies.

Trunked frequencies are being adopted by more states and towns. What this technology does is share a common set of frequencies among all the users. A computer controls the switching and usage of the channels. So perhaps only 5 frequencies might be used to power an entire city.

Not all scanners can receive trunked radio systems (the 780 does receive almost all of them with the exception of those that are digital).

Anyhow, here are my loves and hates for this radio:

LOVE:
1. Alphanumeric display: You program in both the frequency and the name of the police/fire department you are listening to. With 500 channels to program -- there is very little chance (unless you are fanatical) that you'll remember what every frequency is assigned to. Using the alphanumeric programming you can enter a name for each channel to display in addition to the frequency.

2. Simultaneous scanning of both trunk and conventional frequencies (this is fairly important if you live near a city or are halfway serious about monitoring).

3. Each channel can be programmed with a PL which stands for private line. Sometimes in congested areas different users will be assigned the same frequency. When this happens, they also make use of a non-audible PL frequency which allows the radios to tell which users should be let through and which should be squelched.

HATE:

1. Scan speed slows when you use the PL feature: They don't tell you this but once you turn on the PL usage the scan speed goes waaay down.

2. You CANNOT use the priority feature (which periodically samples channels that you indicate for activity) when you are operating in Trunk Mode (IMHO, this is a huge drawback and one thing I immediately noticed).

Even though there are some things that I do not like about this radio, I would definitely (and probably will) buy it again.

The alphanumeric display and the dual scanning of trunked/conventional frequencies are must have features.

There is supposed to be a model of this radio coming out late 2002 which will offer the ability to track digital signals (something no scanner on the market presently does). This digital monitoring ability is going to require the purchase of a scanner similar to this one plus a ... digital decoder add-on.

Another great scanner to consider if this one is too pricey is the BC 895. The 895 is lightning fast and the only thing I don't like is that it has a loud squelch tail (meaning when the transmission is over the radio emits short burst of white noise prior to resuming scanning).