Video Reviews

I was looking for a device to allow me to watch mpeg's on my tv. It also allows you to view photo collections and music stored on your pc to be played via your hi fi. It has optical out which is great and the quality of sound when streaming mp3's is great. It has a software component which installs on your PC which acts as a server to the device. I'm still getting used to the software and I have a few questions for their support people about how it works. Note if you have norton firewall you may need to disable it. it looks just like a hifi component which is good too

... this is certainly a great product and at a very good price. I bought this for $130 in Feb 2004. I needed a new DVD player that can do progressive scan but finally got this with more features for little more money.
Setup is not straight-forward as mentioned in previous reviews, but learning to manage the setup issues is not necessarily a bad experience.
I'm giving 4 stars because the D2730 didn't support the wireless card (Belkin) that the manual specifies as being supported. But I got it to work with netgear wireless card (recommended by the customer support).
Finally, for me this is not a high-tech junk. (For some reason, the picture quality seems better when I view from the PC (using D2730 client-server setup) rather than burning the pictures in CD and viewing the CD from any DVD player, including D2730)).

I initally tried to get it to work with my wireless lan (802.11b). Everything played, but the video was a little "blocky". I didn't have the funds to buy a new 802.11g router, so instead I hardwired the dvd player on a 100 mbit network. Everything now plays flawlessly, including mpeg1, mpeg2, and mpeg4/divx.

Its able to play Shoutcast radio streams using software called "twonkyvision" (search for it on google). That was a big plus for me.

As for the dvd functions, its a great dvd player for the price. Its got progressive scan and all of the outputs you would need.

Oh yeah, someone else mentioned this, but make sure you update the firmware on both the client and server or else things won't work right. That firmware can be downloaded from govideo's website.

I'm very satisfied with my purchase.

I bought this camcorder last night. After charging the battery and attempting to use it for the very first time there was a warning on the screen "Dirty Video Head". How could that be with a brand new camcorder? I turned off the power, turned it back on, and the warning was gone. So I started filming, about 15 minutes worth, and then hooked it up to the TV to watch it back. Half of the recording did not even work~ all I had was a blue screen! The 2nd half that did record had thick grey lines running horizontally across the picture, as well as sound distortion (including the very loud motor noise others have mentioned!). I checked the troubleshooting section of the handbook and found that these lines indicate "Dirty Video Head" (again!) and that I would need to use an optional (not included) cleaning cassette!

This is unacceptable in a brand new product. I have sinced checked other review sites and found another consumer who had the same problem with their brand new Sony! This really makes me lose confidence in this company. I returned my camcorder today and will keep looking.

In short, this is a medium quality camcorder. The picture quality is not great, the recorder is picking up the motor noise and still images are completely useless.

The AUTO mode takes the picture or video very dark. You need to adjust the exposure for better picture or video.

You cannot do anything about the recorded motor noise. it is always there

You cannot print the still images taken with this camcorder (even in 4x6). So if you buy this for the still image,dont wasteyour money and choose with better or theonew/o still pictures.

The features are very limited per the canon zseriesof camcorders. Optical zoom is 10x, which is very limited in compare to 20x (Canon)

The software works but the VCD creation is very slow with the provided SW.

So in short, this camcorder does not deserve what is costs.

i bought this camera a month back, and found video quality is uncomparable but stills are not upto mark. i am a professional vidographer and editor in INDIA and purchased this camcorder for professional use but disappointed in stills.
software supplied are a total waste excluding still transfer from cam to PC with USB cable. i dont heard any motor noise as others had.
for night picture quality is not very good.
in total the camera is good for daylight but not for nights.
manish, Ranchi, Jharkhand, INDIA.

I saw that some were having problems with drivers in reviews but I hadn't had trouble with HP products before so I thought I would give the product a try, it was a big mistake! After many hours of work I managed to get my computer back online. I though for a time this product had made my hard drive inaccesable. I make my living off my computer and can't afford to destroy it with a faulty product.

I bought this recently and I am not too happy with this product. It is easy to setup and works most of the time (with XP). However, it may decide to stop working by giving this error - No video signal detected. Powering it off/on and restarting the Arcsoft software (which is pathetic) makes it work again. I called HP tech support (somewhere in India), they asked me to re-install the driver. I re-installed the Arcsoft software since the USB 2.0 driver is already part of XP. No luck.

Also, using the S-Video cable makes the device or the arcsoft software not too friendly (video signal not detected problems)

I also upgraded to a USB 2.0 PC card but burning a DVD takes the same time as using USB 1.1. Not sure what else needs to be done.

In short, buy it if you just want to capture video from your old camcorder and burn straight to DVD. Forget editing the captured video.

I bought this unit to transfer video from old VHS tapes and burn data/video DVD's. My first unit could do the transfers fine, but would invariably fail during a DVD burn. Then it would go "offline" by complaining about having it's USB cable pulled out, or the driver needing to be re-installed. The longer this unit was powered on the worse the problem became.

I called their tech support who are responsive and friendly (in India, but thats ok). It took a couple of calls to go over all the problems and what I had done - I had already tried everything including trying 2 different laptops (Sony and Toshiba), different USB cables, different OS's (WinXP and Win2K). So they decided it was a hardware problem and replaced it.

To my dismay, the 2nd unit exhibited the same problems, only worse. Until that is I noticed it feeling hot. So I placed both the original and replacement on a air conditioning duct and burned without problems. I called support again and they got me a third unit.

Finally I can burn ok without resorting to the air conditioner, although I still have an occassional "no video signal" when transferring which never happened with the first unit.

The software works great, and I like the form factor of the dc4000. But they really do have some quality and product design issues. I'm not convinced that I have a 100% ok unit, but it may be good enough for now.

I really like the support and their responsiveness, and willing to get things working - not so impressed with the product itself.

Straight out of the box this unit kept on crashing and hanging up. Very poor design. Gives false reception information. It is hard to imagine that a company would actually sell a hi-tech component that is so defective at such a high price. Don't waste your money and time on this.

The promise of this device is never quite met. When it does work, it switches channels slowly, and the machine easily freezes while compiling the electronic programming guide (they mention this "feature" in the manual). But the real deal breaker is the fact the the machine freezes any time it gets a signal it can't handle. My first unit simply halted with the annoying "HELLO" message on the front panel. It did not respond to any remote or front panel buttons. Power cycling did no good. The second unit, when it encounted a bad signal would go into a reboot cycle, taking 10-15 seconds to recover. I guess that was suppose to be an improvement. When it finally locked up, I was able to coax it out by flipping the resolution on the back of the box. This definitely would not make for an enjoyable evening of channel surfing in my house! I sent back the second unit as well and am shopping for something better.

This is currently the top-of-the-line product in its category (HDTV receivers). It has three capabilities of interest:

(1) reception of digital over-the-air television broadcasts
(2) scaling of VCR, DVD, satellite, or cable signals to either HDTV 720p or 1080i
(3) FireWire output and recording control to D-VHS VCR

The first capability (reception) is well-implemented. The receiver was able to pick up all the digital channels in my area (not to mention the legacy analog channels) through its auto-detection capability, and provided a channel list editor to allow me to knock out the channels I didn't want, such as analog channels that duplicated digital channels, home shopping channels, and analog channels where the reception was too poor to be of interest. For the digital channels, it also includes a signal strength meter, which is useful for finding the best antenna position and angle. Overall, as a digital broadcast receiver, I found nothing to fault in this product. Before buying, however, you should do research to determine what digital channels are currently available in your area. The web site ...is excellent for this purpose, showing not only what channels are available, but also those that are scheduled for future availability, and finally the signal direction and strength. It may seem strange to go back to over-the-air reception, especially after satellite and cable have made picture quality such a selling point, but digital over-the-air television, even for non-HDTV programming, has better picture and sound quality than cable or satellite (including digital cable and satellite - both over-compress their signals to squeeze in more channels and degrade picture quality), and its free. As for the HDTV programming, well, its just the best quality picture available - much better than even DVD

The second capability (scaling) is an attractive bonus capability. The receiver can scale from 480i, 480p, 720p, or 1080i to either 720p or 1080i, the two standard HDTV resolutions, and output them to either RGB, component, or DVI. What's interesting about this is that it can do it not only for the broadcasts it receives, but for video signals from other sources such as VCR's, DVD's, satellite, or cable, through either compositve, S-Video, or component inputs. The quality of the scaler is quite good; by running my other sources through the receiver, I get better picture quality for all of them than I did by running them directly to the television. For 4:3 source material, it supports full (for anamorphic sources) conversion, zoom ( for letterbox sources) conversion, and letterbox (centered with sidebars). My only gripe is that the sidebars it adds are gray. Now for some types of televisions (CRT, plasma) gray bars are useful for avoiding picture burn-in (uneven where to the display). But for other types of televisions (LCD, DLP) burn in is not an issue and gray bars serve no purpose. The receiver should have included an option to replace the gray bars with black. That said, for me the scaler alone would have justified the price.

The third capability, D-VHS recording control, works, but just barely. There are quite a few issues here: (1) FireWire recording ties up the device; you can't watch one program while recording another, which precludes use of the scaler while recording. (2) The timed recording feature does not support repeated events - it can't be programmed to record every Tuesday at 10:00; it has to be re-set for each individual recording, (3) the timed recording feature only works if the receiver is turned off - if the receiver is accidently left on, the recording will fail, (4) the timer depends on the time broadcast by the stations themselves - it can't be set manually - and many stations do not bother to broadcast the correct time (I have been trying to get the stations in my area to fix their time broadcasts, and have had some success). With regard to compatibility, I have the JVC HM-DH3000L D-VHS deck and have not had any inter-operability problems. Over the FireWire connection I could control, record, and play back digital video and audio successfully and without loss of picture quality.

Product ease of use varies with the features used. The reception capability is pretty simple. Anyone who can hook up a VCR or cable box to their television should be able to hook this up to their television. The scaler capability is a little harder to use, but probably within the reach of a lot of people. The D-VHS recording capability is not particularly easy to get working; unless you are into home theater, you shouldn't try it; there are just too many limitations in the current generation of hardware.

LCD lasted 4 months. When it worked it was great but reliability is zero. Thank god for extended warranty from Circuit City, back it goes tomorrow for repair

We purchased the Audiovox under the cabinet TV/DVD unit. The volume button on the remote control did not work. We returned it for another. The second one did not work either. The DVD player on the unit did not work. We returned the unit to the store where we purchased it for our money back. Don't waste your money on this item.

This item was delivered this past Thursday and took only minutes to install under my kitchen cabinet. My husband installed it himself before I arrived home. The picture clarity is amazing and being able to view DVD's while working in the kitchen is just fantastic. The remote control is easy to use and programing the unit is so simple. We purchased this unit to replace a "space saver" tv that we had for 10 years. This set with the built-in DVD player, flip up tv screen, radio and telephone is so compact, it's unbelievable. It has such a neat clean appearance that would fit in any decor. And you can't beat the price. We shopped around a great deal prior to purchasing this set and Amazon had the best price, fast shipping and a reputation for customer satisfaction, so we knew it was the only way to go!

I also have the DSC 350 and thought the new 350f would be an improvement. It is not! It has a flash unlike the 350, but takes less pictures and picture quality is no better. It has also deleted pictures when jolted. It also eats batteries at much faster rate, even when never using flash.

This is one of the best digital cameras you can get new for the money.

Its VGA (640 x 480 pels) format is good for taking pictures that you will view on your computer and share over the internet. But photos printed at sizes larger than wallet size (1.5 x 2.5) will be grainy. This is a good camera for the kids. I've had the camera for a week and the kids have already taken several hundred pictures (including pictures of fireworks on the 4th of July). Considering film processing costs, the camera has already paid for itself.

The camera features a fairly bright f2.8 fixed focus lens (to 35"), a macro switch that allows focusing as close as 9" (but no flash in macro mode), four auto exposure modes (outdoors/cloudy, outdoors/sunny, indoors/bright, indoors/dark), one auto flash mode (on/off -- no red eye reduction), auto white balance, a 10 second self-timer, two resolutions (VGA & CIF), 8M internal memory (which can't be increased) that can hold about 70 VGA pictures and 160 CIF pictures, a movie-mode that takes one CIF picture every .75 seconds as long as you hold down the shutter button, a fast USB interface (cable included), and it can be used as a Web Cam if you have the right software (not included).

With only four buttons, the camera is simple to use. Press the Power button to turn it on (with a loud beep). Pressing the button again will NOT turn the cameral off. The camera will turn itself off (with two load beeps) after 60 seconds of inactivity.

It has a small black and white LCD that shows mode settings. To change a setting, press the Mode button repeatedly (with a loud beep for each press) until the desired setting flashes in the LDC. Then press and hold the Select button until it beeps twice to activate the setting. There are twelve settings: VGA, CIF, outdoor/cloudy, outdoor/sunny, indoor/bright, indoor/dark, flash on, flash off, movie mode on, delete all pictures, delete last picture, and self-timer on. To change another setting, you must cycle through all the settings again, starting from the beginng.

WHICH BRINGS US TO THE CAMERA'S BIGGEST DRAWBACK. The engineer who programmed the camera had a fanatical obsession with resetting your settings. When the camera powers itself off (after only 60 seconds of inactivity), all the settings are reset to their defaults (VGA, outdoor/cloudy, flash off), so you have to go through the whole setup routine when you turn it on again. I would have rated this camera a 5 if it were not for this ANNOYING behavior. FORTUNATELY, YOU CAN PREVENT THE CAMERA FROM POWERING OFF BY PRESSING EITHER THE "MODE" BUTTON OR THE "SELECT" BUTTON BEFORE THE 60 SECONDS EXPIRES. In addition, Self-timer mode is turned off after the shutter fires, and Movie mode is turned off after you release the shutter button.

The camera takes decent pictures. The auto exposure modes and auto white balance work well in normal "snapshot" situations. The flash is only good for 4 or 5 feet, but actually, this can be used to highlight the subjects of the picture while deemphasizing backgrounds. I don't have the necessary equipment to evaluate color accuracy, but the color looks fine to me in most situations, although I have noticed a pinkish cast in low light situations.

The camera comes with ArcSoft's Photo Impression software and a no-name program that will download a sequence of images from the camera and create an avi movie file. The AVI maker is extremely limited, but ArcSoft's Photo Impression is powerful and easy to learn and use (which is good since there isn't much help or documentation.) It is faster and more powerfull than Microsofts' Image Express and easier to use than the other Image sofware packages that came with my printer and scanner. It has about a dozen image enhancing tools (red eye reduction, brightness, contrast, tint correction, etc.) including an almost magical one-button photo enhancement feature that corrects almost everything. It supports multi-layer image processing, adding text to pictures, and twenty or so image manipulation tools (morphs, solorizations, melts, etc.) My favorite is a tool that turns your photograph into a pen & ink drawing. My kids love coloring drawings of themselves and their friends. It comes with built in projects that allow you to instantly turn any photograph into a greeting card or a calendar, and much more. It also has a very powerful, flexible and easy-to-use printing "wizzard" that allows you to get the most from your expensive photo paper.

We've gotten 69 VGA exposures in normal conditions (and 156 VGA exposures of fireworks where the background was all black). After hundreds of pictures, the two AA batteries are still going strong. It fits in a shirt pocket, and when I put it in my pants pocket, I forget that it is there.

Except for the stupid settings program, I am very pleased with this camera.

I just received it yesterday. Took a few pictures and tested out the settings. My conclusion is that it's a good beginner digital camera for the price. I didn't want a big financial commitment into digital photography but hated the hassle of developing and waiting for pictures. I'll try to point out things not found in the spec sheets.

The 640x480 resolution is good assuming two criterias are met. 1) There is enough light and 2) the camera is steady. To address the 1st one, the flash works ok, however it has a very limited range, about 1 meter - 1.5 meters. Any farther and the light tapers off, any closer and the picture is blurry and too bright. To address the 2nd issue, it helps to be in a bright environment, then the automatic shutter speed will be faster so that any movement by your hand won't blurr the pictures. Or you could practice pressing the shutter button VERY steadily.

The thing that annoys me most about this camera is the settings. You have to scroll through all the modes everytime you want to change a setting, such as whether to auto-flash (off by default), or a different environment setting (default is cloudy outside). You can avoid this if you're taking pictures one after another within 60 seconds. Otherwise it turns off automatically after 60 seconds with NO EXCEPTIONS. I looked in the instruction manual and there's no way to turn this feature off. This added with the tedious mode selection is a huge gripe of mine. Since everytime it turns off, the settings reset to default and you have to scroll through them again to set them up. Also the beeps are annoying, every time you press a button (such as scrolling through the modes, it has a fairly loud beep). If only they allowed the settings to be saved after turning off the camera, the camera would have come to near perfect for the price.

My player lasted only 6 months and was used very little. The DVD player would freeze up after 10 minutes of use. Zenith said they would repair it for 45 dollars. Looks like it was designed to last long enough to get past the 90 day warranty. I'm done with Zenith products.

It's possible that I just got a lemon, but my XBV342 crapped out after less than a year of use. The warranty covers one year on parts and 90 days on labor, but I have no proof of when I bought it (my fault, but it still sucks.)

I took the player to a local electronics repair shop who told me the laser needed replacing, and that a new one would cost just as much as buying a new player. What a waste.

Until it quit working, this was an excellent player. It would have been nice to be able to play VCDs or DVD-R discs, but it could do neither. I thought I would use the VCR quite a bit, but truthfully, I used it maybe 4 or 5 times out of 6 or 7 months. Next time I get a DVD player, I'm going to get a non-combo player that plays DVD-R and/or VCDs - this time I'll keep my receipt, ESPECIALLY if I buy a Zenith.

I bought this unit for a child's room. Having both DVD's and VHS's this is the perfect solution. It is very easy to use and set-up. I don't use the remote much because we just pop in a DVD or tape and enjoy, which makes it easy for the kids to do themselves. I did not give this a 5-star because you are suppose to be able to record DVD's over to the VCR. I thought this would be really handy because I have a VCR in my vehicle and it would have been nice to record the DVD's over to VHS for that reason. Everything is copyright protected so that is not possible. So the "copy" button is pretty much worthless. This isn't Zenith's fault, but it shouldn't be considered a selling feature either. I'm not using this unit for anything special, but if you're looking for a combo player that's easy to use, this is it.

 Well, this case is as good as DVD cases get. The pages are well-built and the whole product has very nice fit and finish. The extra capacity is good for people with lots of DVDs (like me) who don't want the added trouble and expense of having 2 20-DVD holders.
 The one problem I have with this and all other DVD cases is how much wear they put on the DVDs. A plastic DVD case does not allow the disc to come in contact with anything, whereas the plastic sleeves may accelerate scratching of DVDs, especially if you touch the cloth-like portion of the sleeve. In short, I urge everyone who is expecting near-infinite DVD lifespans to be careful when handling DVDs with this case or just not use it altogether.

Case Logic does it again! I did some homework, and found this to be, by far, the best high-capacity portable DVD album available.

The DVA40 is specialized to DVD use by virtue of its unique page design. Each page fits two DVD's: a pair of booklets/liner notes in plastic sleeves in front of the page, and the corresponding DVD's in protective pockets in the rear. The DVD itself is protected by a flap made of the same material as the page. This means you have to turn the pages carefully (e.g. by grasping their centers), but affords excellent overall protection of the discs. Be careful when closing though: the protective flaps do tend to open out when you close the album, leading to annoying folds and disc exposure. Greater care solves this.

The album's exterior koskin finish feels like leather, yet is more scuff resistant. Never tested the koskin on finished wood, but...why wood you? ;-)

For those who want their DVA40 to hold *50* DVD's, the only refill you'll want is Case Logic's DVP10, which is uniquely designed to fit the DVA40. DVP5 pages won't work because of a different design.

You'll notice that most of those who rated the DVA40 rather lower than average only did so because they can't get one themselves. So if you live in the US, own a portable DVD player, a DVD laptop, or just like to take your movies with you, there is probably no better way to go.

We have stored over 600 DVD's in 17 DVD albums. Can you imagine all the space we saved! We are very particular about our DVD's. We are always careful when we handle them, so generally have no problem with the flaps, unless the kids get ahold of the album. I also trim covers and insert the cover and inserts into the holders. I have never had a cover or DVD come out by itself. The albums are attractive and easy to store. We have a master list of what is where, and have elimanated resorting altogether. It is so easy to find a movie. The hardest part is trying to decide what to watch!

I've had my jvc model grdvf10 camcorder for over two years and have used it a lot and like it a lot. I do have a complaint though. Recently I decided to figure out how to hook it up to my computer which the salesman assured me I can do and which the instruction book indicates is doable. Well they're both right but neither of them told me it takes an accessory costing [more money] to make the hookup. That the salesman didn't tell me this and that the instruction booklet doesn't indicate it is avery misleading and I am not at all happy about it.

Older model came out just prior to 1394 standard. Lots of features, many of dubious value. RCA-style jacks are the only way to get video (analog only) to your computer for editing, limiting its usefulness as a digital camera. Included accessories are just gizmos that don't help the editing process. If you need digital AND want to edit with your computer, buy a camera that has 1394 capability. Otherwise, spend your money on Hi8 with more available features.

I purchased my Digital Camcorder while visiting the baseball spring training in Florida. I hadn't really done a lot of research but was an owner on an Hitachi Camcorder and had numerous electronic problems with it. I found this unit easy to use with one review of the instruction manual. I agree with the person from Orlando that the off/on switch is cumbersome but it is something you have to adjust to. The snap shot feature is great as it gives you a great still picture and breaks up the traditional viewing of a long recording. The clarity of digital is superior as I have my old VHS cassettes to compare it to. I'm in the market for JVC's JLIP unit which allows you to interface the camcorder and computer for downloading pictures. I paid 1/2 the price for this unit vs. the Hitachi and would totally recommend it to the everyday family movie taker.

Well my old Toshiba ate a tape and its tracking was beyond repair so it was time to replace it. I love Toshiba for their customer support they've given me in the past regarding lost remotes, tech advice, and repair. This VCR felt very light compared to my old Toshiba, however it played back tapes both commercial and self-recorded flawlessly. This unit is also pretty silent to my standards. There is no squeek in the playback nor in the rewind or fastforward modes which seemed to happen a lot with my old Toshiba. The super fast rewind is true to the advertisement, and I clocked a 4 hour tape completely at the end of the tape, back to the beginning at 56 seconds. WOW!

The setup was so completely painless on this system I'd think a 5 year old could integrate this.

My only problem with this deck is that the display only shows hours and minutes, not seconds. So sometimes when you're recording something, you dont know that you are until you see the minute change over. Took a little getting used to.

All in all this is a great VCR at a great price

The Toshiba is my 2nd VCR...my first was a low-end Funai bought in Feb. 1999. The Funai was very loud in playback and recording, and the playback and recording was poor quality. So when I went VCR shopping I made quality my 1st priority. I wanted to be able to watch my tapes without the picture going gray or snowy due to VCR tracking problems. I've only had the Toshiba W522 since Dec 13 2002 but I am amazed at the improvement over my low-end VCR. The picture and sound quality are amazingly clear. Many tapes, like my Wrestlemania 13 tape (which was taped by WWF Home Video in EP mode), would not play at all or made strange crinkling noises in the Funai but in the Toshiba there are absolutely no problems on these tapes! I'm not afraid to rewind a tape while it's in play mode either (something you just didn't do on the Funai). The second thing on my priority list is durability...obviously only time can test durability so whatever you decide to buy it's a bit of a gamble. You can't beat this price if all you're looking for is just basically a great performance from your VCR. You can be picky when looking at the tiny details/features but if that's the case you'll never be 100% pleased with any VCR. If my W522 works this well for as long as the Funai worked badly, I'll be very happy. I love this VCR!

Excellent Image. Can read S-VHS tapes created with JVC vcr's.
Rewinds faster than common VCRs