Video Reviews

I found this same item at Newegg.com for $71.00.

THIS MACHINE MIGHT WORK OK IF PLEXTOR WOULD GET THE RIGHT SOFTWARE FOR IT BECAUSE IT STINKS. I COULD NEVER GET IT TO WORK RIGHT AND THIS IS AFTER I WAS ON THE PHONE WITH PLEXTOR FOR AROUND 10 TO 15 HOURS FOR THREE DAY PLUS MANY EMAIL BACK AND FORWARD TO THEM. STAY AWAY AND GET A GOOD TV CARD.

WinDVD/WinDVD creator is nice, does an excellent job of captures in all the supported formats.

This VCR is very complicated to program to record. It will not record triple digit channels, which was why I bought it. I guess if you only watch videos and don't record it will do okay but if you want to record things forget it!

The Toshiba W622 4-Head Hi-Fi VCR is one of the better VCRs on the market. It plays back tapes with a very good image and has one of the best pictures around. This unit has a 4-head 19-micron video system in Hi-Fi for very good stereo sound. That's an excellent feature that gives you great versatility. It also has commercial skip. Pre-recorded tapes play back with an excellent picture too. How good a picture looks is what it is all about.

This VCR showcases great quality from Toshiba, as well as wanted features. The commercial skip is handy, but I do not find it particularly useful as it seems a bit slow, and just forwards 30 sec, whether it is commercial or not. The picture is nice, and you HAVE TO LOVE the digital tracking feature. You can even see it working cause on the screen, for a few seconds, you cn see the digital tracking control automatically moving to set it for best quality. No problems! It's a VCR with a brain.

The Belkin videobus II I bought said "Works With Windows XP" on the box, when I got it home I found that it didn't have a driver that would work with with Win XP, on the Belkin website there was a driver that would work, but it was a week driver. Every time I plugged the thing up Windows couldn't locate the driver, so I had to reinstall it. Finialy the wire shorted somewhere in the center, so every time I moved the thing would disconect and reconect when I moved again! Finialy I got tierd of it, so I threw it away and got a Hauppague videobus, and it has worked good for me for the last several months.

The only good part of the deal was the MGI software, the Belkin Videobus I purchaced came with a video editor and a photo suit.
The MGI Videowave IV is a much better program than the Windows Movie Maker that came with Windows XP, and the MGI Photosite III is a good photo editing program, togeather they were probably worth the price of the Belkin VideobusII I threw away.

I got the VideoBusII for amatuer video work, and it's worked out well. The piece of hardware itself has had no problems, just make sure it's right for your camcorder. The software takes some getting used to, but once I figured it out I was able to have fun doing the basics--simple editing and effects. Nothin too fancy, but if that's what you want, it could be just right.

I don't understand the installation problems another reviewer mentioned. I put the CD, installed the Videowave software, then plugged in the USB Videobus II, let Windows XP's hardware wizard "automatically" find the right driver, and it worked immediately. I used Windows XP Professional Service Pack 1, on a 2.4 GHz P4 laptop.

Captures I420 and RGB24, among others. Can do a full CIF (352x288) 30 fps capture that is silky smooth. This is much better than most of these capture devices, I can tell you. Many don't support 352x288 (only 320x280), or drop the framerate, or capture with horrible horizontal interlacing lines.

I didn't use any of the prepackaged software, or capture to disk. I only wanted it for live video capture for videoconferencing, and it works terrific for that. And at about 63 dollars, you can't beat the price for this quality.

You will need a good quality NTSC analog camera to plug into it - just be aware.

I purchased on 9 months ago. First one was DOA (well, it partially worked, but wouldn't switch and the video was terrible.) The replacement worked great... That is until after 9 months, when it completely died (and it only has a 90 day warranty.) The lights light up (sometimes), but all I get out is busts of video ever few seconds.

Other people's blurry video is likely the result of connecting both the compisite and S-VIdeo.

While I really loved it while it was working, I'd never buy another Sima product again.

I used one of these to route signals from 3 VCRs (Composite video) and 1 DVD (S-Video) to the S-Video in on a TV, and route analog audio from those four devices to the TV and the home sound system. (The DVD's 5.1 sound doesn't go through the SIMA, but through a separate direct fiber optic connection.)

I liked that the SIMA did seamless conversion from composite to S-Video, a feature the rca vh920 lacks,

The audio quality was fine, and the video quality was fine. (I couldn't detect any difference in quality between using the SIMA and a direct connection.)

The SIMA has more features than I use: 1) I never used the audio compander feature, (2) the auto-switching is a nuisance, since most of the VCRs are programmed to do timed recording: when a recording starts, the auto-switcher switches, Luckily, it is easy to turn off both features. (3) Since I never turn it off and always want it to display which device is selected, I don't need the infrared control of those two features.

Although its remote control is perfectly functional, I taught my universal remote the 4 device selection commands, so its functionality is smoothly integrated with my regular (universal) remote.

I wish it had a few more device buttons. I can see wanting to connect a camera, a DVR, a computer and a video game to the TV in the future.

I am writing this because I am currently shopping for a replacement. After about 2 years, the SIMA partially broke: all the video sources come through only in black and white, unless I unplug the AC adapter, and plug it back in. After about an hour, the color goes out again.

-----
p.s.: I'm revising this review a week later:

I went out and bought a second one to replace the failed one. The new one adds, in addition to the traditional analog audio RCA connectors, for each channel a digital audio input connector: two of the input 4 input channels have fiber optic 5.1 channel digital audio ins, and two have coax 5.1 channel digital audio, and it converts between the coax and fiber to the output. (You can use either a coax or fiber input to route to either a coax or fiber output.) BUT: the audio compander feature only works with analog audio. The big knob on the front that lets you smooth out the high volume peaks so you won't wake your toddler only works with analog audio, not the new digital audio connections.

I was a little worried about purchasing this product when I read the other review. However, I found many positive reviews of the Sima SVS-4D on other sites.
The picture quality on my TV was the same as if the S-Video was attached directly. I did not see the blurriness the other reviewer saw.
The product solved the digital audio problem that I had. My reciever only has one digital coaxial input and I had two devices with digital out, one coaxial and the other optical.

I bought this tv and started having problems with it 4 months later, the tv turns itself off immediately after you turn it on. I was upset that it was one month out of labor warranty so I was going to have to pay $80 for repairs already. No one on the customer service lines at Toshiba was underdstanding or apologetic for this inconvenience. I had it repaired and am still having problems with it doing the same thing. Toshiba will not do anything about it until they hear from the service company which means I have to take time off work to drive it back to this service company. And still I have yet to hear one of their customer service reps apologize for sell me a lemon of a TV. I will never by Toshiba again. And I would never recommend them to anyone else that was looking for a TV.

I got this TV for Christmas last year...that would mean it's less than a year old. Well, it's already busted. It was a great TV for a while, but then one day it just wouldn't turn on. It's such a small TV though, so it's not really worth repairing. Now I'm just going to have to invest in a new TV, which is very disappointing, especially since this was a gift.

I ordered MD13P1 TV/DVD combo from Amazon.com They said it would take from 5 to 10 days for Delivery .It only took 3 Days 5 stars to amazon. The discription said it would play mp3's nope notta will not Play them. As for every thing else works just GREAT.

Does not run with any new games. Out of date card. BUY SOMTHING ELSE! This card is so bad it should be locked away forever!
Not worth the box it is put in. Terrible Again DO NOT BUY. i am writing this review so other people dont have the same problems i had. Spend more money on a better card

I bought this card from compusa and the graphics look great.Back when i had my old 2mb card i couldnt play swat 3.Now i can play swat 3 and the graphics on that game looked just about 128-bit! and xpert 98 isnt a 128 bit card!Its not suspose to process those graphics!.I think its because i have 128 mb ram and 400 mhz.Faster processors mean better graphics.

I purchased this card about 4 years ago for my desktop system (which was top of the line at 200MHZ MMx, etx..how times have changed!) - This is probably the best 3D card out there ONLY if you happen to get the All in Wonder Pro though - with 3d capability and Video Capture you can't go wrong with the price but this card (even at the low price) is probably not going to help you in the area of video memory (only 8mb) if you plan on doing any type of extensive video editing or special effects. If you can, I would try to find the All-In-Wonder card (also 8mb) if you're willing to spend the money on it. (You're better off spending the extra 50-75 to buy a 16 or even 32 mb video card nowadays.)

Being a systems builder i always test cards before selling to customers. Stay clear of the ATI name. ATI boasts great things as well as tech support. You can have all the tech support you can pay for. Customers expect the best and will not be happy when the ATI products do not work as stated. Try tech support, get through the endless fix this and update that and when the product they sell still does not work you will just get tierd and go buy another product. Sometimes the headache is not worth the hassle. BEWARE

This is a decent video card. It really isn't fast enough to run current games at their full potential. But for basic computing, older games without high end graphics and internet browsing, this will more than meet your needs. The big problem I had was updating the drivers. You have to uninstall the previous driver first, and then install the updated version. But I ran into problems with Win XP not loading it's own driver for the card in order to bring anything up on the monitor until I could install the new drivers. So I would have a blank screen. So unless it really is needed, I would recommend leaving the updating alone as it is really a chore.

Based on other reviews I read, I was worried about compatibility with XP but installation was easy. After uninstalling the drivers for my old graphics card (choosing not to restart, but rather manually shutting down and restarting with the ATI Radeon 7500 in its place) setup was simple.

I do not have an AGP and this is a great card for my system. It replaced a 16MB NVIDIA and the improvement is remarkable. It doesn't have the same memory capacity as cards available for an AGP but video and rendering look great with the 64 MB DDR.

This was a wise purchase.

I got my first card last week and it would not work. I called tech support and the person said it was defective. I sent it back to Amazon and they sent me a new one (No cost to me for return or new one-thanks).
I get the new card today and same problem. I call tech support and after two hours I get to a person that can barely speak English. She tells me that I have to change the Bios. Great, but why didn't they include that information in the instructions.

Also, the description of the product is incorrect (Bad English). It will not support two monitors. It will support one monitor and one video.

I still can not get it to work correctly with my Dell and am waiting for Dell customer support to help fix the problem.

It might be great Hardware but Customer support and instructions are lacking.

On the other hand, Amazon is my first choice for products. Price and service.

Update! after spending 20 hours trying to get the two cards to work, I gave up and ordered an external device made by avermedia. I could never get the TV monitor and Video out to work at the same time. There is so much electrical noise from this card that it messed up my TV tuner card.

During the installation, it screwed up much of my software and at one point lost my keyboard.

I have installed dozen of different type cards over the year and never faced problems like I did with this card.

This is the first video card that I ever got back in 2000. Back then, you really didn't need a good video card to play games like Counter Strike or Unreal Tournament. But after I got this first official video card, GeForce 2 MX 400, my games like Counter Strike, Unreal Tournament, and Quake run way better than those integrated video chips. I was able to run it on openGL so it made my Counter Strike run so smooth and it looked great as hell. Now, there are games like Unreal Tournament 2004 and Battlefield Vietnam so it doesn't look so good now but back in those Starcraft, Warcraft, and Counter Strike days, it was one of a kind. I recommend this card over Radeon 7000 fact that they have the same price, this card beats the dated Radeon 7000. I can still run games like Battlefield 1942, Call of Duty, or Tribes 2 with this card even though there are better cards out there. Back then, this card was definitly recommended but now you should have at least GeForce 3 Ti 500, GeForce 4 420, Radeon 8500, or higher video cards to play on newer games.

This is a very nice card. I am very young and poor. It is perfect for me because it is cheap and can handle things like T&L. With T&L i can play the next generation games like Starwars Galaxies. I think if you are on a tight buget and need a new video card. Buy this one. Sure it doesnt have the best graphics enachers as a Geforce4 but it gets the job done

Ok, i said to myself no light on the camera....so I'll just go out and buy one. This is my 1st camcorder purchase ever so of course i didnt realize that in order to attach a light to this puppy it needs an accessory shoe. Light is this little cam's best friend , because in low light situations...u might as well be filming behind a screen door.....because that is what the grainy imprint over all of my indoor footage looks like....well go out and buy 1 for yourself........enjoy!!!!!

Description and picture misrepresent SC-D303 (I think it's for model SC-D305/307 which isn't sold yet).
SC-D303DOES NOT have accessory shoe NOR video light.
"Standard light" is not a part of package.
There's no remote either.
It's a good camera, but not what's being described here in editorial or on most sites including Samsung which shows wrong picture too!!!
My purchase is going back!

The camera was great in every way,great picture, long lasting battery, light weight, easy to use, overall wonderful camera. I was just disappointed that the remote wasn't included.

Buyer beware!
Every single product I tested made by Veo does not perform half of what is claimed on the box or advertised by sellers. Quality is simply not acceptable if you will make it work.

Dont expect ANY support! There is no 800 number, nor filing out customer support form on veo.com brings any results. After trying couple of times with the letter below, I did not get any reply from them, not even that my email was received!

I guess VEO mentality is:
-we will make a crappy product,
-we will make up stories about performance,
-we dont care if product does not even work,
-we dont have to spend any money for tech support,
-we will take your money and run,
but some fools will still buy our products!

Here is what was emailed to company:

This is the third Veo camera exchanged from Circuit City that I am not able to make it work correctly.

Computer: 2 years old Dell Dimension XP, SP1, with ad on PCI 5port USB 2 card made by Ratoc.

Camera: Velocity Connect

Problem: -after installing the software and connecting the camera, "Found new hardware wizard" tries to install the software, but the result is "Cannot Install this Hardware, because the wizard cannot find the necessary software..." Pointing to CD, does not find drivers either.

It could be the USB card. If you want to know more about Ratoc USB2 card or problems people have with them, follow the link: http://www.usbman.com/Reviews/ratoc_usb_20_5.htm

But those problems seem to be with USB 1 devices. And this Ratoc card on my computer works fine with HP Laser printer, Pioneer DVD burner, etc.

Camera works with usb1, but the reason I bought it is because of the resolution.

The low light resolution is horrible! What a lie on the box where it states "ultra low light lens"

I feel sorry about VEO products, because I am not able to make them work on none of my computers. Other product I had to exchange for this Velocity camera was VEO Network Observer. The software could not install on none of the computers. This specific Dell mentioned above and other computer with DVD drive. The CD simply could not run, just kept spinning. CD itself was without any flaws.
The camera could be accessed with the browser , then worked for 2 minutes and then all it could do is show vertical streaks .

This camera I exchanged for the same one thinking that installing software would help, but had the same results. Even making the camera work, quality can be described "could not catch a thiev"

Would never ever buy anything made under Veo name

Compared to the other netcams out there that have built-in PAN and TILT functions, the price makes it a great deal. I wanted to use it to create a time-lapsed movie of my backyard going from a dirt lot to a personal oasis 8-). I was disappointed that the provided software only gave me basic functions (record, snapshot, pan, tilt, zoom). I WISH it had capabilities like
- scheduled monitoring (ex. record from 8am to 5pm),
- software-based motion detection (currently requires an optional sensor),
- 'take a snapshot every X seconds' feature.
Also, it sucks that only one user can access the camera at a time. Has anyone figured out a way to stream the video (or snapshots) over the Internet (so a bunch of people can view the webcam)?
Currently, the only third-party software application I could find that supports the Veo Observer is Netcam Watcher Professional by Beau Software (www.beausoft.com).

I was a bit harsh on this camera when I first started messing with it, but after a week I've warmed up to it. The images are decent, the auto white balance is above average, the built-in microphone works well, and the integrated pan & tilt puts this unit above the other web cams in its price range. Compared to the other web cams I have, wireless as well as wired, this one is well worth the money.

Now for a small reality check. It's not a 640x480 camera, its 320x240. You have the option to enlarge the image in the application's built-in web browser, but it just doubles the 320x240 image. Forget about the digital zoom. The image is nice though, well above average for a web cam with sharp focus, good contrast and excellent color control. You can opt to allow the system to run on auto or manually select exposure as well as red, blue, and green levels.

The description below the camera on this page says: "Microphone required for sending audio" which is confusing. It has a microphone built-in. You can add an external microphone to the camera if you like, but the inputs are bare wire terminals instead of mini plugs. The built-in mic should be good enough for most uses.

The Veo also has a display that shows you the last three digits of it's IP address, so if you have a DHCP server on your network you can see what address it's been assigned. The kit comes with a low profile bracket and mounting plate that lets you attach the camera to a wall so that it can cover just about any room using it's pan & tilt controls.

I plan on buying a couple more of these things.