Video Reviews

A few years ago this would be a good card to have. Today it is too far out of date to bother with. For this price you can have a newer card that runs faster. Why bother with this one?

If you want high quality gaming and you're on a tight budget, go with this card. Although not as powerful as the GeForce3 series, this card still delivers incredible graphics, and a cost that can't be beat!

If you play games based of the Half-Life engine like Counter-Strike or Team Fortress, this card will blow you away. Prepare to double your resolution, and get a huge boost in frames/second from this economy card.

You'll also be stunned by the quality of graphics this card can produce with a more advanced engine like Quake III's.

An unavoidable negative to this product is that it is an older model, which means it might not be able to handle games in say 5 years. But this goes with all technology. This card will still perform great in the years to come.

Another plus was PNY's support. one word: outstanding. They help you every step of the way, including awesome details and examples.

Overall this card just rocks!

So if you can't drop the (dollar amount) for a GeForce3, but still want a powerful graphics card, buy this one.

The power went out on my deck and Samsung won't even sell the necessary parts to an authorized reseller. I called to tell them and they said I would be getting a call from a NJ office. That was 4 months ago. I have not been at all satisfied with their customer service at all!

I purchased that VCR because I need to see French tapes (Secam-L) and was warned that the other Secam VCR (including the Samsung SW-5000W) don't read French variant of Secam. Thanks to another reviewer for pointing out. I couldn't find anything else to do that, but would be happy to include references if you send me any. This would be of interest to French people living in the US wishing to play French tapes for their kids, like me.

I haven't seen the bad quality other people complain about, but the image is not the best I've seen either, I had to fiddle with the tracking. Also at the beginning and the end of a tape as well, it sometimes has difficulties. But normal VCRs also do.

After a little bit of fiddling with the initial wiring, I managed to play the tapes on the TV, but since my TV is old and does not have all the channels (it seems the VCR broadcasts on Input1 or Input2, which my TV doesn't have, as opposed to Channel 3 like most VCRs), I had to hook it to my other VCR and when I want to see a tape, I change the input (can be done only with the remote on my VCR). Overall, I expected the wiring to be a bit simpler, but I managed to make it work.

I'm pleased with the VCR, as an add-on I can also read other countries' tape formats, so I do copies for my international friends. But I wish the cost wasn't so high.

After a bit of thinking, I think a better solution would have been to convert to DVD and purchase a cheap DVD player from Japan (amazon.co.jp for instance) which is Zone 2 (like Western Europe) and purchase French DVDs instead of tapes. But the selection is not the same though: at the present, more kid's videos seem to be available on tape than on DVD. That may change in the future.

This is a poorly manufactured product. My unit jammed two prerecorded tapes out of the box! Samsung technician barely spoke English and was of no help. Returned it and got a JVC instead.

Yes this model has many features, but they can be hard to learn.

I had 2 years old boy who like to explore and also high imagination. He liked to feed the vcr by stuffing foods in it or feeding it with milk. This VCR solve all the problems because of the child lock feature. No more feeding VCR. Also the style is so cool. It will grow up with the boys. Nice to have one.

I got the Sanus DFSAT, but immediately returned them because I thought the product was not worth the price I paid. The Nustone based does not have the "look and feel" of granite, instead, it is really just medium grade plastic.

The stand itself is too light, and the base is too small, so there is a risk of the standing falling over. While my speaker wires may be on the thick side, the holes to guide the wire through the poles were too small. The entire stand is basically held together by two screws, and thus the entire construction will, at best, be always wobbly and insecure.

I do not recommend purchasing this product.

This stand is perfect for small satellite speakers (which I use). The base of the speaker stand is heavy and provides excellent overall stability. Only a hurricane would knock these stands over (No need to use carpet spikes). The ability to adjust the speaker height is also a bonus. The speaker wire can be conveniently hid inside the speaker "pole". I was able to hide 16 gauge speaker wire easily.

Although I was shocked that speaker stands in general are SO expensive, I am very happy with this product. Hence, I'm dinging it one start due to price.

If all you need is a little box to allow multiple s-video outputs to go to one s-video input on your TV, then this box is fine.
However, it would be great if it also allowed the user to mix RCA-composite and s-video inputs to one s-video master output, allowing the signals of all input devices to show up with the best signal on the TV.
For example, a VCR with only RCA-composite output, when routed through a device with s-video inputs and outputs (e.g.-a digital video recorder, or DVR) to the TV provides dramatically better picture than if the VCR was routed to the TV's RCA-composite input.
If the Terk switcher provided mixing, then one could get much more utility out of said RCA-composite only VCR and the extra RCA-composite output jacks on DISH and DirecTV receivers.
So, if you're looking for mixing capabilities as well as switching capabilities, this device is not for you.

This item worked great when it was new, but after leaving it set for a long time on 1 position that set of inputs became useless. No warning to this effect is in the instructions.

I bought this item at Best Buy for more than the Target price. Two months after I bought it the DVD drawer would not open. It was in the shop for 2 1/2 months while I waited for a part to come in and then 2 months later the TV just died. Since the 90 day warranty for both parts and labor has expired the repair shop said it would be a minimum of $42 cost on labor, though parts are still covered. I am sick that I wasted $250 on a TV that didn't even last a year. I will NEVER buy another Toshiba product.

For such a small, compact package, this Toshiba TV/DVD combo has much going for it.

First off, the picture quality is very good, with enough settings to allow it to be adjusted any way you want. I've never owned a flat screen tv in any size, and it does reduce glare quite a bit.

Sound quality is just ok. There are only stereo/mono/SAP settings. No separate bass/treble adjustments like in bigger tv's. But the stereo sound is passable, even when playing audio CD's.

The DVD player is good with very clear picture. Very nice.

Remote control is ok, and like some other Toshiba tv reviewers have noted, some of the colors that a couple of the buttons' graphics are printed with are hard to read. Pink graphics on a light grey remote color just don't make it.

All in all though, this 14" color TV/DVD combo is a great product. I really like it a lot.

I initially purchased two units. One failed intermittently and the other failed completely. I returned the one and received a new one from the factory. It failed within a week. Additionally, the one that failed intermittently has rolled over for good.

The failure of all three was the power. They would all shut off immediately after they were turned on...within a second or two.

I recently purchased this TV. Took it out of the box, turned it on, and it worked extremely well. As with most Toshiba TVs, the picture is very nice, especially for not being a flat screen TV. Also, it plays DVDs quite well. My only complaint is that the DVD tray ejects too slow for my taste, but it only takes a few seconds, just longer than most stand alone DVD players. The DVD player can also be noisy at first when the disc begins to spin. The remote that comes with the TV is set up quite nicely, and the buttons glow in the dark, which is a nice feature, however, you cannot read what the buttons do, just see them. One thing I was surprised at is Toshiba actually provides batteries for the remote. Nothing major, but a nice touch.
Overall, for the price, you get a nice combo TV. It has the excellent picture quality that most Toshiba TVs have, and the DVD player that is bundled with it works very well. You cannot purchase a nicer stand alone 19" TV and a seperate quality DVD player for a better price than this TV. I highly recommend it.

I really beleived in Toshiba. We had 1 TV that lasted 15 years without a single problem. This model was exactly what I wanted,
for about 3 months. The DVD player quit. Into the authorized repair shop, 6 weeks and the parts were still not available. I suggested it should be replaced. I shipped mine back, $120.00, and they shipped a new set. Great service I thought. The DVD has quit again 6 months later. I quit! I can't face another fight or expensive return. Skip this model!

I purchased this tv combo, last October, 2003, when it was first available. I shopped around, extensibly, for a complete unit, in the under $500.00, price category. My real problem was how large the units were, other brands, that I checked out were LARGER, than the Toshiba. I was using the TV in a space that couldn't be adjusted for size. This is why, I rate it 4stars, and not 5, because even though it was a bit smaller than the others, IT IS STILL TOOOO LARGE.
Everything else is really good about it. I'd call it a QUALITY PRODUCT, and the AMAZON price is great, plus free shipping; hard to beat.

I purchased this to transfer old analog camcorder movies to my computer and VCD. My system is a 1.4 Athlon, 40G HD, 512M, TDK 52X CDR, 32M Geforce II, far beyond the minimum req's.

The unit installed easily enough and the learning curve on the included software is not too steep. I set everything up and began capturing. After fiddling with any number of capture settings, I could not get the unit to capture enough frames. It was consistently dropping 3 to 5 percent of the frames. This number does not seem large until you try to watch what has been captured. I went to the ADS website and that for the included software. There was a suggestion to turn off the audio preview during capture. I tried this and there was no change in the dropped frame rate.

After a four hour evening of troubleshooting, I emailed ADS for help. I heard nothing the next day and emailed again. One week after the first email, I got a reply. I haven't read the reply because it arrived five days after I returned the product.

Barring other explanations and with limited knowledge on the matter, I concluded that USB 1.0 or 1.1 are simply not fast enough for acceptable video capture. I will next try a USB 2.0, Firewire, or PCI Card capture device and see how that works.

I bought the ADS USB INSTANT VIDEO CD as a stopgap measure. I wanted to preserve my old videos on a more permanent media than tape, but cannot afford to upgrade to a Pentium 4 machine with a DVD burner.
I have a 3 year-old Compaq Presario with Windows 98SE, an AMD K6-2 500 processor, 256MB ram (8MB shared for video), a 6GB hard drive and an HP 12x CD-RW burner.
I successfully installed the USB drivers for the input device and the Ulead Video Studio 6.0 SE software. Although I was able create a couple of VCDs so far, I would recommend a more powerful computer with a separate video card.
But, if you're in a situation as myself, the USB INSTANT VIDEO CD package does a nice job, so far.
I was also pleasantly surprised to discover that the video CDs play in my Magnavox MDV435 DVD player, whose instructions stated that video CDs would not play on it.
Some hints for fellow low-powered users:
Before installing the USB INSTANT VIDEO CD programs and drivers, uninstall as many unnecessary files and programs as possible to free up space on your hard drive. Run scandisk & defrag to optimize your hard drive's performance. Before using Ulead Video Studio, close all running programs except Explorer and Systray to keep the processor's load as light as possible.
In conclusion, the ADS USB Instant VideoCD does exactly what it's supposed to, but the biggest factors towards its successful will be your computer's specs and your patience with learning the Ulead software.

Throughout 2001/2002, I went through about a dozen different TV tuner cards. I finally settled on a Hauppauge WinTV board, which worked quite well. When Creative Labs came out with the Video Blaster Digital VCR, I read the feature list and bought it almost immediately.

Installation and setup couldn't be simpler. The hardware side of the package seemed very solid. Everything seemed fine until it came time to actually use it, at which time I was immediately disappointed. The software seems third rate... like something you would download for free. I've always been impressed with Creative Lab's software and the software included here was nowhere near their usual quality.

To start, I'm using Windows XP Pro on a Pentium 4 system with 512mb of memory.

First, watching television: The video quality is decent at best, the audio sometimes is out of sync with the picture, and simply having the screen up takes up too much of your computer's resources. My WinTV card took up almost no resources when simply watching television.

Second, the TV Features: There's the replay/pause system that lets you pause and rewind live programs while you're watching TV, as if you're watching it on a VCR or Tivo. However, it's extremely awkward to use... it's nothing like Tivo. First, you have to manually turn the feature on which drains a LOT more resources. If you're watching TV in the background, leaving this feature on can make a noticeable dent in performance. When you do use it, controlling playback is neither smooth nor straight forward... trying to maneuver through the awkward software makes you realize replay is only for emergencies where you REALLY need to go back and see it again. Also, there's no still capturing... a feature which just about all other cards I've tried had.

Third, the VCR Features: The software also captures video like a VCR (hence the product name). This is the worst part of the software. Recording is, again, extremely awkward and takes up too much resources. Pressing the record button doesn't start the recording immediately and stopping it is like trying to stop a train... pressing the stop button doesn't always stop the recording. I've resorted to simply closing out the program to make sure it's stopped. The software also allows you to store prerecorded shows in a menu of categories, such as 'New Shows', 'Keepers', etc. The problem is, this part of the software seems extremely buggy... delete a show from the menu, it shows up under recycled, delete it from recycled, it's gone, right? Not always... close the program and reopen it, 50% of the time it's back in the menu. Even when I've positively deleted it, a search of my hard drive reveals that it's still there.

Exporting a show only allows for saving to MPEG-2 files. Playback on Windows Media Player or just about any other video viewing software is extremely poor... either the sound is out of sync, two speeds to fast, or there's blips in the video. This happens no matter what computer I play them on. Also, these files can only be edited with the latest software (Adobe Premiere 6.0 or lower can't decode it). Even editing it with Adobe Premiere 6.5 yielded disappointing results.

Finally, here's no printed User Guide... if you need help, you have to read it off the CD.

On computers with less then a Pentium 4 processor, the Video Blaster Digital VCR must be much too slow to use efficiently. I used this card for just over a month before going back to my WinTV card. There's really nothing good to say about the board. Creative Labs needs to get back to the drawing board with this product. If you need a TV tuner for your computer, I'd recommend looking into a Hauppauge WinTV board.

After using the Video Blaster Digital VCR for almost a year, I'm totally confused by the review by "An electronics fan". He appears to be having a problem more with his system than the product. The Creative Digital VCR is my favorite tuner from the interface and my second favorite from an image quality viewpoint (it's surpassed by the Hauppauge WinTV PVR250). All functions of the Digital VCR software are available via the remote, including starting the software. The software uses a menu interface similar to the remote interface in WindowsXP Media Center Edition. The WinTV PVR250 has better video quality, but it's disappointing from a usability perspective because it's impossible to use the features without the mouse and keyboard, unlike the Digital VCR. The remote control included with the Creative Digital VCR is very complete and allows variable speed forward and reverse, direct channel selection and full use of the program menus.

Under Windows XP and Windows 98, which I used, setup is extremely simple. The drivers and software install without a glitch. I've never had audio/video sync issues mentioned in the other review. I've recorded everything from short segments to hours long programs. The card is based on a hardware MPEG-2 compression chipset, so CPU usage is very low (under 10% watching live TV or a prerecorded program and under 20% while recording or timeshifting a program on a P4 system). For comparison, software based TV cards typically take 50%-100% CPU time while compressing MPEG-2 on the fly.

An included utility lets the user export the recorded video files as MPEG-2 files. I never had any problems playing back the videos with Media Player or PowerDVD. There are 3rd party utilities for converting the files to standard DVD video or AVI files.

The minimum requirements for this product are low since the hardware MPEG-2 compressor chip on board does all the grunt work. Only a Celeron, Pentium 2/3 or K6 400MHz or faster is recommended by Creative.

While it's not a perfect product (only the WinTV PVR's better quality would make it nearly perfect), it's a easy to use, stable, decent looking TV/PVR product.