Video Reviews

Bought this camera and found it to be a great! I really loved the digital camera function. The camera doesn't take the best picutes in low light situations but I found it well lite situations it did great. Easy to download to the computer. The video functions were what I thought were exceptional. I have used a Sharp ViewCam many times and I think this Panasonic camera outdoes the Sharp hands down. I especially was impressed by the many extra features which I did not know were out in the market. Only disadvantage is that it is a heavier camera than I would have liked.

I have just bought this camcorder and it is great. I was looking to buy a digital camera, 640 by 480 resolution or lower. I decided to save my money and buy a camcorder instead. When i saw this camcorder, i could not turn it down and so i bought it. To my surprise it performed in both modes above par. I was also surprise with the amount of features it had, so much, i haven't figured some of them as yet(I bought it today). Anyway, i would recommend this product to anyone who wants a good camcorder for their money.

This is a great product. The digital still feature allows me to put pictures on e-mails and the videos are great! I would recommend it to anyone. The software is great too!!!

I was pretty happy with these cables until one day after about 6 months of using the cables I was watching a dvd and noticed the color was messed up--the blue and red were flickering out. I replugged the component cables and it was fine again, but I have a feeling these cables aren't going to last very long.

These carry the signal as well as Big Name Brand cables costing ten times as much. Save your money for buying more movies!

Better than the gold plated RCA cables from Radio Shack. What more can you ask for? I see no reason not to recommend them highly.

We purchased our set at Sam's Club and have exchanged it three times because of a problem with the remote. Even though the TV otherwise works fine, has a good picture, etc. the remote control stops working unpredictably. (The light on the remote goes on and has power but it just doesn't affect the TV, change channels, volume, etc.) We've changed new batteries many times, tried new remotes and talked with Sam's Club and a local Sylvania dealer. No one has an answer or can fix it. When we exchanged the set for another one, and another one, we had the same problem. Too bad since it's basically a good set, but when you buy a remote you expect it to work.

If you have kids, this is a must for those long car rides. Since getting the tv/vcr combo, I haven't heard "are we there yet?" Great product at a reasonable price. Worth every penny!

After deciding to take a 6 hour car trip with two children (one four years old and the other 18 months) we purchased this unit for use in our minivan. Finding a spot for it in our Honda Odyssey was tricky. It did not fit neatly between the two front seats like we had hoped. We had to tie it down with ropes and bungy cords to one of the folded down middle seats. Once mounted, however, it worked nicely. The picture was clear and it magically kept the baby content for much longer periods of time than usual. The kids were so mesmerized by the videos we had on that they missed new and interesting scenery during our trip, though.

HOWEVER, on the return trip our four year old started complaining of nausea and we realized the TV was making him car sick. Overall, a great purchase if the viewers don't suffer from car sickness and you are willing to give up some space to mount it safely.

July 16-18, 2004

I JUST received the Sylvania DVR90VE and I have already tranfered four of over 100 vhs recordings, we made over the last 40+ years.

My old vhs tapes hold about 6 hours of recording each. I have now used the Sylvania DVR90V for over 24 hours of transfering (4)without any problems so far.

I will ONLY use the Sylvania DVR90VE for transfering my VHS tapes to DVD's

I will NOT hook the Sylvania DVR90VE to any off the air (TV). That is why I ordered(from "Amazon")the Coby CX-TV6 5-Inch Black & White TV With AM/FM Radio for $19.99, soley to use as a monitor for my Sylvania DVR90VE,which works perfectly monitoring my transfering of my VHS tapes to DVD.

All the accessories included with the $19.99 Coby CX-TV6,(from Amazon) was all that was required to make both units compatable.

I use my other (Panasonic) dvd/vhs recorder (from Amazon) for recording directly from my satelite TV reception as well as general viewing. This prevents tying up my primary (viewing)TV for the Sylvania DVR90VE.

Hopefully, "Amazon" will be able to offer an extended warranty (for a fee) just for the DVR90E or can REFER a reputable extended warranty service for the DVR90E.

Update: 7/19/2004

"Amazon" came through again,they offered and I purchased (today)the "Two Year Audio-Video Service Plan for components priced between $200-$499.99" for only $24.99, offered (via "Amazon) by "N.E.W. Customer Service Companies, Inc."

Joe

I really am sometimes very interested in DVD recorders, but I really don't always seem to know everytime which ones are the best ones. Whether it is the kind of format that needs to be recorded, or the kind of compatability that is needed for these devices. I'm really more interested in DVD Recorder / VCR combos, largely because it is a bit cheaper. Otherwise, you'd have to spend an extra $130 to your DVD recorder already to copy from VHS tapes to DVD. I definitely was relieved to find affordable DVD Recorder / VCR combos right now than a year or two ago, when they didn't have the option of combining the 2. Sylvania definitely knows that, with one of the very DVD Recorder / VCR combos out there. It arguably is a good deal, when others can't cut the mustard these days.

The Sylvania DVR90VE, is a remarkable DVD Recorder / VCR combo, that works like the others, at a great price. Here, there are some advantages with some disadvantages to the mix with all of these combos. The DVD Recorder has two options to record, VR mode for people who are new to the method of DVD recording, and DVD Video mode, which doesn't offer any protection from recording on DVD that the VR mode has. It can record several different modes from 1 hour recording on DVD, to 10 Hour DVD recording on one disc. The recording modes work very well, but it does have a few problems, the longer it is recorded onto DVD, the mixed the quality is. Another disadvatage to this DVD recorder, is that is only is able to play DVD's, audio and MP3 CD's, and the DVD-R/RW discs, like most of these kind of recorders. It doesn't have the playback, or ability to record on the DVD+R/RW discs, or the DVD-RAM discs. Still, that doesn't make much of a difference anyway to the playback. The playback of these DVD-R/RW recorded discs work great, with beautiful picture and sound quality for easy recordings.

All in all, the Sylvania DVR90VE is a great DVD Recorder. I strongly suggest you get this, if you can't afford any other DVD Recorders, without losing the VCR usage. It works very well, and it is well worth the price. I just don't know why other places besides Amazon.com don't have this unit. Hopefully, other places will get this DVD Recorder / VCR combo soon. It just is great.

This was one where I was hoping for the best but a bit dubious of what I might end up with at this price. As it turns out I was very pleasantly surprised. Easy to use with clear instructions, I was dubbing home videos to dvd 15-20 minutes out of the box. Easy hook up with digital/HD cable involved. High quality DVD picture, both playing and recording (dubbing from VCR or recording from TV). VCR portion does a nice job too. The copies and recordings I have made using DVD-R media work perfectly on 3 different DVD players in my house (each a different brand at a different price point bought at different times), so compatability doesn't seem to be an issue. I would have to say that the quality I got was much more than I expected for the money.

THIS HAS TO BE THE BEST INVESTMENT YET. WITH THREE CHILDREN WATCHING AT THE SAME TIME IT WAS PERFECT THE SMALLER DVD PLAYERS ARE REALLY JUST FOR TWO OR LESS WITH NOT MUCH SCREEN TO SEE. FROM CT TO VA WHAT A WAY TO GO. ONLY THING THAT IS WAS A LITTLE BULKY IN BETWEEN THE FRONT SEATS WE HAD THIS IN A SEDAN.

What a lifesaver!! I purchased this for our 10 hr drive to Canada. The kids loved it which made the drive so much better..I had originally purchased a small portable DVD player, but was so glad that I returned it and bought this instead. The carrying bag for the car is such a handy item, it fit nice and secure in my SUV. I'd recommend this for anyone taking a long trip in the car.

Pros: Perfect size for car, good looking design, every function you could want.

Cons: Picture not as sharp as any [] 13", remote too big, no DVD info display.

Summary: We just bought the Toshiba MD9DM1 9" TV []and think it's a great bargain what it can do. It fits perfectly between the two front seats of our minivan, but I did opt for a canvas type carry bag that makes it hold in place really well. Everything about it functions extremely well, and I really like the front AV inputs as well as the rear AV outputs. That's a super design plus because the inputs are great for game systems or watching video camera stuff, while the outputs allow me to hook the unit up to a larger TV, say at a hotel or something and watch DVDs where there is a bigger TV, but not a DVD player available. I also really like the car power adapter because it's got good length to it. It must be at least 8ft because I can plug it into to my van's rear AC output and the cord easily reaches the rear of the TV up between the front seats. Many such cords are 6 feet, and wouldn't allow this. I also like that this is a stereo unit, with a headphone jack in the front. I don't know of another such 9" TV that has all these conveniences in one, at this great price. The Toshiba MD9DM1 also has an appealing all silver cabinet that is sleek and modern looking.

As far as any complaints about it, they're minor for me. The picture is not as sharp as a 13" [] TV I have it outputted to right now as I write this watching a DVD, but that was expected a little due to it's size. Also the remote it came with is as big or bigger than any other remote I own, counting 2 other DVD players, and 3 other TVs so not sure why they couldn't have gone with a smaller design. And finally, I find that I miss being able to see the time and track details while viewing a DVD, since there is no display on the unit like you'd have on a standard DVD player. Maybe there's a way to call it up onscreen with the remote, but I havn't found it yet in the few days I've played with it.

A great TV/DVD combo for any portable need. Great design and functionality. It has everything from front AV inputs, rear AV outputs, headphone jack, long car AC cord, etc. Super!

Great functionality, easy to navigate, remote seems perfect. Overall a very good value!

I bought this tv dvd player for my teenager daughter. She won't get it until Yule however, I took it out of the box to test it out. At the store when it's next to a more expensive name brand model, you can see a difference in picture quality but not a big enough difference to matter. And for the price, you can't beat the added feature of the dvd player. Its very user friendly easy to use and sounds great! I noticed it doesn't play vcd's however a lot of dvd players don't. I was just hoping it would have had the added feature. I love it so much, I want one for my exercise room and my bedroom.

We were a little skeptical of the item based on the low price and a few reviews from other owners...but it's been great so far. Take into account that this is under [price] and many other units are [price]+, so expectations were not theater quality sound, etc.

This is a great 2nd TV (with the luxury of a 2nd DVD player built right in - for about what we payed for a DVD player alone on our primary system a year or so ago).

The picture is good with brilliant colors, sound is good (on both DVD movies and TV)...and I like the remote (in spite of complaints I read from a few users). The DVD portion of the remote functionality is more intuitive and easy to handle than the DVD player on our main entertainment system.

Plus the 19" size is perfect for the bedroom (13" is too small but about what you can get in most other brands for the price) - you can actually use letterbox features on you DVD and see the movie clearly. Overall - it's a great little system so far!

I bought the pioneer VSX-D510 from Best Buy for 200 bucks and I Love it. It packs alot of power and everything sounds great coming from it. Setup is simple if you carefully follow the instruction book, it will take you step by step with set up and instruction book does a good job describing each feature. Doesnt have S-Video, Component hook ups but I didnt need them since my TV already has these connections, no sense in buying two sets of cables for each component. I use my television for the video and my home theater for the audio. Only draw backs is the remote could be a little better and it could use a sleep timer but other than that it is wonderful!

(...) If you want a Pioneer with more inputs then spring for the D810 or D850 they have them. This receiver is not their top end model and that is why it lacks all the bells and whistles. That said it still is a great deal for the $$$.

I have a Sony 35" Trinitron with the matched base, there is only so much room in it and it is maxed out. All I can fit inside the base is the receiver, dvd player, vcr, satellite box. I don't need a cd player for the family room, the dvd fits the bill for that. I doubt I will get Tivo, so the lack of inputs is not an issue for me right now.

I have my DVD player hooked up thru the digital coax, the vcr using rca jacks, satellite using rca jacks and the tv using rca jacks. The dvd video out is S-Video to my TV directly, so everything works and I still get great quality.

I decided to get the D510 to save money and be able to purchase a decent sub, which will make a world of difference from my original passive unit. I figured that was money better spent. If I need to replace the receiver in the next 5 years then I can look for a higher end unit but right now I saved $230 from jumping to the D810 at (a higher price) so for me it was worth it.

Don't be afraid to give this unit a try it might suprise you!

I am giving the unit a 5 star value rating, for (this price) you can't beat it. It is getting an overall 4 star rating just because of the remote.

I didn't know anything about home theatres when I purchased this product. I didn't even know what "Dolby Surround" meant, nor how "5.1" and "stereo" differ from each other. The only reason I picked up Pioneer's VSX-D510 is because it was within my price range, and I recognized its brand name.
When I installed it for the first time, I was sorely disappointed. Sound was weak, and regular television broadcasts were coming from only 2 speakers instead of all six. My first reaction was to refund it, but then I decided to study about proper home theatre set-up and see if I missed anything.
Yes, it turns out that I missed a lot! Consider this an idiot's tale of overcoming his ignorance and accomplishing victory:

1. I heard that DVD have superior sound compared to VHS or television signals, but all my DVD movies sounded horrible. After studying the manual, I realized I could feed digital audio signal using DVD player's digital coaxial output instead of stereo signals. This receiver has one coaxial digital audio input, so I connected it with my DVD player. I still thought the sound was horrible. I figured that maybe my DVD player wasn't set right, and tried changing from "PCM" audio mode to "Bitstream" audio mode. Indeed it seemed to improve the sound a little.

2. I noticed that the receiver's "Dolby" light wasn't on. It was set to "Prologic," whatever that meant. I studied the manual again, and found out that I was supposed to set the digital coaxial input to "DVD" using the remote. When I did so, the "Dolby" text lighted up. There was amazing clarity in sound that almost brought tears to my ears.

3. Then I found out most of my VHS collection had "Dolby Surround" logos printed on their side. So why didn't my VCR play these movies with surround sound? After hours of careful examination, I discovered that my VCR was malfuctioning. I replaced it with a new VCR and surround signal started to go through. It's no 5.1 Dolby Digital, nevertheless it significantly improved the way I watch my VHS collection.

4. Until then I thought television shows were broadcasted in stereo, not surround. My cable decoder's audio output was connected to the TV, and the TV's audio output was connected to the receiver. I speculated that TV's audio output was only capable of outputting stereo signal, so I tried connecting cable decoder's audio output directly to the receiver. From that point on, all the television shows (and even the commercials) were in glorious surround. I thought it was as good as it'd get, until...

5. My cable provider started to feed some channels with digital, 5.1 audio. I didn't know how to take advantage of this at first, but it turns out that my cable decoder had a coaxial digital audio output on the back. Whenever I wanted to watch a channel with digital audio, I had to unplug DVD's digital audio cable and plug decoder's digital audio cable. It was inconvenient and I wished the receiver had 2 digital audio input instead of one. And surprise, surprise, my DVD player has an optical audio output (as all half-decent DVD players do - but I didn't know that before). I used an optical cable to connect my DVD player to the receiver and let the decoder connected to coaxial digital audio input on the receiver. Switching cables became no longer necessary.

Now I have adequate amount of knowledge in how to set up a receiver. My review doesn't actually cover many extra features that any home-theatre enthusiasts would appreciate (such as adjusting individual speaker volume, DSP, DTS decoding, etc.). So maybe this review will only be of help to clueless beginners (like me) avoid possible pit-falls of setting up a home theatre.

Well anyway, in closing, I'd like to say that this is a very good digital receiver. I bought several other receivers for my other televisions, and they have more or less the same set of features and indifferent sound quality. The only difference is that I bought this one for the lowest cost. For that I wholeheartedly recommend this product with a 5-star rating.

Thanks for reading - Have a nice day.

VCR's are definately skittish, especially this one. We bought it previously a year ago..and then it konked out on us...then we purchased it from Amazon..because it works with our TV since it is an RCA. I don't know why we bought it again..I am waiting for it to die like the first one did! DVD players are the better thing to purchase, they don't eat the VHS! (...)

This is my 5th vhs vcr(also had a couple of beta's)and is the easiest to operate of them all. It is actually fun to program because it is so completly idiot proof. If you are a fan of "auto repeat" this is the deck for you. Can pick any section of a tape and repeat it endlessly.(most decks allow only the whole tape to be repeated) Index search works perfectly. My only complaint is with the playback in sp mode. There is a slight whistling sound which can be noticed during quiet passages of video play. Also plays tapes that were recorded on my old and long departed machines. This is a big plus for many of us who have extensive video collections.

I found that the RCA 4 head VCR is the best I have ever owned. The instructions are easy to follow and it is a great instument to add to your collection. Amazon.com delivered my VCR in three days of my order and I am very happy with my choice.
I have to admit that this is a larger version VCR than the last one I had, but with all that it has to offer and delivers, it is worth the space it takes.

Remember that you get what you pay for. The SADX-950 is a good value, but is defenitly not an hi-fi system. The SADX-1050 will produce less harmonic distortion. On the other hand, if you do not plan to invest too much for the speakers (e.g. less than 250$ for the audio front pair), then this system should fit your needs. Note: requires an amplified subwoofer (not a passive one).

My wife just bought this receiver for me for Christmas (2001), and while it does not have an s-video input or output, it still has pleanty of features, delivers great audio with lots of flexability for mulitple configurations. It delivers a smooth low frequency so it gives you that great presence we all love out of our subwoofers without distortion. The remote is very user friendly. For the price point it is a great buy, i love it!!!

I've heard SA-DX950 and SA-DX1050 with four SONY SS-MF600H 8 ohms speakears.... there is no diference .... They say that SA-DX1050 has less harmonic distorsion.....NOT TRUE !!!!...... The same sound and the same distorsion..... Both A/V receivers start to get distorsion at -16db with bass +10 and treble +10... The sound is exactly the same.... Both have the same power of the bass ..... I don't know why it says that SA-DX1050 has 20hz- 40khz ... I think it's the same for the both of them 40hz - 40Khz... Now i have SA-DX1050, i payed more money for the S-VIDEO input or output ....not for the power, 'cause it's the same...... So if don't need the S-VIDEO input or output .... Don't buy the SA-DX1050 .... get SA-DX950 for less money.... so you can save some money....

This VCR provides excellent picture sharpness and clarity. The RW/FF speed is also excellent. My favorite feature was a complete surprise: VCR reads sub-channel info and on many channels will display the name of the current program onscreen, even during commercials!

Programming and timer recording leave something to be desired however. There is no way to record a show more than once (ie every day, once a week). In my area VCRPlus channels do not match what the VCR thinks and requires manual mapping of VCR channel to actual channel.

This 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 machine has Quasi S playback for tapes recorded on Super VHS machines. That's an excellent feature that gives you great versatility. I can record Super VHS tapes on my living room VCR but I can still play them back on this standard VCR in my bedroom. Pre-recorded tapes play back with an excellent picture too. How good a picture looks is what it is all about.

This is one of the best VCRs I have seen lately. Frankly, this machine replays VHS tapes giving one of the best pictures on the market today. I saw one of these while shopping. The picture was excellent. The color alignment looked good on the Panasonic Super-flat TV set it was being played on. Resolution was excellent. Usually a good TV set makes VHS tapes look bad. That was not the case here! I just thought I would share my reaction.