Video Reviews

I had this card for sometime now, at that price this card is a steal it is one real ... KICKING CARD! Don't be FOOLED by other cards that talk about 500mhz 64DDR is better than this card. This card will SMACK [beat]any card that is running on a LOL 64DDR. You might say will this card is too old for my system. Well thats what my friend sad when he was haveing problems running EQ and the new Unreal with his LOL 32DDR hehehe smirk that came with his new Dell I think he sad it was. This card is for GAMERS ya it don't have all the new stuff like a TV tuner and its only has VGA S-video hook ups but I don't watch TV on my PC, but I do alot of gaming. If thats what you whant too do with your PC; and don't whant too spend a ... load of cash to get a realy great card this card is for you. OOO ya if you think it might be too old for your system well. Iam running a Pentium 4 with Windows XP with 512RR ram heheheheh ROLF man I love my EYE CANDY!!

Good solid product offered by ATI + Catalyst drivers suite make it an exceptional value. Overall it's better investement than any Nvidia based card and peak performance is reached through Intel Pentium 4 2.4B 533fsb + 845E Intel chipset. Do not couple this with VIA chipset.

What can I say about this card....it's fantastic. At first I was skeptical about the card being made by ATI and its performance but after really doing some hard core research decided to purchase this card. The card that I was comparing it with was the NVidia GeForce4 Ti4200. For one thing, the 8500LE is so much cheaper than the NVidia card but still offers the same fantastic performance. I absolutely could not believe how well this card ran for the little amount of money that I paid for it. Way to go ATI, maybe this and other ATI cards will start forcing more fierce competition and get NVidia to back down off their extreme pricing. This card was an excellent accent to my P4 2.26GHz 533MHz front-side-bus machine with 1GB DDR RAM and 80GB 7200 RPM drive. I love this card.......say hello to my little friend. This card proves that you do not have to have just an NVidia card to have a viable system that will let you play your favorite games and the games to come, such as UT2003. In addition, DVD playback was georgeous. You gotta get this card.....what a deal!, what a steal!

I do not reccomend this tape. Unreliable. I purchase this and had a lot of trouble with the sound. At first I thought it was my camera. I went out and bought Sony mini DV tapes and they work fine. With that, I reccomend purchasing another brand.

I'm not exactly an expert on film quality, but I had no problems with this Digital Videocassette. It recorded just fine in my Panasonic camera. Just pay attention to how many you are ordering. I thought for some reason I was ordering a three-pack. But there was only one. My mistake.

Get tape good quality at a good price. Buy this blank tape.

I found the Night Owl Explorer 3.1 to be ok, thats all. The price isn't bad for what you get and it's very hard to pick out a "good" night vision unit in this price range. The one thing I don't like about it is it needs the IR light on it to work if it's completly dark out, which is ok, but the IR light is so bright that someone could spot you sitting in the dark because of it. It has a 1/2" diameter red light on top of the unit which at night is very bright if there is nothing else out there. This would not be a good unit for surveillance work. The unit only has a 15,000 light gain in it, some have up to 35,000 and would most likely be a better choice, if the claim is true. All in all it's ok for just screwing around with though. I also got the 5X lens adapt. for it, it works pretty good but does rob even more light. If you want a real good unit get one with a 2nd or even 3rd gen. tube, they are much better than any of these 1st gen. cheapies.....

I just received and used this Night Owl nightvision model "NOCX3".This product worked GREAT.I had 3/4 of a moon.Location was a wooded lake area 1:30am.I could see clearly at least 300 ft away.Standard green monochrome view.I messed with the IR a little but really didn't need it.The IR was just like turning on a mag light,effective 100 ft.I was able to turn on the unit and shut off a minute later for approx 20 minutes of sustained usage.Saves battery juice.Limitation,field of view was like looking through a paper towel roll.Small,but you could see everything.This is a great low cost Russian nightvision product.--ks.

I had to return mine since it had a big splotch in the phosphor screen that was distracting. Amazon couldn't replace it as they had run out of stock. From the little use I put it through, it worked well. I use an IR-scope at work that cost close to a $1000, but this Russian beauty is comparable to that in quality costing only a fraction of that.

ATI is not known for its driver development. The card performs well...but installation was a bear...drivers frequently did not work with other devices (USB USR modem for one) I have since upgraded to the 64meg, dual processor, rage and have found that to be a bit better. Dont know if I will buy an ATI card again though

My Compaq 5660 came with a 4mb ATI Rage Lt Pro, what a great board, it's no Charles Atlas mind you but it truly was the little engine that could, or at least tried every single time. But with todays high software demands, the little engine had to be retired to the round house, now his 32mb big brother rules the rails of my computer. I have friends that have spent weeks working around patching problems for their Voodoo boards and it seems everytime I log onto Lucas Arts and other software companies web-sites they're offering the latest patches for Voodoo products, thank God I stayed with a brand I used and trusted. The installation was a breeze (and I'm a computer idiot), visuals are stunning and the performance... well in one word, flawless. And can you believe it, ATI is the only board I could find that offered a TV composite out, great option. Seems Voodoo may have won the marketing battle but in my book, ATI has won the performance war. Bravo ATI, keep up this kind of effort in all the hardware you develope and I'll demand it in every system I buy.

This is a great card for the price. The Drivers are great, especially when you have the latest direct x from MS installed, as well as getting the latest from the web site (It worked fine out of the box with the drivers, but I think it is always best to have the most updated drivers for these cutting edge video cards!) The TV Out option is supreme, I have produced several videos with Adobe Premiere and exported to TV and they turned out great. Also if you ever want to play games out to TV they turn out great also. The Open GL and Direct X support have been superb. The latest games have been awesome looking with some fine resolution support. I can set the options to max settings for detail. I have njoyed this card the past 4 months. (specs I have-pent III 550mhz, AGP 4x, 20gb hd)

I bought this camera just a day before my trip to Alaska and it worked out great. Since there was not much time to read the thick manual, the controls were intuitive enough to operate. The video quality was great.
Pros:
- Great size. Very compact
- Great video quality with 2 Mega Pixals
- Easy to operate.

Cons:
- Still pictures come better in light. Not good if the light is less
- Red eye reduction does not seem to work well for still pictures
- In the video, the sound recording seem to pick up wind and other noises more than you actually hear.
- Some times still pictures are not in focus.

I would highly recommend this camera to anyone who is in the market for a camcorder. I purchased the optura 300 several months ago and have been utilizing it heavily ever since. The camera takes excellent movies of both indoor and outdoor events. I could not be happier with my choice. I did purchase a longer-lived battery which has worked out well. I keep the standard battery charged as a backup, but the larger battery has never died on me even during days that I shot a significant amount of footage.

I would like to point out of few issues I have had with it:
1) The instruction manual leaves much to the imagination, especially with how to download the recorded motion pictures onto a PC. There are many other gaps in the manual.

2) This camera is not for the technologically challenged. I would guess that this is not limited to this specific camera, but is an issue with the entire class of cameras. To burn DVDs and do any kind of editing, the user must have a video capture card & firewire installed on their PC. In addition, downloading movies onto a PC requires LOTS of hard drive space. I installed a 2nd hard drive for this purpose. In addition I needed to install a DVD RW drive so I could burn DVDs. I also upgraded my RAM. Although all of these are easy installs in newer PC's, it can be a daunting task just for a person to figure out what is actually needed not to mention knowing how to actually install it. Combined with shortcomings in the manual, I could see this being fatal for some users. If you are technologically challenged, I would recommend the cameras that burn directly to DVD.

3) At the extreme end of the zoom, the camera seems to have trouble focusing and is very shaky. This is not that big of an issue as long as the user keeps this in mind while framing the video.

4) I am not really happy with the quality of the still images captured by this camera. These images can be saved onto a flash card or onto the digital tape. With perfect lighting, the images are good, but I have found that when the flash is needed, the images are completely over exposed. The red-eye reduction feature does not work at all to reduce red eye.

Please do not let these negatives taint my review. I love this camera but I wanted to put all the issues that I have found with it out there.

I bought this goodie for less than $700 bucks from onecall.com, an authorized canon dealer so this qualifies me to a get a free 128MB SD card.
PROS: Really compact compared to lot of other cameras i compared with that had the same features, it really fits in my jacket pocket. Out door videos are amazingly great, had to be with 1.3MP of video quality, the other option i was looking at was sony 330 but that was way too pricey for me.
Still shots are exceptional although you cannot compare it with a stand alone digital still.
Menus are not complicated, even my wife can use it without hassels.
I had read reviews about the motor noise from the tape but i found that it had absolutely no noise when you record at the desired sound level in a quite atmosphere.
I know lot of reviews state that the microphone placement is bad as it sits right on top of the view finder but i didn't find this to be a serious problem as it picks up the subjects sound very well. The only problem with the mic placement is the sound variation when you speak vs. the subject speaking.
Zooming capability is amazing, the zoom is really smooth when compared to sony.
Image stability is excellent as long as you stay with in the optical zoom, once you hit the digital zoom(beyond 40X) you need to be really still, the manual provides you with few tips to increase the stability. Also, i rarely go to the digital zoom as 10X optical is more than enough for my use.
lots of predefined shooting modes.
This goodie provides a lot of digital effects.
The previous review said that s/he acciendtly recorded MPEGs instead of DV, but the on screen icons give you a clear indication of the media you are recording on, so no problem their as long as you see the on screen info.
LCD resolution is fantastic and i liked the fact that it is not too big, there by minimizing my battery drain.
The best feature i personally like compared with sony pc101/105/109 is that this one has all its control on the body, sony has a touch screen menu option and you could mess up your screen if you are not really careful.
Cons: The most outstanding problem i found with optura 300 is the low light recording. This provides 3 various low light recording but in the dark the super night shot mode any moving images create a drag effect and the recording resoultion is also grainy. Having said that the indoor + low light mode is adequate when shooting inside a home with no day light. The only problem is when it is pitch dark sony seems to be doing better.
Battery life is terrible, the battery provided with canon lasts 30-40 minutes, so i had to go in for an upgrade on the battery.
but i guess all camcorders have the same problem.
Overall it is a great camcorder for indoor and outdoor use.

I bought this amp and I HATE it. This component left BLACK, NON-removable, stained FOOTPRINTS on my once beautiful component table. Endless hassles for menu options that don't make sense, outputs that output for some things and not others (for instance: their "multi-out" will only output cd sound, and if you were to listen to a DVD the sound would cease for no apparent reason). 5 channel stereo should pass analog signal, but it doesn't. So I tried the "tape" outputs, and the FM radio comes out too now (hooray!) but still no DVD sound passes through the analog out. There is no method to their madness. The "hall" effect is horrible, turn it on and then put your head in between the center speaker and right-front to hear this horrid zig-zag featureless chop they call "hall" mode. uggh, I hate this amp.

The reciever is good, however it falls short in two important areas. It fails to include a tone defeat for the treble-bass controls and no loudness function and sounds in the treble region sound compressed, not really clear. For... more the
DENON DRA 685 has these important features + a cleaner mid and treble region while retaining good clear bass. Not that I am a DENON fan but, for this price range for a good 2 channel reciever the sound and features should be better.

I have owned the HK 3470 about a year now. I purchesed the 3470 because it has Pre-out/ Main in connections which allows the use of an equalizer. I mainly use the 3470 to power a large pair of Cerwin Vega S-2 EE Speakers for a friends outside party twice a year. These speakers have 15" woofers, 6 1/2" mids and tweeters. These speakers are made to handle up to 250 watts. The Hk 3470 throws the power to them very well. I play loud dance music and the amp does a great job! Adding the Equalizer really helps to dial in the sound on the Cerwin Vega's.

A very good Stereo amp with decent power.

Way better than the Case Logic products where you can't see the dvd from behind the cover insert page. Great stuff, I continue to buy more.

This is one product that is worth every cent. I was getting sick of all my DVD cases taking up shelf space. More often than not my DVD's were in 10 places because I take them with me when I travel. I was getting aggrevated opening a case, finding a blank spot and not having a clue where the DVD was. This case is great because it holds the books also and provides an easy way to keep track of all DVD's in one area. I liked my first case so much that I have bought a second and a third.
Some other reviews have mentioned it's cheap vinyl look...don't be fooled. I'm a college student and this has been with me on airplanes, the car, my dorm, my friends rooms (which often eat things), charter buses to football games, etc. I've had mine for two years and it still looks new!

Okay, I admit that this binder is a little pricy. My only other complaint is that for those DVDs that come in the cardboard case the cover doesn't fit in the sleeve.

That said, this binder is perfect for me. Since a lot of DVDs now come with a bonus disk, the two sleeves per page is optimal. The fact that the pages are removable make it easy to rearrange disks to keep them in alpabetical order.

These binders take up far less room on my shelf than a stack of cases would. The faux-leather finish is nice, but I'm not sure how durable it would be if you were to carry these around like you would a CD case.

I highly recommend this product. I use it to store my X-BOX games as well.

I recentley purchased this reciever and do not like it. Every time I'm watching a movie in surround the reciever overloads when the volume is at around 40. I can't enjoy the true surround sound at a good level.

I have owned one of these now for about a year now. I think it produces excellent sound. I have it hooked up to six Klipsch speakers and it has unbeatable sound!

I believe it's a good buy and performs well, but the owner's manual could be more informative & give better explanations to assist the layman in the hookup & setup phase.

I am still trying to test and get the proper sound settings for my speakers (Polk RM6600 & PSW250 sub). Still confused about a couple of settings and can't find the answers in the manual.

The receiver definitely gets warm and needs good ventilation. This makes me wonder if I can leave it in my glass-front stereo cabinet.

The on-screen setup menu is great and allows for easier programming. But, if the owner's manual was better written and provided more information, I would probably have given this a 5 Star rating...

If anyone knows of a site where I can find hookup drawings and better information on the various functions of this receiver, please let me know. The JVC website has limited information.

OK, it's a cheap flat panel monitor. But it looks sylish, good image quality, and it has built-in speakers.

I wonder if the guy from Circuit City bought the extended warranty. I had a problem with another product and they gave me a voucher, no questions asked .. and I replaced the product. But if you dont buy the warranty .. and the company goes out of business, you are dead in the water.

Regarding the monitor. I like it. It is not the greatest but for the money a good value.

Just picked up one of these from Circuit City. I generally like to shop at Circuit City becase the service is a little bit better than the others. Of course you still need to have your credit card waving in your hand and dress well; otherwise, no one is going to ask you what you want.

I was going to spend $500+ for a 17" 16ms LG from Best Buy but the LG was made in Mexico not in Korea. Sony looked really nice but it was made in China and it had 25ms instead of 16ms. Basically, I was out of selection. So, I took a look at the CRT but I didn't like any of them nor I was strong enough to put one of these 19" CRT in my car.

I remembered that there were couple of LCD moniters (...) for $399. So, I headed to Circuit City and found this monitor on sale. I had never heard of LiquidVideo but this monitor looked pretty bright and sharp compared to the others on display in Circuit City. This was made in Taiwan. My good old Viewsonic was made in Taiwan and it lasted for 10 years without any problem. I though since there was only a number of companies who supplies the actual LCD screen to various companies to build the LCD monitors, the name brand was not important I guessed. And there was a (...) rebate and I could carry it to my car with ease, LiquidVideo it was.

(...). I plugged this monitor and started my computer. It turned right on without any problem. It automatically adjusted the screen for my computer. Unliked my old CRT monitor that I needed to adjust this and that before I could use the monitor. The screen was bright and sharp. I checked for dead pixel and didn't find any. I then set the resolution to the native resolution (1240x1024) of the monitor. The screen got even better. (My resolution was 1024x768 before). The on-screen control was pretty good. The manual was well oraganized. I didn't have to scroll up and down liked in my ViewSonic.

Ok... screen is good and sharp and bright, and there is no dead pixel. Can't ask for anything better for this price.

The only weak point I think is the speakers. But at least it has a pair of speakers to save me some space on my desk. And I can get rid of couple wires under my desk.

(...)