Video Reviews

I get the feeling that the reviewers that had difficulty with this receiver were either not reading and following the manual or really just did not understand what they were doing. I've had the machine for just over 2 months, and it performs great. The sound is fantastic, and it can handle anything I want to run through it, including my DVD, CD, Tape, 2 VCR's, and TV, and I still have room to hook up additional components if I can think of any. It supports 5.1, 7.1, dolby digital, and all the simpler formats, has plenty of optical, s-video, and component hookups to run everything at higher levels. The remote has little difficulty running my complete mutt of a system (toshiba, techniques, HK, JVC, Onkyo, and Hitachi). I think it's a bit spendy at anything close to full price, but I can't say it isn't worth the money. Overall a great machine.

Don't be fooled here by reviewers that don't read the manual! This is an AWESOME amp! Using with JBL studio front, center and powered subwoofer, Audiosource 100 watt in-wall speakers. This amp powers them all with ease. I can't turn the amp volume all the way up, it's so loud, it hurts! Dolby 5.1 and DTS are immersive. Sure, the manual won't win a pulitzer, but it does the job. Common sense is also a must (lacking by some quick-to-complain reviewers here). Unit runs a bit hot, make sure you have sufficient ventilation. FM tuner may need an additional FM antenna, get the best one you can (Terk hi-end). Plenty of inputs to mix and match, which you can assign. A fourth input on front w/S-video, optical, etc. Have a Sony DVD 5.1/DTS player, mid-range stereo VCR, DD satellite receiver and older LD player. No problem with ANY of these and the HK. You may want to pick up analog to S-video converters so you won't have to change the input on your TV. Get the converters from RADIO SHACK ($...) - NOT THE MONSTER VERSION ($...), RS is obviously much cheaper. This makes all your inputs from RCA jacks S-video. Also - USE GOOD CABLES! Monster, Acoustical Research and some others. Not Radio Shack cables. Also use good speaker wire like Monster. YES - IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE! If you get a hum, you may need to plug the HK into it's own surge protector, check the manual. I like the remote, has a digital meter with speaker built-in to adjust your speakers! I have a large media room with 60" TV and this receiver delivers. Tested with MP3's, CD-R/W, VCD, movies like "Matrix"(the bullets whizz by!), "Gladiator", "Blade 2", "Saving Private Ryan", "Attack of the Clones" and others. Classy front looks great! This guy is heavy too, make sure you have a good cabinet to put it in.

For a semi-serious home theater enthusiast I have been extremely pleased with the AVR520. I switched to this reciever from an old Pioneer Elite VSX-97 and seriously consided another Pioneer Elite, Denon and Integra AVR's but found the sonic clarity unsurpassed by any of the other models. The receiver was easy to setup at the GUI was fairly easy to navigate. DVD's and CD's played on my Pioneer Elite DV F-07 DVD/CD Player have never looked or sounded better. The surround performance with this reciever is simply amazing. The Multi-room capability and the optional MP3 translator (allows MP3 playback from your computer through your reciever) are great additonal features.

I purchased this through Amazon.[com] It doesn't play all my NTSC tapes. The old vcr which it replaced actually plays better once I cleaned its heads and blew out the dust inside with a can of air.
I'm going to return it for something better. I hope I can still do this without the packaging.

I bought this VCR when my Magnavox-- with all the bells and whistles-- pooped out after 3 years!
I was pleasantly surprised at the clear picture, good sound, and ease of set-up (though I have NEVER understood why someone's VCR was ever flashing 12:00 to begin with, besides a power outtage!)
The VCR does not have SELF CLEANING HEADS, SEARCH function, nor does it offer a PAUSE button on the face of the unit.
The "Universal" remote WILL turn your TV on, and adjust the volume, however it WILL NOT access your TV's onscreen menu. I found this annoying since it boasted being UNIVERSAL.
My old unit sells for [more] new, and for the savings ... I can buy a universal remote a la carte, and learn to use it exclusively. A good machine for the money!!

After a few weeks, the unit had a high pitched noise during play... I ended up returning it and purchasing another competing model.

Bought this VCR to match my Hitachi TV for my room, it works great after about a few dozen tapes, even my worn out tapes looks better here compared to my old Sony VCR. The long frame makes it stand out the rest of the cheaper brands reminds me of
my older VCR units. Noise is no issue cause i dont usually stick my ear when rewinding and setting the time duh all you do is plug and and make it scan a decent channel.You cant go wrong with this model.

This item is a great idea, however it does not install on windows
xp professional, even though the intel faq says it does. The intel customer support says that there are major problmes with the mouse, keyboard and gamepad (they only list the minor problems on there compatibility faq)), they dont bother to tell you that they do not work at all on many peoples xp professional

However if you have 98,me,xp home, or 2000 professional(wow 2000 pro and not xp pro) then buy this product, it is an awesome gamepad and can function as a mouse that doesnt even need a surface to use.

This game pad is not only beautiful to look at and hold but is very functional as well. The mouse function is perfect for playing 3D video games such as American Mcgee's Alice and Clive Barkers Undying. It can be programmed to be both a mouse and a keyboard at the same time! The response rate is fantastic and the wireless freedom is outstanding! This pad is very durable and should last for years as long as you don't abuse it to badly.

This item is super-cool and works perfectly for me. This is one of the few devices where I just inserted the CD, pushed a button, and it worked. The software that configures the gamepad to push various key combinations on your keyboard worked perfectly and was easy to understand and operate. The gamepads feel good, respond quickly, and are studded with lots of buttons. Only when playing MAME Joust did I have a problem, the gamepad trigger was not fast enough to flap the wings. I just changed to button A and everything worked fine. I went out and bought a four player race car game and am trying to buy two more controllers now!

Well, personally I like towers better than shelfs. Towers fit in smaller places, and dvds fit horozontally instead of virtically. But towers usually dont fit over sized dvds. This however will easily fit any oversized dvd cases, such as collecters boxes, double sized dvd boxes, dvd's with specal covers. I love displaying my specal collection boxes, and this shelf does just that.

I thought that this multi-media stand was a bit pricey; however, it did have a lot to offer...sleek design, not bulky at all, holds everything (cd, video, dvd, whatever), fits in with most contemporary decor. I now have two of them!

This is a great rack to store any media. I store my books, DVD's and console games on it. It matches my silver A/V equipment and entertainment center. The quality is very good in my opinion. It holds up well and is very sturdy.

The camera itself performs OK. As others have noted, the picture is a bit grainy, especially under low light (which seems to be standard for webcams). I have noticed a light, vertical stripe running down the middle of the captured image that's somewhat distracting.

I had no problems installing the camera - just plugged it in, and Windows XP recognized it right away. It worked with the bundled ULead VideoStudio, Windows Movie Maker, and WebCam2000.

The software I would have most wanted to use with the iBot was ATI's Multimedia Center that came with my ATI Radeon All-in-Wonder video card - namely, its motion-activated recording feature (so I could find out what the cats *really* do while I'm away). But the iBot did not show up as a possible video source in the ATI configuration.

(warning: geek-speak ahead) After some research, it turns out that the ATI video-capture function is only compatible with devices that have WDM drivers, and the iBot drivers only support the older, 'VFW' standard. Microsoft has stopped supporting the VFW (Video for Windows) standard, and is pushing other companies do the same. So there may be other applications out there that won't support the iBot, unless Orange Micro releases a WDM driver.

On a side note, Microsoft _has_ supplied a forwards-compatibility feature in Windows XP that will allow applications using the older VFW standard to use newer WDM devices (just not the other way around).

This camera works really well. Setup is a breeze on OS X.2.7 and it works really well with iChat AV. The picture quality is pretty good and the Firewire makes a big difference in frame rate. The only reason it didn't get 5 stars is the form factor is a little bit clunky. The Firewire cable is heavy and thick and makes it a bit tough to position sometimes. Also, the foot thing, though cool looking, is pretty impractical for setting the camera up anything smaller than a desktop. Other than that, it's a great buy.

I am getting a clear picture on my Mac using ivisit to communicate with a PC......so far, so good. My only complaint: the directions seem to be a little dated.....ivisit (old edition) is included on the CD software in the box, but the latest version, on ivisit.com website, for Mac 10.3.2, does not need this CD....just download from the website, and good to go. Also, you can just plug the camera into the firewire outlet on the Mac.....no fuss. In their directions they speak of a "Plain Talk Adaptor".....since half the customers for this camera are Mac, I feel they should include this in the package (it is an additional $15 and this camera is an expensive camera!) I was told by Mac tech support that only really old Macs require this adaptor, so it may no longer be necessary. (i.e. their headset/microphone might work just by plugging it into the Audio-In jack, without this adaptor) Also, no drivers are necessary for newest Macs and latest website download. My advice: call their tech support (number on website for orange micro) and email ivisit tech support and check with Mac tech support. Better safe than sorry. They do need to keep the directions up-to-date. The camera is small, flexible, can go anywhere (can tape to surface to hold it), and I am pleased with it.

Pioneer makes great Audio recievers, speakers, and components. Take this reciever. A great Price for Dolby Digital, Pro Logic, and DTS Decoding. But the power output at 60 Watts per channel is Not so good. I like loud Rock music. When you turn the volume up, the bass fades away. Which is another negative. The many different options of speaker setup and tone control is great. It gives the user Control over almost everything. If you want great bass, i recommend using large speakers as front speaker,or two 100 watt powered subwoofers. And a good five speaker system, made by sony, pioneer, or bose.

This affordable A/V receiver does both Dolby Digital and DTS decoding, making it ideal for a DVD home theater setup. It also does a better job of Dolby Prologic decoding than my old Pioneer VSX-455 receiver. Amazon's review above already mentions most of the features of this receiver. In addition, it has one coax digital input and one optical digital input (cable not provided) for your DD/DTS source. It also comes with FM and AM antennae.

The receiver lets you fine-tune your surround sound setup by specifying speaker sizes (setting one to "Large" will send more bass to it if you don't have a subwoofer), set cutoff frequency for the subwoofer, set volumes of individual speakers, and set distances between the speakers and the listener.

As mentioned in the Amazon review, the "Midnight" mode only helps "slightly". There is a separate "Dynamic Range Compression" feature that lets you select MID (middle) or MAX compression; but at either setting it makes barely noticeable difference to loud sounds. Like me, many people sometimes find it hard to hear movies at home -- dialogs too soft, sound effects too loud. The truth is that movies are made to be listened in an ideal accoustic environment like a theater, and most homes simply cannot recreate such an environment. Hence, many receivers include features like "Midnight" mode to make a movie soundtrack less overwhelming. But they often don't work well enough, and they distort the original sound way too much.

The "DSP sound modes", which turn plain stereo sound (such as from CD or radio) into a sort of "fake surround" sound, are OK. They don't do magic, but at least they don't distort the sound into an unrecognizable mess like my old Pioneer VSX-455 did.

One concern is there are not too many A/V inputs on this receiver. Besides the coax and optical digital inputs, there are just 3 video inputs and 4 analog audio inputs. This is barely enough to accommodate a TV, VCR, DVD player, LD Player, and CD Player. And it's definitely not enough if you also have satellite TV, audio cassette deck, turntable, etc.

I find the the receiver's 60 watts of power sufficient, although I often have to turn up the volume to about -30db (0db is max, -94 is min), which is almost 70% above the minimum.

The remote control is typically unexceptional: small buttons, confusing interface, useless as a universal remote.

At this price - entry level for surround sound - I did not expect so many ways to customize the sound to match your speakers and your room conditions. Great flexibility in that regard.

One of these features has turned out to be essential for me, and may be for you as well if you are living in an apartment as opposed to a suburban house. I'll explain: "Midnight Mode" takes the softest parts of the movie (or CD) and elevates it a bit, so you get the full presence of the scene even if you haven't set the volume excessively high. When watching DVDs before I had this unit I'd noticed that many times I needed to turn up the volume during dialogue scenes, and turn it down during "explosion scenes". Midnight Mode (and a couple other methods of compressing the dynamic range) overcomes this problem. You simply put the volume at your favorite level (a level you will enjoy which won't damage your hearing, and which your housemates won't mind) and you will never have to be worried that a softly spoken scene will be inaudible. It will be audible - and sound very good indeed. To a lesser extent, this mode also reduces the excess volume of explosions, but I believe it is weighed more in favor of bringing up the quiet than in reducing the loud - which is why other reviews said they didn't notice it reducing the loud sounds much at all. (It is actually good that people think the effect is subtle -- if it drew attention to itself, it wouldn't be doing the job well, would it?) I think it is more intended to bring out the nuances, and it does so splendidly. Also works great for keeping music CDs sound full when played at background levels. All with a simple one-click change.

Another nice things I've noticed: This unit doesn't get too hot. Maybe because it is only 60 watts per channel (which is double what I grew up with!). Perhaps it costs less to run, as well?

In summary, I was concerned that at this price I'd be making sacrifices, that I'd be stuck with something that sounded one particular way. But it is flexible to your room conditions and your speaker sizes. No sacrifices here, except the lack of S-Video inputs (which might not be a factor for you at all).

let me jsut start by saying I LOVE THIS T.V. my eldest daughter of 13 has wanted a T.V. for her bat mitzvah I hesitated, but of course my husbande jumped to the oppurtunity. We bought it for her and to my amzement it was awesome! It has a dvd,tv, and cd palyer all in one. It's good for her listening to music and basically all the sleepovers she has. So any mother considering buying a T.V. this is the one for you!!!!!!!:)

My daughter has just turned 13 and she has begged me over and over.. Mom my freinds all have T.V.s in their rooms why can't i? I finally, on my better judgment let it. I bought this T.V. and even though we have small shelving space it worked amzingly she even can play C.D.'s too! This is a must for all new T.V. buyers 5 STARS!!!!!!

Just received the TV/DVD player today. I hesitated when reading previous reviews but I like to live dangerously. I found the system easy to set up. The manual was not confusing and took less than 7 minutes to set up (including test of the CD player, cable programming, remote operation and closed captioning). Picture and sound are very crisp. I don't see any reason this product won't last as long as any other of similar type. At this point it looks like a great deal.

Everything worked fabulous, except could not get the Component connections to work but S-Video and Composite video connections worked. Actually the S-video connection was pretty good. Played my SVCD Matrix Reloaded fabulously, it even has digital audio outputs! Can't complain, I already have 2 of these.

I dont know much about dvd players. We bought this one while the price was still up there but definatly worth the money. We have had no problems. We got it to replace the HORRIBLE apex one we had and can not belive that apex sells for higher. Shame.

The SV-S200 is a great DVD player for an incredible price. Makes a great first or second DVD player in your house. The black styling is, well, stylish, and the player is thinner than many more expensive models. Plays DVDs and DVD-Rs and also many Asian video formats... yes, great for watching those cheap kung-fu movie VCDs from Chinatown. :) Get this. It's so affordable, you have nothing to lose.

The above "reviews" from "an electronics fan" are, obviously and blatantly, plugs by a manufacturers representative of some sort. Give me a break. If you're not a consumer, you shouldn't be rating the products.

First of all, the dimmer and the 270 viewing and the snazzy appearance and two alarms and what-not are all as advertised and the sound is better than I expected. The only flaw is it is a bit bigger than some similar units out there. If size is not an issue it is the best one for the price. If size is an issue you need to go to a store and actually lay hands on one, because buying them on the net you never know. There are some really small ones out there that you could, say, use while traveling, but for bedroom or office use this one looks and sounds very nice.(yes, i do sleep in my office, George Costanza style)

Wow, am I impressed with this clock radio! I did about a week of researching and was planning on a Sony but then saw the reviews for this. It had all the options I was looking for without adding bells and whistles that are useless. What a plus to have 3 sided viewing also! You can see what time it is from anywhere in the room. When I got it home the first thing I did was check the sound. I was quite surprised. I could hear it through the house. Obviously it doesn't sound quite as good as a large stereo system but it really was good! No distortion on high volume. It's the perfect size and the dual alarms are great as I get up at two different times throughout the week!. I tried out the cd player and was impressed again. Another big plus if you're like me and can't sleep with any light. The clock display is NOT overpowering lights!! It has a dimmer switch. It does not light up the whole room as others I looked at. The am/fm pick up is great. Much better than what I had.

So, I would say if you've been doing a ton of research and are as confused as I was, look at the reviews - everyone is very pleased with this alarm clock (which by the way, the buzzer is very non-intrusive). Go for it - you'll be pleasantly surprised. WELL worth the money.

- got mine thru buydig.com, $367 total, free shipping, took only 2 days to get to CA from NJ. very good buying experience. the unit I received is brand new.
- the documentation is horrible in terms of organizing the information. just had to dive in and learn by trials and errors. Seemed like a lot of nifty features (e.g., chasing playback) are only available when recording media is dvd-ram. this sucks since dvd-ram is not supported widely as dvd-r.
- easy one-touch-transfer from vhs to dvd. however recording via this procedure created a lot and I mean a lot of titles. I think it created one title for each pauses & stops signals that were on the camcorder which were later got transfered to the vhs tape. During the playback of this recorded dvd, there are annoying repeats of video and audio in between transition of the titles which last about half a second. I called Panasonic tech support and was confirmed that this unit didn't have the "seamless play" feature which would have eliminated these "hiccups".
- I used the external line 2 (located in front of the unit) to connect my hi-8 camcorder and transferred my home movies to the dvd-r disks. With this method, only 1 title was created. Can't create chapters out of it unless the used media is dvd-ram (was also told by the Panasonic tech support). One dirty fix is to stop the recording whenever I want to create a new tittle out of the whole tape, so if my 2 hours Hi-8 tape transfer was stopped and re-recorded for 8 times at the time of my choosing then I would have 8 titles to edit such as creating names/labels for the title thumbnails) instead of a single title.
- used dvd-r 2x (comp usa brand) - seems to work ok. However when I attempted to use a 4x dvd-r Platinum brand, the unit went into the self check mode, shut itself off and on after recording only for about 30 seconds. Not sure if this is a problem with this particular brand of dvd media or the 4x media in general. the documentation says it supports up to 4x media.
- has only S-video and regular RCA inputs, no firewire or usb for mini-dv camcorder transfers.
- the built-in tuners can only go up to 125 channels so using its remote control to tune digital cable channels (up to 1000 channels) is not optimal.
- playing back the recorded dvd-r disk on my dvd-rom drive in my computer is a problem. None of the disk can be read. However I can view them on my other stand alone dvd players (go-video, circuit city's AMW brand). I exteneded the recording time on 1 dvd-r to record more than 3 hours of video. the result is pretty grainy, bad. and the stand alone dvd players can't read it at all, except for the unit that burned it.

- Not sure if other stand alone dvd burners are any better but if I had to make my purchase over again, I wouldn't choose this unit for its lack of features on dvd-r media and limited playback supports of other dvd formats (dvd+r, dvd +/-rw, etc.)
- I would rate this unit 3 out of 5 base on my expectation and personal experience with it.

1) Contrary to what the reviewer states, the unit does not contain twin tuners (at least not the one I got). You can only record one channel at a time (either on the VHS or DVD side).
However, you can record on one while playing on the other.

2) The unit does not have a RF Modulator - so you cannot connect it to your TV's antenna terminal, only via the direct input jacks (assuming your TV has them).
Panasonic does this with all their DVD Recorders. (Really chinchy of them.)

3) Be forewarned - you cannot make copies of your store bought VHS and DVD movies that are copy protected (Macro Vision).
Also, there is no audio volume control that would allow you to compensate for tapes that are too loud or too low.

4) The new EP speed of 8 hours is backward compatible on older 6 hour machines. The quality is about the same as the 6 hour so you are effectively getting 1/3 rd more on the same DVD-RAM disc.

All in all a pretty good machine, assuming you understand its complexities. The manual is quite elaborate and may at times be hard to follow. The remote is quite good and preset to Control Setting #1. It and the machine can be changed to #2 or #3 if you have other Panasonic DVD Recorders and wish to avoid a conflict.

Purchased this unit to copy home movies from beta and VHS tapes to DVD, it was very easy, just push 3 buttons and the machine starts copying. If you want to copy only parts of a tape then just press pause for the DVD. It does work with TDK DVD-R disks.
It comes with instructions on a disk, load this disc first and go through each chapter, even if you think you know it.

So far after 2 weeks am very pleased with this dvd\vcr recorder