Video Reviews

Good product if you are going to use firewire peripherials only. Or you just need a fire wire hook up for a camera or camcorder. I have windows XP and it installed flawlessly and so did my camcorder subsequently. Ulead Video studio 6 se, the program that comes with the card is good but it almost never installs from the cd correctly. Don't even try, just copy the cd to a temperary folder on your hard drive and install from there.
Then get your free effects installed and then update with the patch and you won't have any trouble. I wish someone had put this out there I would have saved 2 days of bsing.

I bought this card from amazon when I ordered my DV camcorder at buydig.com. When I received them, I connected them with my computer up, and it is so easy and works great!
This package includes everything you need to connect DV to PC, the card, the 1394 cable and a software though I did not use that software.
Consider the price if you simply buy a 1394 cable from BestBuy, it is more than 10 or even 20 dollars!

Installed this card and it worked first try on a reasonably new Dell 8300 running XP. Took maybe 5 minutes TOTAL before I was capturing video. If the editing goes this well than this is an excellent product!

I was severely dissapointed when I discovered I couldn't edit the video that this card captures.

Attention PC USERS! This card will not allow you to capture professional video in a format that allows conventional video editing.

Unlike previous versions of the All-In-Wonder, this product lacks the video editing conversion tools and codec compatability.

The video captured looks (bad) unless you record in .mp2, .vcr, or .wmv

I tried a variety of codecs but I was dropping frames and I have a 1.6 Ghz P4 processor and 540 k Ram, should have been a breeze.

The Ati .VCR codec is great but you cannot convert it into anything but an mp2 which is not compatible with Adobe Premiere or Virtual Dub or any program I could find without drastically reducing the quality of the video.

I bought this product so I could make and edit a video for my brother's wedding. I am very disappointed. The best I can get is a 640x480 Mpeg1 capture that looks pretty lousy when any movement is involved.

The .wma, .vcr, and mp2 formats capture very nicely, but the bottom line is that I am unable to edit these formats without severely compromising the quality of the video. I contacted ATI and "this is just the way it is," I was told.

I would advise making sure you look for a video card that captures quality video in a conventional, edit-friendly format.

Scored 10528 on 3DMark2001 using an Epox 8K3A+ VIA KT333 mobo, a non-overclocked Athlon XP 2200+, OCZ 512MB PC3000 DDR CL2, and ATI Radeon 8500. The detail and picture quality are flawless when playing Serious Sam II. The Radeon 8500 is an excellent card and a great value.

I just made same bench marks it looks that this baby killed Geforce 3 TI 500 by 10% it really performs excellent.
There is no reason to pay [$$$]for GForce 4 for another 12% of extra performance, unless you have money so loose.
I am really happy with This Rodeon 128MB, I played 8 games and I did not find any problems playing. ATI is really improving fast with drivers; I highly recommend this card for hardcore gamers!

I don't know who would spend so much money on this???
64MB Sgram , phh please!
Buy something else!

I second the previous review. This card is for graphic rendering in applications, not for pumping graphics for video games. Anyone in the industry will tell you the same. Do not let uneducated reviews deter you from purchacing this card as it will outperform any high end gaming card on the market today.

If you want glitzy graphics for the latest video games, look elsewhere.
If you want a powerful entry-level rendering card, look no further.

...because its obviously made by some pseudo-gamer that simply has no knowledge of the true application of this card.

True, the card will perform quite poorly when placed up against current cards designed for 'videogames'. But this card will easily blow away even most modern GeForce or ATI when it comes to rendering scenes and animations in programs such as Lightwave or 3dMax.

For anyone looking for a solid entry-level rendering card, this is an excellent choice. 3DLabs, of course, has many more higher end cards to chose from as well.

I bought one of these quite some time ago to use with my SLRs (Canon T90s) and it turned out it was totally useless for them. It was way to wobbly so I ended up buying a Bogen tripod and ball head for around [$$$]. This tripod went into the closet until lately when we bought a DV JVC camcorder and for it this tripod works very well. The camcorder is light enough for the tripod to hold it steady enough. The fluid head is a bit of a joke (not really fluid), but it works for what we use it for. And the bubble level is a nice detail. You cannot put many pounds on this and don't expect to take razor sharp pictures on long exposures. But it's an inexpensive alternative for smaller digital cameras and camcorders. It's lightweight and easy to carry.

It's been a long time since I used a tripod but I managed to get it set up without reading the instructions. There are no instructions so save the box for helpful hints. Tripod is fit for my purpose: mostly indoor use planned. It is hard to get it truely static when pressing shutter release on Minolta Dimage X. I was also horizontally challenged - the base has a little level that is below (BELOW) the camera pad. I would not take this on a rugged outdoor adventure with many uneven surfaces (They will need to make a titaniium one to get it this light but durable; start saving now.) I would not use it around kids, old folks, crowds, or any combination of these because your expensive electonic gizmo is going to going to fly thru the air with the greatest of ease. A nylon or tyvek travel case would be a helpful item.

This is a pretty decent tripod, for the price. However, don't be misled by the "fluid effect head." That's why I happened to buy this particular tripod, and it turns out that I already owned one!

I had purchased a tripod made by Ambico which was almost identical about 14 months prior to this purchase. At the place where I bought it, it cost me around 20 bucks. I had decided to get a different tripod because the fluid effect head wasn't nearly fluid enough for me. When this one finally came, I compared the two, and my old one worked just as good as this one.

If you're looking for a cheap tripod that gives you great bang for your buck, then this tripod is for you. If, however, you're looking for a tripod that truly is fluid, look somewhere else. Oh. And if you're going to get this tripod, shop around a bit. You might be able to find it cheaper elsewhere.

Pleasant to the eye, pretty sturdy construction, small, but only uses 4 out of 5 shelves if you want to use it for DVDs! I like the rack, but think it is overpriced! With shipping, it was way too much money for what it is!

I love wire shelving for providing convenient storage that easily breaks down for moving. This multimedia shelf works well but two things must be known. The first thing is that some of the shelves may not be properly coated so there may be bare spots. The second thing is that some shelves may slightly bent, making it hard to install properly. This is true of all wire shelving and is something that has to be lived with. With this in mind, this is a great shelf that will stand up to almost anything you throw at it.

I live in a small home where every inch matters. This slim shelving is perfect for organizing my CD's and DVD's and it fits well on top of a desk. Now it is much easier for me to look through my couple of hundred CD's and find what I'm looking for. The legs have adjustment to level the shelves, and it's very sturdy. I can't say much more than that about a shelve.

Bought one from dell.com, after one day test with this "high" rated DV, decided to return it back. It's a horrible canon DV.
Pros:
None
Cons:
1. Very bad resolution of recording on SD card, even worse than my cheap webcam.
2. Unaccept noisy while recording tape.
3. Compare to USB stream or usb mode webcam, DV messager is a joke function, hard to use and bad compatibility.
4. Light shoot is another joke from canon DV.

Not sure what the reviewer below is talking about but based on his lack of details I imagine it's not a genuine review.

Anyway, I spent allot of time researching before buying a camcorder and decided on the Elura 65 -- check out the review of the Elura 70 (the 60, 65, and 70 are basically identical) on http://www.dvspot.com .

The Elura 60 didn't have a hot shoe which I knew I would need since most camcorders in this price range do not have a good light -- if any at all. Daytime recording is excellent.

Some argue that it's only a single CCD camcorder but it's a large CCD as apposed to the three small CCDs in the Panasonic PV-GS120. The Panasonic was my second choice but I read allot of negative reviews about the image stabilization. The Elura also fits more comfortably in the hand when compared to Panasonic. In addition, the Canon has virtually no tape noise when operating.

I highly suggest that you get the double capacity battery BP-2L14, the hot shoe light VL-3, and the portable battery charger CB-2LT. The double capacity battery will last about four hours and adds very little weight to the camera. The supplied batteries drain very quickly. Night shots are notoriously bad for all camcorders in this price range even though some are better than others. The VL-3 light will make a big difference in picture quality at night. Also, the portable charger is more convenient to travel with than the big and cumbersome charger supplied in the box.

I can't comment about the reliability yet since I've only had it for a couple of months. But based on my experience with other Canon products it should be good. Enjoy!

Well, choosing between the cameras, and after going for MVX250i (European twin for Elura 70, as I live in Europe), I'd like to point out some really strong sides of the cam: 16:9 is really WIDER than 4:3 (not just cutting upper & lower parts only) and is taking full advantage of 1.3 MPixel CCD, which btw, let's the stills be captured to SD card in 1280*960 res.. not bad at all for screen viewing. The optics are absolutely superior in its class, the angle for close-ups IS wide and the optical zoom is remarkable. It HAS mike input, unlike new ZR series (which I was considering at some point), and the motor is much quieter also, comparing to ZR. Its shape & size is excellent, it feels solid and is really comfortable to held - thanks to the low height. On table it may seem somehow thick, but to palm it fits perfectly.
If to mention one con, then in lower light conditions the cam tends to boost the sensitivity of the CCD too much, making picture quite grainy. Also, any faster movement in dark will result in blurry picture. The built in white LED sure does its job well, but the sand in the picture remains... So you'll get some of the advertised colours with the price of noise, the opposite of Sony's night-mode. Sure you can attach external lamp any time ..
As a conclusion, it seems there is no other cam offering this level of features & design at this price.. at the moment. If you are looking for something small & capable, this is it. Absolutely no regrets so far..

I'm on line trying to find a replacement for our now-discontinued V-2800 tripod. The crank broke after limited use.

I just used it one time... But it's knob was broken...
I can't understand how can it be happend...

This is Great for the price.
Very well made for the price.
sturdy when camcorder is mounted.
Try it you will like it.

It installs easy, if you need any more then 20 minutes to make this one work, you should have no business looking inside your PC. Picture quality is great. Processor usage is very low. On my old 500 MHz PC it shows processor usage of 16%. Don't forget this is not a graphic card; don't expect to be able to resize the windows, moving it around, etc.
This card is mainly intended to project high quality video on your TV. If you intent to watch your movies on your PC, stay with Win DVD, Power DVD or any other software player, unless you have a very slow PC. DIVX 3.1 and XVID are now supported. One other thing, if your TV is far away from your PC, be prepare to spent additional money on high quality S-Video cable or wireless video sender, If you must have your remote control by your TV, then you will also need a serial extension cable.

Thhis is a nice device with 2 problems (that is why there are only 4 start instead of 5)

Problem 1 : The software that comes with it is a little flakey with the IR remote. Solution is to DL the Beta 2.0 software, that fixes it.

Problem 2 : It takes over all Mpeg playback. In Windows Medial player you cannot play MPG files, I have not gotten a fix for this yet. I am still trying to get one from manufacturer.

Dispite these problems, it is great! It is smooth, the remote is a great feature. I have a computer that records TV shows for me, and this is the best way to play them back. I can use Dr. Divx to convert the tv shows to Divx so that they will fit better on a CD.

If you want to watch DVD or Videos on your TV from your computer, this is the thing for you! If you just want to add DVD playback to your computer, and watch them on your monitor get PowerDVD instead.

Easy to install with Windows 98SE - provides progressive scan very clear picture - 480P for DVD playback - the documentation for getting the remote to work is inadequate - full control of contrast and color allows for experimentation - default settings were very low for both.

I am a computer geek for sure, and i love high quality graphics.

The only problem is that i don't have the money to buy a expensive computer so i had to keep my 3 year old dell. The situation for me was that this computer only has a 200watt power supply, and now-a-days most cards are requiring over 350watts of power. I previously had a geforce4 ti4200(64mb), but that stoped working once our electric in the house was changed. The computer origionally came with a Nvidia TNT 2 graphics card with 32mb of memory. This card looked nice, but its performance was very weak and had very little support for advanced graphics applications.

So, i started looking for a new card, and i came upon the ATI radion 9200 with 128mb of ram.

i bought the card, and installed it in the computer. Sadly though, i noticed you could ACTUALLY see the pixles changing color.... it was not very accurate with picture quality. Now, this was not my moniter, or computers graphics settings, as i know none of those were changed(i have an extensive knowledge of computers, and know that it was the graphics card doing this). When i played a game (diablo2) it was VERY noticilbe with the "Fog-of-war". I e-mailed ati tech support and they said that this "snow" might just be a defective card.

I returned it and got another. The SAME problem occured.

Im not sure whether this is common among all ATI products, but to someone who really likes computer graphics, this is a major turn down.

The Nvidia graphics cards do not have this problem(from what ive seen and heard), and thus i would recommend you go with a Nvidia made product if possible. Nvidia is very competitivly priced and the graphics are just that much better!

As for performance, and seeing how this card being very new, is only "below-average". This is aimed at the very cheap quality market, which is a shame because its a brand new card.

I did a benchmark with it (3dMark2001) and the numbers average around 4000.... very disapointing. My geforce4 ti4200 was a year older and averaged around 6500 with the same benchmark.

Also, this card does not have multiple moniter support, or any other the other features that some of the new cards have. This is not a problem for me, but some people might need those "special features".

As for the softwear, it was flawless, and installed easily. This is the only main turn-on to this card.

As of right now, i feel ATI is really producing a Cheap quality product for a relitivly high price.

I would recommend you consider a Geforce4 TI model or a geforceFX before this...

In conclusion, i was very disapointed.

Assesment based on a scale of 1-10(10 is best)
Picture quality: 2 (because of the changing pixles)
Performance : 4 (very low for such a new card)
Price : 1 (i think this card should have been more like 50$US)
Card Features : 3 (basic card)
Software : 10 (worked perfectly)

Hope this helps!

My computer is a three-year-old Dell P3 800 MHz 256 MB. I replaced my GeForce-2 32 MB video card with the ATI Radeon 9200 128 MB card with the hopes that game performance would improve. Sadly, I did not see a marked improvement in game performance. Apparently, performance (i.e., frame rate and available effects) is limited by the computer's P3 800 MHz CPU and 133 MHz memory. It would seem then, that you will NOT see an improvement in your computer with this video card if you are running a sub-1 MHz computer.

Even though I did not see an improvement in video performance, my computer experienced none of the video problems that a previous reviewer observed. The display is very crisp and the colors are great.

Installation of the new card is very easy. Just make sure that you un-install the drivers of your old video card before you install the new card. This is very, very important - otherwise, you will experience all kinds of problems. Also, it is best to update all of your chip drivers prior to installing the new card.

Now here is my biggest problem with this card: Although the card works great once the computer is running, my computer had serious problems cold booting after this card was installed. In other words, if the computer had been turned off for more than a few hours, it would not boot (in one try) when started up. Most of the time, it stops near the beginning of the boot cycle and never energizes the monitor. Sometimes, the monitor will energize, but then booting stops before the Windows desk top is displayed. Sometimes, I had to reset my computer (with the RESET button) six or seven times before it would successfully boot. The problem seems to get worse the longer the computer is turned off. This indicates to me that it might be a capacitor problem (faulty capacitor or bad solder) or maybe my power supply is inadequate. Anyway, once the computer boots (after 15 minutes or more of repeated attempts), the video card works great.

I have now pulled the Radeon 9200 card out of my computer and installed the original video card. Since then, I have had no booting problems (indicating the the Radeon 9200 was the sole problem).

By the way, I could find no information on this problem at the ATI web site. They obviously know (or SHOULD know) about this problem. If they were responsible folks, they would put a warning on the box.

In brief, this seems to be a great video card and a great price; however, if your computer is less than 1 GHz, or if your power supply is less than 300 watts, I would recommend that you live with your current video card until you can afford a new computer.

I just purchased this card 2 weeks ago. It's is the best AGP 8x 128Mb graphics card I've had, and it can handle all the 3D games I have. Since it's manufactured by ATI you don't have to worry about getting a bad product,there's no problem with warranty, and you get ATI Catalyst software. It comes in good on the TV, but like all cards, when it's plugged into a TV, it's going to be hard to read whats on the screen. On the TV, it still comes in really good when playing games. I recommed this for gamers who don't have a lot of money to spend on cards

I had high expectations for this camera and was extremely disappointed. Sure it has a great zoom and is easy to use, but that doesn't amount to anything when the picture quality is poor. The camera performs decently when in sunlight, but if you're trying to take some video indoors, your picture will be extremely grainy. The low-light/night mode on this camera is worthless, so don't even bother. I would return it if it weren't a 4 hour drive to the store I bought it from and only 6 days left before they won't accept a return. There's also a 15% re-stocking fee if I do manage to make it there in time. If only I had bought a Sony Handycam. I probably would have been much happier than I am right now. If it was possible to give this camera a zero star rating, I would have.

We use Canon in general because of their amazing compatibility with a wide rage of formats. The ZR-Series is no exception. You are able to achieve high quality with ease. The VIC chip makes a big difference when you are importing a lot of video to edit on your PC/Mac. You'll need to pick up a Firewire for $10-15 because Canon doesn't include one in this box.

I recommend visiting http://www.canondv.com/zr90, there you can view videos of this camcorder. That will help you see if this camera is right for you. Sony, Sharp, Panasonic and most every respective brand have similar videos on their sites to help you compare. Of course Amazon.com has the best prices.

Also I find it very odd that nearly every negative reviewer ends up mentioning Sony as an alternative. As a professional I wonder why someone wouldn't mention Panasonic, JVC or Sharp now and then. You would have to spend at least $595.00 to find a Sony that compares indoors or out. Even then you won't find features like Canon's Digic technology.

If you are serious about sound you really need a boom/shotgun microphone no matter what brand of camera you use. An external mic will help you capture directional sound. For voices, wireless microphones will always give you superior results. You can then mix both boom and wireless feeds to create dynamic sound. Unless you are shooting pro video the Canon mic is adequate and features a handy wind filter if you decide to activate it.

I bought the ZR 90 for its easy use and multi-applications. It delivers!! Okay, I too have read that it needs an add-on microphone. Not for my uses! I use it for digital video and stills and for webcam communications. It delivers!!! I did go to a 64MB SD memory card....but that was an inexpensive,simple matter....one trip to Wal-Mart. I researched before buying and have not been disappointed. Do suggest Canon include firewire cable in the package--can't download video without it. The ZR 90 is everything I expected and delivers higher quality pictures than expected. I have no complaints about the sound.