Video Reviews

The Panasonic/National brand is a sure bet on great electronics at a reasonable price. This VCR is no exception. The machine performs seamlessly, has great features, and is really a videophile's secret. I scoff at the people who pay hundreds more for lesser products.

This is a fabulous machine. I have owned one for two years now and it performs flawlessly!. It has a crystal-clear picture and it records in three speeds; I only use SP and LP. The cable-eye controller is the best I have seen. It will change your DSS Sat Box a full six feet away. It also features fast RR and FF. The Advance is also a nice feature and it works well. DO yourself a favor. If you can find one of these buy it fast.

I have been a fan of Panasonic VCRs for several years (as are my young children) and this VCR only adds to my confidence in the brand. Another less obvious advantages of this VCR are the AV jacks in the front of the unit (which are especially useful when plugging in an 8mm camcorder for recording).

The most for the money in a tv/vcr combo! Purchased 2 for kid's rooms - ages 10 & 11, last Xmas. Not a single problem. Easy to run, great b/i alarm clock to fm radio! Takes kid wear & tear like a champ! Bought 2 more this yr. for their parents, they liked so much. They kept grounding the kids and taking the tv to their room, so got them their own. Now that's a recommendation! A bit more in price, but worth it.

Bought this model several years ago. Wished I bought a stereo model, but the mono is fine. Just cleaned the head for the first time after several years. If you put a jack from the head phone jack to a stereo receiver, you have clear, earthquake theater audio. Some channels have to be punched in on the remote. Screen has great color balance. Rewinds and FF like a locomotive. Good programming interface. Becomes fun after a few times. Kids can't seem to break it.

Be aware! The only way to get rid of the annoying self commerials that go across the screen is to know that it is called a self-demo. With power on and no tape in, hold down play until the red words go away. Closed captioning doesn'r seem to work unless you do this.

Do not bother with this program the same program different name.I would highly suggest this if you do not have Acid Music 3.0.One of the most stable music programs around.Alot better then any Magix program I have used. The publishing to the net is unbeatable and a great file rendering program too boot.

It's great software at a great price. I bought the program so I could rip and burn CD's but soon found that using the ACid program (2 software apps come in the box- Acid and Siren...I think these are the Sonic Foundry engines)I could also add a soundtrack to my home movies. The box also came with audio clips that I used to sequence a Blues song and that was fun too.

Creating music has never been easier. The interface is very clean and easy to follow. This is a great product if you want to make music. The editing tools are great. This program even comes with some cool loops to get one started. Check this product out!

I need a vcr that will handle a LOT of recording. Will this be good? Thank you for the great reviews!

I am SO impressed with this little sleeper VCR. It does what it's supposed to do and does it well. Its visual and sound integrity are well beyond what I expected for the dollar (and the dollar is a well-kept secret). If you're on a budget but want good quality equipment, this is definitely something you should check out.

Man, it rewinds soo fast, it sounds like a car engine starting or something, I put in a tape for rewind on my old VCR and it takes like 8 - 10 minutes sometimes. But this thing is 8-10 seconds tops! very nice VCR picture quality almost that of a DVD player and sound is excellent too. Definitely wanna pick this up.

your look is over. The price is very reasonable, it looks sharp and its versatility is excellent.

This compact tripod fufills all my needs, except for table top usage. It's a well made product that sets-up and folds-up for storage quick usage or storage. All of this at a really low price.

This was not the little pod I wanted to buy, but Amazon was out at the time. However, now that I have it, it is working great. Features I was looking for were light weight, small size, and (obviously) stable. So far, it meets all those expectations for a very small price. The legs extend smoothly and still lock down solid. When fully extended, I think the pod is quite solid, even when I am moving the camera while shooting video with camcorder. It has all the different movement points lockable so once you set it where you want it, it stays put.

Overall, its simple, solid.

Don't get too hung up on the decision if you are considering this tripod and on paper it does everything you want it to do. Take it from me, it is amazing value for money. I purchased mine from Fry's Electronics for ten spot more than here (doh!) and I'm still happy as a happy thing with it.

It does just about everything you could want a portable tripod to do, I bought it for the purpose of throwing in the back of my truck rather than trying to lug a big old studio 'pod around with me wherever I go (I hate to miss a shot for want of a steady spot) and in the use it has had over the last few weeks, it seems to be a great mix of size, features and weight. Sure, it isn't super duper rigid, sure the fluidity of the joints leaves something to be desired, but for goodness sake, this isn't some high end carbon fibre/magnesium alloy poser 'pod, look at the price! A 'pod for the common man!

In terms of negatives, I wish it cost five spot more and came with a bag (tripod bags are useful sometimes, though not something you can't do without), and a slightly more 'finger accessible' tripod screw might be nice (if you want the quick release puck for the tripod on tight, you do it with a coin, works well and keeps it compact, just a little inconvenient if you don't have a coin to hand.)

All in all, a tremendous piece of kit. Amazing price, here especially. Does what you need.

When I chose to buy this tripod I was a little skeptical about purchasing without really seeing it. I was very lucky. This tripod is everything I wanted. Lightweight. Easy to use. It has a level so that you can be sure that your pictures will be accurately shot and not crooked. It moves in several different directtions so that you can shoot from most angles. I carry this thing around everywhere I go! I thougth it came with its own travel bag, probably one drawback to it. But overall a great tripod.

I just got my CX-570 in the mail today and it seems to be everything that the review said it was. I'm just a sometime photographer but I needed a new tripod that was not too expensive, but of good quality. This one seems very solid, and has all the necessary features that I would ever need.

I bought the HDV420 to go with a new 30", 16x9,HDTV , Toshiba 30HF83. I bought the inexpensive Zenith antenna, the Silver Sensor. The system work VERY GOOD. From my house, the indoor antenna/receiver combo gives me Washington and BAltimore station: ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, WB.

Back to the unit:
1) Previous reviewer correction - the output resolution cannot be controlled by the remote, but directly on the front panel. This is a small (-).
2) Signal strength meter very nice and handy when directing the small indoor antenna.
3) Nice squelch action. DTV signal is either ON or OFF.
4) Remote cannot control my Samsung DVD, but can do the Toshiba TV. Likewise, my Toshiba TV remote cannot control the Zenith STB, but can control the DVD!
5) 10dB attenuator. You use this in series with the antenna (F) input when scanning for channels. I tried the scan with and without the attenuator. With the attenuator, I got 11 channels, 10 without.

I bought my unit "new" on EBAY. However, the supplied A/V cables and component cables were cheap. I bought new ones (not Monster) for the unit.

You can operate this unit without a remote. What you lose is password access to program V-chip menues. Everything else can be done via the front panel. I don't know if a cheap universal remote can change these channels on the HDV420 unit. After set up, all you need the remote for are channels, and maybe aspect changes. To change the output format, you are on your feet and pushing buttons, and can do the aspect there too.

Let me tell you, DTV 480p is like good cable that kicks 480i OTA (booty). DTV 720p and 1081i is HDTV kicking 480p butt. Get an HDTV monitor, and a HDTV receiver. For me, it is now ALL FREE!

I purchased this unit used just in time for the Superbowl and was blown away. The unit picked up 6 of 10 local channels witha cheapie indoor antenna. I upgraded to the Zenith/Gemini Silver Sensor antenna and got 9 of 10 channels, all with good signal quality. Reception with these is highly dependent on location so your antenna requirements may vary. The HDV420 is easy to setup and easy to use. Unlike many other units, you can change the resolution from the remote. Also, the unit has both optical and coaxial digital out which allows for flexibility. The only down side, no DVI out. Most probably won't care but if you absolutely must have DVI, look elsewhere.

I just upgraded to this HDTV receiver from a Samsung. Before Samsung I used an RCA receiver. I was going to get another Samsung but I figured for [$] more this one was worth it. This receiver blows both of my old ones away. It was child's play to set up. It scanned for all of the channels and got every channel automatically. The menu is very well laid out. The exterior looks very modern and high tech with the reflective panel and the brushed metal. It also has coaxial and optical digital output so that I can now watch TV in Dolby Digital (when the program is in DD). It has component out for HDTV. It also has 15-pin computer VGA out. I hooked it up to my regular 15-inch computer monitor and the picture was too small. However, it looked even better than my TV! The remote is very simple. I like it that way but that's a matter of choice. The best feature is that you can change the display format just by the push of the button. Next I am going to buy a wireless transmitter to send the HDTV channels to the rest of my TV's in the house through the analog out. I highly recommend this. ...

I'm a traveling sales rep who has to give presentations to clients all over the US. I use to lug around a 10 pound projector with poor picture and graphics quality. Then I found the 5lb 3M 7630. I can't tell you how much easier it is to travel with and the images it projects are great. And I can also take it home on the weekends because the AV adapter allows me to plug it into my cable outlet - so the wife and I can watch big screen movies on the living room wall. I love it!

This is a great portable projector that can be used with numorous electronic sytems, I think it is great to use with portable laptops. It delivers a sharp image that can be prejected onto many smooth surfaces from a far distance. Projectors of this quality are costly, but I think if you have a proffesion of giving talks or educating others, I would recomend this portable five pound projector to you!

Several recent upgrades and additions to two different home theater systems necessitated several new audio and video cables. Researching the right video cables for two sets of Sony VCR's and Sony receivers came to the conclusion that Acoustic Research's AP001 video cables would be perfect both in quality and pricing. As we all know, picture quality in VCR's can somewhat suspect at times based on many reasons, primary among them is the quality of the video cable used. After upgrading to these particular video cables, I've found the picture quality to be as perfect as can be expected for a taped VCR.

Overall, I highly recommend Acoustic Research's AP001 Video Cables for both quality and pricing. {ssintrepid}

This is a great cable. I was forced to buy this one at best Buy because they did not have a coax digital audio cable. But thinking this is the next best thing, I bought it and its great. I used it as a subwoofer cable on my home theatre when I'm not using the coax input. Very good, and its even better when not used with video.