Video Reviews

The picture is great, the sound is great BUT the very first VHS tape I played shut down the entire system. It is now going to the shop AND I get to PAY to have it picked up and delivered ! Toshiba is adamant that this 80+ pound is a portable for me. Customer service knows to say I'm sorry, but are unwilling and unable to change the no-pay-for-pickup warranty terms. I'll update this review post the repair. So far, it's nice but too expensive if it keeps breaking. Buy with caution.

I find the 24" size ideal for the bedroom. It does play DVD-R discs as stated in the specifications, but not all media play equally well. Titles burned using the 1x Verbatim media I purchased at Sam's Club play fine so far; however, the HQT 1X-4X DVD-R media I purchased from CDR/DVDR Media(http://store.yahoo.com/cdrdvdrmedia/index.html) hangs and glitches occasionally during playback. I believe the reflectivity of that media is near the lower threshhold of what the unit can read. The Verbatim discs probably have a higher reflectivity index which makes them easier to read. I'll just shop around until I find some 4x media that provides decent reflectivity and isn't too expensive.

Picture quality is quite good; more than adequate for use in my bedroom. My biggest complaint by far is with the remote control. The basic playback controls in the center split all the other buttons into an upper and a lower bank, with row after row of evenly sized and spaced buttons with confusing, unclear labels. The only functions you'll be able to operate by feel are Power, Play, Stop, Rewind and Forward Scan, and Pause. To skip chapters, navigate DVD menus, or even change channels or adjust volume, you'll have to look at the remote. Really one of the worst-designed remotes I've ever used; very frustrating. A couple of other minor complaints include the logic of the unit. For example, you can eject a videotape and the unit remains off, but try to insert a videotape or even eject a DVD and the TV turns itself on. Still, the picture is quite good, the sound is adequate, and even tapes recorded in my S-VHS deck are watchable (if a touch soft and oversaturated). A better remote, smarter logic, and higher quality sound would earn this unit a five-star rating.

We have been looking and evaluating TV/DVD/VCR sets for over a year.
I waited until the price went down as when it first came out it was $599.
I am glad we have it. It does have the very best picture and is also the best looking. This is my first Toshiba.
It is so nice to plug it in and go.
Notice: as with most of the combos, you cannot watch another channel when recording another. You have to watch what is recording or turn it off as it will record when the TV is off.
It will also copy DVD's to tape if the DVD is NOT copy protected.

When I was out looking for small TV/VCR combo units, I stumbled upon this.

Here are my impressions of this machine:
* light and portable enough to position on a kitchen counter or ironing board (so you can eat while you watch tv or a video)
* easy to move around for cleaning or to move from room to room
* mono (one speaker in the front, combo units like this usually are)
* speaker volume doesn't increase much from 30 onwards (goes up to 50)
* requires cable (doesn't come with antenna)

* short power cord (about 3 feet)
* neat glow in the dark remote control buttons (but not really useful) and it comes with 2 AA batteries
* channel and volume control buttons are small and right below the power button (easy to confuse these)
* vcr works great (you have the usual forward, rewind, pause, stop, play, timer, counter reset, zero return, 30-second skip search features, no slow motion play though)
* has input ports (so you can hook up a gaming system) but no output port (so you won't be able to hook up another vcr and record to it)

I would really recommend this for people who want a decent, reliable and portable TV in small areas like the kitchen, bathroom or even a dorm room.

This is a really good television for a small room or a first television for anyone. This is my first tv, and I love it. I can watch movies, record movies and it has a nice, clear picture. There is also really nice sound and a good remote. Though the screen is fairly small, the price is very good for the quality the buyer is recieving. In two years, I have not had one problem with this tv! This is a great buy for an excellent television.

This is one of the better combination TV-VCRs I have seen lately. Panasonic and Sony also both make good 13inch TVs. Unfortunately, Toshiba's combination TV-VCRs continue to get overlooked. Notwithstanding, this is an excellent set and performs equally well. The picture is crisp and sharp. The built-in Digital tracking 4 head VCR makes VHS tapes look very good. You get front A/V (RCA type) inputs with a TV/game switch. It also has time-shift recording capability and a built-in head cleaner. The front panel features a useful headphone jack. The 'Black' cabinet design has a good retro look.

I bought this bag the day I bought my Panasonic camcorder. The camcorder fits nicely inside without a lot of room for it to jiggle around, which is good. There are enough pockets to hold practically all of the accessories I have as well.

In the main compartment, where you will store your camcorder, there is a little zippered pouch under the top flap that can be used to store extra batteries or a light. On the inside of the main compartment you will find two padded dividers with velcro. One has a deep U shape which easily accomodates the viewfinder's eyepiece. The other is a square shape. You use these to pad both ends of your camcorder. If your camcorder is small enough, you will get extra storage space between the dividers and the inside of the end pockets. I store my camcorder's remote in one of these areas.

There are five zippered pockets on the outside of this bag. A flat on on the back with one gussetted end, one on either end of the bag and a large one in front with a small zippered pocket. The end pockets are large enough to hold the ac adapter/battery charger for my camcorder, the A/V cable and the cord and cable for the charger. The pocket I like the most is the front one. When you open it, you will see a small mesh zippered pocket and four elastic holders. You can store extra tapes, a pen/pencil, a small notebook, etc. in there. When I know I'm going out with the camcoder, I don't need to take a purse with me. This bag has enough space to hold my camcorder, the accessories, extra tapes and batteries and my wallet and keys.

My only complaint and the reason for scoring only three stars is the zippers. The top zipper has a tendancy to split and catch on the inside fabric which can be a pain.

I have a digital camera that has a large zoom lens. This bag accomodates it and other accessories, memory and gadgets quite well. The outboard zippered pockets allow for other personal effects to be stowed away and safe. Perfect for travel or a photo shoot. Not to big or small. The leather like surface can receive rough handling without falling apart. At approx [price] it is was very good deal.

It fits my Panasonic Camcorder, it has lots of pockets, it has a shoulder-strap (which is inside the bag when it's shipped), and it has 2 sections of padding going across the the main compartment (which are velcro so you can take them off and use them for extra padding). The borders between the outside pockets and the main compartment are flexible incase you have a large camcorder (only when the outer pockets are empty, though.) Best of all, it has a life-time warrenty!
The only problem with it was that the indentity tag where you can put your adress, etc (shown in picture hanging from handle) fell off and was lost because the leather got worn and ripped after only 8 months. Anyhow, overall I would recommend buying it this bag.

Sorry, the speakers don't attach well, and the quality of these stands is not what I'm used to with a Bose system.

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to assemble the stands and for how adaptable they are. Any Bose speaker will fit on these stands.

Ingenious, elegant, sturdy, easy-to-assemble, functional. As beautifully designed and well-crafted as their speakers. What else do you need to know?

I just received this package and spent 30 min trying to find a way to pack my ZR70MC into it along with the extra battery, a tape and the video cables. Basically, the case turned out to be underdesigned for the camera and the accessories you might want to have with you (no way to fit the charger). However, if you want to buy a genuine Canon battery the kit value is ok.

BP-512 lithium ion battery pack gives you an extra hour of recording time when you use it with your Canon ZR40 or ZR45MC camcorder - up to 2 hours, 45 minutes with the LCD off. (Battery life will vary with camcorder model, usage, temperature, and humidity.) And unlike NiCad batteries, lithium ion batteries have no "memory effect" to reduce their capacity.

Key Features:

BP-512 battery:
Soft carrying case:
detachable shoulder strap
zippered, padded main compartment
zippered, padded pocket for accessories
carrying handle
belt loops
kit includes 60-minute Mini DV tape

I have an Optura 100mc, and this camera fits perfectly on it, and you will also get the extra batterie and tape. a good buy for the price.

I tried to copy a prerecorded VHS using the low speed. It came on blurry and skipped alot. I have been able to copy prerecorded tapes on high speed with out any problems. And I also copied home made tapes at low speed without a problem.

Earlier, I wrote that the remote control did not have a view last channel button. I also wrote that the display on the front of the VCR only shows the actual time and not the time of the tape. Also, I wrote that the VCR did not tell you how much time was left on the tape. I was wrong about all three. You have all those options available to you by pressing certain buttons on the remote control. So the remote control has a lot more functions than I thought. I don't know if it is because I didn't fully read the manual, or if it is that the system is just so complicated, you can't remember all the functions.

I tried copying a recent release (Shallow Hal) using the copy feature. You are not supposed to be able to copy movies, because they are supposed to be protected by Macrovision. It did copy at first, but the copying stopped after about 30 minutes. I restarted copying, and it stopped again after about 10 minutes. Then I tried copying the last hour of the movie, which it did. My kid was watching the movie at the time, and I don't know if she had anything to do with the copying stopping at times.

The quality of the copy was very good. I don't know if I could tell the difference from the original.

Another complaint about the remote: It doesn't have a last channel button (so you can easily flip back and forth between two channels).

The display on the units isn't great. It normally just shows time of day. You can't get the display to switch between modes. It does have a very complete on screen display. The only problem with the on screen display, is that it comes on any time you do anything with the remote, like change channel, stop a tape, at the end of fast forwarding, etc. Also, the unit does not have a time remaining on the tape display.

This is a dual deck that in most cases is better than having 2 individual decks.

Copying tapes is really easy. You just press one button on the front of the deck. The quality of the first copy is pretty good. But, once you start making copies of copies, quality goes down with each generation. On a copy of a copy, the color starts to bleed and there are ghost images.

According to the manual, this deck will not copy tapes protected by Marcovision. I am guessing that most new commericial tapes have Macrovision, but I don't know for sure. I have only tried one commercial tape, and had no trouble copying it. But, I am guessing it won't do new movies.

This unit has automatic commercial skip. Using the left side deck (it doesn't work on the right side), you record a program as normal. When the program is finished recording, the deck rewinds the tape and comes back and marks each commercial. When you play back the tape, the deck automatically fast fowards through the commericials. The TV screen turns blue and it takes about 20 seconds to fast foward through a block of eommercials. I don't know how it recognizes the commercials. It isn't perfect at recognizing the commercials. It does it about 80% of the time. I had only one incident, where it marked the middle of a show as a commercial.

You can also make a commercial free copy of a show. You put blank tapes in both slots. The show, with commercials is recorded on the left side. Then the deck transfers the show to the right side, skipping the commercials. I haven't tried it yet, but there will probably some reduction in video quality.

With this system, you can record on one side while watching a tape on the other side. You can also record two different things at the same time, if you have the proper connections. The deck has only one tuner, so you can only record one show off of the antenna or cable at a time. But, if you have a separate tuner, such as from a dish system, or cable box, plugged into the auxiliary video, you can record off that, while recording off of the antenna/cable hook up.

The deck has very nice "special effects". It does freeze frame very well. The remote control has a very nice jog shuttle for slowing stepping through frames either forward or backward. It rewinds and fast forwards very fast. But, the fast scan is fairly slow, and you have to continually hold down the fast forward button to get maximum speed.

The remote control is OK, but it doesn't have a last channel button. The play key on my remote sticks down everytime I press it.

The menus on this thing are very complicated. It is quite an effort to program the deck for recording. It is very confusing and you need to refer to the manual a number of times before you get used to it. I have made mistakes in programming it a number of times.

The programming software has a bug in it. It will sometimes incorrectly tell you that there is a conflict in the programming when you set the VCR to program record two different programs at the same time, but using the two different decks and two different video sources.

For the price, you can buy two separate VCR's with better features. But, you don't get the commercial skip or the easy copy feature. Also, the dual deck is easier to connect to your TV and takes up less space. If I had to replace this unit, I would probably buy another instead of buying two separate decks.

This tripod was listed as an accessory for the Kodak DC3200 digital camera but there is no linkage available on that camera to interface with the tripod (ie. no little hole to screw that attachment screw into). OK, I'm certainly not a photographer myself so I took the whole she-bang into work for the real photographers to explain to me. Shaking their heads, they told me "hey, this tripod won't work with this camera". So, I guess I'm not as dumb as I look (weak grin). Anyway, make sure the camera you have has what it takes to hook up with a tripod cuz the recommendations page doesn't necessarily take this into consideration. I can use the tripod with a couple rubber bands around the camera but this certainly wan't my intention.

THe Hakuba FP-L1 is a nifty, small, mini tripod! The all metal construction seems very sturdy and well-put-together. It also has a key-turn nut for the camera screw which is very easy to use. Also, the adjustable camera platform "clicks" into several pre-set positions which is handy as well! It folds into a very small footprint which will fit into the smallest of camera bags. Note, however, that the tripod does not have a horizontal swivel head on it like I had hoped. It just has a vertical adjustment. This tripod would be great for macro work or simple travel setups.

This is just a fine piece of industrial design. It is solid, precise, compact. It's instantly familiar and usable, with no fiddliness. A key-turn mechanism makes it quick and easy to lock your camera on, unlike some low-end pods. Grippy feet and a vertically swiveling head let you set it securely on uneven or curved surfaces, not just tabletops. Own it!

All around this is a good amp, but the truth is that I could have gotten a Sony for half the money that would've been the same, if not better quality. The options for surround are nice (there is a 5 channel stereo), but the "hall" mode gives no echo effect, and the "theatre" mode does nothing for me either. The main reason I really wanted surround and especially the center channel, was to make peoples voices louder while watching DVD's because I run for the remote every time something loud happens. I'm all for the audio experience, but ambients are just too loud in movies these days and I have neighbors who I'm sure will agree with me. Turning the center channel all the way up and the other 4 speakers all the way down does almost nothing. They should have made these buttons actually have an impact on the sound, instead it just seems like all the audio tracks come through the center channel even with the little DTS light "on" that should seperate all the tracks.
Another stinker was that every video out RCA jack was broken right out of the box, (I know this only after a grueling process of elimination). I also must say I'm a little disappointed in amazon too for not double boxing this. It is customary to send expensive components in a DOUBLE BOX so it takes less abuse in transit and is not stolen. I'm never going to purchase something of this granduer online again.

I love the AVR 510 surround sound receiver! With the multiroom audio capability (providing complete, independent control of a second-room audio system from either the primary listening room via the front panel or the included separate Zone 2 remote control), is like owning two receivers in one! The surround sound is exceptional. Speaker levels are adjustable, so you can calibrate the different speaker channels to your own preference. I am still finding out new things and useful features of this unit, but I have been very happy with it thus far. It was well worth the price.

This Amp has Blown me away as well as my audience thus far!
When this amp is hooked up correctly...and I mean so it uses its full digital capabilitys with DVD it has killer digital sound...and its other non digital soundstages it has are great! if you listen to other brands you will hear that harman has done a great job with its sound fields and staging
im using it with these components...
sony dvd dvp-n57oop using the fiberoptic cable for digital sound transmission,a pair of jbl floor/bookshelf speakers (8")s338be (front), polk audio for center stage(front), a jbl sub pb12" 250 watt positioned under the TV, bose acusta mass dual cubes for rear fill, and a 36" sony trinitron...
just listen to the blueman group DVD and see if your receiver can keep up with is pace..

I know there are alot of other killer receivers out there but I have found out that this receiver best suits me and my applications... it just keeps on cranking..

Best Regards!

Jason

The resolution is about equal to VCD quality, maybe slightly better, but it does what I wanted it to do. My monitor is flat panel 15" and I used it on 2 computers, a 500MHz w/ 128MB RAM and a 1.5GHZ w/ 512MB RAM. It worked fine on both although the 500MHz machine kinda slowed down quite a bit when 2 other applications were open (actually screwed up the video twice making everything huge and had to reboot to fix it).

It takes the power from the USB port, so that's nice, but the USB cable is permanently connected to the device which kinda makes it a pain (I like to just keep the USB cable connected to the PC to make it more convenient and connect whatever device I want later). Also, my USB port is on the back of my 500MHz machine, so that's even more inconvenient for me.

Anyway, overall, everything isn't too bad if you don't mind the lower quality of the video. If you want better quality, I read the internal TV tuners are much better. I wanted convenience though.

Oh yeah, there is a slight but noticable out of sync-ness between the audio and video, but it isn't too bad. You cannot get closed captioning and there is no FM tuner or remote control for this one (but those features would have made this model more expensive).

If there were an option, I would give it a 3.5. It deserves better than a 3 - but because of the VCD quality and price (this is kinda expensive for VCD quality) I can't give it a full 4.

I bought a WinTV-USB tuner for my laptop because I was tired of not being able to watch my shows when all of the house TV's were being used by my wife and kids.
This unit works great, just as advertised. This unit plugs into your computer's USB port. I had to download the drivers from the Hauppage web site in order to get it to work with Windows XP (the drivers on the CD did not work). But after that, I was off and running.
The only problem I notice is that sometimes there is a slight lag between the video and the audio (about 1/10 second). This may be due to the speed of my laptop (I have a 1.6 Ghz Centron) or my video hardware. But I'm happy with it. I plan to get another Hauppage capture card (PVR 250) for my desktop pc so I can capture and compress video real-time.
The WinTV-USB can also do this, however it does not do compression so its impractical to use as a poor man's TiVO.

I was a little doubtful about the efficiency of an external capture card with usb 1.1 kind of interface. Than I read somewhere that the bandwidth offered by even an old usb interface is more than sufficient for SD video. Well , I went and bought this product. Installation was really a snap ( I actually downloaded softwares from its web site instead of from the included CD just to be safe and most updated). After installation , the video/audio came just fine. ( I used my dish set top box RF out for video ).
The quality is not as good as on a TV ( afterall the original signals are interlaced which are postprocessed for the computer to be progressive scan and its not a $100+ piece of hardware !!) but good enough as a secondary TV when the mainTV is captured by the rest of the family.

Low price, spotty picture quality As a disposable-priced VCR this is fine; it's unsuitable for dubbing tapes though. It worked fine right out of the box, and the on-screen time counter etc. worked fine.

I bought this VCR to save a little money, and I'll keep it rather than go to the trouble and postage for an exchange. You get what you pay for in this case.

The case is smaller and much lighter than most VCRs that I've handled, and the input and output jacks are well labelled. This would make a good VCR for a child's room or playroom, I think. Since the display quality is like a mediocre tape-dub job, this wouldn't do as a second VCR for copying tapes. Since the buttons and printing on the remote control are very tiny, a separate remote would be a must if the machine is meant for a child's use. I strained to read the lettering myself.

It's working fine so far (I haven't tried the programming functions). The image quality for a good tape is mediocre: faces and so on look a bit smeared and there's some aliasing visible (as with lower quality computer images). This problem might be caused by the tape heads. (I imagine the quality would be just fine for most cartoons though.) As important, it adds a lot of bright specks to the picture when the scenery is very dark (and the picture is properly colored when the scenery is bright). I think this darkness-problem is electronic and not caused by the tape heads. If you like movies with dimly light bedroom scenes, or soldiers creaping through the shadows, the bright flickering noise will bug you.

Personally, if I could rewrite the original order, I'd spend a bit more since the VCR is for me. This price is not a slash-down sale sort of deal, or a clearance deal; it's in line with the quality. It's a bit hard to believe that Toshiba actually made it.

I HAVE PURCHACED A TOSHIBA VCR 4-HEAD HI-FI MODEL M622 AND HAVE RESENTLY LOST REMOTE. COULD YOU HELP ME FIND ONE THAT WILL WORK "ALL" THE FUNCTIONS. THANK YOU MICHAEL WEBSTER SR.

I bought this for my children's bedroom. It works beautifully so far and it was so easy to set up and use. I think it is great...and a great price!