Video Reviews

When I started shopping around for a new set of A/V furniture, I hit all the usual suspects, Ikea, and other local furniture stores. All of the offerings seemed about the same, a large cabinet for the TV, potentially with some side units. I felt this furniture could quickly be dated by the new generation of large, flat TV's so I kept looking.

I found Sanus when I started shopping at A/V stores instead of furniture stores. They have a nice line of very attractive furniture that will still work when if you upgrade to a large television.

This particular television stand has worked out very well. A few days after ordering it from Amazon, a large, heavy box showed up on my doorstep (glad I didn't have to figure out how to get it home!) and I started assembling. Assembly went very quickly. The single required tool is provided and the instructions are clear.

The result is a very sturdy television stand that looks great and is wide enough (about 42") to accommodate some very large televisions. It also supports several hundred pounds, which means you can put large direct view TV's on this and not worry.

I bought the maple version of this stand two years ago. We have one of the 36" Sony Wega TV's on it (280 pounds). It easily fits four regular size stereo/video components on the shelves. I'm very happy with the purchase, but wish it hadn't cost so much.

I got a great deal on this vcr and I've found that it has many great features. The one drawback is that there is no display on the front of the machine, but that's minor in contrast with the many functions that it can perform. I've only had it a few weeks, so we'll see how it goes from here!

For the price, this is a great VCR. I have had one since June 1999 and it has worked great. I miss not having a clock/timer display on the front. It's hard to tell whether you're playing/forwarding/rewinding a cassette just looking at the display. I like the fact that many controls are available on the face when you're unable to find the remote.

I bought this VCR a month ago, and found it a good buy. The autohead cleaning, rapid rewind and indexing features are a very nice add-on.

I'd recommend this VCR for low-budget buyers.

I bought 2 of these already for $120 each and thought I got a deal for a very good quality machine. I'm buying 1 more at this fabulous price to use with one on my existing VCRs because 2 of these are cheaper than buying a Go Video dual deck machine.

RD-7108 Good choice for an entry-level EX, Neo 6 setup, but priced at close to the $200 mark, still a good deal. One nice feature with this one is the ability to change the speaker configuration with the remote. (Center, Rears On/Off, Large/Small, etc.) Dolby 'Virtual' stinks on this model as well as most of the other DSP settings. The DTS ES, Neo:6 and the Dolby Pro-Logic II work very well however. Also Sound and Vision reviewed this receiver. See Sherwood's website at sherwoodamerica.com for a link to it.

I just bought this receiver because it was the cheapest receiver available with Dolby Digital EX and DTS ES 6.1 and I have to say it's Great! I had read a good review from a reputable home theatre magazine so it just pushed my decison further. Don't let the name brand fool you, I have owned sherwood receivers in the past, and these things won't die! They're still kicking and they sound great even today. Highly Reliable.

This receiver is 600 watts and it has A LOT of power, I was really surprised, each speaker can be adjusted to be very loud. On my past receivers, I had a problem with not enough voice/center. Not here my friend, I can have dialog blasting in my face now while the other speakers are doing their duty.

6.1 surround sound DTS ES is sweet! I'm not too impressed with Dolby Digital EX but it does still sound good. If you're gonna listen to regular 2 channel audio, switch the receiver to NEO 6:Cinema, It sounds awesome! I can't believe the separation it was able to get in all 6 speakers from just a normal audio cd.

The only bad thing I found on this receiver is that there is a 1 second delay from when it senses the optical input and when it starts to output the sound. For Example: you are playing a DVD and it's on the main menu. The menu is playing music waiting for your choice. you decide to go to scene select. you select your choice and your dvd player has to access a different chapter to display the screen and new music so the optical output stops for a second while it goes to a new chapter to play. During this second, the receiver senses that the signal has stopped and is now searching for another signal. When the DVD player finally resumes the output, the receiver senses it and starts it back up but it has now been 1 second. 1 second of music that you missed because the receiver had to sense and engage the right input.

I don't know, to me that's moderately annoying. I suspect it is because 1 video input on the receiver can be a total of 3 types, composite,coax,or optical. It searches for one. They would have did better with a dedicated port and input.

Overall though, you can't beat the price. DD-EX and DTS-ES, Lots of power, Great sound modes, High Reliablity.

Oh yeah, don't even think about using this as a Video receiver because I heard there are no menus for anything and there isn't a single S-video jack on it, only composite. Not sure about component but I doubt it. Dedicated sherwood remote is not universal for other components. It's really a bare-bones receiver but Man!, it sounds good!

I had the need for a product that could be used for: 1. playing MP3, 2. dumping photos 3.Viewing photos and 4. Portable data storage. Along with the Archos products this was the only device which can do it all. I selected this because I prefer the "gameboy" design since it protects the screen well. In fact, I was so impressed with the specs that I was prepared to pay about $170 shipping(to south africa) and run the risk of losing it since there is no support outside US/Europe at all. It all paid off(so far). Fortunately it arrived intact and I have had the device now for 3 problem free months.

It plays music with exceptional quality and photo dumping from all card formats are a breeze with the very flexible optional adapter. TV connection also works well. The video only supports Motion JPEG - MJPEG.AVI files. I have been able to look at .avi videos taken with a Canon camera successfully. However with a downloadeable translation tool from their web site, many other formats can be translated and it works. The translated video takes up a bit more space after translation. Since the device firmware can be upgraded, one hopes that they will come out with more video codecs. The only glitch i found is that the operating system can be very slow when you have large directories. With 80GB of dispace available, a directory can become too large very quickly. That requires a lot of organizing if you have lots of music to store. I also requested from the support people to confirm (before I ordered)whether I would be able to read a Memorystick Duo (with supplied adapter) but there was no satisfactory answer. Battery life is not great, about 3 hours when playing music only, but that should be expected for a device such as this. When only using it for dumping photos, it lasts for days.

A nice feature is that it can read .M3U playlists created on our PC and you can create playlists on the device itself.

An all in all impressive product which have given me countless hours of joy(so far) and I would recommend it for sure. In fact, I have not seen a device on the market yet for the price that can beat it.

-Easy User Interface. Plug and save for your compact flash card without having to turn the unit on if you are in a hurry.
-Nicely designed exterior and 3.5 inch display.
-The screen resolution in review mode wont allow you to determine sharpness absolutely but definitely will allow you to review pictures and show them to friends.
-There are smaller units out there but this is a nice compromise for size and functionality.
-This unit is a hard drive,so don't expect to take this running when you listen to you MP3 player.
-It has good sound quality when using headphones.
-My only complaint is the "case" is just a felt bag, I was expecting something more durable.

I think this is a great machine but a little thick. But I like some features of it like it's F. M. radio. On long trips we play with it accept my younger 6 year old brother wants to hook up his video games to it.

My family including three young children (9,6 & 4) just got back from a 2300 mile one week trip. I purchased this before I left and consider it the greatest investment I ever made. I placed on the center consol of my 1999 Tahoe. All three kids could see the picture clearly despited being seat belted in. The controls easy to use. You could even read captions. The only complaint was the wireless speakers that broadcast to the FM radio. There was so much interferance, that we used the built in speakers, but, the sound was good and it worked.

The Sony STR 1075 has 6.1 and a host of other features. But, many movies and DVDs are not even in 5.1. The receiver has excellent connectivity options, and automated detection of type of signal. The electronics are sound. For a sophisticated electronic device, I find the user manual very weak. It barely covers the basics, and is not well written. Also, Sony has the idea that crowding the remote with buttons is good. It's not. Many of the buttons are set-up related and should be under a flip-top, not comingled with all the "every day" buttons.

The STR-DE1075 is an excellent receiver. It packs a considerable punch for the money. One glance at the connection panel at the rear will confirm that you can pretty much hook up anything with it.

Setting up is easy, particularly if you have it hooked up to a monitor or TV, because the on-screen display is very good. Setup can be done via the clearly laid-out front panel, or from the absolutely dreadful remote control. You can specify the size of each speaker, the distance from the listener and other parameters.

The system is designed around a 6.1 Dolby Digital processor. This means that it can handle the rear surround effects channel that has begun to be added to movies recently. A variety of DSP options are available for those people who have awkward speaker placement or for those who just like to fiddle around.

I have just two complaints about the unit. The user guide .... It helps you setup the system but little else. When I spend hundreds of dollars on something, I expect a clear and comprehensive user guide. Many of the receivers facilities are practically ignored and there is no mention whatsoever of the remote control - my other complaint. It is overcomplicated and unattractive.

I must disagree on one point with one of the other reviewers. It is much better, I feel, to use the remote control to go through the setup routine. This allows you to sit in the listening position while you setup the speakers.

As far as sound quality is concerned, I doubt you will find a finer system in this price range. It has more than enough power to cope with most home-based setups and in two-channel mode, it sounds as good as most sub $500 amplifiers.

Highly recommended.

The picture is very good; however, the sound quality is not very good--intermittently, it gets louder and softer by itself, and sometimes there is a lot of "noise."

This is one of the better combination TV-VCRs I have seen. Panasonic and Sony also both make good 13inch TVs. Toshiba's combination TV-VCRs often gets overlooked. However, 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. The VCR has good high-speed fast-forward and rewind performance. 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 is uniquely handsome and looks better than other competitor models.

Picture quality is excellent. The remote control is one of the worst I have ever used. The button placement is confusing & the labels are almost useless. Programming the record timer is very confusing & not at all user friendly or intuitive. If you want a great picture, this is a great television. If you want an easy to use VCR or easy to access features from the remote, buy something else. I wish I had!

This is a very nice 2-head TV-VCR. Toshiba makes a very good 13 inch TV. One reason for the incredible picture quality is that the electron gun can keep very accurate control on a smaller screen size delivering crisper and cleaner images. VHS tapes look amazingly good. It has a headphone jack and front audio-video inputs. You get front-panel menu access, onscreen display (OSD) and channel recall. It has a Sleep timer and an auto clock set. Remote is included. The VCR has auto tracking, still, fast-forward and rewind. This is a good unit.