Video Reviews

The Toshiba W717 Hi-Fi Stereo VCR has many great features and looks great in the stereo cabinet. It's picture quality when playing movies is okay but not as nice as the Fisher VCR I previously had. Most of the features found on the W717 are common to almost all VCR's these days. There are some features the Toshiba does not have that many. The user's manual is very difficult to read. The manual is not very helpful in the actual use of the VCR and has very limited instruction. The VCR itself is difficult to use for the average person even without many of the extra "niceities" that other VCR's offer. The connections to your CATV box, TV, or theater sound system are fairly straight forward but here again the manual doesn't help much. The Toshiba W717 does not record in EP, SQPB, or S-VHS modes but will play S-VHS and EP programs. If you want one remote to control your cable box, VCR, and TV, you have to have the cable box sitting directly on top of this VCR or it won't work. Hopefully your cable box is narrower than the VCR or you'll cover the sensor window on the VCR and the remote CATV box access still won't work. Storing channels and associating them with your current CATV line-up is a fairly easy task but is not handled very well in the manual. Overall, for what you get and the difficulties I had getting it set up, it's a pricy machine. Even though I like the Toshiba now, if I had to do it over again, if you want a simple to use, low budget VCR for basically just playing movies at home without all the sophisticated "program for the future" recording stuff.

The Toshiba W717 is one of the better VCRs on the market. It plays back tapes with a very good image and has one of the best pictures around. This unit has a 4-head 19-micron video system in Hi-Fi for very good stereo sound. That's an excellent feature that gives you great versatility. It also has an automatic head cleaner and icon-based on-screen programming. Pre-recorded tapes play back with an excellent picture too. How good a picture looks is what it is all about.

I bought my PJ1060 for a home theatre setup. The 2000 lumen projection is more than adequate for daytime viewing of a 100" diagonal DA-Lite screen (projection distance ~15'). With inversion and keystoning features, I was able to mount the projector upside down from the ceiling using a third party mounting kit. Since I have a TV-tuner card (ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon) in my computer, I watch TV in 1024 x 768 resolution RGB mode, as opposed to Video mode. The quality is super. Projection of PC DVD movies is even better. I have had my projector for a year now without problems, operating it on average, several hours a day . I have not had to replace the bulb yet. The only reason I'm not giving the projector 5 stars, is that it does not support 1280x1024 non-interlaced. However, in my opinion, the price/performance ratio is excellent.

This very light, portable projector is perfect for small conference rooms.

It is easy to set up and connects in a snap to your laptop. Don;t leave home without it!

I just want to know if in this video card thath uses DDR memory, I need to have that kind of RAM or the video card it self bring's it, because is a AGP memory?, please help. The information it doesn't help a lot, just to know that is good but don't give an additional info.

With the releae of the AGP 8X MX440's, the price for AGP 4X parts have plunged. Since not many people have a AGP 8X slot, and AGP 8X only increases performance by about 1%, there is no real point, especially for low end MX cards, which does not need the extra bandwith.
The MX440 has over twice the memory bandwith of MX420 with its 128-bit DDR(256-bit effective) interface.
64MB of memory is more than enough for today's games. 128MB is not worth it since you can always enabled texture compression for games that use more than 64MB of textures.
The only drawback is that this card does not support pixel shaders, which the Geforce4 Ti series have. While you wont able to see the pretty water effects and DirectX 8 tech demos of the GF4 Ti's, these features are not used extensively in any game.

We bought this TV for our bedroom. The picture & sound were fine. We ended up returning it because of a bothersome buzz that occurred when the volume was low. It would be fine in a noisy family room, but not in a quiet bedroom.

We really love this TV and the VCR works very fine as well.

Zenith has made a good start here, but it is missing some key features. Notably: sharing between PVRs (e.g. like ReplayTV does out of the box and like TiVo does with an extra option). Also it needs a larger drive - 160GB at minimum, 250 or larger preferably.

Let us hope this is an early version of what will become a full-featured PVR like the TiVo or ReplayTV because it has plenty of promise!

The tuner on this box is terrific. It changes channels quickly, has never locked up (unlike the Samsung SIRT-165), and has a good remote that lets you quickly pull up the channel info or signal strength. All of my local stations also broadcast in DTV, so I don't miss the lack of an NTSC tuner. The antenna pass through allows me to connect my analog VCR as well (useful to have a second tuner for PIP).

When considering whether or not I wanted to spring for the extra dollars to get a PVR or just a plain tuner, I hadn't realized the difference HD recording would make. I really don't want to watch TV shows any other way! And for sharing purposes, you can always edit out the commericals of your recorded program and copy it to an analog VCR.

The timeshifting feature is pretty cool. Unfortunately, you can't rewind material you've currently started recording through the timer. You have to start out using the timeshifting. The manual was a little unclear how it works exactly, so I've managed to lose 1/2 hour of a show while trying to figure it out. Suffice it to say that if you want to save timeshifted material (beyond the show's duration), you need to use the clip record function as well. Once you get used to timeshifting, you'll love it. Friends calling in the middle of your favorite show aren't a nuisance any longer.

The only feature I really miss is the ability to seek to a particular time. Instead you have to fast forward at 50x speed (unless you've bookmarked it) to the spot you want. You also can't delete the multi-channels. For example, say you only want channel 4-1, but not 4-2, you can't delete 4-2. There is a surf button that moves the channel changer between channel numbers (and then you can use the ch+/ch- to move between the multi-stations). Also be careful about your how you set the clock. I was using "automatic" and failed to record a few shows. I wonder if the machine received an errant signal and it triggered some of the reservations early. Once the clock was set, I had to switch it to manual set to get consistent results.

I had no problems using this connector cable. its good at the price it is sold..

The first thing I like about this camera is that it is priced the same as some of the USB 1.1 cameras, but your getting firewire technology WITH a card! The card comes with 3 firewire ports so you have two extra for a video camera and one other item. I read the two reviews on the Pyro camera without the card and tried the recommendation of NOT installing the drivers; just putting the card in and plugging in the camera. I, as well as that reviewer, am running WindowsXP (mine is the Home Edition) and it worked like a charm! The stand works perfectly (and is also height adjustable) and while video chatting with my aunt and uncle in Michigan, I was able to hold photos up to the camera and they could see them perfectly!! I know from experience not all web cams can do this.

Now, the thing(s) I'm not as thrilled about, but can live with. This camera has very few software adjustments that can be made manually. (I did not install ANY of the chat software because I already have what I need, but did install the amcap software, which is where I found the options to make the few adjustments if needed. I set mine to auto.) On my end, the picture looked good, but I could see a very, very slight snowiness. My computer is maybe 5- or 6-feet away from a 5.8GHz phone so I don't know if that is the reason. My relatives said it looked great on their end, but I wanted to see for myself. I went to my mother's house and had my kids get on and do a video chat with me. I was VERY, VERY pleased to see that the picture and lighting was PERFECT! Couldn't be happier! I have a window without a curtain on it that is behind me and when you move out of the way, the picture goes black. When you cover the window or step in front of the camera...not even completely, the picture is perfect! And, no snowiness! That made me VERY happy!

The other thing about this camera is that I believe the company has discontinued either this camera or all web cams so support on their site, although there is some there, is limited. I have not tried to email or call them so I can't comment on that.

I bought this camera for the firewire technology, the fact that the card had 3 ports instead of just the one, and for the price. And, although it doesn't have a lot of adjustments, the picture quality is just what I hoped for so I have no complaints. I also bought one for my sister-in-law so she and her husband could (hopefully) do video chats (he is in Iraq. Support our troops and God Bless all of them!)

This is a great receiver. Like every Aiwa product I've ever owned/seen it's worth every penny. Plenty of input options, and the sound quality is top notch. I only have a few small complaints. One is that it's a bit busy looking with a plethora of buttons on the front panel. If you're searching for something very streamlined looking, this might not be a good choice. And I'd like to see a more useful universal remote included with a component of this quality and cost. The remote controls the receiver, TV, Cable, VCR and a CD player. I'd really expect to see controls for a DVD player, and the ability to run a CD changer and not just a single CD player. Sorta a waste to have a 200 disc changer and only be able to access the 1st disc with the remote. :)

It is my first purchase on Amo.com. It was Fast and the VCR is very cool. Mr.B.

From its appearance, this TV stand would seem flimsy and unreliable. However, it is quite sturdy and of high quality. It is not the biggest entertainment unit out there, but it functions quite well for me. Ideally suited to those with a small to moderate amount of equipment, this unit is versatile enough to accomodate my 27' TV, a DVD-Player, VCR and stereo. The open space in the rear is great for wiring, as you can easily access everything and adding a back panel afterwards (like I did), hides the wires perfectly. For someone with a limited budget, small amount of electronics, confined quarters and an eye for interesting design I'd recommend this unit.