Electronics Gadget Reviews

Kodak Zx1 HD Pocket Video Camera Blue

Adventure can strike at any moment. Capture it in HD with the KODAK Zx1 Pocket Video Camera. Built to take on rain and snow, bright light and low light, this camera is ready for action. Now, no matter where life leads you, recording it all in stunning HD quality is as close as your front pocket. Get great videos in bright light or low light – whether you’re at the beach, a party, anywhere Capture crisp, clear audio with the sensitive, low distortion microphone so you can relive your moments to the fullest intensity You’re the director Choose the video quality that works for you – HD at 60 fps, HD at 30 fps or VGA See it all on the vibrant 2.0 in. LCD screen Catch the highlights with slow motion playback right in the palm of your hand, fast forward and rewind, even frame by frame Who needs Hollywood? Upload your videos to YouTube? quickly and easily using the built-in software and included USB cable Experience your videos on an HDTV in stunning quality with the included HDMI cable Make it your own with great video software Rich video editing software is built into the Zx1 – just connect the camera to any computer to install it and enjoy all the great features Edit, trim, splice and enhance videos, Add pictures and music to your videos to make cool mash-ups Email your creations or upload to YouTube – right from the software Save the planet – one battery at a time Save money and help the environment with included pre-charged AA Ni-MH rechargeable batteries and battery charger Sensor type – 1 / 4.5 type 1.6 MP CMOS Lens – 4.1 mm, f/2.8, fixed focus Display – 2.0 LCD Storage – 128 MB internal memory, SD/SDHC card expansion slot Video capture – H.264 (MOV), AAC LC; Video quality – HD60 – 720p at 60 fps (16 – 9), HD – 720p at 30 fps (16 – 9) (default), VGA – 640 480 (4 – 3) Still format – JPEG, Picture quality

User Ratings and Reviews

2 Stars DO NOT buy this video camera
DO NOT buy the Zx1. Kodak advertises remote control as one of the selling features. They LIE! There is no such thing available either in the Lodak stores or at retailers. FALSE ADVERTISING and pretty crappy customer service when I asked about how to get the ADVERTISED remote. I no longer trust Kodak and will likely return this camera since the remote control was an important feature to me.

5 Stars Kodak Zx1
This camera is amazing. The video quality is amazing and the weather proof body is amazing. Took videos at the beach that were amazing without having to worry about ruining my full size video camera.

Camera fits in your pocket & the controls are EASY! Read a lot of criticism about not having a built in USD port (W/o using a cable) but found it easier and faster to simply insert the SD card into my laptop.

Do not hesitate purchasing this product…

5 Stars A best buy
For starters Amazon delivers on their promise of a 3-day delivery. This is a company you can count on.

The Zx1 is right on target. Right out of the box it does exactly what you would expect from a small pocket video camera – decent quality and simple operation. Even indoors the quality was acceptable – which is more than you can say about most cameras in this class.

This is clearly a second-generation pocket video camera – with improved controls and support for large capacity SD cards. The AA batteries are just what you need to make sure you will never run out. I was surprised to see that a charger was included.

My big concern about buying a Flash Drive HD camera was the issue of file format. This is a thorny issue with all HD video cameras. I could care lass about HD – I just wanted decent quality and the ability to edit video.

The plan is simple – archive the ‘HD’ content and keep it for future editing when software and hardware are readily available. And meanwhile

convert the files to AVI or another usable DVD formtat for immediate use.

The supplied ArcSoft program does primitive conversion of the 720p format to 640 DVD format – but in Quicktime – which Windows Media player version 9 still refuses to recognize in Windows XP ( I hate Vista)

There are many third party programs which do a better job of conversion – the one I use is AVS Video Converter 6. It took the raw MOV file from the SD card and converted it to AVI format with the 720 lines preserved and good sound quality. As with all such conversions it is slow but the quality is excellent. This is not a trivial conversion. Of course AVS will convert it to any of a dozen other formats – some with smaller file size – but none with higher quality.

Since this camera is so new, the Kodak web site has very limited documentation for the Zx1. They avoid entirely the issue of file formats and that is because it is a thorny issue. Along these lines I should mention that without loading any software, you can slip the SD card in your computer slot and you will get a MOV file. It comes up as a Quicktime file. My version of Quicktime played the movie O.K but there was no sound. I’m sure an update is available – but it may not be free.

Of course my Quicktime player did play the MOV file after it was converted by ArcSoft.

Hey for $150 – this is a great buy and it seems to be durable also.

Buy/More Info

Sony HT IS100 BRAVIA Theater Micro System Set of Six Black

HT-IS100 is the perfect surround-sound add-on system to existing Blu-ray Disc or DVD players.For those consumers who already have a Blu-ray Disc player or a DVD player/recorder, the perfect upgrade solution is the HT-IS100, combining all the surround processing and amplification into a single hideaway subwoofer unit.Within the subwoofer is powerful s-master digital amplification and sophisticated surround-sound processing, able to handle all the surround-sound formats on DVD and also accept high-definition audio from Blu-ray Disc for an even more thrilling home cinema experience.The system can also accept video signals from all your existing sources, either via HDMI connections or component and composite video sockets, and then will up convert for a single HDMI cable connection to your BRAVIA TV.It has the same digital cinema auto calibration as the other ‘IS family’ systems, and also features the digital media port for fast and easy hook-up of portable devices. If you’re looking for a simple, great-sounding system to take you from just watching TV to truly experiencing it, look no further.

User Ratings and Reviews

2 Stars I’m not picky but…..
PROS:

Audio: I’m not picky, so in terms of the audio, it’s fine to be. I just wanted an upgrade from the tv speakers. This is loud enough!

Looks: I also didn’t want huge speakers. These tiny speakers are cool and unobtrusive. You find plenty of universal stands for the speakers.

CON:

Notice my con is not plural. I’m just going to summarize. I own a Samsung LN52A850. You might want to consider what brand tv you have before buying this. There is no on-screen menu for me. Nobody else has mentioned this in their review. Because if someone has a Bravia and the HT-IS100 and still don’t have on-screen menu, I would imagine that someone would have mention this “con” by now. So I’m assuming that those with Bravia TVs do have on-screen menu. Or, maybe people just don’t mind not having an on-screen menu. Why am I making such a big deal about this? Because the LCD display on the sub woofer faces the ceiling. Then engineers who made this should realize that if you make the display face the ceiling, then you better provide an on-screen menu. So I’m surprise I’m the first person to complain about this. Like I said, I have a Samsung, those with a Bravia may have onscreen menu. I don’t know, I can’t confirm that. I hope the next reviewer will confirm this. So for me, it sucks that I got to walk to my sub woofer every time to look at the display when I want to play around with the functions. Another con is that the accessories to make the rear speakers wireless is expensive, hard to find and quite frankly, confusing. You need to buy a transmitter, and you also have to buy a subunit. That’s right, it’s not totally wireless. You need to buy another subunit to place in the back of your room and the wires of the rear speakers will go into this subunit. Tricky marketing!!

Man, writing this review has made me more angry and determined to return this.

4 Stars Great for a Small Room/Apt/Studio
I live in a 1bd Apartment and my living room is fairly large (for an apt) The sound that this System produces is truly beautiful. I have my HD Digital Box, PS3, Xbox and Wii hooked up and they all sound great. I had a Pioneer Elite VSX-01TXH (paired with POLK speakers) and although that receiver is far superior in features and sound effects (as well as total watts) This little system worked out better for me because it’s far more simple and practical (and won’t get me kicked out of my building. For those looking for a good Surround System that won’t take a lot of space, Offers simple menus and won’t cost too much $$$$, this is it!

1 Star HT-IS100 micro system
Can only give one star right now because the systems center speaker and remote did not work. Called Sony and they had me send the center speaker and remote to Texas for repair. After a week they sent back still not repaired. Call Sony and they said to send the complete system back for repair. Looks like I will receive tomorrow (3/4/09). I have been waiting over a month now to hear this system. I will review later if it works this time. One thing I can say is the ease of setup, and no wires from front to back for the speakers using the SA1. Also, purchased two stands for the back speakers. They look great and enable you ease of hiding wires to each of the back speakers under the carpet.

It is now 3/7, received system back from Sony repaired and ready to go.

However, they forgot to enclose the remote, so I am waiting another 4 days for the most important part. I can say now that this system sounds great, of course mine is not tuned because of no remote. But, it really makes a difference in watching blue rays. It puts you right in the movie, what a great sound from such small speakers. I now rate this a 4 star system

3 Stars It would be a great system if wireless accessories could be bought…
Its a great system from looks and sound wise and I first purchased it without the wireless accessories to see if I need them. After a short time I decided to opt for the wireless amplifier for [...]. When it arrived in the mail I was first excited but then quickly realized that additionally an EZW T100 is neede for[...]. First of all I find this to expensive to have to add 200 dollars to a 700 dollar system to make it wireless, if 400 dollar systems are available that already have that function included. But the real dissapointment was that the EZW T100 is sold out for 2 months and I have invested 850 bucks in a system that is still wired and the required accessories are not available. That is not acceptable.

5 Stars HT-IS100
I’ve been back and forth about home theater systems for the last month or so and I finally came across this bad boy at frys for 549 promo sale and got it after hearing it at best buy and all I can say is WOW if your considering this system dont be afraid to pull the trigger on it. The system feels my room full of sound just like the movies. I’m glad I did a little research and went for this with all the connectivity it offers you cant go wrong. Amazing hooked up to my kdl52-wl140 is not enough for this system.

Buy/More Info

4 Ultra 1000 HDmi Video Cable

ULTRA 1000 HDMI 4 FT VIDEO CABLE MANUFACTURER WARRANTY:andnbsp;andnbsp;LIFETIME

User Ratings and Reviews

1 Star A waste of money.
I will let you know that you are wasting your money on this. I bought a similar cable that supports HDMI 1.2 from eBay for $10 for my other TV and decided to compare cables on my 1080p TV and PS3 with a couble of Blue Ray movies. I have to say that I could not see a single difference in performance. I really regret paying over a $100 for a cable. All I can do is warn others of my mistake.

5 Stars A must have
You have to get this if your serious about the quality of your DVD and HD picture…

5 Stars Super high quaility and an unreal price
I can’t say enough good things about this HDMI cable. The bottom line, this cable to do ANYTHING. That includes 1080p – 120hrz with NO problem. Extreme value for this price. I didn’t believe it until I got it.

1 Star Their customer service is horrible
I wanted to find out whether this cable supports HDMI 1.3 – a very simple question, just yes or no. I called 4 times just to find that everybody in customer service is in training and nobody can answer my question. Great way to run a company! I am returning my $130 cable.

5 Stars Monster HD cable
The cable performs as I expexted it to. I love the “wow” factor I get when people see the picture from the ps3 for the first time. I have a generic hdmi cable I use with my HD satellite. The picture quality from that is good too. I don’t notice a difference between the two.

Buy/More Info

Sony BDVIS1000 5 1Ch Blu ray Disc DVD Home Theater System

Fusing full 1080p high definition with Blu-ray Disc performance and S-AIR wireless technology, the BDV-IS1000 is ultimate choice in home theater systems. In addition to a great picture and BD-Live capability, this home theater system delivers amazing sound from one subwoofer and five golf ball-sized speakers. With Dolby TrueHD and dts-HD sound formats and dual HDMI inputs, you will experience astounding HD video and audio performance. Clear the clutter and enjoy wireless rear surround sound as well as music in multi-rooms. You can also expand your listening options via the digital media port input and enjoy music stored on select Walkman and iPod MP3 players, PCs and Bluetooth devices. This home theater system is equipped with automatic calibration for fast and easy room set-up.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars S-Air works— Tinfoil- Sounds good, small footprint-
I bought one elsewhere and it works great for the price and the included Blu-ray player. Not Top of line but over all a good box for normal people with modern inputs.

For those who are having S-Air problem. (It is not Broken, its your enviornment)

1. HDMI cable causes interference, route away from S-air card and Wrap in tinfoil.

2. Turn off Wireless, WII, Home,etc due to interference.

3. Sync S-Air plugged in next to reciever. You can unplug the S-Air Rear Receiver after it is synced up when i moved it to the back of the room, plug it in and it still should keep its Wl-Partner.

One i got the S-air to link it has been stable for over a month.

1 Star Buyer Beware
I have been buying Sony products for 40 years and this is my first disappointment, although it may turn out OK. I bought this system because the DVD player seemed to rate very highly (one glitch with Warner Brothers DVDs noted in another review but that is all), when compared to other models and brands, including less expensive ones from Sony, and the extra cost for the speakers seemed to make sense. Most of the setup was easy, but at the end I had the same paring problem for the rear speakers that lots of people have noted. The quality of the sound on the front four speakers seems to be quite good. On my second call to Sony, which lasted about 45 minutes, they finally agreed to send me the part after trying to get me to try the paring routine again, which I was not willing to do. The arrival of this part should take care of things. I am not willing to keep the set without that part no matter what, because the problem seems to recur without the signal booster. I don’t have it yet. We’ll see.

Post script: I got the extra part (signal booster) after way too much follow up time, and it worked like a charm. On another front, in the manual it says you can upgrade to 7.1 system by buying an extra receiver and two remote speakers. I tried to do that by calling Sony parts (I had the part numbers) and customer service and tech support, and no one had any idea what I was trying to do and there was no way to get it done. So, there is a lack of coordination at Sony between what their manuals say and what is communicated to their people. I would rate this product a 5 if they included parts to make it work right and had their act together on responding to what the manual says, but they now get a 3. Also, the price is really coming down – I paid close to $700. If you can get past the one or two glitches it is worth it. For a company like Sony, though, this shouldn’t happen.

5 Stars All in One Theater without wires
Works great – once you set it up – out of the box settings will do the trick. Very full sound for such tiny speakers, with just a touch of directionality from the mid-range in the subwoofer. Most important, use high quality HDMI cable (Version 1.3b Cat 2), if not, the interference will prevent the wireless from acquiring – also helps to wrap the HDMI and calibration mike connector in tinfoil.

The Bravia Sync is a little finicky – you’ll need to play around a bit to get the Sony TV and BDV to react to the remotes the way you want.

Won’t process 5.1 broadcast sound, though I’m putting free cable to the TV and optical from the TV to the BDV. Cable/Sat box might be able to pass full 5.1 sound to the BDV.

Great Overall Value – highly recommended.

4 Stars VERY GOOD SYSTEM!
Before buying this system, I had read all the reviews and still had decided to go for it. I have liked Sony for some time now, and think they put out great products. When I got all the components out of the box it looked quite intimidating to put the system together. The main unit is gigantic – don’t be fooled – it really is the biggest thing I have ever seen. On the other hand it is also the most beautiful piece of equipment I now own. After about 45 minutes of hooking everything up, it was finally time to sync up the wireless rear unit to the main unit. I was getting very nervous as everybody said how much trouble they had with it. First try – nothing. Second try – nothing. I turned off all the wireless devices that I had around and had the units next to each other — still nothing. I restarted the whole thing — still nothing. Beautiful sound from the three front speakers but nothing in the back. I called Sony to tell them that I was clueless as to what to do next and they just reiterated everything I had already done. No help! I hung up. I had bought a cheap HDMI cable from Amazon and thought maybe that was it. I finally switched that cable with the one Microsoft supplies with the Xbox Elite and voila —- works fine. The wireless rear speakers synched in 10 seconds and have never since lost connection. So people — it really is the HDMI cable. You have to have a decent quality shielded cable when using this system.

I’ve had this system for about a month now and I love it. Everything sounds amazing. Blu-Ray works great. 5.1 surround sound is really cool. Get this system. You won’t be sorry!!!

5 Stars Happy with Sony BDVIS1000
Bought the Sony BDVIS1000 for a good price on Amazon. Ordered it along with a new Samsung LCD TV. Everything arrived on-time, undamaged and all works well together in house family room.

Thanks a bunch,

Mehrdad

Buy/More Info

HDMI Cable 15 ft v 1 3 1080P FOR PS3 DVD TO LCD HDTV TV

Premium high quality HDMI-HDMI gold plated cable suitable for use in HDTV, Plasma, LCD, PS3, home theater, cable box, projectors and more. Compatible Model: HDTV, Plasma, LCD, PS3, DVD Players, Satellite & Cable boxes and more.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Great cable
Unfortunately, this HDMI cable did not work with my XBOX 360 and my Olevia TV, but it is not the cables fault. After further research, there is an issue with Olevia brand monitors hooking up to the XBOX via HDMI. Used the cable in other situations with no problem at all. Great product.

5 Stars Longer cable = Better picture???
Well, I’m an engineer and I always thought, at least when it comes to conducting, a longer cable meant more material, which meant more resistance and hence signal-degradation. I’m also a guitarist and with longer guitar cables, I do notice some loss in tone. But, in the case of these cables, it seems the opposite. I am not a HDMI-Geek by any standards and these are my second set of HDMI cables (both from amazon). The previous ones were 6 ft ones.

I just wall-mounted my 52″ Sony Bravia LCD TV and needed these longer cables to connect my HDTV DVR and DVD player. After wall-mounting and connecting the cables, I turn on HGTV and I immediately felt the picture was too darn “rich”. I could not stand it, I had to lower the backlight, picture (contrast), brightness and even color by atleast 25% to get it to how it looked previously with the 6 ft cables. In short, the same channel/programs, the same tv, placement in the same room (just a couple feet higher) with only the difference in cable, there is marked difference in picture quality. …Difference for the good. I’m so glad I came back to amazon for these inexpensive quality cables. Thank you so much.

5 Stars Great Bargain, Great Quality
Hooked up PS3 to 52 in Bravia.

Cable runs through the wall up to attic and down the wall where TV hangs over fireplace. No loss of signal or noise interference from powersources located close to it.

Product arrived as stated and in good condition along with 3 other 6ft HDMI cables. Great price specially when similar product retails for almost 15 times more at box retailers or brandname cables.

I highly recommend vendor and product.

5 Stars Does a great job hooking my laptop up to my HD TV
First, those who insist that there is no difference between a high end cable and an inexpensive one are simply wrong. There is a quite discernible difference between a high quality gold plated cable and a cheap one. I definitely recommend getting a 3′ or 6′ cable for hooking up your Blu-ray player to your 1080 HD TV. The difference isn’t huge, but it is perceptible.

However, it would be hugely expensive to get a very long HDMI cable and there is just no way to justify the price in my mind. I wanted to get a couple of very long HDMI cables to enable me to hook up my laptop to my 46 inch 1080 Samsung TV. I am a Netflix customer and as a result I get several hours each month of things that I can stream from their website. I can now use my laptop to put this on my big screen TV rather than watch it on my laptop. I also wanted the option of being able to stream shows off the various TV websites, including those of the major networks as well as Hulu. My laptop also has a Blu-ray player, but my laptop’s Blu-ray using either the 15′ or 25′ cable cannot match the PS3 with the 6′ gold plated cable. Besides, replacing the Blu-ray drive on my laptop would be pricey, so it is better to save wear and tear and use the PS3 instead.

So I ordered this 15′ cable as well as a 25′ cable. The picture you get from the 15′ is mildly better than that on the 25′ cable, though both are pretty good. And the price was right for both of them.

So, if you need a decent and inexpensive cable I definitely recommend this one. I would also recommend dropping the dough for a gold plated 6′ cable. But if you have a laptop and want to hook it up to your TV for whatever reason, this cable will fit the bill.

5 Stars Works great
I thought, for sure, these cables at this price was too good to be true. I was wrong – these hdmi cables deliver a fantastic sound and picture and the price is unbelievable. buy with confidence. thanks Amazon

Buy/More Info