Sony DCR-DVD408 4MP DVD Handycam Camcorder with 10x Optical Zoom Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I tried this camera during my recent visit to Seattle for Tulip festival. The recording quality is amazing. 5 channel recording is superb. I tried it in 16:9 and 4:3 fine mode with playback on HD Plasma TV. The quality was breathtakingly good. Yet to try photo (claimed to take 4 MP pictures) as photos can only be taken with a memory stick.
Cons:
-Limited Mini DVD space (20 minutes max in fine mode).
-Limited support for combining mini DVDs to a regular sized DVD. Bundled software requires double the size of DVD (9GB) free on the PC to make a movie
-Box contains just the camcorder without any memory stick or DVD. It has to be separately ordered.

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Panasonic TC-P54G25 54-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)After spending a couple of weeks seriously researching tv's, I decided I wanted to go plasma. I weighed the options of LCD, LED-LCD, Plasma and DLP, and concluded that all along I've wanted Plasma. Friends and acquaintances tried (hard) to convince me that LCD or even LED was the way to go...especially in my living room with 3 windows. I spent many hours trying to convince myself that LCD was what I wanted, but no matter what, I always came back to, "...but with Plasma, I can..." Thus, the search began for the Plasma that best suited our needs.
I considered LG (PK750/950), Samsung (C550/590) and Panasonic (S2/G25). I knew going in that Panasonic was the brand to have (some might argue) if you want Plasma. Given their purchase of Pioneer's Plasma tech in the last year, I figured they'd be a lot more expensive than the price I paid. LG's looked great, but although slimmer, were priced a little higher and had a major glare issue. Not for us. Samsung is leading the way in tv tech. Their LCD's are top-notch (from what I've seen), so I figured their Plasmas must be close behind. They looked good, had good specs, but 2 things kept me from Samsung - Glare (not as bad as LG, but not as good as Panasonic) and Buzz. So many people complain about their Samsung Plasmas making loud buzzing noises. I didn't want to take a chance and narrowed it down to Panasonic. There's about $400 price difference between the S2 and G25, and before yesterday, only 2 reviews existed on Amazon for this tv and both were not-so-good. But I made the decision to go with the G25 and I couldn't be happier. On to the review...
I purchased from Amazon for almost $250 less than Best Buy's "on sale" price, saved on tax (about $150) and got free shipping. Amazon contracted Pilot freight to deliver my tv and they did a great job...especially for free shipping. Wasn't white glove, but the delivery guy was well within the time frame, friendly and put the box exactly where I asked him. I opened the box and there stood the largest purchase I've made in quite a few years. I thought the tv stand I had would suffice for this, but it is a little larger than I thought, so we need to shop for a new tv stand. The pedestal the tv comes with is solid - wide base and has two posts on each end to support the tv. Eight screws later, the tv is mounted on the pedestal, sitting on my now-dwarfed tv stand. I didn't have any HDMI cables at that moment, so I hooked up my antenna and ran a quick setup and tuned in to the lcoal digital channels. WOW!!! I'm not sure I've ever seen a tv display look so good. I've always been in awe of my friends DLP and LCD tv's, but from a not-so-great antenna signal, our tv looked way better than theirs. I purchased HDMI cables last night and hooked up the satellite receiver and my PS3. WOW again!!!! I've never seen a movie, game or tv programming look so clear with so many colors and black blacks...not like the LCD we have upstairs in our room. I switched the tv to THX setting and to my untrained eye, it looked liked a well-calibrated tv. I softened the contrast, brightness, sharpness, etc down to 50, as Panasonic and other tech-ies recommend a 100 hour "break-in" of the tv. So I'm gonna be cool with it for a week or two and then modify the settings more to my liking. The frame of the tv is black, and one of my two least-favorite parts of the tv. It will definitely retain a lot of fingerprints and smudges, but I figure once the tv is on a new stand and placed where we want it, there will be no need to go touch the tv except to dust it off. There are 3 HDMI connections (2 back, 1 side), 2 component connections, SD card slot, USB ports and an ethernet port. Plenty of connections to do what you want...although my second least-favorite part of the tv is the fact that the Digital Optical out only sends out a PCM/Stereo signal to my audio receiver, not Dolby Digital 5.1. Only what is being pulled in from the OTA tuner will be sent DD/5.1 if available. From what I understand though, all tv's do this, not just the Panasonic. The remote is handy, has a "light" button and lights up almost all the buttons in red (helps in the dark). The menu is not too complicated to navigate through and use. The speakers a just ok, but I am running all sound through my reciever and speakers. The screen is large and does and excellent job blocking out glare. The display is crystal clear and like said earlier, the tv produces such rich, beautiful colors and some very black blacks...and all with very little glare. Very smooth motion for sports or action flicks to round it out.
Overall, the G25 is a top-notch tv with plenty of bells and whistles. One could go larger for the same price, but will sacrifice many features that this tv provides. And I'm conviced that no other retailer could beat the price that Amazon sells this for. For a plasma, or any tv for that matter, at the $1,600 price-point, this is the tv to have.

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Building on its award-winning 2009 Plasma line, Panasonic's 54-inch VIERA TC-P54G25 Plasma HDTV features a new panel with NeoPDP technologies that provide the best balance of black and white under brighter environments while also offering higher energy efficiency. The new NeoPDP Plasma panel also further reduces reflections and creates sharper pictures with higher contrast in brighter environments. This G25 series model provides 1080p resolution, full-time 1080 TV lines of moving picture resolution, and 600Hz Sub-field Drive for superb motion clarity.



Key Specifications


What's in the Box Panasonic G25 series Plasma HDTV, removable stand, remote control (with batteries), operating instructions

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Zoom r16 Digital Stand-Alone Multitrack Recorder, with Tascam Vt1 Headphones; Microphone Cables and 10ft Instrument Cables Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I normally don't write gushing reviews, but I really love this little machine.
I got it last night and spent only a couple of hours to lay down a mix with 5 tracks. I have been looking for a digital means to do multitrack recording for our band, but it's always been too expensive. So the options were: either run a horribly bad live mix in a single stereo track to the laptop (mixed on the fly on one of my regular Behringer or Mackie mixers, but adjusted for the PA), or record one track at a time (which I could never get the band to do anyway).
I originally bought the recorder to work with DAW - I already have Live 8, and the recorder comes with Cubase as a bonus. But I found last night that mixing within the machine itself is pretty effortless too; bouncing tracks and layering a mix can all be done stand-alone. There's also a built-in insert and 2 built-in send/return FX loops (one for chorus/delay, one for reverb). There's a slew of built-in effects for these (i think several hundred) and room to edit custon effects. You can take the tracks and master that are the result right off the SD card, put it in the laptop for backups or MP3 creation (the recorder makes WAV files).
So it takes one major headache out of DAW recording that I've had before: the endless twiddling around with latency to get a fast enough USB I/O to overdub in real time. Now, even if there's some issue with the USB driver or with your laptop's speed etc, you can get the mix 90% ready on the recorder itself, then upload the master tracks in WAV format for post editing. It also means less cables, no waiting for PC bootup etc etc. The recorder runs on batteries, USB power or the included power adapter, so it's very flexible.
The machine is made of plastic, but feels pretty solid. In a trade-off of materials and convenience, it's a really good choice - my 16 track mackie is a real backbreaker, but this recorder can easily be lifted with one hand. The input connectors feel quite solid and 1/4" jacks click into place without any play - i actually had to pull quite hard to get them back out, so good connections.
Also very handy that it has 2 built-in condenser mics with stereo recording. They're decent enough to quickly record ideas on the fly, and it means you can carry the recorder anywhere without any wires, power supplies or cables, and record as inspiration strikes.
The only negatives I can find so far are:
- There's only one insert available. Not sure why this was done, since it should be possible to use a different one for every track, perhaps machine processor speed was the issue? In any case, you can always re-master on a laptop, and then use as many effects as you like. Plus, for live multi-tracking, chances are each player already has their effects of choice anyway, so you'll be getting those wet signals as inputs already. For studio recording, the good thing is you can run the insert to the headphones or output so you can listen with effect as you play, but you can actually record the track as a dry mix if you like, so you can change the settings later. You can also record wet.
- EQ is available per track but a little hard to access - while the faders are readily accessible, EQ has to be adjusted through the little keypad and display, and it's just not that intuitive, so you really can't adjust it well in a live setting (I think, haven't actually tried it live yet). It does have EQ gains on 3 or 4 frequency bands per track, with the frequency range adjustable per gain.
All in all, for the money this package costs, and the fact that it comes bundled with Cubase, 8 cables, an 8Gb memory card and a headset, it's pretty unbeatable!

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This Package Contains One Zoom R16 Digital Multitrack Recorder Interface NEW;One Transcend 8gb Class 2 SD Card;One Tascam HP-VT1 Stereo Headphones;Four 20 Foot XLR to XLR Microphone Cable;Four 10 Foot Instrument Cable.Zoom revolutionizes recording with the first digital recorder with 16-track playback and 8-track simultaneous recording that uses Secure Digital (SD) memory. The new R16 recorder is three production tools in one incredibly versatile device. It's a digital multi-track recorder, an audio interface and a control surface, providing you with all the tools necessary to create studio-quality recordings anywhere. The R16 combines a remarkable level of functionality with exceptionally intuitive design. For recording purposes, the unit supports up to 32GB SD cards, allowing over 100 track hours of recording. The flexibility of SD recording not only makes the R16 lighter and more portable, it also ensures increased reliability with no concern for a crashing hard drive. You can even have respective SD cards dedicated to specific recording sessions. Back up your project on a USB memory stick. With the ability to record up to 8 tracks simultaneously, it's easy to capture a live band or even a complete drum kit. The R16 features built-in stereo condenser microphones for field recording or quick, convenient "sketch-pad" capturing of ideas and rehearsals. It also provides 8 combination XLR-1/4-inch inputs along with one Hi-Z input for direct connection of guitar or bass. And the R16 also runs on 6 AA batteries for the ultimate in multi-track portability.USB operation means you can control each function of your favorite DAW software from the R16 for easy mixing with fine-tuned control. Incorporate any of the 100+ built-in studio effects to enhance your recording and use the pro-quality mastering effects to complete that studio sound. You can even connect two R16s via USB for synchronized operation and 16 tracks of simultaneous recording.

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