Thursday, September 24, 2009

Onkyo TX-SR702 - AV receiver - 7.1 channel

The TX-SR702 is the direct descendant of one of Onkyo's most well crafted receivers. And the legacy of outstanding sound performance bundled with a full range of digital format encoding and superior engineering has rightfully earned it the THX Select stamp of approval. Packing 100 watts per channel, more than enough to drive the most demanding of home theaters, the TX-SR702 now sports an extra channel - seven in all - to further enliven the complete entertainment experience. But how do you align such power with the unique dynamics of your home listening environment? You don't. Set up with microphone using theater room calibration automatically adjusts the parameters of the audio output with the confines of your room. With Powered Zone 2 for audio listening in other rooms, Pure Audio Mode and component upconversion with TBC, the TX-SR702 is your home theater's powerhouse.
Customer Review: Great receiver until it failed
This was the heart of my audio-video system for two or three years and I was very happy with it when it was working. Unfortunately one day it simply stopped outputting sound. No power surge, no abuse, didn't even touch it -- it just failed. It still powers on, but won't give me any sound. Not even with headphones. From a bit of web searching it looks like this is a common problem. I don't know about all of Onkyo but this receiver model is certainly not reliable. Not recommended.
Customer Review: I LOVE This Receiver!!!!! Onkyo has a true winner!!!!
I absolutely love this receiver!! Has amazing sound and everything that I need for a reasonable price. With 7 digital audio inputs and 2 digital outputs, you shouldn't have to worry about having enough hookup spots like on many cheaper receivers or those from a year or two ago. ALso has 3 compnent inputs and 1 output for your DVD or HDTV hookup. A great feature is the video upconversion. This allows you to plug in a yellow video cord from your VCR (or anything else), and upconvert the signal into a compnent output for better quality. It isn't as good as if it were a direct compnent output but it looks better than a standard yellow video cable would. The THX certification shows that the sound quality is fantastic. I would definately recommend this receiver. The only thing that I don't like is that it takes a few seconds to play sound from a DVD when you first switch to DVD mode, other than that this is close to a perfect unit!!


Plantronics S12

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

SunBriteTV SB-2310HD All-Weather Outdoor 23-Inch 720p LCD HDTV, Gray

SunBrite's SB-2310HD All-Weather Outdoor 23 In. 720p LCD HDTV exterior protects the internal components from rain, dirt, insects and scratches. Dual-fan airflow system keeps the TV cool and dry in temperatures up to 122 degrees F. Internal thermostatically-controlled heater protects the TV in temperatures as low as -24 degrees F. Innovative watertight cable entry system with pass-through design keeps cables dry and allows for easy hook-ups.


Surround Sound Receiver

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Toshiba REGZA Cinema Series 46XV545U 46-Inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV

Cinema Series Regza 1080p Full HD LCD
Customer Review: No problems, excellent value for the money.
Like many of the other reviewers I did some research, and for the technology, this tv is an excellent value. Setup and use is easy, and the picture quality is excellent for all types of input(relative to the type of input)and good sound also. Been using it for just short of 2 months, with no problems. We we are happy with it so far. If you hook up a blu ray player to it, or any 120hz tv, be sure to check that the blu ray player is configured to send the correct signal to the tv for the fast refresh. The blu ray player we bought was set to default to the lower refresh rate.
Customer Review: Best Bang for Buck vs Sony/Samsung
Pros - Picture is outstanding, easily on of the the best 46" out there. Premium LCD screen at a budget price. Color is off out of the box. Factory settings for green are oversaturated, skintones have a green shade to them. You have to adjust the green in (-13,-11,+7)COLOR MASTER, Color Temp (Medium),(-10)G DRIVE to get it under control, took me some effort but I got them just right without paying for professional calibration.(Don't get Best Buy to do it, they have no clue what they are doing). SRT works pretty good, it won't turn SD into HD but it improves the picture. I left my SRT on Mode 3 Level 1(it has 5 levels of SRT processing in 3 modes-15 deifferent settings), most of the people complaining probably have no clue. Too much SRT will make the picture terrible. SRT will be disabled if you have a 1080p/1080i video source. If you have an upconverting DVD player you need to disable it to get SRT to work. Have not observed artifacts in the 120Hz smooth mode like can be seen on the Samsungs. Cons - Don't like the menus on the screen. Don't like the remote. A power outage caused my HDMI settings to be messed up(orange screen - really weird). Sent an e-mail to Tech Support and got the problem resolved, unplug TV and video source from the wall for 5-10 min to reset it. Color controls in Color Master allow for +/- 30, but using anything more +/- 15 will introduce artifacts into the picture, at 30 the picture will be unwatchable. Other then that not much problems.


Axion AXN-8701

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Denon 7.1 Channel Home Theater MultiMedia AV Receiver In Black

Denon 7.1 Channel Home Theater MultiMedia AV Receiver With Networking In Black - AVR3808CI. 130 Watts x 7 Channels. Fully Assignable Channels For Bi-Amping. Rear Panel RS-232C And Ethernet Ports. Network Capable. XM Ready Tuning. Dolby TrueHD And DTS-HD Master Audio. Expanded HDMI v1.3a Ports. Dual Remotes. Black Finish


Denon AH-NC732

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Onkyo TX-SR607 - AV receiver - 7.2 channel

The TX-SR607 raises the bar once again in the competitive world of mid-range home theater. With HDMI 1.3a inputs for up to six components, it's ready to handle all your high-definition video and audio needs. Whether it's a Blu-ray Disc player, a cable or satellite box, or a gaming console, your video signals will be traveling first class. Lower-resolution analog video signals, meanwhile, can be upscaled to 1080i and fine-tuned by Faroudja DCDi Edge. HDMI version 1.3a also transports the master-quality HD audio formats, DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD. The very latest Dolby technology, Dolby Pro Logic IIz, enhances the spatial sensation of music, movies, and video games by letting you incorporate front height channels. The TX-SR607 packs an array of convenient connectivity options, allowing you to incorporate DAB+ Radio, iPod, MP3 players, and more. Four specialized gaming modes, Audyssey room-correction technologies, and Zone 2 capability add the gloss to what is a phenomenal all-round package.


ASUS 900HA

Friday, July 31, 2009

Yamaha RX-V2500 - AV receiver - 7.1 channel

High sound quality, superior performance and surround realism are the result of the advanced technology that is part of the RX-V2500 digital home theater receiver.Major features include 7-channel discrete amplification (130W x 7), Yamaha's Digital ToP-ART design concept, YPAO (Yamaha Parametric Room Acoustic Optimizer), Quad-Field CINEMA DSP, 19 surround programs, full movie sound format compatibility as well as THX Select processing, SILENT CINEMA, Night Listening Mode, 9 channel speaker outputs with Zone2 out, and component video up conversion for optimum video quality.Features for convenient operation include extensive menus, front panel video Aux optical input terminal and a direct access remote control. This top-class receiver also provides a variety of features for setting up a multi-room custom installation.


Canon SD960IS

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Magellan RoadMate 1220 3.5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator

The Magellan RoadMate 1220 device boasts the acclaimed OneTouch menu, a 3.5-inch color touch screen, and a pocket-size design. Preloaded maps and points of interest for the contiguous 48 United States, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico make the RoadMate 1220 ideal for around town and vacations. Easy-to-use features give you confidence on the road and deliver a rewarding navigation experience. Turn it on and go!

Turn it on and go! Click to enlarge.

OneTouch favorites menu affords instant access to your personalized bookmarks of favorite places and searches anywhere you travel. Click to enlarge.

Multi-destination routing with route optimization lets you plan your trip with multiple stops in the order you want or optimize a trip for the most efficient route, helping you save time and money. Click to enlarge.

QuickSpell with SmartCity search narrows your address and city searches, making destination entry easy. Click to enlarge.

Preloaded maps give you information and directions as you travel the contiguous United States, Hawaii and Puerto Rico.

The Magellan RoadMate 1220 includes many premier features, starting with Magellan's exclusive OneTouch favorites menu, QuickSpell with SmartCity search, and highway exit point of interest (POI) search, to name a few. Magellan's attention to detail delivers a superior user experience.

Intuitive and robust navigation
The RoadMate 1220 lets you bookmark your favorite destinations and searches with the OneTouch favorites menu so you can access them anywhere you travel. With a single touch, find your favorite cafe or restaurant when you're traveling within any city.

QuickSpell with Smart City search help you quickly enter addresses and narrow your address and city searches, making destination entry easy.

Multi-destination routing with route optimization lets you plan your trip with multiple stops in the order you want or optimize a trip for the most efficient route, helping you save time and money.

Safety first on the road
You can keep your eyes on the road as you drive because spoken street name guidance announces the street name along with audible turning cues.

Ready to roll
You're ready to travel with preloaded maps and points of interest for the United States and Puerto Rico that make the Magellan RoadMate 1220 ideal for both business trips and vacations.

With millions of points of interest at your command you can easily locate gas stations, restaurants, ATMs, coffee shops, and much more.

When you're traveling down the Interstate and need to find gas, food, or lodging in a hurry, touch the highway exit POI icon to see which upcoming highway exits have the services you need.

Do you often find yourself tied up in traffic? The RoadMate 1220 is Traffic Link compatible, offering live onscreen traffic-incident reports. (The Traffic Link accessory is sold separately).

Turn it on and go!
The Magellan RoadMate 1220 is loaded with premier features you'll need to get you where you want to go.

Magellan RoadMate 1220 Features

  • OneTouch favorites menu affords instant access to your personalized bookmarks of favorite places and searches anywhere you travel. With a single touch, find your favorite cafe or restaurant when you're traveling within any city.
  • 3.5-inch color touch screen provides powerful navigation that's easy to view and use.
  • Spoken street names and directions so you can hear and see where you need to turn next.
  • QuickSpell with SmartCity search narrows your address and city searches, making destination entry easy.
  • Multi-destination routing with route optimization lets you plan your trip with multiple stops in the order you want or optimize a trip for the most efficient route, saving you time and money.
  • Preloaded maps give you information and directions as you travel the United States and Puerto Rico.
  • Millions of points of interest (POIs) help you easily find gas stations, restaurants, ATMs, coffee shops, and much more.
  • Highway exit POIs search shows you gas stations, restaurants, hotels, and more near upcoming highway exits.
  • Branded POIs display your favorite coffee shops, restaurants, and more by their respective logos.
  • Traffic Link provides live, onscreen traffic notification updates. (This accessory is sold separately).
  • Customizable route method lets you select the shortest distance, fastest time, most use of freeways, or least use of freeways to customize your route.
  • Address book enables you to create and store contact information.
  • Auto night view adjusts your screen's color and contrast for easy night viewing.
  • Automatic re-route lets you quickly get back on track in case you missed a turn.
  • Plan route on map by simply touching a destination on the map screen and then directly routing to it.
  • Rechargeable battery gives you the freedom to drive wireless or plan your trip when your vehicle's engine is turned off.

What's in the Box
RoadMate 1220 GPS receiver, Pre-loaded maps of the contiguous United States, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, Windshield mount, Adhesive disc for dash mounting, Vehicle power adapter, User handbook


Customer Review: good value, bright screen, if you don't mind waiting for the signal
If you're looking for a compact, lightweight GPS with a bright screen at a low price the Magellan RoadMate 1220 might be for you. And, this unit does seem to offer a lot of value, including the ability to add an optional FM traffic receiver. But ultimately, for me, as a frequent traveler, the very long time that this unit takes to lock into the satellite signal was a deal-breaker. A bit of background - I bought a Garmin nuvi 360 for 3 years ago. The unit is small, has the ability to add European maps, and it finds the satellite moderately fast. But it's 3 years old, and definitely not up to current standards. The RoadMate 1220 is reasonably priced, has a very bright screen, is compact (no external or flip-up antenna) and very lightweight. It also offers full speech-to-text (unusual at this price) to speak street names in addition to directions. The speech isn't nearly as clear as my Garmin, but it's usable. So what's not to like? Well, the RoadMate 1220 takes *forever* to lock into the satellite signal. If this is your first GPS unit, or if you don't travel frequently, this might not be a problem. But, for me, the difference with my 3-year old Garmin nuvi is dramatic: - Magellan RoadMate initial powerup took 8 minutes to lock into the satellite - on a trip to San Francisco, the RoadMate took 13 minutes to lock (by comparison, my nuvi 360 took 5 minutes to lock in the same location - a full 8 minutes faster) - after a week turned off, turning back on at the same location, the RoadMate took 7.5 minutes to acquire satellite lock For reference, GPS units always take longer to re-lock into a satellite signal if you have traveled more than 200 miles since last power-on. And, if it has been more than 5 days since last powered on, they also take longer. But the time the RoadMate 1220 takes to lock the satellite signal is unacceptable. As a road warrior, I just can't see waiting around - my 3-year old Nuvi is long enough wait as it is. Some other items I don't care for: - highlighted route color during the day isn't very easy to see or high contrast (bright green against a lighter green background) ... at night the contrast is better against the black background - map display is 2D not 3D - the direction chime comes way too late (literally right when you hit an intersection) ... to be fair, the RoadMate gives plenty of notice with more frequent updates than my Garmin as you approach the next turn - if you enter a destination and hit GO before waiting for the satellite lock, when the signal is (finally) acquired the RoadMate strangely talks through all the directions from the point you last turned it off, instead of recalculating from the new starting location. This is particularly odd / amusing if your last point was, say, in Pennsylvania and you are now in California. My Garmin is smart enough to "recalculate" the route from the current position after a power-on. - doesn't include a carrying case, although at this price point that's not surprising - mounting bracket doesn't offer quite the flexibility of mounting positions that my Garmin mount offers (the mount hinge only flexes up and down, in a circular fashion) - You are limited to the maps provided with the unit (an optional microSD card can be used to load additional points of interest but not other maps) Some good points to note: - customizable user interface (you can choose which categories to show in the top level) - large number of categories - when you arrive at your destination, it asks if you want to find the closest parking areas - bright clear screen (as noted) - small, compact, lightweight case without need for flip-up antenna - optional FM traffic receiver available
Customer Review: Good navigator, but buggy voice instructions and zooming bug make it unsafe
Competition is good and I am happy to see another respectful contender in the GPS navigation arena. But competition is competition, so for the purpose of this review I have borrowed my wife's Garmin Nuvi and ignoring other drivers raced eyebrows, drove around for several weeks with two GPS navigators. First, what I really like about RoadMate: - it is small and slick and fits into my shirt pocket - it has three hours of battery life - it has fast and very well organized user interface - its address input feature is just great; in general I am able to enter a destination address in RoadMate two times faster than in Garmin. - RoadMate shows exit services and has lot of useful location-sensitive information only a touch away - it has a pretty loud speaker - it finds satellites faster than Garmin and loses them less frequently - when building the route, it allows you to select several travel options for that route (fastest, shortest, most highways) - it understand multiple intermediate points and optimize the route among them Now, things I am not particularly fond of: - the screen is two times dimmer than Garmin's screen, but still perfectly usable - it takes RoadMate 35 seconds to start up (Garmin's startup time is 20 secs) - it never bother informing the driver when it lost satellite reception, conveniently freezing the display with no further directions - it never informs the driver about missing a turn, recalculating the route in silence (now I appreciate Garmin's "recalculating" message) - the map has bugs and is not yet upgradeable (I hope this is temporary) - no maps for countries other than USA and Mexico are available (I hope this is temporary too) - the so called 3D map is hardly 3D and has limited zoom capabilities - the text to speech system suffers from chronic tonsillitis and is sometimes difficult to understand Now for real problems: It is sad when an almost perfect design is nearly destroyed by two drawbacks. Each problem may be relatively minor, but their combined effect is disastrous. The first small, annoying bug: when the unit zooms into the map at an intersection, it never returns back to the original zoom. This means that after the first turn you get maximum zoom and unless you adjust it manually while driving, you have no clue as to what lies ahead. This problem alone could be OK if not for numerous bugs in voice prompts. This is the part where improvements are overdue. RoadMate voice guidelines software is way behind the competition. It may tell you to "stay on the current road" several times and then suddenly tell you to take exit. It may bother you with multiple advices to "stay on the current road" without any visible reason. At the fork it may or may not tell you whether to keep left or right. It may prompt you to take a "slight turn" just because road bends but sometimes it really means a turn. Even worse - if right exit happens to bend to the left, the unit sometimes tells you to take a "slight left turn". To be frank, voice prompts are usually correct, but bugs mentioned above are too often. In the end I just want to see the next turn at the unit's screen. It all boils down to the simple question - would you turn your attention to the road and rely on buggy instructions or start adjusting zoom level at 3.5 inch GPS screen? In comparison, Garmin unfailingly starts prompting you for any turn enough in advance to let you make any necessary changes, and keeps reminding you of the turn. It almost never makes mistakes in voice instructions. It always tells you whether to keep left or right. Also, Garmin always zooms out to show the next turn (unless the next turn is a few hundred miles away). Well, RoadMate is not a terrible GPS system, but in light of other choices, I would not necessarily recommend this one.


Magellan RoadMate 1470

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Navigon 7100 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator with Integrated Traffic (Factory Refurbished)

In the U.S., German-based Navigon may be the biggest name in gps you've never heard. Navigon has long been a major provider of navigation software to automotive manufacturers for in-dash gps navigation devices, but only recently did they introduce portable navigation devices under their own name. What they offer up, however, demonstrates immediately that this is a company that knows navigation inside and out.
Customer Review: Best GPS you haven't heard of
Navigon is probably the best GPS system you haven't heard of. It has a very nice 4.3" screen. Shows POIs including uses certain company logos (like the "M" for McDonalds). Windshield mount looks very nice and the system looks sharp when you mount it up. Free traffic for the life of the system was part of the reason I got that model. Believe me, it might not have stations it picks up right by my house, but the last time I drove through Dallas, it was very helpful in showing me the slow-downs that were up ahead. I'm very pleased with this brand, model, and even the price I paid for it.
Customer Review: great gps. easy to use, great features
ive owned my 7100 for a couple of months, i took alot of trips with it and had NO problems. Its very easy to program, and the Zagat Ratings on the POIs are very helpful. The reality view screen is really neat, looks like the REAL signs when you get to your exit. Spoken words are easy to understand. The voice command is really cool to locate your destinations. All you have to do is say your location and the gps will find it by your voice. My bluetooth works great with my Nextel i880 phone so you can use it as a hands free. Has alot of great options like, speed limit warnings, Traffic warnings in certain areas and growing, auto day night screen, Comes with extra external antenna for traffic, Window mount works great also. Full charged battery works for about 4 hours without plugging it into AC or DC, which both adapter are included also, Great GPS for the price with all the Options. I bought one for my brother and father in law and they both get alot of use out of them also


Motorola T505

Quality Neoprene Mini Netbook Sleeve for ASUS Eee PC 1000H 1002H 901 N10 S101 PC * Includes MousePad *

This Case Logic laptop sleeve will cushion and protect your valuable notebook and accessories. The case is designed to fit 7-10" notebooks. Compatible with ASUS Eee PC 1000H 1002H 901 N10 S101 PC


Magellan RoadMate 1470