5 comments about Terk Technology TV-55 UHF/VHF HDTV Indoor/Outdoor Amplified Antenna.

1. Very satisfied. Installed it carefully (indoors in a closet) and used high quality cabling.
   
   Chicago, North Burbs. Using in conjunction with an ATI TV Wonder 650 Express.
   
   Slightly more expensive than rabbit ears. Money well spent.



2. DO NOT BUY THIS ANTENNA, I TRY ALL THREE MY HDTV AND FIND OUT I GET BETTER PICTURES WITHOUT THIS ANTENNA. BIG HEAVY JOK



3. Don't bother with this unless you plan to mount outside your home. Inside the home, this thing isn't very good and its WAY too big. Explore other options, stay away from this antenna.



4. The Terk TV55 HDTV Antenna is great product. This is my second Antenna. if you want to receive all HDTV channels clear and sharp, then this is the antenna you need to have. They come in different length, you can use it indoor or outdoor. You can hid it under a sofa, bed or hung it anywhere. One antenna is in the Attic the other one is behind the sofa. I highly recommend this antenna.



5. I first bought one of these Terk TV55 antennas several years ago from Circuit City. I didn't have a lot of faith that it would work very good, but the salesperson said if I didn't like it that I could return it within 30 days. So I brought it home and hooked it up to my TV right in the house without mounting it, just to see what kind of signal I would get. I figured if it didn't show some promise, I would box it right back up. Well, I couldn't believe how good it worked! I proceeded to mount it up on my roof, and I have great signal strength. I recently purchaced a second one for my sister who just got rid of her satelite dish and has installed a converter box to get the new digital signals. The antenna worked great for her and she is able to get all of the signals in the area. I would recommend this antenna.

5 comments about LightSnake STUSBXLR10 LightSnake USB Microphone cable.

1. I was so excited when I found out about this product. For years I have been trying to find out how to use a professional mic and other pro instruments with my audio editing software to no avail. This is a simply plug and play product and it works like a charm!



2. This product seems to work on some machines but not all. On an XP w/sp3, the system does not recognize the device and asks for the location of a device driver. Of course this is not available and SoundTech Tech claims that they do not know what device driver the cable uses. They also claim that they cannot find out what device driver is needed as they do not manufacture the Lightsnake, and they do not have authority to contact the OEM. After searching the Internet, it appears that I am not alone with this problem, but SoundTech actually told me to call Microsoft to find the device driver. Not much help here as Soundtech cannot tell me what device driver I should be looking for. Maybe the worst tech support I have experienced in my 30+ years in the IT industry!



3. LightSnake STUSBXLR10 LightSnake USB Microphone cable
   
   The first thing I did was plug this into my computer and fired up Adobe Audition to record my weekly podcast. The Light snake didn't seem to have any driver issues according to Windows XP, but when plugged in, my computer started sending sound out the cable instead of my headphones (i could tell because the lights on the cable were blinking). After fixing that problem I still cannot get windows or Audition to let me record through the cable from an SM58. I'm going to plug it into my Mac and I'm sure it'll work better but the 'simple plug and play' label may not be applicable depending on your computer and software setup.



4. this thing is pretty awesome. it works about as it says it should (which is always nice, especially considering how many things you get out of the box and for reasons beyond explanation they Just Don't Work.).
   
   i am running it on vista, and it really was just plug and play, installed the drivers automatically. and i get much better sound out of it than running an xlr cable through an adaptor into the 1/8 inch jack i already had on my laptop.
   
   plus it looks pretty cool glowin all green.



5. All my recordings have a snowy noise in them. I contacted the manufacuturer and was told "Its unfortunately the nature of the beast". If you own an XLR microphone, you care too much about the sound for this cable to be good enough for you. I returned mine.

2 comments about Albany Plasma TV Stand.

1. Albny Plsm TV Std This item was received from the seller on time to the shippers for me. I have just received the item in Barbados March 11, 2008 and was very excited to receive it but to my dissappointment on opening the box they are no instructions on how to assemble it. I have to go find someone who I think has a good idea on how to screw up all this little bolts and washers etc.in the right order. In other words we have to use trial and error to get this stand to function. Would be grateful if I can get some instructions on how to assemble this product in case my trial and error does not work.



2. This is a really nice TV stand. I've had it for a while and I managed to fit everything that I wanted to put on it. Right now I have a 26" flat screen TV, three game systems, a DVD player, cable box, and other things on it and I still have room. The DVD storage rack on each side is also really nice as well. The stand itself is very sturdy and open for air circulation (for the newer game systems that tend to overheat) and it looks really nice as well! It's absolutely perfect for what I need it for. Also, the other person that reviewed this item didn't have instructions with theirs. I did get instructions with mine, so I guess the other buyer was unlucky. I definitely recommend this TV stand for anyone that is thinking of buying it.
   
   Oh, another thing. The TV stand itself says that it was made for only flat screen TVs, but you could probably fit a smaller normal TV on it. As long as it's not a gigantic normal TV, it would work out OK.

3 comments about Philips Executive 30-Watt Micro Speaker System with iPod Dock (White/Silver).

1. I don't own this product yet, but had the opportunity to test it thoroughly in the store yesterday. I decided that it is the one I want because it has all the features that I need:
   -portable (all in one unit)+ (battery powered)
   -great sound (30W RMS)+ bass boost + 4-5 eq presets
   -many audio sources: USB, Aux in, CD/MP3, Tuner, Ipod
   
   The ONLY drawback I found was that the FM antenna is not part of the unit, you need to plug an FM aerial antenna. This unit is meant to stand in an office or house, so the "FM on the go" seems not to be an option. However, considering all the other features, it makes a great portable Hi-Fi multisource piece of equipment.



2. Better than average sound for the money. Great options included ipod,radio,cd, and aux. Nice volume for main source in a small room, or for background music in a larger room. Good option for the pricey Bose system plus more features.



3. I'm looking to down-size and simplify my life - including getting rid the the space-hogging component stereo system - this here is a very nice little all-in-one box as replacement - biggest drawback for me is the weak dim display panel - can only be read close up (by my eyes anyway).

5 comments about Koss QZ-99 Noise Reduction Stereophone.

1. These KOSS headphones perform as advertised and then some! I can no longer hear my wife's soaps while I'm enjoying pleasant classical music and using my computer. The noise cancelling feature is great!



2. I bought these so my wife could listen to her MP3 player while mowing with the garden tractor. These work as both hearing protection from the tractor noise, as well as headphones. Even with the headphone volume up all the way,the music volume was marginal. If you have a weak source, these may not be the phones for you. Sound quality is ok, but I really bought these for sound isolation more than audio quality. The phones seal around the ears very well, but are still comfortable. These were the most reasonably-priced phones for my application.
   
   I will also use these with my scanner at the local race track. The mono/stereo switch is convenient to listen to mono sources such as the scanner.



3. At first look it don't look that good. Once I started actually using it, I liked it very much. The volume control knob on the side of the earphone and the ear comfort was nice and comfortable. I have only had it a few weeks, so you should ask me in a year how I feel. As a general rule the other headphones I had only lasted a year. I hope this one lasts much longer because I really like it.



4. really I don't see why these deserve anything less than a 5 star, so that's what I'm going to give.
   I like how tight these headphones are and the fact that other people can't hear anything you're listening to, even at full volume. The sound isn't perfect, but it's good enough. And they look very cool ;)



5. I bought these mainly for the warranty, as I've used many good headphones that would just quit shortly after the warrant period. A lifetime warranty is very helpful.
   
   As for the headphones themselves, they surpassed my expectations for a forty dollar set. I was really impressed by the sound isolation. I'm taking these to college dorms, where sound echos like crazy, and these headphones muffle up the environment noise quite a bit.
   
   The fit is about average. I could feel it pressing against my head, but the ear cups were very large and ample for my ears.
   
   The sound is above average. It's not the best ever, but it's definitely good for the price paid. This is NOT for bass enthusiasts. The bass is pretty non existent compared to DJ headphones. But I listen to a lot of vocals, and they come through pretty clearly.
   
   Overall, I'd recommend these to anyone who doesn't need bass. I took off one star just for the bass, but really I'd give it four and a half, since bass isn't too important to me.

5 comments about Hauppauge 1128 WinTV-HVR-1800 Internal Hybrid TV Tuner/Video Recorder.

1. I got it this past weekend.
   
   I have a Vista Ultimate x64 with SP1.
   
   I put in the card and when I boot up, Vista sees it right away and know where to download the drivers.
   
   Then I put in my Dishnetwork receiver(S-Video and 2 audio) into it see it on my computer. I think if you have Dish on, it will not pick up the digital signal.
   
   I cant get it to change channel on my Dish. But its alright. I have Dish change the channel and the card just record whatever comes on.
   
   Now I dont use my VCR anymore.
   
   I do not install the WinTV. I heard this software had not been updated for years. And Beyond TV, etc cost too much. MSFT Media Center can record too. Thats all I need. I didnt play with the FM.
   
   I might need to change the card time when I get HDTV thru Dish. It doesnt have component input on these.
   
   I give it 4 Stars just because its not perfect.



2. I first set this up with XP Media Center and had all kinds of trouble. The TV signal would cut in and out and pausing and rewinding was horrible. I then upgraded to Vista Ultimate and everything works perfectly now. The digital cable picture looks just as good as if it was connected straight from the set-top box to the tv. Pausing and rewinding works great. The remote is also very nice and worked perfectly.



3. It's a very good tuner, worked as expected in Vista Ultimate 64bit, my only problem was I was unable to install Hauppauge's WinTv application under Vista 64bit. I could only us it with Vista Media Center. As everyone knows, Vista Media Center doesn't support Clear QAM broadcasts over cable, so I was hoping to at least watch them with WinTV's app, but it didn't install. Microsoft came out with an update though (Media Center TV Pack 2008), but it can only be installed with a new installation of Vista, however, it should only be a matter of time to allow it for everyone to install in their current installation of Vista.
   
   Not being able to install wintv in 64bit vista is why I gave it a 4 star. They should make 64bit bit fully compatible as well.



4. I have used this card both in my Windows Vista setup and Linux.
   
   The digital side of the card is brilliant - crystal clear picture and no noticeable system performance hit while it is recording. Granted, recording digital is just transferring a stream of 1's and 0's over the PCIe bus. I have only recorded over-the-air digital broadcasts (ATSC) on this side of the card.
   
   Analog cable reception was reasonable under SageTV, although somewhat less clear than the same analog cable channels on my LCD TV. My antenna and cables are cheap, which I found hurts the signal considerably more for this card than when attached to the TV.
   
   If I just wanted to record digital, which may suffice for many people, I would have opted for one of the software-based cards at half the cost. I still have enough analog cable channels to warrant the hardware encoder.
   
   One feature I have yet to use is the composite IN. If it goes well, this should be a nice feature for digitizing old VHS tapes.
   
   I can warn that I had no real success in setting up this card in MythTV (MythBuntu, to be precise) although a small no-nonsense TV application called MeTV did a great job recording hours of sharp over-the-air Olympics broadcasts for me off of a channels.conf file. If it weren't for the latter success, I would assume the card isn't supported in Linux. But despite the ambiguity of web sources on this point, the digital tuner of this card is in fact supported in kernel 2.4.



5. Much of the other reviews cover everything, so I'll mention things that were highlights for me.
   
   The first thing I did was download the latest software/drivers from the Hauppauge website. I installed the card in an empty slot and then installed the software. The card took off without a hitch. The features integrate directly with Windows Media Center. You get a complete 14-day guide (based on your cable input settings) and it keeps track of the shows you've recorded so you can jump right into watching.
   
   I initially purchased this to pull in digital channels from the air. I'm in Ohio. According to the software there were 14 possible channels, but I found out that at my location the reception was poor--so much so that most channels didn't even come in or were sporadic. If you're relying on digital channels from the air, be sure you're in an area where you can receive a good signal. I tried antennas but couldn't get the channels to come in well enough to watch any of them. This isn't the card's fault. I decided then that I should go ahead and invest in digital cable. What I didn't realize is that digital cable (Time-Warner) is in a different format that the card can't tune in. I ended up just getting analog.
   
   Picture quality is what you would expect with an analog signal on an LCD monitor. It's blurry and noisy, but keep in mind you're displaying a signal that was meant for a TV on a monitor designed for high-end graphics. The nature of analog is what makes the picture look the way it does and it's not the fault of the card. I saw a reviewer mention the VisionTek card that uses some sort of picture enhancement. That's great and all, but I wonder how much of a load the picture processing puts on your system.
   
   The software found the analog channels easily and set up my local listings. Recording is a breeze and since all encoding goes through the card, it takes the load off of your processor. I don't even notice recording when it's happening. I can play a game or watch a DVD at the same time without issue. You've gotta love it.
   
   For the price and ease of use, this card can't be beat. It performs its functions flawlessly. I'm completely happy with it.

3 comments about Case Logic True Sport Armband Case for 80/120/160 GB iPod classic 6G (Gray/Blue).

1. I have tried three cases. One was too small; another was too difficult to strap on. When jogging you do not want to spend time pushing and arranging the music player into the case because it is such a snug fit. And wrapping the case around your arm can't take time either. Those are the two must haves for cases. Caselogic hits both without issue whereas the other cases failed.
   
   Also the Caselogic case is not heavy, bulky and has a simple hole at the bottom to expose the headphone jack.
   
   One of the generic issues with an iTouch is the ability to access volume and change tracks with jogging. No solve here you have to know where the home button to access volume and track selection.
   
   Only caveat is the screen is not crystal clear-- so when viewing the iTouch screen there is a little glare-- but who looks at the screen while jogging?



2. I am using this case with an iPod Touch 16GB and it works great. It feels very snug and I have no worries about the iPod falling out (like when it's inverted doing bench press). The headphone jack is accessible through a hole in the bottom so you can plug/unplug your headphones easily.
   
   The iPod still registers touch through the screen on the case so don't worry about trying to touch the screen directly (I even wear this while I mow and I wear gloves and it still registers me touching it, although I do have to add a little pressure).
   
   The strap is about 2" wide and very comfortable (stretchy neoprene) and is secured with a 2"x2" velcro end. So far, I have not had it come undone.
   
   Lastly, there is a 3" piece of fabric that you can wrap your headphones around (you see it running vertical to the left of the main case in the product picture). This is great to keep just the right amount of headphone cable dangling so it doesn't constantly get in the way.
   
   All in all, this is a great armband and would definitely recommend it.



3. I bought this armband so that I could listen to my iPod comfortably while at the gym. I love it. A bit expensive, but perfect for its use.

5 comments about Philips SPC900NC PC Web Camera with VGA CCD Sensor and USB 2.0 Interface.

1. I bought this webcam to use as a ccd for my telescope. This is my 2nd one. They are excellent webcam with high sensitivity and very low noise and are prefect for dark locations and astrophotography



2. I LOVE the fact you can mount it on a tripod, and the ccd sensor, really makes a great picture, smooth for video feed and low light conditions,, good deal at the price!



3. Very good camera. Focus knob very stiff, and plastic parts fragile, but image quality is excellent.



4. I purchased this product after visiting my son-in-law who uses the cam for astro-telescope photos. If you are into that you will need some additional free software available on the internet. The cam software is somewhat difficult to install on Windows Vista. You need to download the Vista drivers from the Phillips website. Do not follow cam instructions that says to install camera drivers form CD first. I had to use windows restore several times. I succeed by starting clean connecting camera to USB and starting the PC. Let windows search for drivers on internet, once found go to Phillips web site and install the vista drivers, then go back to cd and install vlounge only. You might start instead of trying to download vista drivers from website first, reboot and connect cam; I did not try and do that. On my xp computer I just use the CD, worked fine.
   
   I purchased this camera from this vendor last month for $89 dollars. What is confusing is that the SPC900NC has suffixs of 00,24 (may have been 27),37. I checked with Philips they indicated that the only differance is the region where the product is marketed otherwise they are the same. I have the 37 my son-in-law has 00, both work the same both work with Vista. You can buy the same product on ebay new and have seen it on amazon for around $50 including shipping. Other vendors write-up are not as pretty. Astromony is an expensive hobby, and even though this is a good vendor (did have some problems with shipping mixup)and they were responsive but their service is not worth another $70 more when you include shipping.



5. The camera works great, sits on top of my iBook G4 and I use it to talk on Skype. When I talk to my boyfriend whose in England, he says my picture quality is like a television when my window is smaller, but more digital when he maximizes the window or enlarges it to full screen. I had to install macam to use it on my Apple, but that application is free and can be downloaded online. All in all, few complaints here!

4 comments about Cables To Go - 13401 - 5M (16.4ft) USB 2.0 A/B Cable (White).

1. There's a few different long USB cables. This is one of the "non-powered" versions. It seems to deliver as advertised. I've had no troubles with it.



2. What to say? Its a cable. Its cheap. It works. Nice...



3. This long cable is cheap (compare at ~$30 at Best Buy)and works fine for my printer. Got another cable from this company (Cables to Go) awhile back and it was also well made and reasonably priced.



4. I used this to hook my new Canon Pixma MP970 to my computer - worked just fine - $8 inc. Shipping from AntOnline - they gave me fine service. Why pay $35 - 40 at Best Buy, etc. I hate to say it but if Best Buy were even reasonable, I would use them - But $35 is ridiculous when I only had to pay $2 to accomplish my goal. I wish there was work around gasoline this easy...

5 comments about Griffin Technology 4026-LCDT iTrip LCD FM Transmitter for iPod.

1. This was really static-y on any radio I used. I now have an ipod video which this is not compatible with so I no longer use it any way, but wasn't thrilled with it while I did use it.



2. it works, the downside with things like this is that it doesn't broadcast strong enough, my as soon as my radio senses their might be a stronger signal it will start to get interference, i ended up just using a tape adapter. it also pulls from your ipod battery draining it faster.



3. Of all the radio transmitters I've used, seen in action, or heard about, this one is the best. Easily. I've had friends in other cars drive down the road nearly 40 yards away and hear the signal from my iPod crystal clear on their radio. It works great!



4. Works best when you are not in the city. It is easier to find static air waves when there are not a lot of radio stations transmitting powerful signals. The best sound is always through hard wire, a direct connection to your radio aux jacks or a portable i-pod deck.



5. Way better than the original, which used audio files to set the frequency! This bad boy really does the job!