Panasonic PV-GS250 miniDV camcorder

PV-GS250While filming the holiday party movie for work, my 7-year old Sony miniDV camcorder‘s CCD finally gave out. In a rush to replace it, I picked up the Samsung SC-D353 on the cheap at Circuit City. Well, you get what you pay for: the camera’s autofocus was horrible, it had a black-and-white internal viewfinder, and poor sound quality … so back it went.

After a little more research (and less rush), I decided to graduate to a 3 CCD camera and chose Panasonic’s PV-GS250. Three sensors means very accurate color reproduction and this camera delivers. It’s chock full of options and connections (S-Video, Firewire, etc.), includes a 3.2 megapixel still camera with a built-in flash (which saves photos onto an SD card), color viewfinder and screen, and is overall a slick looking piece of equipment (very sturdy). Included accessories included a corded microphone which also doubles as a remote control, an actual remote, and the various necessary cables. Hopefully this lasts me another 7 years like my Sony did.

Harmony 676 universal remote

Harmony 676Until now, I’d been sticking with the cheaper universal remote controls. My favorite was the Magnavox PMDVR-8 which did a great job of controlling all of my home theater devices, including my TiVos. Recently, however, I had two of the units go bad. I was going to just replace it with the same, but was lured by the Logitech Harmony 676 Advanced Universal Remote. I guess it was time to see what all the buzz was about with these $200+ URCs.

So far, I love it. You use a web site to configure your device, answering a series of questions about what devices you have. No need to go searching through a list of codes to program the remote, just set it up on the web site, and then download via the supplied USB cable. You can customize all of the hard buttons, plus 6 “soft” buttons on either side of the LCD display.

The Harmony 676 is activity based, meaning you set up an activity like “Watch a DVD” or “Watch TiVo.” Using the web site, you define each activity such as turn on the TV, switch to component input, turn on the DVD player, start playing the disc. Then, with one button push, you can accomplish that activity … very cool!

Palm Treo 650

Palm Treo 650After starting out in the Palm camp back in 1996, then switching to Pocket PC and hp’s iPAQ line in 2001, I’m now a Palm user again. I got a Palm Treo 650 through work, and I love it … finally I don’t have to carry my PDA, cell phone, and G100 (e-mail device). I’ve got all three in a small, cellphone sized package.

Toshiba RS-TX20 digital media server

Toshiba RS-TX20Thanks to a great deal, a third TiVo has made its home in my media closet. This one is the Toshiba RS-TX20 Digital Media Server. Housed inside its shiny case is a DVD player, DVD burner, and a 140hr TiVo. It has all the same connectivity options as my other standard Series2 boxes, but also adds digital audio (TOSlink), component video, and progressive scan options.

DVDs are played through the standard TiVo interface, so you get the option of easy fast-forward, rewind, pause, and replay from the familiar TiVo peanut remote. You can connect a VCR or firewire camcorder and easily transfer your home movies onto the DMS. From there, burning recorded programs (either TV shows or those home movies) onto DVD-Rs (or DVD-RWs) is a snap using the friendly TiVo interface.

Uniden ELBT595 digital Bluetooth cordless phone

Uniden ELBT595Uniden’s ELBT595 Digital Bluetooth Cordless Phone is a normal 5.8GHz cordless phone for your home, but acts like a cellphone. The base station has the usual expected features: caller id, digital answering machine, speakerphone, dial pad, address book, etc. The handset is about the size of your typical clamshell cell phone, complete with color LCD screen and speakerphone. Regular land line calls seem crystal clear to me (I replaced an aging AT&T 2.4GHz cordless set that always sounded like the person on the other end was underwater, but that might have been due to all the other 2.4GHz traffic in my house due to the wireless network).

You can connect the handsets to your PC using the supplied USB cable and software CD to change all the settings, save profiles, and even import your address book from Outlook (the handset can store 100 address book entries, with 4 numbers each for a total of 400 phone numbers). You can also send your address book (or individual entries) from one handset to another, or to the base station.

The real beauty of this set is the Bluetooth capability. You can pair your cell phone with the base station, and then use the regular handsets to make calls over your cellular line (using your minutes and (hopefully) free long distance using what Uniden calls CellLink. When dialing a number from the handset, you can choose whether to use a Land or Mobile line. Choose Mobile and the handset will look for your cell phone (assuming it’s in range) and route the call through it. Bluetooth on the handsets themselves mean you can use your Bluetooth wireless headset.

The handsets’ manufacturing is a little on the cheap side (too much plastic) and might break too easily when dropped on tile floor (I have not tested this theory). Using CellLink is a little frustrating because it does take time for the base station to link up to the cell phone and route the call. When sending address book entries from unit to unit, you lose your custom icons (home, work, etc.), ringtones, and images. But other than those few caveats, so far I’m very happy with the set.

Roomba Red

Roomba RedThe Roomba Red robotic vacuum by iRobot is a squat little creature that, according to the literature “happily” cleans floors, under furniture, etc. It’s fun to watch as it figures out the best way to navigate a room, and it drives my dogs nuts.

My Robosapien had better watch out … there’s a new robot in town! Time for a little battle-bots action! 🙂

Netgear WGE101 wireless bridge

Netgear WGE-101We did a little room reorganization last weekend that ended up moving my home office to a different room. Not a problem, since I run a wireless network, but I had to move my Brother MFC3820CN multi-function machine into the new office as well, away from router which it had been directly cabled to.

Enter the Netgear WGE101 wireless ethernet bridge. It was a little tricky to set up (it took me a while to figure out that when you plug a device into the ethernet jack, the bridge effectively disappears from the network and just the connected device is available, which didn’t quite work with my wireless security setup at first), but it’s working fine now. I can print and scan on the Brother unit wirelessly.

Panasonic TH-42PD25UP 42″ plasma EDTV

Panasonic TH-42PD25UPThe home theater system I started building back in 2000 when I purchased my Pioneer receiver and a set of speakers was finally completed this weekend when I added the Panasonic TH-42PD25UP 42″ plasma EDTV to my setup. My budget couldn’t handle a full-blown HDTV, but I am perfectly happy so far with the excellent picture quality on this unit, even on standard analog cable. I connected an HD antenna and can now pull all of the local stations’ digital broadcasts OTA (over-the-air). The built in ATSC/QAM tuner means I can receive the local digital stations (like Fox-HD) over my existing analog cable connection from Brighthouse, and the CableCard slot means no cable box when I do decide to go with digital cable in the future.

Robosapien

RobosapienThe other week I entered a contest on woot.com and won a RoboSapien by Wow Wee. Talk about a tech toy! This little (18″ high) robot was designed by a NASA scientist, features 67 different functions and can also be programmed to respond to touch and sound. The built in demo modes are fun to watch. My daughter especially likes to dance along with it, but it freaks out the dogs. It has two differently formed “hands” for picking up different (lightweight) objects and can even throw them (well, more like drop them, but it’s still fun). Could this be the year’s hot, must-have toy?

Another TiVo

TiVo Series2Ok, yes, I am addicted … but I can stop any time I want … really!

Today I purchased my second TiVo. Now that the Home Media Option is no longer an option (i.e., it’s free and included with the TiVo service) and the subscription price for multi-TiVo homes has gone down (only $6.95/month for extra units past the first, which is still $12.95/month unless you have the lifetime service) I really wanted the benefit of two tuners to record shows to avoid conflicts (something that’s standard in the DirecTiVos and other DVRs offered by digital cable providers) and the ability for multi-room viewing.

I grabbed a 60 hour Series2 unit off of e-Bay (something else I am slightly addicted to) for a good price. For now I’m not going to upgrade it like I did to my 40hr device (which can now hold 133hrs), but I’m sure its time will come.