
6 Modular Pieces
The Exeter-based electronic trio release the follow-up to 1999’s critically acclaimed debut Manual. This time around, there is greater use of samplers, squeaks and beeps, as they create ambient fairytale soundscapes anchored by revolving drone guitar and shimmering melody. The stand-out track is the intriguingly-titled “Derailleur, King Of The Mountain”, a mini-symphony complete with dripping cave water. Less arresting are James Brooks’ passionless vocals. Determinedly deadpan, they render a dreamy track like “Kinski In Helsinki” ordinary. Appliance are strongest when they keep to the reverberating loops and gleaming melodies, as in “Ex4″, the ethereal opener, and “Slow Roller”, which sounds like Joy Division meets Moby. –Lucy O’Brien
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Toshiba RDXV47 160Gb HDD/DVD/VHS Recorder
The 3-in-1 RDX-V47 records to both DVD discs and VHS tapes. It comes with a 160 GB in-built memory for hours of programmes. It’s also compatible with DivX formats as well as your old VHS cassettes. You?ll save on space with this incredibly practical appliance!
Amazon Price: ?165.00
Used Price: ?144.99
Customer Review: Overrated, very disapointed. Avoid.
There is no built in digital receiver (a separate set top box is needed), the disc player has a high pitch whistle when playing a disc and play back quality using the hard disc facility is poor. Oh and my toshiba television remote (32wlt68) does not operate it when switched to dvd or vcr settings. So I now have a zapper for my set top box, one for my t.v. and one for the dvd/vcr player.Thats three in total. To record a programme onto the hard disc facility via the set top box is like crossing the M25 on foot blindfolded and walking backwards. The back of my t.v. unit is like spahetti junction too.
Customer Review: Great but not quite perfect
Having read all the reviews on Amazon about this machine, I decided to take the plunge while the price was so good (?165). While overall it’s a great machine, it does have some disapointments. The first thing I discovered was that it is not multi-region (at least one reviewer said it was). It may well play NTSC VHS (I don’t know, I don’t have a tape to test it with) but it certainly wont play region 1 DVDs. The next thing I discovered was that it wont copy DVDs recorded on another machine. This is a pain if you have, say, old camcorder footage that has been previously transfered to DVD and you want to re-edit on the Toshiba’s HDD. This is obviously none copyright material, so why not let it be copied freely? The last problem that I discovered was when transfering old camcorder-shot VHS material from the 1980s. Sometimes during the transfer, the machine stops dubbing and shows a message that it will not dub copyright material??? And when it does copy, it’s a bit hit and miss on the final result, with copies suffering from tracking style problems. I guess the solution is to hook up a seperate VHS/DVD player for the initial dubbing of old material. Not ideal and defeating the object somewhat but once they are transfered, that’s it. On the plus side, using the HDD for recording is great. Setting it at LP, the picture is perfectly acceptable. The thumbnails are essential for identification as the recorder doesn’t automatically name the recordings and doing it manually via the handset is tedious. It does actually list the channel, recording setting and day/time/date of the recording but the time/date function does sometimes default to ‘Mon 01/01/07′(maybe this is a fault on my machine?). The timeslip function is another great feature. If a TV programme is about to start and you’re still making your sandwich, just press ‘timeslip’ and carry on with your chore. When you sit down 10 minutes later, press ‘timeslip’ again and the show starts from the begining and you can watch it as if live (and fast forward the ads). You can even watch a previously recorded programme on the HDD while recording something else on the same HDD at the same time!!! Transfering from HDD to DVD is easy. I transfered 2 movies, total running time 3 hours (after I had edited out the ads) using the auto function to fit them neatly onto the disc. The result was perfect and the quality great. The finished disc had a neat menu (don’t think it will do chapters) and played fine on another player in the house. My TV is a bog standard, 3 or 4 year old telly. Not even widescreen and I’ve not had any of the problems that have been mentioned in some of the other reviews. I have a freeview box connected by scart and a normal sky box, again scart connected. Everything is just connected as if the Toshiba was a normal VHS machine and there are no problems with not being able to watch one channel while recording another that have been experienced by other reviewers. So, despite the problems of transfering old video material (and that may be just unique to my stuff), it’s still a great machine and at ?165, it’s a great bargain.
Panasonic DMR-EX95 - 250gb Hard Drive DVD Recorder & VCR Combination - With 1080P Up-Conversion & Freeview - Silver
Amazon Price: ?442.32
Used Price: ?379.99
Customer Review: Something to be aware of
I bought this item just over a month a go as an anniversary present for my parents. After they had unwrapped it at a family gathering I plugged it all in etc but got a message of ‘HDDERR’ and the DVD just opened. Thats the sum total of my experience!!! Totally embarassing. I researched this very carefully but had not heard of such problems but when I went surfing again, a couple of similar things cropped up with reference to the Samsung HDD disk being temperamental. I didn’t buy it from Amazon but a company called Cheap Telly (yes, the name does rather sound iffy in hindsight). Apparently, according to Panasonic, you have got 28 days from their despatch date (not delivery date)in which you would get the unit replaced. Even thought I didn’t plug it in until the 28 days had passed they are now saying that I will have to take the unit for ‘repair’. It’s outrageous!!! My parents surprise was completely ruined and they add insult with this. I’m still negotiating with Cheap Telly but for the price I paid (still over ?400)And because of the name of Panasonic, I expected much better things. Amazon are usually excellent in this respect from my own experience so you should have better service if you buy from them Others here have enjoyed the unit so it may well be worth purchasing. Just beware and make sure that you check yours as early as possible as the customer service from Panasonic isn’t really what you would hope for.
Customer Review: A must have recorder
This is an excellent reliable product and I recommend this to everybody. It is 4 things in one box, SET-TOP BOX, HARD DRIVE, DVD RECORDER, VHS RECORDER. G A Caruana
‘Believers’ in Florida may get license plates
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