Info and forum posts by 'carolyn_lbd'

Onn HDMI DVD Player with DivX & USB - £16.40 at Asda

Asda are doing 17.5% off TV/DVD/Set Top Boxes until Sunday 30th November

Included is the Onn SW411A DVD Player which has the following headline features:

HDMI upscaling/Progressive scan
DVD/CD/MP3/JPEG/MPEG4 playback including DivX & Xvid
Front USB 1.1 for playback from memory stick/card reader etc (Music, photos & video)
HDMI/Component/Composite/S-Video/RGB Scart outputs
Remote Control
LED display
430mm width
Black finish with mirror front panel

Normally £20 (which is a bargain in itself), now only £16.40 with the offer.

RE: technika dvd 1033 player

Quote:
On my 1033 after I keyed in 9735 I couldn`t change the number to a zero

...neither could I, however there is a 255 setting which now now plays Region 1 (it wouldn`t before) and Region 2.

Makes this great little DVD player event better - thanks!

RE: HMV - West Wing Complete Series 1-7 £50 rrp £200

Quote:
Still available in store, picked one up yesterday

Likewise today, had loads in HMV at Speke (Liverpool) for £50

Along with the Sopranos, probably the best TV series I have ever seen - looking forward to revisiting all 150+ episodes!

RE: Eltax Concept Mini Hi-Fi Loudspeakers £9.99 for Richer VIP Club members

...offer is back on now - received an email this morning. £9.99 for VIP Club members.

RE: Eltax Concept Mini Hi-Fi Loudspeakers £9.99 for Richer VIP Club members

As my original post was over a month ago, I suspect that the offer has probably ended now. Show as £19.99 on the Richer Sounds website.

Eltax Concept Mini Hi-Fi Loudspeakers £9.99 for Richer VIP Club members

Just picked up a pair of these great little speakers for less than £10 (and with a free pair of Sennheiser earphones thrown in!) at Richer Sounds...

Spec:
Soft dome tweeter
100mm woofer
4-8 ohms
70-20,000 Frequency Response
50W power handling (80W max)
Detachable grilles
Rear bass reflex port
Spring clip terminals with integral wall bracket
Cable included

More info at www.eltax.com

Incidentally Richer VIP Club membership is free - just sign up in store.

DivX/XVid/MPEG4 DVD Player £19.99 at Tesco

Technika DVD-1033

£20 isn`t remarkable for a DVD player these days, but this is the first one I have come across that plays DivX for that price.

Interestingly, the only place this is (sort of) mentioned on the product is on the outer box which rather cryptically lists `XVid/MPEG4` in the key features - there is no mention either in the manual or on the player itself.

Intrigued, I bought one to see exactly what it could play and can confirm that it plays DivX and XVid encoded MPEG4 files with no problem.

It`s a compact sized player (no LED display) and includes a full remote plus SCART/S-Video/Component/Composite video out and analogue and digital (coax) audio out. It also has progressive scan.

Both picture and sound quality are good, even on a big screen, so all in all quite a bargain I think. :)

Noise Canceling Headphones £3.99 at B&M

Gemini GU51524 Noise Canceling Headphones on sale at B&M for £3.99 (currently selling for £23.95 on Amazon).

Supplied with carry pouch, AAA battery and airplane adaptor plug, the headphones fold flat for easy carrying. Noise canceling feature activated by a small switch on the left earphone.

B&M have stores in Northern England, Midlands and Wales, website at www.bargainmadness.com

RE: Couple of cheap dvd recorders with 160gb HDD at Argos

Picked up the Wharfedale DVDR24HD160 yesterday (only one `local` Argos has stock and it was the last one).

First impressions of recording quality are good, but only tried the HDD so far. Ability to `pause` live TV for up to an hour is handy (works for both inbuilt tuner and external sources such as Sky box).

The manual isn`t very clear (are any of them?) and the user interface is a bit quirky - certainly not as straighforward as the Panasonic that we have had for a couple of years.

But for £75, with a 160Gb HDD it seems to be a very good buy.

RE: Epson PictureMate 100 Photo Printer £19.91 at Staples

As stated in the OP, it was a clearance line so I guess it is pot luck if other Staples have any remaining stock.

RE: Epson PictureMate 100 Photo Printer £19.91 at Staples

Hi Mike

Yes, I saw that customer review on Amazon (after, as the printer was an impulse buy) and I have to say that that hasn`t been our experience so far. I have to say that the Amazon review you quote is among very few negative ones for this product - still I guess there will always be someone who isn`t happy!


We have printed all 20 sheets of paper that came with the printer and are part-way through a pack of compatible sheets (it will print on any 6x4 glossy media) and the ink level still shows nearly 3/4 full.

The manual does say that you won`t get full capacity from the first cartridge as some ink is used to charge the heads. Also, like any printer that doesn`t have separate cartridges for each colour, if you print a lot of images with one predominant colour then that will run out before the others do.

There are compatible cartridges available (seem to average about £8) but I have just ordered a genuine Epson Print Pack (T5730) which has a cartridge and 135 sheets of paper for £17.99 with free carriage from www.mymemory.co.uk which according to my calculations will work at at just over 13p per print.

Epson PictureMate 100 Photo Printer £19.91 at Staples

Fancied one of these little portable photo printers for a while, so couldn`t resist this Epson at less than £20 (orginally cost £99)

It`s really easy to operate, takes almost any memory card and will also print from mobile phones (via optional Bluetooth) or USB memory stick. It`s Pictbridge and DPOF compatible too.

The picture quality is brilliant - I can`t tell the difference from high street processed prints (Google for reviews). If you shop around for consumables it should work at less than 20p a print.

Don`t know how good availability is across other Staples branches - I found it in the Clearance section at Staples in Manchester (Regent Road) - they also had original PictureMate at £19.91 and the PictureMate 500 at £39.91

RE: Pentax K100D dSLR Camera £229.97 at Asda

See at this price in Huyton, Merseyside and Manchester Eastlands. Both had the new K100D at £399.

Didn`t see a Fuji S5700, but the S6500 was down to £166

Pentax K100D dSLR Camera £229.97 at Asda

Asda have the recently discontinued Pentax K100D digital SLR camera for £229.97 including 18-55 zoom lens and a camera bag.

Cheapest dSLR I have seen!

RE: Acer Laptop ASDA £399 - Anygood?

Can`t really comment on what Asda are offering as I haven`t seen it, but Acer are the second biggest laptop brand in the market so must be doing something right.

I have had an Acer Aspire 5610Z since February and it is an excellent machine.

RE: Logik IR100 Internet Radio £39.99 at Currys

Hi Mike

No need to use the PC at all.

If you choose a station on the IR100 that offers `listen again` content (e.g. Radio 2), you get the option of `Live` ie listen to the station`s current output or `On Demand` which takes you to a list of all the listen again programmes you can choose from. If it`s a daily programme then you can also select which day you want.

Logik IR100 Internet Radio £39.99 at Currys

The Logik IR100 is an internet radio and audio media streaming device. Originally sold at £150 but now reduced to £39.99 at Currys (and probably PC World, it`s a DSG specific product).

Requires broadband and a wireless access point (router) to work. Uses the Reciva internet radio network so you can build a list of favourite stations on the website which is then automatically uploaded to the radio.

Currently listening to `The Breeze 93.7` in Vero Beach Florida...from North West England...cool!

Also works as an audio streaming device and supports UPnP so it`s easy to connect to Windows Media Player 11.

Great piece of kit for £40.

RE: Goodmans 40Gb Personal Media Centre - £59 from Goodmans Direct

Mine was supplied with Arcsoft Media Convertor v1 which works fine, but upgraded to v2 from the Arcsoft website (costs about £12) and it is much quicker - converts a 1 hour DivX file in about 8 minutes on a moderately fast notebook PC.

As for headphones, you could do worse than the Welltech ones being sold at Lidl for £2.99 (see separate thread about these), they sound great with everything I`ve tried - including the Goodmans PVR.

RE: Goodmans 40Gb Personal Media Centre - £59 from Goodmans Direct

Yes it does - though not SDHC cards

Also, contrary to a previous poster, it DOES support browsing folders within folders...

RE: Goodmans 40Gb Personal Media Centre - £59 from Goodmans Direct

Well, have only had this for a short time so the various predictions of doom may still come true. However:

Firmware: There is no indication on the device which version of firmware it has (may be some hidden combination of button presses required?), nor any documented facility to update it. However supplied software is copyright dated 2006 so that has obviously been updated from the original launch in 2005.

Battery: LCD screen can be turned off when used as an audio player so this will presumably extend the battery life. Haven`t tried running video till the battery dies but have (discontinuously) watched almost 3 hours worth on one charge. As for being non user replaceable, well that isn`t unique to this device and doesn`t seem to have done iPod sales any harm...

Video Quality: Have recorded & watched some ouput from the Freeview box and also viewed converted DivX files. Video and audio are in sync and quality is very acceptable (no blocking or freezing).

File Manager: Er yes, don`t put too many files in each folder or there is a lot of joystick clicking involved!

So, it isn`t perfect but - assuming it proves reliable - I still reckon it`s a great buy for £60.

RE: Goodmans 40Gb Personal Media Centre - £59 from Goodmans Direct

Yes, saw those reviews. I think they have updated the firmware on more recent versions. Certainly no problems so far, I`ll keep my fingers crossed - though it does make it more difficult to press the buttons ;)

RE: Weltech headphones at Lidl

Though we must have more headphones in the house than a well stocked audio store, couldn`t resist giving these a try - and you are all correct - they are incredible. Definately better than a £40 pair of Sennheiser`s we have, the clarity of the sound is awesome...off to get some more!

Goodmans 40Gb Personal Media Centre - £59 from Goodmans Direct

Seen this mentioned in other threads but I think it deserves one of it`s own!

www.goodmansdirect.co.uk/productdetails.aspx?pid=GPDR40&cid=PVR&language=en-GB

Have coveted one of these for a while (originally sold at over £200) but now available direct from Goodmans at £59 INCLUDING courier delivery. Almost any one of the headline features make it more than worth this alone...

3.7" TFT screen
40Gb Hard Drive (USB2 mass storage device compatible)
PVR - records MPEG4 video from TV/DVD or any composite/SCART source (timer & one touch record)
MP3/MP4/Photo player
SD/MMC card reader
Voice recorder
L-Ion battery

Includes all cables, headphones, carry bag and software.

Manufactured by Mustek, also sold as a Yumai in some markets. Build is surprisingly solid apart from the shiny plastic buttons. An Archos it ain`t, but at this price who cares?

Ideal as a photo backup device (SD + 40Gb + TFT) - just check out how much one of those would cost alone.

This item was edited on Friday, 22nd June 2007, 10:29

RE: Refurbished 40GB FreeView Set Top Box Digital Twin Tuner Video Recorder £38.76 + delivery

Thanks for the heads up on this one folks. I have just got one following the death of a third Durabrand Freeview box from Asda in as many months.

The Digifusion has far superior sound and picture and recording quality is excellent. Easy to use too despite the somewhat garish UI. Still plenty of firmware tweaks available to sort that.

Awesome bargain!

RE: Tamron 70-300 DSLR Zoom Lens £56.14 at Tecno

I don`t know - I created a `tinyurl` for it as the actual link is enormous...

Now showing as out of stock (not surprised at that price) with more available in 10 days. Just have to keep checking at www.tecno.co.uk if you want one I guess.

Incidentally I notice that Tecno`s parent company Jessops are showing it at £199.99 on their site!!

Having had chance for a little play with the lens yesterday the images are excellent - took some lovely macro shots. AF is a little slower than the Samsung (Pentax) lenses that came with the camera, and it`s quite a big piece of kit to handhold. Construction and handling are solid though it is predominantly plastic (but with an all important metal lens mount). Definately recommended if you can track one down at a good price.

Vivitar 7 x 50 Binoculars £4.99 @ HomeBargains

HomeBargains (discount store chain in North West England & Midlands) are selling Vivitar 7 x 50 binoculars at £4.99 per pair (rrp shown as £24.95).

They have coated optics, adjustable eyepiece diopter, carry case, strap and cleaning cloth and a rubberised finish. Optical quality is very good.

RE: Grab before goes...might be mistake: Portable Ipod Speakers for 1 pence!! Amazon.co.uk

Agree - picked up some from HomeBargains and they sound better than a set of £35 Creative`s we have. Definately a bargain - just don`t buy from Amazon!

Tamron 70-300 DSLR Zoom Lens £56.14 at Tecno

If you`ve got a Pentax, Samsung or Sony/Konica Minolta digital SLR camera, and are looking for a long zoom lens, then Tecno have an incredible price on the Tamron 70-300 f4-5.6 Di LD Macro Zoom - it`s just £56.14 which is less than half price.

If my experience is typical, you can also save £2 on next day delivery as the standard delivery arrived next day anyway.

The link to this item is:

http://t**********/y2mqhg

If you`ve got a Canon or Nikon you`ll have to pay £31 more!

HP PSC1510 All-In-One £34.97 (or less...) @ Tesco

Seem to be lots of cheap all-in-ones (printer/scanner/copier) in the sales - mostly Lexmark (not a fan). Then I came across the HP PSC1510 in Tesco for £34.97 (originally sold for £79.99).

Although recently discontinued it is well specified (a step up from the bottom of the range 1400 series) and includes 1200x1200 scanner, latest Vivera inks (will also take a photo cart, not included, to give 6 colour photo printing), borderless printing AND copying and Pictbridge enabled.

Even better, I discovered a `£6 off Electricals over £30` from the last Tesco Clubcard mailing still lurking in the depths of my bag, so only paid £28.97 - cheaper than two new carts for my old PSC!

Freeview Box £19.98 @ Asda

Asda are selling a `SIMZ` Mini Freeview box for £19.98.

It`s tiny but comes with full remote, SCART and has a 7 day EPG, Now/Next and interactive capability.

Just picked one up with my lunch so haven`t had chance to try it yet, but they were selling pretty fast...