ALPHA VIDEO DVD -- some big difficulties
590361
This is NOT a review of the movies, but rather a comment on the quality of the DVD put out by Alpha Video.  I could only play this movie on one of the three DVD players that I tried it on.  And even on the DVD player that it did work on, the operation was not smooth.  I also had trouble playing it on my computer.  The Alpha DVD contains over 4 hours on a single disc, and that may be the reason why the DVD does not play well or at all.  Alpha should have put these 4 movies on 2 discs.
2497839
Played four movies in the Vol. 1 set.  .One played fine, and three froze several times while playing. The scene would stop completely and in a few seconds begin playing, stop again, and skip.  Haven't played any of the movies in Vol. 2 and Vol. 3.  This Vol. 1 set should be replaced, and I don't know how to get this done.  I'm sure the first movie, "The Renegade Ranger" can be made to play completely without any problem, because I watched it on TCM several weeks back and it was OK.  I took into consideration my DVD cleaner might be old and not cleaning properly, so I drove to Wal Mart and bought a new one.  Cleaned the player and tried again.  The same movies froze in the same place.  Checked the disc and it looked clean. This is the first problem I've had with any Amazon DVD purchase.  I'm sure the set can be sent free of the hesitation problem.  Thank you,  Don Hill Roberts
3541529
It is pretty bad when a Retromedia DVD is inferior to the Alpha DVD but that is the case here. The Retromedia Special Edition has that greenish cast made when a movie has been dubbed down too many times from the original source. It is barely watchable. And the letterboxing is bogus. I had heard the Retromedia disc was an upgrade but I find my old
Alpha disc to be far more watchable. At least it is in black and white and not murkey green.
2343302
Was able to configure the unit to play a disc with no help from the lousy instructions. There is no meaning to the items listed in the menu and there is an error in the startup list. After much experimenting, I am slowly beginning to figure everything out. The unit was purchased with the idea of viewing a DVD of 35mm slides. Should have the slides in about a month. I believe it is going to be a mess in trying to figure out how to set up files, albums, etc. Also have a Sony Bravia  TV and the instruction manual for it was great-easy to understand and to configure the menu. The Sony customer service on 800-222-7669 was useless and seemed reluctant to provide the location of a Sony dealer.
136462
The hardware Vidbox converter works fine in conjunction with the included software if you are converting in Easy Wizard Mode (without editing). If you do wish to do video editing using the Advanced mode, be prepared. The program tended to be extremely unpredictable. I used it with a high-end PC and the program would continually lock up at random or it would not shut down cleanly after saving a project. Windows Task Manager had to be used many times to kill the program completely. Though it has a good looking interface, functionality in Advanced Mode is poor and it is evident that there was little User Acceptance Testing before it's release. Tools from menus were found to be either not selectable or did not seem to work correctly, if at all. After frustration and in the end, I kept the Vidbox, dumped the included software and went with another video editing package. No issues after that.
4073555
It crashes continually, usually after it's already taken 4 hours or so to burn a DVD from some Tivo programs.  Their customer service is laughable.  Stay away if you at all can.
1172884
OKAY TO BUY, but beware. There are still bugs in this DVD Recorder.
 I bought ... and had to return [my first unit]. The Display clock failed to display the time when the unit was turned off after the first night. I also have problems playing back VCD's.  My VCD's or not marked by a Region Number so they should play quite nicely in this ... machine. Be sure to set the clock by using manual settings and turn Off the Daylight Saving's Feature otherwise the unit will not time your programs correctly.
In addition, I have problems playing back recorded DVD +RW disk on my Compaq Computer. I have had no problems playing back VCD's on my Compaq CPU or SAMSUNG DVD Player.
I had difficulty with the end results in configuring a DVD player (SAMSUNG) to the Philips DVD985 Recorder using Component IN. The output picture was always green when I played back the DVD's. I am not sure if this was due to some type of software copy protection or what. The DVD that I played back was not copy protected. The (TBC) Time Base Corrector may not like one of the phases, I am not sure so once again I'll have to contact Tech Support.
I have a new Sony 32KV20 with split screen and can monitor Twin pictures simultaneously. This comes in handy for monitoring the DVD985 output vs. other devices side by side. There must be some type of phase shift somewhere, but the DVDR985 is suppose to accept the Component input with or without progressive scan.
So compatibility remains an issue. This may eventually be resolved with software upgrades I don't know. If you talk to Customer Service I found Mr. Lee to be the most knowledgeable about the unit.
This machine is best suited for VHS and TV Recordings to the DVD format resulting in High Quality recordings. The TV Turner is excellent and may have spec's closely to HDTV Set Top Boxes with the end results You'll get the most out of this DVD Tuner/Recorder if you have High Definition TV Monitor Capabilities.
I am not sure if I am willing to keep this version but somehow I feel this is the best on the market considering Price and Category at this time.
Boss Of Doss
2252729
First, the good parts:
1. Playback picture quality is outstanding.
2. Netflix works well - the UI is bit clunky, but no worse than some other implementations I've used.
3. Setup was a snap (and it didn't need a firmware update right away - see my Panasonic review).

Now for the rest:
After playing five discs without issue, I had sound but no picture. I tried swapping HDMI cables & ports, but no luck. Unplugging and plugging it back in solved the issue. I'm very concerned about this long term because of Amazon's return policy (not unreasonable) and the 90-day warranty [clarification on this - Toshiba's automated system said my system was out of warranty based upon the first three characters]. What if next time unplugging it (which isn't convenient) doesn't solve the issue?

It is slow to load a disc and starting playback; I have no comparison other than knowing these devices in general are slow but I wasn't prepared for how long it takes to be sitting back and enjoying a movie.
4102405
I was so excited to get my Samsung HLN507W 50" DLP and the Samsung DVD-HD841. Now that I have had them for a week, I could not be more disappointed. I will start with the good things. The picture. The picture is incredible. I am using the DVI video and optical audio interface for the DVD player and component video/optical audio for the HD Digital Cable. Both look stunning. I do get surround sound from the DVD player with the optical cable. So much for the good stuff.

The audio and picture are not in sync on most of the regular cable channels when listening to the TV speakers. The HD channels seem to be OK. Most of the time. I called Samsung the first day I had the TV and they told me it was a known problem with this model and when can they send someone out to fix it. The local repair guy said the "lip sync kit" (on backorder) has not corrected the problem on other units he has worked on. Even the DVD audio is not quite in sync on the TV speakers.

It was very difficult to get the DVD - DVI picture on the screen. You have to connect the component cables and go through the menu to change to the DVD output, and then complete the process on the DVI output. That took a while to figure out.

The DVD player freezes, then continues, freezes, then continues, freezes, then continues, freezes, then continues, many times on DVD's that play fine on my older players. It is going back tomorrow.

I guess they haven't quite figured out all this new technology. I really hope someone out there is having better luck than me.

I returned the DVD player to Circuit City and got an identical unit. It seems to be working fine.
3216332
This review is not for Four Star Playhouse as such, which is fine, but for the discs themselves and Amazon's misleading description. The product when purchased (and still was last time I checked) advertised as DVDs. However Alpha seems to have taken to the practice of burning their product onto DVD-R. This may have been acceptable if I had purchased  material from Warner Archive or Sony MOD for example, but in the case of a company which generally uses very poor quality source material and dodgy watermarked transfers it is just one more reason not to buy them. And if I had known, I wouldn't have.
3801098
About two weeks ago I purchased Creator NXT PRO discs from Roxio and had no problems with installation. My first task was a direct disc copy from an unencrypted DVD. The software correctly identified the two Blu-Ray disc drives in my HP Envy computer, but would not respond when asked to burn. I next tried to build a hard drive file from an unencrypted DVD and that did not work either. I next tried to copy an unencrypted file to a DVD and that did not work either. Since my computer is very new, I contacted HP and let them take control of my computer to see if something in the computer was causing the software not to function. After much probing, HP concluded that my computer was functioning normally and the problem is with Roxio. You can not talk to a live person in Roxio technical support and I am trying to resolve by email with no results so far. This software is shown to be compatible with Windows 8 and I have no idea if this is the hang up. Buyer beware as you may have the same problems I am experiencing.
3574294
While the blu-ray transfer looks downright organic it's so good, I'm having problems with the picture skipping/freezing/jumping, as well as the chapter header popping up on screen every 2 minutes or so (on two separate blu-ray players). Returned discs to Amazon, got a quick replacement, but it's doing the same thing. I guess we'll see if the third time's a charm.
4072664
Was looking forward to tackling "Sound Editing in Final Cut Studio" Peachpit Press' book by Jeff Sobel but didn't get far. First task is to install the information and media files on the accompanying DVD. I tried (several times) but always get the message: "The Finder can't complete the operation because some data in 'The Blind Date.mov' can't be read or written (error code-36)" I've just written the publishers. Hopefully they'll send me a preplacement DVD or show me how I can download the missing file (1.02 GB in size). If they do I'll accept their apology and the inconvenience, if they don't Amazon gets the book and DVD back and I'll look to places other than Peachpit in the future.
4076374
I too have suffered the same unexplained frustrations with the mini-DVD format errors, disc errors, etc that randomly and unpredictably come with this camera.  I have a DCR DVD-300 which is essentially the same as the 100 and 200 series with a few more options.  I would recommend a mini-DV or solid state format until this technology is perfected.  Early on during my ownership of the camera which has been for over three years, I had a disc get stuck in the camera.  It would not eject due to a format problem.  Sony's only answer was to charge over $200 just to open the camera.  Instead, I purchased a technical repair manual, and removed the disc myself.  Since that time, I've had no fewer than six discs result in format errors or disc errors.  This will happen when you least expect it.  My most recent one happened two weeks ago when my nephew was filming my wedding!  Therefore, no wedding video!  I'm sure I can spend an exorbitant amount to a data recovery service.

Sony should provide a solid data recovery software program with this camera.

The editing software is not user friendly either.  In hindsight, as much as I love the camera when it is working properly, the risk isn't worth the format.  Wait for technology to catch up.

A program called CD Roller will offer help in many cases.
1334564
I had issues playing this on my DVD player, and when I tried to play it on my laptop, it required me to download a separate program in order to view it. I already have Cortana/Window's 10 on my laptop, so it caused an issue with compatibility.
4750654
Installing from the DVD goes through a long period with no indication anything is happening. Technical support says it may take 30-40 minutes with no indication on the status bar. It took my computer about 10 minutes tor the status bar to start moving and another 10 minutes or so to complete installation. Getting the right setting for printing is challenging depending on the printer and paper size used. You can add a signature but when I did so the signature came out in a block the showed the whole paper it was written on. Trying to remove the signature file causes the program to crash. Technical support has been no help in resolving the issue. Even uninstalling the program and using system restore on my Windows 10 PC to a time before installing Card Studio did not remove the flawed signature file. Apparently it is hidden in some unknown folder outside of the program folder. The fonts provided when creating a new text block do not match the same fonts used in existing text. Tech support know of the issue and suggest coping and pasting an existing block and than editing with the text you want. Hard to understand how quality control missed that and also missed the crash when trying to add or remove a signature.  I still rate the SW two+ stars because it does provide a nice variety of stock card and provides unlimited opportunity to import photos and create custom cards for any occasion. I am keeping the SW but am disappointed by the poor SW technical design and quality control. I still hope technical support can find a way to remove the flawed signature file.
3947560
I bought this item for the multi-regional/format function. That works okay.  However, all my DVD+R/RW freeze after 45 minutes. My long MP3's begin to skip and garble after 1 1/2-2 hours of playing.

I spent literally hours on the line with Philips tech support, who were polite, but not very helpful. Finally they suggested I exchange the item for a new one.  I did, but the new one did exactly the same thing.  I tested my DVD-R's on an old Panasonic that I have and on a Pioneer from a neighbor and they worked perfectly.  Needless to say this second one is going back as well. Shame on Philips!