2006 Holiday Gift Guide: Sony DCR-SR100

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Cameras, Handhelds, Home Entertainment, Family, Men, Techies,

Here at Gear Live HQ, we are pretty keen on hard drive-based camcorders. If you aren’t shooting any major productions, these cameras are great in situations where a handheld camera is appropriate. The Sony DCR-SR1000 is a great tapeless camcorder, holding about 7.3 hours of high quality footage on it’s internal drive. You can change the quality of your recording in order to squeeze out over 20 hours of recording capacity from the camcorder. Low light performance is better than other cameras of similar size, as it sports a Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T lens. It also have an onboard mic that records in four directions, allowing you to record in Dolby 5.1 surround sound. The only downside we could find to this one is that it’s a tad on the heavy side at 22.4 ounces.

Price: $1,630

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2006 Holiday Gift Guide: Nintendo Wii

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, Home Entertainment, Video Games, Family, Women, Men, Kids, Techies, Teens,

With Wii, Nintendo seems to be poised to be the talk of the videogame town once again. Wii (pronounced “wee”) doesn’t match up to the PLAYSTATION 3 or Xbox 360 in terms of processing power, but makes up for it by boasting the best library of classic games on the planet, along with what many consider to be the most user-friendly controller ever to grace a home console. The Wii Remote (or Wiimote as it’s affectionately known) has a built-in accelerometer that works with a sensor bar that sits above or below your television. It senses movement and tilt in three dimensions, and even has a speaker for audible feedback directly out of the controller itself along with force feedback. Throw in built-in WiFi, and you have a console that is ready to download classic games from the 80s and 90s, as well as interacting with other Wii owners around the globe.

Price: $249.99 (Compare Prices)

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2006 Holiday Gift Guide: Samsung BD-P1000

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Movies, Family, Techies,

Alright, so if you want Blu-Ray playback this holiday season without the hassle of trying to find a PS3, then you are gonna want to look at the Samsung BD-P1000. This player delivers on all the promises of the Blu-Ray format, including great shadow detail, vibrant colors, and deep blacks. The sound is uncompressed and goes up to 7.1, and is fantastic. The BD-P1000 will also upscale standard DVDs as well as digital images to a high definition progressive scan signal. The bad side? Load times when you first pop in a Blu-Ray movie are a bit slow, averaging about 30 seconds. Still, this one supports 1080p outpout and has both component and HDMI outs - and for $1,000, it’s probably cheaper than you will find the PLAYSTATION 3 selling for on eBay.

Price: $999 (Compare Prices)

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2006 Holiday Gift Guide: Casio Exilim EX-Z700

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Cameras, Features, Family, Techies,

If you are looking for a good pocket camera, the Casio Exilim EX-Z700 should be your hook-up. This 7.2 megapixel bad boy is packed with features that are usable and welcome by just about anyone. We are talking about features like fantastic battery life that allows for up for 460 shots on one charge, along with a whopping 37 scene mode presets. The design is sturdy, and the LCD display is a fantastic wide-screen 2.8-inches. The camera is available in three colors - blue, red, and silver.

Price: $280 (Compare Prices)

Read More | Exilim EX-Z700 Product Page

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