A couple of interesting items this morning on day 7 of Dell Deals Days.
Garmin Nuvi 360 GPS
There is the very well-rated and proven Garmin Nuvi 360 GPS unit for $349 today only! That is $300 off Dell’s regular price of $649… but in reality, the street price for this amount varies between $400-500.
The good price, free shipping, and hassle-free product support and return history of Dell makes it a nice buy if you’re looking for a solid GPS… and personal travel assistant. Remember that modern GPS units are much more than simply about getting from point A to B…
SanDisk V-Mate Video Memory Card Recorder
Another lesser known, but far more disruptive, gadget being offered is the SanDisk V-Mate Video Memory Card Recorder. It’s listed there today on the right sidebar for $79 down from $129. A quick check of street prices show’s it goes for $90-120… but without the free shipping and Dell service.
SanDisk won the 2007 CES Innovation Award for the V-Mate which is best described as a personal memory card video recorder (whew)… this is not designed to playback video on your large-screen TV.
(Front View of SanDisk V-Mate)
Instead, you can record from TV sources to a portable memory card (just about every format except CompactFlash - see screen shot of connectors below)… to view it on your mobile device - such as a mobile phone, handheld game console, PDA, video music player personal media player or of course… any PC. The quality is not that of TV grade… but it looks great on a mobile device such as a Dell Axim or HP IPAQ.
(Rear View of SanDisk V-Mate)
Hauppauge Computer WinTV HVR-1500 HD TV ExpressCard Recorder & Remote
Some other interesting deals today are the Hauppauge Computer WinTV HVR-1500 ExpressCard HD Recorder for $69.99 down from $139. This device DOES work within Vista Premium (Media Centre) edition according to Hauppauge Vista Compatibility details.
I’m not so crazy about tethering my notebook to a TV / cable input to record shows - the idea of having a portable notebook computer is to … not be tied down? That being said, this has decent performance and rating from users. You’ll need a pretty recent laptop (think dual core processor ideally) … and don’t expect to run 3D games while recording HD (ATSC) television with this card.
Now…. a bit of confusion with this Dell Deal - the page title states that it is the HVR-1500. The description refers to a “WinTV-HVR-1400″ (lower) model. At the bottom of the page, the Manufacturer Part Number 1193 listed corresponds with the numbers for the HVR-1500 on most sites.
Then why is the HVR-1500 no longer listed on the Official Hauppauge Product Support Selection page - me thinks this item is legacy / discontinued.
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2 Comments
It took a while to figure out.
the HVR-1400 is for the European high def standard.
the HVR-1500 is basically the same thing, but for the American ATSC high def standard.
Furthermore there is a basic HVR-1500, and a HVR-1500 kit. The kit includes such things as a portable antenna and a remote to run Windows Media Center (assuming you’re using Vista).
Make sure it’s clear which you’re getting, because there is quite a price difference between the kit and the basic card alone.
If all you’re going to do is plug in your satellite dish or cable to it, you might not need the kit.
Hauppauge doesn’t seem to be very good updating their web site. This is a new item.
Thanks for the tips Randy!