By D!ck

If  you've  been  to  my house you'll notice that the TV, Stereo and the
Video  recorder  are  all made by Samsung.  Aside from giving a pleasing
lineup  of  remote controls, I've always found their stuff to be, if not
sparkingly brilliant, then at least pretty damned good.

Model: CI-5052AT
Price: 249.99
Specs: Teletext, OSP, SCART, H/Phone.

A  nice  21-inch  model,  it's looking a bit dated these days when every
other  unit  has  Stereo  sound  and what have you, but it still gives a
bloody  fantastic  picture,  even  on Channel 5 which has notoriosly bad
reception.

Most  stuff  can  be  done from the handset, although for another twenty
quid  I  could  have  had  the fasttext model (doh!), all have on-screen
display  and  there's  slots  for up to 40 channels, plus the SCART.  It
also  provides for single and double-digit selection, so until we get 10
channels  (hah!) I can press 0-9, when we get 10, I can switch it to 01,
02 etc.

Not planning on replacing it just yet.

Model: VIK350
Price: 199.99
Specs: Stereo SCART, Audio Dubb, A/V Out, OSP, LCD Handset.

Cool video, though strangly lacking in the programming range in that you
only  get  four slots and you can't eg record something every day.  This
is  okay  if you've got plenty of tapes or you usually watch some- thing
soon after you've recorded it, but it's still very limiting.

Playback  quality  is  a  bit  duff from the RF connector to the TV, but
SCART  and  AV  outs  are  grade  A, in fact we use those for digitising
because it's so damned good.

This  video  will  also allow you to record the Audio channel completely
independently  of  the Video, so you can compile you home movie and then
stick  a  mellow  music track over the whole thing without having to re-
record the video as well, a nice feature, but not one I've used.

Connected  to  a  Stereo  it will play HiFi stereo videos (like Jurassic
Park)  brilliantly,  almost as good as Nicam, no direct surround support
on it though.

I'm  eventually  planning  to replace this with a nicam model which will
allow  me  to  watch  TV in stereo if I route it through the HiFi, might
even stretch myself and go for Super-VHS.

Model: SCM 9100
Price: 399.99
Specs: 2xTape, 1xCD, 2x60w speakers, surround, presets.

This  thing  is a MONSTER!  The main unit is 360x475x270mm, and with the
record deck sat on top it's certainly an imposing piece of kit.

Crank  it  up  and you'll see why this thing came top of it's class in a
"What HiFi" review:  it's loud, too loud on half volume in fact, and the
sound  quality  is  quite  excellent.   Be  warned,  a "loud" CD such as
"Mr.Boombastic" by Shaggy, will loosen house bricks in their mortar, and
have  the council round as quick as you like, that's on half, I've never
dared to stick it on full.

Again,  most  stuff  is accessible through the remote, although the hand
unit  itself  looks as if it was finished in a rush, it's like they made
it from stock designs instead of starting from scratch, oh well.

Only  1 CD player too, but I never did see the point in having more than
one,  unless  you're  completely  lazy!   Besides,  my PC has a quad- CD
player, so I can rack four CD's in there if I want to be daft!.

Absolutely no plans to replace this, ever!



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