The Yamada Family Chronicles

Advantages: Beautifully animated, entertaining and amusing in places
Disadvantages: Slightly too long - perhaps not to everyone's taste

...at children. Whilst it's easy to considered and dismiss them purely as 'cartoons', they often have great depth and appeal that goes beyond age and as such can be enjoyed by whole family's, children, or even just adults who enjoy "good drawings". 'My Neighbours The Yamadas' is a stylistic move away from the animation usually associated with Studio Ghibli. According to the blurb on the back of the DVD, writer-director Isao Takahata used "?digital production to create the feel of a moving watercolour sketch." The movie is about the lives of the Yamada family, which consists of the mother and father Matsuko and Takashi, their young son and daughter, as well as Matsuko's live-in mother. In some ways, the movie is also a move away from the typical Studio Ghibli style of story telling. Rather than being one long plot, the movie is more a series...

BlueMidget 09.04.2007 · Read review
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Review of My Neighbours The Yamadas (Animated) (DVD)

Girls Aloud - Off The Record (DVD)

Advantages: An insight into a modern day girl group
Disadvantages: Didnt really show you too much, felt like the whole band was holding back something

...Well what can I say,to behonest I was very sceptical about this dvd and about girls aloud in general until i watched this dvd.I was really blown away by the songs,the outfits and just general performance. I felt this dvd from 2006 showed the edgier sound and style of girls aloud,the whole dvd had a more mature sound and feel to it that I was expecting. This dvd really provided an insight into girls aloud,and I have to say they were all completely different to what I was expecting,they were actually down to earth! The 6 episodes are packed with what goes on behind the scenes with the band members,what they go through,where and when,it shows there cometimes hectic lifes,through both a personal more private perspective and work perspective. Even though this dvd did not cover a massive period of time (april to may ish time 2006),it still...

lauzdoors 29.08.2008 · Read review
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Review of Girls Aloud - Off The Record (DVD)

* Girls On The Record *

Advantages: Fans will love it!
Disadvantages: None!

...Girls Aloud are a British girlband consisting of five members ; Nadine Coyle , Cheryl Cole , Sarah Harding , Nicola Roberts and Kimberly Walsh. Girls Aloud were formed on the reality television show ; Popstars The Rivals in 2002. Since then they have become a huge success. To date they have had eighteen top ten singles , including three number ones. Their style of music consists of pop and electro pop. Girls Aloud : Off The Record was actually a six-part series that Girls Aloud recorded for E4. The series was then released on DVD in the United Kingdom in 2006. The show comes under the reality-tv genre. The show follows Girls Aloud on their day to day life as part of one of Britian's top girl bands.. It wasn't until recently that I knew about this DVD when I saw it sitting on a shelf in Woolworths for £6. I enjoyed watching this...

xdonzx 30.12.2008 · Read review
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Review of Girls Aloud - Off The Record (DVD)

Unusual teen flick-Empire Records

Advantages: Quirky, fun and great soundtrack
Disadvantages: Predictable and a little sappy on occasions

...I first watched Empire records as a teenager and thought it was one of the best films ever made. Now nostalgia can make me watch it again and again and although I have down-graded it somewhat from 'World's Greatest Movie', I still feel that this is a good film about young adult life and deserves to be a teen classic. The film is about a group of teenagers who work in an independent record store (called Empire Records) run by Joe. The story opens with one of the employees, Lucas, discovereidng that the store is not making enough money and may be sold to a chain called Music Town. To try and save the shop he takes the day's takings and tries to win gambling in Atlantic City but ends up losing it all. Empire Records now in serious danger of having to be sold to the chain, the film follows one day in the life of the store and it's employees...

flyingllamas 29.06.2009 · Read review
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Review of Empire Records (DVD)

Yamada DVX-6700

Advantages: It plays EVERYTHING
Disadvantages: Cheap construction

...completely miss the point. Most are familiar with the now ubiquitous DVD one might rent from Blockbuster, buy in Virgin or order from Amazon ? but these are not the only digital formats you might encounter. The first complication is for foreign DVDs (i.e. ones which were intended for a region other than Europe) at which many players stumble ? I?m pleased to report that the Yamada has no problem ? and plays DVDs intended for any regional market without any fuss. DVDs are recorded in a compressed digital format called MPEG2 ? which is fine with standard DVD media with a capacity of about 5Gb, however this is not the only prevalent modern digital format. MPEG4 is a new compressed format which encodes digital video in a more efficient way? this new technology is implemented in two different, common ?codecs? (coder/decoders) ? one called Div...

bristol_steve 16.02.2005 · Read review
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Review of Yamada DVX 6700

* Girls Aloud On The Record *

Advantages: GA Must Have , Entertaining
Disadvantages: Becomes A Bit Repetitive

...Girls Aloud are a British girlband consisting of five members ; Nadine Coyle , Cheryl Cole , Sarah Harding , Nicola Roberts and Kimberly Walsh. Girls Aloud were formed on the reality television show ; Popstars The Rivals in 2002. Since then they have become a huge success. To date they have had eighteen top ten singles , including three number ones. Their style of music consists of pop and electro pop. Girls Aloud : Off The Record was actually a six-part series that Girls Aloud recorded for E4. The series was then released on DVD in the United Kingdom in 2006. The show comes under the reality-tv genre. The show follows Girls Aloud on their day to day life as part of one of Britian's top girl bands.. It wasn't until recently that I knew about this DVD when I saw it sitting on a shelf in Woolworths for £6. I enjoyed watching this...

xdonzx 15.10.2008 (16.10.2008) · Read review
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Review of Girls Aloud - Off The Record (DVD) (DVD)

Freecome DVD RW Recorder USB 2.0

Advantages: ummmmm
Disadvantages: Doesn't work very well, slow, intermitently recognises disks, poor back up service, need I go on?

...I ordered my Freecom DVD Recorder LS USB 2.0 after my CD/DVD drive packed up on my 15 month old HP Desktop. I wanted it mainly to load CD ROM and burn DVD's from movies already converted to DVD format on my hard drive. Being that my PC had no disk drive I relied upon this external drive to load the bundled DVD burning software (Roxio 9). This took several days and many attempts. Then I tried burning my first DVD. After taking 3 hours to do a task that previously took about 30 minutes, this recorder produced a disc that no dvd player in my home recognised (and I have 4). I found the user interface very unfriendly and it simply didn't work. Needles to say, I'll be getting a refund!...

RMcCartyhy 16.06.2008 (15.06.2008) · Read review
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Review of Freecom DVD RW Recorder LS USB 2.0

Sometimes small is beautiful with DVD players

Advantages: Size, price, performance, quality
Disadvantages: little green light

...I have just gone out to buy this DVD player. I needed one just to use in the bedroom so didnt want to spend loads of money on it. I spoke to a friend who recommended the Yamada 2600 dvd player, he said he had purchased one over a year ago and was well pleased with his. I had purchased a cheapy player from Asda (pacific model) not too long back but the picture kept breaking up because the disk kept sticking. This is a common fault with cheap players, the mechanism is just no good and its filled with cheap components. Anyway Asda gave me my money back with their no quibble guarantee and so I went to buy this player from Richer Sounds where I spend most of my time and money these days!!!!. I could not believe the technical specifications - - Multi-region dvd player - Dolby Digital & DTS SPDIF Digital out - Dolby Down-Mix dual...

stelladrinker 14.12.2004 · Read review
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Review of Yamada DVD 2600

YAMADA DVX 6600

Advantages: cheap and plays 99% movie format
Disadvantages: nothing

...I bought my Yamada DVX 6600 last year at around £70, this was when DVX dvd players were starting to be used. I'm sorry but i cannot remember where i purchased my player from but it was from a online shop off the net, so i guess they are easy to find. Well, what can't the Yamada play?? i don't know because my Yamada can play everything ive tried, from dvd's, vcd's, jpegs, wma, xvid, dvx. The Yamada is supposed to play 99% of movie fromats but up to now mine has played 100%. The Yamada is a stylish silver unit that is slim and easy to function, and has the caperbility to play 5.1 surround sound, with the correct speakers of course. Comes with a remote control that you can change various functions such as PAL, NTSC, screen size, volume control etc. ITs easy to install just basically plug a scart lead into the unit and into your tv...

silkyuk9 14.04.2006 · Read review
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Review of Yamada DVX 6600

Combined DVD Recorder and VCR

Advantages: Seems to do everything the maker claims
Disadvantages: hav'nt found one yet

...I have recently purchased the Toshiba D-VR16SB combo unit, and am initially very pleased with it. It is a neat looking unit, and I found the initial connecting and set up relatively easy.The unit has an auto tune facility to find the terrestial TV channels, and scart connection for satellite, and facilities are there for s video or audio/video cables if required. For DVD recording it has a choice of six modes, giving up toa max of 600 minutes on a 12cm DVD disc, down to the highest quality level of recording, giving 60 mins of very high quality.I have used the recorder on the standard setting, which gives 120 mins at a fairly good quality level. You can use DVD RW disc, which you can wipe and reuse, or normal discs which you finalise, and they can then be played on any DVD player. If you wish to record onto Video tape, then the VCR...

johnboycoastie 11.07.2006 (12.07.2006) · Read review
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Review of Toshiba D-VR16SB DVD Recorder/VCR Combo