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Boxee Box Review

Hey Everyone, I have been playing with my boxee box for a few hours so I figured I would put up a review of what I have experienced so far.
First the good:

I love the size/shape and build of the physical box - some people don't like the shape, but I like the creativeness. I LOVE the remote - it's simple and to the point and the QWERTY on the back is a great touch. Only complaint is I wish it was backlit and maybe there was a dedicated home and menu button since the "menu" button acts as a back button more than anything and there is no home button. I love how easy it was to get my video files recognized and working flawlessly - now let me say that I do not use any BD ISO's so I cannot confirm nor deny there is an issue with that. But all my DVD rips in many different formats played back flawlessly.

I love that you can just type in and it automatically brings up the web/search bar which is a nice touch to find things fast. It works in a lot of apps but not all and especially not while viewing your own media.
Content Content Content. There is so much content on this thing it's amazing! I haven't even used 1/4 of the apps on it yet, just the main ones to see how they worked and overall they work well. The system itself boots up pretty quick (under a minute easily) and loads right into the main menu which is simplified now due to 1.0.

Now on to the bad...and unfortunately there is a lot of bad.

First, I like others am not a fan of the 1.0 interface. I get that its supposed to easy and simplified but by doing that it kind of lost some of the boxee design charm that was there. I hope they either bring back the old interface or tweak the hell out of the new one.

the webkit browser is pretty bad. It browses to pages well but its hard as hell to navigate. There is a mouse cursor and you use your error keys to move it - takes forever! I have no idea why its not like google chrome is on a laptop, all you use is arrow keys and it works flawlessly. The other issue is webpages are WAY too small to view - it loads the whole page in view. A zoom shortcut on the remote would be key here similar to double tapping on a mobile phone.

One of the things I hate most about this is how poorly it handles some of the video apps. For example, I decided to try to load an episode of Entourage through spike tv that was found through browsing popular TV shows in the UI. All it does is load spike.com and the specific page with that video - it does autoplay but on a webpage so now you either have to move the mouse cursor to enlarge it to full screen or if you hit the menu button it brings up the web bar where you can click on to make it full screen - is it me or shouldn't this be DEFAULT? If I want to watch entourage I don't want to see spiktvs website, I want to see entourage in full screen, seamlessly. After I make it full screen I see white bars on the bottom and right of the screen which is annoying. I tried a few video apps such as MTV and its the same story although at full screen it fits better.

I hate I can't just go to the main menu while a video is still in the background. That was one of the things I loved about the old UI is navigating through everything was much easier. To go to the main menu you have to keep hitting the back or menu button until you back pedal all the way through - its pretty bad.
Missing content - Justin.TV works through the web but there is no app. Vudu is non functional yet and we all know about hulu and netflix which are bummers but at least will be there eventually.
So all in all for my needs the box is suitable since my main concern was a good way to organize and watch my video files and have some access to online content. If you are an online content power user you will most likely be disappointed with the current version.
Now some of my issues could very well have solutions that I don't know about yet, so if thats the case please let me know of them and I will gladly re-edit my review - but for now this is what I see and how I feel.
I am definitely a fan of the box and boxee.
Boxee definitely has the right foot forward they just need to make some leaps to kick it into full gear.

Perspective: What's the deal with Netflix?

So you're thinking about trying out online movie rentals, but you're just not quite sure? Let me offer you my perspective, in case that helps. (And by the way, there are other online movie rental services out there that may be just as good or perhaps even better than Netflix. I really have no specific experience with them, however, so my "Perspective" will focus exclusively on Netflix.)

I've been using Netflix for about 6 months now. Like most things, it has it's pros and cons (which I'll describe in more detail in just a moment). But what's interesting about Netflix, is that it will work very well for some people -- but not so well for others. It depends a lot on what type of movie watcher you are. Do you watch a lot of movies-- often less-known ones, and don't have easy access to a rental store? Netflix is probably for you. If you only watch an occasional movie-- usually in the "spur of the moment"-- then save your money and stick with your traditional brick and mortar rental store.

So how did I arrive at this conclusion? Well, let's start with some of the Netflix pros and cons.

Pros:

1. Netflix has a fabulous selection

They claim they to have over 40,000 titles -- and I'm inclined to believe them. I've yet to come across a (published) movie that they don't have. Blockbuster online claims to have a similar amount, so they might be a reasonable choice in this regard as well. But one thing is for sure -- your local rental store won't have 40,000 titles on the shelf.

2. Netflix offers a number of real conveniences

The convenience Netflix offers comes in a variety of forms:

• You don't have to go out to a store to rent the movie
• You don't have to worry about when it needs to go back -- it never does
• You can take as much time as you want browsing movies from home via the web

Definitely some advantages there. The whole system works on your time (with two caveats-- mail delivery and throttling -- that I'll talk about in the "Cons" section) which offers you a lot of freedom.

3. Delivery time isn't too bad for a Postal Service delivery

Yes, you do need to wait for the post office to deliver your movies (more about this in the "Cons") but Netflix has got a pretty good system for mitigating the wait time. Netflix has a number of distribution centers located around the country -- and they're smart enough to send you your movie from this one closest to your address. This helps keep the "wait time" to a minimum. In my particular case, I can usually get a movie from Netflix within two days.

It's worth noting that they will periodically ship you a movie from a different distribution center (and hence the wait is a little longer). There are a couple possible reasons for this (and I'm only speculating) -- but it could be a result of low inventory on some of the less popular titles (hence not all centers stock all titles). Likewise, it might be a way for them to balance their inventory -- that is, if your local distribution center has already sent out all of it's copies of a particular title -- Netflix can still send you one from a different center that does have a copy in stock -- and you consequently won't have to wait. That's a pretty neat trick -- especially when you compare it what happens at a traditional rental store.

4. The web site movie management offers some distinct advantages -- including recommendations and queuing

For one, it'll make recommendations to you based on the movies you've rented and the movies you rated. The recommendations aren't always perfect, but it's at least a "good start" if you're not sure what to rent.

The online queue system is nice too -- especially for forgetful people like myself. How many times have I said to myself "oh I love that movie, I got to remember to rent it" -- but when I get to the movie store, I can NEVER remember the title. With Netflix, if a movie pops into your head, you simply add it to your queue. Next time you're ready to get another movie -- no need to remember -- Netflix already knows you want to see it.

5. The price -- under some conditions -- isn't bad

This could be a "pro" or a "con", depending upon how many movies you generally watch. The going rate at Netflix is something like $17.99 a month for 3 movies out at a time. If you assume you're watching 3 a week -- that's roughly $1.30 per movie -- which is pretty good and beats any rental store I've ever used. However, it's obvious if you're not averaging 3 a week -- the per-movie price starts to creep up -- and it's not long before the deal isn't so good.

6. Netflix has some "little extras"

Nothing huge, but there are some little extras that are fun. For one thing, you can connect with other friends that are using Netflix through the GUI. That is, you can see what they've rented recently, what their favorite movies are, and which movies they couldn't stand. It's easy to send them a recommendation, and vice versa.

Other extras include:

• Check out Roger Ebert's review (or some other famous reviewers) of a movie before you rent it
• See how the Netflix community has rated the movie
• Watch a 30 second preview
• Put movies that aren't release yet in a "saved" queue -- which will automatically move to your regular queue as soon as its released

Cons:

1. No instant gratification

This one is probably obvious. If you had a tough day at work, and think to yourself "I'd love to go home and watch 'Animal House'" tonight -- you're out of luck. At best you're looking at a two day turn-around. This is the one big advantage a regular movie store membership has over Netflix.

2. There's room for improvement in the web interface

As you can see from the "pros" -- there's plenty of good things to say about the Netflix web interface. However, there is something about it that feels a little bit -- how shall I say -- "old school". As long as Netflix has been around, I would have expected something a little sexier. So if anyone from Netflix is reading this, here are some suggestions:

• Give me better queue management tools -- like being able to resort the queue by rating.
• Offer something fancier than just a "first in first out" queue. For example, how about a way I can set the system to make sure I always have one comedy, one drama, and one foreign film at all times?
• Offer some better browse capabilities. Browsing by genre is fine -- but there are a lot of other ways to cut and slice the data that would really be useful -- and offer a distinct competitive advantage over movie stores -- not to mention other online rental services.

3. Netflix doesn't offer any (ahem) adult choices

Ok, ok, ok. I understand that there are lots of issues here. You have to make sure your patrons are over 18. You have to make sure you don't damage the Netflix brand. You have to make sure your prepared for various legal issues. But I can't help but think that (if approached carefully) these concerns could be handled. The end result would be a lot more business -- and the customer would have a lot more choices.

4. THROTTLING!

At the present time, I must admit that I'm just speculating. But I have some emperical data that suggests Netflix will throttle you, if your rental rate is too high. In other words, if you watch all your movies the same day you get them -- and drop them back in the mail the next day -- it won't be long before you'll notice that the Netflix delivery time starts to go up. As a consequence, the total number of movies you can watch in any given period goes way down. The motivation here is fairly obvious -- if you are able to rent more than 20 or so movies a month -- Netflix is going to lose money on the deal. After all, they're paying all the shipping charges. So to protect against that, they just start taking their time if your rental rate is too high. (See this for an interesting utility to check for throttling for those of you that already have Netflix.)

Like I said, this is just the sense I get based on my rentals. (And by the way, if you take a week or two off from watching -- all of a sudden they're back up to impressive delivery speeds. Hmmmmm.) I plan on collecting some real data on this issue, and posting another article when all of the facts are in. Others may be doing this as well. This has been a fairly hot topic is some newsgroups I've read. Standby for more on this subject...

Conclusion:

So at the end of the day, what do really think? Well, overall I think Netflix has a very compelling product and (for the most part) offers a terrific service. Sure, they have their quirks-- and if you're not the type of person to watch movies on a fairly regular basis, then it might not be worth the money to you. But if you do watch movies pretty regularly... and if you like to check out some of the less mainstream movies from time to time, Netflix is for you. It's very convenient, and offers a number of cool extras that (at least in my eyes) outweighs the few downsides.

And don't forget -- the first month is free, so you don't have much to lose.

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Rumor: Xbox 360, PS3, and Nintendo Revolution comparison

Console Specification Matrix (Updated)

The next generation game consoles wars are on again and we figured we post a side-by-side system specification comparison.  The Sony PS3 appears to be the most powered system of the three based on the initial specs, but it's to early to really say until the production system are released.  Take note that the specs haven't been finalized by any of the respective console companies, but as new information is available we will update this matrix. So check back often. 

Next Generation Game Consoles
Xbox 360	PS3	Revolution
Release Date
Q4 2005	2006	2006
CPU
Custom IBM PowerPC-based CPU Three symmetrical cores running at 3.2 GHz each Two hardware threads per core; six hardware threads total VMX-128 vector unit per core; three total 128 VMX-128 registers per hardware thread 1 MB L2 cache	Cell Processor PowerPC-base Core @3.2GHz 1 VMX vector unit per core 512KB L2 cache 7 x SPE @3.2GHz 7 x 128b 128 SIMD GPRs 7 x 256KB SRAM for SPE * 1 of 8 SPEs reserved for redundancy total floating point performance: 218 GFLOPS	Custom-built IBM CPU, codenamed Broadway; speed and architecture undetermined at this time
GPU (Video)
Custom ATI Graphics Processor 10 MB of embedded DRAM 48-way parallel floating-point dynamically scheduled shader pipelines Unified shader architecture	RSX @550MHz 256 MB of 700MHz GDDR3 Full HD (up to 1080p) x 2 channels Multi-way programmable parallel floating point shader pipeline	Custom -built ATI-GPU, codenamed Hollywood; speed and architecture undetermined at this time
Polygon Performance
500 million triangles per second
Pixel Fill Rate
16 gigasamples per second fill rate using 4x MSAA
Shader Performance
48 billion shader operations per second
Memory
512 MB of 700 MHz GDDR3 RAM Unified memory architecture	256 MB of 3.2GHz XDR  RAM	MoSys -developed 1T-SRAM solution; unknown amount of memory at this time
Memory Bandwidth
22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth 256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM 21.6 GB/s front-side bus	Main RAM 25.6GB/s VRAM 22.4GB/s RSX 20GB/s (write) + 15GB/s (read) SB< 2.5GB/s (write) + 2.5GB/s (read)
Overall System Floating-Point Performance
1 TFLOPS	2 TFLOPS
Storage
Detachable and upgradeable 20GB hard drive 12x dual-layer DVD-ROM Memory Unit support starting at 64 MB	Detachable 2.5" hard drive slot x 1	Two front slots for 512 MB flash memory, likely SD Card compatible
I/O
Support for up to four wireless game controllers Three USB 2.0 ports Two memory unit slots	USB Front x 4, Rear x 2 (USB2.0) Memory Stick standard/Duo, PRO x 1 SD standard/mini x 1 CompactFlash (Type I, II) x 1	Two USB 2.0 ports located on the rear of the system
Networking
Instant, out-of-the-box access to Xbox Live features with broadband service, including Xbox Live Marketplace for downloadable content, gamer profile for digital identity, and voice chat to talk to friends while playing games, watching movies, or listening to music Built-in Ethernet port Wi-Fi ready: 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g Video camera ready	Ethernet (10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T) x 3 (input x 1 + output x 2) Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 b/g Bluetooth 2.0 (EDR) Bluetooth (up to 7) USB 2.0 (wired) Wi-Fi (PSP)	No Ethernet jack; Revolution connects to the Internet using 802.11b and 802.11g Wi-Fi wireless Downloadable NES, SNES, and N64 games (emulation)
Digital Media Support
Support for DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 CD, JPEG Photo CD Ability to stream media from portable music devices, digital cameras and Windows XP-based PCs Ability to rip music to the Xbox 360 hard drive Custom playlists in every game Built-in Media Center Extender for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Interactive, full-screen 3-D visualizers	CD PlayStation CD-ROM, PlayStation 2 CD-ROM, CD-DA, CD-DA (ROM), CD-R, CD-RW, SACD, SACD Hybrid (CD layer), SACD HD, DualDisc, DualDisc (audio side), DualDisc (DVD side) DVD: PlayStation 2 DVD-ROM, PlayStation 3 DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW Blu-ray Disc: PlayStation 3 BD-ROM, BD-Video, BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-RE	Slot - loading drive with stylized blue light 3-inch, 1.5 GB capacity Game Cube Disc DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW
High-Definition Game Support
All games supported at 16:9, 720p, and 1080i, anti-aliasing Standard-definition and high-definition video output supported	Screen size: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p HDMI: HDMI out x 2 Analog: AV MULTI OUT x 1
Audio
Dolby 5.1ch, DTS Supports 48KHz 16-bit audio 320 independent decompression channels 32-bit audio processing Over 256 audio channels	Dolby 5.1ch, DTS, LPCM, etc. (Cell- base processing) Digital audio: DIGITAL OUT (OPTICAL) x 1	Component / digital out located on the rear of the system
Physical Specs
Height: 83 mm Width: 309 mm Depth: 258 mm Weight: 7.7 lbs.
System Orientation
Stands vertically or horizontally		Stands vertically or horizontally
Miscellaneous
Customizable Face Plates Interchangeable to personalize the console		Stylized shell about the thickness of three DVD cases stacked flatly on top of each other May come in five different colors including a sleek, glossy black and  white

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Review: Polaroid PDV-1002A Portable DVD

Introduction

The first question you're probably asking is: Do I really need one of these things? After all, you already probably have two or more DVD players at home. And if you want to catch a movie on the move, the laptop should fit the bill, right? Perhaps. But I quickly realized after I had a mobile DVD player, it really comes in handy- and has a number of advantages over other DVD players. For one thing, if you have kids and are going on a long trip - the mobile DVD player can be a life saver. I've tried using a laptop for that purpose, but it doesn't really work- it slides all over the car, its hard to get the screen at a good angle for the backseat, it makes a lot of noise, and the batteries dry up in about two hours. Overall, it's just not very convenient. But here's the best part - its not just for the kids. It works well when you're stuck in the car waiting for somebody. Or for the outdoor-types, it's great for camping. You can also plug it into a regular-sized tv, so it would work well when you're stuck in a hotel room. Ok, so it's a nice thing to have. So let's talk about the product itself.

Overview

The Polaroid PDV-1002A is a 10" portable DVD player. It plays a variety of different types of discs, and can be powered via battery, car cigarette lighter, or standard power outlet. It's very light and compact, and handles shock and vibration very well. It has built-in stereo speakers, or two earphone jacks. It has all the normal DVD functions, although some can only be accessed via the remote control.

Features

• 10.2" LCD widescreen (16:9)
• rotating screen (180 degrees)
• supports DVD, CD, MP3, VCD, SVCD, JPEG
• built in stereo speakers
• dual headphone jacks
• built-in Dolby Digital decoder
• remote control
• detachable rechargeable battery
• car power adapter
• standard AC100-240V power adapter
• travel case
• option for a/v "out"

Getting Started

Firing it up

The first thing I noticed is how light this little baby is (1.5 kg with battery, to be exact). Very compact as well-267mm x 175mm x 45mm (again, with battery). As far as DVD players go, pretty sexy I'd say. So I'm anxious to pop in my first DVD and see how things go, but I managed to use some restraint - and actually cracked open the manual first. I quickly discovered my primary complaint with the player - power management. For starters, it offered the following warnings:

• Do not use player until you have fully charged the battery.
• Do not charge the battery until it is fully discharged.

But my battery showed up with half a charge! So what the heck am I supposed to do with that? That might not have been so bad, but there were some more rather inconvenient warnings:

• Do not leave battery attached when using car adaptor as a power source
• Do not connect unit to the car adapter when starting the car
• Unnecessary charging reduces the battery life
• Never charge the battery for more than 8 hours

Way, way too many rules for me! I can't keep track of all that - I want the device to figure out what to do with the power I give it. I want to be able to charge the battery for 5 minutes, or 5 days.

Ok, so the battery management leaves a little something to be desired. Fortunately-with the battery aside - the Polaroid PDV player is still pretty impressive.

So I plugged it into the wall, popped in a DVD, and fired it up. Unlike your average laptop, it starts up and starts playing very, very quickly- which is nice. The picture is quite good, and the sound isn't bad either, given the size of the speakers. (And by the way - if you have a young child - you're going to want to use the speakers. Young kids (based on my experience at least) don't know what to make of earphones. ) The ten inch screen is definitely nice. I've watched a movie on the Polaroid seven inch screen in the past - and those extra inches make for a much more enjoyable viewing.

Next up, was a car trial. Getting the car case hooked up was a little tricky - and doesn't work very well if your headrests are rounded. Nonetheless, with a little patience it works ok. You can tell this is not where Polaroid focused much effort - but just as well. There are plenty of car carriers that can be purchased separately, so if it's a big problem for your vehicle, you can invest $30 or so and get one that's much better. Once I get driving, I'm impressed by how well the player handles bumps. I live on a dirt road that is full of potholes, so if it was going to skip, I would have seen it quickly.

Conclusion

So is it worth $300 bucks to buy a 10" portable DVD player? My opinion-absolutely. And the Polaroid PDV-1002A is a great one to get. The picture quality is excellent. The sound quality is excellent. It plays a variety of different disc types. It's lightweight, and very portable. It comes with a carcase and car power adapter, so it's ready for the road. It handles bumpy conditions with no trouble. And when you get to your destination, you can take it with you for a comedy at your hotel, or a drama in your tent.

Pros:

• Good quality picture and audio
• Comes with all the extras you'll need
• Handles many different disc protocols
• Relatively inexpensive
• 10 inch widescreen is nice -- especially compared to the 7 inch model

Cons:

• Battery power management isn't a no brainer
• Car case works, but it could use some improvements
• Switching discs requires you to pull the player out of the case

If you're interested in getting one, don't forget to consider FatWallet for a small discount. I purchased mine via CircuitCity -- and got 2% back thanks to FatWallet.

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Review: M-Audio Fast Track USB

Introduction

Like most young adolescent males I fantasized about being a rock star and unlike many I didn’t buy the $200 electric guitar package from the mall. Well, not until I was well into my thirties. It only took 20 years for me to finally pick up a guitar and start some lessons at the mall. Let me start by saying the lesson you get at the mall are awesome. They’ll teach you all the classics like, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", "Marry Had a Little Lamb", and if you stick around for more than 2 weeks you might even learn a couple riffs from "Smoke on the Water". Once you’ve mastered playing the guitar live (usually takes about 2 weeks), you are going to want to immortalize yourself. That’s right! I’m talking about recording the songs you’ve learned at the mall, so you can listen to them over and over. So how do you go about recording "twinkle twinkle little star"? Well, if you’re a geek like me then you are going to want to record it onto your computer. I did some research and I found a rather inexpensive USB Audio interface that will do the job. I’m talking about the M-Audio Fast Track USB Audio Interface.  Here are my findings with a quick overview:

Overview

You might be wondering exactly what the M-Audio Fast Track USB Audio interface is and why would someone one need it, especially if your computer already has a sound card.  The Fast Track USB is a special audio interface with amplified line-in inputs.  It is possible to connect your electric guitar directly into your computer's sound card through the line-in input with an adapter (1/8" to 1/4" converter), but because an electric guitar is passive you need power to amplify the guitar pickups and most likely your computer's line-in doesn't provide that power.  There are couple other ways to work around this problem, but are out of the scope of this review. 

Features

• easy to connect and use
• professional 24-bit/48kHz sound
• dynamic microphone input (XLR) with gain control and signal LEDs
• switchable instrument/line input (1/4”)
• stereo headphone output (1/8”)
• stereo output jacks (RCA)
• level control for headphones and main outputs
• USB bus-powered
• compatible with GarageBand and most other music software
• USB class compliant (OS X 10.3.5 and higher) for plug-and-play operation
• direct hardware monitoring for synchronized overdubs
• mono switch sends input signal equally to left and right channels
• includes GT Player Express software

What's in the box

• Fast Track USB audio interface
• M-Audio Driver CD (includes driver installation software)
• One (1) standard USB cable
• User's Guide and warranty card

Getting Started

Hooking things up

I decided to hook up the Fast Track USB up to my PC first (2.6ghz running Windows XP) . The hook up was super easy. I installed the driver from the CD, plugged the supplied USB cable into the Fast Track and into my PC, then I followed up by installing the GT Player Express software that came with the unit. The moment of truth came when I plugged my electric guitar into 1/4" line-in input in the back of the unit and fired up the software. I belted out a G chord and then a C chord, but I instantaneously became nauseated with latency between me playing the chord and the time it came out of the computer's attached speakers. I fiddled with it for about an hour and finally raised the white flag. The reason I gave up so quickly was my original goal was to hook this up to my Mac and use it with GarageBand. So I went through the same hook up procedure with my Mac Mini, but the main difference was, no driver was needed. Mac OS X had the driver built-in, joy!

Testing it out

GT Player Express software

So once everything was hooked up I fired up the GT Player Express software on the Mac (Yep it runs on both platforms) and attempted the same test as I did when I had the Fast Track hooked up to the PC. I fired a G chord followed by a C chord; not surprisingly it worked, zero latency (or zero perceived latency). An interesting side-note is that the supplied software has built-in effects with it and they sound better than I expected. I own a Korg PX-4 and the distortion effect supplied with GT Player sounds better than my dedicated effects processor. But I digress!

GT Player Express

GarageBand

If you've got a Mac then you are probably familiar Apple's GarageBand. For those that don't have a Mac or are not familiar with GarageBand, it is a multi-track recording software package that allows you to record, edit, and mix audio tracks. Unfortunately it's only available on the Macintosh, but for those with PCs there are some comparable software packages out there. Because I have a Mac I'm using GarageBand to record and mix my incredible guitar masterpieces. It was time for me to record a song. So, I launched GarageBand, created a new project called "My Song" (how original of me), added a real instrument track, set the track to monitor out (So I can hear myself playing) and laid down my rhythm guitar track. Next I added another real instrument track and laid down my smoking lead guitar track. Click to hear my totally sweet song :MySong.mp3

GarageBand

Audio

The Fast Track USB allows you to connect both a Microphone through XLR input and an Electric guitar through the 1/4" line-in input. I wasn't able to test the Microphone recording capabilities of the Fast Track, because I don't own a microphone and even more importantly I didn't want to because my singing voice is crap. So consider it a blessing <grin>. The recording audio quality of the Fast Track USB is surprisingly good considering the price point. I wouldn't recommend it for serious or professional musicians (neither which I am), but for the casual or financially challenged musician the Fast Track is a good inexpensive solution. For the more serious musician you might consider stepping up to the M-Audio FireWire Solo.

Conclusion

If you didn't pickup on the subtle sarcasm, I'm no professional musician I'm not even an amateur musician. I would consider myself more of a hobbyist. That being said this review is written in that context. If you are looking for an inexpensive way to record your electric guitar on your PC or Mac then you won't be disappointed with the M-Audio Fast Track USB. For those with a PC it might take a bit more configuration to get the Fast Track working correctly without latency. I suspect if I devoted a bit more time I could have solved my PC latency problems (For the record many people do use the Fast Track on a PC and do not have any problems), but since my intent was to connect it to my Mac I quickly gave up. I only have one issue with this device I wish that the line-in input was a bit more amplified and that there was a way to control the level directly on the device. I've read a work around for this short-coming by buying an 1/4" to XLR adaptor and connecting your Guitar through the Microphone XLR connector on the Fast Track USB. This will allow you to control the input level for your Guitar directly from the device.

Pros:

• Easy to Install (At least on a Mac)
• Good Audio Quality
• Cool blue light (what can I say)
• Inexpensive
• Can record both Microphone and Guitar simultaneously

Cons:

• No 1/4" line-in input level control on unit

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