Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Gift Guide: High-Tech Gifts for the Holidays

Aired November 14, 2003 - 10:34   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It is that time of the year, again. Only about 40 shopping days until Christmas. And they are already decking the malls, I'm sure you have seen that, and stocking the stores. If you're looking for some great gift ideas you have come to the right place. Our Daniel Sieberg flipping through the pages of "Consumer Reports" for the top gifts. If you call on Dan you know you are going to get technology, which is fine.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECH CORRESPONDENT: Right. Daryn, you and I talk al the time about technology.

KAGAN: You advise me about technology. It's a one-way conversation.

SIEBERG: No, we talk about. Just a back and forth conversation.

KAGAN: OK. What do you have with DVDs? Let's start with those.

SIEBERG: Yes, sure thing. Speaking of talking to, I talked to the manager editor at "Consumer Reports" about some of the products we've got here. It's in their issue of the best products that out there for gift giving season.

We can start over here with the DVD players. DVD player have come down in price a lot over the years. And the first one we're going to talk about here is the pioneer DV-260 player. Now This one goes for about $80 so obviously the price of DVD players has come down a lot.

Now you're limited to just playing DVDs but if you also want to do some DVD recording that's when you can look at the Panasonic player. Now this one goes up a little bit according to "Consumer Reports." It's going to go for about $550, that DMRE-60 from Panasonic. You can record DVDs.

The thing to watch, Daryn, for is the type of DVD you can use, whether you can rerecord over the same DVD a number of times rather than just recording on it once you can do it a number of different times.

Now what if you still got a lot of VHS movies kicking around and you don't want to replace the VHS player. Well, they've got a DVD and VHS combo. Of course they do. There's lots of them out there.

And the one that "Consumer Reports" looked at it was this one. This is the Panasonic PVD-4743. The numbers don't mean a whole lot. But this one goes for about $160. The one thing to look for, Daryn, actually is on the back of the DVD players because that where the inputs are for when you want to hook it up to different systems. You can see here there are a number of different ones. The key ones to look for if you want real good quality video is S-video or composite video. And the higher-end one here down in the bottom, it has those.

They're kind of hidden and you have to look for it. But those are some of the things you want to look for "Consumer Reports" when you're looking for a DVD player. So that's the DVDs. That the first (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

KAGAN: Not like I'm a little video pirate, but on that one that's the come by can you play the DVD and record on to your VCR?

SIEBERG: You know, we asked the managing editor of "Consumer Reports" that and he doesn't think that you could do that with that one. That's something they're looking at. And also the ability to take one DVD and copy it to another DVD. Of course you can't copy a movie. We're talking about -- copy protected here.

KAGAN: We'd only be copying broadcasts of this show.

SIEBERG: Exactly. Television programs.

KAGAN: So you can have as much CNN as possible.

Let's look at television.

SIEBERG: Yes, speaking of TV. We're going from one acronym to another, from DVD to LCD or liquid crystal displays.

We've got a couple here from Sony that "Consumer Reports" looked at and rated very high. The first one is a 30-inch screen. LCDs, they're obviously a step up from a typical monitor or CRT, cathode ray tube monitor. But they are not quite a plasma. They're somewhere in between.

This one goes for about $5,000. So, you know, if you've got that really rich friend or family member who can buy that for you, that might be something to look at.

But now if you want something a little smaller but still with the LCD imagery, then this one is half that size. It's a 15-inch LCD monitor from Sony, and it goes for about $900. So even less than half the price.

And we've got a couple of movies playing here just to show what it looks like. Newline Cinema's "Lord of the Rings: Two Towers" which we should say is part of CNN's parent company Time Warner. And "Finding Nemo." This is one of the screen savers here. It's a virtual aquarium. So that's from DVD to TV, Daryn.

KAGAN: Well we're going to have to bring you back to talk about digital cameras because I know a lot people are making it from film, which is just so passe, to digital cameras. And also talk about Palm Pilots which is a brand. But what's the generic for Palm Pilot, PDA?

SIEBERG: PDA, yes.

KAGAN: Very good. We'll do that next week. Hang on to the cool stuff, OK?

SIEBERG: You bet.

KAGAN: All right, Daniel. Thank you so much. Daniel Sieberg, looking at the cool stuff from "Consumer Reports."

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





Aired November 14, 2003 - 10:34   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It is that time of the year, again. Only about 40 shopping days until Christmas. And they are already decking the malls, I'm sure you have seen that, and stocking the stores. If you're looking for some great gift ideas you have come to the right place. Our Daniel Sieberg flipping through the pages of "Consumer Reports" for the top gifts. If you call on Dan you know you are going to get technology, which is fine.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECH CORRESPONDENT: Right. Daryn, you and I talk al the time about technology.

KAGAN: You advise me about technology. It's a one-way conversation.

SIEBERG: No, we talk about. Just a back and forth conversation.

KAGAN: OK. What do you have with DVDs? Let's start with those.

SIEBERG: Yes, sure thing. Speaking of talking to, I talked to the manager editor at "Consumer Reports" about some of the products we've got here. It's in their issue of the best products that out there for gift giving season.

We can start over here with the DVD players. DVD player have come down in price a lot over the years. And the first one we're going to talk about here is the pioneer DV-260 player. Now This one goes for about $80 so obviously the price of DVD players has come down a lot.

Now you're limited to just playing DVDs but if you also want to do some DVD recording that's when you can look at the Panasonic player. Now this one goes up a little bit according to "Consumer Reports." It's going to go for about $550, that DMRE-60 from Panasonic. You can record DVDs.

The thing to watch, Daryn, for is the type of DVD you can use, whether you can rerecord over the same DVD a number of times rather than just recording on it once you can do it a number of different times.

Now what if you still got a lot of VHS movies kicking around and you don't want to replace the VHS player. Well, they've got a DVD and VHS combo. Of course they do. There's lots of them out there.

And the one that "Consumer Reports" looked at it was this one. This is the Panasonic PVD-4743. The numbers don't mean a whole lot. But this one goes for about $160. The one thing to look for, Daryn, actually is on the back of the DVD players because that where the inputs are for when you want to hook it up to different systems. You can see here there are a number of different ones. The key ones to look for if you want real good quality video is S-video or composite video. And the higher-end one here down in the bottom, it has those.

They're kind of hidden and you have to look for it. But those are some of the things you want to look for "Consumer Reports" when you're looking for a DVD player. So that's the DVDs. That the first (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

KAGAN: Not like I'm a little video pirate, but on that one that's the come by can you play the DVD and record on to your VCR?

SIEBERG: You know, we asked the managing editor of "Consumer Reports" that and he doesn't think that you could do that with that one. That's something they're looking at. And also the ability to take one DVD and copy it to another DVD. Of course you can't copy a movie. We're talking about -- copy protected here.

KAGAN: We'd only be copying broadcasts of this show.

SIEBERG: Exactly. Television programs.

KAGAN: So you can have as much CNN as possible.

Let's look at television.

SIEBERG: Yes, speaking of TV. We're going from one acronym to another, from DVD to LCD or liquid crystal displays.

We've got a couple here from Sony that "Consumer Reports" looked at and rated very high. The first one is a 30-inch screen. LCDs, they're obviously a step up from a typical monitor or CRT, cathode ray tube monitor. But they are not quite a plasma. They're somewhere in between.

This one goes for about $5,000. So, you know, if you've got that really rich friend or family member who can buy that for you, that might be something to look at.

But now if you want something a little smaller but still with the LCD imagery, then this one is half that size. It's a 15-inch LCD monitor from Sony, and it goes for about $900. So even less than half the price.

And we've got a couple of movies playing here just to show what it looks like. Newline Cinema's "Lord of the Rings: Two Towers" which we should say is part of CNN's parent company Time Warner. And "Finding Nemo." This is one of the screen savers here. It's a virtual aquarium. So that's from DVD to TV, Daryn.

KAGAN: Well we're going to have to bring you back to talk about digital cameras because I know a lot people are making it from film, which is just so passe, to digital cameras. And also talk about Palm Pilots which is a brand. But what's the generic for Palm Pilot, PDA?

SIEBERG: PDA, yes.

KAGAN: Very good. We'll do that next week. Hang on to the cool stuff, OK?

SIEBERG: You bet.

KAGAN: All right, Daniel. Thank you so much. Daniel Sieberg, looking at the cool stuff from "Consumer Reports."

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com