This is getting silly. Why do so many of the panny owners insist on coming out with biased one sided stuff?
"Also, you need to remember that blue-ray machines will support DVD-R but will not support the phillips DVD+R/RW."
Does this really matter? All you need to do is plug your old +rw machine into your new Blue ray machine and copy. And like I said if it's been on telly, it'll be on again. I suppose it could be a problem if you archive a shedload of stuff off the telly.
"How many gripes do you ever hear about the Panny?"
I think I've heard gripes about EVERYTHING on this forum. You also forgot to add the word "yet" - it's less than 6 months old and I have heard gripes about the E-20... The thing that I find funny is how many gripes about the Philips you get from the Panny owners!
"The Panny format bears no resemblance to a Betamax scenario at all."
Are you sure? I'll quote myself to be clear, "a bit like having a betamax in some ways but not in others". The bit that it resembles is that (now concentrate here): If you record off the telly onto a RERECORDABLE media (examples for those not able to follow too well: betamax tape, vhs tape, DVD-RAM, DVD+RW), if you have vhs or DVD+RW, you can lend it to a lot of your mates, if you have betamax or DVD-RAM then you can't lend it to so many mates.
Now do you get the resemblance now???? Is it really so hard to understand?
You could use write once media but you'd have to decide to do this beforehand. If you use -R for everything you could end up buying a hell of a lot of disks. You also wouldn't get all the advantages of DVD-RAM so maybe you should be comparing -R with +RW?
"Linear recording (Philips) just how backwards can that be in todays technology of Hard discs and RAM and all the flexibility they bring."
Seeing as VCR is linear it how can it be a backwards step? The reason for the linearity is C-O-M-P-A-T-A-B-I-L-I-T-Y!
As far as I know, DVD-RAM is NOT quite like a hard disk on an E30. I don't think you can move things around too much or defrag etc. I've read a few complaints about how the editing features are not what was expected.
The thing is, rewritable media is now so cheap, who really cares whether they can recover all the empty space on a disk when it's easier to just shove in a new blank? When RAM disks were 20 quid a pop in October I could see your problem! Maybe that's why so many panny users go on about -r's...
"People have posted that the unreliability of the Philips machines means they cannot use it to replace the VCR; unlike the exceptionally reliable Panny."
Can you really say that the Panny is 100% reliable even though it's not yet a year old? Jumping the gun methinks. I've got a 5 year warranty on my Philips. Supposing your Panny goes "pop" in a year's time?
"Given this, I think it's a little misleading to state that the Panny is akin to Betamax, and perhaps we need to remind ourselves of the old (Philips owned) V2000 format... (grin)"
All formats can play prerecorded disks so no matter what you buy you won't be left with a white elephant. I read that V2000 was supposed to be the best quality format!
BTW I've got philips AND panasonic gear (as well as others) so I've no loyalty to any company.
"- R media is much cheaper than + R."
Are you sure about the "much". Prices are becoming closer and RAM is also getting almost as cheap as +RW.
It could also be irrelevant to some people like me. I've got 15 +rw's and 0 +r's. I've never been comfortable with write once media - you have to get it right first time. How many CDR's have you chucked in the bin? At my work we've got a policy about recycling CDR's because so many are binned.
"Several different manufactures are bringing out -R and RAM recorders, some with hard drives. "
That's true, but several manufactures are bringing out +R and +RW recorders. So what is your point? Sony are bringing out hybrids with both +RW and -RW (not RAM). So maybe THAT's the one to go for...
As for the hard drives at the moment they're over 900 quid and so don't count. If the HS2 had been 400 quid in November I'd have bought one like a shot. But what I really SHOULD have done is buy a TIVO for £100 from Curries before they sold out. Doh!
But don't worry there will be +RW's with hard drives by the end of the summer.
Anyway, the point is that both are good, decide what your priorities are and don't listen too hard to anyone who seems to think that one is really that much better than the other.
Cheers,
Cal.