There is always something better on the horizon, personally I am glad I bought my hs2 14 months ago. I know it is now cheaper and newer models have come out, but it still does everything I need and has at least 2000 hours of record time and playback use so far. By the time it is obsolete it should have got down to well under 10p an hour which seems good value to me.
BY the time that one is available to you there will be something else you want, and in the meantime you have had to do without
Im not looking for something better. Just want something that meets my requirements and the current crop are all a compromise in way or another.
All I want is a HDD DVD recorder with componant out and RGB in, that will replace my DVD and VCR. Not too much to ask for. Looks like this will be the standard on the next gen of machines
I agree wholeheartedly with Ken Fowler's comments.
With all electronics, especially AV related ones, manufacturers have a vested interest in bringing out new models with ever growing lists of features to convince the average person that their model is out-of-date. Happiness is just an upgrade away.... and another....and another.....
My ancient (four year old) dvd player still does more than I will ever use and, on my TV, the picture quality is as good as newer 'improved' models of today.
There comes a time when you just have to make a purchase and enjoy it. Whenever that time is, my advice would be to not read anything about forthcoming models for a good while afterwards.
Im not reading the feature list to see what they give above and beyond whats available now. I have a specific set of requirements (that arent uncommon), that have been the basis of any evaluation and all the models available now are a compromise. The HS2 has RAM and RGB in, the pioneer has componant out, the tosh has RAM. I would like a machine that has all three of these but am willing to compromise on the RAM.
Id set my eyes on the Tosh as I wasnt aware there were so many new models that were imminent. It was the cheapest compromise knowing that I would upgrade. Now I know I can make a purchase in the next few months with a model that meets ALL my requirements. And after that no need to upgrade
I agree with you and I agree with ken I faced this dilema also however I decided that I wanted the use of it now and when the new models come out they will be a higher price. In a year we willl probably be looking at blue-ray on the horizon or multi layer disks the first of which are due very soon!
I too am in the same position and was wondering about blu-ray.
But a couple of things to bear in mind:
1) We don't have HD-TV and may not until everyone else has HDx the improved version !
2) The manufacturers have been stating for the last 12 months that they are about to launch blue-ray DVD recorders. This could go on a while longer.
3) The manufacturers may not release the products to non HD regions such as UK for a while as they will believe that no one will buy one. That will leave us buying an import with no useful tuner and iffy warranty.
Proof of point 3 is Panasonic, they do not sell the P42HD screen in the UK as a consumer product, IMO because they think there is no market. (Strange that the Pioneer 434 is HD res !).
That said, thanks for the site, I was just about to buy the Panasonic DMR-E85, I'll wait for a model with a larger HD.
Strange that the USA version of the HS2 had a 100Gb disk.
