Dear Walmart: We Need a HDD/BRD/DVD Recorder in North America! - Page 4

I reread that (generic/boilerplate) reply a few times. It seems as if a bean counting team had a hand in writing it,especially this:"Each comment, concern and suggestion is very important to us because it gives us the opportunity to evaluate the various aspects of our business." That could be taken as: "We see an increase in demand therefore we raised the prices and we'll keep the supply limited (or seemingly so) to keep demand up."
I'm cynical,too...I canceled my order from Walmart for a 515 today. I am happy enough with my 513 and won't overpay for the 515.
My apologies if I'm off topic;I did it this time to reply to other posts. I will try not to do it any more if it's frowned upon.

My brother and I have THREE SV2000's,that won't power up.I lost my two DVDr's in 2010 ,due to as power outage.they were both great,mine DVD record only.Brother's is DVD/VCR combo.HELP us GIVE your Stock a "BOOST"!!

What's all this "North America" stuff? We never got the hard drive recorders in Canada. I was always hoping but nothing ever materialized. Was told it would not be viable for the Canadian market and that judging by the US price, not a good price point for Canadian sales. Ah well, you can say anything you want if you're not interested...

Sorry. Being nearsighted is a problem with the U.S. Using the term North America, we fully intended to include Canada. I assumed Canada DID get the hard drive recorders. My two EH55s came from Canada, who continued to get them long after the U.S. had none left. Yes, we ARE including Canada in our wish--anything to increase the market and potential sales!

I should have clarified that...in reference to Wal-Mart...no HDD recorders. The only unit at the store here is a Magnavox dual unit with VHS record and DVD playback only. We never got any 513/515 units here at all...

There are still a few non HDD Toshiba and LG recorders on the shelves at places like Futureshop but that's it. Pretty well a dead market as you say...

I posit the reason for absence in Canada is that it hadn't/hasn't adopted digital broadcast standards or made a digital transition, so the Funai tuners in the HDD recorders sold in the US couldn't/can't be conformed to Canadian regulations, and separate units from US models are what would not be viable in upper NA east of Alaska.

So, the tuner in the Mag 513/515 is digital only, no analog? But actually, with Wal-Mart selling just about every video device other than TVs and Ipads as low as they can, a $300 DVD recorder wasn't going to fly up here. I don't think anyone has bought one of the $100 ones in the store here in many months. I would have bought a Pio 660 when Futureshop had them but the price was beyond what I could afford at the time. The transition timeline had been set so we knew the switchover was coming. But Wal-Mart up here is a completely different animal than it used to be. I remember the old days when they used to sell satellite dish equipment in the electronics department (among other things). That department is a shade of it's former self now...

It's both, but the digital component can't be made to comply with Canadian regs. A separate non-viable model with no tuner or no digital tuner would be required.

Or attach a Canadian digital tuner to the L1 or L2 in the Mag.

How to you suppose that could have enabled compliance with Canadian regulations for a 2160A, 513 or 515? Without the license there is no ability to bring any into the country, if Canada is like the US WRT regulations compliance prerequisite to retail product sales.

I'm talking about why neither WalMart nor anyone else sells these Funai HD recording machines to persons shopping in or wanting delivery to Canada.

I don't know where you keep getting your Canadian information from but as far as I can tell none of it is correct.

Some facts:

1) Canada started getting the same flat panel digital televisions with ATSC/QAM/NTSC tuners at the same time as our friends down south in the USA.

2) The first Canadian digital broadcast hit the ATSC airwaves in January 2003 in Toronto. Shortly after the CBC followed. By 2005 many of the larger broadcasters were broadcasting in digital ATSC in Toronto and Vancouver and perhaps other markets.

3) Digital cable QAM has been around in Canada at least since the year 2000 although most cable companies don't run many channels in the clear.

4) Canada did not force the analog shut-off until August 2011 - although the analog shut-off applied only to the mid and large markets. Most large market stations had been broadcast in dual-mode (ATSC / NTSC) years before the force of NTSC shut-off.

5) Canada does not force any TV, VCR or DVD recorder to have a QAM or ATSC or NTSC tuner built in. Each manufacture is free to sell tuneless or with NTSC only or any other combination of tuners built in.

Now as to why the Magnavox DVD/HDD recorder is not available in Canada I don't know for sure but I speculate that it has to do with Magnovox/Funai not getting the unit inspected/approved by U/L Canada and therefore lacks an approval safety seal and is therefore prohibited from hitting Canadian retail and wholesale shelves and is in fact a grey market product in Canada without any legal support including legal warrantee support. Funai probably chose note to get the unit UL approved knowing that they won't sell many?

You're both agreeing with me and ignoring what I wrote (the word "posit", as in "speculate"). You say UL, while I only say regulations in a general sense. White market sales don't happen absent compliance with applicable product regs (FCC here, whatever correlates up north, and safety for all). The 515 was designed prior to August 2011, which possibly was also before whatever regulations may have been finalized WRT such prouducts as HDD recorders with built in digital tuners (TVs aren't recorders). It's not unlikely DRM issues also contributed, but to summarize, all of what I've written seems to have worked against commercial viability of any model not physically identical to any model sold outside Canada.

Canada and the USA share the exact same NTSC/ATSC/QAM specs – this is for a reason – so Canada can and does pick up American signals. The specs were set in place years before the NTSC shut-off date. As I mentioned Canadian broadcasters have been broadcasting in ATSC since 2003 – the August 2011 NTSC shut off date has nothing do with setting ATSC standards. It has solely to do with shutting down analog airwaves in mid and large markets – so the airwaves can be (stolen) taken back by the government and sold off.

Sorry but I am not agreeing with you. Magnovox/ Funai could have had the DVD/HDD unit inspected by Canadian standards back in 2003 as all the TV manufactures have been doing… I’m not blaming Magnovox/ Funai for not doing so – they believe that a lack of sales would not make it feasible but to lay blame on the Canadian broadcast system for something that is in funai’s hands is not right.

This has nothing to do with the Canadian broadcasting system, Industry Canada, the CRTC or any other Canadian industry or regulator lacking any ATSC signals to test – It has everything to do with Magnovox/ Funai not wanting to sell the unit in Canada.
Thus a grey-market product, buyer beware.

Gentlemen,

Here's what I posit. Walmart.ca is much more limited than Walmart.com. The US version of the website sells just about everything under the sun, or in a Walmart B&M store, and then some. The Canadian version only has a few limited items you can buy online, and serves to a large extent as a product information site about what's available in-store.

Since even in the US, the Mags were only ever really available online, ... quod erat demonstrandum.


BTW, the 515 I got from J&R works just fine up here despite the frozen airwaves.

Do you run the menus in French

Actually, the first incarnation, the H2080, was available in a lot of Walmart stores in the US.

add me to the list

I'll take the new 517 model

Yeah, you're right. The whole compliance scene remember me the history of a canadian member who even was risking a fine (even jail I don't remember well) just for buy a Mag in the US and then take it to Canada.

Gees, jail.... its ridiculous really. Governments should be more focussed on more important things instead of trying to come down hard on the average home owner who just wants to record some stuff off TV to watch at their convienience. I am really surprised how strict things seem to be in USA in regards to electronics devices and recording etc compared to Australia.

Please don't believe everything you read on the Internet. Way too many people misinformed, posting things they assume without checking out the facts.

In Canada you won't get thrown in jail for purchasing a grey-market HDD/DVD recorder. At worst if you don't declare the purchase at the border the customs officers can take away the unit and fine you. Of course legally Canadians are not entitled to any warrantee or any support from Walmart.com, or Funai. If you lie and claim that you reside in the states to collect free warrantee work you could be charged with fraud for the amount you paid for the recorder.

Please folks if you truly want to help others than please post helpful and truthful stuff.

No one went (or was even close to) to jail for importing a DVDR in Canaduh.

But it would make our lives easier if it was readily available. I turned out to work in my favour when I wanted to try out the unit back in January, since I had to drive 3 hours round trip anyway, I ended up buying 2 Mags right away instead of making the trip twice, and only about a month later, the shortages/price increases started.

I've been happy with it. And like all other Canadians who use them, been getting the ATSC and even NTSC signals just fine.

I declared the unit at the border, explaining exactly what it was for, and all they cared about was to charge the taxes (including tax on the US tax).

Even if they were available North of the border, retailers, even Wal-Mart, would probably charge about 100-150$ more per unit than the US prices.
The joke has lasted long enough, even the Federal government, after warning the retailers for years and seeing no improvement, decided to act : they will raise the tax-free allowance for 24 hours trip from 50 to 200$ and the 48+ hours trip from 200 to 800$ later on this year.
So, even our government is telling the citizens : your local retailers are ripping you off, go shop in the US. Of course, not everyone lives close enough to the border to do so, but most major cities are (Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver).

Added bonus : fill up the gas tank while you're there! (4$ a gallon vs 6$+ in Canaduh)

I'm not surprised. You don't have entities like the MPAA and RIAA calling the shots, for example.

Normalement, je préfère la version originale, étant donné les traductions douteuses qu'on trouve souvent. Cependant, je viens tout juste d'essayer les menus en français et la traduction est assez bonne, en fait, bien que parfois un peu curieuse (dimmer = rhéostat, au lieu de gradateur ou variateur). Je vais probablement retourner en version originale anglaise, mais Ã* bien y songer, la version originale est en toute probabilité japonaise: 調光器 ou ディマー.

Bien d'accord aussi +2

I wonder if this is real, or some fly-by-nighter!

http://chucksaudiovideo.com/product/...DR513H/F7.html

$10 shipping which I guess isn't that bad, looks like new and not refurbished?