Mitsubishi HDTV PVR HD-6000 - Page 2  

The retail is $1699.00 but that will drop. Should be available for much less if you haggle.

Availability is September.

It does have an OTA tuner, so I suppose that's a bonus, but otherwise I don't see what advantage it would have over renting a box from Comcast? It will take a long time to break even compared with the rental, and the software in Comcast's boxes have the potential to be quite impressive. Do you lose features (ie: OnDemand) by not using the Cable co's STB?

Interesting, and I'm hoping this will spur the market for more competitively priced products.

Well Comcast isn't available in my area so I'm definitely interested in the Mits.

Yes, with the HD6000, you lose VOD and the 14-days of guide information from Comcast. The HD6000 relies on whatever TVGuide program information you can get from the local PBS, which varies by market -- typically under a week, and sometimes as little as 48 hours.

If you want VOD and the 14-days of guide information directly from Comcast, you'll need to wait for a second-generation, two-way Mitsubishi CableCARD DVR -- probably in a HD7000 model circa early 2006.

There is no doubt that Comcast will soon offer HD VOD nationwide so it's a pretty big loss.

Not sure if it is metioned, but Mitsubishi did sign an agreement to use GemStar guides, I would assume they will be included with this product.

HDPPV will only be a loss untill HD-DVD comes out. I don't expect PPV to be any better than it is now. No OAR, no DD5.1, they can keep it. Plus with any luck HD-DVD's will have no compresion artifacts, and maybe even 1080p 24fps.

bdraw,

The Mitsubishi HD-6000 product brochure indicates that it will use Gemstar's TV Guide On Screen, similar to that used now on the Motorola 6208, with up to eight days of program information from PBS (varies by market).

As far as HD-DVD, that's still at least two, and more likely three, years away. We'll see HD-VOD on major market systems in the next 12 months. AFAIK, Comcast's current WS VOD is OAR, so I'm not sure why HD VOD would be any different.

When you say "PPV", I assume that you're talking about VOD. You also don't get access to pay-per features of any kind with CableCARD, scheduled or "On Demand", and you get no access to subscription VOD. Also, on my Time Warner system, all of the major releases on Pay VOD are available in "fullscreen" and OAR (well, at least 16:9--I haven't watched any to know if they're in OAR): "Master & Commander", "Master and Commander Wide", "Gothika", "Gothika Wide", etc. The descriptions of the widescreen versions explicitly say that they're in Dolby 5.1 (the fullscreen descriptions don't).

Getting back to the main topic, this device has way too many expensive, hard to market esoteric features--it's essentially a NetCommand 1394 controller with a PVR and a wide variety of connections. It's kind of like the digital video equivalent of an audio receiver. Pretty cool, but how many people need it? I think that they'd really increase the generic appeal of it by quadrupling the storage. It'd jack the price up a bit, but a lot of video freaks would go for a half terabyte HD PVR.

I don't even know what NetCommand is, so they need to do a better job of explaining why I care that this unit features NetCommand.

I agree that the hard drive seems a bit anemic. Perhaps they're assuming the user will archive to DVHS.

If I can get this for $1200 and the hard drive can be easily upgraded in the future, then it starts to compete with the Sony 250 GB unit in my mind. Less hard disk space, but built in DVI/HDMI switch with 1394 support for 30K. Not having to buy a DVI switch will save me about $250.

-phil

Early '05 is not 2-3 years away. There are threads about HD-DVD getting their stuff very soon in this very forum.

I'm not too fond of using videotape to preserve HD movie recordings. I'm very anxious for recordable HD discs though. Then this Mits will be a winner in my book.

Don't hold your breath on HD-DVD anytime in 2005 (unless you consider WM9 a viable HD-DVD solution). I would have to agree that 2006-07 would be a much more realistic estimate.

I have to admit that I don't know much about VOD or PPV. I used to have HBO on demand when it first came out, but other than that I have never really used the service. I prefer to rent via Netflix. Although I would be interested if it was DD5.1, OAR, and HD. Untill then I will stick to netflix.

Personally I would rather buy a Mitsubishi tv with this unit integrated than the stand alone version. I see this product as mostly an add on for Mitsubishi's Plasma and LCD line.

It looks like what'll hold HD-DVD back is pre-recorded content. No OEM is going to come out with a deck for any format until studios have committed to produce content for it; there won't be enough interest in it as a recording device alone. Sony, having a studio of its own, is trying to push Blu-Ray through on an early track. I hope that they succeed, but I have my doubts. We'll see.

NetCommand is one of those very difficult to market features. It's a cool idea, and it might be less difficult to market given a plethora of 1394-connectable A/V devices, but to date there are only a few brands of integrated televisions and some D-VHS decks. I'm really surprised that Mitsubishi hasn't created a bunch of other things, like CD and DVD players and receiver/amps.

Ok,

Mits has the spec sheet up on their website. If I were a betting man, I'd say it looks as if the component in's and the HDMI in's are for passing/scaling those inputs, not recording. They'd be fools to allow it, but I'd luv em for it :D.

Component/VGA/RGBHV scaling is a great feature dependent on how good a job the chip does. That would add some of the additional cost factor in, figure a 3410a (MSRP $999) combined with a mid-range scaling capable DVD player (~ MSRP $499) and that's getting us in the ballpark of the 6000's MSRP. Maybe CableCard adds the remaining $199 in pricing.

Looks like a gem technically, but performance is another issue. Upgrading the HDD would be a godsend. Funny thing is it doesn't have s-video out for downconverting/copying to DVD, only composite.

The spec sheet shows coax digital.

Troy

Here's a link to the product page:

http://www.mitsubishi-tv.com/2004_20...es/HD_6000.htm

-phil

Sony changed the spec on their HD PVRs from 100GB/200 GB to 250GB/500GB. I guess Mits didn't feel there was a need to follow. 120 GB is a bit anemic (even though they claim a "hard-to-believe" 72 hour recording time for NTSC sources).

There certainly seems to be a place for an S-video out on the panel, it just wasn't included.

I wonder why they have 3 1394 ports on the back, seems kind of unnecessary given that you can chain 1394 components.

-phil

Phil,
there are some devices in which you may want to connect to that only have one 1394 port so having the additional ports does come in handy. I am talking from experience.:) :) :)

Aaaah, got it.

-phil

The HD-6000 seems to be an interesting device. It should placate a lot of the complaining of earlier Mits owners who sharply criticized Mitsubishi of their Promise module plans.

At the surface, it looks like unit will be able to take Cablecard/QAM signals and output them directly to HDMI, or Firewire or Component, depending on the capabilities of your legacy Mitsubishi set. Unlike the 2005 sets, it looks like the internal scalar of the unit wil output to 480, 720 or 1080 for maximum flexibility. The DVR is nice but it it were a Tivo, Mitsu probably couldn't keep it on the shelves. The lack of an S-video out jack is a little weird, but there is one DVD recorder out there that will take a component input.

Any word as to this being released yet?? Can't wan't to take a look at this thing. Seems ironic that they are still charging $999 for the PM with this coming out.

In another forum, one claims that the HD-6000 is scheduled for release in November. Sigh ...

Talked to my local high-end stereo store. They told me the HD-6000 is scheduled for release in December at a $2000 list price. They mentioned that the price may be readjusted downward once the HD-5000 is discontinued.

Your deck is on its way. The 6000 should be out soon. The retail is supposed to be $1699.00. It was scheduled for a September release which means October or November.

I got tired of waiting and bought an LG LST-3410a (I don't know how I lived without this thing):cool:. With the price recently dropping to $599 at best buy on the LG, Mits better rethink the MSRP on this product. The LG does everything I wanted the Mits to do. And I can buy two for less than the Mits?!

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...04#post3996104

anybody seen these on sale yet?

I talked last week to Brian at Sheids. He stated Mitsubishi had some issues with the guide provider that are just being resolved. He believes the unit will be available in November or December. It possibly will have a different model number than HD-6000.

Jim

Anyone have any update on the HD-6000 release?

This also caught my interest, and a call to our local Mitsubishi Diamond dealer here in Milwaukee, yielded me a "what?-- Don't have that yet, but I'm sure we will....."

Why does Mits feel the need to tease us like this??? :confused:

Greg O.