[Philosofy]

I don't want to start a war, just get the facts straight. I have heard rumors that Panasonic is discontinuing the Showstopper. Is this true? If so, has Replay joined with any other consumer electronic manufacturer so they have an outlet in brick and mortar stores?


Thanks guys.

 

[lizard_boy]

replay is releasing the new 4000 models next month, these will be replay branded but manufactured by panasonic


the 4000's (for now) are only available direct from replay/sonicblue...no b&m presence


steve shannon (vp of something @ replay/sonicblue) has said that panasonic will continue to ship showstoppers, more info in this thread


edit - since circuit city & best buy no longer seem to be carrying showstoppers, i wonder who panasonic is 'shipping' these to ??

a few stores (both b&m and online) like good guys, crutchfield seem to still be carrying the SS's

 

[HoTat2]

Quote:

from lizard_boy steve shannon (vp of something @ replay/sonicblue) has said that panasonic will continue to ship showstoppers,........

Steve Shannon is V.P. of marketing for SonicBlue (If you saw the piece that 60 minutes did on PVRs a while back or have a recording of it, you may have seen him. Before the merger he was formally the President and CEO of ReplayTV, succeeding Kim LeMasters who stepped down I understood at the time from a disagreement over Replay's decision to discontinue manufacturing there own SA units and focus solely on producing and licensing PVR SW for BtoB partnerships with other major equipment manufactures.

 

[replaysteve]

Thanks for the promotion HoTat. Actually, I was never the CEO of Replay. Anthony Wood, the founder and original CEO is the one who came back to replace Kim LeMasters. Anthony now runs engineering for all SONICblue products.


For those of you skeptical about our ongoing relationship with Matsushita, check out this press release we just ran:

SONICblue Collaborates with Matsushita Kotobuki To Build Next Generation of DVR Products

 

[asinshesq]

Actually, Steve, the link you posted is broken (it has two http's at the beginning). Here's a good one: http://www.sonicblue.com/default.asp...b_menu=&ID=498

 

[Markito]

Quote:

ONICblue Collaborates with Matsushita Kotobuki To Build Next Generation of DVR Products

Is it just me, or does the official press release start off with, "ONICblue".


Hellooooooooo!


I'd like to buy a consonant! Shouldn't someone throw an "S" in the headline of the big release? Forget dotting i's and crossing t's, somebody get them an "S".


~Markito


***REVISED VERSION: Since posting this error, they have now added the much needed "S". Thanks (S)onicBlue!

 

[BaysideBas]

Has anyone noticed? (from the news release):

Quote:

Matsushita Electric subsidiary Matsushita Kotobuki Electronics Industries, Ltd. (MKE) is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of hard disk drives, optical (DVD/CD-ROM) disk drives, and high-capacity floppy disk drives. The company’s other products include VCRs, combination TV/VCR units, video camcorders (DVC/VHS-C) and heating equipment.

If they're looking to bring their heating technology to the cutting edge, they couldn't do any better than to license Replay TV.

 

[asinshesq]

Quote:

Originally posted by BaysideBas ...If they're looking to bring their heating technology to the cutting edge, they couldn't do any better than to license Replay TV.

OK, Baysidebas, if you're looking for the award for the funniest post of October 22nd, you've got my vote.

 

[DrJoe]

Quote:

Originally posted by lizard_boy edit - since circuit city & best buy no longer seem to be carrying showstoppers, i wonder who panasonic is 'shipping' these to ?? a few stores (both b&m and online) like good guys, crutchfield seem to still be carrying the SS's

A couple of months ago they were still in Sears.

http://www.prodcat.panasonic.com/dealer/search.asp



If you go to Panasonic's dealer search page (above) and input the part number and your zip it gives you a list of dealers in your area. For Central Texas, all they have listed is Target Stores. For another place I know a zip for (Northeastern Ohio), it lists Targets as well as B&B Appliance and Cousin's Video.


It would seem the "national" distributor is Target; Local A/V stores which carry Panasonic branded equipment may have them too.


Joe

 

[HoTat2]

Thanks for the correction Steve and welcome back to what I hope won't be the grumble and gripe forum of your last visit (just saw your post), sorry for the misinformation as I admit some of the information in my original post was based on hearsay. Anyway now that you've ducked your head in here hopfully for a while, you got any new updates for us on some of the lingering issues left in question last time?.


The CC bug problem (and have you resolved this problem on the coming 4Ks?.), the dial-in connectivity problems?, will the 4Ks work with the dial on demand router question?. (as last time you said you didn't know and were testing it), Also could you clarify your past statement on the Panasonic SS. are they still actually producing it?, or when you said they are still "shipping it" last time did you mean they are shipping units that were already produced until their complete stock runs out?.


And lastly as could you PLEASE! give us a official statement on the 4K ad pause screen as it's been discussed ad-nauseam on many threads here recently by it seems just about everyone here (particularly the "newbies") both pro and con. I mean how long are they going to last and is their a way you could give users possibly through the "Claw Foot Portal" (CFP) or something a way to turn the ads off?.


While I'm still working on getting my budget in order to have BB installed here as well as getting home networking installed, and trying to free up money to purchase at least two of the 4Ks in the future, (though I definitely won't make the early adopter group, perhaps next year though).


I'm curious Steve, as I purchased both my current 3K units (3030, 3060) on an 8 month 8-pay plan through a telemarketing firm called "The National Call Processing Center" at the time (imaginative name isn't it? ), do you think SonicBlue/ReplayTV could set up for the 4Ks something similar this time as well in the way of a monthly payment plan instead of the current lump-sum payment?.


Or even better given the 4Ks high price would be for SonicBlue to have it's own revolving charge account to prevent customers from having to lock up a large chunk of their available credit on their major credit cards (though I do realize as with most revolving charge accounts the APR will be high).


Again welcome back Steve and sorry for the above tiresome questions. Remember your Caps though, it's "ReplaySteve" not "replaysteve" . Oh and by the way this is important, when are you turning off the dial-in service? (obviously just kidding).