[nobbie]

Hey Everyone,


I ordered a new 5060 from Amazon last week for $229 delivered with a $50 rebate.


Then I found Buy.com's one-day Cnet sale of new 5040's with an extra $20 rebate in addition to the $50 rebate. With $10 coupon the as-delivered price (with sales tax) was $202. Making the final price after the two rebates $132!


Since I plan on upgrading the hard drive, it made sense to go with the 5040 and cheaper price. I could not justify the extra $47 for the additional 20-40 gigs of harddrive.


Well, I went to cancel the Amazon 5060 and was informed it had already shipped! (This with choosing the free but super-slow shipping, which really wasn't.)


The Buy.com 5040 arrived today. UPS tracking says the Amazon 5060 is arriving tomorrow. Amazon said to just refuse shipment. But I wonder if I should just accept it and hold on to it.


Is it worth holding on to for selling later? Or should I just let it go back? Amazon no longer sells them. They're pushing the 5500's now. Is the commercial advance thing really worthwhile? I have two Showstopper 2000's upgraded to 120 hours apiece, and always use the 30 second skip. Is this what the 5000's do?


Okay, I've said enough. Thoughts? Attacks? Admonishments? Offers?


Cheers!


Nobbie

 

[jleavens]

Chances are that you can probably get what you paid for it or more in a few months when 5ks are in shorter supply.


But maybe not, or maybe it's not worth it. It's probably only worth keeping if you had planned to buy another in a couple of months anyways.

 

[nobbie]

I guess what I'm trying to figure out is if the 5500's are so much better than the 5000's that a NIB 5060, less the UPC code of course, would be worthless. Or is the 5000 series, being the last of its kind with Commercial Advance, sort of a coveted "last of the best" models.


Heh heh, I should be so good at predicting such things. I would have gotten out of the dot bomb stock market sooner!


What's the word on the 5500's? Thumbs up or down? I haven't been ableto find any reviews or first impressions.


Nobbie

 

[icecow]

you can probably justify $25 for the extra room, can you justify wasting your time and risking problems, and dealing with multiple rebates with the stress they bring for the remaining $22?


I say break open the box and use the thing... test for channel 6, 44, all the other tests. Do this quickly in the 2-or-so trial days you get to use it before paying subscription. you might even want to research all the tests you should do before you connect to the server and start the 2-day trial.


If everything works fine.. KEEP IT. if tehre is somethign odd you are not sure if you can live with or not... Return it and buy the one for $130.


make the prediciment into an oportunity


Cow Landers

 

[nobbie]

Well, Cow, the $130 one is sitting on my desk right now! That deal was a one-day thing that I had to act on. The other is $179.


I don't understand what these channel 6 and 44 tests are. I didn't see them in the FAQ. I'll do a search for them, but in the meantime, can you enlighten me? Or point me to a site that has these compiled? I didn't even know about the two day trial! Cool.


I'll try to figure out all the tests to conduct first before I hook it up though.


Thanks. This forum rocks!


Nobbie

 

[gizmo91]

I'd keep the 5060 and sell your Panasonic Showstoppers on Ebay. I just sold my 120hr SS for $399.


Having two 5000 series is great, being able to schedule the other one remotely if there is conflicts, streaming shows from one to the next.....

 

[plyons10]

The Cow simply means you should make sure the Replay internal tuner has no problem with those channels. Many have had issues on channels 6 and 44.

 

[plyons10]

I would add that I strongly agree you should try to sell the Showstoppers and keep the other 5K sers. The networking features just rock!

 

[JeepGeek]

The 5500's will definitely not make the 5000's worthless, in the near term at least. Every indication is that there is not anything "better" about the 5500, so a 5000, especially if you don't open the box and can sell it as completely unused, will command a premium on the resale market.


CA, when it works, is a highly sought-after feature. How well it works depends on the nature of the commercial breaks (timing and fade-outs) as well as your signal quality (better signal == better detection).

 

[nobbie]

Well, the UPS guy pulled up and I stood outside looking at the box in his hands. I hemmed and hawwed and debated keeping or returning it. I know the UPS guy and we stood their weighing the pros and cons.


I decided to keep it! Ack! My wife just shaked her head. It's an illness. Now, I'll just send in for the rebates and search for all the "tests" I can run on both units before purchasing lifetime service. I figure I'd better purchase lifetime service for both, even if I go and sell one later. Who knows what the company will do with the service if I don't act on it now.


Can someone point me to a compiled list of tests I should run on the 5000 series to see if it's working right?


Thanks for the input everyone,


Nobbie

 

[plyons10]

Geez, Nobbie, I don't really remember any list of "tests". Just use the darn thing. The defects, like a bad channel 6, constant lock ups, or an unnaturally slow remote response, rear their head fairly quickly and obviously.

 

[MethodMachine]

2 5000s are 2 cool. I just got my second 5040 ~2 weeks ago and I have no regrets.