I looked at two new models today and I have decided to hold off, at
least for the moment. They are around $1000 and I do not want to dip
into my HDTV fund that far. If I sell both of the TV's I am currently
selling, I will buy one (the Pioneer because it has A/V in as well as
out) to use as a monitor for WebTV temporairily plus its normal use, of
course. The Panasonic PT56WXF95 HDTV which I have ordered is simply too
low in supply yet, and I will need some type of web monitor if I have no
TV. Today I saw the Pioneer and Sharp new portable units for the first
time. The 7 inch 16:9 screen is a vast improvement sisewize over the
Panasonic's 5 inch 16:9 screen. Of course the units themselves are a
little larger. The Panasonic is the size of a normal CD portable player,
the Pioneer and Sharp are the size of a DVD case. They're all nice and
the picture quality is acceptable, but not nearly as good as a good TV
or a really good monitor on a laptop with DVD drive. The Pioneer and the
Panasonic have S-Video out whereas the Sharp does not. This is a big
plus if you plan to hook the unit up to a normal TV. You will be stuck
with composite video if you buy the Sharp. The Pioneer and the Panasonic
also have a switch that let you put A/V signals onto the screen, you can
use this to monitor or playback from a camcorder, particularly useful
for 16:9 shooting on a digital camcorder and a much larger image area on
the Pioneer than you would see on a digital camera's three inch swivel
screen. Stylewise the Sharp is a bit more modern than the Pioneer with a
silver sleek finish and lots of tiny buttons. The picture on both is
very close, it's a tough call but as I mentioned earlier neither is as
good as a good computer monitor or a good TV. A laptop computer with DVD
drive appears to be the better buy by far, more utility by a long shot,
but you will obviously also pay a lot more. The Pioneer has some kind of
cool buttons inside a recessed wheel. It is a light greenish color. None
of them are particularly well built. They're not bad either but the
DVD/CD open/close area seems a little flimsy on all of them. Last week I
would have stood in line for the Pioneer, today after seeing it for the
first time I don't want it unless I suddenly need it or suddenly have a
lot of extra money. I'd rather spend it on something more useful, like
Sony's new DCR-PC100 Mini DV Cam.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word
"unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
