Panasonic Combined DVD-R & PVR Device

Raetsel writes "Caught a commercial the other day hawking the device I've been waiting for. TIVO is a great idea, but what if you want to keep something more permanently? Enter the Panasonic DMR-series. The top-of-the-line DMR-HS2 ($1000 US) has a 40 GB hard drive, offers "Time Slip Playback" (TIVO's "pause live TV" function), and allows you to move shows off the hard drive onto DVD. Heck, you can even record straight to DVD-R or DVD-RAM discs (which is what the $700 DMR-E30(K/S) does). There's also a IEEE-1394 input, so you can record from sources that have a FireWire output. Oh, yeah... it's a progressive-scan DVD player, too."

Yeah, that's great and all...

[Wakko Warner]

...but, this is Slashdot, where $1000 is the average yearly salary for most people. Is there a way to build something that does what this thing does, albeit poorly, using Linux and our old spare 486s?

- A.P.

excellent

[tps12]

It's great to hear that it's a progressive-scan player. My current DVD player is a Christian conservative-scan model, and it refuses to play a sizeable proportion of my video collection.

Or

[yatest5]

The top-of-the-line DMR-HS2 ($1000 US) has a 40 GB hard drive

Er, or they could do a 60Gb one for $1040?

Re:This is dumb.

[irma trattino]

: You don't have time?? then why are you watching TV!?!?!?
The problem is NOT not having time... The problem is NOT HAVING BRAIN. =)

Re:Yeah, that's great and all...

[squaretorus]

Just remember that that average comes from 99% earning zero, with the 1% in paid employment earning shite loads so this IS interesting if your in the moneyed 1%.

How to tell them apart? Find the guys with just one laptop - they're rich - they know they can buy a new one anytime so they give their old ones away to impoverished geeks - the rest of us keep em (and even lug em about) just in case

Re:This is dumb.

[Skirwan]

You don't have time?? then why are you watching TV!?!?!?

Dude: Decaf. Seriously.

--
Damn the Emperor!

Re:How did this make it past hollywood

[Wakko Warner]

So it's got some sort of restriction ability built-in. Bad that you can only make one copy (but then burn more from your computer?), but good that you could save, say, the Angels winning the World Series for posterity.

Yeah, cause, God knows, that kind of thing won't happen twice. I just feel bad for all the Red Sox fans thinking of buying a PVR for "next season, which will be OUR YEAR!"

- A.P.