After being recommended to get the Panasonic EX75 just got told by Good Guys its out of stock and probably not going to get more and replacing it with Panasonic EX77.

They have some Panasonic EX57 in stock which are $100 cheaper and just wondering why its cheaper ? EX57 has same
160gig , digital tuner etc but has HDD 7 HDMI ? I only have a CRT so presume ( no techy here ) will mean nothing as only
have a CRT but I am planning on buying a Panasonic 42" Plasma at Christmas.

I only want to record shows, watch them, burn dvd and now and again will edit out scenes from a number of shows/movies to burn into the one dvd etc which I could do with EX75.

So what do you guys recommend for me please ? has to be relatively easy to use ?

I believe the EH57 doesn't have a digital tuner - its analogue only

The EX77 is yet to be sighted and forum posts suggest its not a very significant upgrade: It fixes the 16:9 flag issue (not important if you're always watching/burning DVDs in 16:9 mode), it has full HD 1080p Up-Conversion and it no longer has an analogue tuner (Not so critical as STB or Foxtel etc. is usually input through other than the RF input, but it does mean you can't record analogue FTA direct)

Comments to date have suggested if its known as a runout, bargain a bit harder on price and pick up an existing 75 model.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

Hi Peter

on the Panasonic and the brief descriptions of all the DVD recorders they say digital tuner etc but not of EX57 and when you click for more information on EX57 it says -

4x Natural Gradation (12-bit Analogue to Digital Converter)
Greater natural gradation and amazingly rich pictures are delivered with 4096 steps of grey. The 12-bit analogue-to-digital converter has 4x the gradation found with a conventional 10-bit analogue-to-digital converter. Resulting in a faithful reproduction of details, so you can see for the first time, everything there is to see!

so what does this mean ? in dummy terms please presuming its just an analogue tuner ? in which case suppose its best to go elsewhere and just pay more $'s ?

Thanks for your advice, its greatly appreciated.

There is no EX57, only EH57. X = digital tuner, H = analogue tuner.

My advice, if you can wait for a few weeks get the EX77. If you can't, get the EX75.

Thanks madmax, pretty sure the guy said ex57 but you are right as on the Panasonic website its EH57. So that settles it
will wait and see the price for EX77 . Good Guys said maybe $799 so its a big jump in price from the EX75. He said the
EX77 will be in within next few weeks.
I can get the EX85 at 2nds World in Cremorne for just about $649 ?

Thank you !

Sounds like market speak to me.

By the description they're saying this chip can have a finer number of 'steps' between greys.

2^10 = 1024 graduations
2^12 = 4096 graduations

Grayscale Bar (This one has 20 steps)

Now your average top end TV has a 1024 (1344 max) pixel resolution so it would seem to have little point in having more 'steps' available than there is to fit on the screen.

So I'm thinking that for the most part its a gimmick dressed up to sound important That said, there's nothing to not recommend the EX77 over the current models if the price is right and you can wait.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

They are talking about the range of greys and/or colors which is unrelated to the screen resolution.
It is related to the colours each pixel can display.

I presume there will be an EX-87 model coming out too?

Hey guys, thanks for all the replies. 2nd's World just rang to say they got some more EX75 in at $499 so even cheaper
again so going to go get one.

Thanks Peter for feedback and thanks other posters for replies.

Hey thanks guys , just came back with the EX75 for $499 and managed to hook it all up myself and its working and now
trying out the recording.
But found I get all these digital channels now ? you can laugh now but didnt know this machine had all that as I dont
have antenna or anything for it ? and found all those extras from Ch 7, ABC , TEN etc.

If anyone after EX75, they had some left ( 2nds World at Cremorne ) and are selling EX85 with 250gig for $549. Didnt buy
it as I wont be committing everything to the hardrive. Will burn a DVD if wanna keep something.

Crap weather so means can stay inside and play.

Once again, thanks for all yr advice.