Panasonic Showstopper TV
July 2001
The Future Should Look So Good
by Grant Clauser
In the future, all TVs should be like this. What I'm referring to is the Panasonic Showstopper TV's integration of a good television with a digital hard disc drive, an on-screen program guide and a service for searching and organizing your TV viewing. The future should look so good.
Since Replay, TiVo and DishNetwork began making digital TV recording available via hard disc drives, the few people who have had the pleasure of using those products have, for the most part, raved about them. Many of them have also wondered why TVs can't be designed with this function built inside, similar to TV/VCR and TV/DVD combos.
Panasonic has done it with the Showstopper TV PV-SS2710. The Showstopper TV takes a 27-inch direct-view television and adds a Showstopper hard disc drive based on the ReplayTV guide service. Last year, Panasonic launched the first Showstopper set-top box, which, similar to TiVo, hooked up to a TV through the rear video inputs and recorded incoming TV signals before passing them on to the TV. Stopping live TV, using the program guide to select shows for recording and searching a database of upcoming shows was all possible with the original Showstopper. Putting that in the TV makes the process more seamless and reduces the amount of clutter around your entertainment center.
The TV side of this product is a pretty standard Panasonic 27-inch direct-view TV with a Panablack picture tube with a cable/antenna tuner, stereo speakers and black-level enhancement. The rear jack section includes two audio/video composite ports and one S-Video port, plus a set of stereo-out jacks for sending audio through your stereo or home theater receiver. A phone jack provides the modem hookup, which is necessary for downloading the program guide data. An infrared jack connects to an IR blaster in case you want to control a cable or DBS box. One set of A/V ports is in front for camcorders or game consoles.
Like all the hard disc-based recorders before it, the Showstopper TV requires some setup configuration before you can sit down to enjoy it. The first time you turn it on, on-screen instructions walk you through a few short questions about your video signal (antenna, cable, DBS…), your phone area code (for finding a local access number) and such. It then makes an initial 800-number phone call that takes about five minutes to find a list of local numbers. Once you select your local access number, the TV makes another call to gather your program data. All-in-all, the process takes about 40 minutes.
by Grant Clauser
In the future, all TVs should be like this. What I'm referring to is the Panasonic Showstopper TV's integration of a good television with a digital hard disc drive, an on-screen program guide and a service for searching and organizing your TV viewing. The future should look so good.
Since Replay, TiVo and DishNetwork began making digital TV recording available via hard disc drives, the few people who have had the pleasure of using those products have, for the most part, raved about them. Many of them have also wondered why TVs can't be designed with this function built inside, similar to TV/VCR and TV/DVD combos.
Panasonic has done it with the Showstopper TV PV-SS2710. The Showstopper TV takes a 27-inch direct-view television and adds a Showstopper hard disc drive based on the ReplayTV guide service. Last year, Panasonic launched the first Showstopper set-top box, which, similar to TiVo, hooked up to a TV through the rear video inputs and recorded incoming TV signals before passing them on to the TV. Stopping live TV, using the program guide to select shows for recording and searching a database of upcoming shows was all possible with the original Showstopper. Putting that in the TV makes the process more seamless and reduces the amount of clutter around your entertainment center.
The TV side of this product is a pretty standard Panasonic 27-inch direct-view TV with a Panablack picture tube with a cable/antenna tuner, stereo speakers and black-level enhancement. The rear jack section includes two audio/video composite ports and one S-Video port, plus a set of stereo-out jacks for sending audio through your stereo or home theater receiver. A phone jack provides the modem hookup, which is necessary for downloading the program guide data. An infrared jack connects to an IR blaster in case you want to control a cable or DBS box. One set of A/V ports is in front for camcorders or game consoles.
Like all the hard disc-based recorders before it, the Showstopper TV requires some setup configuration before you can sit down to enjoy it. The first time you turn it on, on-screen instructions walk you through a few short questions about your video signal (antenna, cable, DBS…), your phone area code (for finding a local access number) and such. It then makes an initial 800-number phone call that takes about five minutes to find a list of local numbers. Once you select your local access number, the TV makes another call to gather your program data. All-in-all, the process takes about 40 minutes.
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