Panasonic Showstopper TV

July 2001

multipage

This TV is all about putting you in control of what and when you watch. It starts with the program guide. When you power up the TV, the first thing you see is the channel guide telling you what's on. It shows you two hours' worth of programs for seven channels at a time. By using the channel up and down buttons, you can move a full screen at a time to see the next seven channels. Or you can move forward in time seven days. Programs that are currently showing are highlighted in a light blue background. The guide also provides a brief description of whatever program you highlight. The TV gets this information during short nightly downloads from the Replay server.

To record a currently showing program, you simply press the REC button on the remote. You're then taken to a screen where you can select the recording quality (high, medium and extended). The TV also tells you how much recording time you have left on the hard drive, based on the recording quality you selected. At the lowest level, you get about 30 hours of video, and 14 hours at the highest. If you don't need all 30 hours of the hard drive, try to record most everything at the highest quality setting. The difference between the original showing and a recording at the highest level was barely noticeable, but at medium, the picture became slightly pixilated, even more so at extended quality. A good satellite or digital cable signal will record best, as those sources tend to deliver the best signal off the bat. A weak cable or antenna signal won't record as well.

Scheduling future shows can be done the same way you record currently playing shows, or you can go to the Replay menu to search the database of shows based on genre and keyword.

The most talked-about feature of hard drive recorders has to be the ability to pause "live" TV. To stop a show in its tracks, press the PAUSE button at the bottom of the remote. The Showstopper TV lets you pause a show for the duration of the free space on the hard drive—potentially hours. If you plan on pausing for the entire show, pressing the REC button is a more efficient use of the recorder's space. For what is probably the most-used feature of this unit, Panasonic made PAUSE one of the smallest buttons on the whole remote. There's also an instant replay button that jumps back seven seconds.

There are other ways to search and organize your program choices, other than simple keyword searches. Showstopper lets you search through Replay Zones. The Zones are like channel guides but organized by categories, such as sci-fi, family, sports, music and sitcoms. The Zones tell you what programs in each category are coming in the next seven days. You can then select any of the programs for scheduled recordings. Each Zone is then organized into sub categories. For example, when you go into the family Zone, you find the sub categories of sitcoms, dramas, animals, cartoons and family films. I tried the sci-fi Zone, then the sub category of Final Frontier, which located all upcoming episodes of the various Star Trek series.

All this organization is aimed at allowing you to create your own personal channel, so that whenever you turn on the TV, there's a selection of programs you'll really want to watch. This is a good thing. However, all separate menus and subcategories take time to work through, and the fact that Showstopper spreads all the different guides and menus among four separate buttons on the remote leads to more confusion. This is probably only a small hurdle for most users. 

Mostly, the Showstopper TV performs heroic feats for a television, save a few small blemishes. The remote is a confusing array of tiny buttons and microscopic writing. The standard TiVo remote, by comparison, is well laid out and easy to read. Also, when switching between various Replay menu screens, there are occasional pauses of more than a minute.

Listing at $900, the Showstopper TV isn't cheap for a 27-inch screen. But if you figure that a good 27-inch TV sells for about $400, then add the price of a separate Showstopper set-top box ($599), the combo actually costs $100 less. The Showstopper doesn't require a monthly or lifetime service fee, as TiVo does, but that's only because the service fee is built into the price you pay up front.

It is my sincere hope that Panasonic builds digital recording functions into more TVs, bigger TVs, in fact all of its TVs. It may not radically change the way you watch TV, but it does improve the whole experience. Once you get used to something like this, there's no going back.

www.panasonic.com or www.replay.com

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