The new issue of Sony Style (February 2000) is available and the TRV900 is NOT in the catalog. It remains to be seen whether it is scheduled for discontinuation, but for the time being I am sure it will remain available. I do think this will be the last model year for the TRV900, though. The MD Discam DCM-M1 is in the catalog, but I've yet to see one or read a post from anyone who's bought one. The editing features of the MD Discam are far better than anything that's ever been on the market, and are the primary reason the Discam should be considered for purchase. Optics are quite poor compared to the TRV900, looking to be a duplicate of the TRV10: Single chip 680k, 340k active. Other low points: 400 lines resolution at best, no Nightshot, no IEEE1394 Firewire Link, and almost definitely no 16:9 capability. There are some nice photos of the unit and an informative article. No 16:9 capability is a big drawback, I'm not even sure if you could format the same disc or the same camera for both 16:9 and 4:3 filming in the MD Data2 format. Can anyone explain why or why not this could be done with Mini DV cassettes, but not an MD Data2 MiniDisc? Sony's most interesting and futuristic consumer product continues to be the AIBO robot dog, not because owning a robot dog is a wonderful thing, but because it serves as a prototype/operating experiment for other robotic products. The HDTV line up of new models is unimpressive because Sony HDTV's still don't support 720p. Panasonic continues to lead in this department (they also manufacture 720p HD cameras) and Princeton Graphics also makes a 720p HDTV, and Samsung has announced them, although as a consumer a Samsung product would be very low on my list of preferred companies. I like my Panasonic HDTV a great deal. The $11000 Sony 65" HDTV will disappear from the line, not that many people have ever seen one, to be replaced by a $7000 model. The primary difference in the two appears to be the superior cabinetry of the $11000 model, which looks much like the Sony ES series of products and the Sony 7000 and 7700 DVD players, which boast the very nice brushed aluminum finishing. No doubt the new Sony 65" will be in a comparatively cheaper wood cabinet, as the Panasonic 56" HDTV is. ----------------------------------------------------------------- To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
