Tell me more

I am currently in the market for something Tivo-like; it's time to take advantage of chase play and HD signals dumping all my old tapes and all the rest of it. Time to move into the Century of the Fruitbat, as they say.

So I've been looking at all the competing brands. It's been a while since I shopped for serious AV gear (to the extent that I ever have... an audiophile would shake his or her head sadly at the sight).

After some experience with this, I find that the bar has been raised. I used to be OK with going to a shop and looking at the boxes, asking the salesman questions etc. Not any more. If you don't have a website with a downloadable manual for the thing that I can read at home and compare with all the others - you don't make the cut.

And it had better be a complete manual, too. If you've got a feature, tell me about it. If I have to reply on the salesman, I'm not going to hear it. Partly because I'm at home surfing instead of in a shop talking, and partly because when I do talk to a salesman there's a good chance I'll know more than s/he does. Judging by recent experience, the salesman may not even know that the store stocks your brand.

Don't lie in your manual, either. The web will find out, and they will not be gentle.

It's the information age, and I love it. But some companies have had trouble catching up.