Who'd have thought there'd be a
fanclub for Sony gear?
Guides/forum answers range from ignoramus level through to audiophile/tech. I'm sure "idiot guide" will fall somewhere in there.
I quite like the Sony gear and built a component home theatre/cd/ hd recorder setup.
You don't need to go that far, (which isn't that far, really, it just seems that way when you're writing the cheques out.) But a hard drive video recorder is a very good idea. They're rapidly getting cheaper. Still don't know about getting a blue laser model yet, though. Probably by the time the industry settles on which format is going to win the market share, something else will have arrived.