is the DR800 better than Iliad, any other alternatives?

[Jmirko]

I contacted SolidFX a few weeks ago with the exact same idea (before I saw the suggestion here). They replied within a day, but unfortunately refused - very politely - to sell me a unit. They said that supply is limited and they want to serve their main market (pilots) first.
This is interesting because I would have thought that any company selling their proprietary content on a digital device would have secured an unlimited supply of that device. I.e. found some Chinese manufacturer to produce the readers in the quantity required. Clearly this is not the case - or they just made up this excuse to avoid hurting my feelings :-)
In any case, good luck to them, I continue my quest for a DR800...