New Matusushita Blu-ray Recorders for Japan

Matsushita has ann ounced it plans to offer three new Blu-ray recorders that can store up to 18 hours of HD video on a 50 GB Blu-ray disc.

At this year’s Ceatec show in Japan (Japanese), Matsushita announced three new Blu-ray recorders which will be able to cram up to 18 hours of high-definition video onto a single 50 GB Blu-ray recordable disc—although, for now, the company has no plans to offer them outside Japan.

The new Blu-ray recorders—model numbers DMR-BW700, DMR-BW800, and DMR-BW900—can store video to internal hard disk drives, in addition to burning video to Blu-ray disc for long-term safekeeping. The three units will feature hard drive sizes of 250 GB, 500 GB, and 1 TB, respectively, with prices of ¥180,000, ¥230,000, and ¥300,000 (about $1,550, $1,985, and $2590 U.S. dollars). The one terabyte drive offers enough capacity to store from 160 to 380 hours of high definition video, depending on the MPEG4 recording mode used, or 127 hours of uncompressed MPEG2 video. The systems are due to go on sale in Japan on November 1. All three units support 7.1 surround sound TrueHD, DTS-HD audio, and AVCHD playback.

Matsushita also announced it plans to offer three hard drive-equipped DVD recorders which can store high-definition video on standard DVD media; the high-end model will go on sale November 1 wth a 500 GB disk and a price tag around &yen130,000 (about $1,120 U.S.). It’s likely the recorders simple use standard DVD media as a storage platform for high-definition video: the standard DVD discs burned from these units wouldn’t be playable in standard DVD players. Although, for the truly retro-minded, one of these units will offer a 250 GB hard drive and an integrated VHS player.

Not to be left out, at Ceatec Toshiba also announced a hard drive-equipped Vardia DVD/HD DVD recorder which also claims to be able to burn up to two hours of high-definition video to standard DVD media. Again, these DVDs wouldn’t be playable in standard-definition DVD players, but, then again, standard DVD media is considerably cheaper than its high-definition counterparts. The company has not revealed any information on pricing, availability, or if it plans to offer the systems outside the Japanese market.