Pioneer says it plans to work with Sharp to offer Blu-ray recorders in Japan by the end of the year.
Japanese electronics giant Pioneer has said it plans to work with Sharp to offer Blu-ray recorders on the Japanese market by the end of 2008, hoping to latch onto a growing market as consumers move past the so-called “format war” between HD DVD and Blu-ray. Sharp already offers (pricey) Blu-ray recorders, and is a major investor in Pioneer.
According to estimates from the Fuji Chimera Research Institute, the market for Blu-ray recorders in Japan is expected to explode between now and 2012, growing to some 3.6 million units a year.
Pioneer hasn’t announced any price ranges, feature sets, or target sales figures for its Blu-ray recorders, nor has it made any indication whether it plans to offer the recorders in overseas markets. In North America, Blu-ray has been slow to take hold outside of the PlayStation 3 video game console, as consumers looking for high-definition content seem relatively happy with upscaling standard DVDs and recording other high-definition content sources to hard drive-based DVRs, game consoles, appliances, or computers.
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RSSJust a few uses...
I'm not willing to fork out the money for 1st gen units (nor regular players for that matter), but eventually I'll find it useful enough to throw down some money on 2nd or 3rd gen.