Matsushita—doing business under its consumer brand Panasonic—has announced it plans to bring two Blu-ray player/recorders to market beginning November 15, 2006 (Japanese; English machine translation)…the catch is that they’ll land in Japan, with releases in North American, European, and other markets still undetermined.
“The combination of recorder and player for the Blu-ray format is the first of this kind in the world,” said Matsushita spokesperson Akira Kadota. “For Japanese consumers, the recording function is essential as the quality of TV screens here is very high.”
The DMR-BW100 and DMR-BW200 offer 200 GB and 500 GB of recording capacity, respectively, and both units offer 1080p capable HDMI with 7.1 surround sound support and can burn dual-layer Blu-ray media at 4× speeds. The DMR-BW100 sports 1× digital and 1× terrestrial analog TV tuners, while the higher-end DMR-BW200 will sport 2× digital (terrestrial and satellite) TV tuners, an external FireWire connector to add more storage, and Ethernet. Matsushita is leaving pricing “open”—meaning retailers can charge whatever they like—but the DM-BW100 and DMR-BW200 units are expected to be priced at about ¥200,000 and ¥300,000 respectively—that’s about $1,700 and $2,600 USD.
There’s no word on when versions of these units will be adapted for the North American or European markets, or what pricing they might carry. Matsushita is only getting around to introducing Blu-ray players in Europe this November, leading analysts to suspect records won’t hit the market for some time.
