Matsushita, the maker of Panasonic brand products, has announced that it will start selling its two new hybrid Blu-ray DVD recorders on November 15th in Japan. The two recorders are the DMR-BW200 and DMR-BR100 and are referred to as hybrids since they also contain a hard drive.Both the BW200 and BR100 contain Blu-ray single, Blu-ray dual layer and DVD disc recording capabilities. In addition the lower end BR100 has a 200GB and a digital analog tuner, while its bigger cousin, the BW200, has a 500GB hard drive, dual digital tuners and one analog tuner.
These two machines make a real powerful high definition recording device giving you plenty of options on where you want to record your video. Choose from your hard drive, a DVD, or the spacious Blu-ray Discs.
Blu-ray discs can store in excess of 20GB of data per disc. Matsushita is one of a number of companies, including Sony, that have taken on the technology. In a battle that can be compared to the VHS-Betamax war of the 1980s; the Blu-ray format is up against Toshiba's competing format, HD DVD.
Matsushita has not said whether the hybrid recorders will be available outside of Japan, but it does intend to offer Blu-ray players in the US and Europe within a month or so. The reason for playback only devices is because Matsushita expects playback to be more important than recording devices in these nations.
With regards to price the BW200 will set you back a hefty $2550 while the DMR-BR100 will cost $2050.
