Blu-ray HD recording a reality in Australia at last

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 29 May 2008 09:58

Opinion and Analysis

Previously confined only to Japan, a consumer Blu-ray recorder able to record free-to-air 1080p digital HDTV broadcasts will finally land on Australian shores in June thanks to Panasonic. And wouldn’t you know it? It’s coming just in time for the Olympics!

With high definition television now a reality in Australia, one big question I’ve always had is when we’d be able to record HDTV to a removable media format as easily as standard definition (SD) television.

For years, recording SDTV has been simple – connect a video cassette recorder (VCR), a DVD recorder, a hard disk recorder or some combination of the three, with an inbuilt TV tuner to your television, and record what you want to your heart’s content.

But high definition recording onto removable media like a Blu-ray disc, so you could easily archive it or share it with your Blu-ray player owning friends and family? Well, without a PC based Blu-ray recorder and much more than your average know-how, there was no easy way at all.

This all changes now that Panasonic is releasing, in June, its first 1080p Full HD Blu-ray recorder, the DMR-BW500. Australia is also the first country out of Japan that Panasonic has ever released a Blu-ray recorder too, although other overseas markets (including the US and Europe) will soon receive this new model, too.

The DMR-BW500 naturally comes equipped with a Blu-ray player/recorder that handles single layer 25GB and dual layer 50GB Blu-ray BD-R (record once) and BD-RE (rewriterable) discs. But it’s not just a Blu-ray only device – it comes with a 500GB hard drive and twin HD tuners so you can record up to two full HD television shows at the same time.

Features such as the ability to pause live TV and rewind content you’re currently recording only add to the package, as does a full 7-day EPG (electronic program guide) making the selection and recording of TV programs a snap. You can even easily extend the recording time for a program if you don’t trust the TV network to end the show at its advertised timeslot.

Transferring an hour’s worth of HD video programming to a blank Blu-ray disc only takes 15 minutes, too, making the sharing of that video content as easy as recording it.

The 500GB hard drive can record up to 72 hours of full HD 1080p content, while each 50GB dual layer Blu-ray disc stores up to 6 hours and 40 minutes of 1080p recordings. These recording times obviously increase if programming is recorded in lesser HD modes or in standard definition.

There are plenty of other features to this new Blu-ray high-def, hard disk equipped recorder – please read on to page 2!