Blu-ray recorders? (sorry if already covered!)

[I Love Blu]

Hi People,

Having looked at the tabs on this site there is a page with some models of recorders on it yet when you google them all info goes back to 2002-04!!

Has anyone bought one out yet, if not why not? Is it a case why should they?

HD aqusition done in other formats such as HDcam/HDV etc, i understand.

Sky HD box has HDD recording. so i guess the demand isn't really there?

Anyone have info or ideas?

Cheers

[wiyosaya]

The page you refer to states that once stand-alone Blu-ray recorders become available in the US, it will be updated.

The public position from manufacturers for the lack of stand-alone BR recorders in the US is that the US uses DVRs to record material. Personally, I think that is bunk. IMHO, I think the real reason is more related to piracy than the popularity of DVRs in the US. While there is a DVR market in the US, IMHO, there is also a market for stand-alone BR recorders.

In Japan, AFAIK, there are only stand-alone BR recorders that are sold; there are no BR players sold. In addition, stand-alone BR recorder sales have surpassed DVD recorder sales there.

There are rumors that Panasonic will release a stand-alone recorder in the US in early 2009, but these have been denied by Panasonic engineers.

CES occurs this weekend - Jan 8 - 11, 2009 and may or may not bring news of stand-alone recorders for the US market. IMHO, it is worth watching to see if news of recorders happens (as well as for whether or not Canon will show an SED display).

IMHO, for stand-alone BR recorders to be successful in the US, they must include an HDMI input that is capable of accepting and recording HD video and audio. In Japan, they use FireWire, however, there are few, if any, devices in the US that have FireWire; the defacto US standard appears to be HDMI at this point.

I am waiting to enter the BR arena until a stand-alone BR recorder with an HDMI input appears in the US market. IMHO, the longer that takes to happen, the greater the damage to the US BR market. It is difficult to archive from a DVR, and that is what I want to do with some of the material I record (as is my right under "fair use laws") - as I could with VHS.

In summation, your guess is as good as mine as to when stand-alone BR recorders will appear on the US market.

[brettallica]

I'd love to upgrade my DVD recorder to a Blu-ray recorder. That would be so awesome. If I know the United States and their piracy fear, though, they'll put the lockdown on which shows/movies you'll be able to burn to disc (or "archive" as the previous post says). Currently, or at least when I had cable -- I now have DirecTV -- there were a TON of shows that you could not record to disc because they were locked out.

The United States (and possibly the world -- I don't really know) fears the distribution of illegitimately obtained digital copies; with Blu-ray recorders coming into the mix now, I can understand why "The Man" wouldn't want those around.

[Blu-Jawa]

I have checked ces site. and did not find any news about a "set-top blu-ray recorder"? is it still too soon??

[DigitalfreakNYC]

So what would happen if you purchased a recorder over there and brought it over here? Would you be able to use it?

[StereoMike]

Originally Posted by DigitalfreakNYC

So what would happen if you purchased a recorder over there and brought it over here? Would you be able to use it?

Yes, if your DVR has Firewire output. I have the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD and it has 2 of them. But you won't be able to use the tuner inside the recorder.