Can any Standalone also Record?

[ToonyLoons]

I was just wondering are there any stand alone BD players out or coming out that also record onto blank Blu-Ray media?

[JadedRaverLA]

Originally Posted by ToonyLoons

I was just wondering are there any stand alone BD players out or coming out that also record onto blank Blu-Ray media?

There are many in Japan.

In the U.s., there are many problems with such a product, the biggest of which being that we have numerous different standards for broadcasting HDTV (ATSC over-the-air, cable, and satellite). Since most people in the U.S. get their HDTV from either cable or satellite you would need to provide a cable-card style tuner for cable users or strike a deal with the satellite companies to produce compatible tuners for their systems in order to release such a product. While Tivo has made a business of this (at least with cablecards), the products would necessarily be more expensive to produce and provide service for than they would be in Japan or other areas.

Once the new standard (it's name slips my mind) comes out to replace cablecard, and BD recorders that use the new BD-RE 3.0/BD-R 2.0 discs (which allow for copy protection) are out, I expect we'll see recorders hit the U.S. in a big way.

[ToonyLoons]

I was just unaware on any available or not. I was under the assumption that all the standalones available in the US were not recoardable. I noticed in a catalog that mentioned recording on to a 25 gig disc. I did not know if it is something that I should report on to get a disclaimer out if the catalog is infact incorrect. At this time I dont think I can say where I saw it... yet.

Thank you for the responce Jaded.

[JadedRaverLA]

Originally Posted by ToonyLoons

I was just unaware on any available or not. I was under the assumption that all the standalones available in the US were not recoardable. I noticed in a catalog that mentioned recording on to a 25 gig disc. I did not know if it is something that I should report on to get a disclaimer out if the catalog is infact incorrect. At this time I dont think I can say where I saw it... yet.

Thank you for the responce Jaded.

No problem. There are presently no settop recorders available in the U.S. Technically, some of the early BD players (the first-gen Pioneer and Sony players) actually used BD-recordable drives to read the discs, but they didn't actually allow you to record. This was simply because, at the time, Pioneer's only PC BD drive was a recorder. On the PC the situation is entirely different. Many PC BD-R/RE burners exist, some that work only with 25 GB discs, and some that work with both 25 and 50 GB discs. But none are for DVR-type use... only within a PC.