Blu-ray Disc Recorders Are A Big Hit...In Japan

While Blu-ray Disc players are finally appearing to take off in the U.S., there is one thing missing: Recording capability. However, this is not the case in Japan, where both Blu-ray Disc Players and Recorders are becoming quite acceptable, especially Blu-ray/Hard Drive combinations which allow extra flexibility for recording and dubbing functions.

Just an example what is currently available in the "land of the rising sun", Sony offers several Blu-ray Disc/Hard Drive Recorder combinations with HDD recording capacity ranging from 250 to 500GB, while Panasonic offers four Blu-ray Disc/HDD recorder models, including its BDW900 which houses a 1 Terabyte (1,000 GB) Hard Drive, and Sharp has come online with two Blu-ray Disc/HDD combos of its own, with one also having 1 TB hard drive recording capacity to supplement Blu-ray Disc recording.

However, although Blu-ray Disc recorders have been available in Japan for about two years, and new models are being introduced, don't get too excited, as there is no official word on when, or if, these, or similiar units will become available in the U.S. anytime soon. With competition from other high definition recording devices, such as the HD-TIVO and Cable/Satellite HD-DVRs, as well as copy-protection requirements demanded by the movie studios and other programing sources; Sony, Panasonic, and other Japanese Blu-ray Disc Recorder manufactuerers are very reluctant to put the effort into making standalone Blu-ray Disc recorders available to the U.S. consumer, at least for the near future.