Panasonic has unveiled two Freeview+HD Blu-ray recorders – with the DMR-BW880 and BW780 both bringing dual tuners, hard drive storage and 5.1 channel surround sound.
The need for mass storage is enhanced by the arrival of Freeview HD, with the higher definition pictures needing more space.
Panasonic's two new arrivals allow recording to dual-layer Blu-ray discs and come with an SD memory card slot for AVCHD camcorder footage and photographs.
Full HD
"Both Blu-ray disc Recorders feature twin HD terrestrial tuners or satellite tuners, which enable customers to record digital broadcasts in full-HD quality," adds Panasonic.
"Besides their ability to record two digital broadcasts at the same time, the twin HD tuners also allow users without a digital TV to watch a digital broadcast and record it simultaneously.
"5.1-channel surround sound (Dolby Digital or Dolby Digital Plus) signal and subtitles that are included in digital broadcasts can also be recorded, allowing users to enjoy surround sound and subtitles during playback."
The DMR-BW880EBK has a 500GB hard drive and the 780 has a smaller 250GB hard drive.
Your comments (3) Click to add a new comment
xmb
June 12th 2010
3. Just be warned you can only get 5.1 surround sound via the HDMI connection! There is no transcoding to the optical or coaxial digital audio connectors!
Also it takes ages to read a Blu-ray movie before it is ready to play it back. It is much faster on my PS3 that this unit!
My wife complains the menus are much slower to appear than on my old Humax 9300T PVR. Not what you expect from a piece of cutting edge technology!
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xmb
June 6th 2010
2. This unit works fine with a Sony SR12E via USB and can copy directly to Blu-ray or HDD. Playback of the AVCHD is better than on a Sony PS3!
You can burn the captured AVCHD (that you transferred to the HDD) to a Blu-ray disc or to a normal recordable DVD (still in HD AVCHD format) for latter replay on most Blu-ray players (or a Sony PS3).
It is a bit pricy but has a lot of features for the money. Well done to Panasonic for bring us such a unit to the UK. Sony and others are noticeable by their absence!
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amerhammer2008
June 5th 2010
1. Too little, too late as far as I am concerned. Korea and the US have had HD broadcasts for the last 15 years and Sony have been selling their blu-ray recorders in Japan since 2003. As usual, us English ebing the undiscerning lot that we are have been content to root around in 'muck' as it were whilst other countries have been making steady progress. Only Panasonic have bothered to venture into the field of blu-ray recorder production for the UK consumer market and it would surprise me not in the slightest if there are incompatibility issues should anyone with a Sony HD camcorder try to transfer their footgae onto the deck's hard drive for editing and then burning onto a blu-ray disc thereafter.
What a real pity.
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