Panasonic has announced that it is to begin selling its range of Blu-ray disc recorders in Europe later this year.
If you are UK-based, don't get too excited, however, as the machines aren't quite ready to travel across the English Channel, stopping off instead in France.
Our Gallic cousins are the first European country to get both the entry-level DMP-BD35 and the higher-end DMP-BD55.
Both of these models have been available in Japan for some time now, so it's great to see them inch that little bit closer to the UK.
At an IFA press conference today, Panasonic explained why the players are to hit France first and it is because the country has already got the necessary HD channels and infrastructure.
Panasonic cited that the HD infrastructure is similar to both Australia and Japan – the two other places where the machines are sold.
UK made to wait
The UK apparently won't see them until we have a wider availability of HD content to burn to shiny disc.
The BD recorders are compatible with Profile 2.0 content (BD-Live), so even if you use them just as players, they are fully up to date with all things Blu-ray.
And if you've been shooting AVCHD footage on your camcorder and want to copy it to a Blu-ray disc (you clever thing you) then you'll be able to do this via the machines.
Pricing and availability has yet to be announced.
