As a BD hardware manufacturer I will tell you the real reason for the the lack of BD STB recorders here in the US is due to Hollywood (gee, what a surprise!), not the rumor-mill of BD's early demise. None of the BD manufacturers are deliberately refusing to sell them. Hollywood is deliberately throwing up every legal obstacle possible, just as they did back in the years prior to DVD STB recorders. The rules, regulations and fees applied to OTA and other types of recording in Japan are significantly different than they are here.
Hollywood can't have that much leverage, surely? At the very least, a recorder that records OTA signals should be pretty much out of the legal clutches of Hollywood. And an HD DVR that supports unencrypted OTA signals and allows you to burn them to a standard Blu-ray disc would be extremely useful.
Of course, I'm not sure I'd spend $1,500+ on one, but I'm also not seeing why such a device has to cost more than $200+existing BD player price. The burning capability isn't going to cost all that more, a hard drive of decent capacity should be less than $100, and the tuner is probably around $20-30, with the BD player already containing everything needed to decode the OTA signals (MPEG2 + DD5.1)
There's more to PC games than computer towers and input devices... Enter the CM Storm Sirus, the outfit's first foray into the world of gaming headsets.
The most commented posts on Engadget over the past 24 hours.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
As a BD hardware manufacturer I will tell you the real reason for the the lack of BD STB recorders here in the US is due to Hollywood (gee, what a surprise!), not the rumor-mill of BD's early demise. None of the BD manufacturers are deliberately refusing to sell them. Hollywood is deliberately throwing up every legal obstacle possible, just as they did back in the years prior to DVD STB recorders. The rules, regulations and fees applied to OTA and other types of recording in Japan are significantly different than they are here.
Hollywood can't have that much leverage, surely? At the very least, a recorder that records OTA signals should be pretty much out of the legal clutches of Hollywood. And an HD DVR that supports unencrypted OTA signals and allows you to burn them to a standard Blu-ray disc would be extremely useful.
Of course, I'm not sure I'd spend $1,500+ on one, but I'm also not seeing why such a device has to cost more than $200+existing BD player price. The burning capability isn't going to cost all that more, a hard drive of decent capacity should be less than $100, and the tuner is probably around $20-30, with the BD player already containing everything needed to decode the OTA signals (MPEG2 + DD5.1)