I think this product will have a tough time selling. What Hi-Fi has a more in-depth price list and the prices run anywhere from £599 to £999 depending on storage and choice of DVD or Blu. Even the cheapest model is £200 than the Humax Foxsat HDR which isn't exactly that cheap to start with. DVD / BD recording is nice but such a device has to be competitive with devices already out there. On top of that, there is the issue of how do you record HD content to Blu Ray / DVD. Can you even do it, when HD content is apparently protected by content control bits?
I own the Humax device and its pretty decent although it could do with a usability makeover to fix navigational complexity and non-obvious behaviour. Competition would be nice too but I don't think Pansonic's offerings are going to give it unless they have a few cheaper models to fill out the lower ends of the scale. The Humax allows users to copy unprotected content to an external USB so in theory you could burn your own stuff if it was just an occasional thing you had to do.
I have two D-VHS decks that recorded encrypted HDTV MPEG2 TS to VHS tape. The tapes could be placed in different machines too... they weren't device-locked. Of course, the tape decks sucked and both mine are dead now, but that's a different, blood-boiling story.
Anywho, the technology to record HD has been there for ages. And since Blu-ray is an encrypted format, all they have to do is apply AACS encryption and it meets the 5C license and will be playable in all BD players.
"There's a certain amount of dumbing down, to be sure, and nothing's going to beat your laptop for speed or comprehensiveness in bopping around this sort of information."
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I think this product will have a tough time selling. What Hi-Fi has a more in-depth price list and the prices run anywhere from £599 to £999 depending on storage and choice of DVD or Blu. Even the cheapest model is £200 than the Humax Foxsat HDR which isn't exactly that cheap to start with. DVD / BD recording is nice but such a device has to be competitive with devices already out there. On top of that, there is the issue of how do you record HD content to Blu Ray / DVD. Can you even do it, when HD content is apparently protected by content control bits?
I own the Humax device and its pretty decent although it could do with a usability makeover to fix navigational complexity and non-obvious behaviour. Competition would be nice too but I don't think Pansonic's offerings are going to give it unless they have a few cheaper models to fill out the lower ends of the scale. The Humax allows users to copy unprotected content to an external USB so in theory you could burn your own stuff if it was just an occasional thing you had to do.
I have two D-VHS decks that recorded encrypted HDTV MPEG2 TS to VHS tape. The tapes could be placed in different machines too... they weren't device-locked. Of course, the tape decks sucked and both mine are dead now, but that's a different, blood-boiling story.
Anywho, the technology to record HD has been there for ages. And since Blu-ray is an encrypted format, all they have to do is apply AACS encryption and it meets the 5C license and will be playable in all BD players.
-Pie