Panasonic justifies Blu-ray recorder cost by asking "How much are memories worth to you?"

Apparently blissfully unaware of how much the Engadget staff has paid for the events of the last CES to be forgotten, Panasonic is promoting the UK launch of its FreeSat+ compatible series of Blu-ray recorders (£999 for the 500GB DMR-BS850) by promising to archive ones most valuable memories. Is that enough for you to navigate the various copy protection flags towards Blu-ray disc archival, or will you risk the family Christmas video (worth £542) on something less than a 50GB Blu-ray disc?

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 1st 2009 4:37PM]

That is just fine, but when are we going to see Blu-ray Disc recorders here in the state?

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 1st 2009 6:02PM]

Never

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 1st 2009 6:43PM]

Alright, let's assume that "Never" is true. Then the question becomes "Why not?". And, what can we the consumers do to change that? I was promised over twenty years ago that I could record television for my own use and I don't like having rights taken away from me!

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 1st 2009 8:46PM]

Believe it or not, the MPAA has said that you still have those rights because you can point a camcorder at your screen and record the results.

The really odd thing is that given the relative quality of the things, it probably will not be that long before that's a serious option. A 2160P camera pointing at a 1080P 10,000:1 monitor? That might even work.

At this point though, there are options for putting recorded ATSC TV into DVD/BD. I made an "HD" DVD of a movie I recorded a few weeks ago as a proof of concept and the process was lossless. It actually plays on my HD DVD player though that's an aside. What you need is a PC with an ATSC tuner and DVR software like Myth. ATSC is unencrypted. DVD burners are cheap, and BD burners may come down to a reasonable price (though whether they'll ever compete with hard disk prices is open to question)

If you want to burn OTA TV onto a disc playable on your BD or DVD players, the options exist today. Cable and satellite though, well, that's just not going to happen any time soon.

[DrXym Posted Jul 2nd 2009 4:08AM]

Panasonics recorders are just too expensive, pure and simple. Humax sells a Freesat 320Gb HD PVR for £299, so Panasonic's PVR which is also equipped with a BDR really shouldn't cost more than £399.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 2nd 2009 8:37AM]

Hmm... so if I remember renting and watching a movie on BD... does that mean I can record that "memory" to a new BD with this device? :)

No wait, that would be piracy... and we can't have any of that!

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 2nd 2009 11:48AM]

If you want to view said memories using a panasonic ptae 3000 in South Africa your memories will have to be more than twice as good as those in the U.S. or U.K.

or will South Africa get a different equation ?

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 2nd 2009 12:22PM]

I tried the formula above, it produced an error.....

Division by Zero

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 21st 2009 9:43PM]

So T-bone, you have 0 personality? lol

Nice joke bro!

But this Panasonic BD recorder is the greatest joke of all!

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 2nd 2009 2:57PM]

Dude - Not our fault (or Panasonic's) that you have no personality.