Panasonic DMR-BW500 recordable Blu-ray and PVR is Australia's first
Panasonic has launched its new all-in-one Blu-ray burner and PVR in the Australian market, claiming it to be the first recorder on the continent.
The DMR-BW500 boasts some impressive features, including a 500GB hard drive, twin TV tuners, Blu-ray burner, and full PVR functionality including up to an eight hour buffer for live TV.
Australia already has some over-the-air high definition content in 1080i format, so that hard drive can be put to good use, though it can only store 36 hours of true HD footage, such as that shot from a high definition camcorder.
Live TV can be recorder to the hard drive or directly to a Blu-ray disc, and the Blu-ray player supports the latest features you’d expect, including 24p playback and audio codec support. Apparently, there’s no Ethernet port, which is a very strange omission and one I’m surprised Panasonic would tolerate — if true, it means no Internet firmware upgrades.
It costs around AU$2,199, which is over £1,000, though there’s no mention of when it will make its way to Europe.
(Via APC Mag)
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