Presently increasing numbers of users are turning to High Definition TV to watch the latest digital TV. And with this, the demand for recording high-definition content is also rising. However, high definition video consumes a lot of hard drive space.
Blu ray technology has been the answer for this problem. This technology makes use of similar MPEG-2 compression standard as DTV making it greatly compatible with the international standard for digital broadcasting. One dual-layer blu ray disc of fifty GB can store up to 6 hours of HD content. Though blu ray players are now available in the US and are more than capable of playing such high definition content, these lack the facility for recording high-definition content.
For this end, blu ray recorders have been created. These recorders use a 36Mbps data transfer rate which is adequate to record and playback digital high-definition transmissions while still preserving the original picture quality. Blu ray disc recorder can play video discs and at the same time record HD video telecast on television.
Blu ray recorders are currently available only in Japan and started off as almost a revolution to digital broadcasting. Several of the producers of blu ray recorders are Zenith, Yamaha, Sony, Sharp, Samsung, Pioneer, Philips, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, JVC, Hitachi, and Amex.
Customers in the USA and Canada have been waiting for the blu ray recorders for quite some time now. Though it is always speculated, it has not materialized. In the first 6 months of 2009, Panasonic, nevertheless, is slated to introduce the first freestanding blu ray recorder in the United States of America. Expectations for blu ray recorders make the market prospective, but blu ray recorders will encounter tough contests from the rest of the available HD recording tools such as the HD-TIVO and Cable/Satellite HD-DVRs.
Movie studios and other content providers are also demanding certain copy-protection requirements to be met by blu ray recorders. Additionally, as experienced by Japan, the price of blu ray recorders is very much on the higher side than the price of a standalone blu ray player (by now available in the US) which the US market deems to be quite pricey. Another factor to consider here is the price of HD DVRs. A blank 25GB BD-R Disc is fairly pricey.
Despite all the negatives, the introduction of blu ray recorders to the US is a much awaited phenomena.