New Panasonic DMR-BS850 Blu-ray recorder

[admin_exported]

I may be a little dim... but in your review of this latest product, I just don't understand the term Blu-ray recorder.

It includes a 500GB hardrive, does this mean you can record your Blu-rays to the hardrive?

If this is not the case, then what is the point...

Hardrives are the future in my opinion. Quick access, Easy storage, Portable, Huge storage capacity.

Why would I want to take up shelf space with 200 Blu-Ray discs when a simple box can store it all.

So... Can this be done by the new pana recorder and if not is there anything that can do this?

Cheers

 

[Andy Clough]

You can record TV programmes either to the hard drive, or a blank Blu-ray disc. The point of recording to Blu-ray is if you want to back up stuff on the hard drive and keep it for longer once you've deleted it from the HDD. You'd be surprised how quickly the HDD will fill up, especially if you're recording a lot of data-hungry high-def programmes.

And many people will want to transfer home videos (parties/weddings etc) to Blu-ray, especially if they have an HD camcorder.

But no, you won't be able to record shop-bought Blu-ray films to the HDD as they have copy protection on them to prevent this.

It's all explained in our Special Report on the new Panasonic recorders.