Tokyo (Japan) - Sony has announced that it will no longer produce DVD-based personal video recorders, and instead will put all of its eggs in the Blu-ray basket.

Alongside the announcement, Sony unveiled four new Blu-ray Disc-based digital recorders.  They contain support for dual-layer discs, which can hold around eight hours of HDTV content.

All of the new models also include hard disk drives of up to 500 GB.  Users can burn HDD-stored video to recordable BD media at up to 4x speed.  It supports the AVCHD, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4 AVC formats.

The players will be available in Japan in November, ranging in price from around $1,200 to $1,750.  Sony currently has much less ambitious plans for BD-based video recorders in the US, and has not announced availability for the four new devices outside of Japan.

At this price who cares?

Sep 13, 2007 16:11     

At at least $1,200 who really gives a crap. On top of the price this is just stupid. There is reason you don't put all of your efforts into one product. When Blu-Ray fails Sony will go with it straight down the drain. I can't say I'm not glad to say 'good riddance' though.
Chase report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

It better be a lot cheaper when it comes to PS3. T...

Sep 13, 2007 16:25     

It better be a lot cheaper when it comes to PS3. That is all I have to say.
Jerry report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Sony never learns

Sep 13, 2007 16:35     

I love Sony TV's, but come on, that is just a stupid business model. Let's bet it all on a throw the dice and hope we win. Somebody needs a gambling 12-step program at Sony!
Dude report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Sony just loves selling stuff at a higher price

Sep 13, 2007 19:16     

I really can't think of 1 thing Sony sells that is cheaper than their major competitors. HDTV's, DVD players, game consoles, everything has to be more expensive because its got big fat letters S-O-N-Y stuck on it.
David Wang report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Did anyone actually read the artcile?

Sep 13, 2007 20:12     

$1200 for a Blue Ray recorder for burning HD content is a good deal as far as I'm concerned. I've been waiting for this move for some time..too bad the states is behind in technology and we have to wait.
Demerz report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Sony's share on DVD DVR is small

Sep 13, 2007 20:47     

As the title, they don't have much to lose in quiting this segment. Sony is too late to enter this market and competing with those cheap recorders from Korea and China brands is not wise at this moment when HD is coming.
PoorGuy report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Will look for it at WalMart!!!

Sep 13, 2007 21:56     

or not.....
Jon report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

re:Sony just loves selling stuff at a higher price

Sep 14, 2007 06:56     

Apple and other companies do the same thing. Do you expect it for the same price as the Chinese junk? They spend a lot of money advertising. At least brand name products work and they look nice.
J. Doe report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

RE: Dude

Sep 14, 2007 07:35     

Wow, Yep, Sony never learns. Maybe you should be the CEO of Sony then ... oh wait, you cant, you're just one of those whinning cheap little punk who cant afford any quality stuff but RCA ... yep yep. Sony never learns. Im glad that they never learn.
Chick0n report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Another 10-year cycle, Sony?

Sep 14, 2007 09:29     

This makes no sense except in a -very- long-term view. People will be holding on to their DVD players for a long time to come; how much is a DVD-R compared to a Blu-Ray DVD-R? Yeah, the US lags behind, but does everyone in Japan already own an HD-DVD set and Blu-Ray player?
Steve report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

To bad HD DVD has already won

Sep 14, 2007 10:38     

Sounds like a controversial title, but the simple fact is that more movies are available on HD DVD. Now that sounds even weirder right? Because we all think 7 out of ten studios release on Blu-Ray. That is true, well, 6 out of ten (Paramount/Dreamworks jumped ship recently) support Blu-Ray in the US and Japan. But go to amazon.co.uk, and you can order supposedly Blu-Ray only movies on HD DVD. How can this happen? Go to audioholics.com and search for "Blu-Rays dirty little secret."

Allen report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

It won't ever make it to the US if the current ment...

Sep 14, 2007 10:50     

It won't ever make it to the US if the current mentality prevails. It seems all the PVR products that combined a HiDef tuner DVD burner hard disk have been pulled from the market out of fear of lawsuits. Panasonic and Toshiba introduced units only to discontinue them shortly thereafter.
Larry report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

burning HD content

Sep 14, 2007 11:04     

: $1200 for a Blue Ray recorder for burning HD content is a good deal : what HD content are you going to burn, exactly? Sony will not let you do anything HD without HDMI, which will STOP you recording HD. so what content are you proposing this is useful for? A mate bought the topend bravia recently, and I was disgusted it wouldn't take 1080p via component or full resolution via vga. He paid over the odds to be limited artificially by Sony. lesser brands allow such features.

tapi report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Hd-dvd & blu-ray will be gone in a year

Sep 15, 2007 08:46     

There is a much cheaper hd format called HD-VMD it was out at CEDIA top end player will be $190 and low end $150. Not only that but media is much cheaper and the recording industry that does dvd now will not require re-tooling. They are in talks with the movie industry, this will be the WII for set top players. Not only this it backwards compatible with dvd!.
Ron report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

RE: Hd-dve & blu-ray will be gone in a year

Sep 16, 2007 12:05     

I liked the idea of HD-VMD until I learned it was not compatible with any of the advanced audio codecs. Good-bye Dolby HD and DTS HD Master Audio.
Christopher report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

@Allen

Sep 19, 2007 11:30     

Have you even READ the article?
liquefire report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0