Slashdot Mirror


New DVD Recorder With 52 hours Of HDD Recording Time

BlueQuark writes "I thought that this is cool. Everybody needs one. When I was liviving in Tokyo about a year and a half ago, Pioneer just released a DVD Recorder, which was quite nice. Now it looks like Panasonic will have one that does 52 hours. It's about 200,000 yen or about $1709.00 @ 117.76Tokyo's Y/$ rate. The blurb is a bit short, but can be found here. Or here is a more complete press release which is at Matsushita's site."

14 of 109 comments (clear)

  1. Cool by SpanishInquisition · · Score: 3, Funny

    52 hours of porn is what I need.

    --
    Je t'aime Stéphanie
    1. Re:Cool by hoggoth · · Score: 5, Funny

      > 52 hours of porn is what I need.

      Actually, from what I hear, 30 seconds of porn is what you need.

      --
      - For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat /dev/random (may take some time)
  2. Popup alert by Spootnik · · Score: 5, Funny

    MPAA would like to interrupt your DVD recording to inform you that your media will autodestruct in 3, 2, 1...

  3. HDD not HD by meatplow · · Score: 3, Flamebait

    There is a HUGE difference between
    HARD DRIVE - HDD
    and
    HIGH DEFINITION - HD
    please update headline....



    http://www.fuckbunny.org

  4. Media company responese? by plaisted · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Looks like TiVo that retails for $2000 and writes to DVDs. Won't the media companies try to block this in any way they can? With TiVo you had to hack your unit to be able to read from the hard drive and get the video on your computer so you could post it on the net, but with this you just write to a DVD and then read it to your computer.

    Of course, if this becomes popular then maybe CmdrTaco won't have to complain about having missed the Enterprise pilot episode.

    1. Re:Media company responese? by Sc00ter · · Score: 3, Informative

      Well it doesn't seem like it has all the cool TiVo features (thumbs up/down, guide, season passes). and remember, this isn't in the US.

  5. Here is the Press Release in case it gets /.'d by Cy+Guy · · Score: 5, Informative

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
    Media Contacts: Akira Kadota, International PR, Tokyo
    Tel: 03-3578-1237 Fax: 03-3437-2776
    Yoshihiro Kitadeya, International PR, Osaka
    Tel: 06-6908-0447 Fax: 06-6907-2013

    Matsushita Electric (Panasonic) Introduces New DMR-HS1 DVD Video Recorder with built-in HDD
    -- Offers a maximum of 52 hours of recording with built-in HDD --
    PIC
    OSAKA, Japan -- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., best known for its Panasonic brand of consumer electronic and digital communications products, today announced that it will introduce a new DVD video recorder with built-in hard disk drive (HDD), the DMR-HS1, to kick off its new lineup of DVD video recorders. By combining an HDD with a DVD recorder, the new unit enables a maximum of 52 hours of recording on the HDD and 12 hours on DVD-RAM discs to realize easy editing and storage of recorded TV broadcasts and images from digital video cameras. The DMR-HS1 will be launched in the Japanese market on December 1, 2001 at a price of 200,000 yen. In addition, the new DVD video recorder will be exhibited at the Panasonic booth at CEATEC JAPAN 2001, to be held from October 2 to 6 at Makuhari Messe (Nippon Convention Center) in Chiba, east of Tokyo.

    Panasonic's DMR-HS1 DVD video recorder offers a wide range of recording versatility. The internal 40 GB HDD makes possible up to 52 hours of extended recording in EP mode to the HDD and 12 hours to a double-sided DVD-RAM disc. Timer recording can automatically reuse the recorded program settings every week for serial TV programs, freeing viewers from having to delete last week's episodes to retrieve space for new ones when disk space is limited.

    In addition, a "Time Slip" function is offered that includes Chase Playback and Simultaneous Recording and Playback capabilities. This function enables playback from any point in a previously recorded or currently recording program while recording continues until the current program's end.

    Employing an iLINK cable and incorporated DV input terminal, high quality digital images can be dubbed onto DVD-RAM and DVD-R discs through its easy-to-use "DV Automatic Recording" mode. The "Play List," a list of still images representing a sequence of scenes, can be made automatically to make editing easier. High-speed dubbing at 22 Mbps from the HDD to DVD-RAM can be done with the touch of a single button, enabling 12x speed in EP mode at its quickest (e.g., a one-hour program can be dubbed in just 5 minutes). Dubbing from DVD-RAM to the HDD is available as well.

    The DVD video recording technology used in this new unit complies with the DVD-RAM recording formats standardized by the DVD Forum. DVD-RAM is not only compatible with both audio/video and PC applications, but its optical format also boasts superior rewritability, allowing approximately 100,000 rewrites per disc.

    The global demand for DVD players in fiscal year 2001 (year ending March 2002) is forecast to reach 25 million units, with more than 11,000 DVD software titles. With its vast capacity, high-speed data transmission, high-speed random access, exceptional image quality, and high sound quality, DVD-RAM is the optimal choice in today's expanding digital media environment.

    About Matsushita Electric Industrial
    Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., best known for its Panasonic, National, Technics, and Quasar brand names, is a worldwide leader in the development and manufacture of electronics products for a wide range of consumer, business, and industrial needs. Based in Osaka, Japan, the company recorded consolidated sales of US$61.45 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2001. In addition to the Tokyo and other Japanese stock exchanges (6752), Matsushita's shares are also listed on the Amsterdam, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, New York, Pacific (NYSE/PCX: MC), and Paris stock exchanges. For more information, visit the Matsushita web site at http://www.panasonic.co.jp/global/top.html.

  6. some specifics by Alien54 · · Score: 3, Insightful
    By combining an HDD with a DVD recorder, the new unit enables a maximum of 52 hours of recording on the HDD and 12 hours on DVD-RAM discs to realize easy editing and storage of recorded TV broadcasts and images from digital video cameras. [...] The internal 40 GB HDD makes possible up to 52 hours of extended recording in EP mode to the HDD and 12 hours to a double-sided DVD-RAM disc. [...] High-speed dubbing at 22 Mbps from the HDD to DVD-RAM can be done with the touch of a single button, enabling 12x speed in EP mode at its quickest (e.g., a one-hour program can be dubbed in just 5 minutes). Dubbing from DVD-RAM to the HDD is available as well.

    don't forget those essential copy protection features!

    --
    "It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
  7. 52 hours = 40 GB = $80 by peter303 · · Score: 4, Informative

    The press release says 52 hours is 40 GB.
    (Most DVCR users would recommend 2GB / hour.)
    Even so, the disk cost should be $80 at current
    commodity disk prices.

  8. Does this use ReplayTV? by crow · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is from the one company that has previously partnered with ReplayTV. I didn't see anything about the software they're using; whether it's their own or from a partner. I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out they're partnering with ReplayTV on this, just like they did with the Showstopper.

  9. Re:divx? by tjackson · · Score: 5, Interesting

    With Divx running at Quantizer 2 (Which mean compress it as little as possible, a.k.a.: Highest quality), The bandwidth used is about 2-3 Mbaud. If you use AC3 Audio, the bandwith for that is 192Kbaud - 384Kbaud. So, a maximal estimate would be 3456Kbaud. That's 432 KB/sec. A Single sided/single layer DVD holds about 4GB. 4GB / 432KB = 9709 sec = 161 min = 2.7Hours. Interesting... works out to about the same as a good length (but still ugly) VHS tape.

    If you make it double sided, It goes up to 323min/5.4hr. If you can manage to make it record Double-sided, double-LAYERed, you'll get 647min/10.8hr.

    Mind you, these are excessive estimates. This would be visibly lossless encoding (not lossless, but you wouldn't be able to tell). It rarely gets up to 3MBaud when you're encoding regular video. 1.5MBaud would be very much sufficient. Use that for the numbers and you can pretty much double it.

    Number of minutes:
    HQ BQ (High/Best)
    SS: 323 161
    DS: 647 323
    DD: 1294 647

    So, at HQ/DD you get 21.5hrs.

  10. Re:Copywrite Implications? by well_jung · · Score: 4, Informative
    This won't affect it too much. It uses DVD-RAM, which few poeple actually care to invest in (DVD-RW is the standard for desktop DVD recording)

    They won't play in regular DVD players (different media)

    --
    Carl G. Jung
    --
    "With one breath, with one flow, You will know Synchronicity" -La Policia
  11. Re:200 hour tivo by RedX · · Score: 3, Offtopic

    Check out the TiVo Hack FAQ for all the info you need. The drive upgrade is so easy, even a Windows user can do it.

  12. Post it on the net? by oneiros27 · · Score: 3, Informative
    Why not just wait for the ReplayTV new offerings?

    $2000, and it's got an ethernet port, so you can just hook it to the internet and share it with others:
    http://www.replaytv.com/partners_products/features .html

    (the $2000 model is 320hrs...they don't mention a drive size, so I'm going to assume it'll record about 200hrs of decent quality stuff, based on the way TiVo numbers their stuff...there's also a $700 model, with only '40 hours' [ie, 25hrs-ish] record time)

    And before you complain that 'but then the folks you send it to will have to have the same brand machine', you didn't think that even though thesre new boxes mentions write to DVD-RAM, that they'd be encoded in a way to read from a normal DVD player, did you? That encoding would take too long for 'em to be able to do in real time without it costing some serious cash.
    --
    Build it, and they will come^Hplain.