Panasonic Dmr-bw500 Blu-ray Disc Recorder

The Age

Thursday June 19, 2008

Simon Tsang

$2199

4.5/5

panasonic.com.au

Meet the future of digital TV recording. This model is the first Blu-ray recorder on the Australian market and a good indicator of what to expect in the coming months from the other companies. In addition to being able to burn HD recordings to

Blu-ray discs, it is equipped with a 500GB hard drive capable of storing up to 72 hours of full HD video (1080p). It features twin digital TV tuners so you can record two programs at the same time while playing back a third. You can pause live TV at the push of a button.

Home movies are catered for, too. Plug in the SD card from your camcorder (AVCHD format only) and you can transfer your videos to the built-in hard disk or burn them to Blu-ray. You can even edit via the remote. The Blu-ray burner means that any recording stored on the hard drive can be transferred to a disc. If you want to lend a recording to a friend who does not have a Blu-ray player, it can burn regular DVDs as well - scaling down the resolution in the process.

This model picks up the seven-day electronic program guide broadcast by the TV networks, which you can use to set the recording schedule. Programming a recording is reasonably painless and you can adjust the start and finish times with ease. Significantly for the hearing impaired, it's capable of capturing closed captions in the digital broadcast, which can then be switched on or off during playback, as with subtitles in a DVD.

Of course, it's also a fully fledged Blu-ray player that supports 7.1-channel surround sound and cinephiles will appreciate the 24- frames-a-second playback mode.

This is Blu-ray Profile 1.1, however, so it does not support the new BD-Live features and the firmware is not upgradable. Panasonic is throwing in three Blu-ray single-layer 25GB rewritable discs worth $119, which should lessen the sting of being an early adopter. -- SIMON TSANG

© 2008 The Age

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