Mitsubishi's DVR-BF2000 Blu-ray DVR up for grabs in Japan

by Steven Kim, posted Dec 8th 2008 at 10:23PM

With all the talk of Blu-ray stalling out, it's easy to see why Blu-ray DVRs haven't been something that manufacturers have even tried to sell the American public. Over in Japan, things are a little different -- just take Mitsubishi's DVR-BF2000 Blu-ray DVR model, for example. The hefty sum of ¥178,000 ($1900 US) nets you a DVR with a 500GB hard disk, dual tuners and a disc burner that can write out on BD-R/RE media and DVD-R/RW for when you don't need such capacious archiving. The unit also has some automatic editing features for cutting out those pesky commercials you don't need to store on your shelf. With these kind of features, we'd at least like to see these offered up here in the US -- they certainly won't get cheaper until they're available -- but we're not holding our breath.

Filed under: Blu-ray, DVRs, Recorders, Mitsubishi

Tags: blu-ray, blu-ray dvr, blu-ray recorder, Blu-rayDvr, Blu-rayRecorder, dvr, dvr-bf2000, mitsubishi

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Highest Ranked

squiggleslash @ Dec 8th 2008 10:42PM

> it's easy to see why Blu-ray DVRs haven't been something that manufacturers have even tried to sell the American public

It isn't easy, really, no. I don't know why you'd think that. If manufacturers are really thinking "We can only get Blu-ray to sell if we limit it to playback of HD movies", then that's extraordinarily myopic, and is a major reason why Blu-ray isn't selling.

I can't stand the format, but an HD DVR that supports Blu-ray (including burning high definition content to DVD and BD) is something I'd buy. I see the advantage of that right away.

If you limit the applications, of course you're going to see dismal sales. To deliberately refuse to sell devices that break those limits because sales are low is, well, utterly incompetent.

Neutral

InsideGuy @ Dec 9th 2008 12:45PM

As a BD hardware manufacturer I will tell you the real reason for the the lack of BD STB recorders here in the US is due to Hollywood (gee, what a surprise!), not the rumor-mill of BD's early demise. None of the BD manufacturers are deliberately refusing to sell them. Hollywood is deliberately throwing up every legal obstacle possible, just as they did back in the years prior to DVD STB recorders. The rules, regulations and fees applied to OTA and other types of recording in Japan are significantly different than they are here.

Neutral

squiggleslash @ Dec 10th 2008 10:25AM

Hollywood can't have that much leverage, surely? At the very least, a recorder that records OTA signals should be pretty much out of the legal clutches of Hollywood. And an HD DVR that supports unencrypted OTA signals and allows you to burn them to a standard Blu-ray disc would be extremely useful.

Of course, I'm not sure I'd spend $1,500+ on one, but I'm also not seeing why such a device has to cost more than $200+existing BD player price. The burning capability isn't going to cost all that more, a hard drive of decent capacity should be less than $100, and the tuner is probably around $20-30, with the BD player already containing everything needed to decode the OTA signals (MPEG2 + DD5.1)

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