Panasonic sent out a press release earlier today, announcing its new DIGA Series Blu-ray Disc recorders. The recorders are available with either a 1TB (DMR-BW930), 500GB (DMR-BW830), or 320GB (DMR-BW730) hard drive and come equipped with digital and analog tuners and a second-gen MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 encoder which can store approximately 24 hours worth of high-def video onto a single 50GB BD-R disc. When it comes to playing Blu-ray movies, the three recorders offer support for BD-Live and bitstream output of Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD Master Audio.
For those that can't give up their video tapes quite yet, Panasonic also plans to introduce a Blu-ray recorder with a built in VHS player. While lacking support for BD-Live, the DMR-BR630V sports a 320GB hard drive and can be used to transfer VHS tapes onto BD-R.
The DMR-BW930, DMR-BW830 and DMR-BW730 will hit retail on September 1st and are expected to run about 280,000 Yen ($2,558US), 180,000 Yen ($1,645US) and 150,000 Yen ($1,371US), respectively. The DMR-BR630V hits retail on October 1st and will run about and 160,000 Yen ($1,462US). If you'd like to read more, Panasonic's entire press release can be found here.
