At a recent press event, Sharp unveiled its latest Blu-ray Disc
recorders. Along with the easy to use BD-AV1/AV10
series, the company introduced two hard drive equipped models, the BD-HDW20 and BD-HDW15. Both recorders feature two digital tuners,
1080/24p video output and, depending on the model, either a 500GB or 1TB hard drive.
Sharp Corporation will introduce into the Japanese market two new AQUOS Blu-ray
Disc Recorders: the BD-HDW20 featuring a hard drive with a 1-TB (terabyte) capacity, the industry's largest, and the BD-HDW15 with a
500-GB hard drive. Both models reflect Sharp's consistent focus on true full HD image quality and are capable of recording and playing
back digital HDTV data exactly as broadcast.
In designing these AQUOS Blu-ray Disc Recorders, Sharp placed emphasis on faithfully
reproducing high-resolution video images from digital broadcasts and Blu-ray discs on the AQUOS LCD TV. They are equipped with hard
drives from 500 GB to 1 TB in capacity, and also support dubbing (moving) video from the hard drive to BD-RE or BD-R discs. HDTV programs
recorded on the hard disk can be dubbed (moved) to Blu-ray discs while retaining exactly the same image quality as broadcast, enabling
users to easily create an HDTV library.
While Sharp has not announced how much their Blu-ray Disc recorders will be, AV Watch expects the BD-HDW20 and BD-HDW15 to cost
300,000 Yen ($2,600US) and 200,000 Yen ($1,733US) respectively. If you'd like to read more, Sharp's entire press release can be found
here.
