Panasonic launches Blu-ray player with VHS

[mjh]

Another product launch from Japan has left some people scratching their heads, as Panasonic has launched a new Blu-ray player that also has a hard drive and... VHS. The Panasonic DMR-BR630V also ships with a 320GB HDD, SD slot, and digital and analog TV tuners.

Owners can use the built-in USB port to connect their digital cameras and camcorders into the Blu-ray player, and can write BD-Rs at six times speed.

The VHS deck is for dubbing movies to Blu-ray, DVD or the HDD, and will not be able to actually play VHS movies, according to Japanese media reports.

CDFreaks linkage

Is Panasonic serious? Is this for real?

I guess it's good as a marketing ploy, especially because Panasonic has announced several other Blu-ray-related products, but will Japanese consumers bite at this bait?

 

[mc866]

What is this VHS you speak of?

 

[NikolaeVarius]

VHS? Is this a next gen format?

 

[tk149]

Well, if you have a bunch of home movies that you want to convert over to DVD, why not? After all, it's getting harder and harder to buy a new VHS player, and I expect that soon, you won't be able to find one at all except on eBay. Look at what Beta videotape players are selling for. There are a lot of people transferring their old home movies to DVD, including me.

 

[sdifox]

It's aimed squarely at the zoomers. It looks like it will sell decent numbers. Think how many people still have vhs tapes. Those people are retiring very soon.

 

[erwos]

The Japanese market is quirky. DVD recording units never really took off in the US, but are quite big over there. It's not a shock that Panasonic is trying to get a piece of that market. That said, lack of 1080p support is lame.

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: erwos
The Japanese market is quirky. DVD recording units never really took off in the US, but are quite big over there. It's not a shock that Panasonic is trying to get a piece of that market. That said, lack of 1080p support is lame.

for BRD, 1080i output is really no different than 1080p output and you don't want 1080p output from VHS source anyway

 

[Auric]

VHS, fine. But why the cheesy MPEG-2 encoder?

 

[heymrdj]

I still use VHS for all my tv stuff XD. Years ago as vcr's were going the way of the dodo (the ones that weren't combo but just stand alone units) I bought a high end 6 head Panasonic model that could record sattelite without making it grainy for 70$. Still using it today, in fact it'll record Bleach for me tonight.