Matsushita Electric Industrial is launching four new Blu-ray recorders in Japan on November 1, under their Panasonic brand, they announced at the CEATEC show in Japan. Matsushita is the world’s largest consumer electronics maker. They also plan to offer three DVD recorders which can record HD content onto standard DVDs. (Most likely the ‘BD9′ format which is part of the Blu-ray spec – which is basically Blu-ray codecs, et al, on DVD9 media aka a dual-layer DVD-R/RW.) The Blu-ray recorders will include hard drives, the largest, with a 1TB drive, selling for the equivalent of roughly $2,600. The top end DVD recorder with HD support (not to be confused with HD DVD) will have a 500GB drive and will sell for roughly $1,125.
Also at CEATEC, Matsushita executive Kazuhiro Tsuga said that Blu-ray manufacturers will be cutting prices and going on a ‘promotional binge’ this holiday season. He said that by the end of the Christmas season, or the end of the first quarter, the will be on the wall for the format way and the war may only last another year.
“The BD (Blu-ray disc) companies will try to do our best to promote Blu-ray,” he said. “The studios want us to put money in to promote it.”
He added: “By the end of the year, you will see good products with very good promotion.”
