Sony Announces They'd Like Some Money, Please
Sony announced four new models of Blu-ray disc recorder/players today. The new models have big capacity -- up to 16 hours of hi-def programming on 50 GB discs. The most expensive model has a 500GB hard drive, to boot, but you'll pay for it -- $1752. Note to Sony: the room I watch movies in didn't cost that much to build.
"With high-definition TVs spreading rapidly and more digital cameras and camcorders are becoming HD-ready, time is ripe for household recorders to move onto a next generation," Sony Executive Deputy President Katsumi Ihara told a news conference.
"We intend to make all our recorders in the domestic market Blu-ray compatible," he said.
Blu-ray recorders can still handle conventional DVD discs.
Outside its home market, Sony is considering offering Blu-ray recorders in Europe, but the launch timing has yet to be decided.
Sony seems to be relying on the one main difference between Blu-ray and HD-DVD to carry them through, which is Blu-ray's capacity to hold more media. But just like the odd posiition Sony is in with its Playstation2 outselling the Playstation3, the improved version isn't improved enough to get people to stop using the existing format -- because the replacement format costs too much money, and the existing format is pretty good. Hey look, Amazon has a sale on DVD's under $10. My PS 2 plays those.
