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Panasonic UK unveiled several new home theater components today.  Two are Blu-ray Disc recorders that allow you to record HD content to Blu-ray discs.  H.264 compression is being used to allow for up to 24 hours of HD content per disc. 

The two models of Blu-ray disc recorders, the DMR-BS850 and the DMR-BS750, have two HD tuners to record two programs at the same time and include a feature called “Series Record,” similar to TiVo’s “Season Pass.”  HD content can also be recorded from camcorders or digital cameras via SD cards or USB cable. 

The main difference between the two models is hard drive size; the DMR-S850 has 500GB of space, while the DMR-S750 has 250GB.  Panasonic also threw in a CD ripping feature that accesses gracenote to fill in track information.  Apart from those unique features, these models also have BD-Live, Dolby TrueHD, DTS-Master Audio Essential and allows for 7.1 audio.

Blu-ray recordings are done in several modes with varying compression techniques.  If AVCHD compression is used, the Blu-ray disc should be playable in many Blu-ray players.  Choosing a more compressed format will yield a disc only playable on certain Blu-ray players.

The third product, the DMR-XS350, is a DVD player that can record HD content to its built in 250GB hard drive.  However, you cannot archive HD recordings to Blu-ray discs.  The DMR-XS350 records to DVDs in standard definition. 

All models use Panasonic’s VIERA Link - if you have a Panasonic television and one of these players, you’ll be able to control both with one remote.  They also have access to VIERA Cast, which accesses Panasonic’s servers which offer Internet content like YouTube videos or Picasa albums.

These products are available only in the U.K.  They are pricey, though—the DMR-BS850 costs £1000, the smaller DMR-750 is £900, and the DVD-writing DMR-XS350 costs £700.  Similar products will be released in Australia and France, but according to Panasonic UK, no plans on such a device exist for the United States.  That’s too bad because it sounds like an interesting all-in-one solution. 

Product Page: [HD Everything]