Pioneer Ships First BD Recorders

Pioneer are poised to introduce the BDR-WD900 and the BDR-WD700 Blu-ray recorders into the Japanese market.

First Two HDD/BD Recorders Pioneer's new BDR-WD900 Blu-ray Disc (BD) Recorder is equipped with a 1TB hard drive and the BDR-WD700 comes with a 500GB hard drive.


Pioneer's BDR-WD900 and BDR-WD700 Blu-ray recorders

The new HDD/BD recorders employ the latest movie compression technology - MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 - that features a greater compression rate than MPEG-2. This enables the recorders to record high-definition broadcasts in the high resolution of 1980 x 1080 for about five times longer than with previous Pioneer models onto the hard drive: up to about 450 hours with the BDR-WD900 and up to about 220 hours with the BDR-WD700. For 5.1ch surround digital broadcasts, the surround sound can be recorded as it is.

When connected to KURO LINK-compatible plasma TVs via a HDMI cable, it is possible to record and play content via the TV's remote control. By pushing the "Disc Navi" button on the BD recorder, the TV automatically turns ON and the display changes to the recorder screen. The recorders also feature the "KURO Picture Quality Adjust" function that automatically sets the video output for the connected KURO TV to the optimum level.

The device also include two digital tuners that enable users to record two different digital broadcasts.

An IP conversion LSI offers 1080/24p high picture quality output, while the HDMI (Deep Color, x.v.Color, lip-sync) technology further optimises the viewing experience with both BD and DVD movies.

Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio lossless audio -bitstream output (via an HDMI connection) are also supported.

Both recorders are also equipped with a newly-developed BD Drive that corrects numerous optical aberrations to provide high accuracy recording. A feature called "High-definition Just Copy" automatically selects the optimum recording rate from 10 steps based on the recording time when copying high-definition programs onto a BD disc. The supported disc formats for writing include BD-R/R DL, BD-RE/RE DL, DVD-R/R DL, and DVD-RW. Note that the recorders do not write HD programs directly on BD/DVD media.

Other features include the "Scene View", which divides each of the recorded content on the hard drive into 28 segments and displays the results in an index. Viewers can quickly locate the desired scene to playback.

In addition, the "Quick Startup" allows the recorder in standby mode to turn on or display the home menu or TV program in approx. 0.8 sec.

Last, the "Photo viewer" allows consumers to to enjoy pictures on a large-flat panel screen.

Both recorders support BONUSVIEW BD video.

The BDR-WD900 and BDR-WD700 will be available in Japan in the early of October, 2008 (with no retail price suggested).