Scott Wilkinson

Never one to rest on its laurels, Panasonic unveiled two new Blu-ray players—the DMP-BD35 and BD55. Both are BD-Live capable and feature 7.1 decoders, P4HD video processing, PHL (Panasonic Hollywood Labs) Reference Chroma Processor, and HD Networking with an SD card slot and Viera Link (HDMI CEC). The BD55 also provides a 7.1 analog output and 96kHz remastering. Prices are TBA, and both should be available in a few weeks.

DVD recorders are quickly maturing into a product category that promises to topple the venerable VCR from its perch as the predominant video-recording format for consumers. Yes, videotape is still less expensive than most blank discs, especially rewritable discs, which are more directly equivalent to tape than write-once discs. And yes, analog VCRs are much less expensive than DVD recorders. But prices for blank discs and recorders are dropping fast, and the functionality and convenience of DVD recording are so far beyond videotape that the extra expense is well worth it.