Panasonic allow pricing information for its forthcoming freesat+ recorders to be released today.
As reported earlier on PVR Junction (LINK) there will be three variants of this twin tuner, dual recording, Freesat PVR. One with a DVD recorder complimenting the 250GB hard drive – its called the DMR-XS350. The flagship model, the DMR-BS850, has a 500GB hard drive and includes DVD and blu-ray (recordable) disk drive.
For our last report we thought it fair to prepare potential customers of the likely asking price, but today Panasonic have outlined the following price points: DMR-BS850 £999. There will be a 250B version available for £100 less, called the DMR-BS750. The DMR-XS350 will cost £699.
Release is currently estimated at June 2009, subject to satisfactory finalising of the firmware and final Freesat Approval.
The Freesat Blue Ray recorders with built in HDD is definately the way forward i feel, so i’m pleased to see these long overdue machines hit the UK market ( mainly as i’m an avid avoider of subscription charges to Sky!). However, i can only describe their debut prices as ‘silly’. Who in their right mind ( i guess they’ll always be those people with more money than sense and want to be early adopters)is going to fork our 1K to own one of these?! Let’s face it, though it’s lovely to have broadcasts in HD, I definately won’t be forking out this sort of money for the luxury of recording some HD broadcasts( i say some as broadcasters are expected to ‘flag’ broadcastings ( bar some HD content from being archived to Blue Ray disc) to HDD or BR. At present, with the cheapest price from retailers for the Humax HDR at about £262 now, i would consider a top price for the DMR-BS850 to be about £500. I’m hoping that given 6 months or so we’ll see prices falling considerably if company’s like this are serious about competing in this market, especially Freesat.
It’s interesting to see the Humax HDR dropping more considrably in price now, couldn’t possibly be because they know they’ve got competition from June this year could it?!!
Those can remember when Panasonic launch there first S-VHS Recorder it was nearly £1000 and that was twenty years ago. So ?????
In reply to Bob Williams. Yes! i remember those days ( showing my age!!). However, these days with competition so fierce for this type of technology and especially in this uncertain financial climate, they will definately need to reduce these prices if they want to capture a sustainable market.
Panasonic definately need to look at their prices again. I used to be an avid Panasonic user, for all my TV’s and Video recorders.
I can remember paying £700 for my first VCR back in 1980. But now would never dream of paying more than £450 for a top notch Freesat recorder.
As long as everyone refuses to pay their silly prices, they will soon tumble.