Now this is more like it. Available up to 400GB, Sharp has three models of HDTV recorders coming out in March. AQUOS is an enormously successful brand for the company, so it's nice to see them taking it somewhere other than kickin rad LCDs. Splendid features of these units include direct recording of HDTV streams, upscaling of DVD video to HDTV, and HDMI connections.

Sharp Corporation will release three models of hybrid recorder o­n March 10th. They are the "DV-HRD300," with a 400GB hard drive, the "DV-HRD30" with a 250GB capacity, and the "DV-HRD3" with a 160GB capacity. No set retail price for any, but the HRD300 should be around 200,000 yen, the HRD30 around 160,000 yen, and the HRD3 around 130,000 yen.

Because the units are intended to be used with "AQUOS" series LCD TVs to enjoy HDTV programming, the company has named them the "AQUOS High Vision Recorder." (Translator's note: "High Vision" is what they call HDTV in Japan)

These recorders contain terrestrial, BS, 110 CS Digital tuners, and can record the MPEG-2 TS video of digital transmissions directly to the hard drive. With the inclusion of the "High Vision Quality High Speed Processing Engine" also used in the company's "BD-HD100" Blu-Ray recorder, the unit can record, playback, and edit HD video streams simultaneously.

At the top of the pile are the "DV-HRD300" and "HRD30," which feature HDMI video output ports. It can be connected to the "LC-45GD1" AQUOS LCD TV which supports HDMI, with a HDMI cable -- both video and audio in a single cable. Also, it supports output of DVD-Video and such upscaled to 1080i/720p.

Besides the precense of HDMI and hard drive capacities, the other specifications of the units are largely the same -- they all support direct digital recording of MPEG-2 TS streams from digital broadcasts, and recording to HD or DVD-RW (CPRM support, VR format) after downconversion to XP, SP, LP, or EP recording modes.

Furthermore, digital broadcasts recorded to the hard drive can be dubbed to D-VHS and so forth with the use of the i.Link (TS) jack. "Move" is also supported for copy-once programming. Included are chapter mark functions, and scene deletion functions. Not o­nly can whole programs be moved, but chapters themselves can be moved.

Recordable discs are DVD-R and DVD-RW. When writing High Definition video recorded o­n the hard drive to DVD, it is downconverted to 480i. Downconverted/analog video can be recorded in XP, SP, LP, EP, and MN (manual) modes, where manual provides 32 gradations. DVD writing up to 12x is supported (when using EP mode).

Also, the unit supports the playback of DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW (Video mode), and DVD-RAM discs. Though it furnishes a terrestrial analog tuner, it offers no EPG. i.Link can also be used as a DV input, and the play/stop/fast-forward and other operations of video cameras can be controlled with the included remote control.



Inspired by:
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20050216/sharp.htm

Press Release:
http://www.sharp.co.jp/corporate/news/050216-a.html