Blu Ray

[neil666]

Will will eventually see a blu ray player/recorder in years to come?

:)

[Avi]

Will will eventually see a blu ray player/recorder in years to come?

:)

It already exists in the form of a Sony Vaio laptop.

AVI

[Rasczak]

Will will eventually see a blu ray player/recorder in years to come?
If you mean as a standalone I would say it's a certainty (assuming the format survives that long ;) ). Panasonic, for example, have already released a (non-standard) Japanese model that clearly demonstrates how they plan to integrate BluRay recording with their excellent range of DVD-RAM recorders. I'm sure Toshiba has equal good plans for HD DVD.

However the question is more what will we use them for in the UK? By the time such recorders start arriving in bulk I should imagine a fair number of TV channels will be using copy protection to prevent you from recording (other than on devices such as Sky+). So other than standard def recording at high bitrates (still a big bonus in my book) uses of such devices are likely to be limited to home movies.

[neil666]

By the time such recorders start arriving in bulk I should imagine a fair number of TV channels will be using copy protection to prevent you from recording (other than on devices such as Sky+).

The Swines!!!!

[Mike_CA]

However the question is more what will we use them for in the UK? By the time such recorders start arriving in bulk I should imagine a fair number of TV channels will be using copy protection to prevent you from recording (other than on devices such as Sky+).
Your absolutely right about that one. In the US, all cable boxes have a firewire connection that is designed for copying to PC, DVHS, or Blue Ray. To copy to any of those devices, the CCI (Copy Control Information) flag must be set to Copy Free or Copy Once (not useable by the PC) but not cannot be set to Copy Never. Up until a year ago, this flag was set to Copy Free on almost all HD programs. Today it is now always set to Copy Never on all encrypted channels plus CBS and selectively on the other major networks. I expect by the end of the year, very little will be able to be copied off the hard drive.