Hitachi has released a pretty cool new toy! The DZ-WR90 is a Blu-ray burner that can save all your HD movies on the go…directly from your HD camcorder via a eSATA port. No need for the old buddy PC! Not sure how many people will actualy carry this around but… There is always a looney for everything.

The drive also works with DVD-R discs, and can support double-sided media although you’ll have to flip them yourself. Hitachi is claiming a Blu-ray disc will fit around 3 hours of full 1920 × 1080 footage and burn in 1.5hrs; alternatively, you can fit on up to six hours in 1440 × 1080 resolution. The downside from this gadget seems to be that you won’t be able to edit or fool around much with the videos, it will stay pretty much as recorded on the camcorder.

The DZ-WR90 will be released in Japan in mid-July but no pricing has been disclosed yet.

And it seems that learning how to read Japanese is the way to go…Look at picture to see the video flow, going from the image on your HDTV to the BD media.

Popularity: 14% [?]

MagnaVox started selling a 1.1 profile Blu-ray player for 298 bucks, which has been spotted at Wal-Mart. This is definitely the cheapest option out there…Is this what many people have been waiting for to take the plunge and invest on a Blu-ray player? Maybe… MagnaVox is a second tier brand from Phillips but this player has been manufactured by the Japanese Funai, which also makes a few products for Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Sharp, Denon and others. Also hitting the market is the Sylvania NB500SL9, which can be pre-ordered at amazon.com at an affordable price of $349.99. This Sylvania player is also manufactured by Funai and basically the same as the MagnaVox NB500MG9, only different brand. If you are looking for a “entry level” stand-alone player, these two are a great affordable option but think twice if you are looking for more performance, you are still better off with a Playstation3!

Specs

- Profile 1.1 BonusView Picture-in-Picture
- Video Output Resolutions: 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p (1080p/24 and 1080p/60)
- DVD Upconversion to 720p, 1080i, 1080p
- Support for HD Audio Formats: (bitstream output, no internal decoding)
- HDMI Ver. 1.3
- Weight 9.5 pounds

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Here is a diagram of the MagnaVox Blu-ray Player:

Popularity: 100% [?]