Hitachi intros DZ-WR90 Blu-ray burner for hard drive-based camcorders

It looks like those wanting to churn out some high-definition media away from their computers now have a new option to consider courtesy of Hitachi, which has just introduced its DZ-WR90 Blu-ray burner designed to be used with hard drive-based camcorders equipped with an eSATA port (which Hitachi just happens to make). That combo will apparently let you burn three hours of full-res footage onto a Blu-ray disc in one and half hours flat or, if you prefer, you can also cram an hour of 720 x 480 video onto a plain old DVD. No word on a price just yet, but you can apparently look for this one to hit Japan in mid-July.

[Via Slash Gear]

[Luke @ May 20th 2008 4:55PM]

Fugtastic. :)

[IT-Accountant @ May 20th 2008 5:02PM]

I didn't even know that a camcorder with ESATA existed... cool!

(ESATA on a camcorder, not this abomination.)

[Esat Dedezade @ May 20th 2008 6:15PM]

It's named after me you know. The extra 'A' at the end is a typo.

[initialxy @ May 20th 2008 5:03PM]

WOW that thing is HUGE!

[jvandervalk @ May 20th 2008 5:29PM]

thats what she said!

[james @ May 20th 2008 5:36PM]

its about the size of a standard 5 1/4 inch single hight drive. a little more girth for the external beautification. it is more likely that the camera is tiney.

[Sime @ May 20th 2008 5:04PM]

screw physical formats...

[Esat Dedezade @ May 20th 2008 6:15PM]

Many, many people will disagree with you.

Many.

[YoJIMbo @ May 20th 2008 5:29PM]

I guess it is so easy, grandpa and grandma can use it! (according to the little card). This, of course, is the next logical step from the Betamax player they still use.

[Samboini @ May 20th 2008 5:40PM]

Not mine, they are in my back yard under the paving slabs.

[Kiwi616 @ May 20th 2008 5:51PM]

I think you have it confuse with your xBox HD-DVD add-on.

[Colin Potter @ May 20th 2008 6:03PM]

if i'm going to pay $30 for a 50 GB disc, why would i want to put unedited video on it?

[steve @ May 20th 2008 6:04PM]

looks like a blu-ray version of the jvc sharstation...how groundbreaking

[peestandingup @ May 20th 2008 6:04PM]

Hmm, using a camcorder thats supposed to move you away from physical media along with a physical media storage option?? Brilliant!!

Yeah, because people love burning a playable disc directly from their camcorder without editing it first. I'm gonna use this along with my cool Kodak EASYSHARE Printer Dock.

[kaztm @ May 20th 2008 6:15PM]

What do you mean no word on a price; it's estimated at 70k yen.
This is last week's news.

[Naris @ May 20th 2008 7:33PM]

eSATA? Would that be usable from a notebook's eSATA port as well?

[ishism @ May 21st 2008 3:25AM]

I'm still looking for a bd rom/dvdrw drive for my lappy. Internal or external. Preferably internal.

[saunajunkie @ May 20th 2008 8:03PM]

DVDs play 720 x 480 video, and in the case of most every film on the format there is more than an hour of video. Perhaps they mean 1280 x 720 (720p)? unless there is something about home video recording that I am unaware of, these figures don't really make sense.

[Colin Potter @ May 20th 2008 10:14PM]

1. no DVD player supports output greater than 480

2. it is likely because it does not use any high grade software to do the burning, just turns the files into the right format and slaps em on a disc

[ishism @ May 21st 2008 3:28AM]

How about those wmv9hd on dvd? Isn't that 1080p or 720p on a regular dvd?

[zach.hodgson @ May 21st 2008 12:16AM]

Hitachi intros DZ-WR90 Blu-ray burner for hard drive-based camcorders, beats it with ugly stick.

[jduley @ May 21st 2008 8:19AM]

3 hrs of unedited home movies! I can't wait.