Sony to Ship New Blu-ray Recorders in Japan

November will see a thrust of Blu-ray gear in Japan as Sony plans to ship four new Blu-ray disc recorders into the Japanese market. The company says its new models “offer strengthened functionality to give improved performance in the key areas of high picture and sound quality, long-duration recording, and easy operation.”

The models are BDZ-T70 and BDZ-T50. One features a 320GB drive and the other 250GB, while the 500GB BDZ-X90 (pictured) is optimized for home theatre use and features DRC-MFv2 picture enhancement. The 320GB BDZ-L70 joins the X90 model in offering network connectivity.

Price will range from 140,000 yen to 200,000 yen. It’s predicted that the Japanese market will see sales of 2 million HD recorders annually by 2009. The Indian market for HD disc recorders is currently nonexistent, but we should see the advent of HD formats in a big way early next year.