Panasonic are to launch the world’s first Blu-ray recorder, which will include an integrated Freesat receiver and internal hard drive.

The Japanese giants are to release two Blu-ray recorders: The DMR-BS750 with a 250GB hard drive, and the DMR-BS850 with 500GB hard drive. SD memory card slots are an additional feature on both recorders.

The built in dual tuner will allow users to record a programme on one channel while watching another, similar of course to DVD recorders and digiboxes with hard drive recording capabilities, i.e. Sky Plus.

Since its launch in 2007, Sky+ HD offers users to record any of their HD channels, of which they are expanding all the time, but a Blu-ray recorder will offer more versatility and of course users will not have to be tied down by any subscriptions.