What was the point of introducing both the Blue Ray and the HD DVD format( initially) if people aren’t going to be able to put satellite/terrestial broadcasts onto disc in much the same way as DVD?! I’m certainly never going to invest the £300+ to purchase a machine that only shows HD films if i’m not going to be able to record onto it!! I’d rather blow £500+ on a machine that both plays & records from an HD source onto an HD disk, rather than part with £300+ on something you can only watch pre recorded disks on!

At this rate, if it’s going to take another 20 years to sort these things out ( in this country), then lets forget the whole digital idea of broadcasting and keep it anologue!!, it seems far easier and siginificantly less confusing, not to mention far more flexible in what people are or aren’t allowed to record!!

Ultimately, it’s all going to depend on a) the BBC sorting out the signalling for individual programmes, and b) how restrictive the various rights holders decide they want to do.

So I’d wait and see if a) gets sorted out, and then see how b) is reflected in, for example, the switching on and off of the RGB and component outputs on the Humax box, which will give more of an idea about how much you’ll be able to archive HD to BluRay.

Thanks for your detailed reply chap, much appreciated. However, there is still bits there I find a bit blurred…..for instance, were you to record something onto the HDD, is there any way ‘they’ can then stop this being transfered to a BD?…I can not see how, but just wondering, lol.(I realise that if a prog. is flagged, you would not be able to record to either)
At the end of the day, is the pany a bit of a red herring?…If , as it seems, there is serious doubt as to whether anything much of worth will be allowed to be recorded in HD/BD, will it be worth the considerable outlay to buy this box?

Cheers, Dave

Even a Blu Ray recording, as good as its likely to be, is not going to be the same quality as an original disc because its been subject to broadcasting compression and transmission. Therefore whereas its likely to be acceptable as a HD viewing experience in much the same way as DVD recordable was acceptable for SD, true cinema buffs are still going to want to buy the original because of the difference in picture quality through compression and sound (Dolby Digital vs True HD). Therefore personally I see it as an option for those who just want to have a film in case they want to watch it in a bored moment with nthing else on, rather than it being one they’d actually ever buy, whereas true fans of the film will still go out and buy it.

At the moment, protection is not entirely the fault of the BBC – if they’re told they have to set restrictions for some material by the rights holders, they have to do so, or they can’t show it. Unfortunately, because they can’t set them individually for each programme, it means all the broadcasts end up with the most restrictive setting. That, as I said, is something they’re working on to change.

I would suspect that some programmes may never have the rights set to allow you to record to BluRay, but you may be able to record to the hard disk – it is, strictly speaking, not presently permitted under UK law to make recordings to place in an archive for repeated viewing, after all.

So, the best answer is that we really don’t know exactly what will be permitted – it depends on the rights holders, and on the broadcasters being able to signal those rights to the recorders adequately.

Don’t bet, however, on being able to record films in HD from a channel like the BBC with no adverts, and burning to BluRay – I honestly can’t see the hollywood studios wanting to let that happen, when they can charge you to buy their BD release instead.

I’m not really into gaming. The PS3 was mainly for Bluray, upscaling DVD, photo centre and Linux. On the other hand, such a Panasonic box would tick most of these boxes and be a bit cheaper.

If so, what on earth is the point of the thing? Also, I thought that the HDCP thingy only worked when the material was routed through HDMI ….which presumably the Panny, having everything ‘built in’, would not need to do?

Sorry if I have it all confused….with my brain, it all comes out that way, lol.