One of the most popular categories of electronic equipment has been recording devices, audio and video. As time has gone on, these recording devices have been disappearing. I believe that most of this disappearance is driven by content aggregators (record companies, movie companies) and not actually consumer disinterest. Much of this is out in the open, for example, the Digitial Millennium Copyright Act and the people who lobbied for it. But once there are laws like DMCA, electronics companies that used to push the letter of the law in selling copying devices, now shrank back into selling only in non-US markets, professional devices, etc. And given that many of the "standards" used in AV are proprietary, no manufacturer wants to offend the standards-owners. Etc. There is more than just fear of law enforcement here. There is fear of and cooperation among different companies.
The great example of this is Sony, the electronics AND media mogul. They were among the first to push video recording with Beta (and Super Beta and ED Beta) video recorders, starting in the 1970's. Now they don't sell any consumer video recorders in US markets. They do make a reportedly excellent line of Blu Ray recorders, such as the BDZ-EX200, but none of them are sold in the USA. Sony wants the movie studios (and they own lots of movie studios too) to use Blu Ray, so they want to make movie companies feel their properties aren't going to get copied. Of course it's not only illegal to copy a Blu Ray movie on a Blu Ray recorder, it's technically impossible. You are locked out of copying protected data by all digital copying devices. But that doesn't seem to be enough for the studios and the standards owners who cater to them. They seem to want you not to think about copying anything.
You won't find many Blu Ray recorders in the USA actually. The least expensive one I know of is the JVC SR-HD1250, which now sells for about $1000. This is, of course, a "professional" model. JVC makes two other models which sell for $2500 and $3500. Panasonic makes a line of consumer recorders, but as with Sony they are not available in the USA or compatible with US standards.
Funny because it wasn't that long ago that many companies made DVD recorders. Of course DVD is not a standard owned by a single giant media company. It's not exactly an open standard, but it's far more open that a strictly proprietary standard like Blu Ray. Sony quit selling DVD recorders in the USA first, ending with their great RDR-HX900 in the USA. I bought one of those in 2005, and when it started to have problems in 2010 I first looked to Sony for a replacement. Then I looked to anyone for a replacement. Finally I decided I had a limited edition classic and I should just keep fixing it forever. It wasn't long after Sony stopped selling these units that they stopped selling the unique DVD drive it uses, which seems to go bad in a few years. And if you've been inside one of these units trying to fix it, you strongly get the feeling the whole thing was specifically engineered to be difficult to repair.
Of course, Sony wants you to believe that DVD is old shit, and you should move on to Blu Ray, so perhaps it was understandable that Sony would stop selling DVD recorders first. But other manufacturers gradually followed, and now there is only one company (Funai) selling a standalone DVD recorder in the USA (under the Magnavox brand name, which they now own). That unit is available in three hard drive capacities, with the largest being the MDR537H/F7. It is an 8th generation DVD recorder from Magnavox and people fear it may be the last. It is very reasonably priced and I'm buying one right now.
The great example of this is Sony, the electronics AND media mogul. They were among the first to push video recording with Beta (and Super Beta and ED Beta) video recorders, starting in the 1970's. Now they don't sell any consumer video recorders in US markets. They do make a reportedly excellent line of Blu Ray recorders, such as the BDZ-EX200, but none of them are sold in the USA. Sony wants the movie studios (and they own lots of movie studios too) to use Blu Ray, so they want to make movie companies feel their properties aren't going to get copied. Of course it's not only illegal to copy a Blu Ray movie on a Blu Ray recorder, it's technically impossible. You are locked out of copying protected data by all digital copying devices. But that doesn't seem to be enough for the studios and the standards owners who cater to them. They seem to want you not to think about copying anything.
You won't find many Blu Ray recorders in the USA actually. The least expensive one I know of is the JVC SR-HD1250, which now sells for about $1000. This is, of course, a "professional" model. JVC makes two other models which sell for $2500 and $3500. Panasonic makes a line of consumer recorders, but as with Sony they are not available in the USA or compatible with US standards.
Funny because it wasn't that long ago that many companies made DVD recorders. Of course DVD is not a standard owned by a single giant media company. It's not exactly an open standard, but it's far more open that a strictly proprietary standard like Blu Ray. Sony quit selling DVD recorders in the USA first, ending with their great RDR-HX900 in the USA. I bought one of those in 2005, and when it started to have problems in 2010 I first looked to Sony for a replacement. Then I looked to anyone for a replacement. Finally I decided I had a limited edition classic and I should just keep fixing it forever. It wasn't long after Sony stopped selling these units that they stopped selling the unique DVD drive it uses, which seems to go bad in a few years. And if you've been inside one of these units trying to fix it, you strongly get the feeling the whole thing was specifically engineered to be difficult to repair.
Of course, Sony wants you to believe that DVD is old shit, and you should move on to Blu Ray, so perhaps it was understandable that Sony would stop selling DVD recorders first. But other manufacturers gradually followed, and now there is only one company (Funai) selling a standalone DVD recorder in the USA (under the Magnavox brand name, which they now own). That unit is available in three hard drive capacities, with the largest being the MDR537H/F7. It is an 8th generation DVD recorder from Magnavox and people fear it may be the last. It is very reasonably priced and I'm buying one right now.
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