SHARP Corp, a member of Sony Corp's Blu-ray DVD group, will sell seven recorder models in Japan from October 27 to take share from Toshiba Corp's rival high-definition DVD standard.
Sharp will initially have monthly output of 30,000 units of the Blu-ray recorders, priced between 100,000 yen (US$871) and 120,000 yen, the Osaka-based company said yesterday, according to Bloomberg News. Another two models with hard-disk storage, priced at 200,000 yen and 300,000 yen, will be sold from December 1.
The recorders extend the accessibility of Blu-ray, rivaling HD DVD as the next home-entertainment standard, after Sony this month said it will sell four models from November 8. The new models may also help Sharp meet a forecast 33 percent gain in DVD player and recorder sales to 60 billion yen this fiscal year.
"We see huge potential for these models as about 80 percent of people are still using older, analog-type recorders," Masafumi Matsumoto, a senior executive vice president at Sharp, said at a briefing in Tokyo.
All Sharp recorders will be Blu-ray compatible by 2011, Matsumoto said.
Sharp, Japan's largest liquid-crystal display television maker, already sells one Blu-ray recorder that needs to be used with a compatible TV from its Aquos range.
The Blu-ray format is also backed by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, the world's largest consumer electronics maker, and Samsung Electronics Co.
HD DVD has support from companies including Microsoft Corp, Intel Corp and NEC Corp.
Toshiba sells two HD DVD players and one recorder.
Sony, which has more than 60 movies including "Casino Royale" and "Resident Evil: Apocalypse" on Blu-ray discs, sells two recorder models in Japan. The company's PlayStation 3 game console includes a Blu-ray disc player.
Movie discs based on Blu-ray outsold the rival format two to one in the first half, according to estimates from Home Media Research.