These two Blu-ray players from Mitsubishi will only be available in Japan but they’ll feature MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 recording directly to blank DVDs instead of more-expensive Blu-ray discs. So the idea is that you’ll get a high-definition recording but you’ll be able to use standard blank DVDs — perhaps a feature we’ll see more and more.
There’s also a cool LCD touchscreen remote that (according to Mitsubishi’s translated product page) “can be manipulated within PHP,” for what it’s worth. Finally, the DVR-BZ200 features a 500GB hard drive and the DVR-BZ100 has a 250GB drive.
Both players are shipping in Japan on May 24th — not quite sure on the prices yet.
Product Page (translated) [Mitsubishi.co.jp] via Akihabara