JVC announces Blu-ray/DVD/VHS recorder with 250GB HDD

Here’s a new device that can help those who still sit on precious VHS cassettes that never made it onto discs. JVC announced [JP] the SR-HV250 for the Japanese market today, a Blu-ray/DVD recorder, VHS recorder and 250GB hard disc drive all rolled into one.

The device supports MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 and AVREC. You also get a USB port, an SD/SDHC slot, LAN connectivity, an HDMI interface, and an S-Video. The device lets you record video on BD-R/RE and DVD-R/RE discs.

It’s not the first of this kind (at least in Japan), as Sharp, Panasonic and JVC itself have rolled out VHS-compatible Blu-ray recorders last year. But combining three recording formats has its price: Be ready to pay around $3,000 if the SR-HV250 should make its way outside Japan one day (JVC hasn’t made an official announcement yet). In Japan, the device went on sale today.