Matsushita to Offer 50GB Blu-ray Disc Recorders in July

Matsushita Electric (Panasonic) today announced that they will release a Blu-ray Disc recorder on the Japanese market in July and thereby become the second manufacturer to offer Blu-ray Disc recorders. The Matsushita Blu-ray Disc recorder uses a two-layer disc structure, which means that a single disc can hold up to 50GB of data, or 4.5 hours of HD video. U.S. consumers still have to wait a while longer for Blu-ray products, but LG Electronics has previously stated that they intend to introduce a Blu-ray Disc recorder with a 200GB hard drive in the U.S. in the third quarter of 2004.