Sony unveils new BDXL recorders

Posted on 27 Aug 2010 at 11:00

Sony has announced a new line of Blu-ray recorders that bring support for the high-capacity BDXL format to the company's range for the first time.

The BDXL standard offers far higher capacity than traditional Blu-ray discs, but isn't backwards compatible: BDXL discs require a special drive, although a BDXL player will also be capable of playing standard Blu-ray discs.

Sony's new range is split into two model ranges: the lower-end BDZ-AT range and the high-end BDZ-AX range. All models feature support for 3D Blu-ray content as well as the ability to read and write to both Blu-ray and BDXL discs.

The BDZ-AX2000 is the premier model, featuring a pair of digital tuners and a 2TB integrated hard drive, while the BDZ-AX1000 saves a small amount of money by dropping to a 1TB drive but otherwise keeping the same features. The budget range BDZ-AT900, BDZ-AT700, and BDZ-AT500 all feature two tuners and 1TB, 500GB, and 320GB of hard drive space respectively - while the bottom-end model, the BDZ-AT300S, has a single tuner but 500GB of storage space.

To differentiate themselves from the budget range, both BDZ-AX models feature Sony's CREAS-3 processor, which the company claims can improve colour reproduction.

The top-end BDZ-AX2000 will be the first to hit shop shelves, with an expected launch date of the 25th of September in Sony's native Japan. The other models will follow by the 22nd of October.

Sony has not yet set pricing for the devices - instead stating they will sell for an "open price" - and there's no hint of a UK launch date for any model in the range.

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