Panasonic estimates global demand for DVD recorders at 24 million sets by 2005

The latest DVD recorder, which will lead the DIGA line-up of Panasonic's new-generation DVD video recorders at GITEX, has the industry¡¦s largest built-in 80GB hard disk drive and gives consumers the option of recording on either DVD-RAM or DVD-R disk, or storing up to 106 hours of video on its hard disk drive.

"The DVD video recorders feature advanced technology is making major inroads in the consumer video recorder market globally," said Sho Kusuki, Manager, Consumer AV Dept., Panasonic Marketing Middle East FZE. The DVD-RAM format has revolutionalised DVD video recording with amazing features like recording moving pictures and storage of PC data on a DVD. It is set to become the favourite format in the area of home entertainment. The global demand for DVD recorders is estimated at 24 million sets by 2005. Panasonic is targeting 50 percent of that market share by aiming to produce one million sets per month by 2005.

The Middle East is a huge potential market for Panasonic's DVD video recorders and GITEX Dubai provides us a strategic platform to showcase these products for important industry visitors. The top-of-the-range model, the DMR-E100, is packed with multiple features that have raised levels of video recording to new heights by providing several advantages over other recording formats," added Kusuki.

The built-in 80GB hard disk drive is the largest in the industry. One remarkable DMR-E100H feature is that it can record MPEG4 image data at the same time that it's recording MPEG2 data to the hard disk. In addition, MPEG4 or MPEG2 data recorded by a Multi-AV Camera (D-snap) can be transferred to the DMR-E100H via an SD Memory Card, for editing or storage on the hard disk. The DMR-E100H can also convert MPEG2 data to MPEG4 and copy it onto an SD Memory Card in a single step. Also transferring Still image photos from the HDD in JPEG/TIFF format can be done with an SD Memory Card slot or a PCMCIA slot.

The DMR-E100H also features the innovative Time Slip function, which lets you record one program on a disc and play back another from the same disc at the same time. Time Slip,,· is available while recording onto either a DVD-RAM disc or the hard disk. The Chasing Playback facility allows user to view a recorded portion of a live program from the beginning, while continuing to record the ongoing action.

The new DVD video recorder also allows high speed recording from the hard disk drive to a DVD-RAM or DVD-R. A one-hour programme can be recorded to DVD-RAM in 15 minutes at 4 times speed.

The technology used in the DMR-E100 complies with the DVD-RAM recording format standardized by the DVD Forum. The format offers high storage capacity on removable media, high speed data transmission, exceptional picture and sound quality, fast random-access memory and re-writability up to 100,000 times.

Panasonic at GITEX Dubai 2003, will also showcase two other models of DVD video recorders: the DMR-E60 and the DMR-E50, which offers all the benefits of the DVD-RAM format, including storage capacity of upto 9.4 GB and the Time Slip function. Both enable creation of an original DVD video by recording images on a DVD-R disk conforming to DVD-Video standards.

Panasonic will be participating in Dubai Gitex 2003, along with its UAE sole distributor Panatech Engineering and Oman National Electronics, part of the Al Futtaim Group.