It's day two here at the Harman Kardon product launch in Munich, and the company this morning confirmed it will release a standalone Blu-ray player at the IFA Show in Berlin this September, priced at £450-£500.
Details are still under wraps, but a spokesman for the company said it will also add further Blu-ray players to its line-up, including its all-in-one AV systems, next year.
Harman Kardon is also working on a Blu-ray/HDD recorder that can record up to eight channels of TV. The DVC 600 digital video entertainment centre (above) has a 1 Terabyte hard drive, twin built-in digital TV tuners and can record up to eight standard- or high-definition TV channels simultaneously.
What's more, a ninth channel can be recorded in the background using the manual or automatic timeshift function, and a tenth channel can be viewed at the same time. Quite when you might have time to watch all your recordings is another matter.
As standard the DVC 600 can play DVDs and CDs, while DVD and Blu-ray disc writers are optional. The unit can upscale video to 720p, and has a range of connections including DVI, USB and analogue audio and video sockets.
Other features include the ability to remove advertisements from recorded programmes, an instant replay function and seven EPG (Electronic Programme Guide) modes.
For those who need less storage capacity, the DVC 300 model has a smaller 500GB hard drive.
However, neither is yet destined for the UK because they won't be compatible with Sky satellite TV until Harman Kardon and Sky resolve certain encryption issues.
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