Remember the days of VCR? When a program came on, you'd pop in a massive VHS cassette and hit record, storing the program for later.
DVR has all but eradicated that technology, but Sanyo is bringing it back, in a way, with the Repoch, which uses removable hard disc drives to record television. The recorder has a digital broadcast tuner built-in, and is designed to work with TVs that only get analog signals, Nikkei reports.
It's currently available in Japan, but this would be perfect for people who haven't made the DTV switch, and perhaps haven't upgraded to the latest means of recording live television. The Repoch sells for the equivalent of roughly $650, and includes a 160 GB cassette-type hard drive -- admittedly a bit pricey.
Cool as it may be, the underlying technology, called iVDR, doesn't look to be taking off anytime soon. It was introduced in 2002 and today has a pretty measly list of products. Still, the iVDR Consortium expects the International Standards Organization and International Electrotechnical Commission to approve the technology soon, leading to worldwide growth.
So perhaps Sanyo is ahead of the curve here. Does a DVR with cassette-like features sound like an attractive product?
