This week the Japan Electronics Show will open its doors in and according to a number of magazines who have had insight into the product palette being shown on the floor of this prestigious convention have made mention of an interesting product Matsushita is having in the making.

Matsushita will unveil the world’s first DVD consumer recorder that will allow you to record TV content directly onto DVD. The product is expected to ship to market in 2001 and will also allow a direct download connection to computers so that the content can be edited.

Because the machine is chip-based and requires only little mechanical hardware, these recorders will ultimately be rather cheap to produce and prices below VCRs can be expected at some point.

This is great news, although one thing needs to be kept in mind. 2001 is still a long way to go and oftentimes it takes products another 6 – 12 months until they officially find their way into the US marketplace after their release in Japan. The prices for the introductory models will also unlikely be as low as expected and chances are that it will take a few product generations until these prices drop to a point that they can be compared to VCRs. At least Matsushita is a company with a great track record and I would expect them to release these players under their Panasonic brand to make sure consumers are comfortable with the product.