Sharp Corporation has announced two Digital HDTV Recorders and a DVD/VCR combo recorder to be introduced into the Japanese market. The new products, the DV-HRD2 and DV-HRD20 feature built-in tuners for terrestrial digital HDTV broadcasts, a new feature for products of this type.

On the recording side, both models feature high-capacity hard disks (160 GB for the DV-HRD2 and 250 GB for the DV-HRD20) making it possible to record and play back received digital broadcast programming with the same high-definition video and audio quality as the original.

Coupled with a high-definition-compatible TV enables the superb video quality of digital HDTV programming.

Additionally, an i.LINK (TS) output jack provides digital output to a D-VHS video deck, allowing users to save HDTV video onto D-VHS tape. Both models also feature built-in functions for recording, playing back and dubbing DVD-RW and DVD-R discs.

The other product, the DV-RW200 DVD/VCR combo recorder, is equipped with three tuners-- a VHF/UHF tuner and an analog BS (broadcast satellite) tuner for recording on DVD plus an additional VHF/UHF tuner for recording on VHS videotape, enabling independent tuning and recording of separate TV channels.

Furthermore, the unit features Easy DVD Video Dubbing, a popular feature in Sharp's predecessor model (DV-RW100), that allows easy recording (dubbing) from videotape to DVD-RW/R and from DVD-RW/R to videotape. And a DV Input Jack (i.LINK) provides a convenient, high-resolution connection with digital video (DV) cameras.

The DVD/VCR Combo Recorder is the same size as a conventional VHS VCR, and is expected to be popular in the transition stage from analog to digital media.