We can convince ITV HD to support Blu-ray recording, says Panasonic

Let's face it. Premium TV content holders don't want you to do what you want with your recordings because as far as they're concerned, they're not yours at all. They are temporarily on loan. There's no way of getting stuff even off an SD Sky+ box without degrading the quality and Sky are very happy with that. They're certainly not going to push for a way for you to keep it in broadcast quality forever.

Market forces may demand this, but I doubt it. The vast majority of people are happy with the 160gb or so provided by their PVR and aren't bothered about keeping recordings long term.

Alan: Most people are now quite used to the 'PVR' model where they don't have to bother 'setting the VCR' and quite rightly so - it was horrible. The situation you describe (HDMI in on Blu-Ray recorder) would be a step backwards. But that's what you get when you standardise on something that had no foresight. If instead of HDMI we had some kind of high bandwidth networking (or maybe even as well as) like Gig-E then a separate recorder could record the transport stream from a receiver.

I'm daydreaming.

Alan, Recording in HiDef anything was always going to be a problem here in the UK. Not so very long ago, we had a similar situation with a very advanced form of video, the successor(and backward compatible with) VHS...called D-VHS (digital) with 50Gb storageand HiDef ability.. it was truly phenominal, and that was some time back! It never worked out commercially because those VERY SAME people did not want us to have such a luxury, having a perfect copy forever! A limited number of pre-recorded movies were released on this format, and many a reviewer in this very magazine no doubt enjoyed films like Alien, if I recollect, in hi-def long before we had disc-based equivalents. The studios refused to release movies in this format, fearing copyright infringement and ease of overcoming copy-protection.
None had any kind of hi-def inputs, so that sealed its fate! The last I saw of this was just a couple of years ago,maybe 3, down London's Tottenham Court Road, where one of these imported from the USA was on sale, with blank tapes! (at an old client's of mine).
SKY certainly have no wish for you to record its HD movie channels and sport! They would argue that you can do this on a temporary "timeshifting" basis on their HD+ PVRs.... no matter HOW MANY of us may want to keep a programme permanently stored on a disc in HD!
If enough people banged on their door long and hard enough, the only possible compromise they would give is with a SKY+ BADGED version of a BD recorder.... and then with VERY limited functionality, no doubt the less sensitve content that they don't care about! Older movies, perhaps, non-HD channels!!!, that's the sort of thing they'd allow!!!!...AT BEST!
I'd forget about Sky for your dreams anytime soon, and HOPE, pray that FREESAT gets its act together, and gains MORE HD channels... where you will be able to use your Panasonic BD recorder! I personally would love one, but as I have a massive HD disc-based movie collection of over 772 discs (HD-DVD+Blu-ray) i am not in a hurry to get one simply because the BBC presently only show the occasional movie in HD, and according to their HD Boss, she says that policy won't change just yet. Channel 4 is a better bet for me, but THAT has still to show its face on Freesat... When enough people bang on at their door, maybe we'll see more HD content... but I doubt before 2012!!! ITV's LACK of real HD content has stopped me going the FREESAT route, as much as I REALLY wanted this... I already had BBC HD on a free-to-air Pace from 2006 (World Cup!)...
I finally chose SKY last November out of sheer desparation...as the only way forward for me, with my 65" plasma that YEARNS for HD content! But look at their price for the everything, and I still baulk! Pioneers they may be, but customer service, customer ANYTHING is NOT in their vocabulary! We are officially DENIED larger Hard Drives in our PVRs, and half of the capcity is LOCKED AWAY for their own use, namely ANYTIME tv!!!! Record 6 movies, or longer sporting events in HD, and you've got ZERO space remaining! ....AND PLENTY of folk HAVE screamed and kicked at their door about this! Sorry, Sky! But this IS a BAD joke!
So, don't expect Panasonic to get very far with this yet here in the Uk...there are many myths and fallacies they must destroy before the likes of Sky, the MAJOR force behind HD in this country,come on board willingly!
The lack of content for us to record onto a BD disc will make it a long, hard struggle to sell these machines... I definitely recoomend the 500GB flagship model, because HD will only look at its best in the highest recoding modes, although for less strenuous demands with lack of fast motion, the lower modes are suprisingly good. Avoid the smaller hard drives... you'll regret it later if you don't!... and I recommend that, unless you are very-well heeled, you wait for about 2 years, by which time those high prices will begin to fall AND there may be a LITTLE MORE to record on it... the the programmes that you want!