Bang & Olufsen's DVD 2 Player/Recorder: Hi-Tech Meets Style

The first things that come to mind whenever one hears the name "Bang & Olufsen" are the words "quality", "style" and, more importantly, "huge price". And these words can also characterize, at least to some extent, the company's latest announcement, namely the DVD 2 All-in-One Player/Recorder, a device the provides very good multimedia processing qualities in a very elegant and stylish form factor.

The device, whose external casing has been created by the renowned designer David Lewis, is capable of either playing DVDs or music CDs or recording multimedia content, via the two provided recording options. Thus, the DVD 2 has been fitted with both a 250 GB internal HDD and a DVD recorder unit, which might seem like a bit too much but, according to the company, the reasons for this hardware choice are very simple: the HDD is used for instant recording, while the DVD recorder is used for saving those recorded clips the user wants to hold on to for a while.

The device from Bang & Olufsen supports the MPEG1 and MPEG2 video compression formats, and works with both PAL/NTSC systems as far as playback goes (although the device only records in PAL). The audio compression formats are not to be trifled with, either, as the DVD 2 supports Dolby Digital, MP3, MPEG2 multichannel, MPEG1 and PCM. Moreover, the device provides quite an extensive range of connectivity options, including here S-Video/Component/CVBS Out, RF in/out, 2 Scarts, G-LINK and, quite obviously, HDMI.

The DVD 2 is compatible with quite a wide range of disc formats, including here writable/rewritable DVDs/CDs, Video CDs/DVDs and more. Moreover, it supports certain features common to most HDD-based recorders, including here EPG (electronic program guide) compatibility, recording scheduling, ShowView/Video Plus +, etc.

Unfortunately, the company has not provided any details regarding the DVD 2's pricing or availability but, whenever this thing might hit the market, one thing's for sure: it won't be cheap.

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