OSAKA -- Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Thursday it will put on sale March 20 the industry's first broadcast satellite-capable digital television set having a built-in hard-disk video recorder.
The new 36-inch TV model TH-36DH100 can record or play back up to 2.5 hours in high definition digital mode, five hours in standard digital mode and 25 hours in analog mode with its hard disk of 30 gigabytes.
The unit is expected to sell for around 700,000 yen.
The product will be part of Matsushita's new audiovisual line under which it will also launch the same day a hard disk video recorder -- NV-HDR1000 -- for 225,000 yen, as well as two BS digital TV models without hard disks.
All the TV sets will be 45 cm thick, about 77 percent the thickness of other TV models, said the Japanese electronics maker that sells digital electronics products under the Panasonic brand.
Industry forecasts indicate a demand for 700,000 BS digital TVs and tuners in fiscal 2000, which ends in March, and 2 million in fiscal 2001, Matsushita said.
BS digital broadcasting was launched in Japan in December.