Sony is steaming ahead with plans to transform the video landscape into HD as soon as possible - so long as it's based on Blu-ray Disc. To that end, the company has announced it will ditch DVD from its video recorders in Japan, in favour of BD.

A Sony representative, speaking at the manufacturer's launched of four Blu-ray recorders, apparently said that the consumer electronics giant will only release Blu-ray Disc recorders for the Japanese market from now on.

Only time will tell if Sony's decision to put all its HD eggs in one basket is a wise move, and it will be interesting to see what effect its decision has on other disc recorder manufacturers.

Yesterday, Sony announced four new Blu-ray recorders: the high-end BDZ-X90, which has a 500GB hard drive, the mid-range BDZ-L70 and BDZ-T70, both with 320B hard drives, and the lowest-spec BDZ-T50 model with a 250GB hard drive.

The whole range provides 1080p ‘full HD’ resolution and operates at cinema-style 24p - 24 frames per second, in other words - although the X90 can also handle 60p.