Panasonic preps in-car Blu-ray player

Are we there yet?

By James Sherwood • Get more from this author

25th October 2007 14:44 GMT

The days of drive-in movies are long gone and the radio sometimes just doesn’t cut it for entertainment. So Panasonic’s unveiled what’s believed to be the world’s first in-car Blu-ray Disc drive at this year’s Tokyo Motor Show.

Is this the world's first in-car Blu-ray drive?

The picture comes from Japanese website AV Watch, which claims the unit was demonstrated alongside a 7in LCD screen. The two were connected by HDMI. The player also supports Blu-ray’s Java-based interactivity system, BD-J.

A quick scan over Panasonic’s Japanese website did reveal a gap for in-car Blu-ray entertainment systems. Its in-car entertainment range currently tops out with the CN-HDS915TD, a 7in model with 40GB hard drive, DVD playback and, of course, iPod support.

Unfortunately, there’s no information yet on when or where the new Blu-ray player may appear, or how much it’ll cost.