As Blu-ray has now entered the market with the launch of Blu-ray disc titles just recently, Toshiba Corp. is aiming strethen the HD DVD format by launching the first next generation high definition optical disc recorder, the RA-A1 HD DVD recorder. This DVD recorder will launch on July 14th to the Japanese market, but so far they have no intention of making it available outside of Japan. The HD DVD recorder will feature a 1 terabyte hard disk and dual-layer HD DVD recording support. Its hard drive will be capable of storing up to 130 hours of high definition TV recording and a dual-layer HD DVD disc will hold up to 230 minutes at the same quality mode in this recorder.
The recorder will sell for a whopping 398,000 yen ($3,466), with Toshiba expecting to sell 10,000 of these by December within Japan. Toshiba also aims to reach a global sales figure of 600,000 to 700,000 units for its HD DVD player by its business year end in March 2007. While they aim to introduce HD DVD recorders to international markets in the future, they have not made any definite plans at this time.
The RD-A1
HD DVD recorder is capable of recording using the H.264 and VC-1 video codecs
and includes various audio and video inputs and outputs. Its outputs include HDMI, iLink, 5.1 Analogue audio, optical & coaxial digital audio and its inputs include S-Video, 3xComposite, 3xAnalogue Audio and 1xDV. For backwards compatibility, the recorder is also capable of recording in standard definition to DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM media. The player weighs 15.2kg (33.5lb) and has dimensions of 44.7 x 40.8 x 15.9 (17.6" x 16.1" x 6.3"). Thanks to D4rk0n3, Hypnosis4U2NV and jef195 for all letting us know about this news.
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Toshiba, which already debuted the world's first HD DVD player in March, expects the new recorder, equipped with a 1 terabyte hard disk, to sell for 398,000 yen ($3,466). (further down the article) "This is a new product packed with our engineers' and all our employees' dreams and passion," Toshiba Corporate Senior Vice President Yoshihide Fujii told a news conference on Thursday. "The price might have surprised you. But this is the kind of product that I would want to buy even for 1 million yen." The full Reuters article can be read here. Some further technical details including photography can be viewed here. |
With a price tag of $3,466, it starts to make the HD DVD player pricing look like a bargain. Unfortunately unlike Toshiba's HD DVD player, it looks like this recorder does not even have any component inputs or outputs, never mind a HDMI input, which means that HD recording may be limited to terrestrial TV recordings only. Finally, it will be interesting to see how long this thing takes to power up and start a recording. For example, if someone wanted to quickly start a recording to capture an interesting news broadcast currently showing, then if it takes a minute to boot-up, chances are that the news item will be long over with by the time it even begins to record!
jef195 added: I Wonder if the 1TB Disc is replaceable (Or two disc drives)?
Source: Reuters News
