Toshiba RD-A1 combines hard disk, HD DVD and standard DVD recorders
Toshiba are about to release the world's first combined digital hard drive recorder and HD DVD recorder, the RD-A1.
It features a 1 Terabyte capacity hard drive capable of recording up to 130 hours of high-def content, plus a recordable HD DVD drive that can read and write both HD and standard DVD media, allowing for backwards compatibility with existing discs, and able to store nearly 4 hours of high=def content on a dual-layer 30Gb HD DVD.
All content can be output in full 1080p HD, including standard DVD content which is upconverted. It also provides a simplified method for transferring existing DVDs to HD DVD.
Toshiba have enhanced their "RD Engine HD" system which provides a graphic user interface with letter-box display compatibility, and proprietary multi-function recording software. It allows viewers to edit recorded high-definition programs on a frame basis, and transfer the edited video to an HD DVD disc. A useful function is high-speed write of DVD video sources to hard disks and high speed dubbing of that video to an HD DVD-R, allowing viewers to combine programs from multiple discs on a single disc without any loss of quality.
It's being released in Japan next month but no news at present of when it will be available in Europe, or at what price.
See the full release and specifications.
Reuters report includes:
"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 (1,881 pounds)."
This seems more likely to be reasonably based on using a high-end PC, before ASICs and DSPs are produced for second generation HD recorders. At least twice as expensive as it can be using custom microelectronics. For example, can you remember Yamaha making the first digital amplifier out of Pentium processers that had DSP capability but had about 25% premium over the most expensive Pentiums available at the time; the same function DSPs now cost a few dollars each.
The $499 HD player from Toshiba is also a lash-up based on a personal computer, according to the iSuppli report, as reported by EETimes, which says that it contains:
"The HD-A1 also employs an Intel Corp. Pentium 4 as the main microprocessor, as well as Broadcom Corp.'s BCM7411 for high-definition video decoding and four ADSP-2126x SHARC programmable DSPs from Analog Devices Inc., according to iSuppli, which estimated that the total cost of these chips is $137.
The HD-A1 also uses $125 worth of memory, including a 1-gigabyte dual inline memory module (DIMM) from Hynix Semiconductor Inc., three other types of DRAM, a 256-megabyte flash memory disk from M-Systems and 32 megabytes of MirrorBit flash memory from Spansion, iSuppli said. Adding the memory chips bring the total cost of ICs used in the HD-A1 to roughly $247 per unit, according to the firm."
Posted by: Brian Reid | June 27, 2006 3:54 AM