Toshiba Corp Announces New HDD/HD DVD Recorders in Japan

Toshiba Corp. today announced two high-end additions to its VARDIA digital video recorders (DVR) that add the capabilities of HD DVD recordable drives to a wide range of advanced functions.

The new DVR introduce the ability to record two digital HD television programs simultaneously, and also integrate Toshiba's new "VARDIA engine", which supports significant enhancements to ease of use and performance, including faster drawing of the graphic user interface (GUI) and improved HD DVD disc operation.

The HD DVD VARDIA RD-A600 and HD DVD VARDIA RD-A300 will be rolled out in the Japanese market from the end of June.

The new models offer consumers a choice of hard disk drive capacities. The 600-gigabyte (GB) RD-A600 can record about 78 hours of digital HD broadcasts to its hard drive in HD picture quality, while 300GB RD-A300 can record about 39 hours. Both integrate an HD DVD recordable drive that can directly record HD television programs to an HD DVD-R disc or transfer HD images stored in HDD to an HD DVD-R disc. Like standard DVR, the new recorders allow users to build libraries of their favorite content, whether dramas, movies or sport, but add the ability to do so in vibrant, high definition detail, by storing HD content to HD DVD-R discs.

The versatility of the new VARDIA DVR extends to playback support for packaged content, including HD DVD, DVD and music CDs. An integrated high-performance 1080p compatible up-scaler from Anchor Bay Technologies, Inc., can up-convert standard definition DVD to an output resolution of 1080p, complementing the performance of an HDTV and allowing viewers to enjoy standard DVD in high picture quality.

The only difference between RD-A600 and RD-A300 is the HDD capacity. The former containing a 600GB HDD while the latter, a 300GB HDD. And video recording is still done in the MPEG-2 format...

Click on the preview image below for a larger view of the DVR's rear...

Full details and detailed specifications of each model available here.

By the way, their predecessor (the RD-A1) had a 1TB HDD, a 14bit/297MHz video DAC but consumes more power. It is also heavier and more bulky in terms of weight and size. Of course, it was also pricier (based on estimated pricing). Details of RD-A1 available via this blogpost.