CEATEC Japan 2006: Toshiba Develops HD DVD Writer for Laptops

Toshiba is unveiling this week the first HD DVD writer drive slim enough for use in laptop computers. Premiering at CEATEC, the drive (model SD-L902A) is the standard 12.7 mm height, and can read and write HD DVD, standard DVD and CD discs, according to Toshiba, which is the industry's prime advocate for the format.

Author:: TVTechnology
Publish date:: Oct 4, 2006
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Toshiba is unveiling this week the first HD DVD writer drive slim enough for use in laptop computers. Premiering at CEATEC, the drive (model SD-L902A) is the standard 12.7 mm height, and can read and write HD DVD, standard DVD and CD discs, according to Toshiba, which is the industry's prime advocate for the format.

The company said working samples of the new HD DVD writer drive will be available to computer makers later this year, and laptops and maybe other portable devices with the HD DVD writer could begin to reach retail outlets by the third or fourth quarter of next year.

This week's CEATAC confab is also expected to yield several other new products for both HD DVD and Blu-ray formats.

Toshiba plans to unveil a laptop PC that will support a write-once HD DVD-R format, which the company says will be the first of its type.

Toshiba said it will offer a standard-height HD DVD drive able to read and write to the new HD DVD format, as well as to standard DVD and CD discs.

Toshiba said this week it will add two models to its Vardia brand digital video recorders that include HD DVD recordable drives as part of its advanced functions.

Toshiba said it plans to launch its first laptop with a HD DVD drive in North America, Europe and Japan in April. The Qosmio G30 will be the next-gen edition of Toshiba's Qosmio G20 notebook , and reportedly will be priced comparably. (The G20 started at about $2,400). According to Toshiba, the Qosmio G30 will feat

Toshiba, the lead advocate for the HD DVD format, plans to launch its first HD DVD player in Europe by Nov. 15 -- a couple of days before rival Blu-ray disc drives will start to become available as standard equipment in PlayStation 3 from Sony. A second Toshiba HD DVD player model will be released in December, in time

When Toshiba, the chief proponent of HD DVD, starts shipping its A205 laptop soon, it plans to include an HD DVD demo disc as another way to promote its next-gen format.

Sony may be reeling from recent production delays of next-gen products and a massive laptop battery recall, but the setbacks haven't stopped the company from introducing two new Blu-ray Disc writers with single-layer 25 GB capacity. Blu-ray chief advocate Sony and other proponents have long been touting the format's

The announcement comes after Toshiba said it would introduce notebook computers that can handle HD DVD discs, which compete with incompatible Blu-ray discs