Toshiba’s HD DVD Recorder Now Available (in Japan)
July 27, 2006
After a two week delay Toshiba’s RD-A1, 1-terabyte hard disk, 1080p HD DVD recorder is on sale in Japan. The RD-A1 was originally scheduled for launch on July 14th but was pushed back due to “production delays”.
Back on June 22nd the announcement of the RD-A1 HD DVD recorder caused quite a bit of buzz with features like: 1TB disk storage, 1080p over HDMI, 297MHz/14bit video encoding, 192kHz/24 bit audio, DTS-HD support and terrestrial/satellite HD inputs.
And of course much of that buzz was dampened by the fact the recorder won’t be available in the U.S. and retails for 398,000 yen (roughly $3400).
We don’t normally report on Japanese product launches but a full featured, 1080p capable HD DVD recorder with 1TB of hard drive space is a TV fanatic’s dream-come-true and well, just seemed noteworthy no matter where you happen to hang your hat.
But I do have some news for you HD DVD fans that aren’t quite ready to jet off to Japan and snag one of these recorders….
After speaking with a contact at a local distributor about an HD-XA1, he popped out an email (one I probably wasn’t supposed to see) that mentioned Toshiba’s tentative HD DVD announcements to be made at the upcoming CEDIA in September.
Deep breath, the email mentioned replacements for both the HD-A1 and HD-XA1, now it might sound a bit soon to even be thinking about successors to the A1’s but keep in mind that products announced at CEDIA are only that, announcements.
The details were scarce but it did mention a redesign for the HD-A1 (date: TBA 2006) and that the HD-XA1’s successor would follow sometime in early 2007.
Reading between the lines I got the impression that the majority of the changes would be cosmetic in nature and consolidations of already released and soon-to-be released firmware upgrades. But again, hard to say based on the limited info I saw. That’s it I’ve said enough and probably too much.
Posted by B.Greenway | | Filed Under HD-DVD
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Dave
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B.Greenway
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David