Toshiba Revs Up HD DVD DVRs in Japan

Toshiba's forthcoming Vardia RD-A600 and RD-A300 can burn to HD DVD and standard DVD media, and offer more features and smaller price tags than the company's RD-A1.

Toshiba might have scaled back its forecasts for sales of standalone HD DVD players in the United States, but the company is keeping up with its plans to roll out high-end HD DVD hardware in Japan, announcing its new Vardia RD-A600 and RD-A300 HD DVD DVRs (Japanese) will go on sale in Japan by the end of the month.

The new units are follow ups to the company’s RD-A1 video recorder, announced a year ago, and can record standard and high-definition programming to internal hard disks and burn selections to either HD DVD or standard DVD media for sharing and/or long-term storage. However, the RD-A600 and RD-A300 improve on the RD-A1 by offering a substantially smaller footprint (and half the weight), packing in more features, and hitting the market with a lower price tag.

The main distinguishing factor between the A600 and the A300 is the capacity of the internal hard disk: the A600 touts a 600 GB drive, while the A300 comes with 300 GB of storage. Both units can record programming on two HD channels simultaneously, upscale standard-definition media to high-definition displays, and transfer content between Toshiba recorders using FireWire. Both recorders also have the ability to stream HD programming to compatible gear over a home networking using the DTCP-IP protocol.

Toshiba plans to price the A600 at about $1,650, with the A300 carrying a suggested price near $1,230. The company has not announced any plans to launch the recorders outside the Japanese market.