Toshiba hi-def DVD recorders
I’ve seen the announcements lately that Toshiba will be releasing HD-DVD recorders. That wasn’t unexpected and I didn’t really make comment on them.
Looking at their latest announcement though, that the recorders can record up to two hours of hi-def content onto a standard DVD-R makes things a little more interesting.
I don’t know all that much technically about the codec they’re using so I’ll have to do some investigating. I wonder what the picture quality would be like? And does that then pave the way for red laser DVD players that can play MPEG 4 HD content? I’ve long thought that the real winner in the HD DVD format wars would be someone who could deliver HD content on a standard DVD.
Just the announcement so far, so no details on pricing or availability yet.
Speaking of hardware, the new model PlayStation 3 is now available for $678 from Dick Smith. JB HiFi is selling Sharp’s AQUOS blu-ray player for $796.
I don’t think HD content on DVD will ever be very relevant. There has always been the mini-DVD specification for example, which is the DVD software spec on a CD. Blu-ray has the BD-9 spec, which is the blu-ray software specification on DVD. I’m sure HD DVD has a similar specification which is what Toshiba would be using here.
In the end, it comes down to capacity. There just isn’t enough on DVD. Sure you can put HD content on it but you either compromise the run time or you compromise the video bit rate.
What’s really needed is cheaper writable BD-25 and BD-50 discs. Even Hitachi’s new BD-100 discs, if they really do work in current generation drives.