Toshiba Corporation 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 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.
More detailed specifications can be found in the original press release.
