Toshiba is ready to launch this month two digital video recorders (DVRs). The devices combine the HD DVD with the HD hard disk recording. The models in discussion are RD-A600 and RD-A300. The difference between those two is the capacity of their hard disks. The first one comes with 600GB memory, while the second has 300GB storage.

The new DVRs will be available for sale in Japan, at the end of the month. Toshiba has been selling the RD-A1 device which combines both HD DVD and hard-disk recording, but it is bigger and has less options than the new DVRs. Besides the functions I told you the new models can stream HDTV across an in-home network using the DTCP-IP content protection system. Other important feature is the ability to record two HD channels at once.

The prices were estimated by Toshiba. The A600 will cost around $1,645 and the A300 will cost about $1,232. To make an opinion you should know that the old RD-A1 model costs $3,600. There were no details about launching the product for another markets than Japan.

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It looks like someone is after Sony’s Bravia name, logo and color schemes. It’s Toshiba that has a new product, Vardia RD-A600 that is a HD DVD player with a HDD recorder of 600GB and RD-A300 with 300GB of space. The two models have a pair of digital hi-vision HD tuners, Firewire and HDMI.

The new Toshiba Vardia is pretty smart and can write on HD DVD-R and DVD-RAM/R/RW media but the price is high, ¥200,000 about $1,650 (for the 600GB model). Release date is later this year.

[Impress JP - translation]

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Pioneer has two new power gadgets for us that are in the middle range, that will work great with HD DVDs and Blu-ray discs and with smaller prices than their top notch models. Featuring Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio with 7.1 sounds these two new amplifiers from Pioneer are what you need for a serious home theater system where you can connect all your audio and video gadgets that will come out great.

It has S-video, optical digital audio, a couple of HDMI 1.3a inputs and is iPod friendly. How neat! For the price of $1153 the Pioneer VSA-AX1AH that will bring 180W x 7, can be bought in June and Pioneer VSA-1017AV that has 170W x 7 is $774. I personally don’t think the 10W x 7 are worth paying almost $400 more.

[press release via Gizmodo]

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Remember how it happened when the iPod was launched? Everything else that ended up on the market was similar with it. It looks like it’s time for Apple TV to get look-alike products. Philips has one in this aluminum box that is a very good alternative for watching DivX movies for those that hate Mac or just wouldn’t spend £200.
It has a 40GB hard drive to keep media locally and can be expanded via USB if you connect other and it can also play audio and video from wireless networked drives. No specs and prices were release at Taipei Computex 2007 where this new box appeared.

[via Engadget]

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What the hell is that?! Easy my friend, I will present you the future successor of HDTV. A Japanese company, called NHK, has demonstrate at the Science and Technical Research Laboratories, in Tokyo, that the Super Hi-Vision television is the future of today’s HDTV systems.

NHK’s engineers have presented a prototype image sensor that can offer a Super Hi-Vision resolution of 7680 by 4320. This progress on Super Hi-Vision will produce the replacement of today’s HDTV devices. Also, NHK has presented a Super Hi-Vision camera that can capture a live monochrome video image at 7680×4320 resolution. A prototype Super Hi-Vision encoder can encode a 24-gbps video signal to a 128-mbps MPEG4 AVC stream in real time using 16 encoders in parallel.

All in all, I would say the progress is outstanding. We’ve just entered the HDTV era and NHK has developed the next generation television. But, hey, the science don’t stop!

[Credits: PC World]

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