During the Ceatec show in Japan, Toshiba plans to launch three HD DVD recorders. All three are able to transcode in real-time an off-the-air MPEG2 high-definition signal into the MPEG4 AVC compression system which is more efficient. That means the recorded content will be stored in less space than usual, so a single layer HD DVD-R disc will contain about 6 hours of content, Toshiba says. Thus, it seems it is possible to store about 2 hours of content on a DVD-R using the recently standardized HD REC format.

The three models are: the high-end RD-X7 recorder, the RD-A101 and RD-A201. The first features 1080p video output at 24 frames per second. About the other two, Toshiba didn’t make available specs information.

The HD DVD recorders will be released in the forthcoming weeks due to the serried competition with the Blu-ray recorders produced by Sony, Panasonic and Sharp.

Filed under HDTV