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Toshiba Pushes Hard Disk DVD
RD-XS32 offers easy menus, numerous recording options in new models
for U.S. and Europe.
Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
With sales of its combination hard disk and DVD video recorders
growing fast in Japan, Toshiba is kicking off a string of
international launches.
The company is now selling its RD-XS32 recorder in global markets,
launching in the United States as well as Europe, Asia, and Oceania in
June, says Takahiro Uriu, deputy manager of DVD marketing and product
planning at Toshiba in Tokyo.
The RD-XS32 is available now in the United States, priced at $599. It
will go on sale in Europe in June priced at about $960. Toshiba began
selling it in Japan last December priced at $525.
DVDs Grow Popular
DVD recorders are among the fastest increasing sectors of Japan's
domestic electronics market at present. 2003 shipments were just under
2 million units, a 215 percent increase on the previous year, and they
continue to be strong this year, according to figures from the Japan
Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association.
In the first three months of 2004 a total of 510,000 units have
already been shipped, up 92 percent on the same period a year earlier.
Models with hard disk drives made up 366,000 units, according to
JEITA. The outlook remains positive in part because of the Olympic
Games, which will be screened late in the evening and overnight in
Japan.
The global market is a little behind but shows signs of growth,
research shows. A recent survey by TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence
finds 13 percent of Americans questioned say they plan to buy a DVD
recorder within the next twelve months. That could mean sales of
between 4 million and 5 million units, according to the report.
A big consumer concern is ease of use, the report notes.
Toshiba says it addresses this with an easy-navigation function in
its first HDD/DVD recorder for overseas markets, not yet available in
Japanese models. It's one of a handful of features the company hopes
will win customers.
"Some people say our functions are too much so we want to introduce
the basic functions on one screen," Uriu says. The menu appears at a
single button touch on the remote control, providing quick access to
major functions such as TV viewing, recorded programs, timer
recording, and copying of contents from a DV camcorder. Clips of
recorded programs can also be watched in a window on the Easy Navi
screen.
Storage Options
The RD-XS32 has an 80GB hard disk drive and, like a video cassette,
the amount of video you can record depends on the recording quality
setting. At the highest quality mode, which is 9.2 megabits per
second, the drive holds 17 hours; switching to the lowest quality
mode, 1.4 mbps, extends recording time to 103 hours, according to
Toshiba. Video quality options include 38 steps.
The optical drive supports DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, and DVD-R discs. For daily
use or short-term storage of contents off the hard disk, the company
says DVD-RAM offers benefits over the other two formats. That format
is designed to support random disk access, but is a more expensive way
to archive content than using DVD-R.
Archiving from hard disk to DVD-R can be accomplished at up to 24X the
speed of the original program. This function depends on the video
quality but allows a one-hour TV show recorded at lowest quality to be
burned onto a DVD-R disc in under three minutes.
When it comes to recording programs, Toshiba supports Gemstar (VCR
Plus, Video Plus, and Show View in various markets) including the
higher-level functionality that lets the recorder control a set-top
box so it can change cable or satellite channels for recording.
Company representatives say Toshiba hopes to add an electronic program
guide feature in future models.
The recorder can also connect to a DV camcorder and used to transfer
the camcorder's contents onto its hard disk or a DVD disc. Users can
designate chapters, either at scene breaks or preset intervals, to
make it easier to navigate the resulting video, Uriu says.
Like video quality, audio quality can also be controlled and the
RD-XS32 offers three settings. Two are compressed Dolby Digital and
one is Linear pulse code modulation. The PCM feature can be enabled at
any video quality setting, an advantage over competing recorders, Uriu
says. If a consumer wants to record a music program to a DVD they can
set, say, high-quality audio and low-quality video to support up to
four hours of programming on one disc. Other manufacturers tie
high-quality audio and video together meaning only an hour of
programming can be stored on a DVD, he says.
http
/www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116170,tk,dn051904X,00.asp
==
"Men tire themselves in pursuit of rest." -- Laurence Sterne
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know
what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."
-- H.L. Mencken
Toshiba Pushes Hard Disk DVD
RD-XS32 offers easy menus, numerous recording options in new models
for U.S. and Europe.
Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
With sales of its combination hard disk and DVD video recorders
growing fast in Japan, Toshiba is kicking off a string of
international launches.
The company is now selling its RD-XS32 recorder in global markets,
launching in the United States as well as Europe, Asia, and Oceania in
June, says Takahiro Uriu, deputy manager of DVD marketing and product
planning at Toshiba in Tokyo.
The RD-XS32 is available now in the United States, priced at $599. It
will go on sale in Europe in June priced at about $960. Toshiba began
selling it in Japan last December priced at $525.
DVDs Grow Popular
DVD recorders are among the fastest increasing sectors of Japan's
domestic electronics market at present. 2003 shipments were just under
2 million units, a 215 percent increase on the previous year, and they
continue to be strong this year, according to figures from the Japan
Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association.
In the first three months of 2004 a total of 510,000 units have
already been shipped, up 92 percent on the same period a year earlier.
Models with hard disk drives made up 366,000 units, according to
JEITA. The outlook remains positive in part because of the Olympic
Games, which will be screened late in the evening and overnight in
Japan.
The global market is a little behind but shows signs of growth,
research shows. A recent survey by TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence
finds 13 percent of Americans questioned say they plan to buy a DVD
recorder within the next twelve months. That could mean sales of
between 4 million and 5 million units, according to the report.
A big consumer concern is ease of use, the report notes.
Toshiba says it addresses this with an easy-navigation function in
its first HDD/DVD recorder for overseas markets, not yet available in
Japanese models. It's one of a handful of features the company hopes
will win customers.
"Some people say our functions are too much so we want to introduce
the basic functions on one screen," Uriu says. The menu appears at a
single button touch on the remote control, providing quick access to
major functions such as TV viewing, recorded programs, timer
recording, and copying of contents from a DV camcorder. Clips of
recorded programs can also be watched in a window on the Easy Navi
screen.
Storage Options
The RD-XS32 has an 80GB hard disk drive and, like a video cassette,
the amount of video you can record depends on the recording quality
setting. At the highest quality mode, which is 9.2 megabits per
second, the drive holds 17 hours; switching to the lowest quality
mode, 1.4 mbps, extends recording time to 103 hours, according to
Toshiba. Video quality options include 38 steps.
The optical drive supports DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, and DVD-R discs. For daily
use or short-term storage of contents off the hard disk, the company
says DVD-RAM offers benefits over the other two formats. That format
is designed to support random disk access, but is a more expensive way
to archive content than using DVD-R.
Archiving from hard disk to DVD-R can be accomplished at up to 24X the
speed of the original program. This function depends on the video
quality but allows a one-hour TV show recorded at lowest quality to be
burned onto a DVD-R disc in under three minutes.
When it comes to recording programs, Toshiba supports Gemstar (VCR
Plus, Video Plus, and Show View in various markets) including the
higher-level functionality that lets the recorder control a set-top
box so it can change cable or satellite channels for recording.
Company representatives say Toshiba hopes to add an electronic program
guide feature in future models.
The recorder can also connect to a DV camcorder and used to transfer
the camcorder's contents onto its hard disk or a DVD disc. Users can
designate chapters, either at scene breaks or preset intervals, to
make it easier to navigate the resulting video, Uriu says.
Like video quality, audio quality can also be controlled and the
RD-XS32 offers three settings. Two are compressed Dolby Digital and
one is Linear pulse code modulation. The PCM feature can be enabled at
any video quality setting, an advantage over competing recorders, Uriu
says. If a consumer wants to record a music program to a DVD they can
set, say, high-quality audio and low-quality video to support up to
four hours of programming on one disc. Other manufacturers tie
high-quality audio and video together meaning only an hour of
programming can be stored on a DVD, he says.
http
/www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,116170,tk,dn051904X,00.asp==
"Men tire themselves in pursuit of rest." -- Laurence Sterne
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know
what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."
-- H.L. Mencken
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