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Toshiba Qosmio G40  (Source: Toshiba)
Toshiba ships first notebooks computers featuring rewritable HD DVD drive

Consumers have been able to get notebook computers for a while now with internal Blu-ray drives which could also write to blank Blu-ray disks. Notebooks were also available that would play movies on internal HD DVD drives.

Information Week reports that Toshiba will begin selling in Japan this week the first notebook computer which integrates a rewriteable HD DVD optical drive. A pair of Toshiba notebooks in the Qosmio Series 2 family will include these HD DVD rewritable drives. One model will be available  with a 17-inch screen featuring a 1920 x 1200 screen resolution and one with a 15.4-inch screen using a 1280 x 800 resolution.

Those specifications should mean that the 17-inch notebook would be able to output full 1080p movies from HD DVD discs and the 15.4-inch version will be able to show 720p HD content. Both of these systems are far from what would be considered easily portable.

The Qosmio G40/97E 17-inch screen version is reported to weigh 10.6 pounds while the Qosmio F40/88EBL 15.4-inch version weighs 7.7 pounds. Information Week surmises from the size and heft of the machines they are intended to replace a separate computer and TV in cramped apartments in Japan.

Toshiba also says that both the notebooks will be capable of viewing one show while recording another thanks to dual TV tuners. The HD DVD drives themselves will be able to write to HD DVD recordable media as well as writing to normal DVD media with support for HD Rec extension.

The 15.4-inch Qosmio will retail for around $2,600 USD and the 17-inch version will retail for around $3,500 USD.

The HD DVD rewritable drives used in these Toshiba notebooks shouldn’t be confused with the HD DVD drives used in older Toshiba notebooks like the Satellite X205-SLI1 that would play HD DVD movies and write to standard DVD media only. Rewritable Blu-ray drives have been available for a while now on systems like the Dell XPS m1530.

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Meh?
By therealnickdanger on 12/18/2007 2:12:17 PM , Rating: 3
I don't know what it is, but I just can't really see the consumer market doing a lot of BD/HD media writing. Most folks I know don't even burn stuff to DVD anymore - they just throw it on their thumb drives. For big stuff, they use an external HDD. Five-hundred fast, external gigabytes for $130... hard to beat.




RE: Meh?
By Glavinsolo on 12/18/2007 2:16:32 PM , Rating: 2
You underestimate those who plan on using these for their home hd formated videos taken by those new nifty video cameras. And those who plan on copying the new HD DVDs.

I do think its a bit too new, but it certainly took more than 5 years for DVD to become widely accepted.

Anyone know when Blockbuster stopped renting vhs and when the dvd first came out?


RE: Meh?
By onwisconsin on 12/18/2007 2:27:16 PM , Rating: 5
RE: Meh?
By Mitch101 on 12/18/2007 2:42:01 PM , Rating: 2
Agreed,

I have a serious need for a backup solution that exceeds the current DVD-9 space limits. Databases if you must know.

Tape is not an option because tape systems are overly expensive and the media requires an expensive tape unit should the tape drive goes bad or become hard to find so does recovery of that data. But HD-DVD/Blu-Ray drives will be everywhere soon enough to make for cheap easy to find recovery solutions.

Talking about slow acceptance it took forever for game companies to finally release games on DVD discs instead of CD's. What is worse is some still release CD's! I seriously doubt that the guy who needs the game on CD format instead of DVD can actually play the games being released today on CD.


RE: Meh?
By omnicronx on 12/18/2007 3:21:44 PM , Rating: 2
I really do not see how a scratcheble, non protected media really helps you out here. Backing up to disc is not going to be a widely used practice, especially from the beginning when prices per disk are floating around $25. You are still going to have to keep multiple copies of the disc, just as you did with a tape drive. I also do not know what you are talking about when you say tape is expensive, it's not, infact the price per GB is probably the only reason it is still in existance.

I really do not think HD-DVD/BD backup is going to be a solution for anything outside of personal or small business use, just as the DVD is used for now.


RE: Meh?
By pomaikai on 12/18/2007 3:24:16 PM , Rating: 1
$100 for 500GB hard drive vs $10 25GB Blu ray write once disk or $16 for a 25GB rewritable. For ever 10(250GB) BD-R you can purchase another hard drive or every 6(150GB) BD-RE disks. Sounds like a waste of money to me.

Now DVD is a different story. I can purchase 470GB worth of DVDs for $20. Now thats 2.35TB for every 500GB hard drive.


RE: Meh?
By Mitch101 on 12/18/2007 3:50:42 PM , Rating: 2
In the pharma industry you must keep certain data on a media that lasts 10 years. Optical media is an approved medium. Disk and Tape are not. Money is not a problem. Fines for not doing this much greater than anything else.


RE: Meh?
By Lifted on 12/19/2007 12:28:47 AM , Rating: 2
LTO tapes have a 20 - 30 year shelf life, and 2 or 3 copis of a tape in different locations, maintaining the data for 10 years should be no problem.

At $50 per ~600GB cartridge (on a 400/800 LTO3 tape), cost shouldn't be a factor.

Optical media is much more fragile than a tape cartridge, and I've never heard of a major company using optical media for archival when cost was not a factor.


RE: Meh?
By omnicronx on 12/19/2007 10:35:55 AM , Rating: 2
Lol, pharmaceutical companies do not keep their high priority backups on an Optical media. In fact most companies will not keep their data on site at all, they will usually hire an outsourced IT solution of some kind.


RE: Meh?
By Mitch101 on 12/19/2007 2:06:52 PM , Rating: 2
For compliance reasons yes were are authorized to keep it on optical media. Only a specific department is required. Research. First I had heard of it myself. Prior to DVD we were using Maxoptix Floptical drives.

While tape might last 20-30 years the drives themselves aren't always around. Plus it doesnt meet the requirement. That is compliance for you. You cant make this stuff up.


RE: Meh?
By Polynikes on 12/18/2007 4:45:32 PM , Rating: 2
Yeah, but for some people speed and convenience are worth the extra money. I'd rather have an easier solution, copy the 25GB in a matter of minutes, rather than copy it much slower on a disc or even worse, slower on multiple discs.

Plus you have all your data stored in one location, and it takes up less space.


RE: Meh?
By timmiser on 12/18/2007 6:18:14 PM , Rating: 2
You guys are all missing the obvious reason. I want to put pictures and HD video on these disks and send them to my parents and children so they can play on their own HD-DVD players. (Just like I used to do with DVDs). I am not going to buy 5 or 6 100 GB hard drives everytime that they can't play anyway because their computers are not beefy enough to play HD wmv's.

Now lets get some consumer level HD authoring software released and I'll be happy!


RE: Meh?
By Keeir on 12/18/2007 7:23:15 PM , Rating: 4
Yes, right now, little more than 1 year into the technology, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are more expensive per GB than DVD. That was true when DVD was introduced it was more expensive per GB than CD and Hard Disk for a while. Prices will come down.

In the mean time, there are several industries with storage requirements for data. I know at least one (very small company) that has to back-up in a secured facility over 100 GB of info every year (and hold for 10 years). Last year, they stored around 50 DVD discs. This year, they are looking at 5 Blu-Ray discs. The change in cost of administrating and burning will pay for the change to Blu-Ray in like 2 years... The market exists, and its surprizing HD-DVD has not tried to tap this market because it often will pay significant price premiums to save on labor costs.


RE: Meh?
By BansheeX on 12/19/2007 7:28:02 AM , Rating: 2
If you think that those prices are going to stay that way for blue laser recordables, you simply don't understand industry. DVD was also prohibitively expensive when it was new until it inevitably entered the $1 plateau, and blue laser media is the same. Your assessment of current value-per-dollar is obvious and pointless. Why do people discredit new technology as an attempt to rip them off? If you can't afford it, don't buy it and have patience until you can. Jesus.


RE: Meh?
By Polynikes on 12/18/2007 4:43:42 PM , Rating: 2
I get so annoyed when a game is released on multiple CDs instead of a DVD or two. Luckily that practice is pretty rare now, or they at least have the option of one or the other.


RE: Meh?
By therealnickdanger on 12/20/2007 9:12:45 AM , Rating: 2
We've got to be honest about a couple things here:

1. HD camcorders sales are not nearly good enough to drive pricing down significantly. Plus, they use mini-discs, not full size discs, so it's a apples-to-oranges comparison. There's a huge pricing disparity between mini-DVD and DVD5 and DVD9.

2. The market still can't decide between BD or HD, resulting in slower adoption for two competing formats, which ensures that prices will remain higher for longer.

3. Digital cameras, cell phones, and webcams are the hottest method of video capture for consumers, PMPs for viewing - none of which use HD or BD media.

4. YouTube. Also see #3.

5. 16GB USB thumb drive: $99. 32GB: $250. Naturally, this would only be a reason against rewriteable BD/HD media. Well under the cost of a burner and media. Plug'n'play with no extra software and faster transfer rates. More durable.

Optical media is useful, some people need it, many people use it, but it's my opinion that it is on its way out for more people than it will cater to.


RE: Meh?
By shamgar03 on 12/18/2007 2:41:07 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
Meh?

QFT


RE: Meh?
By BansheeX on 12/18/07, Rating: -1
RE: Meh?
By sweetsauce on 12/18/2007 5:45:55 PM , Rating: 2
You never take a break do you? If these start selling, how long will it be before you see a similar br option on sony laptops?

Anyways, I would pick one of these up for on the fly production. I can see a market for something like that. In my experience, people love instant gratification, so if you can offer HD movies to customers instantly it can be a great selling point.


RE: Meh?
By Keeir on 12/18/2007 7:34:29 PM , Rating: 1
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet...

Already Availible in the US. Been that way for a while.

As a general rule, Blu-Ray has managed to put alot more choices in Drives and Media in computer users hands.


RE: Meh?
By BansheeX on 12/19/2007 7:45:49 AM , Rating: 3
quote:
You never take a break do you? If these start selling, how long will it be before you see a similar br option on sony laptops?


What are you refuting, exactly? I am arguing against supporting HD-DVD as the recordable format. You do realize that hi-def movies take up about 20gb on both formats, right? And you know that multi-layer price and durability for recordables SUCKS, right? Long-term, blu-ray will be the most cost-effective and convenient format for backing up movies because of its superior single layer capacity. If you support blu-ray, we will be able to back up a movie onto ONE 25gb SINGLE LAYER disc with no quality loss (losslessly compressing PCM audio if necessary). If you support HD-DVD as the recordable format, you will always be splitting up the movie on TWO 15gb SINGLE LAYER discs or a hyper-expensive multi-layer disc, which carries with it all the aforementioned price, durability, and compatibility problems.


RE: Meh?
By retrospooty on 12/19/2007 2:11:57 PM , Rating: 3
"You never take a break do you? "

Sure he does. He takes a break on Non Sony/Blue Ray/HD-DVD threads. ;)

"I come to AT/DT to defend blue ray/Sony, therefore I am"


RE: Meh?
By saiga6360 on 12/18/2007 5:10:07 PM , Rating: 2
I agree that affordable high capacity HDDs have somewhat diminished the desire to copy stuff to DVD but it is still nice to have the option. The same can be said of the HD/BD formats, given of course, that the cost of media and devices go down to the current levels of the DVD format.

There is always the 'fair use' privilege to back up your movies. After all, these are not scratch proof media we're talking about here. Then again, an HDD library of your ripped movies solves that but like I said, it is still nice to have the option.


RE: Meh?
By RMSistight on 12/19/2007 3:46:01 PM , Rating: 2
While this IS true, I'm one of those users. I go on speedskating meets all the time with friends and I have my XPS m1330. If I had an HD-DVD/Blu-ray drive, I could easily rent a movie and plug in my HDMI connection to an HDTV we have at the hotels. But most of the time I play the movies from my hard drive data files.


Don't tase me, bro!
By MrBungle on 12/18/2007 10:07:11 PM , Rating: 2
A 17" screen with 1920x1080 resolution? What's the point? Even though you're sitting very close to it, I would think text at that resolution would be unreadable without having to upsize nearly everything. I have enough trouble reading text on a 24" monitor with the same resolution.




RE: Don't tase me, bro!
By Brockway on 12/19/2007 1:19:31 AM , Rating: 2
My dell laptop has a 17" 1920x1200 screen and I love it. Anything below 1440x900 feels claustrophobic now.


RE: Don't tase me, bro!
By MrBungle on 12/19/2007 9:27:03 AM , Rating: 2
Well, the resolution is certainly great, but I can't see it being useful without coupling that to some extra surface area. For movies and games, sure - I'd imagine those look very sharp - but for browsing, word processing, etc.?

I guess I need to see one in person - I can't picture that kind of pixel density in my head.


RE: Don't tase me, bro!
By therealnickdanger on 12/20/2007 8:28:47 AM , Rating: 2
I used my Dell e1705 (1920x1200, Go7900) for games, movies, photo-editing, and database work. Such huge tables! You can see everything at once - very sharp. It's not as tiny as you would expect. It's near impossible to use anything else now.


I'll pass...
By marsbound2024 on 12/18/2007 4:06:36 PM , Rating: 4
...as well as most US consumers I'd think. Even though the article admits to being tailored for the Japanese market (which is probably will do pretty well in), I don't think it has too many niches in the United States. For one, it is quite expensive just to boast an HD-DVD writer. People with cramped spaces should look to all-in-one desktops in my opinion. Sony has the VAIO LT series that are sexy beasts... they just don't have an HD-DVD/Blu-ray optical drive. I know they can be had starting around $1900. I just don't think here in the United States, spaces are AS cramped as Japan. Especially not to the point where one has to be cautious with every inch of space. If that is the case, perhaps some spring cleaning is in order and maybe even some rearranging. Besides, the VAIO LT is wall-mountable if you can't fit the 22" screen (entire computer actually) somewhere. And the keyboard and mouse are of course small and wireless.

Stick with the DVDs and CDs until Blu-Ray/HD-DVD becomes cheaper and worthwhile. Otherwise use some sort of external hard drive for backing up data and such. If you really want to burn high definition content to DVDs or CDs, either go with a desktop or buy a standalone high definition recorder to record from the PC.




Desktop Replacements
By InternetGeek on 12/18/2007 2:27:35 PM , Rating: 2
So basically Toshiba is including a HD-DVD writer in their Desktop Replacement laptops.




surprise!
By Visual on 12/19/2007 5:12:16 AM , Rating: 2
all these years, i thought the hd-dvd drive that was in the high-end qosmio was in fact a writer - and the only one availabe, too. and i still couldn't justify its high price.

so... turns out toshiba didn't have any writers at all for quite a long while. i wonder then who were they selling the hd-dvd blanks to?

and are such drives now available separately, for a pc?




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