Toshiba Unveils World’s First Dedicated HD DVD Write Drive

Toshiba launched the world’s first standard height HD DVD drive SD-H903A able to read and write to HD DVD and to standard DVD and CD discs. The new Toshiba SD-H903A integrates a blue-violet laser diode that can read and write to HD DVD-R discs and that offers support for high-density HD DVD-ROM discs, including high definition movie and video images. The drive also offers all the functionality of a super multi-drive, with high performance, high-speed read and write to all flavors of standard DVD and CD discs. The new drive is also fully compliant with the EU’s RoHS directive. With dual layer discs, HD DVD reportedly provides 30GB of storage capacity, which can accommodate up to eight hours of HD DVD movie content, up to five full-length standard DVD films, up to 7,500 MP3 songs or up to 30,000 high-quality images.

Toshiba SD-H903A measures 146×184×41.5mm and weighs 830g. Toshiba will feature the new drive at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2007, in Las Vegas, Nevada from January 8 to 11.Sample shipments of the new drive, SD-H903A, are scheduled to start this month.