Toshiba's RD-A1 standalone HD DVD burner: $3500
by Richard Lawler 
posted Jun 22nd 2006 at 11:35AM
Interestingly, this device will output 1080p via HDMI, unlike Toshiba's HD-A1 and HD-XA1 HD DVD players. The RD-A1 also uses Toshiba's existing "RD Engine" hard disk drive recording system to record content from 1 analog and 1 digital tuner (simultaneous recording is supported) to the 1TB hard drive, edit to your liking, then burn to either a 15GB single-layer or 30GB dual-layer HD DVD-R (no -RW) disc. Interestingly, it does not support recording in newer codecs like VC-1 or MPEG-4, only MPEG-2. As early Blu-ray releases suggest, even a dual layer HD DVD may not have the space to provide ideal video quality, although there will be no PCM soundtrack to take up additional space. You can also stream content to DLNA equipped devices like Toshiba's Qosmio laptop. An undocumented feature is the ability to drop it on any small children or Wicked Witches of the East you want to get rid of , because the thing is enormous. No word on US availability yet.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Thanh @ Jun 22nd 2006 12:03PM
Man that's huge!
Jay @ Jun 22nd 2006 12:04PM
The problem is, you can only record Over the air broadcast. Who is going to spend $3500.00 for a box that can only record OTA programming.
bmw68 @ Jun 22nd 2006 1:16PM
The Japanese!