Toshiba puts DVD-RW into notebooks
Published: 30 Sep 2002 15:12 BST
Toshiba's new DVD burner is designed to turn notebook PCs into portable multimedia studios.
The storage-device division of Toshiba, which launched the drive Monday, said it is first to hit the market with a DVD-rewritable drive for notebooks. Other manufacturers, such as Pioneer, are also working on DVD burners for laptops.
Pioneer has said it expects to launch the drive during the fourth quarter, which starts Tuesday.
The new Toshiba drive, dubbed SD-R6012, supports DVD-R and DVD-RW formats as well as the CD-RW format, allowing it to record data on both DVD and CD discs.
The new drive, which is available now to manufacturers, will soon appear in high-end notebooks, allowing consumers to use the portable machines to store data on DVDs and burn home movies. As previously reported, Toshiba will introduce such a notebook with its Christmas product-line refresh. The company did not announce pricing for the internal drive.
"Our new lightweight combination drive brings DVD recording to the mobile world, providing users with a stepping stone to move from CD to DVD technology for creating and storing family photos, files, videos and other memories people don't want to lose," Maciek Brzeski, vice president of marketing at the Toshiba storage device division, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the company's storage division also announced a similar drive, the SD-R5002, for desktop PCs. The drive is available now for $349 (£208), directly from Toshiba and also at retail, the company said. While the SD-R5002 can be installed into existing desktops, the SD-R6012 drive for notebooks must be designed into a new system.
Toshiba's new notebook drive will help DVD burners move closer to the mainstream. On the desktop side, DVD burners have become more affordable over time, thanks to price cuts by companies such as Hewlett-Packard. HP recently dropped prices on its drives by $100. They now start at $349.
But the DVD-burner manufacturers are currently waging a battle between DVD-RW and DVD+RW formats, reminiscent of the VHS versus Betamax conflict that preceded the widespread adoption of VCRs.
Most see this format battle as the biggest hurdle to the adoption of DVD burners by consumers. Some manufacturers, such as Sony, have attempted to sidestep the conflict by introducing drives that support both formats.
The SD-R6012 notebook drive writes DVDs at 1X speeds and CDs at up to 16x speeds. It reads DVDs at 8X and CDs at 24X speeds. DVD-RW discs cost about $10 each.
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