Toshiba continues its roll out of next generation HD DVD products with the announcement of the world’s first laptop PC with an HD DVD-ROM drive.

The Qosmio G30/697HS will be available in the Japanese market in mid May, with European roll-out likely in the following months.

Toshiba, of course, is the main backer of the HD DVD optical disc format, with supporters including NEC, Intel and Microsoft. Sony, by contrast, is behind the Blu-ray optical disc format, which is backed by Pioneer, Samsung, Matsushita, Philips and Apple, among others.

The latest product in the Qosmio line-up of AV laptops, the new Qosmio (4.8kg) can also read and write to current DVD and CD discs, including DVD+/-R DL (dual-layer) and DVD-RAM.

The 12.7mm-thick drive achieves this thin form factor with an optical system requiring only a single objective lens to read HD DVD discs and to read and write to DVDs and CDs. The system’s combination of a high-performance dual-core Intel Core Duo Processor T2500 (2.00GHz) and 128MB nVidia GeForce Go 7600 should deliver stunning image quality in playback of HD DVD content.

The Qosmio G30/697HS integrates two TV tuners, one for digital terrestrial broadcasts and the other for analogue terrestrial broadcasts. As you watch your choice of program - analogue or digital - the separate tuners allow you to record both, what you are watching as well as a program from the other tuner all at the same time.

The most striking feature of the new Qosmio is its 17-inch diagonal widescreen, full-HD liquid crystal display. This WUXGA has a native resolution of 1920x1200 pixels so can playback true HD DVD content (1920x1080 pixels).

Beyond this, the new Qosmio also integrates an HDMI output in its external interface, allowing the PC to be hooked up to an HDTV and to act as the video source for a large-sized TVs or home theatre projectors.

A full array of interfaces include 5.1 digital audio output (S/PDIF), RGB, S-Video output, i.LINK (FireWire), AV input (composite video input, L/R audio input), and four USB 2.0 ports.

[Best Laptop Pricing UK]
[Best Laptop Pricing US]

Got this product? Got a camcorder/mic? Let us post YOUR video/podcast review!

BIOS, Apr 13, 06 | Print | Send | Comments (0) | Posted In Laptop