FIRST ‘DVD MULTI’ RECORDER COMING FROM TOSHIBA
Nearly 3 years after first effort to “bridge” DVD Forum recording formats and 2 years since spec has been available, first home DVD Multi recorder will be introduced by Toshiba. In worldwide announcement scheduled for today (Thurs.), DVD-RAM proponent will take wraps off Model D-R1 that adds DVD-RW recording and playback to same DVD-R and DVD-RAM functions.
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DVD Multi drives have been available for PCs, notably in Toshiba laptops and Panasonic’s desktop Multi Burner line, but product has been long in coming for home recorders. DVD Multi effort was first announced at PC Expo in June 2000 as attempt to bridge DVD Forum’s DVD-RAM and DVD-R/RW formats, espoused respectively by Hitachi, Panasonic and Toshiba and by Pioneer. Version 1.0 spec for DVD Multi became available July 24, 2001, and licensing began Nov. 12 that year. At that time, DVD Multi proponents said first decks could be available by end of 2002, and Panasonic was expected to announce first products this Feb. but so far has withheld comment on plans.
Toshiba D-R1 will hit retail in Sept. at $599.99 MSRP. Company said at line show last week (CED May 12 p2) that it also would offer line of lower priced DVD-R/RAM decks later this year. It also said it was discontinuing DVD-R/RAM hybrid recorder with 80 GB hard drive introduced last year, but didn’t rule out restoring product to line in future. As we reported earlier, Toshiba also will offer new DVD/TiVo PVR combo that will include TiVo basic service as free built-in feature.
D-R1 gives some PVR capability through DVD-RAM format’s Time Slip function, which lets user simultaneously record and play back, pause live program while it continues being recorded, then pick up viewing while recording is in progress. Deck uses VCR Plus+ for time-shift recording, has component video progressive scan playback and front panel IEEE-1394 input for recording DVDs from digital camcorder footage. Fast-scan speeds are 2x, 8x, 30x and 100x and slow-motion at 1/2-, 1/8- and 1/16 speed increments. Besides remote control, deck can be operated by top-mount function buttons.
Combo “dual format” DVD-R/RW and DVD+RW home deck was announced by Sony at CES and ships soon, but first such model will lack write-once DVD+R recording. Announcement of other “dual format” -RW/+RW products is reported imminent.