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View Full Version : Toshiba to Release First Laptop with HD-DVD Drive Next MOnth


Jason Dunn
03-08-2006, 01:00 AM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,124981,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.pcworld.com/resource/article/0,aid,124981,pg,1,RSS,RSS,00.asp</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Toshiba is planning to launch its first laptop computer with an HD-DVD drive in Europe in April, the company said Tuesday. The Qosmio G30 laptop will also be available in Japan and North America at about the same time, said Oscar Koenders, general manager of marketing at Toshiba Europe's PC division. It will cost around the same as Toshiba's current Qosmio G20 notebook, prices of which depend on configuration and begin at about $2410, he said."</i><br /><br />Ok, colour me baffled. When I saw Toshiba's HD-DVD player in person, it was big and expensive compared to normal DVD players. When I asked the Toshiba representative at CES why it was so large, he shrugged and said "First generation technology". So how is it that Toshiba is able to put an HD-DVD drive into a laptop at (presumably) no added size and only minimal added cost? What am I missing here? Do the HD upscaler or other on-board components in the full-sized player really take up that much space?

entropy1980
03-08-2006, 05:47 AM
Both at the HD-DVD booth and in Intel's booth at CES Toshiba had laptops running with HD-DVD players in them saw them myself. No biggie really.

Jason Dunn
03-08-2006, 06:55 AM
No biggie really.

Then why are the main players so big? Have you seen one in person? We're talking 4-5x the volume of a slimline current gen player. CRAZY big.

entropy1980
03-08-2006, 04:26 PM
No biggie really.

Then why are the main players so big? Have you seen one in person? We're talking 4-5x the volume of a slimline current gen player. CRAZY big.

Don't know but Microsoft had a guy demoing it on a Toshiba laptop. They even had the drive extended out so you could see it spinning while it played. And at the Intel booth they were showing how Core Duo's could decode an HD-DVD and still do other stuff with no lag on HD-DVD playback. Not entirely sure why the HD-DVD set top plyers are "big" but to me they didn't seem out of line with a non-slimline DVD player but than again maybe more of the decoding is done via software/video card etc. on the laptops and the set tops are having to pack more chips/hotter chips to do that?