Toshiba have announced the new Qosmio G40/F40 series of notebooks equipped with a HD DVD drives for recording on HD DVD-R and HD DVD-RW media.
The new notebooks will be available in Japan in December 21st.
The high-end model "Qosmio G40/97E" is the world's first notebook that comes equipped with an HD DVD burner. The built -in drive is able to record HD camcorder video or digital terrestrial broadcasts on HD DVD-R and HD DVD-RW media at 2x speed. Currently, HD DVD-R media are available in Japan under the MKM brand. However, availability of HD DVD-RW media is not expected anytime soon.
The 17in wide screen notebook is taking advantage of the Toshiba's "HD QosmioEngine" for enhanced HD DVD playback and support the "HD Rec" format that allows for recording of HD content on conventional DVD discs. In addition, the "Dubbing 10" function allows users to make up to nine copies of a DVD disc that holds protected material such as a protected TV broadcast, using CPRM DVD-R/RAM media. The feature is only applicable in the Japanese territory.
The device is powered by a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and an nVidia GeForce 8600 graphics processor. Other features include a 400GB hard disk drive, a harman/kardon 4-speaker sound system, two ground digital tuners, 2GB of memory and 802.11 a/b/g wireless LAN.
The Qosmio G40/97 will cost around 400,000 Yen ($3530, £1750) and it will go on sale in Japan only on Friday. Toshiba didn't announce overseas launch plans.
