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Tokyo--Toshiba Corporation today announced the world's first combination of hard disk drive and DVD-RAM video recorder for recording TV programs. The new product, RD-2000, will go on sale in the Japanese market only on December 22.

Integration of a 30GB HDD and a 4.7GB DVD-RAM drive in the RD-2000 allows storage of up to 33.5 hours of video images and supports editing between the HDD and DVD-RAM. With the new combination, Toshiba proposes saving programs to the HDD temporarily and using the DVD to build program libraries of scenes selected from the HDD.

The flexibility of recording to HDD combine with high capacity and high-speed access to make it possible to playback a program from the HDD, to pause or to replay any part, even while the program is still being recorded. Viewers who arrive home while a program is being recorded can thus watch it immediately, without having to wait for the recording to be completed.

Product features

1. Maximum 33.5 hours recording

   RD-2000 can record up to a maximum 33.5 hours of video images, 29 hours to the 30GB HDD and 4.5 hours to the 4.7GB DVD-RAM (at a transfer rate of 2Mbps). Viewers can select from four recording modes: standard play mode (4.6Mbps); long play mode (2.2Mbps); manual mode (manually selectable from between 2 to 9.8Mbps in 0.2Mbps steps) and just mode (the transfer rate is determined according to the remaining capacity of any disc in the DVD-RAM drive, regardless of HDD capacity).

   

   All times and transfer rates are approximations
   Recording time: at Dolby Digital 2 channel/ 192 kbps^*1

2. HDD-based viewing functions

   "Chase TV recording" enables playback from the start of a program while recording to the HDD. "Pause TV viewing" enables pause and replay of TV programs during viewing.

3. Library functions

   Recorded titles (TV programs) are easily edited into separate sections, or chapters, with the "Divide chapter" function. This creates on-screen thumbnails for each chapter, which can be selected and ordered with the "Create Playlist" function. All of the title information recorded on the DVD-RAM is written to the "Library system" on the HDD to help users to find target discs.

4. Easy recording and search function

   When record is pressed, the recorder starts recording to the remainder of the HDD capacity, even without a DVD-RAM disk. No overwriting of the recorded TV program is an advantage to tape media. Viewers can select titles to playback from the on-screen thumbnails, while the resume function will automatically start playback of each title from the point where the recorder was stopped or switched off.

5. High quality picture and sound recording

   An MPEG-2 encoder supports high quality recording at a transfer rate of up to 9.8 Mbps. Image quality is assured by a three-dimensional DNR circuit for noise reduction, a three-dimensional Y/C separate circuit for clear images. High quality sound is achieved by a 48kHz/16bit audio ADC. The recorder's linear PCM recording system is also suitable for recording music programs.

6. Adaptable for various image sources

   The appropriate tuners support recording of BS and CS digital broadcasts that will soon start in Japan using 4 input terminals. Playback of DVD-Video, DVD-RAM, Video-CD and music CDs (including HDCD^*2) is supported.

Major specifications