Impressive Toshiba VARDIA RD-A1

Jun 22 2006, 2:40am CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Toshiba announced the VARDIA RD-A1 HD DVD HDD recorder in Japan. Toshiba just made HD DVD a lot more attractive.

The Toshiba VARDIA RD-A1 HD DVD recorder is also offering a 1TB HDD for digital recording. The HD DVD burner supports single and dual layer discs. A 14bit/297MHz image DAC offers a 4 time over sampling of the HD video output.

The built-in up-conversion is delivering 1080p and 60/frames per second on the HDMI output.
On the audio front the Toshiba VARDIA RD-A1 supports Dolby digital plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD. This ultimate HD DVD device features of course a digital tuner for the Japanese Hi-Vision HD broadcasting besides an analog one. The RD-A1 has 3 USB, LAN and phone line ports.
The Toshiba VARDIA RD-A1 will ship in July for 398,000 yen (~$3,460). Expensive, but it is a very impressive unit. I hope Toshiba is going outside of Japan with the RD-A1 soon.
Sony needs to get their move on. A Blu-ray player is neat, but a Blu-ray Recorder with a 1TB HDD is what you want.
More details on the RD-A1 product page and promo site (Japanese). More photos on AkihabaraNews.

Toshiba RD-A1 VARDIA - specifications Technology News, Electronics Buy Guide and Gadget Review

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Luigi Lugmayr
Luigi is the founding chief Editor of I4U News and brings over 15 years experience in the technology field to the ever evolving and exciting world of gadgets. He started I4U News back in 2000 and evolved it into vibrant technology magazine.
Luigi can be contacted directly at ml@i4u.com. Luigi posts regularly on LuigiMe.com about his experience running I4U.