Toshiba has started the battle of the high definition DVD war with the launch of its first notebook equipped with the new HD-DVD media standard. HD-DVD is one of two formats trying to replace current DVDs for high-definition content such as movies. Its main backers are Toshiba and NEC and it is competing with Blu-ray Disc, which is backed by a group including Sony, Panasonic, and Samsung Electronics.

Qosmios are Toshiba’s high end AV oriented laptops and come complete with a TV tuner, digital video recorder etc and the G30 packs all these plus a top-end 1-bit digital amplifier (a world first for a PC apparently). It runs using Microsoft’s Windows Media Center Edition 2005. The HD DVD drive means that users can transfer content/data on to disc with a huge capacity of 30 Gigabytes. Toshiba is planning to launch the Qosmio G30 laptop in Europe in April, the company said Tuesday. It will also be available in Japan and North America at about the same time. Prices will depend on the configuration and begin at about $2410.

More details on the Heise article (German).