Toshiba showcases uber-slim external HD DVD burner
by Darren Murph 
posted Sep 3rd 2007 at 9:36AM
If a couple of new HD DVD players weren't enough for you, Toshiba is also launching an ultrathin, highly portable HD DVD burner for playing back high-definition flicks and writing massive amounts of data to single or dual-layer HD DVD-Rs whilst on the go. The simply titled HD DVD-Writer is reportedly the brother of the HD DVD Super-Multi, which only supports CD, DVD+/-RW, and HD DVD-ROM. Both units supposedly measure in at just 5.04- x 4.96- x 0.51-inches and weigh 5.82 ounces, and best of all, they're said to be available right now across the pond for £200 ($403).[Thanks, nfinity]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
GuyJ86 @ Sep 3rd 2007 9:48AM
Is usb 2.0 bandwith good enough for HD Quality?
LondonConsultant @ Sep 3rd 2007 10:15AM
Yes, easily. HD-DVD video requires 36 Mbps bandwidth, whereas High-Speed USB 2.0's can practically provide 200 Mbps bandwidth (from a 480 Mbps theoretical maximum).
Wolfticket @ Sep 3rd 2007 10:18AM
Just about, HD-DVD = 292Mbps, UB2 = 480Mbps.
Not sure about burning and stuff though.
Wolfticket @ Sep 3rd 2007 10:23AM
Please ignore my previous comment, but take heed of the fact that many web sites consider bytes and bits to be pretty much interchangeable.
ethana2 @ Sep 3rd 2007 4:21PM
Wow, I thought USB 2.0 was a lot more limited than that. Still. It's not a good idea to put a solid speed cap on a protocol. It needs to be able to scale up to whatever is available.
Dr Buzz0 @ Sep 3rd 2007 2:13PM
Any mention of the speed? I saw some of the early HDDVD burners were just at 1X. In other words: Burn a 2 hour family movie will take you 2 hours. Although that might depend on the codec, now that I think of it, since it would support mpeg-2 and AVC... But in any case, I'd love to know if they're managing to get these things to go a bit faster
Dave @ Sep 3rd 2007 4:03PM
It's too small!
Tony @ Sep 3rd 2007 8:26PM
be nice though if it was small enough to fit in the old laptop
shawnmos @ Sep 5th 2007 1:59AM
@Tony: You can get HD DVD read only drives on ebay that'll fit in most laptops.
shawnmos @ Sep 5th 2007 1:58AM
Looks pretty sweet. I want!