HD DVD burner for PCs

[roma_turok]

Toshiba unveils SD-H903A HD DVD burner for PCs


Hot on the heels of all this last minute, pre-CES HD DVD-related action is the SD-H903A, which Toshiba touts as "the world's first dedicated PC-based HD DVD burner" that writes "to all main optical discs." Aside from the obvious (albeit expected) hand-to-the-face to BD-Rs in that last claim, the burner does manage to write nicely to HD DVD-R (single and dual-layer at a measly 1x), DVD +/- R, DVD-RAM, DVD +/- RW, CD-R, and CD-RW. Additionally, it'll include an 8MB buffer, and if all goes well, should play back all your precious HD DVD titles without complication. While we've no idea how much coinage will be required to pick this (admittedly sluggish) drive up, sample shipments are scheduled to take off this month, and we should get a good look at just what it's capable of at next week's CES

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/05/toshiba-unveils-sd-h903a-hd-dvd-burner-for-pcs/

[somebodeez]

single and dual-layer at a measly 1x

[roma_turok]

How much is X1 in time ? Burning full HD-DVD 1 hour ?

[somebodeez]

It takes approx. 45 minutes to burn a regular DL at 2.4 x so I imagine it would take 90 minutes (a bit more perhaps) to burn the same DL at 1x.
I can only imagine how long we'd be waiting for an HD DVD-R (single or even dual-layer) to burn at 1x...

[yoda313]

that writes "to all main optical discs."

Yeah but will it do lightscribe discs?? (I don't have any but it would be interesting if they include that as a "main" disc or if they mean -r and +r - would it do ram???

[dnix71]

Burning 25Gb of anything is going to take a long time, unless you have a striped raid feeding your burner. At some point the sheer size of the files is going to make it not worth the effort to copy, even if you can.

[painkiller]

Slightly more (and different) specs at a different site.

http://www.digitaltechnews.com/news/2007/01/toshiba_sdh903a.html

January 05, 2007
Toshiba SD-H903A HD DVD Drive Reads and Write to HD DVD, DVD and CD discs

We've been hearing about recordable HD DVDs since Toshiba first announced the format, and since then the company has been gearing-up their HD DVD product line which you can read about in the related news links below. Now Toshiba has announced the SD-H903A HD DVD drive that is able to read and write to dual layer HD DVD as well as standard DVD and CD discs. The Toshiba SD-H903A HD DVD burner has 8MB cache, burns DVD RAM at 3x, DVDs at 8x, DL DVDs at 2.4x and HD-DVDs at 2.4x.

The new SD-H903A integrates a blue-violet laser diode that can read and write to HD DVD-R discs and that offers support for high-density HD DVD-ROM discs, including high definition movie and video images. The drive also offers all the functionality of a super multi-drive, with high performance, high-speed read and write to all flavors of standard DVD and CD discs.


And another site.
http://www.2dayblog.com/blog/2007/01/06/toshiba-sd-h903a-hd-dvd-writer/



Isn't single layer HD-DVD around 15GB (w/dual layer around 30GB)?

[FulciLives]

According to the Toshiba website the SD-H903A burns single layer and dual layer HD-DVD discs at 2.4x but only reads HD-DVD at 1x so that is better than what was reported in the first post of this thread.

Here is a link to the SD-H903A at the Toshiba website: CLICK HERE

So it seems that the engadget.com website got it wrong.

Now the next question is this: how long does it take to burn a single layer HD-DVD at 2.4x and how long does it take to burn a dual layer HD-DVD at 2.4x?

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Dv8ted2]

How much is X1 in time ? Burning full HD-DVD 1 hour ?

Usually 1x would be the same length of time that it takes to watch the movie.

[MJA]

my question is how much does the media cost?

[painkiller]

Ah, here we go.
While I'm sure some folks know this already, here's some comparative specs on HD-DVD.
Unfortunately, I didn't find price info.
I think someone said the single layer version of HD-DVD might be around $20.

http://www.meritline.com/hd-dvd-blank-media-hd-dvd.html

[gll99]

We are a bit spoiled with standard sl DVD bulk prices. Compared to blank cd prices, $20 each doesn't seem as bad for the amount of data they hold. The price is bound to drop quickly.

But imagine the nail biting when the early birds burn the first $20 disc.

To think I had a nervous condition and sweaty palms for close to an hour when I burned my first $2-$3 cd.

[roma_turok]

* SL: single layer: DL: dual layer

http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2007_01/pr0502.htm

[RabidDog]

1x would be the std data read rate for HD-dvd, which should be in the spec somewhere. That would have nothing to do with movies. I am somewhat surprised that it has only an 8mb buffer, I have a CD burner that has a 16mb buffer. Good on them for keeping in CD-r burning, lets see how good(compatible) it is in action!

[FulciLives]

Oh my ... me bad ... very very bad

I looked at the link that I had provided for the Toshiba HD-DVD burner (the USA website) and damn if I didn't read it WRONG.

It does say 1x HD-DVD burn but 2.4x HD-DVD read.

Damn I am SO sorry I messed that up!!!

At least roma_turok "caught" it with his post.

And here I thought I was perfect. Guess I'll have to settle for very nearly perfect LOL

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[painkiller]

heh

Hey Fulcilives,

We can only get as near as we can - even that's a daily dynamic!

(as others are quick to point out)

[roma_turok]

My calculation correct?
If Sustained Data Transfer Rate in HD DVD-R 4,460 KByte/s, on this specific drive

4,460 X 60sec.=267600 KByte
267600 x 60 min = 15 GB

So HD DVD-R single layer take 1 hour to burn?

[roma_turok]

Single layer take 1 hour to burn.
Dual-layer take 2 hour to burn:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/04/toshiba-unveils-hd-dvd-rw-writer-for-laptops/

[MJA]

Single layer take 1 hour to burn.
Dual-layer take 2 hour to burn:/

2 hours to burn!!!!

[Wile_E]

What is the speed compared to DVD and CD? They will only be able to spin the disc so fast. I thought they were approaching the speed that would shatter discs? ~52x CD-ROM speed. I think it's about time we go to flash-based storage devices that have no moving parts. A 25GB flash-based device would be nice for HD movies and data. No more discs!

For example:
1x DVD-ROM is equivalent to 8x CD-ROM.
2x DVD-ROM is equivalent to 16x CD-ROM.
1x HD-DVD is equivalent to ???

[BJ_M]

16x i think

[somebodeez]

Single layer take 1 hour to burn.
Dual-layer take 2 hour to burn:/

2 hours to burn!!!!

That's ridiculous!

[BJ_M]

well i remember when dvds took more than an hour to burn

[lenti_75]

just like the old days ....1x for regular dvd...

[FulciLives]

When I got started with DVD burning it was using a 4x DVD burner BUT for a while the only media I could find that was good stuff was 2x speed so that meant 30 minutes and I was fine with that but 60 minutes is a long time.

If future models can get the burning down to 30 minutes for single layer and 60 minutes for dual layer I can live with that although 15 minutes single and 30 minutes dual would be optimal ... assuming such speeds are possible with HD-DVD???

Of course who really cares right now ... to me the "war" between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD is still going strong so ... I won't be buying a burner either way until that war is settled or someone releases a decent burner that can burn Blu-Ray and HD-DVD ... and do either or reliably!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[SatStorm]

I'll wait for 4X burners....

Meanwhile, does anyone knows any progress, regarding the fact that you can burn HD DVD material on regular DVD-Rs?

Do you know any authoring applications that support this? Also, is it true that HD DVD support CIF & CCIR resolutions?

If I thinking correct, by using X264, we can burn DVD-Rs playable on HD DVD players... This is around 6-8 hours per DVD-R with "superbit"-like "DVD quality" today...
And if we use Half D1, is almost 12 - 16 hours per DVD-Rs...

Imagine the posibilities...

[SilverBlade]

I'm waiting until either this 'war' is settled and a single format is a clear winner, or I'm waiting until a company releases an HD-DVD/Blu-Ray burner.

Also, media prices have to come down, 20 bucks for a single disc is too much.

[painkiller]

I have seen blanks of the HD DVD and BD disks in various stores recently.

They are around $17 to $18 now.

[FulciLives]

I have seen blanks of the HD DVD and BD disks in various stores recently.

They are around $17 to $18 now.

When I first started buying DVD-R blanks they were 2x DVD-R discs and I stuck with Maxell and Fuji and they were $35 per pack of 10 (although they did come with standard CD style jewel cases).

At $3.50 each (plus sales tax) I thought that was expensive.

Ain't no way I'm paying $17 to $18 per HD DVD or BD discs!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[yoda313]

though think about fulci you are getting five times the storage capacity of a single layer at 25gbs for single layer bluray I believe - the companies just think you should pay five times the price for it