Toshiba Plans Notebook With HD-DVD

Toshiba plans to show its first notebook computer with a built-in HD-DVD drive at the Ceatec Japan 2005 exhibition next month, a company spokesperson said Tuesday.

The company will show a new addition to its high-end Qosmio notebook line that will include an integrated HD-DVD-ROM drive, according to Midori Suzuki, a spokesperson for the company in Tokyo. The new drive will let users watch high-definition videos on their computers.

"Toshiba is planning to commercialize the product at the beginning of next year," Suzuki said.

Toshiba has made few details of the HD-DVD-equipped notebook available ahead of the Ceatec show, which will be held near Tokyo from October 4 to October 8. The notebook will have a new high-resolution LCD, Toshiba said in a statement.

Suzuki declined to disclose additional details about the system.

HD-DVD Inside

HD-DVD is a next-generation DVD format developed by the DVD Forum. The integrated HD-DVD-ROM drive, which will be shown with the Qosmio notebook at Ceatec, is 12.7 millimeters high, according to Toshiba. The drive uses a pick-up head with a single optical lens that can read HD-DVD discs and can read and write to CD and DVD discs, the company said.

Initially, HD-DVD discs will have a capacity of 30GB, according to Toshiba, with higher capacity versions anticipated later on. The company has developed a prototype HD-DVD disc with a capacity of 45GB.

Suzuki said that Toshiba has not decided how many Qosmio models to equip with the HD-DVD-ROM drive and that no decision has been made with regard to making the drive available on the company's other notebook PC lines.

The HD-DVD-ROM drive is small enough to fit in small form-factor notebooks, according to Toshiba. The company is also preparing a write-once HD-DVD-R disc that can store 15GB of data.