We'd like to thank Toshiba for going the extra mile on this one to confuse consumers ever so slightly more. The company behind the HD DVD format is apparently working on a new flagship Vardia DVD / HD DVD recorder (with hard drive) tentatively dubbed the RD-RX7, which is also capable of recording HD video to, wait for it, non-HD DVD DVDs (aka regular DVDs, like the kind your mom finally just got last month). Apparently Toshiba can even fit about 2 hours of HD video onto old school DVD media with "HD Rec technology", which ain't too bad compared to the 6 hours of HD video it gets on an HD DVD. It actually kind of leaves us wondering why the hell they're insisting we upgrade to HD DVD, dunnit? Oh, and the thing also supports HDMI out with 1080p/24, not unlike the other HD DVD recorder being shown off today (about which we've little info), the RD-A201. Enjoy.
posted Oct 2nd 2007 3:21AM
So what are talking about when we say "recording HD on regular DVD"? HD is such a generic term these days, and is thrown about in just about every sentence, that it has lost all meaning.
It can record 2 hours of 480p content? 720p content? 1080i content?
My guess? It's highly compressed, or is missing out on things like 5.1 audio.
I think everyone forgets that these discs are just storage mediums. You can burn any resolution to a DVD-9, the only determining factor is length of video/audio. I'm going to assume they'll give you the option to burn at 480p/720p/1080i/1080p, w/or/w/o different digital audio formats.
There are many DVD players out there that will output a 720p signal, possibly higher, I haven't kept up with the latest trends.
As others have already said, you can already download a movie on Isohunt at 720p and burn to DVD. Sans HD-DVD content and extra language sound tracks, the video and audio only takes like 4 gig.
It says that you can record HD content on a DVD, but, you'll still need an HD playter to view it in HD right?
Zysco...that answers part of my question..unless you are asking a question.
If you record DH to regular DVD (DVD9 i think) will it play in regular dvd player..if so will it display 720p 1080i or p?
I bet this is great if recording the sat night sci fi movie or what ever channel..but doubt it will work on big films.
Anyone seen a price?
I have tryed something similar before by using Pinnacle studio, you can burn HD content on to a DVD, about an hour of 720 on a dual layer dvd.
It will only play on a HD-DVD player.
Pretty good for shows and stuff though if you have them in HD.
Vardia? At least Sony Bravia sounded cool.
Vardia sounds like barfing or something. Toshiba needs a better name than that.
you can find full movies in 720p that fit on a single dvd on usenet. and yes they are 5.1
of course I'm limited to my neighbor's 7mbps internet connection so it takes a little while to d/l a movie that big.
That ain't new news. If you strip out all the extras from an HD-DVD rip, and just throw the movie and an audio tack to an 8.5 DVD DL, you have an HD movie on a DVD. Works great on an upscaling DVD player.
Ulead Movie factory 6 offers an HD-DVD on DVD option. It merely lowers the bitrate down enough to fit your program onto the 8.5gb disc. I put all the episodes of two and a half men that I record OTA onto DVD. No reencryption needed on those too.
All the DVD recorders available stateside so far record DTV as SDTV or EDTV (480i/p) I would love to get a recorder that will do HD to DVD or HDDVD. My guess is these disc record in HDDVD format so a regular DVD wont read them. But since you have the recorder that recorded it you really dont need to worry about playing it in a different player do you?
My guess is that it burns 2 hours of 1080p content, possibly at a lowered bitrate. The disc will be playable on any player or PC that can handle the MPEG4/WM9 codecs, unless they decide to copy-protect it (doubt it), in which case it would only be playable on this particular player.
This is a step in the right direction. You can already download torrents of HDTV rips in under 1 GB per episode, so burning to DVD9, or even DVD5, should be possible at pretty decent bitrates.
Another reason not to buy either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD.
The solution for storing HD contents does not have to be larger volume, but can be better compression instead. Practically any HD movie can fit on DVD9 if compressed in MPEG-4 instead of the normal MPEG-2, and you can simply use mencoder to do it.
And almost any DVD player with DivX/XviD reading capability (and HDMI output) will do.