The rest of the system isn't bad either: DVI output for driving a second monitor at 1,920 by 1,200 pixels, support for up to 4 GB of RAM, gigabit Ethernet, four USB 2.0 ports, and FireWire port, Dolby Surround Sound with four speakers, 7.1 192 KHz/32-bit audio, 7-in-1 card reader, an 8× dual-layer DVD burner, and an Express Card slot. 1 Beyond will fit out the system with WIndows XP or Vista, and Adobe Creative Suite 3, Avid Express Pro with Mojo, and Grass Valley Edius are available as bundled software.

Of course, the GoFlex317 is intended for on-the-go high-definition video production and post-production work, not LAN parties, and carries a starting price tag in line with those purposes. Of course, the company might Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme versions for a slightly lower price. Might be worth asking.

And if the GoFlex317 doesn't satisfy serious notebook fans…1 Beyond also makes military grade ruggedized notebooks.

Key features of the GoFlex317 HD:

Disk performance and reliability:

• Three SATA2 100 or 200 GB 7200rpm internal drives
• Performance of >60 MB/sec at RAID 5
• RAID 0/1/5 support

High system performance:

• Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4Ghz/ E6700 2.66Ghz or Core 2 Extreme Edition X6800 2.93Ghz CPU, 1066MHz FSB
• Up to 4 GB Memory
• PCI-Express buss
• Real time HD video editing with Effects

Superior Graphics:

• Latest NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950 GTX, 512MB, PCI-Express
• 17” 1920 X 1200 resolution polished LCD
• DVI connection for 2nd and 3rd monitor

Additional features:

• 8x DVD burner dual layer drive (Blu-Ray optional)
• High Definition audio, 8 channels 192 kHz/32-bit quality
• Dolby Surround Sound, S/PDIF, 4 speakers
• Built-in digital video camera and microphone
• Gigabit LAN, Wi-Fi A/G/N, Bluetooth, Infrared
• Express card slot
• Built-n 7-in-1 Card reader: MS, MMC, SD
• IEEE 1394 Firewire port, 4 USB 2.0
• Full size keyboard with separate numeric keypad

The 1.6in, 2.3oz HD camera head and compact control unit make the IK-HD1 well suited for broadcast applications and other imaging tasks where space is limited.

The IK-HD1 HDTV system uses Toshiba's proprietary 3-CCD prism block technology, delivering true color, good contrast and detail from the small camera head. Features include 1920 x 1080 resolution at 30fps; a C-mount lens flange and RS232C serial interface; and multiple outputs for HD-SDI (SMPTE 292M), analog RGB or Y/Pb/Pr.
Accessories for the system include a 4mm or 15mm lens and various lengths of camera cables.

Toshiba this week announced that it is to launch its first notebook PC with built-in rewritable HD DVD drive.

The Qosmio Series 2 will initially launch in Japan, where arguably they can put it to much more use that us lowly high-definition-catcher-uppers in the West.

The notebook will feature either the 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo T7500 or 2GHz Core 2 Duo T7250 processor, 15.4 or 17 inch display offering 1,280x800 or 1,920x1,200 resolution respectively, plus 2GB of RAM, up to 400GB hard drive, TV tuners, and battery life of over three hours. Pre-installed with Windows Vista Home Ultimate (with Premium and Business capabilities)

Taking their place as a decent portable entertainment device, these notebooks can receive two TV channels at once, and record high definition content to standard DVDs, albeit in small amounts, thanks to HD Rec technology.

For those who've been in a cave for the last couple of years, Toshiba are probably one of the biggest fans of HD DVD (having developed it), and this notebook adds to their portfolio of devices which can read and write the high definition disc format.

They'll cost from $2,600 to $3,500, but no word on if and when they'll be arriving over here.

Source: TechDigest.tv

This new product also ensures a better level of quality as the use of the Xbox 360 HD DVD emulator can help companies release more titles free of errors thus ensuring a higher profit on their products. The Xbox 360 HD DVD Emulator has also been designed to be operated from a network storage share, from a USB drive directly connected to the Xbox 360 console, or by using an optical disc in the Xbox 360 HD DVD player. This design was created by Microsoft to lessen the testing time for both Xbox 360 HD-DVD’s and with other HD DVD players.

Jordi Ribas, the general manager of HD DVD at Microsoft, stated that the company was “ committed to supporting and advancing the HD DVD ecosystem” and that “the new Xbox 360 HD DVD Emulator reflects these efforts by providing developers with the software-based tools they need to efficiently deliver the highest-quality content”. Riblas also stated that ““Microsoft developed the Emulator to help save studios and postproduction houses time, resources and costs involved with the creation of HD DVD content, and let them focus on what really matters — pushing the envelope with the format.”

Source: The Game Reviews

Along with the ability to play 1920 x 1080 resolution HD content via either Blu-ray disc or HD-DVD disc, the new series also features Intel's Core 2 Quad processor Q6600 (2.4GHz with 8MB L2 cache) providing the processing power required for gaming and multimedia applications.

"Acer realised that the battle between Blu-ray and HD-DVD is still in play, and therefore understood the need to create a solution that future proofed our offering in the market," said Acer Computer Australia's Raymond Vardanega.

The Aspire M5630 range starts from $2299, and includes Vista Home Premium, 2GB DDR2 system memory, 500GB SATA HDD, ATI X2400 Pro 256MB PCI-Express x16 video, wireless keyboard / mouse and bundled with HDCP compliant Acer 22-inch wide LCD monitor.

Acer also offers a Core 2 Duo E4500 option with Blu-ray / HD-DVD combo optical drive with an RRP of $1999. It features Vista Home Premium, 2GB DDR2 system memory, 320GB SATA hard drive, ATI X2400 Pro 256MB PCI-Express x16 video, wireless keyboard / mouse and bundled with HDCP compliant Acer 22-inch wide LCD monitor.

The Acer M5 series comes pre-installed with Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium or Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic. Additional pre-installed software includes Microsoft Office 2007 Trial, Acer Arcade Live suite, Acer Empowering Technology, to enhance system performance, reduce noise, protect data and make recovery easy; Norton Internet Security 2007, Adobe Reader 7.0; CyberLink PowerDVD and NTI CD-Maker Gold.

Warranty is two-years carry-in.

Promotion & Specifications

Source: SmartHouse

As you may gather from its name, this Ultimate is built around AMD's DX10-supporting HD2600XTcore and features a nicely designed heatpipe and radiator arrangement to keep it cool.

Built on a blue printed circuit board (PCB), the RV630 core runs at 800MHz and sits under a small copper and aluminium heatsink with two heatpipes running around the board to a big multi-finned cooler. Unlike some passive cards, this cooler isn't too large to fit into a motherboard that uses big passive coolers on the Northbridge. We fitted it into a couple of motherboards with the largest coolers we have seen with no problems.

The 256MB of GDDR3 memory is clocked at 700MHz (1,400MHz effective) and sits uncovered on the PCB. The memory modules are rated at 750MHz (1,500MHz) so running them at 700MHz enables them to be left uncovered.

The HD2600XT Ultimate would make an ideal card for a quiet entertainment PC if you use a case that takes full-size cards, not only for its silence but for the hardware that comes as standard on the HD2600/HD2400 series. The GPU has a built-in audio controller, which, although requiring an audio codec on the motherboard, does away with the need to use a cable to connect them.

Although there is no HDMI output on the card expansion plate, a DVI/HDMI adapter is supplied with the card, which carries both the video and audio streams. Also part of the hardware is AMD's UVD (Unified Video Decoder) which handles all the decoding HD DVD or Blu-ray duties relieving both the GPU and the systems CPU.

Source: VNU Net

Spotlighting the "HP Tough Innovation" as the main theme for its product presentation, HP claimed that it has extended the latest touch sensing technology to products from PDA phones to PCs and MFPs (multi-function peripherals).

The company's new HP Pavilion dv2000- and Compaq Presario V3000-series notebook PCs now all support capacitive touch sensor technology, HP said.

The presentation also included HP's latest printer, the Photosmart C8180 All-in-One, which comes with a touch-screen display and a built-in CD-DVD burner with Lightscribe technology, according to company data.

At the same venue, HP also announced that it will replace its previous 'Compaq' logo with a brand new one converged from the letters C and Q, with the new logo to be used on its Compaq-series desktop and notebook lineups starting the fourth quarter of this year.

Source: DigiTimes

Dubbed CH-DVD (China High Definition DVD), the new high-def DVD has been developed by the Optical Memory National Engineering Research Center (OMNERC), a laboratory inside the Tsinghua University, in collaboration with other research institutes and manufacturing enterprises at home and abroad.

The relationship between Toshiba’s HD DVD and the CH-DVD is very close, since the latter is designed based on the HD DVD specifications, but also includes Chinese intellectual property. CHDA will play a leadership role in the promotion of CH-DVD, and will make a big push to launch CH-DVD player into the Chinese market in 2008.

The CH-DVD boasts with advanced copy-protection features (piracy being one of China’s greatest plagues), which should effectively prevent the spreading of pirated discs.

HD DVD and CH DVD are compatible, which means HD DVD players (with additional software) can read CH DVD, and vice versa.

The news of a third next-gen DVD format comes in a time of intense fighting between the two main rivals, Toshiba and Sony. Toshiba allegedly paid $150 to Paramount and DreamWorks for the two studios’ exclusive support for HD DVD, while Sony claimed at the end of August an early lead in front of its home ground rival, with 1 million Blu Ray discs sold in the US, and 250,000 sold in Europe. According to Sony's estimates, Blu-ray discs now account for 69% of the total high-definition market in Europe, with Sony titles making up more than 47% of the total European Blu-ray market.

However, with the launch of this third format, China becomes the preferred territory for the high-def battle. At the beginning of September, China Film Group, one of China’s largest film distribution groups, had also adopted the Bly Ray in detriment of HD DVD, while Toshiba responded with the launch of a super-cheap, $199 HD DVD player from Venturer Electronics, a Canadian-based distributor of Chinese made consumer electronics.

The player, which will be on North American store shelves in Q4 2007, is called SHD7000 and features 1080i video output, an HDMI connection (to upconvert standard DVD to near HD quality) and Ethernet connectivity, which allows for network access to studios and third parties via the Internet. Toshiba currently sells its HD-A2 HD DVD player for $299 after a $100 manufacturer’s rebate.

And to spice things up even more, on September 7, the DVD Forum officially approved on August 31 the 51 GB single-sided triple-layer HD DVD disc (an extension to the HD DVD standard, which was submitted by Toshiba in April) for production. With this approval, the HD DVD camp not only demolishes the Blu Ray camp’s argument that the BD is better because it can store more information, but also surpasses Blu Ray, which can only hold 50GB of data.

Source: eFluxMedia

New Medium Enterprises (NME) provides the world's first low-cost True High Definition solution utilizing today's Red Laser Technology. HD VMD is based on NME's proprietary Versatile Multilayer Disc (VMD) format and seamless and cost-effective manufacturing solutions based on the existing Red Laser DVD production infrastructure.

HD VMD is a true HD format with 1920 x 1080i/p resolution, up to 40 Mbps bit rate playback, DVD up-scaling so users can watch their existing DVD collection and achieve premium picture quality through their HD TV monitors. The HD VMD player is suitable for playback on all HD-capable display devices and will support existing optical disc formats: CD, DVD (DVD 5 & DVD 9). HD VMD players also feature Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) and all region codes for greater film viewing flexibility.

These versions of HD VMD Player are a phenomenal progression of recordable technology; capable of reading the Multiple layers of the technologically advanced Versatile Multilayer Discs(VMD) and also compatible with DVD and VCD.

ML622 and ML777 HD VMD players are the first high definition video players to output true 1080p. Utilizing the Sigma Designs EM8622L chip set these two players will output the native 1080p resolution from the disc rather than adding a second conversion process by breaking it down to 1080i and de-interlacing back to 1080p.

HD VMD players are extremely versatile and compelling from both a technological and performance perspective. HD VMDs have a maximum data transfer rate of 40 Mbps versus 36 Mbps for HD DVD and Blu-ray, which gives it the potential of sharper more detailed pictures over the competing formats.

High-performance graphics acceleration, multi-standard audio decoding, advanced display processing capabilities, and HDMI/HDCP output round out its multimedia capability. With state-of-the-art HD performance and up-conversion for Standard Definition DVD playback, the HD VMD Player is also competitively priced far lower than the other major HD formats.

Source: New Medium Enterprise

SDHC stands for Secure Digital High Capacity and is the larger capacity versions of the SD card, in turn based on the MMC format.

Although this is great news for capacity hungry consumers, existing devices may not be able to work with the new cards with some only offering support up to 4GB.

Speeds come in at around 6MB/sec and it will cost 80,000 Yen on launch, which converted is about £350. No word on a timescales for international launch, or hints of actual pricing elsewhere.

Also announced was an equally impressive 8GB microSDHC memory card, but with SD such a widely used format, this is the product that it likely to get all the attention.

The 8GB microSDHC memory card will be around £85, and a 16GB SDHC memory card due for a launch in Japan in October will set Japanese consumers back the equivalent of around £175.

Source: Pocket-lint