Visitors of CEATEC 2006 technology Show had the chance to take a look at the company's upcoming HD DVD drives for notebooks and desktop PCs.

The company showcased an external USB 2.0 HD-DVD player. Connected to a Toshiba Quosmio Q30 notebook, the external device was playing a HD DVD-ROM movie during the demonstration. It is schedulled to be on the market at the end of the year.

In addition, Toshiba showcased the SD-L902A 12.7mm HD DVD writer for notebooks, capable of writing on HD DVD-R media, DVD and CD discs. Sample shipments of the new drive, SD-L902A, are scheduled to start by the end of this year.More information on the drive's specifications is available here.

Toshiba representatives explained that the SD-L902A does not support the HD DVD-RW (re-writeable) format, since the standardization of the physical layer and the filesystem is expected to finish by the end of the year, and the finalization of the the test specification is expectated in the spring of 2007.

For desktop PCs, the company presented the SD-H902A HD DVD burner. A 9.5mm SD-U913A HD DVD burner as well as a slot-in version of it, code-named SD-T913A (12.7mm) are scheduled to reach the market in the summer of 2007. Although it has not yet been determined, appart from HD DVD-R writing, these drives may also support writing on HD DVD-RW media, provided that the DVD Forum will have finalize the specification sof the format at that time.