Japanese Buffalo announced the release of the first HD DVD ROM
drive for PCs, offering playback of double-layer 30GB HD DVD
video movies.
Dubbed "HDV-ROM2.4FB", the ATAPI drive will retail in the
Japanese market late December at a suggested retail price of
37,000 Yen ($322).
The drive is based on the Toshiba SD-H802A HD DVD ROM drive, and
it is capable of reproducing both single layer (15GB) and double
layer (30GB) HD DVD-ROM media at 2.4x (CLV, 10708.8 KB/s). Other
specifications include reading of DVD-ROM and DVD±R (SL and DL)
as well as DVD±RW media at 5x. As for the CD-ROM, CD-R and CD-RW
formats, the Buffalo drive supports reading at a speed of 15x
maximum.
PowerDVD HD DVD Edition by Cyberlink is bundled in the retail
package of the drive, and allows playback of HD DVD movies. Of
course, the hardware requirements for reproduction of HD video
includes a system with a Pentium D 3.2GHz or higher (CoreDuo
T2500 2.0GHz recommended), 1024MB of memory or higher and at
least an NVIDIA GeForce 7600GT/7900GT 256MB or an ATI X1800/X
1,900,256 MB GPU.
The HD DVD reproduction environment also includes Windows XP SP2
or Vista operating system, the latest Nvidia or ATI display
drivers (HDCP enabled). For full HD video reproduction through
DVI or HDMI interfaces, an HDCP monitor or TV are required.
Buffalo HDV-ROM2.4FB is one of the first HD DVD ROM drives for
the computer market that have been publicly introduced, in
addition to NEC?s HR-1100A, which was announced in September,
2005, but which never showed up on the market any widely. HP has
also announced its first external HD DVD-ROM drive (hd100), which
is expected to retail for around $770 later this year.