Toshiba Corp. has demonstrated its first breed of HD DVD drives for the personal computer (PC) market at the Computex Taipei 2006 trade show in Taiwan. The move shows that Toshiba is serious about the HD DVD push into PCs. However, the company is virtually the only one to demo this kind of products.

Toshiba’s SDH802A HD DVD-ROM drive for desktop PCs can read HD DVDs at 2.4x speed, DVD-ROM/DVD+/- at 5x speed as well as CDs at 15x speed. Toshiba also demonstrated HD DVD optical drives for laptops during the show – SD-L902A and TS-L802A, according to a report from PC Watch web-site. So far the technical information about the laptop-oriented HD DVD products is unclear, but it is known that Toshiba has a notebook HD DVD drive that can playback HD DVD as well as burn CDs and DVDs, as the appropriate devices is shipped with Qosmio G35-AV650.

Toshiba’s HD DVD drives for PCs are the only publicly introduced HD DVD products for the computer market, in addition to NEC’s HR-1100A, which was announced in September, 2005, but which never showed up on the market any widely.

Meanwhile, Toshiba’s and NEC’s competitors from the Blu-ray camp, including Panasonic and Pioneer, have introduced their BD drives for personal computers, which not only can playback various types of media, but also can record high-capacity Blu-ray discs, something, which will be appreciated by those, who need to store a lot of data. Additionally, Asustek Computer and BenQ recently demonstrated their BD devices.

Fortunately for the HD DVD, the standard is being adopted slowly by consumers already, as the supporters of it, including Thomson and Toshiba, have already begun to ship players based on the standard. At the same time, Samsung is only expected to release its Blu-ray disc player later in June.

Blu-ray and HD DVD formats compete for replacing the DVD standard. HD DVD discs can store up to 15GB on a single layer and up to 30GB on two layers. Its competitor, Blu-ray, can store up to 27GB per single layer and up to 50GB on two layers, but Blu-ray discs are more expensive to produce. The HD DVD is pushed aggressively by Toshiba and NEC as well as being standardized at the DVD Forum, which represents over 230 consumer electronics, information technology, and content companies worldwide. Blu-ray is backed by Sony and Panasonic, which are among the world’s largest makers of electronics. Among Hollywood studios HD is supported by Warner Bros. Studios, New Line Cinema, Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures, whereas Sony Pictures, Walt Disney, Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox endorse Blu-ray.

Traditional single-layer DVDs allow consumers to watch movies in 720x480 (NTSC) or 720x576 (PAL) resolution with Dolby Digital audio. The blue-laser discs will provide consumers 1920x1080 resolution as well as DTS or Dolby Digital Plus audio along with some additional interactive features.