Toshiba's laptop first with rewritable HD DVD

Toshiba claims that the Qosmio G40 is the first laptop in the world to feature a rewritable HD DVD Drive. The new model builds on the success of its predecessor, the Qosmio G40-10E, which was the first with a writeable HD DVD drive.

The Qosmio G40, which is priced at £1,750, can write and re-write HD DVD disks which can then be viewed either on the laptop’s 17-inch 1920 x 1200-pixel screen. There is also an HDMI connection for viewing on an HD TV.

Other additions to the new model include a second terrestrial digital TV tuner and a 400GB hard drive.

The drive can record using HD Rec compression, which allows high-definition broadcasts to be recorded on standard DVDs. Although these are significantly less expensive than HD DVDs, a standard DVD can only hold around 24 minutes of high definition TV.

The Qosmio G40 is expected to launch in Japan this week.