13. NEC HR-1100A Full-Height Internal Player

Though the information we've been able to gather about this drive is based on working prototypes that information indicates that the NEC HR-1100A is a completely capable HD-DVD player, with the usual ability to read conventional DVDs and audio CDs as well. Initial pricing information is kind of scary: Reliable sources report a price of about $660 as we write this story. As is typical with such equipment, expect it to be bundled with some HD-DVD movie or another, along with HD-DVD playback software like the Cyberlink PowerDVD HD-DVD Edition that ships with the HP HD100 unit.

Figure 9: This early prototype photo of the NEC HR-1100A HD-DVD player is about as generic as these things get.

For that kind of money, you'd expect SATA support, but the specifications available to us indicate it supports the older ATAPI (PATA) interface. But it's currently available only to OEMs as well, so we must hope that by the time it makes the gray or retail markets prices will come down and interface support may improve. Only time will tell.

The internal drive mechanism used in the Toshiba HD-A1 is also used in the HR-1100A. Some have suggested that the drive itself is responsible for the slow startup and command response time reported for the HD-A1 and HD-XA1 (subsequent firmware revisions have apparently improved this situation substantially.