Toshiba Introduces Symbio (HD recorder)

[Gregg Lengling]

Toshiba has introduced and it's already in stores Symbio a truely integrated HDTV A/V Hard Drive Recorder.  It features simple connection to Toshiba's xxxx94 series sets via a IEEE1394 port (firewire) and uses the TV Guide (tm) and TheaterNet (tm) Control System of the Toshiba advanced HDTV's for control.  It includes a 160GB Hard Drive to record up to 16 hours of HD material or 80 hours of SD material.

The down side is the recorder will only work with Toshiba's 2004 line of integrated sets.  The price point is $499.00.  The first local unit was installed at Colder's in West Allis on Nov. 19th, however due to the setup at the store (no direct cable connection to set with outside antenna or Time Warner direct feed to the box, they were unable to record at this time, however there are 2 prerecorded demos on the box that did play very easy).

Hopefully when the Grafton/North Shore Colders opens (around December 10th) this won't be a problem at that store.

[PJFW8]

It would be nice to see if Mitsubishi's Netcommand would control it over firewire!

[Gregg Lengling]

Do you watch HDTV? Want to record HDTV? The Toshiba Symbio 160HD4 HD Recorder is a simple solution to help you make that happen.   Paired with a 2004 Toshiba integrated HDTV, you can use simple One Touch Recording, pause and rewind live TV on a 160GB HDD.  It's just that easy.  

160 GB hard drive for up to 200 hours of record time4

Records up to 16 hours of HD or up to 80 hours of SD programming

All recording, including HDTV, over a single IEEE 1394 Cable

One Touch Record3

Live Pause/Rewind TV Capability *

TV Guide On Screen™ Interactive Program Guide

Works only with all 2004 Toshiba Integrated HDTVs

Compact Chassis


Weights and Dimensions
Dimensions: 8.5" x 2" x 10.28" (WxHxD)





5 GB means one billion bytes when referring to hard drive storage capacity.

3 Certain encrypted programming may not be recordable.

4 Actual recording times will vary depending on the bit rate of the programming being recorded (see owner's manual for more information).

[jkane]

It won't work with a 2003?     Does it use the tuner on the TV then?  Is that why it's tied to only certain models or something?  Have to go check this out.  I wonder how bad the interface is.  It likely doesn't have features like season passes nor wish lists I bet.  

[Gregg Lengling]

It will only work with the ##XXX94 series units because it used the Integrated Tuner and PSIP information for scheduling.