August 18, 2003 (TOKYO) -- Toshiba Corp launched a home media server, "TransCube 20," on August 9.

Toshiba's TransCube 20

The home server functions as an HDD recorder, a wireless TV tuner, a movie/audio/PC data file server, and a wireless broadband router. It is improved from the previous model in that its HDD capacity is enlarged to 160GB, it can handle music data and data for PCs in addition to video, and it complies with IEEE802.11a wireless LANs as well as IEEE80211b. Its market price is around 150,000 yen. (118.31 yen = US$1)

The HDD recording function allows recording time of up to 230 hours in "long-hours" mode at an average speed of 1.4Mbps. In "standard" mode at 4Mbps it can record for about 80 hours. Follow-up playing (i.e., to play the video immediately after it is recorded) is also available during recording.

It has both an SD card slot and a PC card slot, so users can store data directly from their digital camera. Users can enjoy different content of data -- moving images, still pictures from a digital camera, and music -- at the same time by connecting a TV and two PCs to the TransCube 20.

In addition to video, it also complies with MP3 audio files. It can store up to 2,000 pieces of music data and can play music selected from a list sorted by genre, artist, or album. The lists are displayed on a TV or a PC monitor.

As a file server, 5GB of exclusive space is set aside for PC data storage. Data can be shared with multiple PCs. Users can access this home server through a 100BASE-TX/10BASE-T cable LAN or an IEEE802.11a/b wireless LAN from PCs.

Related link: TransCube 20 (in Japanese)

Read this story in Japanese.

(Masahiro Miyazaki, Deputy Editor, WPC Arena)

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