14 DAY TRIAL // Having signed an acquisition deal with Hitachi, all that remains for Western Digital is to keep building on its status as prime supplier of HDDs, and this is exactly what it did with the newest AV-GP SATA models.
Hard disk drives may be most commonly encountered in desktops and laptops, but consumer electronics are definitely no stranger to them either.
In fact, many AV applications, like digital video recorders, single-drive media servers, external multimedia storage solutions and video surveillance devices utilize platter-based drives.
In order to offer something new in this field, the outfit delivered 2.5 TB and 3 TB AV-GP series HDDs, both of them 3.5-inch units with a MTBF of 1 million hours.
They should be able to run non stop (24x7) and are immediately available, although owners of Windows XP systems and Vista/7 32-bit machines should keep in mind that there are limitations that prevent the proper use of the newcomers.
More specifically, Windows XP cannot handle drives of over 2.19 TB, while 32-bit Vista and 7 can only run them as secondary drives.
"Designed to go the distance in high-temperature, always-on streaming digital AV environments, WD AV-GP drives store more hi-def audio and video than ever before with our new 2.5 TB and 3 TB versions," said Jim Welsh, executive vice president and general manager of WD's branded products and CE business units.
"Combine unsurpassed capacity, power-saving WD GreenPower Technology, and performance capabilities to capture up to 12 simultaneous HD video streams with SilkStream technology and the drive choice is made clear in optimizing AV applications like PVR/DVR, IPTV and video surveillance."
Already selling through select retailers and resellers, the products should be available to US customers, complete with a 3-year limited warranty. Of course, said prospective buyers will have to be willing to part with $159.99 and $179.99, respectively.