Toshiba will launch the first HD DVD recorder next month in Japan, it said Thursday.

Toshiba's announcement of an HD DVD recorder comes as the first player for the rival Blu-ray Disc format is launched, and is sure to raise competition a notch in an already competitive market. Toshiba put its first HD DVD player on sale in Japan in March.

The RD-A1 is much like existing digital video recorders but with high-definition support. There's 1TB of hard-disk storage space for day-to-day recording and the HD DVD drive allows consumers to store TV shows they wish to keep.

The hard-disk storage space is enough for about 130 hours of digital HD terrestrial TV and a dual-layer HD DVD-R disc will be able to store about 230 minutes, or just under four hours of programming, Toshiba said. Blank discs will cost around ¥4,500 (US$39) in Japan.

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