Hitachi New CinemaStar 7K1000.B & 5K320 Low Power Hard Drives Aimed at DVRs & Set Top Boxes

Hitachi have today detailed two new CinemaStar hard drives - namely the
CinemaStar 7K1000.B and the CinemaStar 5K320 - offering capacities up to
1TB which, according to Hitachi's press release, are aimed specifically
for use with digital video recorders (DVRs) and set-top boxes and which
boast motors optimised for both power efficiency and low noise acoustics
resulting in what Hitachi claim are 'the industry's quietest, most
energy-efficient 3.5-inch hard drives' to become available.The 3.5'
CinemaStar 7K1000.B HDD ranges in capacities from 160GB to 1TB and
utilises HiVERT technology (as used in Hitachi's Travelstar drives) to
ensure optimum power efficiency which, in turn, helps to reduce heat
emissions alongside silent-seek acoustics offering what Hitachi terms as
'bedroom-quiet operation' - though if they'd ever visited our bedroom
perhaps they would consider revising their terminology somewhat (that
said, the idea of waking to find a bunch of Hitachi boffins in our
bedroom is, all said and done, not something that particularly
appeals).Hitachi's CinemaStar 5K320, on the other hand, offers up to
320GB of capacity and uses CoolSpin technology - offering 'optimization
of motor speed to provide an ideal balance of performance, power
utilization and acoustics' with just 3.1W of power usage being
purportedly required whilst the drive is in an idle state.

Hitachi CinemaStar 7K1000.B & 5K320 Key Features:

Drive mechanics designed for continuous 24'7 operation
Silent-seek acoustics for nearly inaudible operation
Three low-power idle modes for best-in-class power utilization and heat
emission
Smart Command Transport (SCT) and SmoothStream technology optimizes the
drive for uninterrupted audio and video streaming
Expanded temperature range to enable fan-free DVR designs
Ramp load/unload design to increase shock protection and power savings
Thermal monitoring and fly-height control to enhance drive reliability
during lengthy video encoding/decoding sessions
Optional Bulk Data Encryption (BDE) for increased protection against
data loss
Proven perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) technology helps to ensure
maximum stability, reliability and data integrity

Hitachi have announced that their new CinemaStar 7K1000.B and the
CinemaStar 5K320 HDDs will become available worldwide from August and
September respectively though, at the time of writing, full pricing
structures based on the capacities to be offered have not been detailed.

Hitachi