Today (well, tonight) Toshiba changed up their HDD branding to make things a bit easier to grasp for the consumer, as well as adding surveillance and video streaming models to their lineup:

Toshiba chose to go with a round of colors, but these are notably different than what you have previously seen from WD. Typical desktop and mobile drives now carry a red label, with their performance desktop model going grey. NAS HDDs are yellow, and the two new items are blue and green. Let's take a closer look at these new additions:

The blue 'Video Stream V300' model comes in up to a 3TB capacity and is firmware optimized for handling multiple (4) simultaneous video streams without thrashing the heads constantly seeking between tracks. This is a low RPM drive and is meant more for use in DVRs. Max capacity comes in only 3TB, but this is a very low cost and low power drive. Note the 'annual workload rating' of 72TB per year. More on that later.

The green 'Surveillance S300' model is meant for significantly more demanding workloads upwards of 64 simultaneous HD video camera streams. These are meant for incorporation into large arrays and come with the necessary RV (accelerometer) sensors to help keep the heads on track while the drive is subjected to harsher vibrations seen in large server chassis. These come in up to 10TB with a workload rating of 150TB per year.

Above are the general specs across the entire lineup, and below are the prices for the two new models:

  • V300 Video Streaming
    • 1TB – V300 Video Streaming – $49.99
    • 2TB – V300 Video Streaming – $69.99
    • 3TB – V300 Video Streaming – $89.99
  • S300 Surveillance
    • 4TB – S300 Surveillance – $119.99
    • 5TB – S300 Surveillance – $149.99
    • 6TB – S300 Surveillance – $189.99
    • 8TB – S300 Surveillance – $249.99
    • 10TB – S300 Surveillance – $349.99

Those prices look very competitive, but that 'annual workload rating' troubles me a bit, especially for the S300. That model is meant for use in an array, which must be initialized (eating one full drive write), possibly migrated (eating another full drive capacity worth of access), and with some RAID controllers, periodically scrubbing the data to verify integrity. A large array of 10TB HDDs with periodic array scrubbing/integrity checking scheduled every 2-3 weeks will technically run these parts past their rated workload. Backing off to monthly checks will get you just under the limit, provided your actual video workload does not push you over. Just something to consider when specing out a surveillance unit build.

Press blast for these new models appears after the break.

Toshiba releases new, powerful SurvEILlAnce and Video streaming Internal CoNSUMER HARD Drives

The new S300 and V300 series are the latest models to join the consumer internal hard drive lineup and showcase Toshiba’s new consumer color label branding.

Irvine, Calif. — April 16, 2018  Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC), a committed technology leader, announces two new surveillance and video streaming Hard Drives to the consumer internal lineup, the S300 and V300. The S300 surveillance Hard Drive series is available in capacities up to 10TB and offers support for up to 64 high definition camera streams. The V300 Video Stream Hard Drive series is available in capacities up to 3TB and suited for all entry level recording and streaming for the home.

The S300 Surveillance Hard Drive series offer 24/7 reliability and high performance with large cache size up to 256MB. The S300 performs at up to 7200rpm with a maximum data transfer speed of 248 MB/s. Additionally, the S300 comes with built-in RV sensors to help suppress vibrations in multi hard drive platforms. Available in up to 10TB capacities, the new surveillance hard drive can handle high workloads up to 180TB/year and supports surveillance network video recorders (sNVR), surveillance digital video recorders (sDVR), hybrid sDVR(analog and IP) and RAID storage arrays for surveillance.

The V300 Video Streaming Hard Drive series are designed for reliable video recording and playback, and offers built-in silent seek technology, which results in a quiet operation. The V300 low spin design reduces energy consumption by up to 25%. Available in up to 3TB capacities, the V300 hard drive supports video editing systems, set-top-box (STB), digital video recorders (DVR) and network video recorders (NVR).

In addition to the new hard drive models, Toshiba introduces new color branding for each category in the consumer internal hard drive lineup. The new category colors will be displayed on the drive labels and retail shelf packaging to clearly communicate the hard drive category’s use case and device application. The S300 hard drive series comes in a green surveillance label, and the V300 hard drive series in a blue video streaming label. The consumer friendly, easy-to-identify color-coded drive labels and retail shelf packaging makes it easy for consumers to shop for the drive they need.

 “Toshiba is refreshing the consumer hard drive branding to make internal hard drives more consumer friendly and easier to shop for the right application,” said Michael Cassidy, vice president, Consumer HDDs, Americas, Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. “By entering the Surveillance market with a robust lineup of high performance and high reliability hard drive models targeted for the consumer market, Toshiba is offering a drive for every storage application.”

Toshiba continues to expand product offerings with higher storage capacity and performance. The new S300 and V300 hard drives further illustrate Toshiba’s efforts to continue offering drives for every consumer storage application from PC, gaming, NAS, and now surveillance and video streaming.

The S300 and V300 will be available in April 2018. For details about our consumer hard drive storage products, please visit: http://storage.toshiba.com/consumer-hdd. For more information on our full line of HDD storage products, please visit: https://toshiba.semicon-storage.com/us/product.html. To learn more about our storage solutions visit the storage blog at http://storage.toshiba.com/corporateblog/ and follow both @ToshibaStorage and @ToshibaUSA on Twitter.