Toshiba in Japan announced the Portaro SD-P12DT [JP] today, a new portable DVD player. The main selling point of the device is the 12-inch LCD screen that features an LED backlight and 1,366×768 resolution. Sized at 342×73×326mm (weight: 2.8kg), the Portaro is available in black or white.

Apart from video DVDs and music CDs, the device supports DVD-R/RW and CD-R/RW (there’s also an SD card slot). It also has a built-in digital TV tuner (that will work only in Japan). Toshiba says the lithium-ion battery has a life span of four hours.

The Portaro will go on sale in Japan on February 1 for $550, which is a pretty steep price considering you can’t watch Blu-rays on it. Panasonic’s portable Blu-ray/digital TV hybrid, the DMP-BV100, for example (which we blogged about last year), currently costs just $600 [JP].

Toshiba hasn’t announced yet whether the Portaro will ever be available outside Japan as well, but that’s highly unlikely.