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Hitachi Digital Camcorder Records To 8cm DVD-RAM
theluckman writes: "Hitachi is scheduled to release this digital camcorder in "early 2001". It can record 60 minutes of high quality (6M bps) digital video or 120 minutes of standard quality (3M bps) digital video. Also can store up to 2000 jpg's at 1280x960. All stored on an 8cm DVD-Ram disc (2.8 GB capacity). Add tons of specs and USB support and it seems like what the digital video world has been waiting for." It's sure intriguing, but raises the same pitfalls as Sony's CD-R camera discussed a few months back -- building a camera around a delicate mechanism is a difficult task. I'd be nervous about entrusting important moments to this.
In related news today, an unwary /. user posted an erroneous mathematical challenge and was swiftly inundated with replies all hoping to correct his ignorence.
/. users, labeling them as redundent, even though, due to the nature of /. they all most likely posted simulatneously.
Shortly after this event, an equal number of moderators stole karma from n-1 of the aforementioned
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"Darkness beyond Twilight"
"Hitachi preps first DVD-RAM camcorder" on ZDNet
"Hitachi to hit market with first DVD-RAM camcorder" on ZDNet
"Hitachi shows DVD-RAM camcorder" on IDG
The Google search I used to find all this stuff
I can't find a hitachi mirror on their global or japanese sites.
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This sounds kind of cool but not like something I would save some money for. What I want is more quality and while this might increment it, it doesn't really take the problem head on just by using DVD RAM. I think that high definition digital video camera's are where its at.
Expensive? definitly, and not going to be in the consumer range anytime soon for sure, but combine the incredibly sharp picture of HDTV with being able to see your moments in that sharp picture would be worth alot. Instead of just seeing some fuzzy crappy picture of your wedding you could finally see a widescreen colorful picture of everyone there. Its along way off for sure, and JVC isn't helping anything but I think it would be where video cameras stop looking like crap and take a turn into true photography. I think that the best way to accomplish this would be to just use a hard drive in the camera. Then there isn't an issues with capturing video to computers because they could be put into files. People would certainly have to burn DVD's with only an hour or less video on them, but who wants to really save all of the video they take? If some of it could be easily discarded I think people would learn to throw away all the useless crap pretty quick. No one wants the half an hour trying to convince their kid to jump off the high dive, they just want the few minutes leading up to it and the few minutes after.
Some kind of heavy compression would have to be used, MPEG 2 is already somewhat out of date, and MPEG 4 only goes up to DVD resolution so neighther would really do the trick. Also the compression would take quite a bit of power so that is another obstacle I guess. Luckily MPEG 2 acceleration already works with MPEG 4 video (at least for me) so that's one problem solved already. It will happen, it will just take time.
This Wiki Feeds You TV and Anime - vidwiki.org
I know, that's why we were all slapping it around to see if it kept recording smoothly or if the laser "lost track". Believe me, this thing was pretty impressive. The only thing stopping me from dropping it on the floor was the fact that it was tethered to the table.
Well, that and the fact that I couldn't take my eyes off the blond model. Woohoo!
What's your damage, Heather?
I have a Sony MVC-CD1000 and have been using it for a few weeks now. As long as you don't drop or bang around the camera WHILE IT'S WRITING, everything is fine. I would think that this would be even less of an issue for DVD-RAM, as the DVD-RAM media is designed for random access writes unlike CD-R[W] media. If you've ever seen the back of a DVD-RAM disc you'd notice little block markers in a radial pattern on the disk. I wouldn't be too worried about the reliability of this camera. Besides, it's so expensive you wouldn't want to bang it aroung anyway... :)
I made this mistake a while ago; DVD-RAM is cartridge-based, a drive for your comupter costs about $350-500 and will NOT read DVDs or DVD ROMs (right?). Nor can DVD players and DVD-ROMs read DVD-RAM discs. I therefore see no point in this silly device.
As timothy stated, it seems rather risky to use this kind of technology; it is easily messed up and not even terribly compatible! I'd much rather see some kind of memory storage like MP3 players but larger; like 512 to a gig of storage. (who needs 2+GB anyway?)
btw, DVD-R is available for about $4k.
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I know it breaks geek tradidition to say this (heresey! they cry) but: NEVER, EVER pick up first generation tech, even 1st gen deriv's. DVD-ROM AND Sony's got some kind of new high-def codec? That's money better spent on getting through college/morgage/kids. Let Gates and Torvalds break theirs first.
Geek Culture killed my dog/
and I don't think it's fair...
io hymen hymnaee io
io hymen hymnaee
I'm not saying dvd would be better, just not worse. They all have their advantages and disadvantages.
Bill - aka taniwha
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Bill - aka taniwha
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Leave others their otherness. -- Aratak
Some quick points:
It came out in Japan back in August.
It has a 1.1-million-pixel 1/4-inch CCD with an effective area of 720,000 pixels is used for video recording. In still mode, the effective area is one million pixels.
It's compatible with Windows 9x and Windows 2000/NT. No plans for Linux as yet.
The DVD-RAM used complies with CPRM standards, meaning your own pictures/video is subject to the same copyprotection nonsense we've been bitching about on slashdot for the past couple months. This is insipid, since by definition, you own the copyright on the video you yourself are taking. When will these companies learn?
Read the rest of this comment...
This thing was at Comdex, and it wasn't anywhere near as motion-sensitive as you guys are playing it out to be.
Hitachi had three gorgeous models on stage, and there were four of these videocameras hooked up to TV's. The public could walk up, play with the videocameras, and film the models as they walked around. It was hilarious. I've never felt so guilty for taking part in a product demonstration.
I jostled it, moved it up and down, slapped it sideways, and when I played back the recording, it was great. (Well, granted, it looked like it'd been filmed by a drunken monkey, but the reproduction was perfect.)
There were literally dozens of us standing around the display at all times, scoping out the hardware (ahem). I can't believe I'm the first poster to remember it.
What's your damage, Heather?
So you would have a vcr over your shoulder and hold on to a video recorder attached to it with a wire.
It seems like they stopped making them this way because they were so darn hard to carry and annoying. I personaly wouldn't want to lug around any more equipment than I had to.
But the wireless idea does have potential, how about just sending back to your home computer to be written to disk there. That would save you have to transfer the video to edit it later...