CEATEC Conference Showcases Gadgets in Japan - Did Someone Mention Video?
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Blu-ray recorders just might come to the US in a different form. Hitachi is planning to bring to market a video camera with a built-in Blu-ray burner in one to two years. Part of the reason for the delay is that the camcorder would not use a conventional Blu-ray drive; its discs will only be two-thirds as large as the standard disc. This is similar to what Hitachi needed to do with its DVD-equipped camcorder to deliver a sleek device.
The sacrifice in storage space might be a little painful. For the DVD camcorder, the smaller disks only hold 1.4 GB of data, compared to full-sized DVDs that hold 4.7 GB. Still, a standard Blu-ray disc holds 25 GB of data in a single layer (50 GB for dual layer discs), so perhaps the smaller Blu-ray discs won’t be too bad. It will be a while before we see the Blu-ray camcorder, but a version of the DVD camcorder will make it to the US after hitting the European market next year.
Panasonic has also entered the race with its own small and probably inexpensive high-definition video camera. It had a working prototype at the show, and seemed to be planning two versions of the camera. “Small” and “inexpensive” would certainly be steps in the right direction. High-definition video cameras are currently available, but they’re large and cost around $1,800. “Inexpensive” may only be a comparative term, however; Panasonic is reportedly aiming for a price point of $1,000 and a release date in 2007. Help is on the way, though, from a start-up company that is producing chips that should allow HD camera makers to drop their prices to around $800.
And let’s not forget television. Toshiba was showing off a 55-inch TV that uses neither liquid crystals nor plasma. It’s a surface-conduction electron-emitter display or SED for short. SEDs will cost more than LCD TVs, but are supposed to provide a better viewing experience.
SEDs work in a way similar to traditional tube televisions; electrons are shot at a screen to create images. But they aren’t fired out of a large electron gun; nano particles do the firing instead. This allows SED TVs to be much thinner than traditional TVs. Also, with a contrast ratio of 50,000 to 1, and a response time of one millisecond, they offer better performance and picture quality than LCDs or plasmas. We’ll have to wait until after it appears in the Japanese market, of course – and that won’t be until late 2007 at the earliest. The SED TV is the result of a joint venture between Canon and Toshiba, and Canon noted that it would begin mass production of the sets in 2008.
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