Hitachi Blu-ray Disc camcorder
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Gadget Paradise
Officially announced on the 2nd of August in Japan, Hitachi will give home movies the Hollywood treatment with the launch of its Blu-ray disc camcorders, the world’s first camcorders to store home movies in 1920x1080 Full HD on Blu-ray disc media and the world’s first to provide a truly end-to-end Full HD solution from capture, storage to output. The result? Captured memories that have the same intensity, clarity and emotion as the moment they occurred - a totally unsurpassed audio visual experience, offering viewers the next best thing to reality itself.
Blu-ray Disc camcorder - Availability
Both camcorders will be available in stores across Europe from October 2007 and will be equipped with an 8cm Blu-ray disc for Full HD 1920x1080 recording, the world’s highest resolution 5.3 megapixel CMOS sensor, Hybrid Blu-ray disc + HDD technology, Picture Master Full HD processing and HDMI connectivity meaning capture, storage and output of movies will be in a totally unique end-to-end Full HD process. Blu-ray disc will allow playback in the maximum possible Full HD resolution in today’s growing base of Blu-ray compatible devices so now users can ‘supersize’ their films onto the largest HD capable flat screens whilst retaining the kind of viewing quality normally reserved for the latest movie releases.
Hitachi Blu-ray camcorders - HDMI connectivity
Don’t have access to a Blu-ray disc player, Blu-ray disc games console or Blu-ray compatible PC drive but still want the Full HD 1920x1080 experience? No problem; the new camcorders offer HDMI connectivity so that footage can be output direct from the camera to a wide range of HD Ready TV’s that feature an HDMI port.
Hitachi BD70E Blu-ray Disk camcorder
The new models are the Hitachi BD70E which offers a single Blu-ray disc and Multiformat+ DVD burner drive capable of storing up to one hour of Full HD 1920x1080 footage; and the BD7HE a Hybrid Blu-ray disc + hard disk drive camcorder which features a 30GB hard disk drive as well as an 8cm Blu-ray disc and Multiformat+ DVD burner drive. Both models utilise 8cm mini Blu-ray discs or 8cm DVD-RAM, RW, R and +RW* media making them compatible with both the new benchmark in Full HD optical disc media, Blu-ray disc, and backwardly compatible with the most popular and less expensive 8cm DVD formats. “In Europe, almost 100% of all flatpanel TVs sold are HD Ready and forecasts predict over 106.2 million homes will have HDTV sets by 2010.” states Roland Fritsch, Product Marketing Manager, Hitachi Digital Media Group. “Ready access to HD is raising the bar on consumers’ visual expectations. They now want their own film footage to have the same quality, impact and clarity as today’s HD programmes, movies and games - particularly when viewed on large-size LCD and plasma screens at home.”
Blu-ray Disc camcorders - Full HD images
“With our new Blu-ray disc camcorders, this becomes a reality. You can capture and record the sharpest, Full HD images onto high capacity Blu-ray discs, which are fast becoming the new benchmark reference format for HD movies. The results are incredible. In HD, your memories remain fresh forever; as full of passion and life as the moments themselves; and with an unrivalled level of quality that lets you see, hear, experience, and feel more than ever before.” Hybrid Blu-ray disc + HDD technology - HD Movies without a PC. For those looking for the ultimate in quality, convenience and versatility, the BD7HE Hybrid Blu-ray disc + HDD camcorder can capture and store 4 hours of HD quality recording on it’s internal HDD. Raw footage can be edited into finished films on board the camera, before burning multiple Blu-ray discs at the touch of one button - all without having to hook up to a PC or other output device.
Hitachi BD7HE camcorder - Hybrid Blu-ray disc + HDD technology
Not only does this eliminate the time and effort associated with connecting and transferring files to PC but disc burning time is faster too. The Hitachi BD7HE uses Hitachi’s MPEG 4 AVC/H.264 compression to copy Full HD files to Blu-ray disc at a rapid rate. This Hybrid Blu-ray disc + HDD technology makes the BD7HE ideal for creating multiple copies of Full HD Blu-ray discs to share quickly and easily with family and friends.
Blu-ray camcorders - Multiformat+ compatible
When recording time and not necessarily high definition quality is a greater priority, the cameras can also be set to record in standard (HS) quality mode. This provides up to 2 hours of recording time on the Hitachi BD70E and 8 hours on the BD7HE’s integrated hard disk drive. As well as recording to Blu-ray disc, both the camcorders are Multiformat+ compatible and, like other Hitachi camcorders, can record to a range of the most popular 8cm DVD media including DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD-R and +RW discs. Users can choose to save standard footage direct to traditional DVD for lower cost sharing and convenient playback on standard DVD devices.
Hitachi Blu-ray camcorders - 8cm 7.5GB Blu-ray discs
Fritsch adds, “Even if you don’t have the capability to view Full HD 1920x1080 on your TV at the moment, by capturing and saving your high definition footage to Blu-ray disc onboard the camera itself, you can rest assured that your memories are stored in the highest possible resolution - for viewing in the future if you decide to upgrade your equipment.” The camcorders use compact 8cm 7.5GB Blu-ray discs, in either recordable (BD-R) or re-writable (BD-RE) formats available from leading digital media manufacturers such as Maxell.