Posted by Dimitrios Matsoulis on April 15, 2008
Only last week we talked about how Fujifilm will sell P2 cards and how the 64GB model will offer enough capacity to avoid changing storage media while recording longer events. The fact that Panasonic -the company that brought us P2 cards- responds with its own P2 card is no coincidence. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in storage, video | Tagged: 64GB, P2, Panasonic, Panasonic P2 | 1 Comment »
Posted by Dimitrios Matsoulis on April 9, 2008
Everybody is salivating over Panasonic’s P2 flash storage cards for digital video. They offer all the right -fast- data flow rates and are robust enough for even the roughest video applications. The main sticking point has always been incredibly high prices.
Fujifilm decided that now is the right time to market P2 cards and will initially sell 16GB and 32GB models, while later this year a 64GB model will be released. The later will give some breathing space to users that currently use mostly 8GB cards -for cost reasons- and have to swap P2 cards every few minutes. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in storage, video | Tagged: Flash, Fujifilm, Panasonic, P2, flash card, P2 flash card | 2 Comments »
Posted by Dimitrios Matsoulis on April 3, 2008
Like Sony today, Panasonic goes for light weight. But in this case we have VGA resolution at 640×480 -16:9 also available- something that makes the SDR-S7 a budget model for the price of a mobile telephone.
Size is ultra small at 41×102x59mm and weight is 183g including battery and SD card storage. The €270 price makes it a perfectly justifiable choice for YouTube videos or for children that want to get started with video. Who said that there is no room for non-HD models?
Link: Akihabara
Posted in video | Tagged: Panasonic, Panasonic SDR-S7, SDR-S7 | No Comments »
Posted by Dimitrios Matsoulis on April 3, 2008
As if the Sony HDR-SR11 and HDR-SR12 camcorders were not enough, Sony now releases the HDR-TG1, a compact machine that is at the lower end of the HD segment and is targeted towards casual videographers with a priority for portability. The main characteristics are as follows:
Posted in video | Tagged: AVCHD, BIONZ, BIONZ engine, HDR-SR11, HDR-SR12, HDR-TG1, Sony, Sony HDR-TG1 | 1 Comment »
Posted by Dimitrios Matsoulis on April 2, 2008
So far 2008 is a good year for HD camcorders. The Canon HF10 was the first to break the deadlock and offer great performance for the AVCHD standard. Now Sony seems to join the top end of consumer HD camcorders with its new HDR-SR12 and HDR-SR11 models. The only difference between the two is the storage size, with HDR-SR12 offering 120 GB of hard-disc space and HDR-SR11 exactly half of that. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in HD, video | Tagged: AVCHD, Canon HF10, GZ-HD6, hard disc, HDR-SR11, HDR-SR12, HDV, HF10, JVC GZ-HD6, MPEG-2, MPEG2, Sony, Sony HDR-SR11, Sony HDR-SR12, touchscreen | 2 Comments »
Posted by Dimitrios Matsoulis on March 20, 2008
There is hardly any camcorder that is not tested by the guys at camcorderinfo. Amid the storage medium confusion -HD, tape, flash, optical disc- there is also the even more serious matter of what format to choose. From the first HD generation, the only models that managed to offer good quality results were tape based HDV models, working and storing footage much like their miniDV ancestors. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in HD, video | Tagged: Canon, HF10, AVCHD, HDV, SDHC | 1 Comment »
Posted by Dimitrios Matsoulis on January 5, 2008
It was about time to see a move favoring one of the two HD disc formats. Warner has failed to combine both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD on a single disc and at the same time feels the pressure from set-top boxes and download services. For this reason it decided to exclusively back Blu-Ray. Analysts see the end of the HD format war, as it is a very clear move from one of the big players in home entertainment.
It will be interesting to see market reactions in the upcoming CES. Are players that reproduce both formats still of interest for manufacturers? Are consumers going to ignore HD-DVD releases and players? Are we going to see the downfall of HD-DVD in 2008 or later? Toshiba is determined to battle on. Whatever the outcome is, the current HD disc generation is probably going to be the last before the domination of streaming and download services to home and mobile devices. Warner knows this very well so it is time to squeeze some cash out of Blu-Ray…
Link: Reuters
Posted in HD, home cinema, video | Tagged: Blu-Ray, HD, HD-DVD, Warner | No Comments »
Posted by Dimitrios Matsoulis on January 4, 2008
Netflix is feeling the heat from iTunes, Amazon and competing set-top boxes that want to bring TV and movies to American sets. LG is willing to provide the hardware and it is possible that the device that will offer streaming content will also include much wanted playback of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD discs. Netflix is well established and its catalogue is massive with 6,000 titles. Nevertheless, nothing guarantees success in the particular market segment, as has been proven so far by the cold receipt of AppleTV. I still believe that set-top boxes are fragmenting the market and that we need clean practical ways to deliver films and TV from the internet as I have already written here.
Link: Reuters
Posted in electronics, home cinema, video | Tagged: AppleTV, Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, LG, Netflix, set-top box, TV | No Comments »
Posted by Dimitrios Matsoulis on December 28, 2007
Only yesterday we wrote about internet TV and how large players with power in the marketplace will certainly try to get in the TV and movie business in a big way. Reuters reports that Apple and Twentieth Century Fox will announce such a deal that will let consumers rent Fox’s movies via Apple’s iTunes online store. It is a significant move and if followed by other movie studios would change the $9 billion movie rental business in the US. After the news Netflix and Blockbuster shares are down 4.5% and 4.8% respectively.
Movie downloads are a natural progression for the iTunes store, especially now that Amazon and others have entered the music download arena with DRM free files. Hollywood is definitely in search for new distribution channels but I would have thought that if iTunes were successful with movies, the DVD rental middlemen would be replaced by a single more formidable one. As always, pricing and the ease of viewing the movies with mobile devices and at home theaters will be the critical factors that will tip the balance one way or another.
Link: Reuters
Posted in internet, video | Tagged: apple, Blockbuster, Fox, iTunes, movies, Netflix, online, rental, Twentieth Century Fox, video | 1 Comment »
Posted by Dimitrios Matsoulis on December 27, 2007
I watch very little conventional TV, not because I dislike some of its programs, but because I have zero control over what I watch and when I watch it. Standard definition channels are not that great either, certainly not good enough to keep me away from streaming video sites and free downloadable programs. So is TV going to die slowly? Impossible I think for the moment. But it is going to change from what we know now, that is for sure.
One reason TV keeps going so strong is the failure of internet video to get to our living room in a convincing and simple fashion. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal addresses these very difficulties and proposes some solutions. At least in the US it is clear that if you want to stream internet TV you can make it mainly via cable with one of a collection of boxes. Unfortunately, cable is not available in all countries and the boxes used are aimed at certain markets with a subset of the total of programs that consumers could possibly access in total. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in internet, video | Tagged: internet, TV, video | 1 Comment »
