JVC to make "tapeless" DV cams

[Dr Mordrid]

Yup. You read it right.

JVC demoed prototype DV cams without tape at the NAB 2000 convention. If/when they go into production they're going to use removable 2.5" hard drives in "Data Pak" shock absorbing cases.

Tapeless DV will appear on the top line professional cams first, but with the steeply dropping cost of very large hard disk storage who knows how low in the product steam it could appear.

Two things are for sure:

1. it'll be much cheaper to produce the cam without a delicate and expensive tape mechanism and

2. even a cheap hard drive costs more than a tape ;-))

Dr. Mordrid



[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 20 June 2000).]

[paulw]

On Item 2.

Maybe you can attached a large firewire hard disk to the camcorder and keep it in your pocket and then plug it into your PC for processing.

On the up side.. No more tape jams.

[Brian Ellis]

Paul

On the down side, heads crashing into the disks. The idea of, even protected, interchangeable and portable HDDs strikes me as horrific, both from the point of view of reliability (shock resistance) and the cost (how do you archive your original clips at a reasonable cost?). And will HDDs survive the -40 degC to +50 deg C environment that they could be subjected to (a small differential expansion between the disk and the head arm could knock the tracks off kilter). I think I may prefer the DVD solution mentioned in a previous thread but tape still seems the best choice, for the moment.

------------------
Brian (the terrible)

[paulw]

Brian,

You are most likely correct. Best solution may be a year or 2 off and that is a solid state memory card that can store an hour or 2 of MPEG2 or the equivalent video. Simalar to what Sony uses now in their still digital cameras.

[Dr Mordrid]

I think the future is either large memory cards or the use of some sort of stationary optical device like the FMD cards. They are supposed to have a 20+ gig capacity at the current state of development.

Dr. Mordrid

[paulw]

More info on this rather "expensive" toy from Videomaker Mag.

The End of Videotape as We Know It?


Could be! JVC made industry history during NAB2100 with a demonstration of a
prototype "tapeless DV" hard disk camcorder. JVC hopes to release the unit
sometime during the second quarter of this year for around $10,000 retail.


The new camcorder will record on removable 2.5-inch hard drives packed in a
shock absorbing "Data Pak" housing.


JVC was also showing a number of editing devices that could be used with the
camera. One such device was the 1394DRD II Interface Direct Recording Disk made
by the ADTX company, who worked with JVC to develop the small hard drive for
the camera. This unit allows direct, computer-less recording and playback off
of the 2.5-inch hard drives.


Although the camera was designed mainly for the industry professional, it
shouldn't take long for the technology to trickle down to the consumer level.
Especially at this price. Exciting times are ahead!