Tapeless DV cam: JVC GY-HD500

[Dr Mordrid]

This from Photokina, a photograhpers convention is being held in Cologne, Germany:

JVC will add the new GY-HD500 to their DV Pro series. The target market seems to be low-end broadcast with a targeted release of sometime next year.

What they've done is to use the basic mechanism of the GY-DV500 DV camera while replacing the tape drive with a port for a removable hard drive. Pop it out of the cam and into a waiting bay in your computer and all of a sudden IEEE-1394 becomes somewhat redundant.

I wonder how long it'll take for this feature to bleed down to the lower end of the market? Soon, I hope.

I just have one question about these drives: SerialATA?

I wonder because the timing is right and SerialATA drives have much simpler connections, using a very USB-like serial connector with built-in power. This makes them perfect for this kind of application.

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 25 November 2000).]

[wkulecz]

Doc, when was the last time you priced "removable" hard drives, like used in notebook computers, with capacity for an hour or more of DV?. Unless JVC has some way to drop the cost of these physically small hard drives by a factor of at least three this scheme is DOA wrt respect to bleeding down to the lower end of the market (us!).

If they use standard cheap IDE hard drives I'd be excited, but then the camcorders would have to be about the size of a full sized VHS unit which most folks consider "too big".

--wally.

[paulw]

I see that Hitachi are about to release a tapeless camcorder. Their DV Cam
http://www.hitachi.com/dvdcam/

The main problem that I can see is that it only has analog outputs no digital. Cost around US$2000

[wkulecz]

The problem I see with the Hitachi is unless DVD-RAM catches on in a big way you could be stuck with an orphan media format in only a few years. The fact that it is MPEG2 capture might make it a pretty poor choice for editing unless I'm wrong in my assumption that the 8cm disk will force a rather high compression to get a decent recording time.

--wally.

[Dr Mordrid]

A little speculatiohn based on these drives *possibly* being SerialATA;

1. SerialATA can be more easily used in a dockable configuration, which is what will be required of this cam, because all 4 connections can be located in one small connector.

2. Laptop drives are mainly high-priced because of their relatively low production volume (due to their not generally being used in desktop applications) and their IDE connectors being different from the typical IDE connectors found in desktop systems.

3. SerialATA will use a standardized 4 wire connector regardless of the drives size or application. This standardization will bring the economics of mass production into play for 2.5" drives for the first time and should bring on major drops in cost. Why? Because then they can be used as portable mass storage in desktops equipped with SerialATA connections, which will be common with a year or so.

Scenario: given the choice of a 2.5" removable drive or a 3.5", which would you choose given the proper size being available?

Dr. Mordrid


[This message has been edited by Dr Mordrid (edited 28 November 2000).]