Sony Digital8 format to share key circuitry with DV camcorders ("transcoder-ready")
eetimes.com
By Yoshiko Hara
EE Times
(01/07/99, 3:00 p.m. EDT)
TOKYO — Sony Corp. has announced a digital 8-mm camcorder format
that employs the same video-bit-stream specs as 6.5-mm Digital Video (DV)
while promising full backward compatibility with 8-mm analog tape. Sony is
betting its strategy will convince cost-conscious analog-camcorder users to
go digital while increasing the cost-competitiveness of both DV and Digital8
camcorders via their use of a common chip set and other shared
components.
Though based on the DV signal specs introduced in 1995, Digital8 employs
an 8-mm video mechanism, records on conventional 8-mm tape (Hi8 is
recommended) and assures playback of 8-mm analog videotape. It will also
be priced far closer to the analog 8-mm camcorder's retail price of about
$1,330 in the Japanese market than to the DV camcorder's typical selling
price in Japan of $1,770.
Sony is betting Digital8's mix of digital features and backward compatibility
will appeal to a middle-ground consumer market that puts more emphasis on
price/performance than on form-factor miniaturization.
"Sony will place even [marketing] weight on the DV and Digital8 format,"
said Shizuo Takashino, president of Sony Personal AV Products Co. "In
Japan, compactness is highly valued, and DV camcorders already account
for about 80 percent [of the home market] despite their relatively high prices.
But overseas, it takes time for a new format to penetrate. The 8-mm and
VHS formats will continue to exist for a while. In such markets, Digital8 will
have some impact on DV penetration."
Indeed, Sony acknowledges that some consumers may bypass the DV
format altogether and move directly from Digital8 to the next-generation disk
format.
As of September, Sony had shipped about 6 million 8-mm camcorders in
Japan and about 30 million units worldwide. Since the introduction of 8-mm
video in 1985, Sony estimates the industry has shipped roughly 50 million units
globally.
Shared elements
Digital8's video bit stream is identical to the video stream specified for DV
camcorders. To achieve roughly double the signal bandwidth of its analog
counterpart, the 8-mm digital format specifies a drum rotation of roughly
4,500 rpm, compared with 1,800 for analog 8-mm video. A new tape
transport mechanism devised by Sony for Digital8 accommodates both
drum-rotation rates to enable seamless playback of tapes containing a
mixture of digital and analog content.
Analog 8-mm video employs two tracks to record one frame of information;
Digital8 uses five tracks per frame. Therefore, Digital8's recording time is
about half that of 8-mm analog video when the same tape is used.
Since Digital8 and DV employ the same digital signal-processing scheme,
Sony was able to use the same three-piece chip set for the new spec as for
the 6.5-mm format. Tsutomu Niimura, senior general manager of the
Personal Video Division at Sony Personal AV Products, cited extensive
component sharing between the two formats, predicting benefits in cost
reduction.
Sony will introduce two Digital8 camcorder models to the Japanese market in
March and will follow up shortly thereafter with market introductions in the
United States and the rest of the world.
The company also revealed plans to license the Digital8 format to interested
manufacturers of 8-mm video products.
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