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To: E Haiken who wrote (2570)	11/4/1998 1:56:00 PM
From: Don Devlin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 8393

Hitachi demos DVD-RAM video recorder By Yoshika Hara TOKYO — DVD-RAM video recorders will hit the consumer market next year, according to Hitachi Ltd., which demonstrated prototype models in Tokyo this week. But rather than wait for the future-generation 15-Gbyte disk DVD-RAM, Hitachi based its prototype video-disk camcorder and video-disk deck on the forthcoming 4.7-Gbyte DVD-RAM format, which should be finalized early next year. The palm-sized disk camcorder houses an 8-cm recordable disk. As the 8-cm DVD-RAM format is not yet standardized, the prototype used "the phase-change disk with the same recording density as the upcoming 4.7-byte capacity DVD-RAM disk in 12-cm diameter," said a Hitachi engineer. While the 12-cm disk will have a two-hour MPEG-2 recording time, the 8-cm disk in the prototype camcorder has about one-hour recording time, which is comparable to current tape-based digital video camera (DVC) camcorders. "We developed a one-chip MPEG-2 encoder early this year, which enables these prototypes. Next year, we anticipate that we can lower the encoder's price to the range usable for consumer products," said Takuya Imaide, chief engineer of Hitachi's multimedia systems R&D division. Hitachi intends to use the encoder chip, which has both encoding and decoding functions, for its consumer products before offering it on a merchant market. The encoder will be fabricated on a 0.18-micron process to lower the power consumption to 500 mW or possibly even 400 mW when it is employed in consumer products, Imaide said. "Disk format will surely be the mainstream of digital cameras to provide easy image retrieval," said Imaide. Thus the camcorder to hit the market will feature an image-retrieval system that enables a user to find certain footage or still images even if they are intermingled on one disk. Hitachi has already developed the technology with its MPEG-1 camera, which it has been promoting since last February. The MPEG-1-format camera itself is evolving into compact forms by integrating circuitry and employing CompactFlash cards in place of the built-in hard-disk drives, which caused bulkiness and limited the capacity to 260 Mbytes. By 2001, Hitachi plans to introduce a cigarette packet-sized MPEG-1 digital still camera by further integration of most chips into one chip. "In terms of technology, we are ready," said Imaide of the MPEG2 digital video-disk camcorder. "We are waiting for standardization of 8-cm DVD-RAM format." The camcorder will have such key components as a 650-nm laser with about 10 mW output, an 8-cm DVD-RAM disk driver, about 680,000-pixel CCD image sensor and the MPEG-2 one-chip encoder. It will have the same level picture quality as that of DVC camcorders, with about a one-hour recording time, and if a lower transfer rate is employed the recording time can be extended. Named "home media station," the DVD-RAM disk-video deck prototype uses double-sided DVD-RAM disk with a 4.7-Gbyte capacity per side. The double-sided disk will provide four-hour recording time. The DVD-RAM video deck will hit the market next year with a list price of about $1,070.