Expert Guide To Sony's Hdv Camcorder
By Kenny Hemphill, Fri Dec 9th

The Sony HD camcorder, the Handycam HDR-FX1 is being marketed bythe company as ‘world's first HDV 1080i consumer camcorder’. Butat $3,700, it’s price tag is stretching the consumer labelsomewhat.

However, there’s no doubt the the industry sees HD video as aconsumer format and prices will come down over the next coupleof years. This Sony HD is just the start of what issure to be an avalanche of HD camcorders from electronicscompanies over the next few months.

So, does this mean we can all look forward to shootingHollywood-quality home movies in the future? Not quite. Althoughits true that some Hollywood fetaures, such as George Lucas’‘Star Wars: Attack of the Clones’ are being shot in highdefinition video, its not the same high definition as is shotand recorded by these camcorders.

If you look again at that Sony quote, you’ll see the importantlabel, 1080i. If you’re familiar with HDTV, you’ll know that1080 refers to 1080 lines of vertical resolution and the ‘i’means the video is interlaced. 1080i is one of the two mostcommon HDTV formats, the other being 720p (720 lines,progressive scan).

Hollywood HD movies are shot on another format, 1080p. This ishigher quality than the other two, as it mixes the higherresolution with the better-quality progressive scan picture.

There

is another important difference too. Hollywood HD isuncompressed, whereas the video shot by cameras like this SonyHD is compressed as MPEG-2. This compressioninevitably lowers the quality of the video stored on thecamera’s DV tape. However, it’s necessary because the HDR-FX1connects to a computer using a FireWire cable and FireWire,whether it is the 400 or 800 variety, doesn’t have the bandwidthto transfer uncompressed HD footage. Even if it did, the sheersize of the files would make it impractical because of the largeamoount of hard disk space needed to store it and the processingpower needed to edit it.

Another fly in th HD ointment is that, currently, very fewapplications are able to edit the footage from this Sony HDcamcorder. However, that looks set to change,as Apple hasalready announced that the next version of its Final Cut Expressand iMovie applications, due at the end of January, will be ableto edit HD.

HD video will eventually become a common consumer format, whenprices come down and editing software is able to work with it.However, until a compression format is found that can squeezethe data contained in HD without noticeably reducing thequality, there will be little benefit over current DV formatcamcorders.

About the author:Kenny Hemphill is the editor and publisher ofThe HDTV Tuner - aguide to th kit, the technology and the programming on HDTV.