Sony AVCHD camcorder followup
By Erik Hanson 
posted July 18th 2006 6:05PM
posted July 18th 2006 6:05PM
Following up on yesterday's announcement of today's, erm, announcement, Sony gave out some more information about their new line of AVCHD high-definition camcorders. AVCHD is a new format designed for 8cm DVDs and flash- and hard-disk based memory, with Dolby Digital 5.1-channel sound and high-def capabilities. Both of the two new models are slated to hit stores in September, with the HDR-UX1 model utilizing the small DVD media and with an MSRP of US$ 1400, and the HDR-SR1 using a hard drive and a suggested price of $1500. They are designed to be compatible with properly-equipped PCs and the PlayStation 3. The DVD model will have a capability of one hour of high-def footage on a dual-layer disk, and the hard-drive model will hold up to ten hours of HD video. Not too bad for some first-gen HD technology! Panasonic is also said to be releasing models of their own based on the same format.
Blu-ray or no Blu-ray, PS3 or no PS3, Sony still makes good consumer electronics, even the Microsoft guys admit they own their products. Do you expect Sony to come out with BR-based camcorders one day?
No. Blu-Ray is too expensive. No one will buy the camera if they did. They would have to make dual-layer mini Blu-ray discs (and we know about all the problems there with DL BD) and I don't see it happening. Be cheaper to have flash memory or a small hard drive.
I like the new cameras but the cool one looks to be the HDR-SR1 with the small hard drive in it. We'll see how these sucker performa but knowing Sony they shouldn't be crap.
I'm all over the hard drive one once it gets below $1,000. I have a three-year-old Sony that we switched to 16:9 mode ever since we upgraded to HD. We take tons of video of our daughter, so I'm glad we won't have to stretch too much of her video as she grows up. But it's still not HD!! I've been waiting for this for a long time now, so I'll be watching those prices closely!