[AV Media Matters] New Format Announcement

[Jim Lindner <jim@vidipax.com>]

Somehow I missed this one at NAB.  The format is called DiskCam and is
manufactured by NEC.  This format has been in development for some time,
but has now been officially introduced.

The press release says.....

Booth No. L12116--This year at NAB, NEC will showcase its DiskCam, a
dockable Digital Optical Video Disk Recorder for ENG/field acquisition
applications in broadcast stations and post-production facilities. It
features built-in MPEG-2 "studio profile" compression at 25 Mb provides
high picture quality, frame-accurate editing, and jog/still/shuttle
operational functionality. DiskCam output is instantly compatible with
most existing tape and non-linear editing systems. It docks with
virtually any camera, providing plug-and-play ability. The digital
recording system allows in-camera editing with high-speed random access,
loop record, and edit marker. DiskCam also features rewritable
phase-change disk guaranteed for 300,000 20-minute erase/record cycles.

Other information that I have been able to find is that this is NOT a
DVD format (or DVD media) and is not compatible with DVD - and well may
not be compatible with anything other then Diskcam - this is unclear at
the present.  I have not been able to find other components to the
system, so as far as I can tell there is just a dockable recorder at
present.  At the rate mentioned the disk would record about 100 minutes
of video (and audio). Also unclear is whether the system can transfer at
faster then real time (I would suspect that it could). Price is also
unknown.

At one time NEC was a significant factor in the North American Broadcast
video marketplace.  They fielded many machines including a 1"C machine
as well as a digital still store and digital effects system.  Over the
years their presence has been quite small - but this introduction may
signal a new profile for the company.

I might also add that D6 was also present at NAB - but I do not consider
this a new format since it has been around (in name only) for quite some
time.  Last year it was present at one booth - this year marked it's
serious introduction.  As far as price - if you need to ask you cannot
afford it.... rumored at $300K US EACH.

jim

Jim Lindner
VidiPax
The Full Service M