CES 2006 Previewby Robin LissPublished on Jan 3, 2006 2:00 AM 
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It's the first week of 2006, and that means it's time for the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show. The CamcorderInfo.com CES Coverage team has descended upon Las Vegas. They may say that "What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas" but we're not confining the camcorder news to Sin City. Check out our exclusive 2006 CES Camcorder Preview.
New Technology
It's all about the new formats at this year's 2006 CES. The rising popularity of DVD camcorders indicates that we're going to see a lot of developments in DVD camcorders this year. Most manufacturers last year signaled that they were moving away from MiniDV and focusing more of their lines on DVD and we expect that trend to strongly continue this year.
The second major format about which we're expecting announcements is hard drive and flash media camcorders. JVC was the most aggressive player in hard drive and flash media camcorders in 2005 but expect that to expand at this year's CES show with more models introduced from a variety of manufacturers. This could be the year that flash media and hard drives finally get the legitimacy to get some significant market share.
High Definition?
Of course, the big question hanging over the camcorder industry are those two letters, HD. Although HDV (the tape-based high definition format that records to MiniDV tapes) has the support of the major camcorder manufacturers, we've only seen three HD camcorders, all of which are above $1,500. The rising popularity of DVD, and the interest in flash media and hard drive camcorders, have raised a lot of questions about whether the next generation of consumer HD camcorders will be on HDV. There may be some major developments in HD camcorders at this year's CES 2006, but the format they record to might surprise you.
Lower Prices
The low-end MiniDV price war will certainly continue at the 2006 CES show. Expect price cutting among the under $500 MiniDV models from all the manufacturers. We expect some models to be priced under $300, if not $10-$50 lower. That means that by the 2006 Holiday Season we may see camcorders retailing for under $250 to $230. However, the lower prices will mean less technology developments and models that will look largely like the 2005 models.
Blu-ray / HD-DVD
If you've been within shouting distance of a technology publication during the past two years, you've heard about the major format war going on between the two camps of high definition optical disc technology which will eventually replace DVDs. On one side is Sony, Panasonic, JVC and many movie studios who support Blu-ray. Toshiba and Microsoft are behind the HD-DVD format. Because three of the major camcorder manufacturers are behind Blu-ray it seems that we'll most likely see Blu-ray camcorders one day. But, if HD-DVD is able to pull off a coup and win the battle, Blu-ray will be out. Of course, we won't see Blu-ray or HD-DVD camcorders at the 2006 CES, but we'll definitely pay attention to the format war because it has major implications for the industry.
CamcorderInfo.com Coverage
Once again, CamcorderInfo.com will be your best source for coverage of camcorders and home video making at this year's 2006 CES. We have a large team of reporters and reviewers on the ground. CamcorderInfo.com will have comprehensive breaking news coverage of every announcement. Our popular First Impressions reviews will be back but we've expanded them this year to give you more on-the-ground first looks of the newest models.
We're also expanding our video coverage this year. We'll have interviews with the important camcorder news makers and we'll give you a feel for the convention. The video coverage, news, and First Impressions reviews will be published this week so make sure to check the site frequently.
Announcement Schedule
Based on press conferences as well as information provided from manufacturers, we have a good schedule of when news will break from each manufacturer:
Wednesday, January 4th
8:00 AM EST - Canon
6:00 PM EST - Panasonic
8:15 PM EST - Sony
Thursday, January 5th
4:00 PM EST - Samsung
Friday, January 6th
12:00 PM EST - JVC