Sony HDR-SR1 First Impressions Camcorder Review by David Kender Published on Jul 25, 2006 6:00 AM

In May, Sony and Panasonic announced that they had co-developed a new method of recording high definition video to 8cm DVDs, the kind that fit in a DVD camcorder. Everyone has heard of the Blu-ray / HD DVD wars brewing in the home video and data storage markets. That battle will continue to rage, but not for camcorders. The technology is too new and too difficult to fit inside a camcorder body.

High definition already exists in the camcorder market. A format called HDV was developed years ago, and prices for HDV camcorders have begun to drop in the last year so that consumers can afford it – notably the Sony HDR-HC1 (Specs, $2295) and HDR-HC3 (Review, Specs, $969.99). But HDV is tape-based, and tape-based camcorders have started to lose ground to other media, like DVD and hard disk drive. Clearly the public wants high definition, but they’ve also grown accustomed to the convenience of DVD camcorders. What to do?

Well, engineers got together and looked at the latest developments in codecs, the systems that compress and play back all that data that makes up the visual and auditory information. MPEG-4, in particular, had been making huge strides with a codec called AVC (Advanced Video Coding) / H.264, which allowed large chunks of high definition video to fit in a small space. Sony and Panasonic built on H.264 to create AVCHD. They also expanded its range, so that in addition to 8cm DVDs, it could also store video to hard disk drive camcorders and flash media cards (SD cards and MemorySticks).

But is AVCHD that good? To be honest, we can’t say yet. The camcorders exist, but we haven’t seen the footage. We’re not even sure how they’ll match up against HDV. The maximum bit rate for AVCHD is 24Mbps. Unfortunately, that appears to be a distant goal. The maximum bit rate for the HDR-SR1 (Review, Specs, Recent News, $1119.99) is only 15Mbps. That’s better than standard definition DVD and hard disk drive camcorders, which have a bit rate of 8.5 – 9Mbps, but still not the codec’s potential. Bit rate, however, does not dictate all. AVCHD is a very different codec from the MPEG-2 codec that the DCR-SR100 (Review, Specs, $999) and DVD camcorders use. H.264 has a big following of fans behind it that swear by its quality. We'll have to wait and see. 

We can report that the HDR-SR1 has four high definition quality settings and three standard definition quality settings. The HD settings are as follows: XP (15 Mbps), HQ (9 Mbps), SP (7 Mbps), and LP (5 Mbps). The SD settings, which are in MPEG-2, include: HQ (9 Mbps), SP (6 Mbps), and LP (3 Mbps). All bit rates are variable rather than fixed.

In HD mode, the HDR-SR1shoots 1080i (or 1080 lines of vertical resolution at an interlaced rate of approximately 60 fields per second).  In SD mode, it shoots 480/60i (or 480 lines of vertical resolution at an interlaced frame rate of approximately 60 fields per second).

Media
The Sony HDR-SR1 captures video to a 30GB internal, non-removable hard disk drive. Hard disk drives camcorders have been gaining popularity in the last couple of years, due to their convenience. When your recording medium is inside the camcorder, there are no tapes to lose, no DVDs to scratch, and no flash memory card to break.

Of course, the medium has its drawbacks. Until now, hard disk drives were only recording MPEG-2 video, which has a much lower quality that MiniDV. JVC’s entire Everio hard disk drive camcorder series was simple and convenient, but we repeatedly slammed the cameras for their poor performance. Sony’s first hard disk drive camcorder, the DCR-SR100, seemed to tackle several of the performance issues, but was still not as good as MiniDV. With the advent of AVCHD, we’re all hoping for something better. Until we have a working model, we can only speculate.

The specs available to us right now do not indicate exactly how much recording capacity is available with 30GB (mathematicians are welcome to speculate in the comment section below). Sony does state that the hard disk drive can hold up to 10 hours of footage in LP mode.

The hard disk drive in the HDR-SR1 is protected by a shock absorbing system. The types of disk drives are also typically protected against accidental erasure if the camcorder is dropped during recording.

Editing
Finding simple ways to edit AVCHD footage will likely remain a challenge for the next year or so. Even years after its introduction, standard definition MPEG-2 footage from DVDs can be difficult for consumers to work with, due to byzantine file structures.

Sony and Panasonic are attempting to stave off potential compatibility problems by courting multiple companies for licensing arrangements. They want AVCHD to become as ubiquitously accepted as MiniDV, and early signs are showing that they may be successful. The list so far for NLE manufacturers planning to support AVCHD reads likes a Who’s Who of entry-level consumer editing: CyberLink, InterVideo, Nero, Sonic Solutions, and Ulead, along with support on Adobe’s Production Studio and, of course, Sony Vegas.

There will be some editing software bundled with the HDR-SR1, but the exact name and versions are unknown at this time.