Sony and Panasonic Announce New High Definition Camcorder Format

BREAKING NEWS May 11, 2006 - Sony and Matsushita (Panasonic) today have just announced a co-developed high definition DVD format specifically for camcorders. The new AVCHD format captures video onto 8cm DVDs, using the MPEG4 AVC/H.264 compression system. It records video at 18 Megabits per second, which is signifigantly higher than existing standard defintiion DVD camcorders, but lower than the HDV format. The companies have been working on the format together for over a year.

 “Basically, there’s been this huge market shift to high definition. At the same time, with camcorders, there is a trend towards optical discs or DVD camcorders,”  said Yolanda Hunt-Boes, Sony Spokesman “Both companies have been looking at high definition on this solution, and in the second half of 2005, on the engineering level we came together and said, we’ve been doing this separately lets move forward together.”

The format effectively compresses HD into a small enough data stream that it can fit onto existing 8 cm DVD discs. It appears that, instead of releasing a next generation optical disc camcorder, companies are wedging HD onto existing technology in order to provide consumers with HD optical discs as soon as possible. Interestingly, this is the same strategy that is being used with HDV, the current tape-based HD consumer standard. HDV tapes squeeze a compressed HD signal onto MiniDV tapes, which are a decade old technology.

The standard definition DCR-DVD505, Sony's top-of-the-line DVD model this year

The AVCHD format for 8 cm DVD camcorders will enable users to shoot HD footage in a MPEG4/H.264 codec at twice the efficiency of the current MPEG2 or MPEG4 codec, according to a Panasonic press release. The codec will be able to shoot 1080i or 720p with a 4:2:0 sampling format, and the MPEG4/H.264 will be able to shoot in both 4:3 and 16:9 formats. The luminance signal sampling frequency is rated at 74.25 MHz, and the quantization bit rate for both luminance and chrominance will occur at 8 bits. The bit-rate for the AVCHD format will enable data transfer of up to 18 Mbps.

The new AVCHD format will be able to use either the Dolby Digital (AC-3) or Linear PCM audio codecs for high-quality audio recording. Audio recorded in the Dolby Digital (AC-3) codec will have the potential for 1 – 5.1 channel audio modes, whereas the Linear PCM audio codec will be able to output anywhere from 1 to 7.1 channels. 

What impact this will have on HDV is unknown. While Sony is a member of the HDV consortium, Panasonic is not. This is Panasonic's first official announcement regarding consumer high defintion camcorders. Up to this point there has been much speculation as to what Panasonic's high defintion strategy would be.

 While Blu-Ray, backed by both Sony and Panasonic, has been receiving the most of the HD attention the last few months, no plans had been announced to implement the technology in their camcorder line.  Today's announcemcent seems to indicate that, for the near future,  the companies will be releasing AVCHD camcorders as a stop gap measure until Blu-Ray comes along, but at that point they do expect both to exist on the market. “We’re talking about the two formats [Blu-ray and AVCHD] coexist together. They believe it’s something that can coexist and even broaden the appeal of Blu-Ray disk,” said Hunt-Boles.

 "The AVCHD format doesn’t have an advanced copyright protection system, and it’s really for content on those 8 cm DVD discs. Of course it doesn’t have the capacity of a Blu-Ray disc. The AVCHD format is about using normal 8 cm discs. But, since they use the same compression technology, you should be able to play back an AVCHD disk on a Blu-Ray disc player.”

Both companies are are continuing to pour money into engineering and marketing for their Blu-ray format over the competing HD-DVD format. How long  that will trickle down to the camcorder market remains to be seen. Sony, in the past, has confirmed that they are planing on eventually releasing a Blu-ray camcorder.

An interesting addition to the AVCHD format is support of 24 frames progressive recording in both 720 lines of resolution and 1080 lines of resolution. 24P is a popular format for independent filmakers and many have complained about the lack of 24P support in the HDV format.

The increased 18Mbps bit rate of the AVCHD format will likely impress prosumer users who have been disappointed with the quality of DVD video. At more than double the current 8.5Mbps rate, the new bit rate is very close to tape-based standard definition, and it is likely that AVCHD video will be of a much higher quality than existing DVD camcoders.

Three other major camcorder manufacturers are markedly absent from this announcement. However, the companies do want other manufacturers to join in. “Sony and Panasonic have setup a licensing program because they want to get other people on board," said Hunt-Boes.

It is unknown what Canon and Samsung, both of whom have recently entered the DVD market, will do to provide HD support for DVD or optical media camcorders. JVC, the other major concern, is owned in part by Matsushita, and currently does not have any optical media-based camcorders. Panasonic confirmed today that JVC would not be releasing any products involving AVCHD.

As for a product timeline the companies did not make any announcements. However, Sony indicated that the two companies are free to release AVCHD products independently of each other.