Tuesday 31 January 2006

Gorehound Canned Film presents 'WORST CASE SCENARIO'

Gorehound Canned Film presents 'WORST CASE SCENARIO'

A link to this site was sent to me today. It's a creepy zombie horror film looking for backing. I hope to see it on the screen one day. Dog Soldiers meets Rogue Trooper meets nationalistic paranoia.

Check out both the Promo and the CGI Promo.
Just found out apparently they've been looking funding for 3 years and in November last year they got the nod.

Gorehound Canned Film presents 'WORST CASE SCENARIO'

Gorehound Canned Film presents 'WORST CASE SCENARIO'

A link to this site was sent to me today. It's a creepy zombie horror film looking for backing. I hope to see it on the screen one day. Dog Soldiers meets Rogue Trooper meets nationalistic paranoia.

Check out both the Promo and the CGI Promo.
Just found out apparently they've been looking funding for 3 years and in November last year they got the nod.

Monday 30 January 2006

Chinese New Year, Chinatown, London

Chinatown, Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square

Celebration for Chinese New Year of the Dog begins with a parade, starting at 11am, along Charing Cross Road to Trafalgar Square. The parade features the Gold Sail Dance group from Beijing plus London based performers including Jun Mo.

They could not have made it any easier, but I still missed the parade. Damn and its year of the Dog, my year. Didn't want to stick around till the 5pm fireworks, so I went to Gym instead.

Chinese New Year, Chinatown, London

Chinatown, Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square

Celebration for Chinese New Year of the Dog begins with a parade, starting at 11am, along Charing Cross Road to Trafalgar Square. The parade features the Gold Sail Dance group from Beijing plus London based performers including Jun Mo.

They could not have made it any easier, but I still missed the parade. Damn and its year of the Dog, my year. Didn't want to stick around till the 5pm fireworks, so I went to Gym instead.

Sunday 29 January 2006

Friday Night out in Shoreditch

Shoreditch Rocks

Cast: Myself , Paul, Matt and Peter. */archetype New Media/broadcast guys

Scene: All I knew about the plan for the night was "we were heading into Shoreditch". After work I picked up a 12 pack of Whitstable Bay Organic (only organic beer, available at short notice) and taxied through to Casa Del Paul.

Paul cooked up some treats for everyone, thereby ensuring the appropriate foundation for the forthcoming events. Once the team was assembled as per Paul's earlier suggestion we headed into Shoreditch, on the free nightbus.

Location: dreambagsjaguarshoes
Scene: New Media meets packing industry meets gallery.
Highlight: Getting to know Pete and Matt a bit better

Location: The Legion
Scene: Student bar meets DJ Bar
Highlight: Meeting the most polite doorman in London.

Location: Cafe Kick
Scene: Sports Cafe meets Hoxton
Highlight: Meeting bumping into friends and getting a chance to play some Foosball.

Location: Loungelover Ltd
Scene: Upmarket lounge bar meets NY Kitch
Highlight: Great snacks, Cocktail menu, Meeting Lu Lu and Jason who invited us to the next venue. Also heard Chunking for the first time, laid back beats and hypnotic vocals.

Location: Gary’s Bar
Scene: A secret bar that is more like a house party than a commercial venture.
Highlight: Meeting some of the local East end characters. There was dancing on board room tables. Channel 4 presenters party'ing hard and surreal invites downstairs to view the art gallery (tour by one of the artists thrown in). The current exhibition is 12 Angry photographers.

All in all I had a great night; met some really good people and partied in some intresting spots. Had a real "Swingers" feel to it. Looking forward to the next one.

Friday Night out in Shoreditch

Shoreditch Rocks

Cast: Myself , Paul, Matt and Peter. */archetype New Media/broadcast guys

Scene: All I knew about the plan for the night was "we were heading into Shoreditch". After work I picked up a 12 pack of Whitstable Bay Organic (only organic beer, available at short notice) and taxied through to Casa Del Paul.

Paul cooked up some treats for everyone, thereby ensuring the appropriate foundation for the forthcoming events. Once the team was assembled as per Paul's earlier suggestion we headed into Shoreditch, on the free nightbus.

Location: dreambagsjaguarshoes
Scene: New Media meets packing industry meets gallery.
Highlight: Getting to know Pete and Matt a bit better

Location: The Legion
Scene: Student bar meets DJ Bar
Highlight: Meeting the most polite doorman in London.

Location: Cafe Kick
Scene: Sports Cafe meets Hoxton
Highlight: Meeting bumping into friends and getting a chance to play some Foosball.

Location: Loungelover Ltd
Scene: Upmarket lounge bar meets NY Kitch
Highlight: Great snacks, Cocktail menu, Meeting Lu Lu and Jason who invited us to the next venue. Also heard Chunking for the first time, laid back beats and hypnotic vocals.

Location: Gary’s Bar
Scene: A secret bar that is more like a house party than a commercial venture.
Highlight: Meeting some of the local East end characters. There was dancing on board room tables. Channel 4 presenters party'ing hard and surreal invites downstairs to view the art gallery (tour by one of the artists thrown in). The current exhibition is 12 Angry photographers.

All in all I had a great night; met some really good people and partied in some intresting spots. Had a real "Swingers" feel to it. Looking forward to the next one.

Saturday 28 January 2006

Why! this AIBO is automatic!


AIBO, originally uploaded by Craig Grobler.

Darth & Ayeye, doing the Pulp Fiction, Travolta dance together.

Why! this AIBO is automatic!


AIBO, originally uploaded by Craig Grobler.

Darth & Ayeye, doing the Pulp Fiction, Travolta dance together.

AIBO Interaction


AIBO Interaction, originally uploaded by Craig Grobler.

Pic shows our AIBOS Darth & Ayeye interacting with each other.

Following the Sony Corporation FY05 3Q announcement, the production of AIBO Entertainment Robots has been discontinued as of end March 2006. As for the sales activity, we will discontinue the sales of AIBO once all remaining stock runs out.
Yes, sadly this is true. I always considered Aibo (Artificial Intelligence RoBOt, - now you know) as an icon of mans exploration into the world of robotics. Development on both Aibo and QRIO (Quest for CuRIOsity, pronounced - Curio) has stopped.

On a positive note selected technology such as voice and face recognition technologies will continue to be developed by research & development teams for a future Artificial Intelligence purposes. In the short term the good bits will be deployed for use in a broad range of consumer electronics products.

AIBO Interaction


AIBO Interaction, originally uploaded by Craig Grobler.

Pic shows our AIBOS Darth & Ayeye interacting with each other.

Following the Sony Corporation FY05 3Q announcement, the production of AIBO Entertainment Robots has been discontinued as of end March 2006. As for the sales activity, we will discontinue the sales of AIBO once all remaining stock runs out.
Yes, sadly this is true. I always considered Aibo (Artificial Intelligence RoBOt, - now you know) as an icon of mans exploration into the world of robotics. Development on both Aibo and QRIO (Quest for CuRIOsity, pronounced - Curio) has stopped.

On a positive note selected technology such as voice and face recognition technologies will continue to be developed by research & development teams for a future Artificial Intelligence purposes. In the short term the good bits will be deployed for use in a broad range of consumer electronics products.

Friday 27 January 2006

How the quality of sound digitaly degrades

I read this article a while ago and could not for the life of me remember which magazine I had seen it. After a little bit of searching I found the source (Alec Hanley Bemis in Wired Issue 13.07 - July 2005).

It's a sort of dummies guide to how digital (/read computers) have brought the quality of sound down. Interesting that most of webgen have not actually heard vinyl and that their benchmark for sound quality is probably a little lower. I wonder what the implications of this are for the future?

The article highlights that the 6 main factors effecting the degradation of digital sound are:
  1. Studios
  2. Recording Media
  3. Compact Discs
  4. MP3s
  5. Sound Cards
  6. Speakers
Read the article over here at Wired for more detail of the 6 factors above.

How the quality of sound digitaly degrades

I read this article a while ago and could not for the life of me remember which magazine I had seen it. After a little bit of searching I found the source (Alec Hanley Bemis in Wired Issue 13.07 - July 2005).

It's a sort of dummies guide to how digital (/read computers) have brought the quality of sound down. Interesting that most of webgen have not actually heard vinyl and that their benchmark for sound quality is probably a little lower. I wonder what the implications of this are for the future?

The article highlights that the 6 main factors effecting the degradation of digital sound are:
  1. Studios
  2. Recording Media
  3. Compact Discs
  4. MP3s
  5. Sound Cards
  6. Speakers
Read the article over here at Wired for more detail of the 6 factors above.

Thursday 26 January 2006

First Look At Benicio Del Toro as Che


Benny the Bull

Latino Review has provided a first look at Benicio Del Tor as Che Guevara in director Steven Soderbergh next film "Guerilla.

First Look At Benicio Del Toro as Che


Benny the Bull

Latino Review has provided a first look at Benicio Del Tor as Che Guevara in director Steven Soderbergh next film "Guerilla.

Decoding Video Codecs

Whilst browsing the web earlier today I found this easy to read article, with definitions of the most popular video codecs.

Decoding The Codecs
A codec is a formula that removes data - redundant data, data you aren't likely to notice, data that can be derived from other data, and so on - so files can be transmitted more quickly. At the receiving end, a decoder reassembles the data into something coherent.

The Wired article goes into detail about various popular Codec formats including:

a2b (AT&T)
Emblaze (Geo Interactive)
GTS (Graham Technology Solutions)
JPEG (public domain) JPEG(Joint Photographic Experts Group)
Liquid Audio (Liquid Audio)
MP3 (Fraunhofer Institute, Thomson Multimedia)
MPEG-1 (Philips and others)
MPEG-2 (MPEG-LA Consortium)
QDesign Music (QDesign)
QuickTime 2.5 and 3.0 (Apple)
RealMedia 5.0 and G2 (RealNetworks)
Sorenson Video (SorensonVision)
Windows Media Technologies (Microsoft)

Read more over here!

Decoding Video Codecs

Whilst browsing the web earlier today I found this easy to read article, with definitions of the most popular video codecs.

Decoding The Codecs
A codec is a formula that removes data - redundant data, data you aren't likely to notice, data that can be derived from other data, and so on - so files can be transmitted more quickly. At the receiving end, a decoder reassembles the data into something coherent.

The Wired article goes into detail about various popular Codec formats including:

a2b (AT&T)
Emblaze (Geo Interactive)
GTS (Graham Technology Solutions)
JPEG (public domain) JPEG(Joint Photographic Experts Group)
Liquid Audio (Liquid Audio)
MP3 (Fraunhofer Institute, Thomson Multimedia)
MPEG-1 (Philips and others)
MPEG-2 (MPEG-LA Consortium)
QDesign Music (QDesign)
QuickTime 2.5 and 3.0 (Apple)
RealMedia 5.0 and G2 (RealNetworks)
Sorenson Video (SorensonVision)
Windows Media Technologies (Microsoft)

Read more over here!

Wednesday 25 January 2006

Movies Top Ten File Share Downloads, Global

Week ending January 5, 2006 Ranking Movie Number of Downloads
01 >>> The Chronicles of Narnia + #3 1,019,157
02 >>> King Kong - #1 1,008,762
03 >>> Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire - #2 991,415
04 >>> Mr & Mrs Smith (unchanged) 960,046
05 >>> War Of The Worlds (unchanged) 942,745
06 >>> Fantastic Four + #8 936,970
07 >>> The 40 Year Old Virgin (unchanged) 932,882
08 >>> Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith - #6 896,524
09 >>> Batman Begins (new) 887,885
10 >>> Fun with Dick and Jane (new) 883,403
Movies Top Ten File Share Downloads, Global

Week ending January 5, 2006 Ranking Movie Number of Downloads
01 >>> The Chronicles of Narnia + #3 1,019,157
02 >>> King Kong - #1 1,008,762
03 >>> Harry Potter and the Goblet Of Fire - #2 991,415
04 >>> Mr & Mrs Smith (unchanged) 960,046
05 >>> War Of The Worlds (unchanged) 942,745
06 >>> Fantastic Four + #8 936,970
07 >>> The 40 Year Old Virgin (unchanged) 932,882
08 >>> Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith - #6 896,524
09 >>> Batman Begins (new) 887,885
10 >>> Fun with Dick and Jane (new) 883,403

Thames Walk - MI9 (Vauxhall) - Canada Water - Wapping

MI9 to the Prospect of Whitby (with a hat tip to Victor Johnson's European trip as per the Rules Of Attraction)

Paul & I started our walk from MI9 & made our way along Southbank following Banksy's trail. We did not see the whale. After County Hall we took a right turn along the football heroes gallery.
We headed into Southbank proper. Stopped for an Eggnog latte. Looked at the building used in an REM video. Talked about London locations used in films. Popped into the Tate Modern and saw some boxes. Passed the Lock Stock and Smoking barrels photo opportunity spot. Had lunch at Borough market. The Game sausage roll was gamey, the Chicken wrap was not as fowl.

Saw the strange Allan Moore like metal ship (not working). Continued through the back of Butlers Wharf, passed the Design Museum. Left the gentrification district via a derelict building acting as an unatural border to the adjoining estates. Found a great spot to take a panoramic shot of the Thames (spanning Tower Bridge all the way to Canary Wharf). Got lost, made our way in the dark to Canada Water via Bermondsey & Rotherhite.

Jumped on the tube to Wapping, found the "Prospect of Whitby", saw the Wapping Powerstation Project. Walked east along the river to Tower Bridge caught a tube to Central London for Dinner.

Thames Walk - MI9 (Vauxhall) - Canada Water - Wapping

MI9 to the Prospect of Whitby (with a hat tip to Victor Johnson's European trip as per the Rules Of Attraction)

Paul & I started our walk from MI9 & made our way along Southbank following Banksy's trail. We did not see the whale. After County Hall we took a right turn along the football heroes gallery.
We headed into Southbank proper. Stopped for an Eggnog latte. Looked at the building used in an REM video. Talked about London locations used in films. Popped into the Tate Modern and saw some boxes. Passed the Lock Stock and Smoking barrels photo opportunity spot. Had lunch at Borough market. The Game sausage roll was gamey, the Chicken wrap was not as fowl.

Saw the strange Allan Moore like metal ship (not working). Continued through the back of Butlers Wharf, passed the Design Museum. Left the gentrification district via a derelict building acting as an unatural border to the adjoining estates. Found a great spot to take a panoramic shot of the Thames (spanning Tower Bridge all the way to Canary Wharf). Got lost, made our way in the dark to Canada Water via Bermondsey & Rotherhite.

Jumped on the tube to Wapping, found the "Prospect of Whitby", saw the Wapping Powerstation Project. Walked east along the river to Tower Bridge caught a tube to Central London for Dinner.

HDTV

Whats new?
Superior resolution HDTV offers a number of compelling advantages over its analog forbears. The primary reason is enhanced resolution. A TV picture is made up of lots of tiny horizontal rows (called scan lines) of individual pixels, or picture elements. The more rows—and the more picture elements—a screen can reproduce, the clearer and sharper the picture. Your old analog TV’s picture is made up of 480 visible horizontal lines, each comprising a maximum of 720 pixels. By contrast, HDTVs can reproduce up to 1080 horizontal lines of 1920 pixels—resulting in a jaw-dropping picture that’s six times as dense. HDTV also has the advantage of enabling progressive-scan display (useful with the latest DVD players and gaming systems, as well as TV broadcasts).

Oh and...
You’ve probably also noticed that many HDTV screens are wider, relative to their height, than the TVs you’re accustomed to. To be specific, most newer HDTV models feature what’s known as a 16:9 (widescreen) aspect ratio (the ratio refers to the relationship between horizontal and vertical dimensions), as compared to the 4:3 aspect ratio of older TVs. HDTV programming, by definition, is delivered in this wider aspect, which is better suited to the reproduction of most movies, not to mention providing a broader, more revealing perspective on sporting events and other programs. Regardless of their screen dimensions, all HDTVs and HD-ready TVs can reproduce high-definition programming in its intended 16:9 aspect. 4:3 sets typically handle the conversion by compressing the horizontal scan lines to fit within the vertical picture area, leaving black or gray bars above and below the image (letterboxing).

HDTV

Whats new?
Superior resolution HDTV offers a number of compelling advantages over its analog forbears. The primary reason is enhanced resolution. A TV picture is made up of lots of tiny horizontal rows (called scan lines) of individual pixels, or picture elements. The more rows—and the more picture elements—a screen can reproduce, the clearer and sharper the picture. Your old analog TV’s picture is made up of 480 visible horizontal lines, each comprising a maximum of 720 pixels. By contrast, HDTVs can reproduce up to 1080 horizontal lines of 1920 pixels—resulting in a jaw-dropping picture that’s six times as dense. HDTV also has the advantage of enabling progressive-scan display (useful with the latest DVD players and gaming systems, as well as TV broadcasts).

Oh and...
You’ve probably also noticed that many HDTV screens are wider, relative to their height, than the TVs you’re accustomed to. To be specific, most newer HDTV models feature what’s known as a 16:9 (widescreen) aspect ratio (the ratio refers to the relationship between horizontal and vertical dimensions), as compared to the 4:3 aspect ratio of older TVs. HDTV programming, by definition, is delivered in this wider aspect, which is better suited to the reproduction of most movies, not to mention providing a broader, more revealing perspective on sporting events and other programs. Regardless of their screen dimensions, all HDTVs and HD-ready TVs can reproduce high-definition programming in its intended 16:9 aspect. 4:3 sets typically handle the conversion by compressing the horizontal scan lines to fit within the vertical picture area, leaving black or gray bars above and below the image (letterboxing).

Tuesday 24 January 2006

Interlaced Scan Rendering (TV broadcast formats)

Interlaced Scan Rendering (TV broadcast formats)

NTSC

NTSC is based on a 525-line, 60 fields/30 frames-per-second at 60Hz system for transmission and display of video images. This is an interlaced system in which each frame is scanned in two fields of 262 lines, which is then combined to display a frame of video with 525 scan lines. NTSC is the official analog video standard in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, some parts of Central and South America, Japan, Taiwan, and Korea.

PAL

PAL is the dominant format in the World for analog television broadcasting and video display (sorry U.S.) and is based on a 625 line, 50 field/25 frames a second, 50HZ system. The signal is interlaced, like NTSC, into two fields, composed of 312 lines each. Several distinguishing features are one: A better overall picture than NTSC because of the increased amount of scan lines. Two: Since color was part of the standard from the beginning, color consistency between stations and TVs are much better. In addition, PAL has a frame rate closer to that of film. PAL has a 25 frames per second rate, while film has a frame rate of 24 frames per second. Countries on the PAL system include the U.K., Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, China, India, most of Africa, and the Middle East.

Interlaced Scan Rendering (TV broadcast formats)

Interlaced Scan Rendering (TV broadcast formats)

NTSC

NTSC is based on a 525-line, 60 fields/30 frames-per-second at 60Hz system for transmission and display of video images. This is an interlaced system in which each frame is scanned in two fields of 262 lines, which is then combined to display a frame of video with 525 scan lines. NTSC is the official analog video standard in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, some parts of Central and South America, Japan, Taiwan, and Korea.

PAL

PAL is the dominant format in the World for analog television broadcasting and video display (sorry U.S.) and is based on a 625 line, 50 field/25 frames a second, 50HZ system. The signal is interlaced, like NTSC, into two fields, composed of 312 lines each. Several distinguishing features are one: A better overall picture than NTSC because of the increased amount of scan lines. Two: Since color was part of the standard from the beginning, color consistency between stations and TVs are much better. In addition, PAL has a frame rate closer to that of film. PAL has a 25 frames per second rate, while film has a frame rate of 24 frames per second. Countries on the PAL system include the U.K., Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, China, India, most of Africa, and the Middle East.

Monday 23 January 2006

Progressive Scan Rendering (Monitor / TV)

Progressive Scan

With the advent of home and office desktop computers, it was discovered that using a traditional television for the display of computer images did not yield good results, especially with text. This was due to the effect of interlaced scan. In order to produce a more pleasing and precise way of displaying images on a computer, progressive scan was developed.

Progressive scan differs from interlaced scan in that the image is displayed on a screen by scanning each line (or row of pixels) in a sequential order rather than an alternate order, as is done with interlaced scan. In other words, in progressive scan, the image lines (or pixel rows) are scanned in numerical order (1,2,3) down the screen from top to bottom, instead of in an alternate order (lines or rows 1,3,5, etc... followed by lines or rows 2,4,6). By progressively scanning the image onto a screen every 60th of a second rather than "interlacing" alternate lines every 30th of a second, a smoother, more detailed, image can be produced on the screen that is perfectly suited for viewing fine details, such as text, and is also less susceptible to interlace flicker.

Seeing this technology as way to improve the way we view images on a television screen, progressive scan has now been applied to the display of DVD and certain types of HDTV images.

Progressive Scan Rendering (Monitor / TV)

Progressive Scan

With the advent of home and office desktop computers, it was discovered that using a traditional television for the display of computer images did not yield good results, especially with text. This was due to the effect of interlaced scan. In order to produce a more pleasing and precise way of displaying images on a computer, progressive scan was developed.

Progressive scan differs from interlaced scan in that the image is displayed on a screen by scanning each line (or row of pixels) in a sequential order rather than an alternate order, as is done with interlaced scan. In other words, in progressive scan, the image lines (or pixel rows) are scanned in numerical order (1,2,3) down the screen from top to bottom, instead of in an alternate order (lines or rows 1,3,5, etc... followed by lines or rows 2,4,6). By progressively scanning the image onto a screen every 60th of a second rather than "interlacing" alternate lines every 30th of a second, a smoother, more detailed, image can be produced on the screen that is perfectly suited for viewing fine details, such as text, and is also less susceptible to interlace flicker.

Seeing this technology as way to improve the way we view images on a television screen, progressive scan has now been applied to the display of DVD and certain types of HDTV images.

Friday 13 January 2006

Cinema Sound Formats

Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital is a digital encoding system for audio signals that can be decoded by a receiver or preamplifier with a Dolby Digital decoder.

Dolby Digital is often referred to as a 5.1 channel surround system. However, it must be noted that term "Dolby Digital" refers to the digital encoding of the audio signal, not how many channels it has. In other words, Dolby Digital can be Monophonic, 2-channel, 4-channel, 5.1 channels, or 6.1 channels. However, in its most common applications, Dolby Digital 5.1 and 6.1 are often referred to as just Dolby Digital.

Cinema Sound Formats

Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital is a digital encoding system for audio signals that can be decoded by a receiver or preamplifier with a Dolby Digital decoder.

Dolby Digital is often referred to as a 5.1 channel surround system. However, it must be noted that term "Dolby Digital" refers to the digital encoding of the audio signal, not how many channels it has. In other words, Dolby Digital can be Monophonic, 2-channel, 4-channel, 5.1 channels, or 6.1 channels. However, in its most common applications, Dolby Digital 5.1 and 6.1 are often referred to as just Dolby Digital.

Thursday 12 January 2006

Best Takeaway in London

Best Takeaway in London

Tonight I had a really good meal. Imagine all your favourite food items (in my case a Sushi palate cleanser, Peking Duck Spring Rolls, Gourmet Organic Hamburger w/ Somerset Cheddar with Thick Handcut Cut Chips followed by assorted Chocolate Truffles, Chololate Brownies and Double Chocolate Cheesecake)...

Now imagine eating that in the comfort of your own home. I discovered Deliverance tonight. A culinary delight. I called, but they have a website www.deliverance.co.uk.

Best Takeaway in London

Best Takeaway in London

Tonight I had a really good meal. Imagine all your favourite food items (in my case a Sushi palate cleanser, Peking Duck Spring Rolls, Gourmet Organic Hamburger w/ Somerset Cheddar with Thick Handcut Cut Chips followed by assorted Chocolate Truffles, Chololate Brownies and Double Chocolate Cheesecake)...

Now imagine eating that in the comfort of your own home. I discovered Deliverance tonight. A culinary delight. I called, but they have a website www.deliverance.co.uk.

Wednesday 11 January 2006

Camcorder Formats

Mini-DV
Launched by Sony in 1995, DV (or Mini-DV) is the most popular consumer digital video format. DV camcorders provide what is arguably the best quality of all of the home video formats, with all models possessing the capability to transfer video signals out to another device (such as a Windows or Apple Mac computer) via FireWire – also known as i.Link. An increasing number of DV camcorders also make it possible to copy edited recordings back to the DV tape in the camcorder using what is known as DV-in;

Digital-8
This format was introduced by Sony in the late 1990s and uses 8mm videocassettes (as used by Video-8 or Hi-8) to record and replay a video signal identical to DV. Signals use FireWire (i.Link) to transfer a DV-specification signal out and – where appropriate – back in to the camcorder. Some Digital-8 models will enable users to insert standard analogue Video-8 and Hi-8 tape recordings and play them back, in addition to converting the signals as they are passed via FireWire to a computer for editing. Note that Digital-8 is a format that is being phased out by Sony, so consider with caution.

DVD
Hitachi first launched camcorders that record to 8cm DVD disks back in 2001, and several other major manufacturers soon followed suit. Like MICROMV, DVD camcorders use MPEG-2 compression prior to writing the signals to disk. One of the major problems of DVD camcorders has been the compatibility between DVD camcorders and home DVD players, though these are quickly being resolved. If you're planning to import your DVD footage into a computer for editing, you should note that editing DVD (MPEG2) compressed files is much more difficult than it is when working with a tape-based format like DV or Digital-8. Existing editing applications (as with those that are bundled with camcorders) aren't that good. However, the format is now very popular, and not everyone wishes to edit their movie projects;

HDD (Hard Disk Drive)
JVC is one company that is forging ahead with its drive to make Hard Disk recording camcorders more popular and push tape and disk-based formats aside altogether. The Everio G camcorder range is a good example of camcorders - or Digital Media Cameras as they're more properly called - which uses tiny internal hard disk drives very similar to the larger HDs used in all computers. The company's GZ-MG50 model enables recording of up to 7 hours at best quality. Apple's iPod MP3 players use very similar technology and provide a similar level of interactivity with the files saved onto them. HDD camcorders save files which can then be deleted, moved and transferred just like those on your computer or iPod. They also provide much more flexibility in terms of the order in which you can produce a playlist of favourite clips when showing people your material;

Solid-State
Also known as CardCams, these camcorders don't have any moving parts, tape, disk or otherwise. Instead, they record a compressed video stream to either a built-in memory chip or to a removeable card, such as an SD card as used in many digital still cameras. The Sanyo Xacti is an example of a Solid State camcorder. Whilst they're very handy, they're not suited to serious uses. In fact, they're pretty much a slightly higher quality equivalent of the video clips that can be shot with many modern mobile phones;

MicroDrive
Very similar in the way they're used to HDD camcorders, cams that record to MicroDrives use small, removeable drive units that provide up to 4GB (Gigabytes) capacity. MicroDrives are very expensive to buy, however, and at best quality they'll only store 60 minutes of video footage. Having experimented with its Everio range that use MicroDrives, JVC is now likely to concentrate on development of HDD models;

MICROMV
MICROMV is a format that was introduced by Sony with great optimism in 2001 that uses cassettes that are 70% of the size of DV cassettes which records in a format called MPEG-2, which is similar to that used in DVD disks. Although the limited number of MICROMV camcorders available contain i.Link connectors, it isn’t possible to transfer video to a computer without the use of special computer software (other than supplied by Sony with its models). Sony offers only one MICROMV model camcorder, and when that is withdrawn the format itself will be considered obsolete;

HDV and ProHD
HDV stands for High Definition Video (although some refer to it as High-Def DV) and Sony's format uses standard MiniDV cassettes to record video sequences whose resolution is 1080-lines as opposed to the standard definition 625 lines (or 525 in the USA, Canada, Japan, etc). HDV is fast becoming the format of choice for those wishing to shoot professional-quality video footage, not least because it offers the choice of HDV or DV recording on a MiniDV tape. ProHD is the JVC equivalent format of HDV;

DVCAM and DVCPRO
These are two formats that are based upon DV but which use a higher-specification recording system to produce pictures that are acceptable to broadcast TV channels and professional video producers. DVCAM is Sony's format, whereas DVCPRO is a format that was pioneered by Panasonic.

Camcorder Formats

Mini-DV
Launched by Sony in 1995, DV (or Mini-DV) is the most popular consumer digital video format. DV camcorders provide what is arguably the best quality of all of the home video formats, with all models possessing the capability to transfer video signals out to another device (such as a Windows or Apple Mac computer) via FireWire – also known as i.Link. An increasing number of DV camcorders also make it possible to copy edited recordings back to the DV tape in the camcorder using what is known as DV-in;

Digital-8
This format was introduced by Sony in the late 1990s and uses 8mm videocassettes (as used by Video-8 or Hi-8) to record and replay a video signal identical to DV. Signals use FireWire (i.Link) to transfer a DV-specification signal out and – where appropriate – back in to the camcorder. Some Digital-8 models will enable users to insert standard analogue Video-8 and Hi-8 tape recordings and play them back, in addition to converting the signals as they are passed via FireWire to a computer for editing. Note that Digital-8 is a format that is being phased out by Sony, so consider with caution.

DVD
Hitachi first launched camcorders that record to 8cm DVD disks back in 2001, and several other major manufacturers soon followed suit. Like MICROMV, DVD camcorders use MPEG-2 compression prior to writing the signals to disk. One of the major problems of DVD camcorders has been the compatibility between DVD camcorders and home DVD players, though these are quickly being resolved. If you're planning to import your DVD footage into a computer for editing, you should note that editing DVD (MPEG2) compressed files is much more difficult than it is when working with a tape-based format like DV or Digital-8. Existing editing applications (as with those that are bundled with camcorders) aren't that good. However, the format is now very popular, and not everyone wishes to edit their movie projects;

HDD (Hard Disk Drive)
JVC is one company that is forging ahead with its drive to make Hard Disk recording camcorders more popular and push tape and disk-based formats aside altogether. The Everio G camcorder range is a good example of camcorders - or Digital Media Cameras as they're more properly called - which uses tiny internal hard disk drives very similar to the larger HDs used in all computers. The company's GZ-MG50 model enables recording of up to 7 hours at best quality. Apple's iPod MP3 players use very similar technology and provide a similar level of interactivity with the files saved onto them. HDD camcorders save files which can then be deleted, moved and transferred just like those on your computer or iPod. They also provide much more flexibility in terms of the order in which you can produce a playlist of favourite clips when showing people your material;

Solid-State
Also known as CardCams, these camcorders don't have any moving parts, tape, disk or otherwise. Instead, they record a compressed video stream to either a built-in memory chip or to a removeable card, such as an SD card as used in many digital still cameras. The Sanyo Xacti is an example of a Solid State camcorder. Whilst they're very handy, they're not suited to serious uses. In fact, they're pretty much a slightly higher quality equivalent of the video clips that can be shot with many modern mobile phones;

MicroDrive
Very similar in the way they're used to HDD camcorders, cams that record to MicroDrives use small, removeable drive units that provide up to 4GB (Gigabytes) capacity. MicroDrives are very expensive to buy, however, and at best quality they'll only store 60 minutes of video footage. Having experimented with its Everio range that use MicroDrives, JVC is now likely to concentrate on development of HDD models;

MICROMV
MICROMV is a format that was introduced by Sony with great optimism in 2001 that uses cassettes that are 70% of the size of DV cassettes which records in a format called MPEG-2, which is similar to that used in DVD disks. Although the limited number of MICROMV camcorders available contain i.Link connectors, it isn’t possible to transfer video to a computer without the use of special computer software (other than supplied by Sony with its models). Sony offers only one MICROMV model camcorder, and when that is withdrawn the format itself will be considered obsolete;

HDV and ProHD
HDV stands for High Definition Video (although some refer to it as High-Def DV) and Sony's format uses standard MiniDV cassettes to record video sequences whose resolution is 1080-lines as opposed to the standard definition 625 lines (or 525 in the USA, Canada, Japan, etc). HDV is fast becoming the format of choice for those wishing to shoot professional-quality video footage, not least because it offers the choice of HDV or DV recording on a MiniDV tape. ProHD is the JVC equivalent format of HDV;

DVCAM and DVCPRO
These are two formats that are based upon DV but which use a higher-specification recording system to produce pictures that are acceptable to broadcast TV channels and professional video producers. DVCAM is Sony's format, whereas DVCPRO is a format that was pioneered by Panasonic.