Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, you can’t deny that Sony makes some really nice toys sometimes. Their latest ultra-compact camcorder, the HDR-TGV5, records “full” 1920X1080 video (compressed to AVCHD) to 16GB of built-in flash memory which should accommodate about 6 hours of footage in LP mode. And if that runs out, you can always throw a Memory Stick PRO Duo card in there when you need more storage.

The 2.7-inch LCD display should help reduce the camcorder’s battery life, but it also serves as a touch screen interface, reducing the amount of buttons that usually clutter up the exterior. The HDR-TG5V’s also got a built-in GPS antenna and comes with NAVTEQ digital maps allowing you to geo-tag your videos and photos and see where they were captured right on the camera’s display.

The HDR-TG5V is expected to ship sometime in May, and will set you back about a grand.

[ PR - Sony TG5V ] VIA [ CrunchGear ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I’ll be honest, GE isn’t exactly the first brand name that comes to mind when I think of digital cameras, but I do like the fact that their new E1050TW comes with an HDMI connector allowing you to connect it to the flat screen TV in your living room and bore your friends with vacation photos in stunning high-def! The camera also follows the recent trend of using a large 3 inch touch-screen display in lieu of most buttons, which also features an auto-brightness function that keeps it viewable whether you’re indoors or out. Other specs include a 10 megapixel sensor, 5X optical zoom, 4.5X fake (aka digital) zoom and a 28mm wide angle lens. You also get software features like in camera panorama stitching, smile, blink and face detection, electronic image stabilization, red-eye removal and a 720P MPEG4 video mode. It’ll be available near the end of September for about $260, and if interested you can pick one up in your choice of black, blue, red, silver and white colors.

[ GE E1050TW ] VIA [ Tech Digest ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I think it’s impressive that many consumer and prosumer digital video cameras can record a 1920×1080 high-def signal onto a commonly available miniDV cassette tape, but that convenience comes at the cost of your footage being highly compressed, which kind of sucks, particularly if you’re the type who likes to do a lot of post-processing. So Ikonoskop, who is already known for their 16mm film cameras, is now offering a digital motion picture camera that not only captures in true 1920×1080 HD, but stores those frames as individual 12-bit RAW, DNG or TIFF files.

The camera uses proprietary 80GB memory cartridges that can record at 240MB/second and have the capacity to store about 12 minutes of footage, audio and metadata. It also features a Super-16 sized sensor, which allows you to use pre-existing Super-16mm lenses. The frame rate can be adjusted between 1-60 fps and on-set monitoring can be accomplished with either a standard video connection or HDMI. The preliminary pricing for the A-cam dII is around $9,800 which includes a battery, a 9mm lens and one of the 80GB memory cartridges. Not too shabby.

[ Ikonoskop A-cam dII ] VIA [ ProLost ]

By Andrew Liszewski

Aiptek’s new PocketDV AHD 300 is a budget-level camcorder that’s capable of capturing 1080P footage for just $250. Well to be completely accurate, it can only capture footage at 1440×1080 (compared to the 1920×1080 image displayed by your HDTV) but that’s actually not a big deal since even high-def codecs like Sony’s HDCAM only stores 1440×1080. And while it can capture 1080P at 30fps, you can actually get it up to 60fps if you switch to the camcorder’s 720P mode. The 90MB of usable internal storage is pretty much useless, but it does include an SDHC SD card slot that supports card capacities up to 32GB in size. For comparison a 4GB SD card should give you enough room for about an hour’s worth of 1080P footage.

Unfortunately that $250 price tag does come with some limitations, like a crappy digital zoom and a non-HD 2.4″ TFT LCD display. But more importantly it represents another important step in consumer level HD gear becoming more commonplace and affordable.

[ Aiptek PocketDV AHD 300 ] VIA [ TFTS ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I’ve been following the development of SEDs (surface-conduction electron-emitter display) for I don’t know how long, but unfortunately in recent years most of the news has been regarding a court battle between Canon and Applied Nanotech Holdings which has completely hindered the development of the new display technology. However, last week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit delivered some good news for Canon which could put SED development back on track.

The appeals court in part affirmed, and in part reversed, the rulings of the district court. While the appeals court accepted, without deciding, the district court’s decision that SED, Inc. as originally formed did not qualify as a Canon subsidiary, and that Canon had materially breached the contract, it found that termination of the license agreement was not an appropriate remedy. The appeals court also ruled that the restructured SED, Inc., which is 100% owned by Canon, now qualifies as a Canon subsidiary. The appeals court denied Applied Nanotech’s appeal that the district court had improperly excluded certain evidence from the trial. The decision reinstates Canon’s non-exclusive license to substantially all of Applied Nanotech’s field emission patents, excluding certain display applications.

For the longest time I dragged my feet on upgrading to an HDTV because I’m not exactly thrilled with either LCD or Plasma technology. But then SEDs came along and promised all of the benefits of CRTs with the small footprint of a flat-panel display. Hooray! I of course realized it would take a few years for SEDs to start appearing in stores, and a few more years for them to become reasonably priced, but I was willing to wait it out. Unfortunately though my dreams were dashed when this court battle got underway, and it became rather apparent that I wouldn’t be getting my hands on an SED TV anytime soon. So hopefully last week’s court decision will mean I can (cautiously) rekindle my SED dreams.

[ Applied Nanotech Holdings, Inc. Announces Court Decision ] VIA [ Engadget ]

By Andrew Liszewski

I rarely watch videos or movies on the go, but it’s mostly because I can’t be bothered reformatting or converting them into a format that’ll play on any of my devices. The Aigo Patriot MV5920 however appears to play all formats including VOBs, Divx, MPEG etc. at a resolution of up to 1280 x 720. Unfortunately the display is just 480 x 272, but being able to play back a file that large without you having to downconvert it first is pretty convenient.

All of your media is stored on the MV5920’s 160GB hard drive, and it can also serve as a mobile DVR capturing over-the-air D1 video streams. You can even use the device to stream audio and video since it includes Wifi, but I doubt it has a web browser given the lack of keyboard and touch screen. Other features include a 2-megapixel camera, support for most digital audio formats (no FLAC), a 2300 mAH rechargeable lithium battery and as always, an e-book reader that only supports the TXT format. If you can find one, it will set you back about $429.

[ Aigo Patriot MV5920 ] VIA [ PMP Today ]

By Andrew Liszewski

As February 17, 2009 creeps closer and closer, many people are rushing out to upgrade their old analog TV sets with brand new digital HD models. Of course I have no problem with that, but did you realize that fancy new LCD monitor you bought for your PC can also serve as a high-def display? It probably won’t be able to tune in an over-the-air HD signal right out of the box, but that’s where the Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick comes into play.

It’s a small USB dongle that connects to your PC or laptop and allows you to watch standard or high-def TV broadcasts alongside your spreadsheets and email. You can even use your PC as a PVR with the included software, which will take care of all that free hard drive space you have lying around. And if you find that clicking a mouse button takes away from your TV watching experience, it even includes a remote control for turning your workstation into a pseudo home theater. You can read my full review of the PCTV HD Pro Stick after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

By Andrew Liszewski

Until HDTV manufacturers start including a lot more than just 2 or 3 HDMI ports on the back of their sets, there will unfortunately be the need for external HDMI hubs and switchers. Thankfully though it looks like both the size and design of these devices has vastly improved. Akihabara News has dug up some info on a new compact HMDI hub code named ‘Medusa’ that not only looks pretty slick, but will also be reasonably priced. The specs include:

-HDMI Spec 1.3
-Compliant HDCP Rev 1.2 Spec
-Wide Frequency Range : 25MHz – 225MHz
-Supports 12-bit deep color up to 1080p
-CEC support
-HDMI 3 out port

Unfortunately that’s pretty much all the info available on the Medusa right now, but apparently GeekStuff4U will begin carrying the device within a month.

[ Akihabara News - Medusa HDMI Hub, When Small is Beautiful ]

By Andrew Liszewski

While the moon seems like something mankind already conquered decades ago, when you actually think about it only 12 human beings have ever set foot on its surface. And while I’m sure most of us would jump at the chance to visit the moon, it will still be a few more decades before something like that becomes feasible. So in the meantime I’m kind of excited to see that the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (or JAXA) currently has a lunar explorer equipped with a high definition TV camera circling our nearest celestial neighbor. So far the camera has only shot two small sections of the moon’s surface from its orbit of about 100 km above, but I can only assume its work is far from done.

The image taking was performed twice on October 31. Both were eight-fold speed intermittent shooting (eight minutes is converged to one minute.) The first shooting covered from the northern area of the “Oceanus Procellarum” toward the center of the North Pole, then the second one was from the south to the north on the western side of the “Oceanus Procellarum.” The moving image data acquired by the KAGUYA was received at the JAXA Usuda Deep Space Center, and processed by NHK.

It’s kind of fitting that the first HD footage taken of the moon was processed by the NHK, since they were basically the ones who invented high definition TV in the first place. And if you’re curious, one of the clips is actually available to watch on the JAXA website, though it’s unfortunately not provided in HD. Hopefully it won’t be long until I can watch the footage in full resolution from the comfort of my own mission control (aka my couch.)

[ JAXA: World’s First Image Taking of the Moon by HDTV ]