While DVD players have overtaken VHS recorders for playback, DVD based camcorders are barely making any sales mainly due to their high price. As Taiwan-based OEM manufactures have successfully brought down the price of 16x DVD burners due to large volume manufacturing, they are now considering entering the Camcorder market using the same technique but with DVD based camcorders.
Lite On It, BenQ, Quanta Storage and other Taiwan manufactures can offer DVD camcorder samples in the first quarter of 2005 with volume production as soon as the second half of 2005 after the lengthy process it takes to certify DVD camcorders. Japan-based Techno Systems Research expects DVD camcorder global demand to increase from 400,000 units last year to 1.4m during next year. GristyMcFisty used our news submit to send in the following news:
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OEM quotations for 16x DVD burners and DVD recorders have slipped to below US$ 70 and less than US$ 150, respectively, the Taiwan ODD makers indicated. Due to the relatively high technology barriers for producing DVD camcorders, competition is not strong enough to drive prices down, the makers noted. The Taiwan makers can offer DVD camcorder samples in the first quarter of 2005. However, since it takes longer to certify DVD camcorders than it does optical drives, volume production would not come until the second half of next year at the earliest, the makers pointed out. Japanese brands such as Panasonic, Sony and JVC currently dominate the global DVD camcorder market. According to Japan-based Techno Systems Research (TSR), global demand for DVD camcorders will increase from 400,000 units in 2003 to 1.4 million in 2005. |
While DVD camcorders are digital unlike standard Hi-8 and VHS-c based camcorders, there are a few things to watch out for. The quality is not as good as DV camcorders and may only match other digital tape based camcorders using the shorter higher quality play modes. Then again, the main advantage is being able to play back recordings in most DVD players without any prior conversion and being able to edit footage directly on the camcorder unlike tape based recordings. This makes them more suitable for novice users.
Considering how cheap digital cameras and DVD recorders are getting, it is just a matter of miniaturising the DVD recorder and combining the two into a single portable unit. Even though many new digital cameras do offer video capturing with audio, it can be a tricky process for novice users to convert and write these recordings to DVD on a PC. Also, very few digital cameras can take video recording higher than VCD quality or more than a few minutes of continuous footage.
Source: DigiTimes daily IT news
